Fifty
Sermons,
Preached
By
That Learned and
Reverend Divine,
John Donne,
Dr in Divinity,
Late Deane of the Cathedrall
Church of S. Pauls London.
The Second Volume.
[Printer's device]
London,
Printed by Ja. Flesher for M.F. J. Marriot, and R. Royston.
MDCXLIX.
To The
Right Honourable
Basil
Earle of Denby,
My very good Lord and Patron. My Lord, INIn a season so tempestuous, it is a great en-
couragement to see your Lordship called to
the Helme, who (in your publique negociati-
ons) having spent so many yeares in that so
famed Common-wealth of Venice, must of
necessity have brought home such excellent
Principles of Government, that if our Fate doe not withstand
your Directions, we may reasonably, at last, expect to see our
new Brittish Lady, excell that ancient Adriatique Queene.
Neither can I offend much against the State, in begging your
Patronage and perusall of this Book, knowing that your Lord-
ship first mastered all the Learning of Padoa, before you did
adventure upon that wise Senate: who amongst all her other
greatnesses, has ever had a principall care, that Learning might
not be diminished. When these Sermons were preached, they A2 were
were terminated within the
compasse of an houre, but your
acceptance may make them outlive the very Churches that
they were preached in, and give them such a perpetuity that
Nec Jovis Ira, nec Amor, edacior multò, poterit abolere;
For, though a fiery zeale in succeeding ages hath often both
ruined the Temples, and casheired the gods, that were wor-
shipped in them: Yet such sacrifices as these, have beemy laies
kept unburnt; and we are suffered to know those religions, that
we are not allowed to practice. Nor can I expect any greater
advantage, for the paines I have taken in publishing this Book,
then that posterity may know, I did it, when I had the favor
and protection of your Lordship, and was allowed to stile
my selfe
Your Lordships
most humble
Servant
Jo. Donne.
For the Right Honourable,
Bolstead Whitlock,
Richard Keeble,
John Leile. Lords Commissioners of the Great Seale. THeThe reward that many yeares since was pro-
posed for the publishing these Sermons, ha-
ving been lately conferred upon me under
the authority of the Great Seale, I thought
my selfe in gratitude bound to deliver
them to the world under your Lordships
protection; both to show, how carefull
you are in dispensing that part of the Churches treasure, that
is committed to your disposing, and to encourage all men to
proceed in their industry, when they are sure to find so just and
equall Patrons, whose fame and memory must certainely last
longer then Bookes can find so noble Readers, and whose present
favors doe not onely keep the Living alive, but the Dead
from dying. Your Lordships
most humble Servant
Jo. Donne.
A Table directing to the severall Texts of Scripture, handled in this Book. Sermons preached at Mariages. Sermon I.
Preached at the Earl of Bridgwaters house
in London, on
Matth. 22. 30. For, in the Resurrection,
they neither mary nor are given in Mari-
age, but are as the Angels of God in
heaven. p. 1. Serm. II.
Gen. 2. 18. And the Lord God said, It is
not good, that the man should be alone; I
will make him a Help, meet for him. p. 9. Serm. III.
Hosea 2. 19. And I will mary thee unto
me for ever. p. 15 Sermons preached at Christnings. Serm. IV.
Revel. 7. 17. For the Lamb which is
in the midst of the Throne, shall governe
them, and shall leade them unto the lively
fountaines of waters, and God shall wipe
away all teares from their eyes. p. 23 Serm. V.
Ephes. 5. 25, 26, 27. Husbands love
your wives, even as Christ loved the
Church, and gave himselfe for it, that he
might sanctifie it, and cleanse it, by the
washing of water, through the Word: That
he might make it unto himselfe a glorious
Church, not having spot, or wrinckle, or
any such thing; but that it should be holy,
and without blame. p. 31 Serm. VI.
1 Joh. 5. 7, 8. For there are three which
beare record in Heaven, the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three
are one: And there are three which beare
record in the Earth; The Spirit, and the
water, and the blood; and these three a-
gree in one. p. 39 Serm. VII.
Gal. 3. 27. For, all yee that are baptized
into Christ, have put on Christ. p. 50. Sermons preached at Churchings. Serm. VIII.
Cant. 5. 3. I have washed my feet, how
shall I defile them? p. 59. Serm. IX.
Micah 2. 10. Arise and depart, for
this is not your rest. p. 67. Serm. X.
A second Serm. on the same Text. p. 74. Sermons preached at Lincolns-Inne. Serm. XI.
Gen. 28. 16, 17. Then Jacob awoke out
of his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is
in this place, and I was not aware. And he
was afraid, and said, How fearefull is this
place! This is none other but the House of
God, and this is the gate of Heaven. p. 83 Serm. XII.
Joh. 5. 22. The Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgement to the
Sonne. p. 94. Serm. XIII.
Joh. 8. 15. I judge no man. p. 101. Serm. XIIII.
Job 19. 26. And though, after my skin,
wormes destroy this body, yet in my flesh
shall I see God. p. 106. Serm.
Serm. XV.1 Cor. 15. 50. Now this I say Brethren,
that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
Kingdome of God. p. 118. Serm. XVI.
Colos. 1. 24. Who now rejoyce in my
sufferings for you, and fill up that which is
behind of the afflictions of Christ in my
flesh, for his bodies sake which is the
Church. p. 128. Serm. XVII.
Mat. 18. 7. Wo unto the world, because of
offences. p. 136. Serm. XVIII.
A second Serm. on the same Text. p. 142 Serm. XIX.
Psal. 38. 2. For thine arrowes stick fast
in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. p. 158. Serm. XX.
Psa. 38. 3. There is no soundnesse in my
flesh, because of thine anger, neither is
there any rest in my bones, because of my
sinne. p. 162. Serm. XXI.
Psal. 38. 4. For mine iniquities are gone
over my head, as a heavy burden, they are
too heavy for me. p. 174. Serm. XXII.
A second Serm. on the same Text. p. 186. Serm. XXIII.
A third Serm. on the same Text. p. 192. Sermons preached at White-Hall. Serm. XXIV.
Ezek, 34. 19. And as for my flocke, they
eate that which ye have trodden with your
feet, and they drink that which yee have
fouled with your feet. 199. Serm. XXV.
A second Serm. on the same Text. p. 208. Serm. XXVI.
Esai. 65. 20. For the childe shall die a
hundred yeers old, but the sinner being a
hundred yeers old, shall be accursed. p. 218 Serm. XXVII.
Mark 4. 24. Take heed what you hear. p. 228 Serm. XXVIII.
Gen. 1. 26. And God said, Let us make
man in our own Image, after our likenesse. p. 239. Serm. XXIX.
A second Serm. on the same Text. p. 250 Sermons preached to the Nobility. Serm. XXX.
Job 13. 15. Loe, though he slay me, yet will
I trust in him. p. 262. Serm. XXXI.
Job 36. 25. Every man may see it, man may
behold it afar off. p. 271. Serm. XXXII.
Apoc. 7, 9. After this, I beheld, and loe,
a great multitude, which no man could
number, of all nations and kindreds, and
people, and tongues, stood before the throne,
and before the Lambe, clothed with white
robes, and Palmes in their hands. p. 279. Serm. XXXIII.
Cant. 3. 11. Go forth ye daughters of
Sion, and behold King Solomon, with the
Crown, wherewith his mother crowned
him, in the day of his espousals, and in the
day of the gladnesse of his heart. p. 288. Serm. XXXIIII.
Luke 23. 34. Father forgive them, for
they know not what they doe. p. 304. Serm. XXXV.
Mat. 21. 44. Whosoever shall fall on this
stone, shall be broken; but on whosoever it
shall fall, it will grinde him to pow-
der. p. 311. Serm.
Sermons preached at S. Pauls.
Sermon XXXVI.Joh.1. 8. He was not that Light, but was
sent to beare witnesse of that Light. p. 320. Serm. XXXVII.
A second Serm. on the same Text. p. 334. Serm. XXXVIII.
A third Ser. on the the same Text. p. 343. Serm. XXXIX.
Phil. 3. 2. Beware of the Concision. p. 356. Serm. XL.
2 Cor. 5. 20. We pray yee in Christs stead,
Be ye reconciled to God. p. 364. XLI. Hosea 3. 4. For, the Children of Israel
shall abide many dayes, without a King,
and without a Prince, and without a Sa-
crifice, and without an Image, and without
an Ephod, and without Teraphim. p. 375. Serm. XLII.
Prov. 14. 31. He that oppresseth the poor,
reprocheth his Maker, but he that honou-
reth him, hath mercy on the poor. p. 385. Serm. XLIII.
Lament. 4. 20. The breath of our no-
strils, the Anointed of the Lord, was ta-
ken in their pits. p. 396. Serm. XLIV.
Mat. 11. 6. And blessed is he, whosoever
shall not be offended in me. p. 411. Sermons preached at S. Dunstans. Serm. XLV.
Deut. 25. 5. If brethren dwell together,
and one of them dye, and have no childe,
the Wife of the dead shall not marry with-
out, unto a stranger: her husbands bro-
ther shall goe in unto her, and take her to
him to wife, and performe the duty of an
husbands brother unto her. p. 422. Serm. XLVI.
Psal. 34. 11. Come ye children, Hearken
unto me, I will teach you the feare of the
Lord. p. 430. Ser. XLVII.
Gen. 3. 24. And dust shalt thou eate all
the dayes of thy life. p. 439. Ser. XLVIII.
Lament. 3. 1. I am the man, that hath
seen affliction, by the rod of his wrath. p. 445. Serm. XLIX.
Gen. 7. 24. Abraham himself was ninety
nine yeeres old, when the foreskin of his
flesh was Circumcised. p. 456. Serm. L.
1 Tthes. 5. 16. Rejoyce evermore. p. 466. A SER
1
A SERMONPREACHED
At the Earl of Bridgewaters house in London at the mariage of
his daughter, the Lady Mary, to the eldest sonne of the L. Herbert of Castle-iland,
Novemb. 19. 1627. The Prayer before the Sermon. O Eternall, and most gracious God, who hast promised to hearken to the prayers of thy people, when they pray towards thy house, though they be absent from it, worke more effectu- ally upon us, who are personally met in this thy house, in this place consecrated to thy worship. Enable us, O Lord, so to see thee, in all thy Glasses, in all thy representations of thy selfe to us here, as that hereafter we may see thee face to face, and as thou art in thy self, in thy kingdome of glory. Of which Glasses wherein we may see thee, Thee in thine Unity, as thou art One God; Thee in thy Plurality, as thou art More Persons, we receive this thy Institution of Mariage to be one. In thy first work, the Creation, the last seale of thy whole work was a Mariage. In thy Sonnes great work, the Redemption, the first seale of that whole work, was a miracle at a Mariage. In the work of thy blessed Spirit, our Sanctifi- cation, he refreshes to us, that promise in one Prophet, That thou wilt mary thy selfe to us for ever: and more in another, That thou hast maryed thy selfe unto us from the beginning. Thou hast maryed Mercy and Iustice in thy selfe, maryed God and Man in thy Sonne, maryed Increpation and Consolation in the Holy Ghost, mary in us also, O Lord, a Love and a Fear of thee. And as thou hast maryed in us two natures, mortall and immortall, mary in us also, the knowledge, and the practise of all duties belonging to both conditions, that so this world may be our Gallery to the next; And mary in us, the Spirit of Thankfulnesse, for all thy benefits already bestowed upon us, and the Spirit of prayer for the continuance, and enlargement of them. Continue, and enlarge them, O God, upon thine universall Church, &c. SERM. I.1.
Matth. 22. 30.
For, in the Resurrection, they neither mary nor are given in Mariage, but are as the Angels
of God in heaven. OFOf all Commentaries upon the Scriptures, Good Examples are the best and
the livelyest; and of all Examples those that are nearest, and most pre-
sent, and most familiar unto us; and our most familiar Examples, are those of B our
2
At a Mariage.
Serm. I.
our owne families; and in families, the Masters of families, the fathers of fa-milies, are most conspicuous, most appliable, most considerable. Now, in ex-
ercises upon such occasions as this, ordinarily, the instruction is to bee directed
especially upon those persons, who especially give the occasion of the exercise;
that is, upon the persons to bee united in holy wedlock: for, as that's a diffe-
rence betweene Sermons and Lectures, that a Sermon intends Exhortation
principally and Edification, and a holy stirring of religious affections, and then
matters of Doctrine, and points of Divinity, occasionally, secondarily, as the words of
the text may invite them; But Lectures intend principally Doctrinall points, and mat-
ter of Divinity, and matter of Exhortation but occasionally, and as in a second place: so
that's a difference between Christening sermons, and Mariage sermons, that the first, at
Christnings, are especially directed upon the Congregation, and not upon the persons
who are to be christened; and these, at mariages, especially upon the parties that are
to be united; and upon the congregation, but by reflexion. When therefore to these
persons of noble extraction, I am to say something of the Duties, and something of the
Blessings, of Mariage, what God Commands, and what God promises in that state, in
his Scriptures, I lay open to them, the best exposition, the best Commentaries up-
on those Scriptures, that is, Example, and the neerest example, that is, example in their
own family, when, with the Prophet Esay, I direct them, To look upon the Rock, 51. 1. from
whence they are hewen, to propose to themselves their own parents, and to consider
there the performance of the duties of mariage imposed by God in S. Paul, and the
blessings proposed by God in David, Thy Wife shall be a fruitfull Vine by the sides of thy
Psal. 128. 3. House, Thy children like Olive plants round about thy table; For, to this purpose of edi-
fying children by example, such as are truly religious fathers in families, are therein
truly learned fathers of the Church; A good father at home, is a S. Augustin, and a
S. Ambrose in himself; and such a Thomas may have governed a family, as shall, Sr Tho:
Egerton Lord
Chancellor
grandfather
to the Bride. by
way of example, teach children, and childrens children more to this purpose, then any
Thomas Aquinas can. Since therefore these noble persons have so good a glasse to dresse
themselves in, the usefull, as the powerfull example of Parents, I shall the lesse need
to apply my selfe to them, for their particular instructions, but may have leave to
extend my selfe upon considerations more general, and such as may be applyable to all,
who have, or shall embrace that honourable state, or shall any way assist at the solemni-
zing thereof; that they may all make this union of Mariage, a Type, or a remembran-
cer of their union with God in Heaven. That as our Genesis is our Exodus, (our
proceeding into the world, is a step out of the world) so every Gospell may be a Reve-
lation unto us: All good tydings (which is the name of Gospel) all that ministers a-
ny joy to us here, may reveal, and manifest to us, an Interest in the joy and glory of hea-
ven, and that our admission to a Mariage here, may be our invitation to the Mariage
Supper of the Lamb there, where in the Resurrection, we shall neither mary, nor be given in
mariage, but shall be as the Angels of God in heaven. These words our blessed Saviour spake to the Sadduces; Divisio. who not believing the Resur-
rection of the Dead, put him a Case, that one woman hath had seven husbands, and then
whose wife, of those seven should she be in the Resurrection? they would needs suppose,
and prefume, that there could be no Resurrection of the body, but that there must be to all
purposes, a Bodily use of the Body too, and then the question had been pertinent, whose wife
of the seven shall she be? But Christ shews them their errour, in the weaknesse of the
foundation, she shall be none of their wives, for, In the Resurrection, they neither mary,
&c. The words give us this latitude, when Christ sayes, In the Resurrection they mary
not, &c. from thence flowes out this concession, this proposition too; Till the Resurrecti-
on they shall mary, and be given in mariage; no inhibition to be laid upon persons, no im-
putation, no aspersion upon the state of mariage. And when Christ saies, Then they are
as the Angels of God in heaven, from this flowes this concession, this proposition also,
Till then we must not look for this Angelicall state, but, as in all other states and conditions
of life, so in all mariages there will be some encumbrances, betwixt all maried persons,
there will arise some unkindnesses, some mis-interpretations; or some too quick inter-
pretations may sometimes sprinkle a little sournesse, and spread a little, a thin, a dilute
and washy cloud upon them; Then they mary not, till then they may; then their state
shall be perfect as the Angels, till then it shall not; These are our branches, and the fruits that
Serm. 1.
At a Mariage.
3
that grow upon them, we shall pull in passing, and present them as we gather them.First then, Christ establishes a Resurrection, A Resurrection there shall be, for, that makes
up Gods circle. 1 Part.
Resurrectio. The Body of Man was the first point that the foot of Gods Compasse was
upon: First, he created the body of Adam: and then he carries his Compasse round, and
shuts up where he began, he ends with the Body of man againe in the glorification there-
of in the Resurrection. God is Alpha and Omega, first, and last: And his Alpha and
Omega, his first, and last work is the Body of man too. Of the Immortality of the soule,
there is not an expresse article of the Creed: for, that last article of The life everlasting,
is rather de prœmiopræmio, & pœna, what the soule shall suffer, or what the soule shall enjoy,
being presumed to be Immortall, then that it is said to be Immortall in that article; That
article may, and does presuppose an Immortality, but it does not constitute an Immor-
tality in our soule, for there would be a life everlasting in heaven, and we were bound
to beleeve it, as we were bound to beleeve a God in heaven, though our soules were not
immortall. There are so many evidences of the immortality of the soule, even to a
naturall mans reason, that it required not an Article of the Creed, to fix this notion of
the Immortality of the soule. But the Resurrection of the Body is discernible by no o-
ther light, but that of Faith, nor could be fixed by any lesse assurance then an Article of
the Creed. Where be all the splinters of that Bone, which a shot hath shivered and scat-
tered in the Ayre? Where be all the Atoms of that flesh, which a Corrasive hath eat a-
way, or a Consumption hath breath'd, and exhal'd away from our arms, and other Limbs?
In what wrinkle, in what furrow, in what bowel of the earth, ly all the graines of the ash-
es of a body burnt a thousand years since? In what corner, in what ventricle of the sea,
lies all the jelly of a Body drowned in the generall flood? What cohærence, what sym-
pathy, what dependence maintaines any relation, any correspondence, between that
arm that was lost in Europe, and that legge that was lost in Afrique or Asia, scores of
yeers between? One humour of our dead body produces worms, and those worms suck
and exhaust all other humour, and then all dies, and all dries, and molders into dust,
and that dust is blowen into the River, & that puddled water tumbled into the sea, and
that ebs and flows in infinite revolutions, and still, still God knows in what Cabinet e-
very seed-Pearle lies, Zech. 10. 8:. in what part of the world every graine of every mans dust lies; and,
sibilat populum suum, (as his Prophet speaks in another case) he whispers, he hisses, he
beckens for the bodies of his Saints, and in the twinckling of an eye, that body that
was fcattered over all the elements, is sate down at the right hand of God, in a glorious
resurrection. A Dropsie hath extended me to an enormous corpulency, and unwieldi-
nesse; a Consumption hath attenuated me to a feeble macilency and leannesse, and
God raises me a body, such as it should have been, if these infirmities had not interven'd
and deformed it. Psal. 150. 6. David could goe no further in his book of Psalms, but to that, Let e-
very thing that hath breath praise the Lord; ye, saies he, ye that have breath, praise ye
the Lord, and that ends the book: But, that my Dead body should come to praise the
Lord, this is that New Song, which I shall learne, and sing in heaven; when, not onely
my soule shall magnify the Lord, and my Spirit rejoyce in God my Saviour; but I shall have
mine old eies, and eares, and tongue, and knees, and receive such glory in my body my
selfe, as that, in that body, so glorifyed by God, I also shall glorify him. So very a bo-
dy, so perfectly a body shall we have there, as that Mahomet, and his followers, could
not consist in those heavenly functions of the body, in glorifying God, but mis-imagine
a feasting and banqueting, and all carnall pleasures of the body in heaven too. But there
Christ stoppes; A Resurrection there shall be, but, in the Resurrection we shall not ma-
ry, &c. They shall not mary, because they shall have none of the uses of mariage; Non nubent. not as ma-
riage is physicke against inordinate affections; for, every soule shall be a Consort in it-
selfe, and never out of tune: not as mariage is ordained for mutuall helpe of one another;
for God himself shall be intirely in every soul; And what can that soul lack, that hath all
God? Not as mariage is a second and a suppletory eternity, in the continuation and pro-
pagation of Children; for they shall have the first Eternity, individuall eternity in them-
selves. Therefore does S. Luke assigne that reason why they shall not mary, Luke 20. 35. Because
they cannot dy. Because they have an eternity in themselves, they need not supply any
defect, by a propagation of children.
But yet, though Christ exclude that, of which there is clearely no use in Heaven, B2 Mari-
4
At a Mariage.
Serm. I.
Mariage, (because they need no physick, no mutuall help, no supply of children, yet
he excludes, not our knowing, or our loving of one another upon former knowledge in
this world, in the next; Christ does not say expressely we shall, yet neither does he say,
that we shall not, know one another there. Neither can we say, we shall not, because we
know not how we should. Adam, who was asleep when Eve was made, and neither saw,
nor felt any thing that God had done, Gen. 2. 23. knew Eve upon the very first sight, to be bone of
his bone, Mat. 17. 3. and flesh of his flesh. By what light knew he this? And in the transfiguration of
Christ, Peter, and James, and John knew Moses and Elias, and by what light knew
they them, whom they had never seen? Nor can we, or they, or any, be imagined to have
any degree of knowledge of persons, or actions, though but occasionally, and transeunt-
ly, in this life, which we shall not have inherently, and permanently in the next. In the
Types of the generall Resurrection, which were particular Resuscitations of the dead in
this world, the Dead were restored to the knowledge of their friends: when Christ raised
the sonne of the widow of Naim, Luke 7. 15. he delivered him to his Mother; when Peter ra-
ised Tabitha, Acts 9. 41. he called the Saints and the Widows, and presented her alive unto them. So
God saies to Abraham, Ibis ad patres, thou shalt goe to thy fathers; he should know that they Gen. 15. 15
were his fathers: so to Moses, Iungeris populis tuis, Thou shalt dy, and be gathered to thy Deut. 32. 50.
people, as Aaron thy brother dyed, and was gathered to his people. Iohn Baptist Luke 1. 41.
had a knowledge of Christ, though they were both in their mothers wombes; and
Dives of Lazarus, Luke 16. 23. though in Hell; and it is not easily told, by what light these saw
these. Whatsoever conduces to Gods glory, or our happinesse, we shall certainly know
in heaven: And he that in a rectifyed conscience beleeves that it does so, may piously
beleeve that he shall know them there. In things of this nature, where no direct place
of Scripture binds up thy faith, beleeve so, as most exalts thine own Devotion; yet
with this Caution too, not to condemn uncharitably, and peremptorily, those that
beleeve otherwise. A Resurrection there shall be: In the Resurrection there shall be no
Mariage, because it conduces to no end; but, if it conduce to Gods glory, and my hap-
pinesse, (as it may piously be beleeved it does) to know them there, whom I knew here,
I shall know them. Now from this, In the Resurrection they mary not, flows this also, Till the Resurre-
ction they doe, they may, they shall mary. Nay, in Gods first purpose and institution, They
must: For God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. Gen. 2. 18. Every man is a naturall
body, every congregation is a politik body; The whole world is a Catholik, an univer-
sall body. For the sustentation and aliment of the naturall body, Man, God hath given
Meat; for the Politik, for societies, God hath given Industry, and severall callings; and
for the Catholik body, for the sustentation, and reparation of the world, God hath gi-
ven Mariage. They that scatter themselves in various lusts, commit wast, and shall un-
dergoe at last, a heavy condemnation upon that Action of wast in their souls, as they shal
feel it before in their bodies which they have wasted. They that mary not, do not keep
the world in reparation; And the common law, the law of nature, and the generall law
of God bindes man in generall to that reparation of the world, to Mariage: for Conti-
nency is Privilegium, a Privilege; that is, Privata lex; when it is given, it be-
comes a law too; for he to whom God gives the gift of Continency, is bound by
it: it is Privata lex, a Law, an Obligation upon that particular man; And then Privi-
legium, is Privatio Legis, it is a dispensation upon that Law, which without
that privilege, and dispensation would binde him; so that all those, who have
not this privilege, this dispensation, this continency, by immediate gift from God, or
other medicinall Disciplines, and Mortifications, (which Disciplines and Mortifications, e-
very state and condition of life is not bound to exercise, because such Mortifications as
would overcome their Concupiscences, would also overcome all their naturall strength,
and make them unable to doe the works of their callings) all such are bound by the ge-
nerall law to mary. For, from Nature, and her Law, we have that voice, ut gignamus-
geniti; Man is borne into the world, that others might be born from him: And from
Gods generall Law, we have that voice, Crescite & Multiplicamini: Therefore God
plac'd man here, that he might repair and furnish the world. He is gone at Common
Law, that maries not: Not but that he may have reliefe; but it is onely in Conscience,
and by way of Equity, and as in Chancery; that is, If in a rectified Conscience he know,
that he should be the lesse disposed to religious Offices, for mariage, he does well to ab-
staine
Serm. 1.
At a Mariage.
5staine: otherwise he must remember that the world is one Body, and Mariage the aliment,
that the world is one Building, and Mariage the Reparation. Therefore the Emperor
Augustus did not onely encrease the rewards, and privileges which former Laws had
given to maried persons, but he laid particular penalties upon them, that liv'd unmaryed.
And though that State seem to have countenanced single life, because they afforded dig-
nities to certaine Vestall Virgins, yet the number of those Vestals was small, not above
six, and then the dignities and privileges, which those Vestals had, were no other, but
that they were made equall in the state to maryed Wives; They were preferred before all
that liv'd unmaryed, but not before maryed persons. This fortification and rampart of the World, Mariage, hath the Devill battered
with most artillery, opposed with most instruments: for, as an Army composed of many
Nations, more sects of Heretiks have concurr'd in the condemning of Mariage, then
in any one Heresie. The Adamites, the Tatians, and those whom Irenæus cals the En-
cratites; all within two thousand years after Christ; and more after. And yet God
kept such a hook in the nostril of this Leviathan, such a bridle in the jaws of these sects
of Heretiks, as that never any of them so opposed Mariage, as that they justifyed Inconti-
nency, or various lust, or Indifferency, or Community in that kinde. Now as in the Pela-
gian Heresie, those that came to modify and mollify that Heresie, and to be
Semi-Pelagians, were in some points worse then those that were full Pelagians,
(as truly, in many Cases, the half-papist may doe more harme, and be more dangerous,
then the whole Papist that declares himself) so the Semi-Adamites, the Semi-Tatians, and
Semi-Encratites of the Romane Church, who, though they doe not as those whole Here-
tiks did, condemn mariage intirely, yet they condemn it in Certaine persons, and in so
many as constitute a great part of the Body of mankinde, that is, in all their Clergy, ex-
ceed those very heretiks, in favour of incontinency, and fornication, and various lusts,
which those Heretiks who absolutely condemned Mariage, condemned too, as abso-
lutely; Lorinus. whereas in the Roman Church a Jesuit tels us; that there are divers Catholiks
of that opinion, Act. 15. 20. That it is not Heresie to say, that Fornication is no deadly sinne: And
yet it is Heresie to say, that Mariage in some persons, (onely disabled by their Canons) is
not deadly sinne. And when they erect and justify their Academies of Incontinency,
and various lust, (various even in the sex) if some Authors among themselves have not
injur'd them) when they maintaine publik stews, and maintaine their dignity by them,
and make that a part of the Revenue of the Church, what Advocate of theirs can deny,
but that these Semi-Adamites, Semi-Tatians, Semi-Encratites, are worse then those Here-
tiks themselves, that did absolutely oppose Mariage? We depart absolutely from those
old Heretiks, Patres. who did absolutely condemn Mariage; and from those latter men, who
though they be but Semi-Heretiks in respect of them, because they limit their forbid-
ding of Mariage, to certaine persons, yet they are sequi-Heretiks in this, that they coun-
tenance Incontinency, and Fornication, which those very heretiks abhorred; And wee
must have leave too, (which we are alwaies loath to doe) to depart from the rigidness of
some of those blessed Fathers of the Primitive Church, who found some necessities in
their times, to speak so very highly in praise of Continency and Chastity, as reflected
somewhat upon mariage it selfe, and may seem to emply some under-valuation of that.
Many such things were so said by Tertullian, many by S. Hierome, as being crudely, and
nudely taken, not decocted and boyl'd up with the circumstances of those times, not in-
vested with the knowledge of those persons, to whom they were written, might dimi-
nish and dishonor mariage. But Tertullian in his most vehement perswasion of Conti-
nency, writes to his own wife, and S. Hierome, for the most part, to those Ladies, whom
he had taken into his own discipline, and with one of which, he had so near a conversa-
tion, as that (as himself saies) the world was scandaliz'd with it. and that the world
thought him fit to have been made Pope, but for that misconstruction which had been
made of that his conversation with that Lady. Tertullian writing to his Wife, S. Hie-
rome to those Ladies, may either have had particular reasons of this vehement procee-
ding of theirs in advancing Continency, or they may have conceived that way of per-
suasion of continency to those persons, to have been a fit way to convey down to po-
sterity the love thereof. As Dionysius the Areopagite sayes, That the Church in
those times at funerals, did convey their thankes to God, for the party deceased, by way
of Prayer: they seemed to pray that those dead persons might be sav'd; and, indeed, B3 they
6
At a Mariage.
Serm. I.
they did but praise God, that they were sav'd. So Tertullian and S. Hierome, when they
seem to perswade Continency to those persons, they do but tell us, how continent those
persons were. But howsoever it be for that, no such magnifying of Virginity before,
as should diminish the honour and dignity of Mariage, no such magnifying of Continen-
cy after, as should frustrate the purpose of Mariage after, or the returning to
a second Mariage after a true dissolution of the first, can subvert, or contract
the Apostles Nubant in Domino, Let them mary in the Lord; where the In
Domino, In the Lord, is not to mary for matter of Title and place; nor, In Domi-
no, In the Lord, is not to mary for matter of Lordships, and possessions, and worldly pre-
ferment; nor, In Domino, In the Lord, is not in hope to exercise a Dominion and a
Lordship over the other party: but In the Lord, is in the feare of the Lord, In the love
of the Lord, In the Law, that is, in the true Religion of the Lord; for this is that that
makes the mariages of Christians, Contracts of another kinde, then the mariages of o-
ther people are; with all people of the world, mariage is as fully the same Reall, and
Civill, and Morall Contract, as with us Christians. The same Obligations of mutu-
all help, of fidelity and loyalty to one another, and of communication of all their possessi-
ons, lies upon mariage in Turky, Ephes. 5. 32. or China, as with us. But for Mariage amongst Chri-
stians, Sacramentum hoc magnum est, saies the Apostle, This is a great secret, a great my-
stery. Not that it is therefore a Sacrament, as Baptisme, and the Lords Supper are Sa-
craments. For, if they will make mariage such a sacrament, because it is expressed there
in that word, Magnum sacramentum, Revel. 17. 5. they may come to give us an eight sacrament
after their seven; They may translate that name which is upon the mother of Harlots,
and abominations of the earth, sacrament, if they will, for it is the same word, in that
place of the Revelation, which they translate Sacrament in the other place to the E-
phesians; And in the next verse but one, they doe translate it so there; I will tell thee,
saies the Angel, Sacramentum mulieris, the Sacrament of Babylon. Now if all the my-
steries and secrets of Antichrist, all the confused practises of that Babylon, all the emer-
gent and occasionall articles of that Church, and that State-religion, shall become Sa-
craments, we shall have a Sacrament of Equivocation, a Sacrament of Invasion, a Sa-
crament of Powder, a Sacrament of dissolving allegeance, sacraments in the Element
of Baptism, in the water, in navies, and Sacraments in the Elements of the Eucharist, in
Blood, in the sacred blood of Kings. But Mariage amongst Christians, is herein Magnum
mysterium, A Sacrament in such a sense; a mysterious signification of the union of the
soule with Christ, when both persons professe the Christian Religion, in generall, there
arises some signification of that spirituall union: But when they both professe Christ
in one forme, in one Church, in one Religion, and that, the right; then, as by the Civill
Contract, there is an union of their estates, and persons, so, as that they two are made one,
so by this Sacramentall, this mysterious union, these two, thus made one, between them-
selves, are also made one with Christ himself; by the Civill union, common to all peo-
ple, they are made Eadem caro; The same flesh with one another, By this mysterious,
this Sacramentall, this significative union, they are made Idem Spiritus cum Domino;
The same Spirit with the Lord. And therefore, though in the Resurrection, they
shall not mary, because then all the severall uses of mariage cease, yet till the Resur-
rection; that is, as long as this world lasts, for the sustentation of the world, which is
one Body, and Mariage the food, and aliment thereof; for the reparation of the world,
which is one Building, and Mariage the supply thereof, to maintaine a second eternity,
in the succession of children, and to illustrate this union of our soules to Christ; we may,
and in some Cases, must marry. We are come, in our order proposed at first, to our second Part, 2 Part. Erimus sicut Angeli,
Divisio.we shall be as the Angels of God in heaven; where we consider, first, what we are com-
pared to, those Angels; And then in what that Comparison lies, wherein we shall be
like those Angels; And lastly, the Proposition that flowes out of this proposition, In
the Resurrection we shall be like them, Till the Resurrection we shall not, and therefore,
in the meane time, we must not looke for Angelicall perfections, but beare with one a-
nothers infirmities. Angeli. Now when we would tell you, what those Angels of God in hea-
ven, to which we are compared, are, we can come no nearer telling you that, then by
telling you, we cannot tell. The Angels may be content with that Negative expres-
sing, since we can express God himselfe in no clearer termes, nor in termes expressing more
7
Serm. 1.
At a Mariage.
more Dignity, then in saying we cannot expresse him. Onely the Angels themselves
know one another; and, one good point, in which we shall be like them then, shall be,
that then we shall know what they are; we know they are Spirits in Nature, but what
the nature of a spirit is, we know not: we know they are Angels in office, appointed to
execute Gods will upon us; but, How a spirit should execute those bodily actions, that
Angels doe, in their owne motion, and in the transportation of other things, we know
not: we know they are Creatures; but whether created with this world, (as all our later
men incline to think) or long before, (as all the Greeke, and some of the Latin Fathers
thought) we know not: we know that for their number, and for their faculties also,
there may be one Angel for every man; but whether there be so, or no, because not
onely amongst the Fathers, but even in the Reformed Churches, in both sub-divisions,
Lutheran, and Calvinist, great men deny it, and as great affirme it, we know not: we
know the Angels know, they understand, but whether by that way, which we call in
the Schoole, Cognitionem Matutinam, by seeing all in God, or that which we call Ve-
rspertinam, by a clearer manifestation of the species of things to them, Colos. 1. then to us, we
know not: we know they are distinguished into Orders; the Apostle tells us so: but
what, or how many their Orders are, (since S. Gregory, and S. Bernard differ from that
Designe of their nine orders, which S. Denis the Areopagite had given before, in placing
of those nine, and Athanasius addes more to those nine,) we know not; But we are
content to say with S. Augustine, Esse firmissimè credo, quænam sint nescio; that there
are distinct orders of Angels, assuredly I beleeve; but what they are, I cannot tell; Di-
cant qui possunt; si tamen probare possunt quod dicunt, saies that Father, Let them tell you
that can, so they be able to prove, that they tell you true. They are Creatures, that
have not so much of a Body as flesh is, as froth is, as a vapor is, as a sigh is, and yet with
a touch they shall molder a rocke into lesse Atomes, then the sand that it stands upon;
and a milstone into smaller flower, then it grinds. They are Creatures made, and yet
not a minute elder now, then when they were first made, if they were made before all
measure of time began; nor, if they were made in the beginning of Time, and be now six
thousand yeares old, have they one wrinckle of Age in their face, or one sobbe of wea-
rinesse in their lungs. They are primogeniti Dei, Gods eldest sonnes; They are super-
elementary meteors, they hang between the nature of God, and the nature of man, and are
of middle Condition; And, (if we may offencelessely expresse it so) they are ænigmata
Divina, The Riddles of Heaven, and the perplexities of speculation. But this is but
till the Resurrection; Then we shall be like them, and know them by that assimilation.
We end this branch with this consideration, If by being like the Angels, we shall know
the Angels, we are more then like ourselves, we are our selves, why doe we not know
our selves? Why did not Adam know, that he had a Body, that might have been pre-
served in an immortality, and yet submitted his body, and mine, and thine, and theirs,
who by this union are to be made one, and all, that by Gods goodnesse shall be derived
from them, to certaine, to inevitable Death? Why doe not we know our owne Im-
mortality, that dwells in us still, for all Adams fall, and ours in him; that immortality
which we cannot devest, but must live for ever, whether we will or no? To know this
immortality, is to make this immortality, which otherwise is the heaviest part of our
Curse, a Blessing unto us, by providing to live in Immortall happinesse: whereas now, we
doe so little know our selves, as that if my soule could aske one of those Wormes which
my dead body shall produce, Will you change with me? that worme would say, No; for
you are like to live eternally in torment; for my part, I can live no longer, then the
putrid moisture of your body will give me leave, and therefore I will not change; nay,
would the Devill himselfe change with a damned soule? I cannot tell; As we argue con-
veniently, that the Devil is tormented more then man, because the Devill fel from God,
without any other Tempter, then himselfe, but man had a Tempter, so may it be not
inconveniently argued too, that man may be more tormented then he, because man
continued and relapsed, in his rebellions to God, after so many pardons offered and ac-
cepted, which the Devill never had. Howsoever, otherwise their torments may be e-
quall, as the Devill is a Spirit, and a condemned soule a spirit, yet that soule shall have
a Body too, to be tormented with it, which the Devill shall not. How little we know
our selves, which is the end of all knowledge! But we hast to the next branch, In the
Resurrection we shall be like to the Angels of God in Heaven; But in what lies this likenesse? In
8
At a Mariage.
Serm. I.
In how many other things soever this likenesse may ly, Simile'sSimiles. yet in this Text, and in our
present purpose, it lies onely in this, Non nubent, In the Resurrection they shall not mary.
But did Angels never mary, or, as good, or, at least, as ill, as mary? How many of the
ancients take those words, Gen. 6. 2.
Drusius in
Sulpit. Sever. That the sonnes of God saw the daughters of Men that they were
faire, and they tooke them wives of all which they chose, to be intended of Angels? They
offer to tell us how many these maried Angels were; Origen saies, sixty, or seventy. They
offer to tell us some of their names; Aza, was one of these maried Angels, and Azael
was another. But then all those, who doe understand these words, The sonnes of God,
to be intended of Angels, who being sent downe, to protect Men, fell in love with Wo-
men, and maried them, all, I say, agree, that those Angels that did so, never returned
to God againe, but fell, with the first fallen, under everlasting Condemnation. So that
still, the Angels of God in Heaven, those Angels to whom we shall be like in the Resur-
rection, doe not mary, not so much as in any such mistaking; they doe not, because they
need not; they need not, because they need no second Eternity, by the continuation of
children; for, says S. Luke, they cannot die. Adams first immortality was but this, Posse
non mori, that he needed not to have died, he should not have died; The Angels im-
mortality, and ours, when we shall be like them, in the Resurrection, is, Non posse mori,
that we cannot die, for, whosoever dies, is Homicida sui, sayes Tertullian; he kills him-
selfe, and sinne is his sword: In heaven there shall no such sword be drawn; we need
not say, that the Angels in heaven have, that we when we shall be like them, in the Re-
surrection, shall so invest an immortality in our nature, as that God could not inflict
Death upon them, or us there, if we sinned: But because no sinne shall enter there, no
Death shall enter there neither, for, Death is the wages of sinne. Not that no sinne could
enter there, if we were left to our selves; for, in that place, Angels did sinne; (And,
fatendum est Angelos natura mutabiles, saies S. Augustine, Howsoever Angels be changed
in their Condition, they retaine still the same nature, and by nature they are mutable)
But that God hath added another prerogative, by way of Confirmation, to that state;
so, as that that Grace which he gives us here, which is, that nothing shall put a necessi-
ty of sinning upon us, or that we must needs sinne, God multiplies upon us so there, as
that we can conceive no inclination to sinne. Therein we shall be like the Angels, that
we cannot die; And the nearer we come to that state in this life, the liker we are to those
Angels here. Now, beloved, onely he that is Dead already, cannot die. He that in a
holy mortification is Dead the Death of the righteous, dead to sinne, he lives, (shall we
dare to say so? yes, we may) he lives a blessed Death, for such a Death is true life: And
by such a heavenly Death, Death of the righteous, Death to sinne, he is in possession of
a heavenly life here, in an inchoation, though the consummation, and perfection be re-
served for the next world; which is our last circumstance, and the Conclusion of all, At
the Resurrection we shall be like the Angels; Till then we shall not; and therefore must
not looke for Angelicall perfections here, but beare one anothers infirmities. It is as yet but in Petition, Interim. fiat voluntas, Thy will be done in Earth, as it is in Heaven:
And as long as there is an Earth it will be but in Petition; His will will not be done in
Earth as it is in Heaven; when all is Heaven, to his Saints, all will be well; but not all
till then. In the meane time, remember all, (especially you, whose Sacramentall, that is,
Mysterious, and significative union now is a Type of your union with God in as neare, and
as fast a band, as that of Angels, for, you shall be as the Angels of God in Heaven) That the
office of the Angels in this world, is to Assist, and to supply Defects. You are both of
noble extraction; there's no defect in that; you need not supply one another with Ho-
nour: you are both of religious Education; there's no defect in that; you need not sup-
ply one another with fundamentall instructions. Both have your parts in that testimony
which S. Gregory gave of your Nation, at Rome, Angli Angeli, you have a lovelinesse
fit for one another. But, though I cannot Name, no nor Thinke any thing, wherein I
should wish that Angelicall disposition of supporting, or supplying defects, yet, when
I consider, that even he that said Ego & pater unum sumus, I and the Father are one, yet
had a time to say, utquid dereliquisti? My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? I consi-
der thereby, that no two can be so made one in this world, but that that unity may be,
though not Dissolved, no nor Rent, no nor Endangered, yet shaked sometimes by do-
mestique occasions, by Matrimoniall encumbrances, by perversnesse of servants, by
impertinencies of Children, by private whisperings, and calumnies of Strangers. And there-
9
Serm. II.
At a Mariage.
therefore, to speake not Prophetically, that any such thing shall fall, but Provisionally, if
any such thing should fall, my love, and my duty, and my Text, bids me tell you, that
perfect happinesse is to be staid for, till you be as the Angels of God in heaven; here, it is
a faire portion of that Angelicall happinesse, if you be alwaies ready to support, and
supply one another in any such occasionall weaknesses. The God of Heaven multiply
the present joy of your parents, by that way, of making you joyfull parents also; and re-
compense your obedience to parents, by that way, of giving you obedient Children too.
The God of heaven so joine you now, as that you may be glad of one another all your
life; and when he who hath joined you, shall separate you againe, establish you with an
assurance, that he hath but borrowed one of you, for a time, to make both your joies
the more perfect in the Resurrection. The God of Heaven make you alwaies of one
will, and that will alwaies conformable to his; conserve you in the sincere truth of his
Religion; feast you with the best feast, Peace of conscience; and carry you through the
good opinion, and love of his Saints in this world, to the association of his Saints, and
Angels, and one another, in the Resurrection, and everlasting possession of that king-
dome, which his Sonne, our Saviour, Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the in-
estimable price of his incorruptible Blood, Amen. Sermon II.
Preached at a Mariage.
Gen. 2. 18.
And the Lord God said, It is not good, that the man should be alone; I will make him a
Helpe, meet for him. INIn the Creation of the world, when God stocked the Earth, and the Sea,
with those creatures, which were to be the seminary, and foundation,
and roote of all that should ever be propagated in either of those ele-
ments, and when he had made man, to rule over them, he spoke to
man, and to other creatures, in one and the same phrase, and forme of
speech, Crescite, & multiplicamini, Be fruitfull and multiply; and there-
by imprinted in man, and in other creatures, a naturall desire to conserve, and propa-
gate their kinde by way of Generation. But after God had thus imprinted in man,
the same naturall desire of propagation, which he had infused into other creatures too, af-
ter he had communicated to him that blessing, Gen. 1. 22. 28. (for so it is said, God blessed them, and said,
Be fruitfull, and multiply) till an ability and a desire of propagating their kinde, was in-
fused into the creature, there is no mention of any blessing in the creation; after God
had made men partakers of that blessing, that naturall desire of propagation, he takes a
farther care of man, in giving him a proper and peculiar blessing, in contracting and li-
miting that naturullnaturall desire of his: He leaves all other creatures to their generall use and
execution of that Commission, Crescite et multiplicamini, the Male was to take the Female
when and where their naturall desire provoked them; but, for man, Gen.. 2. 22. Adduxit Deus ad
Adam; God left not them to goe to one another, but God brought the woman to the man:
and so this conjunction, this desire of propagation, though it be naturall in man, as in
other creatures, by his creation, yet it is limited by God himselfe, to be exercised onely
between such persons, as God hath brought together in mariage, according to his In-
stitution, and Ordinance. Though then societies of men doe grow up, and spread them-
selves into Townes, and into Cities, and into Kingdomes, yet the root of all societies is
in families, in the relation between man and wife, parents and children, masters and ser-
vants: so though the state of the children of God, in this world be dignified by the name
of a kingdome, (for, so we pray by Christs owne institution, Luk.. 17. 21. Thy kingdome come, and so
Christ saies, Ecce Regnum, The kingdome of God is amongst you) and though the state of
Gods children here, be called a City, a new Jerusalem, comming downe from heaven,
and in Apoc.. 21. 2. David, Glorious things are spoken of thee, O City of God, yet for all these glorious
titles of City and Kingdome, Psal. 87. 3. we must remember, that it is called a family too; The Hous hold
10
At a Mariage.
Serm. II.
hold of the faithfull: And so the Apostle says, in preferring Christ before Moses, That
Christ as the sonne was over Gods house, whose house we are. Heb. 3. 6. So that, both of Civill and
of Spirituall societies, the first roote is a family; and of families, the first roote is Ma-
riage; and of mariage, the first roote, that growes out into words, is in this Text; And
the Lord God said, It is not good &c. If we should employ this exercise onely upon these two generall considerations,
first, that God puts even his care and his study to finde out what is good for man, and se-
condly, that God doth provide and furnish whatsoever he findes to be necessary, faci-
am, I will make him a Helper, though they be common places we are bound to thanke
God that they are so; that it is a common place to good, that he ever does it towards us,
that it is a common place to us, that we ever acknowledge it in him. But you may be
pleased to admit a more particular distribution. For, upon the first, will be grounded
this consideration, that in regard of the publique good, God pretermits private, and
particular respects; for, God doth not say, Non bonum homini, it is not good for man
to be alone, man might have done well enough so; nor God does not say, non bonum
hunc hominem, it is not good for this, or that particular man to be alone; but non bonum,
Hominem, it is not good in the generall, for the whole frame of the world, that man should
be alone, because then both Gods purposes had been frustrated, of being glorified by
man here, in this world, and of glorifying man, in the world to come; for neither of
these could have been done, without a succession, and propagation of man; and there-
fore, non bonum hominem, it was not good, that man should be alone. And then upon the
second consideration, will arise these branches; first, that whatsoever the defect be, there
is no remedy, but from God; for it is, faciam, I will doe it. Secondly, that even the
workes of God, are not equally excellent; this is but faciam, it is not faciamus; in the
creation of man, there is intimated a Consultation, a Deliberation of the whole Trinity;
in the making of women, it is not expressed so; it is but faciam. And then, that that is
made here, is but Adjutorium, but an accessory, not a principall; but a Helper. First the
wife must be so much, she must Helpe; and then she must be no more, she must not Governe.
But she cannot be that, except she have that quality, which God intended in the first wo-
man, Adjutoriam simile sibi, a helper fit for him: for otherwise he will ever returne, to
the bonum esse solum, it had been better for him, to have been alone, then in the likenesse
of a Helper, to have had a wife unfit for him. First then, I Part. that in regard of the publique good, God pretermits private respects, if we
take examples upon that stage, upon that scene, the face of Nature, we see that for the
conservation of the whole, God hath imprinted in the particulars, a disposition to de-
part from their owne nature: water will clamber up hills, and ayre will sinke down into
vaults, rather then admit Vacuity. But take the example nearer, in Gods bosome, and there
we see, that for the publique, for the redemption of the whole world, God hath (shall
we say, pretermitted?) derelicted, forsaken, abandoned, his own, and onely Sonne. Do
you so too? Regnum Dei intra nos; the kingdome of God is within you; planted in your
election; watred in your Baptisme; fatned with the blood of Christ Jesus, ploughed up
with many calamities, and tribulations; weeded with often repentances of particular sins;
The kingdome of God is within you; and will ye not depart from private affections, from
Ambition and Covetousnesse, from Excesse, and voluptuousnesse, from chambring and
wantonnesse, in which the kingdome of God doth not consist, for the conservation of this
kingdome? will ye not pray for this kigdome, in your private, and publique devoti-
ons? will ye not fast for this kingdome, in cutting off superfluities? will ye not fight
for this kingdome, in resisting suggestions? will ye not take Counsaile for this king-
dome, in consulting with religious friends? will ye not give subsidies for this kingdome,
in relieving their necessities, for whom God hath made you his stewards? weigh and
measure your selves, and spend that, be negligent of that, which is least, and worst in
you. Is your soule lesse then your body, because it is in it? How easily lies a letter in
a Boxe, which if it were unfolded, would cover that Boxe? unfold your soule, and you
shall see, that it reaches to heaven; from thence it came, and thither it should pretend;
whereas the body is but from that earth, and for that earth, upon which it is now; which
is but a short, and an inglorious progresse. To contract this, the soule is larger then the
body, and the glory, and the joyes of heaven, larger then the honours, and the plea-
sures of this world: what are seventy yeares, to that latitude, of continuing as long as the
11
Serm. II.
At a Mariage.
the Ancient of dayes? what is it, to have spent our time, with the great ones of this
time; when, when the Angels shall come and say, that Time shall be no more, we shall
have no beeing with him, who is yesterday, and to day, and the same for ever? we see
how ordinarily ships goe many leagues out of their direct way, to fetch the winde. Spi-
ritus spirat ubi vult, sayes Christ; the spirit blowes where he will; and, as the Angel took
Habakkuk by the haire, and placed him where he would, this winde, the spirit of God, can
take thee at last, by thy gray haires, and place thee in a good station then. Spirat ubi vult,
he blowes where he will, and spirat ubi vis, he blowes where thou wilt too, if thou
beest appliable to his inspirations. They are but hollow places that returne Ecchoes;
last syllables: It is but a hollownesse of heart, to answer God at last. Be but as liberall of
thy body in thy mortifications as in thy excesse, and licentiousnesse, and thou shalt in
some measure, have followed Gods example, for the publique to pretermit the private,
for the larger, and better, to leave the narrower, and worser respects. To proceed, when we made that observation, Non homini. that God pretermitted the private for
the publique, we noted, that God did not say, non bonum Homini, It was not good for man
to be alone; man might have done well enough in that state, so, as his solitarinesse might
have been supplied with a farther creation of more men. In making the inventaries of
those goods which man possesseth in the world, Xenoph. we see a great Author says, In possessio-
nibus sunt amici, & inimici, not onely our friends, but even our enemies, are part of
our goods, and we may raise as much profit from these, as from those, It may be as
good a lesson to a mans sonne, Study that enemy, as Observe that friend. As David says,
propitius fuisti, Psal. 99. 8. & ulciscens, Thou heardst them ô Lord our God, and wast favourable unto
them, and didst punish all their inventions: it was part of his mercy, part of his favour,
that he did correct them. So we may say to our enemy, I owe you my watchfulnesse
upon my selfe, and you have given me all the goodnesse that I have; for you have
calumniated all my indifferent actions, and that kept me, from committing enormous ill
ones. And if then our enemies be in possessionibus, to be inventaried amongst our goods,
might not man have been abundantly rich in friends, without this addition of a woman?
Quanto congruentius, says S. Augustine; how much more conveniently might two friends
live together, then a man and a woman? God doth not then say, non bonum homini, man got not so much by the bargaine,
(especially if we consider how that wife carried her selfe towards him) but that for his
particular, he had been better alone: nor he does not say now, non bonum hunc hominem
esse solum, It is not good for any man to be alone; for, Qui potest capere capiat, says
Christ: he that is able to receive it, let him receive it. What? Mat. 19. 12. That some make themselves
Eunuchs for the kingdome of heaven: that is, the better to un-entangle themselves from
those impediments, which hinder them in the way to heaven, they abstaine from ma-
riage; and let them that can receive it, receive it. Now certainly few try whether they
can receive this, or no. Few strive, few fast, few pray for the gift of continency; few are
content with that incontinency which they have, but are sorry they can expresse no
more incontinency. There is a use of mariage now, which God never thought of in the
first institution of mariage; that it is a remedy against burning. The two maine uses of
mariage, which are propagation of Children, and mutuall assistance, were intended by
God, at the present, at first; but the third, is a remedy against that, which was not then;
for then there was no inordinatenesse, no irregularity in the affections of man. And ex-
perience hath taught us now, that those climates which are in reputation, hottest, are
not uninhabitable; they may be dwelt in for all their heat. Even now, in the corruption
of our nature, the clime is not so hot, as that every one must of necessity, mary. There
may be fire in the house, and yet the house not on fire: there may be a distemper of
heate, and yet no necessity to let blood. The Roman Church injures us, when they
say, that we prefer mariage before virginity: and they injure the whole state of Christi-
anity, when they oppose mariage and chastity, as though they were incompatible, and
might not consist together. Heb. 13. 4. They may; for mariage is honourable, and the bed undefiled;
and therefore it may be so. S. Augustine observes in mariage, Bonum fidei, a triall of
one anothers truth; and that's good; And bonum prolis, a lawfull meanes of propaga-
tion; and that's good; and bonum Sacramenti, a mysticall representation of that union
of two natures in Christ, and of him to us, and to his Church; and that's good too.
So that there are divers degrees of good in mariage. But yet for all these goodnesses, God
12
At a Mariage.
Serm. II.
God does not say, non bonum, it is not good for any man to be alone, but Qui capere
potest capiat; according to Christs comment, upon his Fathers text, He that can containe
and continue alone, let him doe so. But though God do not say, non homini, It is not good for the man, that he be alone,
nor quemvis hominem, it is not good for every man to be alone, yet, considering his generall
purpose upon all the world, by man, he sayes non bonum; for that end, it is not good, that
man should be alone, because those purposes of God could not consist with that soli-
tude of man. In that production, and in that survay, which God made of all that he
had made, still he gives the testimony, that he saw all was good, excepting onely in his
Second dayes worke, and in his making of Man. He forbore it in the making of the fir-
mament, because the firmament was to divide between waters and waters; it was an
embleme of division, of disunion. He forbore it also in the making of man, because
though man was to be an embleme of Gods union to his Church, yet because this em-
bleme, and this representation, could not be in man alone, till the woman were made
too, God does not pronounce upon the making of man, that the work was good: but
upon Gods contemplation, that it was not good, that man should be alone, there arose
a goodnesse, in having a companion. And from that time, if we seeke bonum, quia lici-
tum, if we will call that good, which is lawfull, mariage is that, If thou takest a wife thou
sinnest not, sayes God by the Apostle. 1 Cor. 7. 28. If we seeke bonum, quia bonus autor, if we call that
good whose author is good, Gen. 2. 22. mariage is that; Adduxit ad Adam, God brought her to
man. If we seek such a goodnesse, as hath good witness, good testimony, mariage is that;
Christ was present at a mariage, Iohn. 2. and honoured it with his first miracle. If we seek such
a goodnesse, as is a constant, and not a temporary, an occasionall goodnesse, Christ hath
put such a cement upon mariage, Mat. 19. 6. What God hath joined, let no man put asunder. If we seek
such a goodnesse, as no man, (that is, no sort nor degree of men) is the worse for ha-
ving accepted, we see the holiest of all, the High Priest, in the old Testament is onely li-
mited, what woman he shall not mary, but not that he shall not mary; and the Bishop in
the new Testament what kinde of husband he must have been, but not that he must have
been no husband. To contract this, as mariage is good, in having the best author, God,
the best witnesse, Christ, the longest terme, Life, the largest extent, even to the highest
persons, Priests, and Bishops; as it is, all these wayes, Positively good, so it is good in Com-
parison of that, which justly seemes the best state, that is, Virginity, in S. Augustines opi-
nion, Non impar meritum Johannis & Abrahæ: If we could consider merit in man, the
merit of Abraham, the father of nations, and the merit of John, who was no father at
all, is equall. But that wherein we consider the goodnesse of it here, is, that God pro-
posed this way, to receive glory from the sonnes of men here upon earth, and to give
glory to the sonnes of men in heaven. But what glory can God receive from man, that he should be so carefull of his pro-
pagation? what glory more from man, then from the Sunne, and Moon, and Stars,
which have no propagation? why this, that S. Augustine observes; Musca Soli præfe-
renda, quia vivit, A Fly is a nobler creature then the Sunne, because a fly hath life, and
the Sunne hath not; for the degrees of dignity in the creature, are esse, vivere, and intel-
ligere: to have a beeing, to have life, and to have understanding: and therefore man,
who hath all three, is much more able to glorify God, then any other creature is, be-
cause he onely can chuse whether he will glorify God or no; the glory that the others
give, they must give, Rom. 12. but man is able to offer to God a reasonable sacrifice. When ye
were Gentiles, saies the Apostle, 1 Cor. 12. 2. ye were caryed away unto dumb Idols, even as ye were led.
This is reasonable service, out of Reason to understand, and out of our willingnesse to doe
God service. Now, when God had spent infinite millions of millions of generations,
from all un-imaginable eternity, in contemplating one another in the Trinity, and then
(to speake humanly of God, which God in his Scriptures abhors not) out of a satiety
in that contemplation would create a world for his glory, and when he had wrought
the first day, and created all the matter, and substance of the future creatures, and
wrought foure dayes after, and a great part of the sixth, and yet nothing produced, which
could give him any glory (for glory is rationabile obsequium, reasonable service; and no-
thing could give that but a creature that understood it, and would give it,) at last, as
the knot of all, created man; then, to perpetuate his glory, he must perpetuate man:
and to that purpose, non bonum, it was not good for man to be alone; as without man God
13
Serm. II.
At a Mariage.
God could not have been glorified, so without woman man could not have been pro-pagated. But, as there is a place cited by S. Paul out of David, Psal. 68. 18. which hath some perplexity
in it, Eph. 4. 8. we cannot tell, whether Christ be said to have received gifts from men, or for men;
or to have given gifts to men, (for so S. Paul hath it) so it is not easie for us to discern,
whether God had a care to propagate man, that he might receive glory from man, or
that he might give glory to man. When God had taken it into his purpose to people
heaven again, depopulated in the fall of Angels, by the substitution of man in their pla-
ces, when God had a purpose to spend as much time with man in heaven after, as he had
done with himself before, (for our perpetuity after the Resurrection, shall no more have
an end, then his Eternity before the Creation had a beginning:) And when God to pre-
vent that time of the Resurrection, as it were to make sure of man before, would send
down his own Son to assume our nature here; and, as not sure enough so, would take us
up to him, and set us, in his Son, at his own right hand, whereas he never did, nor shall
say to any of the Angels, Sit thou there: That God might not be frustrated of this
great, and gracious, and glorious purpose of his, non bonum, it was not good that man
should be alone; for without man God could not give this glory, and without woman
there could be no propagation of man. And so, though it might have been Bonum ho-
mini, man might have done well enough alone; and Bonum hunc hominem, some men
may doe better alone, yet God, who ever, for our example, prefers the publique before
the private, because it conduced not to his generall end, of Having, and of Giving glory,
saw, and said, Non bonum hominem, it was not good that man should be alone. And so we
have done with the branches of our first part. We are come now to our second generall part: 2d Part. In which, as we saw in the former,
that God studies man, and all things necessary for man, we shall also see, that wherein
soever man is defective, his onely supply, and reparation is from God; Faciam, I will
doe it. Saul wanted counsell, he was in a perplexity, and he sought to the Witch of En-
dor, and not to God; and what is the issue? he hears of his own, and of his son Jona-
thans death the next day. Asa wants health, and he seeks to the Physician, and not to
God, and what is the issue? He dies. Doe not say, says S. Chrysost. Quæro necessaria,
I desire nothing but that which is necessary for my birth, necessary for my place: Quod
non dat Deus, non est necessarium: God hath made himself thy Steward, thy Bayliffe;
and whatsoever God provides not for thee, is not necessary to thee. It was the poor way
that Mahomet found out in his Alchoran, that in the next life all women should have
eies of one bignesse, and a stature of one size; he could finde no means to avoid con-
tention, but to make them all alike: But that is thy complexion, that is thy proporti-
on which God hath given thee. It may be true that S. Hierome notes, who had so much
conversation amongst women, that it did him harm, Multas insignis pudicitiæ, quamvis
nulli virorum, sibi scimus ornari; I know, says he, as honest women as are in the world,
that take a delight in making themselves handsomely ready, though for no other bodies
sake but for their own. Cyprian. That may be; but, manus Deo inferunt, they take the pencill
out of Gods hand, who goe about to mend any thing of his making. Quod nascitur Dei
est, quod mutatur Diaboli, says the same Father; God made us according to his image,
and shall he be put to say to any of us, Non imago mea, this picture was not taken by the
life, not by me, but is a Copy of the present distemper of the time? All good reme-
dies are of God; none but he would ever have conceived such an invention as the Ark,
without that modell, for the reparation of the world; and he hath provided that means
for the conservation of the world, mariage, Tertul. the association of one to one: Plures costæ
Adæ, nec fatigatæ manus Dei: Adam had more ribs then one, neither were Gods hands
wearied with making one; and yet he made no more. For him who first exceeded
that, Lamech, Gen. 4. 18. who had two wives, the first was Adah, and Adah signifies Cœtum, congre-
gationem; there is company enough, society enough in a wife: His other wife was but
Zillah, and Zillah is but umbra, but a shadow, but a ghost, that will terrifie at last. To proceed; Though God always provide remedies, Faciam. and supplies of defects, it is
not always in the greatest measure, nor in the presentest manner, that we conceive to our
selves. So much may be intimated even in this, that in this remedy of Gods provision,
the woman, God proceeded not, as he did in the making of man; it is not Faciamus,
with such a counsell, such a deliberation as was used in that case. When the Creation C of
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At a Mariage.
Serm. II.
of all the substance of the whole world is expressed, it is Creavit Dii, Gods created, as
though more Gods were employed; and in the making of him, who was the abridge-
ment of all, of man, it is faciamus, let us make him, as though more persons were em-
ployed: it is not so in the woman, for though the first Translation of the Bible that
ever were and the Translation of the Roman Church have it in the plurall, yet it is not
so in the Originall; it is but faciam. I presse no more upon this, but one lesson to our
selves, That if God exercise us with temporall afflictions, narrownesse in our fortunes,
infirmities in our constitutions, or with spirituall afflictions, ignorance in our understan-
dings, scruples in our conscience, if God come not altogether in his faciamus, to powre
down with both hands abundance of his worldly treasures, or of his spirituall light and
clearnesse, let us content our selves with one hand from him, with that manner and that
measure that he gives, and that time and that leasure which he takes. And then one les-
son also to the other sexe, That they will be content, even by this form and change of
phrase, to be remembred, 1 Tim. 2. 14. that they are the weaker vessell, and that Adam was not deceived
but the woman was. For whether you will ease that with Theodorets exposition, Adam
was not deceived first, but the woman was first deceived; Or with Chrysostoms exposition,
Adam was not deceived by a Serpent, a creature loathsom, & unacceptable but by a lovely
person, with whom he was transported: Or with Oecumenius his exposition; Adam was
not deceived, because there is no charge laid upon him in the Scriptures, no mention
that he was deceived in them, as it is said, that Melchisedek had no Father nor Mother,
because there is no record of his pedegree in the Scriptures: Or in Ambrose his exposi-
tion; That Adam was not deceived in prævaricationem, not so deceived as that he decei-
ved any body else: Take it any way, 1 Tim. 2. 11. and it implies a weaknesse in the woman, and an
occasion of soupling her to that just estimation of her self, That she will be content to learn
in silence with all subjection; That as she is not a servant, but a Mother in the house, so
she is but a Daughter, and not a Mother of the Church. This is presented more fully in the next, Adjutorium. that she is but Adjutorium, but a Help: and
no body values his staffe, as he does his legges. It is not an ordinary disease now, to be
too uxorious; that needs no great disswasion. But if any one man in a congregation be
obnoxious to any one infirmity, one note is not ill spent: And let S. Hierome give this
note, Sapiens judicio amat, non affectu, Discretion is the weight of love in a wise mans
hand, and not affection. S. Hierome cannot stay there; he addes thus much more, Ni-
hil fœdius, quàm uxorem amare tanquam adulteram, There is not a more uncomely, a
poorer thing, then to love a Wife like a Mistresse. S. Augustine makes that comparison,
That whensoever the Apostles preached, they were glad when their auditory liked their
preaching, Non aviditate consequendæ laudis, sed charitate seminandæ virtutis; not that
they affected the praise of the people, but that thereby they saw, that they had done
more good upon the people. And in another place he makes that comparison, That a
righteous man desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ, & yet this righteous man dines,
and sups, takes ordinary refections and ordinary recreations: So, for mariage, says he, in
temperate men, officiosum, non libidinosum, it is to pay a debt, not to satisfie appetite; lest
otherwise she prove in Ruinam, who was given in Adjutorium, and he be put to the first
mans plea, Mulier quam dedisti, The woman whom thou gavest me, gave me my death. So much then she should be, A Helper; for, for that she was made. She is not so, if
she remember not those duties which are intimated in the stipulation and contract which
she hath made. Call it Conjugium, and that is derived à Jugo, it is an equall patience in
bearing the incommodities of this life. Call it Nuptias, and that is derived à Nube, a
vaile, a covering; and that is an estranging, a withdrawing her self from all such con-
versation as may violate his peace, or her honour. Call it Matrimonium, and that is de-
rived from a Mother, and that implies a religious education of her children. De latere
sumpta, nor discedat à latere, says Aug. Since she was taken out of his side, let her not de-
part from his side, but shew her self so much as she was made for, Adjutorium, a Helper. But she must be no more; If she think her self more then a Helper, she is not so
much. He is a miserable creature, whose Creator is his Wife. God did not stay to joyn
her in Commission with Adam, so far as to give names to the creatures; much lesse to
give essence; essence to the man, essence to her husband. When the wife thinks her hus-
band owes her all his fortune, all his discretion, all his reputation, God help that man him-
self, for he hath given him no helper yet. I know there are some glasses stronger then some
15
Serm. III.
At a Mariage.
some earthen vessels, and some earthen vessels stronger then some wooden dishes; some
of the weaker sexe, stronger in fortune, and in counsell too, then they to whom God
hath given them, but yet let them not impute that in the eye nor eare of the world, nor
repeat it to their own hearts, with such a dignifying of themselves, as exceeds the quality
of a Helper. S. Hierome shall be her Remembrancer, She was not taken out of the foot;
to be troden upon, nor out of the head, to be an overseer of him; but out of his side,
where she weakens him enough, and therefore should do all she can, to be a Helper. To be so, so much, and no more, she must be as God made Eve, similis ei, meet and
fit for her husband. She is fit for any if she have those vertues, which always make the
person that hath them good; as chastity, sobriety, taciturnity, verity, and such: for, for
such vertues as may be had, and yet the possessor not the better for them, as wit, lear-
ning, eloquence, musick, memory, cunning, and such, these make her never the fitter.
There is a Harmony of dispositions, and that requires particular consideration upon
emergent occasions; but the fitnesse that goes through all, is a sober continency; for
without that, Matrimonium jurata fornicatio, Mariage is but a continuall fornication,
sealed with an oath: And mariage was not instituted to prostitute the chastity of the
woman to one man, but to preserve her chastity from the tentations of more men.
Bathsheba was a little too fit for David, when he had tried her so far before; for there
is no fitnesse where there is not continency. To end all, there is a Morall fitnesse, consist-
ing in those morall vertues, of which we have spoke enough; And there is a Civill fit-
nesse, consisting in Discretion, and accommodating her self to him; And there is a Spirit-
uall fitnesse, in the unanimity of Religion, that they be not of repugnant professions
that way. Of which, since we are well assured in both these, who are to be joyned
now, I am not sorry, if either the houre, or the present occasion call me from speaking
any thing at all, because it is a subject too mis-interpretable, and unseasonable to admit
an enlarging in at this time. At this time therefore, this be enough, for the explication
and application of these words. Sermon III.
Preached at a Mariage.
Hosea 2. 19.
And I will mary thee unto me for ever. THEThe word which is the hinge upon which all this Text turns, is Erash,
and Erash signifies not onely a betrothing, as our later Translation
hath it, 2 Sam. 3. 14. but a mariage; And so it is used by David, Deliver me my wife
Michal whom I maried; and so our former Translation had it, and so
we accept it, and so shall handle it, I will mary thee unto me for ever. The first mariage that was made, God made, and he made it in Pa-
radise: And of that mariage I have had the like occasion as this to speak before, in the
presence of many honourable persons in this company. The last mariage which shall be
made, God shall make too, and in Paradise too; in the Kingdome of heaven: and at
that mariage, I hope in him that shall make it, to meet, not some, but all this company.
The mariage in this Text hath relation to both those mariages: It is it self the spirituall
and mysticall mariage of Christ Jesus to the Church, and to every mariageable soule in
the Church: And it hath a retrospect, it looks back to the first mariage; for to that the
first word carries us, because from thence God takes his metaphor, and comparison,
sponsabo, I will mary; And then it hath a prospect to the last mariage, for to that we are
carried in the last word, in æternum, I will mary thee unto me for ever. Be pleased there-
fore to give me leave in this exercise, to shift the scene thrice, and to present to your re-
ligious considerations three objects, three subjects: first, a secular mariage in Paradise;
secondly, a spirituall mariage in the Church; and thirdly, an eternall mariage in heaven.
And in each of these three we shall present three circumstances; first the Persons, Me
and Tibi, I will mary thee; And then the Action, Sponsabo, I will mary thee; And last-
C2 ly
16
At a Mariage.
Serm. III.
the Term, In æternam, I will mary thee to mee for ever.
In the first acceptation then, 1t Part. Persons. in the first, the secular mariage in Paradise, the persons
were Adam and Eve: Ever since they are he and she, man and woman: At first, by rea-
son of necessity, without any such limitation, as now: And now without any other limi-
tation, then such as are expressed in the Law of God: As the Apostles say in the first
generall Councell, Acts 15. 28. We lay nothing upon you but things necessary, so we call nothing neces-
sary but that which is commanded by God. If in heaven I may have the place of a man
that hath performed the Commandements of God, I will not change with him that
thinks he hath done more then the Commandements of God enjoyned him. The rule
of marriage for degrees and distance in blood, is the Law of God; but for conditions
of men, there is no Rule given at all. When God had made Adam and Eve in Paradise,
God did not place Adam in a Monastery on one side, and Eve in a Nunnery on the
other, and so a River between them. They that built wals and cloysters to frustrate Gods
institution of mariage, 1 Tim. 4. 3. advance the Doctrine of Devils in forbidding mariage. The
Devil hath advantages enow against us, in bringing men and women together: It was a
strange and super-devilish invention, to give him a new advantage against us, by keep-
ing men and women asunder, by forbidding mariage. Between the heresie of the Nico-
laitans, that induced a community of women, any might take any; and the heresie of
the Tatians that forbad all, none might take any, was a fair latitude. Between the opi-
nion of the Manichean hereticks, that thought women to be made by the Devil, and
your Colliridian hereticks that sacrificed to a women, as to God, there is a fair distance.
Between the denying of them souls, which S. Ambrose is charged to have done, and gi-
ving them such souls, as that they may be Priests, as your Pepution hereticks did, is a
faire way for a moderate man to walk in. To make them Gods is ungodly, and to make
them Devils is devillish; To make them Mistresses is unmanly, and to make them ser-
vants is unnoble; To make them as God made them, wives, is godly and manly too.
When in your Roman Church they dissolved mariage in naturall kindred, in degrees
where God forbids it not, when they dissolve mariage upon spitituall kindred, because
my Grandfather Christned that womans Father; when they dissolve mariage upon le-
gall kindred, because my Grandfather adopted that womans Father: they separate
those whom God hath joyned so, as to give leave to joyn in lawfull mariage. When
men have made vows to abstain from mariage, I would they would be content to try a
little longer then they doe, whether they could keep that vow or no: And when men
have consecrated themselves to the service of God in his Church, I would they would
be content to try a little farther then they doe, whether they could abstain or no: But
to dissolve mariage made after such a Vow, or after Orders, is still to separate those
whom God hath not separated. The Persons are he and she, man and woman; they
must be so much; he must be a man, she must be a woman; And they must be no more;
not a brother and a sister, not an unckle and a neece; Adduxit ad eum, was the cause be-
tween Adam and Eve; God brought them together; God will not bring me a precon-
tracted person, he will not have me defraud another; nor God will not bring me a
mis-beleeving, a superstitious person, he will not have me drawn from himself: But let
them be persons that God hath made, man and woman, and persons that God hath
brought together, that is, not put asunder by any Law of his, and all such persons are
capable of this first, this secular mariage. In which our second Consideration is the Action, Sponsabo; Sponsabo. where the Active is a
kinde of Passive, I will mary thee, is, I will be maried unto thee, for we mary not our selves.
They are somewhat hard driven in the Roman Church, Bellar. de Ma-
trimo. l. 1. c. 6. when making mariage a Sacra-
ment, and being prest by us with this question, If it be a Sacrament, who administers it,
who is the Priest? They are fain to answer, the Bridegroom and the Bride, he and she
are the Priest in that Sacrament. As mariage is a civill Contract, it must be done so in
publick, as that it may have the testimony of men; As mariage is a religious Contract, it
must be so done, as that it may have the benediction of the Priest: In a mariage with-
out testimony of men they cannot claim any benefit of the Law; In a mariage without
the benediction of the Priest they cannot claim any benefit of the Church: for how
Matrimonially soever such persons as have maried themselves may pretend to love, and
live together, yet all that love, and all that life is but a regulated Adultery, it is not
mariage. Now
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Serm. III.
At a Mariage.
Now this institution of mariage had three objects: first, In ustionem, In ustionem. it was given for
a remedy against burning; And then, In prolem, for propagation, for children; And
lastly, In adjutorium, for mutuall help. As we consider it the first way, In ustionem, every
heating is not a burning; every naturall concupiscence does not require a mariage; nay
every flaming is not a burning; though a man continue under the flame of carnall ten-
tation, as long as S. Paul did; yet it needs not come presently to a Sponsabo, I will mary.
God gave S. Paul other Physick, Gratia mea sufficit, grace to stand under that tentati-
on; And S. Paul gave himself other Physick, Contundo corpus, convenient disciplines
to tame his body. Ambrose. These will keep a man from burning; for Vri est desideriis vinci, de-
sideria pati, illustris est, & perfecti; To be overcome by our concupiscences, that is to
burn, but to quench the fire by religious ways, that is a noble, that is a perfect work.
When God at the first institution of mariage had this first use of mariage in his contem-
plation, that it should be a remedy against burning, God gave man the remedy, before
he had the disease; for mariage was instituted in the state of innocency, when there was
no inordinatenesse in the affections of man, and so no burning. But as God created Reu-
barb in the world, whose quality is to purge choler, before there was any choler to
purge, so God according to his abundant forwardnesse to doe us good, created a re-
medy before the disease, which he foresaw comming, was come upon us. Let him then
that takes a wife in this first and lowest sense, In medicinam, but as his Physick, yet
make her his cordiall Physick, take her to his heart, and fill his heart with her, let her
dwell there, and dwell there alone, and so they will be mutuall Antidotes and Preser-
vatives one to another, against all forein tentations. And with this blessing, blesse
thou, ô; Lord, these whom thou hast brought hither for this blessing: make all the days
of their life like this day unto them; and as thy mercies are new every morning, make
them so to one another; And if they may not die together, sustain thou the survivor of
them in that sad hour with this comfort, That he that died for them both, will bring
them together again in his everlastingnesse. The second use of mariage was In prolificationem, In prolem. for children: And therefore as
S. August. puts the case, To contract before, that they will have no children, makes it
no mariage but an adultery: To deny themselves to another, is as much against mariage
as to give themselves to another. To hinder it by Physick, or any other practise; nay
to hinder it so far, as by a deliberate wish, or prayer against children, consists not well
with this second use of mariage. And yet in this second use, we doe not so much consi-
der generation as regeneration; not so much procreation as education, nor propagation
as transportation of children. For this world might be filled full enough of children,
though there were no mariage; but heaven could not be filled, nor the places of the fal-
len Angels supplied, without that care of childrens religious education, which from Pa-
rents in lawfull mariage they are likeliest to receive. How infinite, and how miserable a
circle of sin doe we make, if as we sinned in our Parents loins before we were born, so
we sin in our childrens actions when we are dead, by having given them, either exam-
ple, or liberty of sinning. We have a fearfull commination from God upon a good
man, upon Eli, 1 Sam. 3. 11.
4. 18. for his not restraining the licentiousnesse of his sons; I will doe a thing
in Isræl, says God there, at which every mans eares that heares it shall single: And it
was executed, Eli fell down and broke his neck. We have also a consolation to women
for children, 1 Tim. 2. 15. She shall be saved in Child-bearing, says the Apostle; but as Chrysostome
and others of the Ancients observe and interpret that place (which interpretation arises
out of the very letter) it is, Si permanserint, not if she, but if they, if the children conti-
nue in faith, in charity, in holinesse, and sobriety: The salvation of the Parents hath
so much relation to the childrens goodnesse, as that if they be ill by the Parents exam-
ple, or indulgence, the Parents are as guilty as the children. Art thou afraid thy childe
should be stung with a Snake, and wilt thou let him play with the old Serpent, in opening
himself to all tentations? Art thou afraid to let him walk in an ill aire, and art thou
content to let him stand in that pestilent aire that is made of nothing but oaths, and ex-
ecrations of blasphemous mouths round about him? It is S. Chrysostomes complaint,
Perditionem magno pretio emunt; Salutem nec dono accipere volunt; we pay dear for our
childrens damnation, by paying at first for all their childish vanities, and then for their
sinfull insolencies at any rate; and we might have them saved, and our selves to the
bargain, (which were a frugall way, and a debt well hedg’d in) for much lesse then C3 ours,
18
At a Mariage.
Serm. III.
ours, and their damnation stands us in. If you have a desire, says that blessed Father,
to leave them certainly rich, Deum iis relinque Debitorem, Doe some such thing for Gods
service, as you may leave God in their debt. He cannot break; his estate is inexhausti-
ble; he will not break promise, nor break day; He will shew mercy unto thousands in them
that love him and keep his Commandements. And here also may another showre of his
benedictions fall upon them whom he hath prepared and presented here; Let the wife
be as a fruitfull Vine, and their children like Olive plants: Ps. 128. 3. To thy glory, let the Parents
expresse the love of Parents, and the children, to thy glory, the obedience of children,
till they both loose that secular name of Parents and Children, and meet all alike, in
one new name, all Saints in thy Kingdome, and fellow servants there. The third and last use in this institution of secular mariage, In adjutori-
um. was, In adjutorium, for
mutuall help. There is no state, no man in any state, that needs not the help of others.
Subjects need Kings, and if Kings doe not need their Subjects, they need alliances
abroad, and they need Counsell at home. Even in Paradise, where the earth produced
all things for life without labour, and the beasts submitted themselves to man, so that
he had no outward enemy; And in the state of innocency in Paradise, where in man all
the affections submitted themselves to reason, so that he had no inward enemy, yet
God in this abundant Paradise, and in this secure innocency of Paradise, even in the sur-
vey of his own work, saw, that though all that he had made was good, yet he had not
made all good; he found thus much defect in his own work, that man lacked a helper.
Every body needs the help of others; and every good body does give some kinde of
help to others. Even into the Ark it self, where God blessed them all with a powerfull
and an immediate protection, God admitted onely such as were fitted to help one ano-
ther, couples. In the Ark, which was the Type of our best condition in this life, there
was not a single person. Christ saved once one theef at the last gasp, to shew that there
may be late repentances; but in the Ark he saved none but maried persons, to shew,
that he eases himself in making them helpers to one another. And therefore when we
come to the Posui Deum adjutorium meum, to rely upon God primarily for our Help,
God comes to the faciam tibi adjutorium, I will make thee a help like thy self: not always
like in complexion, nor like in years, nor like in fortune, nor like in birth, but like in
minde, like in disposition, like in the love of God, and of one another or else there is no
helper. It was no kinde of help that Davids wife gave him, when she spoke by way of
counsell, but in truth, in scorn and derision, to draw him from a religious act, as the dan-
cing before the Ark, at that time was: It is no help for any respect, to slacken the hus-
band in his Religion. It was but a poor help that Nabals wife was fain to give him by
telling David, Alas my husband is but a foole, like his name, and what will you look for at a
fools hand? It is the worst help of all to raise a husband by dejecting her self, to help
her husband forward in this world, by forfeiting sinfully, and dishonourably her own
interest in the next. The husband is the Helper in the nature of a foundation, to sustain
and uphold all; The wife in the nature of the roof, to cover imperfections and weaknes-
ses: The husband in the nature of the head from whom all the sinews flow; The wife in
the nature of the hands into which those sinews flow, and enable them to doe their offi-
ces. The husband helps as legges to her, she moves by his motion; The wife helps as a
staffe to him, he moves the better by her assistance. And let this mutuall help be a part
of our present benediction too; In all the ways of fortune let his industry help her, and
in all the crosses of fortune let her patience help him; and in all emergent occasions
and dangers spirituall, or temporall, O God make speed to save them, O Lord, make haste
to help them. We have spoken of the persons, In æternum. man and woman, him and her; And of the action,
first as it is Physick, but cordiall Physick; and then for children, but children to be
made the children of God; and lastly for help, but true help and mutuall help; There
remains yet in this secular mariage, the Term, how long, for ever, I will mary thee for
ever. Now though there be properly no eternity in this secular mariage, nor in any
thing in this world, (for eternity is that onely which never had beginning, nor ever shall
have end) yet we may consider a kind of eternity, a kind of circle without beginning, with-
out end, even in this secular mariage: for first, mariage should have no beginning before
mariage; no half-mariage, no lending away of the minde, in conditionall precontracts
before, no lending away of the body in unchaste wantonnesse before. The body is the temple
19
Serm. III.
At a Mariage.
temple of the Holy Ghost; and when two bodies, by mariage are to be made one temple,
the wife is not as the Chancell, reserv’d and shut up, and the man as the walks below, in-
different and at liberty for every passenger. God in his Temple looks for first fruits from
both, that so on both sides, mariage should have such a degree of eternity, as to have had
no beginning of mariage before mariage. It should have this degree of eternity too, this
quality of a circle to have no interruption, no breaking in the way by unjust suspitions
and jealousies. Where there is Spiritus immunditei, as S. Paul calls it, a spirit of un-
cleannesse, there will necessarily be Spiritus zelotypiæ, as Moses cals it, a spirit of jealou-
sie. But to raise the Devill in the power of the Devill, to call up one spirit by another
spirit, by the spirit of jealousie and suspition, to induce the spirit of uncleannesse where it
was not, if a man conjure up a Devill so, God knows who shall conjure it down again,
As jealousie is a care and not a suspition, God is not ashamed to protest of himself that
he is a jealous God. Exod. 20. God commands that no idolatry be committed, Thou shalt not bow
down to a graven Image; and before he accuses any man to have bowed down to a graven
Image, before any Idolatry was committed, he tells them that he is a jealous God; God
is jealous before there is any harm done. And God presents it as a curse, when he says,
My jealousie shall depart from thee, Ezech. 16. 42. and I will be quiet, and no more angry; that is, I will
leave thee to thy self, and take no more care of thee. Jealousie that implies care, and
honour, and counsell, and tendernesse, is rooted in God, for God is a jealous God, and
his servants are jealous servants, as S. Paul professes of himself, 2 Cor. 11. 2. I am jealous over you
with a godly jealousie. But jealousie that implies diffidence and suspition, and accusation,
is rooted in the Devil, for he is the Accuser of the brethren. So then, this secular mariage should be in æternum, eternall, for ever, as to have no
beginning before, and so too, as to have no jealous interruption by the way; for it is so
eternall, as that it can have no end in this life: Those whom God hath joyned, no man,
no Devill, can separate so, as that it shall not remain a mariage so far, as that if those se-
parated persons will live together again, yet they shall not be new maried; so farre, cer-
tainly, the band of mariage continues still. The Devil makes no mariages; He may
have a hand in drawing conveyances; in the temporall conditions there may be practice,
but the mariage is made by God in heaven. The Devil can break no mariages neither,
though he can by sin break off all the good uses, and take away all the comforts of ma-
riage. I pronounce not now whether Adultery dissolves mariage or no; It is S. Augu-
stines wisdome to say, Where the Scripture is silent, let me be silent too: And I may
goe lower then he, and say, Where the Church is silent, let me be silent too; and our
Church is so far silent in this, as that it hath not said, That Adultery dissolves mariage.
Perchance then it is not the death of mariage, but surely it is a deadly wound. We have
Authors in the Romane Church that think fornicationem non vagam, that such an in-
continent life as is limited to one certain person, is no deadly sin, But there is none even
amongst them that diminish the crime of Adultery. Habere quasi non haberes, is Christs
counsell, To have a wife as though thou hadst none, that is continency, and tempe-
rance, and forbearance and abstinency upon some occasions; But non habere quasi habe-
res, is not so; not to have a wife, and yet have her, to have her, that is anothers, that is
the Devils counsell. That salutation of the Angel to the blessed Virgin Mary, Blessed
art thou amongst women, we may make even this interpretation, not onely that she was
blessed amongst women, that is, above women, but that she was Benedicta, blessed
amongst women, that all women blest her, that no woman had occasion to curse her:
And this is the eternity of this secular mariage as far as this world admits any eternity;
that it should have no beginning before, no interruption of jealousie in the way, no such
approach towards dissolution, as that incontinency, in all opinions, and in all Churches
is agreed to be. And here also without any scruple of fear, or of suspition of the con-
trary, there is place for this benediction, upon this couple; Build, ô; Lord, upon thine
own foundations, in these two, and establish thy former graces with future; that no per-
son ever complain of either of them, nor either of them of one another, and so he and she
are maried in æternum for ever. We are now come in our order proposed at first, to our second Part; 2d Part. for all is said
that I intended of the secular mariage. And of this second, the spirituall mariage, much
needs not to be said: There is another Priest that contracts that, another Preacher that
celebrates that, the Spirit of God to our spirit. And for the third mariage, the eternall mari-
20
At a Mariage.
Serm. III.
mariage, it is a boldnesse to speak any thing of a thing so inexpressible as the joyes of
heaven; it is a diminution of them to goe about to heighten them; it is a shadowing of
them to goe about to lay any colours or light upon them. But yet your patience may
perchance last to a word of each of these three Circumstances, The Persons, the Acti-
on, the Term, both in this spirituall, and in the eternall mariage. First then, as in the former Part, the secular mariage, Persons. for the persons there, we consi-
dered first Adam and Eve, and after every man and woman, and this couple in particu-
lar; so in this spirituall mariage we consider first Christ and his Church, for the Per-
sons, and more particularly Christ and my soul. And can these persons meet? in such a
distance, and in such a disparagement can these persons meet? the Son of God and the
son of man? When I consider Christ to be Germen Iehovæ, the bud and blossome, the
fruit and off-spring of Jehovah, Jehovah himself, and my self before he took me in
hand, to be, not a Potters vessell of earth, but that earth of which the Potter might
make a vessel if he would, and break it if he would when he had made it: When I con-
sider Christ to have been from before all beginnings, and to be still the Image of the Fa-
ther, the same stamp upon the same metall, and my self a peece of rusty copper, in which
those lines of the Image of God which were imprinted in me in my Creation are defa-
ced and worn, and washed and burnt, and ground away, by my many, and many, and
many sins: When I consider Christ in his Circle, in glory with his Father, before he
came into this world, establishing a glorious Church when he was in this world, and
glorifying that Church with that glory which himself had before, when he went out of
this world; and then consider my self in my circle, I came into this world washed in my
own tears, and either out of compunction for my self or compassion for others, I passe
through this world as through a valley of tears, where tears settle and swell, and when
I passe out of this world I leave their eyes whose hands close mine, full of tears too,
can these persons, this Image of God, this God himself, this glorious God, and this
vessell of earth, this earth it self, this inglorious worm of the earth, meet without dis-
paragement? They doe meet and make a mariage; Action. because I am not a body onely, but a body and
soul, there is a mariage, Deut. 21. 12. and Christ maries me. As by the Law a man might mary a
captive woman in the Warres, if he shaved her head, and pared her nails, and changed
her clothes: so my Saviour having fought for my soul, fought to blood, to death, to the
death of the Crosse for her, having studied my soul so much, as to write all those Epi-
stles which are in the New Testament to my soul, having presented my soule with his
own picture, that I can see his face in all his temporall blessings, having shaved her head
in abating her pride, and pared her nails in contracting her greedy desires, and changed
her clothes not to fashion her self after this world, my soul being thus fitted by himself,
Christ Jesus hath maried my soul, maried her to all the three intendments mentioned
in the secular mariage; first, in ustionem, In ustionem. against burning; That whether I burn my self in
the fires of tentation, by exposing my self to occasions of tentation, or be reserved to
be burnt by others in the fires of persecution and martyrdome, whether the fires of am-
bition, or envy, or lust, or the everlasting fires of hell offer at me in an apprehension of
the judgements of God, yet as the Spirit of God shall wipe all tears from mine eyes, so
the tears of Christ Jesus shall extinguish all fires in my heart, and so it is a mariage, In
ustionem, a remedy against burning. It is so too, In prolem. In prolificationem, for children; first, væ soli, woe unto that single soul that
is not maried to Christ; that is not come into the way of having issue by him, that is
not incorporated in the Christian Church, and in the true Church, but is yet in the wil-
dernesse of Idolatry amongst the Gentiles, or in the Labyrinth of superstition amongst
the Papists, væ soli, woe unto that single man that is not maried unto Christ in the Sa-
craments of the Church; and væ sterili, woe unto them that are barren after this spiri-
tuall mariage, Ier. 22. 30. for that is a great curse in the Prophet Ieremy, Scribe virum istum sterilem,
write this man childlesse, that implied all calamities upon him; And assoon as Christ
had laid that curse upon the Fig-tree, Mat. 21. 19. Let no fruit grow upon thee for ever, presently the
whole tree withered; no fruit, no leafes neither, nor body left. To be incorporated in
the body of Christ Jesus, and bring forth no fruits worthy of that profession, is a wofull
state too. Væ soli, woe unto the Gentiles not maried unto Christ; and væ sterili, woe
unto inconsiderate Christians, that think not upon their calling, that conceive not by Christ;
21
Serm. III.
At a Mariage.
Christ; but there is a væ prægnanti too, Mat. 24. 19. wo unto them that are with child, and are never
delivered; that have good conceptions, religious dispositions, holy desires to the advance-
ment of Gods truth, but for some collaterall respects dare not utter them, nor bring them
to their birth, to any effect. The purpose of his mariage to us, is to have children by us:
and this is his abundant and his present fecundity, that working now, by me in you,
in one instant he hath children in me, and grand children by me. He hath maried me,
in ustionem, and in prolem, against burning, and for children; but can he have any use of
me, in adjutorium, for a helper? Surely, if I be able to feed him, and clothe him, and
harbour him, (and Christ would not condemne men at the last day for not doing these,
if man could not doe them) I am able to help him too. Great persons can help him over
sea, convey the name of Christ where it hath not been preached yet; and they can help
him home again; restore his name, and his truth where superstition with violence hath
disseised him: And they can help him at home, defend his truth there against all machi-
nations to displant and dispossesse him. Great men can help him thus; and every man
can help him to a better place in his own heart, and his own actions, then he hath had
there; and to be so helped in me and helped by me, to have his glory thereby advanced,
Christ hath maried my soul: And he hath maried it in æternum, for ever; which is
the third and last Circumstance in this spirituall, as it was in the secular mariage. And here the æternum is enlarged; In æternum. in the secular mariage it was an eternity conside-
red onely in this life; but this eternity is not begun in this world, but from all eternity
in the Book of life, in Gods eternall Decree for my election, there Christ was maried
to my soul. Christ was never in minority, never under years; there was never any time
when he was not as ancient as the Ancient of Days, as old as his Father. But when my
soul was in a strange minority, infinite millions of millions of generations, before my
soul was a soul, did Christ mary my soul in his eternall Decree. So it was eternall, it had
no beginning. Neither doth he interrupt this by giving me any occasion of jealousie by
the way, but loves my soul as though there were no other soul, and would have done
and suffered all that he did for me alone, if there had been no name but mine in the
Book of life. And as he hath maried me to him, in æternum, for ever, before all begin-
nings, and in æternum, for ever, without any interruptions, so I know, that whom he loves
he loves to the end, and that he hath given me, not a presumptuous impossibility, but a
modest infallibility, that no sin of mine shall divorce or separate me from him, for, that
which ends the secular mariage, ends not the spirituall: not death, for my death does
not take me from that husband, but that husband being by his Father preferr'd to
higher titles, and greater glory in another state, I doe but goe by death where he is be-
come a King, to have my part in that glory, and in those additions which he hath recei-
ved there. And this hath led us to our third and last mariage, our eternall mariage in
the triumphant Church. And in this third mariage, the persons are, 3d Part.
Persons. the Lamb and my soul; The mariage of
the Lamb is come, and blessed are they that are called to the mariage Supper of the Lamb, says
S. Iohn speaking of our state in the generall Resurrection. That Lamb that was brought Apoc. 19. 7, 9.
to the slaughter and opened not his mouth, and I who have opened my mouth and poured Esay 53. 4.
out imprecations and curses upon men, and execrations and blasphemies against God
upon every occasion; That Lamb who was slain from the beginning, and was slain by
him who was a murderer from the beginning; That Lamb which took away the sins of the
world, and I who brought more sins into the world, then any sacrifice but the blood of
this Lamb could take away: This Lamb and I (these are the Persons) shall meet and
mary; there is the Action. This is not a clandestine mariage, Action. not the private seal of Christ in the obsignation of
his Spirit; and yet such a clandestine mariage is a good mariage: Nor it is not such a
Parish mariage, as when Christ maried me to himself at my Baptisme, in a Church
here; and yet that mariage of a Christian soul to Christ in that Sacrament is a blessed
mariage: But this is a mariage in that great and glorious Congregation, where all my
sins shall be laid open to the eyseyes of all the world, where all the blessed Virgins shall see all
my uncleannesse, and all the Martyrs see all my tergiversations, and all the Confessors see
all my double dealings in Gods cause; where Abraham shall see my faithlesnesse in
Gods promises; and Iob my impatience in Gods corrections; and Lazarus my hard-
ness of heart in distributing Gods blessings to the poore; and those Virgins, and Mar-
22
At a Mariage.
Serm. III.
Martyrs, and Confessors, and Abraham, and Iob, and Lazarus, and all that Con-gregation, shall look upon the Lamb and upon me, and upon one another, as though
they would all forbid those banes, and say to one another, Will this Lamb have any
thing to doe with this soule? and yet there and then this Lamb shall mary me, In æter-
num, for ever, which is our last circumstance. It is not well done to call it a circumstance, In æternum. for the eternity is a great part of
the essence of that mariage. Consider then how poore and needy a thing, all the
riches of this world, how flat and tastlesse a thing, all the pleasures of this world,
how pallid, and faint, and dilute a thing, all the honours of this world are, when
the very Treasure, and Joy, and glory of heaven it self were unperfect, if it were not
eternall, and my mariage shall be too, In æternum, for ever. The Angels were not maried so; they incurr'd an irreparable Divorce from God,
and are separated for ever, and I shall be maried to him, in æternum, for ever. The
Angels fell in love, when there was no object presented, before any thing was created;
when there was nothing but God and themselves, they fell in love with themselves,
and neglected God, and so fell in æternum, for ever. I shall see all the beauty, and all
the glory of all the Saints of God, and love them all, and know that the Lamb loves
them too, without jealousie, on his part, or theirs, or mine, and so be maried in æter-
num, for ever, without interruption, or diminution, or change of affections. I shall
see the Sunne black as sackcloth of hair, Apoc. 6. 12. and the Moon become as blood, and the
Starres fall as a Figge-tree casts her untimely Figges, and the heavens roll'd up toge-
ther as a Scroll. I shall see a divorce between Princes and their Prerogatives, be-
tween nature and all her elements, between the spheres, and all their intelligences;
between matter it self, and all her forms, and my mariage shall be, in æternum, for
ever. I shall see an end of faith, nothing to be beleeved that I doe not know; and an
end of hope, nothing to be wisht that I doe not enjoy, but no end of that love in
which I am maried to the Lamb for ever. Yea, I shall see an end of some of the of-
fices of the Lamb himself; Christ himself shall be no longer a Mediator, an Interces-
sor, an Advocate, and yet shall continue a Husband to my soul for ever. Where I shall
be rich enough without Joynture, for my Husband cannot die; and wise enough with-
out experience, for no new thing can happen there; and healthy enough without Phy-
sick, for no sicknesse can enter; and (which is by much the highest of all) safe enough
without grace, for no tentation that need particular grace, can attempt me. There,
where the Angels, which cannot die, could not live, this very body which cannot
choose but die, shall live, and live as long as that God of life that made it. Lighten
our darkness, we beseech thee, ô; Lord, that in thy light we may see light: Illustrate
our understandings, kindle our affections, pour oyle to our zeale, that we may come
to the mariage of this Lamb, and that this Lamb may come quickly to this mariage:
And in the mean time bless these thy servants, with making this secular mariage a
type of the spirituall, and the spirituall an earnest of that eternall, which they and we,
by thy mercy, shall have in the Kingdome which thy Son our Saviour hath purchased
with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. To whom, &c. Serm.
23
Serm. IV.
At a Christning.
Sermon IV.
Preached at a Christning.
Revel. 7. 17.
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne, shall govern them, and shall
leade them unto the lively fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all teares from
their eyes. IFIf our conversation be in heaven, Phil. 3. 20. as the Apostle says his was, and if that
conversation be, (as Testullian reads that place) Municipatus noster, our
City, our dwelling, the place from whence onely we receive our Laws, to
which onely we direct our services, in which onely we are capable of ho-
nours, and offices, where even the office of a doore-keeper was the subject
of a great Kings ambition; if our conversation be there, even there, there cannot be
better company met, then we may see and converse withall in this Chapter. Upon those
words, doth the Eagle mount up at the Commandement, Iob 33. 30. or make his nest on high; S. Gre-
gory says, Videamus aquilam, nidum sibi, in arduis construentem; Greg. Moral.
31, 34. Then we saw an Eagle
make his nest on high, when we heard S. Peter say so, Our conversation is in heaven; and
then doth an Eagle mount up at our commandement, when our soul, our devotion, by such
a conversation in heaven, associates itself with all this blessed company that are met in
this Chapter, that our fellow ship may be with the Father, and with his Son Iesus Christ, 1 Iohn 1. 3. and
with all the Court and Quire of the Triumphant Church. If you go to feasts, if you goe
to Comedies, sometimes onely to meet company, nay if you come to Church sometimes
onely upon that errand, to meet company, (as though the House of God, were but as
the presence of an earthly Prince, which upon solemne Festivall days must be fill'd and
furnished, though they that come, come to doe no service there) command your Eagle to
mount up, and to build his nest on high, command your souls to have their conversation
in heaven by meditation of this Scripture, and you shall meet company, which no
stranger shall interrupt, for they are all of a knot, and such a knot as nothing shall unty,
as inseparably united to one another, as that God, with whom they are made one Spi-
rit, is inseparable in himself. Here you shall see the Angell that comes from the East, Rev. 7. 2. (yea, that Angel which is the
East, from whence all beams of grace and glory arise, for so the Prophet calls Christ
Iesus himself, Zecha. 6. 12. (as S. Hierome reads that place) Ecce vir, Oriens nomen ejus, Behold him,
whose name is the East) you shall see him come with the seal of the living God, and hold
back those Angels which had power given them to hurt the Sea, and the Earth, and
you shall hear him say, Rev. 7. 3. Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the
servants of our God in the foreheads. And as you shall see him forward, so you shall see
him large, and bountifull in imprinting that Seal, vers. 4. you shall see an hundred and forty four
thousand of the Tribes of the Children of Israel, and you shall see a great multitude, which
no man can number, of all Nations, verse 9. & 10. and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stand before the
Throne, and before the Lamb, and cry out, and say, Salvation commeth of our God, that sit-
teth upon the Throne, and of the Lamb: and you shall see all the Angels stand round about
the Throne, and about the Elders, verse 11. and the four Beasts, all falling upon their faces, and
worshipping God, saying, verse 12. Amen, praise, and glory, and wisdome, and thanks, and honour,
and power, and might be unto our God, for evermore, Amen. And this is good company,
and good Musique. And lest you should lose any of the Joy of this conversation, of this society, by igno-
rance what they were, one of the Elders prevents you; verse 13. and (as the Text says) answers
you, saying, what are these that are araid in white? he answers by a question, which is
somewhat strange; but he answers before any question, which is more strange: but God
sees questions in our hearts before he hears them from our lips; and as soon as our hearts
conceive a desire to be informed, he gives a full and a present satisfaction; he answers
before we ask; but yet he answers by a question, that thereby he may give us occasion
of farther discourse, of farther questioning with him. There, this Elder shall tell thee, that
24
At a Christning.
Serm. IV.
that those are they which are come out of the Tribulations of this world, verse 14. and have made
their Robes white in the blood of the Lamb, that therefore they are in the presence
of the Throne of God, that they serve him day and night in the Temple, that they
shall hunger no more, thirst no more, nor be offended with heat, or Sun; That is, as
many as are appointed to receive this Seal of the living God upon their foreheads,
though they be not actually delivered from all the incommodities of this life, yet nothing
in this life shall deprive them of the next. For as you see the Seal given in this Chapter,
and the promise of all these blessings annexed to it, so you see in this Text the reason
of all this, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall govern them, and
shall leade them unto the lively fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all teares
from their eyes. In which words, we shall consider for order and distincton, Divisio. first the matter, and
then the form: by the matter we mean the purpose and intention of the Holy Ghost in
these words; and by the form, the declaring, the proving, the illustrating, and the height-
ning of that purpose of his. For the matter; we take this imprinting of the Seal of the li-
ving God in the forehead of the Elect, vers. 3. and this washing in the blood of the Lamb, to be
intended verse 14. of the Sacrament of Baptisme: In that which we call the form, which is the illu-
strating of this, we shall first look upon the great benefits and blessings which these ser-
vants of God so sealed, and so washed, are made partakers of; for those blessings
which are mentioned in the verses before, are rooted and enwrapped in this particular
of this Text, Quoniam, for; they are blessed; for the Lamb shall doe this and this for
them; And then we shall consider what that is which this Lamb will doe for them; first,
Reget illos, He shall govern them, take them into his care, make them heirs of the Co-
venant, breed them in a visible Church: secondly, Deducet eos, He shall lead them to the
lively fountains of waters; give them outward and visible means of Sanctification; thirdly,
Absterget omnem lachrymam, He shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; even in this life
he shall settle and establish a heavenly joy in the faithfull apprehension of the joyes of
heaven here. First then to speak of the matter, Materia. that is of the purpose and intention of these words,
it is true, they are diversly understood: They have been understood of the state of the
Martyrs, which are now come to the possesion of their Crown in heaven, because they
are said to have made their long Robes white in the blood of the Lamb; verse 14. And so S. August.
Aug. and S. Gregory (when, by occasion of the subject which they were then in hand with, they
were full of the contemplation of Martyrdome, and encouragements to that) doe seem Gregor.
to understand these words, of Martyrs. But since it is not said, that they washed their
robes in their own blood, which is proper to Martyrs, but in the blood of the Lamb, which
is communicated to all that participate of the merit of Christ, the words seem larger
then so, and not to be restrained onely to Martyrs. Others have enlarged them farther
then so, beyond Martyrs: but yet limit them to the Triumphant Church; that because it
is said, that they are come out of great tribulation, and that they are in the presence of the
Throne of God, and that they shall hunger no more, they see no way of admitting these
perfections, in this life. But S. Paul saw a way, when he said of the Elect, even in this life,
God which is rich in mercy, Ephes. 2. 4. Convivificavit, conresuscitavit, considere fecit, he hath quick-
ned us, he hath raised us, he hath made us fit together in the heavenly places, in Christ Ie-
sus: That is, as he is our Head, and is there himself, and we with Christ Jesus, as we are
his Members; we are with him there too. In the same place where the Apostle says,
That we look for our Saviour from heaven, Phil. 3. 20. (there is our future, our expectation) he says
also, our conversation is in heaven, there is our present, our actuall possession. That is it
which S. Augustine Aug. intends, Dilexisti me Domine plusquam te; Lord thou hast loved me
more then thou hast loved thy self: Not onely that thou gavest thy self for me, that thou
didst neglect thy self to consider me, but whereas thou hadst a glory with the Father, be-
fore the world was made, thou didst admit a cloud, and a slumber upon that glory, and
staiedst for thy glory till thy death, yet thou givest us, (naturally inglorious, and misera-
ble creatures) a reall possession of glory, and of inseparablenesse from thee, in this life.
This is that Copiosa redemptio, Psal. 130. 7. there is with the Lord plentifull redemption; though that
were Matura redemptio, a seasonable redemption, if it should meet me upon my death-
bed, and that the Angels then should receive my soul, to lay it in Abrahams bosome, yet
this is my Saviours plentifull redemption, that my soul is in Abrahams bosome now whilest
25
Serm. IV.
At a Christning.
whilest it is in this body, and that I am already in the presence of his Throne, now when
I am in your sight, and that I serve him already day and night in his Temple, now when I
meditate, or execute his Commission, in this service, in this particular Congregation. Those words are not then necessarily restrained to Martyrs, they are not restrained to
the state of the Triumphant Church, they are spoken to all the Children of righteousnesse,
and of godlines; and godlinesse hath the promises of the life present, and that, that is to come.
1 Tim. 4. 8. That which involves all these promises, that which is the kernell, and seed, and marrow of
all, the last clause of the text, God shall wipe all teares from their eyes, those words, that
clause, is thrice repeated intirely in the Scriptures: When it is spoken here, when it is spo-
ken in the one and twentieth Chapter of the Revelation, and at the fourth verse, in both
places, it is derived from the Prophet Esay, 25. 8. which is an Eucharisticall chapter, a
Chapter of thanksgiving for Gods deliverance of his children, even in this world,
from the afflictions, and tribulations thereof, and therefore this text belongs also to
this world. This imprinting then of the seale in the forehead, this washing of the robes in the bloud
of the Lambe, Ambr. S. Ambrose places conveniently to be accomplished in the Sacrament of
Baptisme: for this is Copiosissima Redemptio, this is the most plentiful redemption, that that
be applied to us, not onely at last in Heaven, nor at my last step towards heaven, at my
death, nor in all the steps that I make in the course of my life, but in my first step into the
Church, nay before I can make any step, when I was carried in anothers armes thither, e-
ven in the beginning of this life; and so do divers of the later Men, and of those whom we
call ours, understand all this, of baptisme; because if we consider this washing away of
teares, as Saint Cyprian says, young children doe most of all need this mercy of
God and this assistance of Man, because as soone as they come into this world
Plorantes, ac flentes, nihil aliud faciunt, quam deprecantur, they beg with teares something
at our hands, and therefore need this abstersion, this wiping. For though they cannot tell
us, what they aile, though (if we will enter into curiosities) we cannot tell them what they
aile, that is, we cannot tell them what properly, and exactly Originall sin is, yet they aile
something, which naturally disposes them, to weep, and beg, that something might be
done, for the wiping away of teares from their eyes. And therefore though the other errors
of the Anabaptist be ancient, 1000. year old, yet the denying of baptisme to children, was
never heard of till within 100. years, and lesse. The Arrians, and the Donatists did rebap-
tize those who were baptized by the true Christians, whom they counted Heretiques; but
yet they refused not to baptize children: The Pelegians denied originall sin in children;
but yet they baptized them. All Churches, Greek, and Russian, and Ethiopique, howsoever
they differ in the body of the Church, yet they meet, they agree in the porch, in Limine
Ecclesiæ, in the Sacrament of baptisme, and acknowledge that it is communicable to all
children, and to all Men; from the child new borne to the decrepit old Man, from him
that is come out of one mothers wombe, to him that is going into another, into his
grave, Sicut nullus prohibendus à baptisme, Augustin. it a nullus est qui non peccato moritur in baptis-
mo, As baptisme is to be denied to none, so neither is it to be denied, that all, that are rightly
baptized, are washed from sin. Let him that will contentiously say, that there are some
children, that take no profit by baptisme, shew me which is one of them, and qui testatur
de scientia, testetur de modo scientiæ; If he say he knowes it, let him tell us how he knowes
that which the Church of God doth not know. We come now to the second part; in which we consider first, this firstword, 2. Part. quoniam, for,
which is verbum prægnans, a word that includes all those great blessings, which God hath
ordained for them, whom in his eternall decree, he hath prepared for this sealing and this
washing. Those blessings, which are immediately before the text, are, that in Gods purpose,
they are already come out of great tribulations, they have already received a whitenes by the
bloud of the Lambe, they are already in the presence of the throne of the Lambe, they have
already overcome all hunger, and thirst, and heat. Those particular blessings we cannot in-
sist upon; that requires rather a Comment upon the Chapter, then a Sermon upon the text.
But in this word of inference, for, we onely wil observe this: That though all the promises of
God in him, are Yea, and Amen, 2 Cor. 1. 20. certain, and infallible in themselves, though his Name, that
makes them be Amen, (Thus saith Amen, the faithfull and true witnesse) and therefore
there needs no better security, Revel. 3. 14. then his word, for all those blessings, yet God is pleased to
give that abundant satisfaction to Man, as that his reason shall have something to build D upon
26
At a Christning.
Serm. IV.
upon, as well as his faith, he shall know why he should beleeve all these blessings to be-long to them who are to have these Seales, and this washing. For God requires no such
faith, nay he accepts, nay he excuses no such faith, as beleeves without reason; beleeves he
knowes not why. As faith without fruit, without works, is no faith; so faith without a root,
without reason, is no faith, but an opinion. All those blessings by the Sacrament of Baptism,
& all Gods other promises to his children, and all the mysteries of Christian Religion, are
therefore beleeved by us, because they are grounded in the Scriptures of God; we
beleeve them for that reason; and then it is not a worke of my faith primarily, but
it is a worke of my reason, that assures me, that these are the Scriptures, that these
Scriptures are the word of God. I can answer other Mens reasons, that argue against
it, I can convince other men by reason, that my reasons are true: and therefore it is
a worke of reason, that I beleeve these to be Scriptures. To prove a beginning of the world, I need not the Scriptures; reason will evict
it forcibly enough against all the world; but, when I come beyond all Philosophy,
that for Adams fault six thousand year agoe, I should be condemned now, because
that fault is naturally in me, I must find reason, before I beleeve this, and my reason
is, because I find it in the Scriptures; Nascimur filii Iræ, and therefore, nisi renatus,
we are borne children of wrath, and therefore must be borne againe. That a Messias
should come to deliver Mankind from this sinne, and all other sins, my reason is,
the Semen mulieris, the seed of the woman, for the promise, and the Ecce agnus Dei, Be-
hold the Lambe of God, for the performance. That he should come, I rest in that,
The seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head; And that he is come, I rest in this,
that Iohn Baptist shewed the Lambe of God that taketh away the sinnes of the world.
That this merit of his should be applied to certaine Men, my reason is in the Semini
tuo, Gods Covenant, to Abraham, and to his seed; That we are of that number,
included in that Covenant to Abraham, my reason is, in spiritu adoptionis, the
spirit of adoption hath ingraffed us, inserted us into the same Covenant. When
my reason tells me that the Seale of that Covenant, Circumcision is gone, (I am
not circumcised, and therefore might doubt) my reason tells me too, that in
the Scriptures, there is a new Seals, Baptisme: when my reason tells mee, that af-
ter that regeneration, I have degenerated againe, I have fallen from those graces
which I received in Baptisme, my reason leades mee againe to those places of Scrip-
ture, where God hath established a Church for the remission and absolution of sinnes. If I
have been negligent of all these helpes, and now my reason beginnes to worke to my
prejudice, that I beginne to gather and heape up all those places of the Law,
and Prophets, and Gospell, which threaten certaine condemnation unto such sin-
ners, as I find my selfe to bee, yet if my reason can see light at the Nolo mor-
tem peccatoris, at the Quandocunque resipiscet; That God would not the death of a-
ny sinner, That no time is unseasonable for repentance: That scatters the clondsclouds
of witnesses againe; and so till my reason can tell me (which it can never doe)
that it hath found places in Scripture, of a measure, and finitenesse in God,
(that his mercy can goe no farther) and then of an infinitenesse in Man (that his sinne
can goe beyond God) my reason will defend me from desperation; I meane the
reason, that is grounded upon the Scripture; still I shall find there, that Quia,
which David delighted in so much, as that he repears it almost thirty times, in one
Psalm, 136. For his mercy endureth for ever. God leaves no way of satisfaction unperformed unto us; sometimes he workes
upon the phantasie of Man; as in those often Visions, which he presented to his
Prophets in dreames; sometimes he workes upon the senses, by preparing objects
for them; So he filled the Mountaine round about with horses, 2 Reg. 6. 17. and chariots,
in defense of Elisha; but alwayes he workes upon our reason; he bids us feare
no judgment, he bids us hope for no mercy, except it have a Quia, a reason, a foun-
dation, in the Scriptures. For God is Logos, speech and reason: He declares his will by
his Word, and he proves it, he confirmes it, he is Logos, and he proceeds Logically. It
is true, that we have a Sophistry, which as farre as concernes our owne destructi-
on, frustrates his Logique; If Peter make a Quia, a reason why his fel-
lowes could not bee drunke, Because it was but nine a Clocke, Act. 2. 15. wee can find Men
that can overthrow that reason, and rise drunke out of their beds; If Christ make
a
27
Serm. IV.
At a Christning.
a Quia, a reason against fashionall, and Circumstantiall christians, that doe sometimes some
offices of religion, Mat. 9. 16.
v. 17. out of custome, or company, or neighborhood, or necessity, because no
man peeceth an old garment with new cloth, nor puts new wine into old vessells, yet since S. Au-
gustine Augustin. says well, Carnalitas vetustas, gratia novitas, our carnall delights, are our old gar-
ments, and those degrees and beames of grace, which are shed upon us, are the new, we do
peece this old with this new, that is, long habits of sin, with short repentances; flames of
concupiscence, with little sparks of remorse; and into old vessells, (our sin-worne bodies) we
put in once a year, some drops, of new wine, of the bloud of our Saviour Christ Iesus, in the
Sacrament, (when we come to his table, as to a vintage, because of the season, and we re-
ceive by the Almanack, because it is Easter) and this new wine so taken in, breakes the ves-
sells, (as Christ speakes in that similitude) And his breaking shall be, Esay 30. 14. as the breaking of a
Potters pot, which is broken without pity, and in the breaking thereof is not found a shard, to
take fire at the hearth, nor to take water out of the pit; No way in the Church of God, to re-
paire that Man, because he hath made either a Mockery, or at best, but a Civill action of
Gods institution in the Church. To conclude this, all sin is but fallacy and Sophistry;
Religion is reason and Logique; The devill hides, and deludes, Almighty God demon-
strates and proves: That fashion of his goes through all his precepts, through all his pro-
mises, which is in Esay, Esay 1. 8. Come now, and let us reason together; that which was in Iob, is a-
bundantly in God, Iob. 31. 13. That he did not contemne the judgment of his servant, nor of his maid,
when they did contend with him. Nec decet Dei judicium quicquid habere affine tyrannidi, Basil. we
may not think that here is any thing in God, like a Tyran; and it is a Tyrannicall proceed-
ing, as to give no reason of his cruelties, so to give no assurance of his benefits; and there-
fore God seales his promises with a Quia, a reason, an assurance. Now much of the strength of the assurance, consists in the person, Persona. whose seale it is;
and therefore as Christ did, we aske next, Cujus inscriptio, whose Image, whose inscripti-
on is upon his seale, who gives this assurance? And it is the Lambe that is in the midst of
the throne; If it were the Lion, the Lion of the tribe of Iuda, is able to perform his promises:
but there are more then Christ, out of this world, that beare the Lion; The devill is a
Lion too, that seeketh whom he may devoure: but he never seales with that Lambe,
with any impression of humility; to a Lambe he is never compared; in the likenesse of a
lambe, he is never noted to have appeared, in all the Legends. It is the Lambe, that is in the midst, thereby disposed to shed, and dispense his spiritu-
all benefits on all sides; The Lambe is not immured in Rome, not coffined up in the ru-
ines, and rubbidge of old wals, nor thrust into a corner in Conventicles. The Lambe is in the
midst; & he is in the midst of the throne; though al his great, & glorious company be round
about him, one hundred and forty foure thousand Israelites, innumerable multitudes of all
Nations, Angels, and Elders, yet it is the Lambe, that is in the midst of them, and not they
that are about him, that sheds down these blessings upon us; And it is the Lambe, that is
there still, in the midst of the throne; not kneaded into an Agnus Dei, of wax, or wafer here,
not called down from heaven, to an Altar, by every Priests charme, to be a witnesse of
secrecy in the Sacrament, for every bloudy, and seditious enterprise, that they undertake;
It is Agnus qui est in medio Throni, the Lambe that is there, and shall be so, till he come
at last, as a Lion also, to devoure them, who have made false opinions of him to serve
their mischievous purposes here. This is the person then, that gives the assurance, that all these blessings belong to them
who are ordained to be so sealed, and so washed; this is he that assures us, and approves to
us, that all this shall be, first, Quia reget, because he shall govern them, secondly, Quia
deducet, because he shall lead them to the fountaines of waters; thirdly, Quia absterget,
because he shall wipe all teares from their eyes. First, he shall govern them; Reget. he shall establish a spirituall Kingdome for them in this world;
for to govern, which is the word, of the first translation, and to feed, which is in the se-
cond, is all one in Scriptures. Dominabitur gentium, he shall be Lord of the Gentiles; but
Rex Israelis, he shall governe his people Israel, as a King, by a certain, and a cleare law; So
that, as we shal have interest in the Covenant, as well as the Israelites, so we shal have in-
terest in that glorious acclamation of theirs; Unto what nation are their Gods come so neare
unto them, as the Lord our God, is come near unto us; what nation hath Laws, and ordinances so
righteous as we have? for in that Paul & Barnabas express the heaviest indignation of God
upon the Gentiles, Act. 14. 16. that God suffered the Gentiles to walke in their own ways; he shewed them
not his ways, he setled no church, no kingdome, amongst them, he did not govern them. D2 Except
2428
At a Christning.
Serm. IV.
Except one of those Eight persons whom God preserved in the Arke, were here to tell
us, the unexpressible comfort, that he conceived in his safety, when he saw that flood
wash away Princes from their thrones, misers from their bagges, lovers from their em-
bracements, Courtiers from their wardrobes, no man is able to expresse that true com-
fort, which a Christian is to take, even in this, That God hath taken him into his Church,
and not left him in that desperate, and irremediable inundation of Idolatry, and paganisme,
that overflowes all the world beside. For beloved, who can expresse, who can conceive
that strange confusion, which shall overtake, and oppresse those infinite multitudes of
Soules, which shall be changed at the last day, and shall meet Christ Jesus in the clouds,
and shall receive an irrevocable judgment, of everlasting condemnation, out of his
mouth, whose name they never heard of before, that must be condemned by a Judge, of
whom they knew nothing before, and who never had before any apprehension of torments
of Hell, till by that lamentable experience they began to learn it? What blessed meanes
of preparation against that fearfull day doth he afford us, even in this, that he governes
us by his law, delivered in his Church. The first thing, that the housholder in the parable, Mat. 21. 33. is noted to have done for his Vine-
yard was, Sepe circumdedit, he hedged it in. That, God hath done for us, in making us his
Church; Eccles. 10. 8. he hath inlaid us, he hath hedged us in. But he that breaketh the hedge, a Serpent
shall bite him, he that breaketh this hedge, the peace of the Church, by his Schisme, the old
Serpent hath bitten, and poysoned him, and shall bite worse hereafter: and if God, having
thus severed us, and hedged us in, have expected grapes, and we bring none, though we
breake no hedge here amongst our selves, that is, no Papist breaks in upon us, no Separatist
breakes out from us, we enjoy security enough, yet even for our own barrennes, God will
take away the hedge, Esay 5. 5. and it shall be eaten up, he will breake the wall, and it shall be troden down.
Surely, says the Prohet there, The Vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and
the Men of Iudah are his pleasant plant: Surely we are the Church, which God hath hedged
in; but yet if we answer not his expectation, certainly the confusion of the Gentiles, at
the last day, (when they shal say to themselves of Christ Nescivi te, dost thou condemne us,
and we know thee not?) shall not be so great, as our confusion shall be, when we shall hear
Christ say to us, whom he bred in his Church, Nesicio vos, I know not whence you are. Even
this, that the ill use of this mercy of having been bred in his Church, shall aggravate our
condemnation then, shewes the great benefit, which we may receive now by this Quod
regit nos, that he takes care of us in his Church; for how many in the world would have
lived ten times more christianly then we do, if they had but halfe that knowledge of
Christ, which we have? When he hath then brought us into his kingdome, Deducet. that we are his subjects, (for all the
heathen are in the condition of slaves) he brings us nearer, into his service; he gives us out-
ward distinctions, liveries, badges, names, visible markes in Baptisme: yea he incorporates
us more inseparably to himself, then that which they imagine to be done in the Church
of Rome, where their Canonists say, that a Cardinall is to incorporated in the Pope, he is so
made one flesh, and bloud with him, as that he may not let bloud without his leave, be-
cause he bleeds not his own, but the Popes bloud: But of us it is true, that by this Sacramçt
we are so incorporated into Christ, that in all our afflictions after we fulfill the sufferings
of Christ in our flesh, and in all afflictions, which we lay upon any of our Christian bre-
thren, our consciences hear Christ crying to us, Quid me persequeris? why persecutest thou
me? Christs body is wounded in us, when we suffer, Christs body is wounded by us, when
we violate the peace of the Church, or offend the particular members thereof. First then deducet, he shall lead them, it is not he shall force them, he shall thrust them, he
shall compell them; it implies a gentle, and yet an effectuall way, he shall lead them. Those
which come to Christianity, from Iudaisme, or Gentilisme, when they are of years of dis-
cretion, he shall lead them by instruction, by Catechisme, by preaching of his word, before
they be baptized, for they that are of years & are baptized, without the word, that is, with-
out understanding, or considering the institution, & vertue of baptisme, expressed in Gods
word, and so receive baptisme onely for temporall, and naturall respects, they are not led to
the waters, but they fall into them: and so, as a Man may be drowned in a wholsome bath,
so such a Man, may perish eternally in baptisme, if he take it, for satisfaction of the State, or
any other by respect, to which that Sacrament is not ordained, in the word of God. He
shall lead Men of years, by Instruction; and he shall lead young children in good company,
and with a strong guard, he shall lead them by the faith of his Church, by the faith of their
Parents, by the faith of their sureties and undertakers. He
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At a Christning.
He shall lead them; and then, when he hath taken them into his government; for
first it is Reget, he shall govern them, and then Deducet, that is, he shall lead them, in
his Church; and therefore they that are led to baptisme, any other way then by the Church,
they are misled; nay they are miscarried, misdriven, Spiritu vertiginis, Esay 19. 14. with the spirit of
giddinesse. They that joyne any in commission with the Trinity, though but as an as-
sistant, (for so they say in the Church of Rome, baptisme may be administred, Aquin. in the name
of the Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost, and the virgin Mary) they follow not, as Christ led
in his Church, Non fuit sic ab initio, it was not so from the beginning: for quod extra hos
tres est, totum Conservum est; though much dignity belong to the memory of the Saints
of God, yet whosoever is none of the three Persons, Basil. Conservus est, he is our fellow-ser-
vant: though his service lie above staires, and ours below, his in the triumphant, ours in the
militant Church, Conservus est, yet he, or she, is in that respect, but our fellow-servant, and
not Christs fellow-redeemer. Exod. 15. So also, if we be led to Marah, to the waters of bitternesse, that
we bring a bitter taste, of those institutions of the Church for the decency, and significa-
tion in Sacramentall things, things belonging to Baptisme, if we bring a misinterpretati-
on of them, an indisposition to them, an aversnesse from them, and so nourish a bitternes,
and uncharitablenesse towards one another, for these Ceremonies, if we had rather crosse
one another, and crosse the Church, then, crosse the child, as God shewed Moses, a tree,
which made those waters in the wildernesse sweet, when it was cast in, so remember that
there is the tree of life, the crosse of Christ Iesus, and his Merits, in this water of baptisme, &
when we all agree in that, that all the vertue proceeds from the crosse of Christ, the God of
unity and peace and concord, let us admit any representation of Christs crosse, rather then
admit the true crosse of the devill, which is a bitter and schismaticall crossing of Christ in
his Church: for it is there in his Church, that he leads us to these waters. Well then, Eos. they to whom these waters belong, have Christ in his Church to lead
them; and therefore they need not stay, till they can come alone, till they be of age
and years of discretion, as the Anabaptists say: for it is Deducet, and Deducet cos; gene-
rally, universally; all that are of this government, all that are appointed for the Seal,
all the one hundred and forty foure thousand, all the Innumerable multitudes of all Nations
Christ leads them all. Act. 2. 39. Be Baptized every one of you, in the name of Iesus Christ, for the re-
mission of sinnes; for the promise is made unto you, and your children. Now all promises
of God, are sealed in the holy Ghost; To whom soever any promise of God belongs,
he hath the holy Ghost; and therefore Nunquid aquam quis prohibere potest? Can any
Man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the holy Ghost, as well
as we? says S. Peter. And therefore the Children of the Covenant which have the promise,
Act. 10. 47. have the holy Ghost, & all they are in this Regiment, Deducet cos, Christ shall lead them all. But whither? Ad aquas. unto the lively, (says our first edition) unto the living, (says our last
edition) fountaines of waters; In the originall, unto the fountaines of the water of life:
now in the Scriptures nothing is more ordinary, then by the name of waters to designe
and meane tribulations: so, amongst many other, God says of the City of Tyre, Ezek. 16. 19. that he
would make it a desolate City, and bring the deep upon it, and great waters should co-
ver it. But then there is some such addition, as leads to that sense; either they are called
Aqua multæ, great waters, or Profunda aquarum, deep waters, or Absorbebit aqua, whirle-
pooles of waters, or Tempestas aquæ, tempestuous waters, or Aqua Fellis, bitter water,
(God hath mingled gall in our water:) but we shall never read Ier. 8. 14. fontes aquarum, fountaines
of waters, Ier. 2. 13.but it hath a gratious sense, and presents Gods benefits. So, they have for-
saken me the fountaine of living waters; So, the water, that I shall give, shall be in him, a
well of water, springing up unto everlasting life; and so, every where else, when we are Ioh. 4. 14.
brought to the fountaines, to this water, in the fountaine, in the institution, howsover
we puddle it with impertinent questions in disputation, however we foule it with our
sinnes, and ill conversation, the fountaine is pure; Baptisme presents, and offers grace,
and remission of sinnes to all. Nay not onely, this fountaine of water, but the greatest water of all, the flood it selfe,
Saint Basil Basil. understands, and applies to Baptisme, as the Apostle himselfe does, Baptisme
was a figure, of the flood, and the Arke, for upon that place, 1 Pet. 3. 21. The Lord sitseth upon the
flood, and the Lord doth remaine King for ever, Psal. 29. 10. he says, Baptismi gratiam Diluvium nomi-
nat, nam deles & purgat; David calls Baptisme the flood, because it destroyes all that was
sinfull in us; and so also he referres to Baptisme, those words, (when David had con-
D3 fessed
30
At a Christning.
Serm. IV.
fessed his sinnes) I thought I would confesse against my selfe my wickednesse, unto
the Lord; and when it is added, Surely in the flood of great waters, they shall not come near
him, peccato non appropinquabunt; says he, originall sinne shall not come neare him, that
is truly baptized; nay all the actuall sinnes in his future life, shall be drowned in this bap-
tisme, as often, as he doth religiously, and repentantly consider, that in Baptisme, when
the merit of Christ was communicated to him, he received an Antidote against all poy-
son, against all sinne, if he applied them together, sinne and the merit of Christ; for so
also he says, of that place, God will subdue all our iniquities, and cast our sinnes into the
bottome of the Sea, Hoc est, in mare Baptismi, Mic. 7. 19. says Basil, into the Sea of Baptisme: There
was a Brasen Sea in the Temple; 1 Reg. 7. 24. and there is a golden Sea in the Church of Christ, which
is Baptisterium, the font, the Sea, into which God flings all their sinnes, who rightly,
and effectually receive that Sacrament. These fountaines of waters then in the text, are the waters of baptisme: and if we
should take them also, in that sense, that waters signifie tribulations, and afflictions, it
is true too, that in baptisme, (that is, in the profession of Christ,) we are delivered over
to many tribulations; Luke 24. The rule is generall, Castigat omnes, he chastiseth all; The ex-
ample, the precedent is peremptory, Opertuit pati, Christ ought to suffer, and so enter in-
to glory: but howsoever waters be affictions, they are waters of life, too, says the text;
Though baptisme imprint a crosse upon us, that we should not be ashamed of Christs
crosse, that we should not be afraid of our owne crosses, yet by all these waters, by all these
Crosse ways, we goe directly to the eternall life, the kingdome of heaven, for they are
lively fountaines, fountaines of life. And this is intended, and promised, Absterget. in the last words, Absterget omnem Lachrymam,
God shall wipe all teares from our eyes; God shall give us a joyfull apprehension of hea-
ven, here in his Church in this life. But is this a way to wipe teares from the childes
face, to sprinkle water upon it? Is this a wiping away, to powre more on? It is the
powerfull, and wonderfull way of his working; for as his red bloud, makes our red soules,
white, that his rednesse, gives our rednesse a candor, so his water, his baptisme, and the
powerfull effect thereof; shall dry up, and wipe away Omnem Lachrymam, all teares from
our Eyes, howsoever occasioned. This water shall dry them up; Christ had many oc-
casions of teares; we have more; some of our owne, which he had not: we must weep
because we are not so good, as we should be: we cannot performe the law. We must
weepe, because we are not so good, as we could be; our free will is lost; but yet every
Man findes, he might be better, if he would: but the sharpest, and saltest, and smartest
occasion of our teares, is from this, that we must not be so good, as we would be; that
the profanenesse of the Libertine, the reproachfull slanders, the contumelious scandalls,
the scornfull names, that the wicked lay upon those, who in their measure desire to ex-
presse their zeale to Gods glory, makes us afraid, to professe our selves so religious as
we could find in our hearts to be, and could truly be if we might. Christ wept often in
contemplation of others; foreseeing the calamities of Ierusalem, he wept over the City.
comming to the grave of Lazarus, he wept with them, but in his owne Agony in the
garden, it is not said that he wept; If we could stop the flood of teares, in our afflictions,
yet there belongs an excessive griefe to this, that the ungodly disposition of other
Men, is a slacking of our godlinesse, of our sanctificationn too. Heb. 12. Christ Jesus for the joy that
was set before him endured the Crosse; we for the joy of this promise, that God will wipe
all teares from our eyes; must suffer all this, whether they be teares of Compunction, or
teares of Compassion, teares for our selves, or teares for others; whether they be Mag-
dalens teares, or Peters teares; teares for sinnes of infirmity of the flesh, or teares for
weaknesse of our faith; whether they be teares for thy parents; because they are impro-
vident towards thee, or teares for thy children, because they are disobedient to thee,
whether they be teares for Church, because our Sermons, or our Censures pinch you,
or teares for the State, that penall laws, pecuniary, or bloudy, lie heavy upon you, Deus
absterget omneni lachrymam, here's your comfort; that as he hath promised inestimable
blessings to them, that are sealed, and washed in him, so he hath given you security, that
these blessings belong to you: for, if you find, that he hath governed you, (bred you in
his visible Church) and led you to his fountaine of the water of life in baptisme, you may
be sure, that he will in his due time, wipe all teares from your eyes, establish the kingdome
of heaven upon you, in this life, in a holy, and modest infallibility. Serm.
31
Serm. V.
At a Christning.
Sermon V.
Preached at a Christning.
Ephes. 5. 25, 26, 27.
Husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church, and gave himselfe for it, that
he might sanctifie it, and cleanse it, by the washing of water, through the Word: That he
might make it unto himselfe a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, on any such
thing; but that it should be holy, and without blame. ALmightyAlmighty God ever loved unity, but he never loved singularity; God was
always alone in heaven, there were no other Gods, but he; but he was never
singular, there was never any time, when there were not three persons in
heaven; Pater & ego unum sumus; The father and I are one, says Christ:
one in Essence, and one in Consent; our substance is the same, and our will
is the same; but yet, Tecum fui ab initio, says Christ, in the person of Wisdome, I was
with thee, disposing all things, at the Creation. As then God seemes to have been
eternally delighted, with this eternall generation, (with persons that had ever a relation
to one another, Father, and Sonne) so when he came to the Creation of this lower
world, he came presently to those three relations, of which the whole frame of this
world consists; of which, (because the principall foundation, and preservation of all
States that are to continue, is power) the first relation was between Prince and Subject, Gen. 1. 28.
when God said to Man, Subijcite & dominamini, subdue and govern all Creatures; The
second relation was between husband and wife, when Adam said, This now is house of my 2.23.
bone, and flesh of my flesh; And the third relation was between parents and children, when
Eve said, that she had obtained a Man by the Lord, that by the plentifull favour of God, 4.1.
she had conceived and borne a sonne: from that time, to the dissolution of that frame,
from that beginning to the end of the world, these three relations, of Master and Ser-
vant, Man and Wife, Father and Children, have been, and ever shall be the materialls,
and the elements of all society, of families, and of Cities, and of Kingdomes. And
therefore it is a large, and a subtill philosophy which S. Paul professes in this place, to
shew all the qualities, and properties of these severall Elements, that is, all the duties
of these severall callings; but in this text, he handles onely the mutuall duties of the
second couple, Man, and Wife, and in that consideration, shall we determine this exer-
cise, because a great part of that concernes the education of Children, (which especi-
ally occasions our meeting now.) The generall duty, that goes through all these three relations, is expressed, v. 12. Subditi
estote invicem, Submit your selves to one another, in the feare of God; for God hath given
no Master such imperiousnesse, no husband such a superiority, no father such a sove-
rainty, but that there lies a burden upon them too, to consider with a compassionate
sensiblenesse, the grievances, that oppresse the other part, which is coupled to them.
For if the servant, the wife, the sonne be oppressed, worne out, annihilated, there is no
such thing left as a Master, or a husband, or a father; They depend upon one another,
and therefore he that hath not care of his fellow, destroys himselfe. The wife is to submit herselfe; and so is the husband too: They have a burden both,
There is a greater subjection lies upon her, then upon the Man, in respect of her trans-
gression towards her husband at first: Even before there was any Man in the world, to
sollicite, or tempt her chastity, she could finde another way to be false and treacherous
to her husband: both the husband, and the wife offended against God, but the husband
offended not towards his wife, but rather eate the Apple, Ne contristaretur delicias suas, Hier.
as S. Hierome assignes the cause, left by refusing to eate, when she had done so, he
should deject her into a desperate sense of her sinne. And for this fault of hers, her Sub-
jection was so much aggravated, Thy desire shall be subject to thy husband, and he shall rule
over thee. But if she had not committed that fault, yet there would have been a mu-
tuall subjection between them; as there is even in Nature, between both the other cou-
ples; for if Man had continued in innocency, yet it is most probably thought, that as there
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At a Christning.
Serm. V.
there would certainly have been Mariage, and so children, so also there would have
been Magistracy, and propriety, and authority, and so a mutuall submitting, a mutuall
assisting of one another, in all these three relations. Now, that submitting, of which the Apostle speakes of here; is a submitting to one
another, a bearing of one anothers burthens: what this submission is on the wives part,
is expressed in the two former verses; And I forbeare that, because husbands at home,
are likely enough to remember them of it; but in the duty, in the submitting of the
husband, we shall consider first, what that submitting is, and that is love, Husbands
love your wives; Even the love of the husband to the wife, is a burthen, a submitting,
a descent; and secondly, the patterne and example of this love, Even as Christ loved
his Church. In which second part, as sometimes the accessory is greater then the principall,
the Symptome, the accident, is greater then the disease, so that from which the comparison
is drawn in this place, is greater then that which is illustrated by it; the love of Christ
to his Church requires more consideration, then the love of the husband to the wife;
and therefore it will become us to spend most of our thoughts upon that; and to con-
sider in that, Quod factum, and Quis finis; what Christ did for his Church; and that
was, a bounty, which could not be exceeded, seipsum tradidit, he gave, he delivered
himselfe for it; And then, secondly, what he intended that should worke; and that was,
first, that he might make it to himselfe a glorious Church, and without spot and wrinkle,
in the Triumphant state of the Church at last; And then, that whilst it continues in a
Militant state upon Earth, it might have preparations to that glory, by being sancti-
fied and cleansed by the washing of water, through his Word; he provides the Church
meanes of sanctification here, by his Word, and Sacraments. Amor.First then De Amore maritali, of this contracting a Mans love to the person of a wife,
of one woman, as we find an often exclamation in the Prophets, Onus visionis, The
burden of my prophecy upon Nineveh, and Onus verbi Domini, The burden of the word
of God upon Israel, so there is Onus amoris, a burden of love, when a Man is appointed
Gen. 38. whom he shall love. When Onan was appointed by his father Judah, to goe in to his
brothers widow, and to doe the office of a kinsman to her, he conceived such an un-
willingnesse to doe so, when he was bid, as that he came to that detestable act, for which
God slew him. And therefore the Panegyrique, that raised his wit as high as he could, to
praise the Emperour Constantine, and would expresse it, in praising his continence, and
chastity, he expressed it by saying that he maried young; that as soon as his years en-
dangered him, formavit animum maritalem, nihil de concessu ætati voluptatibus admittens:
he was content to be a husband, and accepted not that freedome of pleasure, which his
years might have excused. He concludes it thus, Novum jam tum miraculum, Iuvenis
xorius; Behold a miracle, such a young Man, limiting his affections, in a wife. At
first the heates and lusts of youth overflow all, as the waters overflowed all at the begin-
ning; and when they did so, the Earth was not onely barren, (there were no Creatures,
no herbs produced in that) but even the waters themselves, that did overflow all, were
barren too; there were no fishes, no fowls produced out of that; as long as a Mans af-
fections are scattered, there is nothing but accursed barrennesse; but when God says
Gen. 1. 9. and is heard, and obeyed in it, Let the waters be gathered into one place, let all thy affecti-
ons be setled upon one wife, then the earth and the waters became fruitfull, then God
gives us a type, and figure of the eternity of the joyes of heaven, in the succession, and
propagation of children here upon the earth. It is true, this contracting of our affecti-
ons is a burden, it is a submitting of our selves; All States that made Lawes, and pro-
posed rewards for maried Men, conceived it so; that naturally they would be loth to doe
it. God maried his first couple, as soone as he made them; he dignified the state of
Mariage, by so many Allegories, and figures, to which he compares the uniting of Christ
to his Church, and the uniting of our soules to Christ, and by directing the first Miracle
of Christ, to be done at a Mariage. Many things must concurre to the dignifying of
Mariage, because in our corrupt nature, the apprehension is generall, that it is burden-
ous, and a submitting, and a descending thing, to mary. And therefore Saint Hierome
Hier. argues truly out of these words, Husbands love your Wifes, Audiant Episcopi, audiant
presbyteri, audiant doctores, subjectis suis se esse subjectos, let Bishops, and Priests, and
Doctors learne in this, that when they have maried themselves to a charge, They are be come
33
Serm. V.
At a Christning.
come subject to their Subjects. For, by being a husband, I become subject, to that sex
which is naturally subject to Man, though this subjection be no more in this place, but
to love that one woman. Love then, when it is limited by a law, is a subjection, but it is a subjection comman-
ded by God; Nihil majus à te subjecti animo factum est, quam quod imperare cœpisti; Plinius
Trajano.
A Prince doth nothing so like a subject as when he puts himselfe to the pain to consi-
der the profit, and the safety of his Subjects; and such a subjection is that of a Hus-
band, who is bound to study his wife, and rectify all her infirmites; Her infirmities he
must bear; but not her sins; if he bear them they become his own. The pattern, the
example goes not so far; Christ maried himself to our Nature, and he bare all our in-
firmities, hunger, and wearinesse, and sadnesse, and death, actually in his own person;
but so, he contracted no sin in himselfe, nor encouraged us to proceed in sin. Christ
was Salvator corporis, A Saviour of his body, of the Church, to which he maried v. 23.
himselfe, but it is a tyranny, and a devastation of the body, to whom we mary our
selves, if we love them so much, as that we love their Sin too, suffer them to goe on
in that, or if we love them so little, as to make their sin our way to profit, or prefer-
ment, by prostituting them, and abandoning them to the solicitation of others. Still
we must love them so, as that this love be a subjection; not a neglecting, to let them
doe, what they will; nor a tyrannizing, to make them doe what we will. You must love them then, first, Quia vestræ, because they are yours; As we said at
first, God loves Couples; He suffers not our body to be alone, nor our soule alone, Gen. 2. 20.
but he maries them together; when that's done, to remedy the væ soli, lest this
Man should be alone, he maries him to a help meet for him; and to avoid fornication,
(that is, if fornication cannot be avoided otherwise) Every Man is to have his wife, and 1 Cor. 7.1.
every woman her own husband. When the love comes to exceed these bounds, that
it departs à vestris, from a Mans own wife, and settles upon another, though he may
think he discharges himselfe of some of his subjection which he was in before, yet he
becomes much more subject; subject to houshold and forain Jealousies, subject to ill
grounded quarrels, subject to blasphemous protestations, to treacherous misuse of a
confident friend, to ignoble an unworthy disguises, to base satisfactions; subject,
lastly, either to a clamorous Conscience, or that which is worse slavery, to a sear'd and
obdurate, and stupefied Conscience, and to that Curse, which is the heavier because it hath
a kind of scorn in it, Be not deceived, (as though we were cousened of our souls) Be not de-
ceived, for no adulterer shal enter into the kingdom of heaven. All other things, that are ours,
we may be the better for leaving; Vade & vende, which Christ said to the yong Man,
that seemed to desire perfection, reached to all his goods; Goe and sell them sayes
Christ, and thou shalt follow me the better. But there is no selling, nor giving, nor
lending, nor borrowing of wives; we must love them Quia nostræ, because they are
ours; and if that be not a ty, and obligation strong enough, that they are Nostræ, ours,
we must love them Quia nos, because they are our selves; for no man yet ever hated v. 29.
his own flesh. We must love them then, Quia nostræ, because they are ours, those whom God Vxor.
hath given us, and Quia uxores, because they are our wives. Saint Paul does not bid
us love them here, Quanquam uxores, but Quia, not though they be, but because they are
our wives; Saint Paul never thought of that indisposition, of that disaffection, of that
impotency, that a Man should come to hate her, whom he could love well enough,
but that she is his wife. Were it not a strange distemper, if upon consideration of my
soule, finding it to have some seeds of good dispositions in it, some compassion of the
miseries of others, some inclination of the glory of God, some possibility, some interest
in the kingdome of heaven, I should say of this soule, that I would fast, and pray, and
give, and suffer any thing for the salvation of this Soule if it were not mine own soule, if
it were any bodies else, and now abandon it to eternall destruction, because it is mine
own? If no Man have felt this barbarous inhumanity towards his owne soul, I pray
God no man have felt it towards his own wife neither, That he loves her the lesse, for
being his own wife. For we must love them, not Quanquam, says Saint Paul, though
she be so; That was a Caution, which the Apostle never thought he needed, but Quia,
because in the sight of God, and all the Triumphant Church, we have bound our selves,
that we would do so. Here Mariages are sometimes clandestine, and witnesses dye, and in
34
At a Christning.
Serm. V.
in that case no Man can bind me to love her Quia uxor, because she is my wife, because
it lyes not in proofe, that she is so; Here sometimes things come to light, which were
concealed before, and a Mariage proves no Mariage, Decepta est Ecclesia, The Church
was deceived, and the poor woman loses her plea, Quia uxor, because she is his wife,
for it fals out that she is not so; but, if thou have maried her, in the presence of God,
and all the Court, and Quire of heaven, what wilt thou doe to make away all these wit-
nesses? who shall be of thy Councell to assign an Error in Gods judgement? Whom
wilt thou bribe to embezill the Records of heaven? It is much that thou art able to
doe in heaven; Thou art able, by thy sins, to blot thy name out of the book of life,
but thou are not able to blot thy wifes name out of the Records of heaven, but there
remains still the Quia uxor, because she is thy wife. And this Quia uxor is Quam-
diu uxor; since thou art bound to love her because she is thy wife, it must be as long
as she is so. You may have heard of that quinquennium Neronis; The worst tyran that
ever was, was the best Emperour that ever was for five years; the most corrupt hus-
bands may have been good at first: but that love may have been for other respects:
satisfaction of parents, establishing of hopes, and sometimes Ignorance of evill; that ill
company had not taught them ill conditions; it comes not to be Quia uxor, because
she is thy wife, to be the love which is commanded in this text, till it bring some sub-
jection, some burthen. Till we love her then, when we would not love her, except she
were our wife, we are not sure, that we love her Quia uxor, that is, for that, and for
no other respect. How long that is, how long she is thy wife, never ask wrangling Con-
troverters, that make Gypsie-knots of Mariages; ask thy Conscience, and that will tell
thee that thou wast maried till death should depart you. If thy mariage were made by
the Devill (upon dishonest Conditions) the Devill may break it by sin; if it were made by
God, Gods way of breaking of Mariages, is onely by death. It is then a Subjection, and it is such a subjection, as is a love; and such a love, as is
upon a Reason, (for love is not alwayes so.) This is; Quia uxor, because our wife, and
that implies these three uses; God hath given Man a wife, Ad adjutorium, ad sobolem,
ad medicinam; for a Help, for Children, and for a Remedy, and Physick. Now the
first, Society, and encrease, we love naturally; we would not be banish'd, we would
not be robb'd, we would not be alone, we would not be poor; Society and encrease,
every Man loves; but doth any Man love Physick? he takes it for necessity; but does
he love it; Husbands therefore are to love wives Ad Sobolem, as the Mothers of their
Children; Ad adjutorium, as the comforters of their lives; but for that, which is Ad
medicinam, for physick, to avoid burning, to avoid fornication, that's not the subject of
our love, our love is not to be placed upon that; for so it is a love, Quia mulier, because
she is a woman, and not Quia uxor, because she is my wife. A Man may be a drun-
kard at home, with his own wine, and never goe out to Taverns; A man may be an
adulterer in his wives bosome, though he seek not strange women. We come now to the other part, the pattern of this love, which is Christ Jesus: 2. Part.
we are commanded to be holy, and pure, as our Father is holy, and pure; but that's a
proportion of which we are incapable; And therefore we have another Commande-
ment, from Christ, Discite à me, learn of me; there is no more looked for, but that
we should still be Scholars, and learners how to love; we can never love so much as
he hath lov'd: It is still Discite; still something to be learnt, and added; and this some-
thing is, Quia mitis, learn of me, make me your pattern, because I am meek, and gen-
tle; not suspitious, not forward, not hard to be reconcil'd; not apt to discomfort my
spouse, my Church; not with a sullen silence, for I speak to her alwayes in my Word;
not apt to leave her unprovided of apparell, and decent ornaments, for I have allow'd
her such Ceremonies, as conduce to edification; not apt to pinch her in her diet; she
hath her two Courses, the first, and the second Sacrament: And whensoever she comes
to a spirituall hunger and thirst under the heat, and weight of sin, she knowes how, and
where there is plentifull refreshing and satisfaction to be had, in the absolution of sinne.
Herein consists the substance of the Comparison, Husbands love your wives, as Christ
did his Church: that is, expresse your loves in a gentle behaviour towards them, and
in a carefull providence of Conveniencies for them. The comparison goes no farther,
but the love of Christ to his Church goes farther. In which we consider first, Quid
factum, what Christ did for his spouse, for his Church. It
35
Serm. V.
At a Christning.
It were pity to make too much hast, in considering so delightfull a thing, as the ex Quid factū.-pressing of the love of Christ Jesus to his Church. It were pity to ride away so fast
from so pleasant, so various a prospect, where we may behold our Saviour, in the Act of
his liberality, Giving; in the matter of his liberality, Giving himselfe; and in the
poor exchange that he took, a few Contrite hearts, a few broken spirits, a few lame,
and blind, and leprous sinners, to make to himselfe, and his Spirit a Church, a house to
dwell in; no more but these, and glad if he can get these. First then, Ille dedit, He gave, it was his own act; as it was he, that gave up the Ille.
ghost, he that laid down his soule, and he that took it again; for no power of Man had
the power, or disposition of his life. It was an insolent, and arrogant question in Pilate
to Christ, Nescis, quia potestatem habeo, Knowest not thou that I have power to Crucifie
thee, and have power to loose thee? If Pilate thought that his power extended to Christ, Ioh. 19.10.
yet Tua damnaris sententia; qui potestate latronem absolvis, autorem vitæ interficis. His
own words and actions condemned him, when having power to condemn and absolve, Ambr. Serm. 20
in Ps. 119.v.4.
he would condemn the Innocent, and absolve the guilty. A good Judge does nothing,
sayes he. Domesticæ proposito voluntatis, according to a resolution taken at home; Ni-
hil meditatum domo defert, he brings not his judgement from his chamber to the bench,
but he takes it there according to the Evidence. If Pilate thought he had power, his
Conscience told him he misused that power; but Christ tels him he could have none,
Nisi datum desuper, Except it had been given him from above; that is, except Christ
had given him power over himselfe: for Christ speaks not in that place of Pilates ge-
nerall power and Jurisdiction, (for so, also, all power is Desuper, from above) but for this
particular power that Pilate boasts to have over him, Christ tels him that he could have
none over him, except himselfe had submitted himselfe to it. So, before this passage
with Pilat, Judas had delivered Christ; and there arose a sect of Heretiques, Judaists, Philaster.
that magnified this act of Judas, and said that we were beholden to him for the hast-
ning of our salvation, because when he was come to the knowledge that God had de-
creed the Crucifying of Christ for Mankind, Judas took compassion of Mankind,
and hastned their Redemption, by delivering up of Christ to the Iewes. But Judas
had no such good purpose in his hast; though our Jesus permitted Judas to doe it,
and to doe it quickly, when he said Quod facis fac citò. For out of that ground in the
Schooles, Missio in divinis est nova operatio in Creatura, When any person of the Iob. 13.27.
Aug.Tri-
nity, is said to be sent, that onely denotes an extraordinary manner of working of
that person: Saint Augustine sayes truly, that as Christ Misit seipsum, he sent himself,
and Sanctificavit seipsum, he sanctified himselfe, so tradidit seipsum; Judas could
not have given him, if he had not given himselfe; Pilate could not give him, Judas
could not give him; nay, if we could consider severall wils in the severall Persons
of the Trinity, we might be bold to say, That the Father could not have given him,
if he had not given himselfe. We consider the unexpressible mercy of the Father, in
that he would accept any satisfaction at all for all our Sinnes. We consider the un-
expressible working of the Holy Ghost that brings this satisfaction and our soules to-
gether; for without that, without the application of the Holy Ghost, we are as far
from Christ's love now, as we were from the Father's before Christ suffered. But the
unexpressible and unconceiveable love of Christ is in this, that there was in him a wil-
lingnesse, a propensnesse, a forwardnesse to give himselfe to make this great peace and
reconciliation, between God and Man; It was himselfe that gave himselfe; No-
thing enclined him, nothing wrought upon him, but his own goodnesse. It was then his Deed; and it was his gift; it was his Deed of gift: and it hath all
the formalities and circumstances that belong to that; for here is a seale in his blood; Dedit.
and here is a delivering, pregnantly implied in this word, which is not onely Dedit,
he gave, but Tradidit, he delivered. First, Dedit, he gave himselfe for us to his
Father, in that eternall Decree, by which he was Agnus occisus ab origine mundi, The
Lamb slain from the beginning of the world. And then Tradidit, he delivered pos-
session of himselfe to Death, and to all humane infirmities, when he took our Nature
upon him, and became one of us. Yea this word implies a further operativenesse, and
working upon himself, then all this; for the word which the Apostle uses here, for
Christ giving of himselfe, is the same word, which the Evangelists use still, for Judas
betraying of him: so that Christ did not onely give himselfe to the will of the Father, in
36
At a Christning.
Serm. V.
in the eternall Decree; nor onely deliver himselfe to the power of death in his Incar-nation, but he offered, he exhibited, he exposed, (we may say) he betrayed himselfe to his
enemies; and all this, for worse enemies; to the Jewes, that Crucified him once, for
us, that make sinne our sport, and so make the Crucifying of the Lord of life a Re-
creation.
Seipsum. It was a gift then, free, and absolute; Hee keeps us not in fear of Resumption; of
ever taking himselfe from the Church again; nay he hath left himself no power of Re-
vocation: I am with you, sayes he, to the end of the world. To particular men, he comes,
& he knocks, and he enters, and he stays, and he sups, and yet for their unworthinesse goes
away again; but with the Church he is usque ad consummationem, till the end; It is
a permanent gift; Dedit, and Dedit seipsum; It was he that did it; That which he did was
to give; and that which he gave, was himselfe. Now since the Holy Ghost, that is
the God of unity and peace, hath told us at once, that the satisfaction for our sins is
Christ himselfe, and hath told us no more, Christ entirely, Christ altogether, let us not
divide and mangle Christ, or tear his Church in pieces, by froward and frivolous dis-
putations, whether Christ gave his divinity for us, or his humanity; whether the divine
Nature, or the humane Nature redeemed us; for neither his divinity nor his humanity,
is Ipse, He himselfe, and Dedit seipsum, He gave himselfe: Let us not subdivide him
into lesse pieces, then those, God, and Man; and enquire contentiously, whether he
suffered in soul, as well as in body, the pains of Hell, as well as the sting of Death; the
Holy Ghost hath presented him unite, and knit together. For neither soul nor body
was Ipse. He himselfe, and Dedit seipsum, He gave himselfe; let us least of all shred
Christ Iesus into lesse scruples and atoms then these, Soul, and body; and dispute whe-
ther consisting of both, it were his active, or his passive obedience that redeemed us;
whether it were his death and passion onely, or his innocency, and fulfilling of the Law
too; let us onely take Christ, himselfe, for onely that is said, he gave himselfe, It must
be an Innocent person, and this Innocent person must die for us; seperate the Inno-
cency, and the Death, and it is not Ipse, it is not Christ himselfe: and Dedit seipsum, it
was himselfe. Let us abstain from all such curiosities, which are all but forc'd dishes of
hot brains, and not sound meat, that is, from all perverse wranglings, whether God,
or Man redeemed us; and then, whether this God, and Man suffered in soule, or in body;
and then whether this person, consisting of soule and body, redeemed us, by his action,
or by his passion onely; for as there are spirituall wickednesses, so there are spirituall
wantonnesses, and unlawfull and dangerous dallyings with mysteries of Divinity. Money
that is changed into small pieces is easily lost; gold that is beat out into leafgold, can-
not be coyned, nor made currant money: we know the Heathens lost the true God, in
a thrust; they made so many false gods, of every particular quality, and attribute of
God, that they scattered him, and evacuated him, to an utter vanishing; so doth true,
and sound, and nourishing Divinity vanish away, in those impertinent Questions. All
that the wit of Man adds to the Word of God, is all quicksilver, and it evaporates
easily. Beloved, Custodi Depositum, sayes the Apostle, keep that which God hath re-
vealed to thee; for that God himselfe cals thy Talent; it hath weight and substance
in it. Depart not from thy old gold; leave not thy Catechism-divinity, for all the School-
divinity in the world; when we have all, what would we have more? if we know that
Christ hath given himselfe for us, that we are redeemed, and not redeemed with cor-
ruptible things but with the precious blood of Christ Jesus, we care for no other know-
ledge but that, Christ, and Christ crucified for us; for this is another, and a more pe-
culiar and profitable giving of himselfe for thee, when he gives himselfe to thee, that
is, when he gives thee a sense, and apprehension, and application of the gift, to thy self,
that Christ hath given himselfe, to thy selfe. We are come now to his exchange; what Christ had for himselfe when he gave Pro Ecclesia.
himselfe; And he had a Church. So this Apostle, which in this place, writes to the
Act. 20. 28. Ephesians, when he preached personally to the Ephesians, he told them so too, The Church
is that Quam acquisivit sanguine suo, which he purchased with his bloud. Here Christ
bought a Church, but I would there were no worse Simony then this. Christ received
no profit from the Church, and yet he gave himselfe for it; and he stayes with it to
the end of the world; Here is no such Non-residency, as that the Church is left un-
served: other men give enough for their Church, but they withrawwithdraw themselves, and necessary
37
Serm. V.
At a Christning.
necessary provision; And if we consider this Church that Christ bought, and paid
so dearly for, it was rather an Hospitall, then a Church: A place where the blind
might recover sight; that is, Men borne in Paganisme, or Superstition, might see
the true God, truly worshipped: and where the lame might be established; that is,
those that Halted between two Religions, might be rectified in the truth: where the Deaf
might receive so quicke a hearing, as that they might discerne Musique in his Thunder, in
all his fearefull threatnings; that is, mercy in his Judgments, which are still accompa-
nied with conditions of repentance; and they might finde Thunder, in his Mu-
sique, in all his promises; that is, threatnings of Judgements, in our misuse of his
mercies. Where the hereditary Leper, the new borne Child, into whose marrow, his
fathers transgression, cleaves in originall sinne, and he that hath enwrapped Implicatos
morbos, one disease in another, in Actuall sinnes, might not onely come, if he would
but be intreated to come, yea compelled to come, as it is expressed in the Gospell,
when the Master of the feast sends into the streets, and to the hedges to Luke 14.21. compell blind
and lame to come in to his feast. A fountaine breaks out in the wildernesse, but that foun-
taine cares not, whether any Man come to fetch water, or no; A fresh, and fit gale
blowes upon the Sea, but it cares not whether the Mariners hoise saile or no; A rose
blowes in your garden, but it calls you not to smell to it. Christ Jesus hath done all
this abundantly; he hath bought an Hospitall, he hath stored it with the true balme
of Palestine, with his bloud, which he shed there, and he calls upon you all to come
for it, Esay 55.1. Hoe every one that thirsteth; you that have no money, come buy Wine, and Milke
without money: eate that which is good, and let your soules delight in fatnesse, and I
will make an everlasting Covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. This
Hospitall, this way, and meanes to cure spirituall diseases, was all that Christ had for
himselfe: but he improved it, he makes it a Church, and a glorious Church:
which is our last consideration, Quis finis, to what end, he bestowed all
this cost. His end was, that he might make it to himselfe a glorious Church, not having spot, or Quis finis.
wrinkle; but that end, must be in the end of all; here it cannot be: Augstin. Re-
trac. l. 1. c. 7. Cum tot a dicat
ecclesia, quamdiu hîc est, Dimitte debita nostra, non utique hîc est sine macula et ruga, Since
as yet the whole Church says, forgive us our Trespasses, the Church as yet is not with-
out spots or wrinkles. The wrinkles are the Testimonies of our age; that is, our
sinne derived from Adam; and the spots are the sinnes, which we contract our selves;
and of these spots, and wrinkles, we cannot be delivered in this world. And therefore
the Apostle says here, that Christ hath bestowed all this cost on this purchase, ut sisteret
sibi Ecclesiam, that he might setle such a glorious, and pure Church to himselfe: first,
ut sisteret, that he might setle it; which can onely be done in heaven; for here in
Earth, the Church will always have earthquakes. Oportet hæreses esse; stormes, and
schismes must necessarily be; the Church is in a warfare, the Church is in a pilgrimage,
and therefore here is no setling. And then he doth it, ut sisteret sibi, to setle it to
himselfe; for, in the tyranny of Rome, the Church was in some sort setled, things
were carried quietly enough; for no Man durst complaine; but the Church was set-
led all upon the Vicar, and none upon the Parson: the glory of the Bishop of Rome, had
eclipsed, and extinguished the glory of Christ Iesus. In other places we have seen the
Church setled, so as that no man hath done or spoken any thing against the government
thereof; but, this may have been a setling by strong hand, by severed discipline, and hea-
vy Lawes; we see where Princes have changed the Religion, the Church may be set-
led upon the Prince, or setled upon the Prelates, that is, be serviceable to them, and be
ready to promote and further any purpose of theirs, and all this while, not be setled
upon Christ: this purpose, ut sisteret sibi, to setle such a glorious Church, without
spot, or wrinkle, holy to himselfe, is reserved for the Triumphant time when she shall
be in possession of that beauty, which Christ foresaw in her, long before when he said,
Thou art all faire my love, and there is no spot in thee; and when we that shall be the Cant. 4.6.
Children of the Mariage Chamber, shall be glad and rejoice, and give glory to him, Apoc. 19.7. be-
cause the Mariage of the Lambe is come, and his wife hath made her selfe ready; that is,
we that are of that Church, shall be so clothed, as that our own clothes shall not defile
us againe; as Iob complaines that they doe, as long as we are in this world; for, though I
make me never so cleane, yet mine own clothes defile me againe, as it is in that place. E But
38
At a Christning.
Serm. V.
But yet, Beloved, Christ hath not made so improvident a bargaine, as to give so
great a rate, himselfe, for a Church, so farre in reversion, as till the day of Judge-
ment: That he should enter into bonds for this payment, from all eternity, even in the
eternall decree between the Father, and him, that he should really pay this price,
his precious bloud, for this Church, one thousand six hundred years agoe, and he should
receive no glory by this Church till the next world: Here was a long lease, here were
many lives; the lives of all the men in the world, to be served before him; But it is
not altogether so; for he gave himselfe, that he might settle such a Church then, a
glorious, and a pure Church: but all this while, the Church is building in heaven, by
continuall accesse of holy Soules, which come thither, and all the way he workes to
that end, He sanctifies it, and cleanses it, by the washing of water, through the word,
as we find in our Text. He therefore stays not so long, for our Sanctification, but that we have meanes
of being sanctified here; Christ stays not so long for his glory, but that he hath here
a glorious Gospell, his Word, and mysterious Sacraments here. Here then is the writing,
and the Seale, the Word, and the Sacrament; and he hath given power, and com-
mandement to his Ministers to deliver both writing, and Seale, the Word and Baptisme
to his children. This Sacrament of Baptisme is the first; It is the Sacrament of in-
choation, of Initiation; The Sacrament of the Supper, is not given but to them, who
are instructed and presum'd to understand all Christian duties, and therefore the Word,
(if we understand the Word, for the Preaching of the Word) may seeme more neces-
sary at the administration of this Sacrament, then at the other. Some such thing seems
to be intimated in the institution of the Sacraments. In the institution of the Supper, it
Mat. 26.26. is onely said, Take, and eate and drinke, and doe that in remembrance of me; and it is
onely said that they sang a Pslame, and so departed. In the institution of Baptisme there
Luke 11.19. is more solemnity, more circumstance; for first, it was instituted after Christs Re-
surrection, Mat. 28.18. and then Christ proceeds to it, with that majesticall preamble, All power
is given unto me in heaven, and in earth; and therefore, upon that title he gives power
to his Apostles, to joine heaven and earth by preaching, and by baptisme: but here
is more then singing of a Psalme; for Christ commands them first to teach, and then
to baptize, and then after the commandement of Baptisme, he refreshes that comman-
dement againe of teaching them, whom they baptized, to observe all things, that
he had commanded them. I speake not this, as though Baptisme were uneffectuall
Augustin. without a Sermon; S. Angustines words, Accedat yerbum, & fiat Sacramentum, when
the Word is joyned to the element, or to the Action, then there is a true Sacra-
ment, are ill understood by two sorts of Men; first by them, that say that it is
not verbum Deprecatorium, nor verbum Concionatorium, not the word of Prayer,
nor the word of preaching, but verbum Consecratorium, and verbum Sacramen-
tale, that very phrase, and forme of words, by which the water is sanctified,
and enabled of it selfe to cleanse our Soules; and secondly, these words are
ill understood by them, who had rather their children dyed unbaptized, then have
them baptized without a Sermon; whereas the use of preaching at baptisme is,
to raise the whole Congregation, to a consideration, what they promised by
others, in their baptisme; and to raise the Father and the Sureties to a con-
sideration, what they undertake for the childe, whom they present then to be
baptized; for therefore says Saint Augustine, Accedat verbum, there is a necessity
of the word, Non quia dicitur, sed quia creditur, not because the word is preached,
but because it is beleeved; and That, Beleese, faith, belongs not at all to the inca-
pacity of the child, but to the disposition of the rest; A Sermon is usefull for
the congregation, not necessary for the child, and the accomplishment of the Sa-
crament. From hence then arises a convenience, little lesse, then necessary, (in a kind) that
this administration of the Sacrament be accompanied with preaching; but yet they
that would evict an absolute necessity of it, out of these words, force them too much,
for here the direct meaning of the Apostle is, That the Church is cleansed by water,
through the word, when the promises of God expressed in his word, are sealed to us
by this Sacrament of Baptisme: for so Saint Augustine answers himselfe in that ob-
jection, which he makes to himselfe, Cum per Baptismum fundati sint, quare ser-
moni
39
Serm. VI.
At a Christning.
moni tribuit radicem. He answers, In Sermone intelligendus Baptismus, Quia sine Sermone
non perficitur. It is rooted, it is grounded in the word; and therefore true Baptisme,
though it be administred, without the word, that is, without the word preached, yet
it is never without the word, because the whole Sacrament, and the power thereof
is rooted in the word, in the Gospell. And therefore since this Sacrament belongs
to the Church, as it is said here (that Christ doth cleanse his Church by Baptisme)
as it is argued with a strong probability, That because the Apostles did baptize whole
families, therefore they did baptize some children, so we argue with an invincible
certainty, that becuasebecause this Sacrament belongs generally to the Church as the ini-
tiatory Sacrament, it belongs to children, who are a part, and for the most part, the
most innocent part of the Church. To conclude, As all those Virgins which were beautifull, were brought into
Susan, Ad domum mulierum, to be anointed, and perfumed, and prepared there for Esther 2.
Assuerus delight, and pleasure, though Assuerus tooke not delight, and pleasure in them
all, so we admit all those children which are within the Covenant made by God,
to the elect, and their seed, In domum Sanctorum, into the houshold of the faith-
full, into the communion of Saints: whom he chooseth for his Mariage day, that is,
for that Church which he will settle upon himselfe in heaven, we know not; but
we know that he hath not promised, to take any into that glory, but those upon
whom he hath first shed these fainter beames of glory, and sanctification, exhibited
in this Sacrament: Neither hath he threatned to exclude any but for sinne after.
And therefore when this blessed child derived from faithfull parents, and presented
by sureties within the obedience of the Church, shall have been so cleansed, by the
washing of water, through the word, it is presently sealed to the possession of that
part of Christs purchase, for which he gave himselfe, (which are the meanes of
preparing his Church in this life) with a faithfull assurance, I may say of it and to
it, Jam mundus es, Now you are clean through the word, which Christ hath Iohn 15. 3.spo-
ken unto you: The Seale of the promises of his Gospell hath sanctified, and clean-
sed you; but yet, Mandatus mundandus, says Saint Augustine upon that place,
It is so sanctified by the Sacrament, here, that it may be farther sanctified by the
growth of his graces, and be at last a member of that glorious Church, which he
shall settle upon himselfe, without spot, or wrinkle; which was the principall, and
finall purpose of that great love of his, whereby he gave himselfe for us, and made that
love, first a patterne of Mens loves to their wives here, and then a meanes to bring
Man, and wife, and child, to the kingdome of heaven. Amen. Sermon VI.
Preached at a Christning.
1 John 5. 7, 8.
For there are three which beare record in heaven; The Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost; and these three are one: And there are three which beare record in the
Earth; The Spirit, and the water, and the bloud; and these three agree in one. INIn great and enormous offences, we find that the law, in a well gover-
ned State, expressed the punishment upon such a delinquent, in that form,
in that curse, Igni & aqua interdicitor; let him have no use of fire, and
water, that is, no use of any thing, necessary for the sustentation of life.
Beloved, such is the miserable condition of wretched Man, as that we
come all into the world under the burden of that curse; Aqua, & igni interdicimur;
we have nothing to doe, naturally, with the spirituall water of life, with the fiery
beames of the holy Ghost, till he that hath wrought our restitution from this banish-
ment, restore us to this water, by powring out his owne bloud, and to this lively
fire, by laying himselfe a cold, and bloudlesse carcasse in the bowels of the Earth: till E2 be
40
At a Christning.
Serm. VI.
he who baptized none with water, direct his Church to doe that office towards us;
and he without whom, none was baptized with fire, perfect that Ministeriall worke
of his Church with the effectuall seales of his grace; for this is his testimony, the
witnesse of his love. Yea, that law, in cases of such great offences, expressed it selfe in another Male-
diction, upon such offenders, appliable also to us, Intestabiles sunto, let them be Inte-
stable. Now, this was a sentence, a Condemnation so pregnant, so full of so many
heavy afflictions, as that he, who by the law was made intestable, was all these ways
intestable: First, he was able to make no Testament of his owne, he had lost all his
interest in his owne estate, and in his owne will; Secondly, he could receive no pro-
fit by any testament of any other Man, he had lost all the effects of the love, and good
disposition of other Men to him; Thirdly, he was Intestable, so, as that he could
not testifie, he should not be beleeved in the behalfe of another; and lastly the
testimony of another could doe him no good, no Man could be admitted to speake
for him. After that first, and heavy curse of Almighty God upon Man, Morte mo-
rieris, If thou eate, thou shalt die, and die twice, thou shall die a bodily, thou shalt
die a spirituall death (a punishment which no sentence of any law, or law-maker could
ever equall, to deterre Men from offending, by threatning to take away their lives
twice, and by inflicting a spirituall death eternally upon the Soule,) after we have all
incurred that malediction, Morte moriemur, we shall die both death, we cannot
thinke to scape any lesse malediction of any law, and therefore we are all Intestabiles
we are all intestable, in all these senses, and apprehensions, which we have touch-
ed upon. We can make no testament of our owne; we have no good thing in us to dis-
pose; we have no good inclination, no good disposition, in our Will; we can make
no use of anothers testament; not of the double testaments of Almighty God; for
in the Old testament, he gives promises of a Messias, but we bring into the world
no Faith, to apprehend those promises; and in the New testament, he gives a per-
formance, the Messias is come, but he is communicable to us, no way but by bap-
tisme, and we cannot baptize our selves; we can profit no body else by our testi-
mony, we are not able to endure persecution, for the testimony of Christ, to the edi-
fication of others, we are not able to doe such workes, as may shine before Men,
to the glorifying of our God. Neither doth the testimony of others doe us any good;
for neither the Martyrdome of so many Millions, in the primitive Church, nor the
execution of so many judgments of God, in our owne times, doe restifie any thing
to our Consciences; neither at the last day, when those Saints of God, whom we
have accompanied in the outward worship of God here in the visible Church, shall
be called to the right hand, and we detruded to the left, shall they dare to open
their mouthes for us, or to testifie of us, or to say, Why Lord, these Men, when
they were in the world, did as we did, appeared, and served thee in thy house, as
we did, they seem'd to goe the same way that we did upon Earth, why goe they
a sinister way now in heaven? We are utterly intestable; we can give nothing; we
can take nothing; nothing will be beleeved from us, who are all falshood it selfe;
nor can we be releeved by any thing, that any other will say for us. As long, as we
are considered under the penalty of that law, this is our case; Interdicti, intesta-
biles, we are accursed, and so, as that we are intestable. Now as this great malediction, Morte marieris, in volves all other punishments,
(upon whom that falls, all fall) so when our Saviour Christ Jesus hath a pur-
pose to take away that, or the most dangerous part of that, the spirituall death,
when he will reverse that judgment, Aqua & igni interdicitur, to make us capa-
ble of his water, and his fire; when he will reverse the intestabiles, the intesta-
bility, and make us able to receive his graces by faith, and declare them by works;
then, as he that will reedifie a demolished house, begins not at the top but at
the bottome, so Christ Jesus, when he will make this great preparation, this great
reedification of mankind, he beginnes at the lowest step, which is, that we may
have use of the testimony of others, in our behalfe: and he proceeds strongly, and
effectually; he produces three witnesses from heaven, so powerfull, that they will
be heard, they will be beleeved; and three witnesses on earth, so neare us, so fa-
miliar
41
Serm. VI.
At a Christning.
miliar so domestique as that they will not be denied, they will not be discredi-ted; Three are three that beare Record in heaven, and three that beare record in
earth. Since then Christ Jesus makes us all our owne Iury, able to conceive, and judge
upon the Evidence, and testimony of these three heavenly, and three earthly wit-
nesses, let us draw neare, and hearken to the evidence, and consider three things;
Testimonium esse, Quid sit, and Qui testes. DivisioThat God descends to meanes propor-
tionable to Man; he affords him witnesse; and secondly, the matter of the proofe,
what all these six witnesses testifie, what they establish; Thirdly, the quality, and
value of the witnesses, and whether the matter be to be beleeved, for their sakes,
and for their reasons. God requires nothing of us, but Testimony: for Martyrdome
is but that; A Martyr is but a witnesse. God offers us nothing without testimony:
for his Testament, is but a witnesse. Teste ipso, is shrewd evidence; when God
says, I will speake, and I will testifie against thee; I am God, even thy God: when
Psal. 50. 7. the voice of God testifies against me in mine owne conscience. It is more preg-
nant evidence then this, when his voice testifies against me in his word, in his
Scriptures: The Lord testified against Israel, by all the Prophets and by all the Seers. 2. Reg. 17.13.
When I can never be alone, but that God speakes in me, but speakes against me;
when I can never open his booke, but the first sentence mine eye is upon, is a wit-
nesse against me, this is fearfull evidence. But in this text, we are not in that storme,
for he hath made us Testabiles, that is, ready to testifie for him, to the effusion of
our bloud; and Testabiles, that is, fit to take benefit by the testament, that hee
hath made for us, The effusion of his bloud; which is our second branch: what
is testified for us, what these witnesses establish. First then, that which a sinner must be brought to understand, and beleeve, by 2. Part.
Integritas
Christi.
the strength of these witnesses, is Integritas Christi; not the Integrity, as it signi-
fies the Innocency of Christ: but integrity, as it signifies Intireness, not as it is In-
teger vitæ, but Integra vita; not as he kept an integrity in his life, but as he onely,
is intirely our life. That Christ was a person composed of those two Natures, di-
vine, and humane, whereby he was a fit, and a full satisfaction for all our sinnes,
and by death could be our life: for when the Apostle writ this Epistle, it seemes
there had been a schisme, not about the Mysticall body of Christ, the Church,
but even about the Naturall; that is to say, in the person of Christ, there had
been a schisme, a separation of his two natures: for as we see certainly before the
death of this Apostle, that the Heresie of Ebion and of Cerinthus, (which denied
the divine nature of Christ) was set on foot, (for against them purposely was the
Gospell of Saint John written) so by Epiphanius his ranking of the Heresies, as
they arose, where he makes Basilides his Heresie, (which denied that Christ had a-
ny naturall body) to be the fourth herefie, and Ebions, to be the tenth, it seemes,
that they denied his humanity, before they denied his Divinity. And therefore it
is well collected, that this Epistle of Saint Iohn, being written long before his Gos-
pell, was written principally, and purposely against the opposers of Christs huma-
nity, but occasionally also, in defence of his divine nature too. Because there is
Solutio Iesu, a dissolving of Jesus, a taking of Jesus in peeces, a dividing of his
Natures, or of his Offices, which overthrowes all the testimonies of these six great
witnesses when Christ said, Solvite templum hoc, destroy, dissolve this temple, and in
three dayes I will raise it, he spoke that but of his naturall body; there was Solutio
corporis, Christs body and soule were parted, but there was not Solutio Iesu; the
divine nature parted not from the humane, no not in death, but adhered to, and
accompanied the soule, even in hell, and accompanied the body in the grave. And therefore, says the Apostle, Omnis spiritus qui solvit Iesum, ex deo non est, 1 Iohn 4.3.
(for so Irenæ us, and Saint Augustine, and Saint Cyrill with the Grecians, read
those words) That spirit which receives not Jesus intirely, which dissolves Jesus
and breakes him in peeces, that spirit is not of God. All this then is the subject
of this testimony; first that Christ Jesus is come in the flesh; 4.2. (there is a Recog-
nition of his humane nature) And then that this Jesus is the sonne of God; (there 5.5
is a subscription to his divine nature:) he that separates these, and thereby makes
him not able, or not willing to satisfie for Man, he that separates his Nature, or E3 he
42
At a Christning.
Serm. VI.
he that separates the worke of the Redemption, and says, Christ suffered for us
onely as Man, and not as God, or he that separates the manner of the worke, and says
that the passive obedience of Christ onely redeemed us, without any respect at all,
to his active obedience, onely as he died, and nothing as he died innocently, or he
that separates the perfection, and consummation of the worke, from his worke, and
findes something to be done by Man himselfe, meritorious to salvation, or he that
separates the Prince, and the Subject, Christ and his members, by nourishing Con-
troversies in Religion, when they might be well reconciled, or he that separates
himselfe from the body of the Church, and from the communion of Saints, for
the fashion of the garments, for the variety of indifferent Ceremonies, all these
do Solvere Iesum, they slacken, they dissolve that Jesus, whose bones God provided for,
that they should not be broken, whose flesh God provided for, that it should not see
Corruption, and whose garments God provided, that they should not bee
divided. There are other luxations, other dislocations, of Jesus, when we displace him
for any worldly respect, and prefer preferment before him; there are other wound-
ings of Jesus, in blasphemous oathes, and exerations; there are other maimings
of Jesus, in pretending to serve him intirely, and yet retaine one particular beloved
sinne still; there are other rackings, and extendings of Jesus when we delay him
and his patience to our death-bed, when we stretch the string so farre, that it cracks
there, that is, appoint him to come then, and he comes not; there are other dis-
solutions of Jesus, when men will melt him, and powre him out, and mold him up
in a wafer Cake, or a peece of bread; there are other annihilations of Jesus when Men will
make him, and his Sacraments, to be nothing but bare signes; but all these will be a-
voided by us, if we be gained by the testimony of these six witnesses, to hold fast
that integrity, that intirensse of Jesus, which is here delivered to us by this
Apostle. In which we beleeve first Iesum, a Saviour; which implies his love, and his will
to save us; and then we beleeve Christum, the anointed, that is God and man, able,
and willing to doe this great worke, and that he is anointed, and sealed for that
purpose; and this implies the decree, the contract, and bargaine, of acceptation by
the Father, that Pactum salis, that eternall covenant which seasons all, by which, that
which he meant to doe, as he was Iesus, should be done, as he was Christ. And then
as the intirenesse of Jesus is expressed, in the verse before the text, we beleeve, Quod
venit, that as all this might be done, if the Father and Sonne would agree, as all this
must be done, because they had agreed it, so all this was done, Quia venit, be-
cause this Jesus is already come; and that, for the father intirenesse, for the perfecti-
on, and consummation, and declaration of all, venit per aquam & sanguinem, He came
by water, and bloud. Bernard. Which words Saint Bernard understands to imply but a difference between the
comming of Christ, and the comming of Moses; who was drawen out of the water,
and therefore called by that name of Moses. But before Moses came to be a leader of
the people, he passed through bloud too, through the bloud of the Egyptian, whom
he slew; and much more when he established all their bloudy sacrifices, so that Moses
Heb. 9.18. came not onely by water. Neither was the first Testament ordained without bloud. O-
thers understand the words onely to put a difference between Iohn Baptist, and Christ:
because Iohn Baptist is still said to baptize with water: Because he should be declared to
Iohn 1.31. Israel; therefore am I come, baptizing with water: but yet Iohn Baptists baptisme had
not onely a relation to bloud, but a demonstration of it, when still he pointed to the
Lambe, Ecce Agnus, for that Lambe was slaine from the beginning of the world. So
that Christ, which was this Lambe, came by water, and bloud, when he came, in the
rituall types, and figures of Moses; and when he came in the baptisme of Iohn: for in
the Law of Moses, there was so frequent use of water, as that we reckon above fifty seve-
rall Immunditi as uncleannesses, which might receive their expiation by washing, with-
out being put to their bloudy sacrifies for them: And then there was so frequent use
Heb. 9.22. of bloud, that almost all things are by the Law purged with bloud, and without shed-
ding of bloud, is no Remission. But this was such water, and such bloud, as could not
perfect the worke, but therefore was to be renewed every day. The water that Jesus comes
43
Serm. VI.
At a Christning.
comes by, is such a water, as he that drinketh of it, shall thirst no more; nay there shall
spring up in him a well of water; that is, his example shall worke to the satisfaction of
others; (we doe not say to a satisfaction for others.) And then this is that bloud, that
perfected the whole worke at once, Heb. 19 12.19.12. By his own bloud entred he once into the holy place,
and obtained eternall Redemption for us. So that Christ came by water, and bloud,
(according to the old ablutions, and old sacrifices) when he wept, when he sweat,
when he powred out bloud; pretious, incorruptible, inestimable bloud, at so many
channels, as he did, all the while that he was upon the altar, sacrificing himselfe
in his passion. But after the immolation of this sacrifice, after his Consummatum est,
when Christ was come and gone for so much as belonged to the accomplishing of the
types of the old law, then Christ came againe to us by water and bloud, in that wound,
which he received upon his side, from which there flowed out miraculously true water, &
true bloud. This wound Saint Augustine calls Ianuam utriusque Sacramenti, the doore of Augustine.
both sacraments; where we see he acknowledges but two, and both presented in this wa-
ter, and bloud: and so certainely doe most of the fathers, make this wound if not the foun-
dation, yet at least a sacrament of both the sacraments. And to this water, and bloud doth
the Apostle here, without doubt, aime principally; which he onely of all the Evangelists
hath recorded; and with so great asseveration, and assurednesse in the recording there-
of, He that saw it bare record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith truth, Iohn 19.34.
that yee might beleeve it. Here then is the matter which these six witnesses must be be-
leeved in, here is Integritas Iesu, quæ non solvenda, the intirenesse of Christ Jesus, which
must not be broken, That a Saviour, which is Iesus, appointed to that office, that is
Christ, figured in the law, by ablutions of water, and sacrifices of bloud, is come, and
hath perfected all those figures in water, and bloud too; and then, that he remains
still with us in water, and bloud, by meanes instituted in his Church, to wash away
our uncleannesses, and to purge away our iniquities, and to apply his worke unto our
Soules; this is Integritas Iesu, Iesus the sonne of God in heaven, Jesus the Redeemer of
man, upon earth, Jesus the head of a Church to apply that to the end, this is Integri-
tas Iesu; all that is to be beleeved of him. Take thus much more, that when thou comest to hearken what these witnesses
shall say to this purpose, thou must finde something in their testimony, to prove him
to be come not onely into the world, but into thee; He is a mighty prince, and hath a
great traine; millions of ministring spirits attend him, and the whole army of Martyrs
follow the Lambe wheresoever he goes: Though the whole world be his Court, thy
soule is his bedchamber; there thou maist contract him, there thou maist lodge, and
entertaine Integrum Iesum, thy whole Saviour. And never trouble thy selfe, how another
shall have him, if thou have him all; leave him, and his Church to that; make thou
sure thine owne salvation. When he comes to thee, he comes by water and by bloud;
If thy heart, and bowels have not yet melted in compassion of his passion for thy soule,
if thine eyes have not yet melted, in tears of repentanc erepentance and contrition, he is not yet
come by water into thee; If thou have suffered nothing for sinne, nor found in thy
selfe a chearfull disposition to suffer; if thou have found no wresting in thy selfe, no
resistance of Concupiscences, he that comes not to set peace, but to kindle this war,
is not yet come into thee, by bloud. Christ can come by land, by purchases, by Revenues,
by temporall blessings, for so he did still convey himselfe to the Jewes, by the blessing
of the land of promise, but here he comes by water, by his owne passion, by his sacra-
ments, by thy tears: Christ can come in a mariage and in Musique, for so he delivers
himselfe to the spouse in the Canticles; but here he comes in bloud; which com-
ming in water, and bloud (that is, in meanes for the salvation of our soules, here in
the militant Church) is the comming that he stands upon and which includes all the
Christian Religion; and therefore he proves that comming to them, by these three
great witnesses in heaven, and three in earth. For there are three which beare record in
heaven; The Father, the word, and the holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are
three which bear record in the earth; The spirit, and the water, and the bloud, and these
three agree in one. By the mouth of two, or three witnesses every word shall be confirmed, says Christ out of 2 Part.
Mat. 18. 16.
the law. That's as much as can be required, in any Civill, or Criminall businesse; and
yet Christ gives more testimony of himselfe, for here he produces not Duos testes, but
44
At a Christning.
Serm. VI.
but Duas Classes; two rankes of witnesses; and the fullest number of each, not two, but
three in heaven, and three in earth. And such witnesses upon earth, as are omni ex-
ceptione majores, without all exception. It is not the testimony of earthly men; for
when Saint Paul produces them in abundance, (The Patriarch, the Judges, the Prophets,
the elders of the old times; of whom he exhibits an exact Catalogue,) yet he calls
Heb. 11. all them but Nubes testium cloudes of witnesses; for though they be cloudes in Saint
Heb. 12. Chrysostomes sense, (that they invest us, and enwrap us, and so defend us from all
diffidence in God,) (we have their witnesse what God did for them, why should we
doubt of the like?) though they be cloudes in Athanasius sense, they being in heaven,
showre downe by their prayers, the dew of Gods grace upon the Church; Though
they be cloudes, they are but cloudes; some darkenesse mingled in them, some contro-
versies arising from them; but his witnesses here, are Lux inaccessibilis, that light, that
no eye can attaine to, and Pater Luminum, the father of lights, from whom all these
testimonies are derived. When God imployed a man, to be the witnesse of Christ,
because men might doubt of his testimony, God was content to assigne him his Compur-
gators; Mat. 3.3 when Iohn Baptist must preach, that the kingdome of God, was at hand, God
fortifies the testimony of his witnesse, then, Hic enim est, for this is he of whom that
is spoken by the prophet Esay; Mar. 1.2. and lest one were not enough, he multiplies them, as it is
written, in the prophets. Iohn Baptist might be thought to testifie as a man, and there-
fore men must testifie for him; but these witnesses are of a higher nature; these of
heaven are the Trinity, and those of earth, are the sacraments and seales of the Church.
The prophets were full of favor with God, Abraham full of faith, Stephen full of
the Holy Ghost, many full of grace, and Iohn Baptist a prophet, and more then a prophet,
yet never any prophet, never any man, how much soever interessed in the favor of
Almighty God was such an instrument of grace, as a sacrament or as Gods seales
and institutions in his Church: and the least of these six witnesses, is of that nature,
and therefore might be beleeved without more witnesses. 3 In Cælis.To speake then first of the three first, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, it was
but a poore plot of the devill, to goe about to rob us, of their testimony; for as long
as we have the three last, the spirit, the water, and bloud, we have testimony enough of
Christ, because God is involved in his ordinance; and though he be not tyed to the
worke of the Sacrament, yet he is always present in it. Yet this plot, the devill had up-
on the Church: And whereas this first Epistle of Saint Iohn was never doubted to be
Canonicall, (whereas both the other have been called into some question) yet in this
first Epistle, the first verse of this text, was for a long time removed, or expung'd,
whether by malice of Heretiques, or negligence of transcribers. The first Translation
of the new testament, (which was into Syriaque) hath not this verse; That which was
first called Vulgata editio, had it not, neither hath Luther it in his Germane translation:
very many of the Latine Fathers have it not; and some very ancient Greeke Fathers
want it, though more ancient then they, have it; for Athanasius in the Councell of
Nice cites it, and makes use of it; and Cyprian, beheaded before that Councell, hath
it too. But now, he that is one of the witnesses himselfe, the Holy Ghost, hath assured
the Church, that this verse belongs to the Scripture; and therefore it becomes us to
consider thankfully, and reverently, this first ranke of witnesses, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost Pater. The Father then hath testified De integritate Christi, of this intirenesse, that Christ
should be all this and doe all this, which we have spoken of, abundantly: he begunne
Mat:Mat. 1.21. before Christ was borne; in giving his name, Thou shalt call his name Iesus: for he shall
save his people from sin. Well; how shall this person be capable to doe this office of
saving his people from sinne? Why, in him, says God the father, (in the representati-
23. on of an Angell) shall be fulfilled that prophecy, A virgin shall beare a Sonne, and they
shall call his name Emanuel, which is by interpretation God with us: This seemes some-
what an incertaine testimony, of a Man, with an Aliàs dictus, with two names. God
says he shall be called Iesus, that the prophecy may be fulfilled which says he shall be
called Emanuel: but therein consists, Integritas Christi, this intirenesse; he could not be
Jesus, not a Saviour, except he were Emanuel, God with us, God in our nature. Here
then is Jesus, a Saviour, a Saviour that is God, and Man, but where is the Testimony
De Christo; that he was anointed, and prepared for this sacrifice; that this worke of his
45
Serm. VI.
At a Christning.
his was contracted between the Father, and him, and acceptable to him? It is twice
testified by the Father; both in Christs act of humiliation, when he would be Bapti-
zed by Iohn; when he would accept an ablution, who had no uncleannesse, then God
says, This is my beloved Sonne, in whom I am well pleased, he was well pleased in his Mat. 3. ult.
person, and he was well pleased, in his act, in his office. And he testifies it againe in his
first act of glory, in his transfiguration; where the Father repeates the same words with
an addition, Heare him: God is pleased in him, and would have Men pleased in him Mat. 17.5.
too. He testified first, onely for Josephs sake. that had entertained, and lodged some
scrupulous suspition against his wife, the Blessed Virgine; His second testimony at
the baptisme, had a farther extent; for that was for the confirmation of Iohn Baptist,
of the preacher himselfe, who was to convey his doctrine to many others; His third
testimony in the transfiguration, was larger then the Baptisme; for that satisfied three,
and three such as were to carry it farre, Peter, and James, and John: All which no
doubt made the same use of his testimony, as we see Peter did, who preached out of
the strength of his manifestation, we followed not deceivable fables, 2 Pet. 1.16. but with our owne
eyes we saw his Majesty; for he received of God the Father, honor, and glory, when
there came such a voice to him, from the Excellent glory, This is my beloved Sonne, in
whom I am well pleased. But yet the Father gave a more free, a more liberall testimo-
ny of him, then this, at his Conception, or Baptisme, or Transfiguration: when upon
Christs prayer, Father glorifie thy Name, there came a voice from heaven, Iohn 19.28. I have
both glorified it and will glorifie it againe. For this all the people apprehended; some
imputed it to Thunder, some to an Angel; but all heard it; and all heard Christs
comment upon it, That that voice came not for him, but for their sakes; so that when
the Father had testified of a Jesus, a Saviour, and a Christ, a Saviour sent to that pur-
pose, and a Sonne in whom he is pleased, and whom we must heare, when it is said of
him, moreover, Gratificavit nos in Dilecto, he hath made us accepted in his beloved, Ephes. 1.6
this is his way of comming in water, and bloud, that is, in the sacraments of the Church,
by which we have assurance of being accepted by him; and this is this Integritas
Christi, the intirenesse of Christ, testified by our first witnesse, that bears record in
heaven, The father. The second witnesse in heaven, is verbum, The Word: and that is a welcome message, Verbum,
Esa. 9. 8.
for it is Christ himselfe: It is not so when the Lord sends a word; The Lord sent a word
unto Iacob, and it lighted upon Israel; there the word is a judgement, and an execution
of the Judgement: for that word, that signifies, a word there, in the same letters ex-
actly signifies, a pestilence, a Calamity; It is a word, and a blow; but the word here,
is verbum caro, that Word which for our sakes was made our selves. The word then
in this place, is the second person in the Trinity, Christ Iesus, who in this Court of
heaven, where there is no corruption, no falsification, no passion, but fair and just
proceeding, is admitted to be a witnesse in his owne cause; It is Iesus, that testifies
for Iesus now, when he was upon earth, and said, If I should beare witnesse of my selfe,
my witnesse were not true, whether we take those words to be spoken, per Conniventiam,
by an allowance, and concession, (It is not true, that is, I am content that you should
not beleeve my witnesse of my selfe to be true) (as Saint Cyrill understand them) or
whether we take them, Humano more, that Christ as a man, acknowledged truely, and
as he thought, that in legall proceeding a mans owne testimony ought not to be be-
leeved in his owne behalfe, (as Athanasius and Saint Ambrose understand them) yet
Christ might safely say as he did, Iohn 8.14. Though I beare a record of my selfe, yet my record is
true; why? because I know whence I come, and whither I goe. Christ could not
be Singularis testis, a single witnesse; He was alwayes more then one witnesse, because
he had alwayes more then one nature; God and man; and therefore Christ instruct-
ing Nicodemus, speakes plurally, we speake, that we know, we testifie that we have seene, and Iohn 3. 11.
you receive not Testimonium nostrum, our witnesse; he does not say my witnesse, but ours,
because although a singular, yet he was a plurall person too. His testimony then was credible; but how did he testifie Integritatem, this intirenesse,
all that belonged to our faith? All consists in this, that he was Jesus, capable in his na-
ture, to be a Saviour; that he was Christus, ordained, and sent for that office, and
then Quod venit, that be was come, and come, in aqua & sanguine, in water and
bloud, in sacraments, which might apply him to us. That he was Iesus a person capable,
46
At a Christning.
Serm. VI.
capable, his miracles testified aloud and frequently: that he was Christ, anointed, and
sent for that, his reference of all his actions to his Father testified; both these were
enwrapped in that, that he was the Sonne of God; and that he professed himselfe upon
the earth to be so; for so it appeares plainely, that he had plainely done: We have a
law, Iohn 9.7. say the Jews to Pilate, and by our law, he ought to die, because he made himselfe the
Sonne of God. And for the last part, that he came In aqua & sanguine, in water, and bloud,
in such meanes, as were to continue in the Church, for our spirituall reparation, and su-
stentation, he testified that, in preaching so piercing Sermons, in instituting so powerfull
Sacraments, in assuring us, that the love of God expressed to mankind in him, extended
Iohn 3.16. to all persons, and all times, God so loved the world, that he gave his onely begotten Sonne,
that whoseever beleeveth in him, should not perish, but have life everlasting. And so the
words beare record, De Integritate, of this Intirenesse, of the whole worke of our Re-
demption: and therefore, Christ is not onely truely called a Martyr, in that sense, as
Martyr signifies a witnesse, but he is truly called a Martyr, in that sense, as we use the word
ordinarily; for he testified this truth, and suffered for the testimony of it: and there-
Apoc. 1.5. fore he is called Jesus Christ, Martyr, a faithfull witnesse. And there is Martyrium, a
Martyrdome attributed to him, where it is said, Jesus Christ under Pontius Pilate,
Tim. 6.13. witnessed a good confession; so he was a speaking, and a doing, and a suffering
witnesse. Spiritus
sanctus. Now for the third witnesse in heaven, which is the holy Ghost; we may contract
our selves in that; for the whole work was his; Before Joseph and Mary came toge-
Mat. 1.18. ther, she was found with Child of the holy Ghost: which (if we take it, as Saint Basil,
and divers others of the Fathers doe) that Joseph found it, by the holy Ghost, that
v. 20. is, the holy Ghost informed him of it, then here the holy Ghost was a witnesse to
Joseph, of this Conception: but we rather take it (as it is most ordinarily taken) that
the Angell intimated this to Joseph, That that which was conceived in her, was of the
holy Ghost; and then the holy Ghost did so primarily testifie, this decree of God,
to send a Iesus, and a Christ, for our Redemption, that himselfe was a blessed and
bountifull actor in that Conception, he was conceived by him, by his overshadowing.
So that the holy Ghost did not onely testifie his comming, but he brought him: And
then, for his comming in Aqua & sanguine, in water and bloud, that is, in Sacraments, in
meanes, by which he might be able to make his comming usefull, and appliable to us,
first the holy Ghost, was a pregnant witnesse of that, at his Baptisme; for the holy
Ghost had told Iohn Baptist before-hand, That upon whomsoever he should descend, and
tarry still, Iohn 1.31. that should be he, that should baptize with the holy Ghost: and then according
to those Markes, he did descend, and tarry still upon Christ Jesus, in his baptisme. And
after this falling upon him, and tarrying upon him, (which testified his power) in all his
life, expressed in his doctrine, and in his Sermons, after his death, and Resurrection, and
Ascension, the holy Ghost gave a new testimony, when he fell upon the Apostles in
Cloventongues, and made them spirituall channells, in which this water and bloud, the
meanes of applying Christ to us, should be convey'd to all Nations; and thus also the
third witnesse in heaven, testified De integritate, of this intirenesse of Jesus. 3. Vnum. Of these three witnesses then, which are of heaven, we shall need to adde no more,
but that which the text addes, that is, That these three are one; that is, not onely one
in Consent, (they all testifie of one point, they all speake to one Intergatory; Ad in-
tegritatem Christi, to prove this intirenesse of Christ;) but they are Vnum Essentia,
The Father, the Sonne, and the holy Ghost are all one Godhead, and so meant and in-
tended to be in this place. And therefore as Saint Hierome complained, when some
Copies were without this seventh verse, that thereby we had lost a good argument for
the unity of the three Persons, because this verse said plainely that the three witnesses
were all one, so I am sorry, when I see any of our later expositors deny, that in this place,
there is any proofe, of such an unity, but that this Vnum sunt, (They are one) is onely
an unity of consent, and not of essence. It is an unthrifty prodigality (howsoever we
be abundantly provided with arguments, from other places of Scriptures, to prove this
Vnity in Trinity) to cast away so strong an argument, against Jew, and Turke, as is in
these words, for that, and for the consubstantiality of Christ, which was the Tempest,
and the Earthquake of the Primitive Church, raised by Arius; and his followers then,
and (God knowes) not extinguished yet. Thus
47
Serm. VI.
At a Christning.
Thus much I adde of these three witnesses, that though they be in heaven, their
testimony is upon the earth; for they need not to testifie to one another, this matter
of Jesus: The Father heares of it every day, by the continuall intercession of Christ
Jesus: The Sonne feeles it every day; in his new crucifying by our sinnes, and in the
perfecution of his Mysticall body here: The holy Ghost hath a bitter sense of it, in
our sinnes against the holy Ghost, and he hath a loving sense of it, in those abundant
seas of graces, which flow continually from him upon us; They need no witnesses in
heaven; but these three witnesses testifie all this, to our Consciences. And therefore
the first author, that is observed to have read, and made use of this seventh verse
(which was one of the first Bishops of Rome) he reads the words thus, Tres in nobis, Higinus.
there are three in us, which beare witnesse in heaven; they testifie for our sakes, and
to establish our assurance, De Integritate Jesu; that Jesus is come, and come with
meanes, to save the world, and to save us. And therefore upon these words, Saint
Bernard collects thus much more, that there are other witnesses in heaven, which Bernard.
testifie this worke of our Redemption, Angels, and Saints, all the Court, all the Quire
of heaven testifie it; but cæ tera nobis occulta, says he, what all they doe we know not:
but (according to the best dispositions here in this world) we acquaint our selves, and
we choose to keep company with the best, and so not onely the poore Church upon
the earth, but every poore soule in the Church, may heare all these three witnesses
testifying to him, Integrum Jesum suum, that all, which Christ Jesus hath done, and
suffered, appertaines to him: but yet, to bring it nearer him, in visible and sensible
things, There are, tres de terra, three upon earth too. The first of these three upon earth, is the Spirit: Spiritus. which Saint Augustine under-
stands of the spirit, the soule of Christ: for when Christ commended his spirit, into
the hands of his Father, this was a testimony, that he was Verus homo, that he had a
soule; and in that he laid downe his spirit, his soule, (for no Man could take it from
him) and tooke it againe, at his pleasure, in his resurrection, this was a testimony, that
he was Verus Deus, true God; And so says Saint Augustine, Spiritus, The spirit, that
is anima Christi, the soule of Christ, did testifie De integritate Jesu, all that be-
longed to Jesus, as he was God, and as he was Man. But this makes the witnesses in
heaven, and the witnesses in earth all one; for the personall testimony of Christs
preaching, and living, and dying, the testimony which was given by these three Persons
of the Trinity, was all involv'd in the first rank of witnesses: Those three which are
in heaven. Other later Men understand by the Spirit here the Spirit of every Regenerate
Man; and that in the other heavenly witnesses, the spirit is Spiritus sanctus, the spirit
that is holy in it selfe, the holy Ghost, and here it is Spiritus sanctificatus, that spirit
of Man, which is made holy by the holy Ghost, according to that, Rom. 8.16. The same spirit,
beareth witnesse, with our spirit, that we are the children of God. But in this sense, it is
too particular a witnesse, too singular, to be intended here; for that speakes but to
one Man, at once; The spirit therefore here is, Spiritus oris, the word of God, the
Gospell; and the preaching, and ministration thereof. 2 Cor. 3.6. We are made Ministers of the New
testament of the spirit, Ibid. that giveth life: And if the ministration of death were glori-
ous, how shall not the ministration of the spirit, be more glorious? It is not therefore
the Gospell meerly, but the preaching of the Gospell, that is this spirit. Spiritus
sacerdotis vehiculum Spiritus Dei; The spirit of the Minister, is not so pure, as the spi-
rit of God, but it is the chariot, the meanes, by which God will enter into you. The
Gospell is the Gospell, at home, at your house; and there you doe well to read it,
and reverence it, as the Gospell: but yet it is not Spiritus, it is not this Spirit, this first
witnesse upon earth, but onely there, where God hath blessed it with his institution,
and ordinance, that is, in the preaching thereof. The stewardship, and the dispensation
of the graces of God, the directing of his threatnings against refractary, and wilfull
sinners, the directing of his promises to simple, and supple, and contrite penitents, the
breaking of the bread, the applying of the Gospell according to their particular in-
digences, in the preaching thereof, this is the first witnesse. The second witnesse here is The water, and I know there are some Men which will Aqua.
not have this to be understood of the water of Baptisme; but onely of the naturall
effect of water; that as the ablutions of the old law, by water did purge us, so we
have an inward testimony, that Christ doth likewise wash us cleane; so the water
here,
48
At a Christning.
Serm. VI.
here, must not be so much as water; but a metaphoricall, and figurative water. These
men will not allow water, in this place, to have any relation to the sacrament; and
Saint Ambrose was so far from doubting that water in this place belonged to the sacra-
ment, that he applies all these three witnesses to the Sacrament of Baptisme: Spiritus
mentem renovat, All this is done in Baptisme, says he; The Spirit renewes and disposes
the mind; Aqua perficit ad Lavacrum; The water is applied to cleanse the body;
Sanguis Spectat ad pretium; and the bloud intimates the price, and ransome, which
gives force, and virtue to this sacrament: And so also (says he in another place) In
sanguine mors, in the bloud there is a representation of death, in the water, of our
buriall, and in the spirit, of our owne life. Some will have none of these witnesses on
earth to belong to baptisme, not the water; and Ambrose will have all, spirit, and
water, and bloud to belong to it. Now both Saint Ambrose, who applies all the three witnesses to Baptisme, and
those later men which deny any of the witnesses to belong to baptisme, doe both
depart from the generall acceptation of these words, that water here, and onely that,
signifies the Sacrament of baptisme. For as in the first creation, the first thing, that the
spirit of God, is noted to have moved upon, was the waters, so the first creature, that
is sanctified by Christs institution, to our Salvation, is this element of water.
The first thing that produced any living sensible creature was the water; Primus liquor
qnod viveret edidit; ne mirum sit quod in Baptismo, aquæ animare noverunt; water
Tertullian. brought forth the first creatures, says Tertullian; That we should not wonder, that
water should bring forth Christians. The first of Gods afficting miracles in Egypt, was
Exod. 3. the changing of water into bloud; and the first miracle of grace, in the new Testament,
was the changing of water into wine at the mariage. So that water hath still been a
subject, and instrument of Gods conversation with man: So then Aqua janua ecclesiaæ,
we cannot come into the Church, but by water, by baptisme: for though the Church
have taken knowledge of other Baptismes, (Baptisma sanguinis, which is Martyrdome,
and Baptisma Flaminis, which is a religious desire to be baptized when no meanes can
be got) yet there is no other sacrament of Baptisme, but Baptisma Fluminis, the
Baptisme of water: for the rest, Conveniunt in causando, sed non in significando, says
the Schoole; that is, God doth afford a plentifull retribution to the other baptismes
Flaminis and sanguinis, but God hath not ordained them, to be outward seales, and
significations of his grace, and to be witnesses of Jesus his comming upon earth, as
this water is. And therefore they that provide not duly to bring their children to
this water of life, (not to speake of the essentiall necessity thereof) they take from
them one of the witnesses, that Jesus is come into them; and (as much as they can)
they shut the Church dore against them, they leave them out of the Arke, and for
want of this water, cast them into that generall water, which overflowes all the rest
of the world, which are not brought within the Covenant, by this water of baptisme.
For, though in the first Translation of the new Testament, into Syriaque, that be said
in the sixth verse, that Jesus is come per manus aquarum, by the power of waters,
many waters, and in this verse, this witnesse is delivered in the plurall, spirit and wa-
ters, (and so, waters in that signification, (which signification they have often in the
Scriptures) that is, affliction, and tribulation, be good testimonies that our Lord
Jesus doth visit us) though the waters of Contrition, and repentant teares be another
good testimony of that too, yet that water, which testifies the presence of Jesus so,
as that it doth always infallibly bring Jesus with it, (for the sacraments are never
without Grace) whether it be accepted or no, there it is) That water which is made e-
quall with the preaching of the Word, (so farre as to be a fellow-witnesse with the Spi-
rit) that is onely the Sacrament of baptisme, without which (in the ordinary dispensati-
on of God) no soule can be surer that Jesus is come to him, then if he had never heard
the Word preached; he mistakes the spirit, the first witnesse; if he refuse the water the
second. Sanguinis. The third witnesse upon earth, is bloud: and that is briefly the Communion of the
body, and bloud of Jesus, in the Lords Supper. But how is that bloud upon earth? I am
not ashamed to confesse, that I know not how, but the bloud of Christ is a witnesse up-
on earth, in the Sacrament, and therefore, upon the earth it is. Now this witnesse be-
ing made equall with the other two, with preaching, and with baptisme, it is as necessa-
ry,
49
Serm. VI.
At a Christning.
ry, that he that will have an assurance, that Jesus is come into him, doe receive this
Sacrament, as that he doe heare Sermons, and that he be baptized. An over vehement
urging of this necessity, brought in an erroneous custome in the Primitive Church: That
they would give the Sacrament of the body of Christ to Children, as soon as they
were baptized; yea, and to dead Men too. But because this Sacrament is accompani-
ed with precepts, which can belong onely to Men of understanding, (for they must
doe it in Remembrance, and they must discerne the Lords body) therefore the neces-
sity lies onely upon such, as are come to those graces, and to that understanding.
For they that take it, and doe not discerne it, (not know what they do) they take
it dangerously. But else, for them, to whom this Sacrament belongs, if they take it
not, their hearing of Sermons, and their baptisme doth them no good; for what good
can they have done them, if they have not prepared themselves for it? And there-
fore, as the Religion of the Church holds a stubborne Recusant at the table, at the
Communion bord, as farre from her, as a Recusant at the Pew, that is, a Non-com-
municant as ill, as a not commer, or a not hearer, so I doubt not but the wisdome
of the State weighs them in the same balance; For these three agree in one, says the
text: that is, first they meet in one Man, and then they testifie the same thing, that
is, Integritatem Jesu, that Jesus is come to him in outward Meanes, to save his
soule. If his conscience find not this testimony, all these availe him nothing. If we
remaine vessells of anger, and of dishonour still, we are under the Væ vobis Hypocri-
tis: woe unto you Hypocrites, Mat. 25. 23. that make cleane onely the outside of your cuppes and Plat-
ters. That baptize, and wash your owne, and your childrens bodies, but not their
mindes with instructions. When we shall come to say Docuisti in plateis, Luke 13.25. we have
heard thee preach in our streets, we have continued our hearing of thy Word, when
we say Manducavimus coram te, we have eate in thy presence, at thy table, yea Ibid. Man-
ducavimus te, we have eaten thee thy selfe, yet for all this outward show of these
three witnesses, of Spirit, and Water, and bloud, Preaching, and Baptisme and Com-
munion, we shall heare that fearfull disclaiming from Christ Jesus, Nescio vos, I
know not whence you are. But these witnesses, he will always heare, if they testifie
for us, that Jesus is come unto us; for the Gospell, and the preaching thereof, is as
the deed that conveys Jesus unto us; the water, the baptisme, is as the Seale, that
assures it; and the bloud, the Sacrament, is the delivery of Christ into us; and this
is Integritas Jesu, the entire, and full possession of him. To this purpose therefore, as we have found a Trinity in heaven, and a Trinity in
earth, so we must make it up a Trinity of Trinities, and finde a third Trinity in our
selves. God created one Trinity in us; (the observation, and the enumeration is
Saint Bernards) which are those three faculties of our soule, the reason, the memory,
the will; That Trinity in us, by another Trinity too, (by suggestion towards sin, by
delight in sinne, by consent to sinne) is fallen into a third Trinity; The memory into
a weaknesse, that that comprehends not God, it glorifies him not for benefits recei-
ved; The reason to a blindnesse, that that discernes not what is true; and the will
to a perversnesse, that that wishes not what's good; But the goodnesse of God, by
these three witnesses on earth regenerates, and reestablishes a new Trinity in us, faith,
and hope, and charity; Thus farre that devout Man carries it; And if this new Trini-
ty, faith, and hope, and charity, witnesse to us Integritatem Christi, all the worke of
Christ, If my faith testifie to me, that Christ is sealed to my soule; and my hope,
testifie, that at the Resurection, I shall have a perfect fruition in soule, and body,
of that glory which he purchased for every beleever; and my charity testifies to the
world, that I labour to make sure that salvation, by a good life, then there's a Trini-
ty of Trinities, and the six are made nine witnesses: There are three in heaven that
testifie that this is done for all Mankinde, Three in the Church that testifie, this may
be done for me, and three in my soule, that testifie, that all this is applied to me;
and then the verdict, and the Judgement must necessarily goe for me. And beloved,
this Judgement will be grounded upon this intirenesse of Jesus, and therefore let
me dismisse you with this note, That Integritas is in continuitate, not in contignitate;
It is not the touching upon a thing, nor the comming neare to a thing, that makes it
intire; a fagot, where the sticks touch, a peece of cloth, where the threds touch, is
not intire; To come as neare Christ as we can conveniently, to trie how neare we F can
50
At a Christning.
Serm. VII.
can bring two Religions together, this is not to preserve Integritatem Jesu: In a word,
Intirenesse excludes deficiency, and redundancy, and discontinuance; we preserve
not intirenesse, if we preserve not the dignity of Christ, in his Church, and in his
discipline, and that excludes the defective Separatist; we doe not preserve that entirenesse
if we admit traditions, and additions of Men, in an equality to the word of God,
and that excludes the redundant Papist; neither doe we preserve the entirenesse, if we
admit a discontinuance, a slumbring of our Religion for a time, and that excludes the
temporisers, the Statist, the Politician. And so, beloved, I recommend unto you Inte-
gritatem Jesu, Jesus, and his truth, and his whole truth, and this whole Truth, in
your whole lives. Sermon VII.
Preached at a Christning
Gal. 3. 27.
For, all yee that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. THThis text is a Reason of a Reason; an Argument of an Argument; The
proposition undertaken by the Apostle to prove, is, That after faith
is come, we are no longer under the Schoolmaster, the law. The reason, v. 25.
by which he proves that, is: For yee are all the Sonnes of God by faith, 26.
in Christ Jesus; And then the reason of that, is this text, for all yee
that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Here then is the progresse of a sanctified Man, and here is his standing house; here
is his journey, and his Lodging; his way, and his end. The house, the lodging, the
end of all is faith; for whatsoever is not of faith, is sinne. To be sure that you are in
the right way to that, you must find your selves to be the Sonnes of God; And you
can prove that, by no other way to your selves, but because you are baptized in-
to Christ. So that our happinesse is now at that height, and so much are we preferred before
the Jews, that whereas the chiefest happinesse of the Jews was to have the law, (for
without the law they could not have known sinne, and the law was their Schoolmaster to
find out Christ) we are admitted to that degree of perfection, that we are got above
the law; It was their happinesse to have had the law, but it is ours, not to need it:
They had the benefit of a guide, to direct them, but we are at our journies end; They
had a schoolmaster to lead them to Christ; but we have proceeded so farre, as that
we are in possession of Christ. The law of Moses therefore, binds us not at all, as it
is his Law; Whatsoever binds a Christian, in that law, would have bound him,
though there had been no law given to Moses. The Ceremoniall part of that law, which
was in the institution, Mortale, (it was mortall, It might die) and by Christs determi-
nation of those Typicall things, Mortuum, (It did die) is now also Mortiferum, (dead-
ly) so that it is sinne to draw any part of that law, into a necessity of observation; be-
cause the necessary admission of any Type, or figure, implies a confession, that that
which was signified, or figured, is not yet come; So that that law, and Christ can-
not consist together. The Judiciall law of Moses, was certainly the most absolute, and
perfect law of government, which could have been given to that people, for whom it
was given; but yet to thinke, that all States are bound to observe those lawes, because
God gave them, hath no more ground, then that all Men are bound to goe clothed in
beasts skinnes, because God apparelled Adam, and Eve in that fashion. And for the morall part of that law, and the abridgement of that morall part, the de-
calogue, that begunne not to have force, and efficacy then, when God writ it in the ta-
bles; but was always, and always shall be written in the hearts of Men; And though
God of his goodnesse, was pleased to give that declaration of it, and that provocation
to it, by so writing it, yet if he had not written it, or if (which is impossible) that wri-
ting
51
Serm. VII.
At a Christning.
ting could perish, yet that morall law, those commandements, would bind us, that
are Christians, after the expiration of that law, which was Moses law, as it did (de
Iure) bind all those which lived, before any written law was. So that he that will per-
fectly understand, what appertaines to his duty in any of the ten Commandements,
he must not consider that law, with any limitation, as it was given to the Jews, but
consider what he would have done, if he had lived before the Tables had been written.
For certainely, even in the Commandement of the Sabbath, which was accompanied
with so many Ceremonies amongst the Jews, that part onely is morall, which had bound
us, though that Commandement had never been given; and he that performes that part,
keepes the Sabbath; the Ceremoniall part of it, is not onely not necessary; but when it
is done with an opinion of necessity, it is erroneous, and sinfull. For neither that
Commandement nor any other of the ten, began to bind them, when they were writ-
ten, nor doth bind now, except it bound before that. Thus far then we are directed by this Text, (which is as far, as we can goe in this
life) To prove to our selves, that we have faith, we must prove, that wee need not the
law; To prove that emanecipation, and liberty, we must prove, that we are the sonnes
of God; To prove that ingraffing, and that adoption, we must prove, that we have
put on Christ Iesus; And to prove that apparelling of our selves, our proofe is, that
we are baptized into him. All proofes must either arrest, and determine in some things confessed, and agreed
upon, or else they proceed in infinitum. That which the Apostle takes to be that
which is granted on all sides, and which none can deny, is this, that to be baptized is
to put on Christ: And this putting on of Christ, doth so far carry us to that Infinitissi-
mum, to God himselfe, that we are thereby made Semen Dei, the seed of God; The
field is the world, and the good seed are the Children of the kingdome; And we are Mat. 13.
translated even into the nature of God, By his pretious promises we are made 2 Pet. 1. partakers
of the Divine nature; yea, we are discharged of all bodily, and earthly incombrances,
and we are made all spirit, yea the spirit of God himselfe, He that is joyned to the Lord, 1 Cor. 6.
is one spirit with him. All this we have, if we doe put on Christ: and we doe put on
Christ, if we be baptized into him. Divisio. These then are the two actions which we are now to consider:
| Baptizari, | To be washed. |
| Induere, | To be cloathed. |
glove the hand; and other garments, more; But Christ, when he is put on, Covers
us all. If we have weake heads, shallow brains, either a silence, and a reservednes, which
make the foole and the wise equall, or the good interpretation of friends, which put
good Constructions upon all that we say, or the dignity of autority, and some great place,
which we hold, which puts an opinion in the people, that we are wise, or else we had
never been brought thither, these cover our heads, and hide any defect in them. If we
have foule hands, we can cover them, with excuses; If they be foule with usurious
Extortion, we can put on a glove, an excuse, and say, He that borrowed my money,
got more by it, then I that lent it; If, with bribery in an office, we can cover it and say,
He that knew, that I bought my office, will be content to let me be a saver by it; If
our hands be foule with shedding of innocent bloud, as Saint Hierome sayes that Adam eate
the Apple, Ne contristaretur Delicias suas, lest he should over grieve his wife, by re-
fusing it, Ne contristaremur Delicias nostras, either because we would not displease a-
nother, or because our beloved sinne, to which we had maried our selves, did sollicite
us to it. Particular excuses cover our particular defects, from the sight of men, but to
put on Christ, covers us all over, even from the sight of God himselfe. So that how nar-
rowly so ever he search into us, he sees nothing but the whitenesse of his Sonnes inno-
cency, and the rednesse of his Sonnes bloud. When the prodigall child returned to his father, his father clothed him intirely,
and all at once; he put a robe upon him, to cover all his defects: which Robe, when
God puts upon us, in clothing us with Christ, that robe is not onely Dignitas quam
perdidit Adam, as Augustine says, but it is Amictus sapientiæ, as Ambrose enlarges Augustine.
Ambrose.
it, It does not onely make us aswell, as we were in Adam, but it enables us better, to
preserve that state; It does not onely cover us, that is, make us excusable, for our past, F2 and
52
At a Christning.
Serm. VII.
and present sinnes, but it indues us with grace; and wisdome to keep that robe still,
and never to returne to our former foulnesses, and deformities. Our first parents Adam and Eve were naked all over; but they were not sensible
of all their nakednesse, but onely of those parts whereof they were ashamed. No-
thing but the shame of the world makes us discerne our deformities; And onely for
those faults, which shame makes us take knowledge of, we goe about to provide;
And we provide nothing but short Aprons, as that word signified; and those but of
fig-leaves; That which comes first to hand, and that which is withered before it is
made, that doe we take for an excuse, for an aversion of our owne conscience,
when she begins to cast an eye, or to examine the nakednesse, and deformities of our
soules. But when God came to cloath them, their short aprons were extended to coates,
Gen. 3.21.that covered them all over, and their fig-leaves to strong skins; for God saw that not
onely those parts, of which they were already ashamed, needed covering, but that in
all their other parts, if they continued, naked, and still exposed to the Injurie, and
violence of the weather, they would contract diseases, and infirmities; and therefore
God covers them so throughly, as he doth not onely provide for reparation of for-
mer inconveniences, but prepare against future. And so perfect effects doth this garment, Christ Jesus, work upon us, if we put
him on; He doth not onely cover Originall sinnes, (which is the effect of those disobe-
dient Members, which derive sinne, upon us, in the sinfull generation of our parents)
but he covers all our actuall sinnes, which we multiplie every day: and not onely those,
which the world makes us ashamed of, but which we hide from the world; yea which
we hide from our selfes; that is, sinnes, which by a long custome of practise, we com-
mit so habitually, and so indifferently, as that we have forgot, that they are sinnes. But as it was in Adams Clothing there, so must it be in our spirituall putting on of
Christ. The word used there, Labash, doth not signifie that God cloathed Adam, nor
that Adam cloathed himselfe; but as the Grammarians call it, it is in Hiphil, and it
signified Induere fecit eos; God caused them to be cloathed, or God caused them to
cloath themselves; which is also intimated, nay evidently expressed in the words of
this text; we are our selves poore, and impotent creatures, we cannot make our selves
ready; we are poore and beggerly creatures, we have nothing to put on; Christ is
that garment; and then Christ is the very life, by which we stretch out our armes and
our legs, to put on that garment; yea he puts it on upon us, he doth the whole worke:
but yet he doth not thrust it on: He makes us able to put it on: but if we be not willing,
then he puts no necessity upon our will: but we remaine naked still. Induere then, to put on, is an extension, a dilatation over all; And sometimes it
signifies an abundant, and overflowing, and overwhelming measure of Gods judge-
Ezech. 7.27.
& 16.16. ments upon us, Princeps Induetur desolatione, The prince shalbe cloathed with desolation
and with astonishment: But most commonly, the rich and all-sufficient proportion of
his mercies and spirituall benefits: as he expressed it to his Apostles, at his ascension,
Stay you in the Citty, quousque Induamini virtute ex alto; till ye be indued (so we translate
Luke 24.49. it) that is, cloathed with power from on high. And this was per fidem ei innitendo, and
per opera cum declarando, says Saint Augustine, He onely hath pat on Christ, which
hath Christ in himselfe by faith, and shewes him to others by his works, which is Lucerna
ardens, (as Christ said of Iohn Baptist) a burning lamp, and a shining lamp, profitable
to others, as well as to himselfe. There is a degree of vanity, and pride, whereby some Men delight to weare their
richest clothes innermost, and most out of sight; But in this double garment of a
Christian, it is necessarily so; for faith is the richest, and most precious part of this
garment; and this, which is our Holy-day garment, is worne innermost; for that (our
faith) is onely seen by God; but our outward garment, of workes, which is our worky-
day garment, that is our sanctification is seen of all the world. And that also must be
put on, or else we have not put on Christ: and it must cover us all over; that is, our
sanctification must goe through our whole life in a constant, and an even perseverance;
we must not onely be Hospitale, and feed the poore at Christmas, be sober, and absti-
nent, the day that we receive, repent, and thinke of amendment of life, in the day
of visitation, and sicknesse; but, as the garment, which Christ wore, was seamlesse, and
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At a Christning.
and intire, so this garment, which is Christ Jesus, that is, our sanctification, should
be intire, and uninterrupted, in the whole course of our lives, we must remember, that
at the Mariage which figured the kingdome of heaven, the master of the feast Mat. 22. repre-
hended, and punished him, that was come in, not expresly because he had not a wed-
ding garment, but Quomodo intrasti, says he, how camest thou in not having on thy
wedding garment? So that (if it could be possible) though we had put on the inside of
this garment, which is Christ, that is, if we had faith, yet if we have not the outside
too, that is sanctification, we have not put on Christ, as we should; for this is Indui
virtute ex alto; to have both inside, faith, and outside, sanctification: and to put it on
so, that it may cover us all over, that is all our life; because it is not in our power,
if we put it off, by new sinnes, to put it on againe, when we will. I have put off my coate, 5.3.
how shall I put it on, was the doubt of the spouse, in the Canticles, even when Christ
had called her: So hard a thing is it, if we devest the righteousnesse of Christ, after we
have put it on, to cloth our selves againe in that garment. As then this word, Induere, to put on, to be clothed, signifies a largenesse, and an a-
bundance, according to that, The pastures are clothed with sheep, and the vallies with corne: Psal. 65.
So is this garment, Christ Jesus, such a garment, as is alone so all sufficient, as that
if we doe put on that, we need no other; Put yee on the Lord Jesus Christ, Rom. 13. and take no
thought for the flesh; if ye have put on that, you are clothed, and armed, and adorned
sufficiently. In the first creation, in the Faciamus hominem ad Imaginem nostrûm, when God seems to
have held a consultation about the making of Man, man put on all the Trinity, all God; &
in the redemption God put on all Man; not onely all the nature of Mankind in generall,
but in particular, every Man. But as the spirit of God, is said to have put on a particular Iud. 6. 34.
Man, Spiritus Domini induit Gedeon, the spirit of the Lord, clothed, or put on Gedeon, when
he selected him for his service, so must the spirit of every particular Man, put on Christ; he
must not be content, to be under the generall cover, (either under his general providence,
because he is a Creature, or a member of his Mysticall body, because he adheres to a
visible Church) he must not say, I am as warm clothed, as another, I have as much of
Christ in me, as a great many, that doe well enough in the world, but he must so in-
wrap himselfe in Christ, and in his Merits, as to make all that to be his owne. No man
may take the frame of Christs merit in peeces; no Man may take his forty days fasting
and put on that, and say, Christ hath fasted for me, and therefore I may surfeit; No
man may take his Agony, and pensivenesse, and put on that, and say, Christ hath been
sad for me, and therefore I may be merry. He that puts on Christ, must put him on
all[; and not onely find, that Christ hath dyed, nor onely that he hath died for him, but
that he also hath died in Christ, and that whatsoever Christ suffered, he suffered
in Christ. For, as Christs merit, and satisfaction, is not too narrow for all the world, so is it
not too large for any one Man; Infinite worlds might have been saved by it, if infinite
worlds had been created; And, if there were no more Names in the book of life, but
thine, all the Merit of Christ were but enough to save thy one sinfull soule, which
could not have been redeemed, though alone, at any lesse price, then his death. All that Christ did, and suffered, he did and suffered for thee, as thee; not onely as
Man, but as that particular Man, which bears such, or such a name; and rather, then
any of those, whom he loves, should appeare naked before his Father, and so discover
to his confusion, those scarres, and deformities, which his sinnes have imprinted upon
him, (as his love is devoutly, and plously extended by the Schooles and some contem-
plative Men) Christ would be content to doe, and suffer, as much as he hath done, for
any one particular Man yet: But beyond Infinite, there is no degree: and his merit
was infinite, both because an infinite Majesty resided in his person, and because an in-
finte Majesty accepted his sacrifice for infinite. But this act of Christ, this redemption makes us onely servants; servi à servando,
we are servants to him, that preserved, and saved us, is the derivation of the Law.
But the application of this redemption (which is the putting on of Christ,) makes us sons;
for we are not to put on Christ, onely as a Livery, to be distinguished by externall
marks of Christianity; but so, as the sonne puts on his father; that we may be of the
same nature and substance as he; and that God may be in us, Non tanquam in denario, Aquin F3 not
54
At a Christning.
Serm. VII.
not as the King is in a peece of coine, or a medall, but tanquam in filio, as he is in his
sonne, in whom the same nature both humane, and Royall doth reside. There is then a double Induere, a twofold clothing; we may Induere 1. Vestem, put
on a garment; 2. Personam, put on a person. We may put on Christ so, as we
shall be his, and we may put him on so, as we shall be He. And even to put him on as
a garment is also twofold; The first is to take onely the outward name, and profession
Hag. 1. of Christians upon us; and this doth us no good; yee cloth ye, but are not warme, says
the Prophet, of this kind of putting on of Christ. For this may be done onely to de-
Zach. 13. lude others; which practise God discovered, and threatned, in the false Prophets, The
Prophets shall not weare a rough garment to deceive; As God himselfe cannot be deluded,
so for the encouragement of his Church, he will take off this garment of the Hypocrite,
and discover his nakednesse, and expose him to the open shame of the world; He shall
not weare arougha rough garment to deceive.
1 Chron. 19. 4. For this is such an affront and scorne to Christ, as Hanuns cutting off of Davids
servants clothes at the middle, was; we make this garment of what stuffe, and what
fashion we list; As Hanun did, we cut it off in the middle; we will be Christians till
noone, (in the outward acts of Religion) and Libertines in the after-noone, in putting off
that garment againe; we will be Christians all day, and returne to wantonnesse, and li-
centiousnesse at night; we do that which Christ says, no Man doth, (that is, no Man
Mat. 9. should doe) we put new peeces to an old garment; and to that habite of sinne, which co-
vers us as a garment, we put a few new patches of Religion, a few flashes of repentance,
a few shreds of a Sermon, but we put not on, that intire and feamlesse garment Christ
Jesus. And can we hope, that these disguises, these halfe coates, these imperfect services
will be acceptable to God, when we our selves would not admit this, at our children,
or at our servants hands? It is the argument by which the Prophet convinces the Isra-
MalMal. 1. elites, about their uncleane sacrifices; Offer this now unto the Prince; will he be content
with thee, and accept thy person? If thou shouldest weare the princes Livery, in a scan-
tler proportion, or in a different fashion, or in a courser stuffe, then belongs to thy place,
would he accept it at thy hands? No more will Christ if thou put him on, (that is, take
his profession upon thee) either in a courser stuffe, (Traditions of Men, in stead of his
word) or in scantler measure, (not to be always a Christian, but then, when thou hast
use of being one) or in a different fashion, (to be singular and Schismaticall in thy opinion)
for this is one, but an ill manner of putting on of Christ as a garment. The second, and the good way is, to put on his righteousnesse, and his innocency,
by imitation, and conforming our selves to him. Now when we goe about earnestly
to make our selves Temples, and Altars, and to dedicate our selves to God, we must
Gen. 35. change our clothes; As when God bad Jacob, to goe up to Bethel, to make an Altar,
he commanded all his family to change their clothes; In which work, we have two
things, to doe; first, we must put off those clothes which we had; and appeare naked
before God, without presenting any thing of our owne; (for when the Spirit of God
1 Sam. 19. came upon Saul, and that he prophecyed, his first act was, to strip himselfe naked: And
then secondly, we come to our transfiguration, and to have those garments of Christ
communicated to us which were as white, as the light; and we shall be admitted into
Mat. 17. that little number, of which it is said, Thou hast a few Names in Sardis, which have not
Revel. 3. defiled their garments, and they shall walke with me in white. Personam. And from this (which is Induere vestem,) from this putting on Christ as a garment,
we shall grow up to that perfection, as that we shall Induere personam, put on him, his
person; That is, we shall so appeare before the Father, as that he shall take us for his
owne Christ; we shall beare his name and person; and we shall every one be so accep-
ted, as if every one of us were all Mankind; yea, as if we were he himselfe. He shall
find in all our bodies his woundes, in all our mindes, his Agonies; in all our hearts,
and actions his obedience. And as he shall doe this by imputation, so really in all our
Agonies, he shall send his Angels to minister unto us, as he did to Elias; In all our ten-
tations he shall furnish us with his Scriptures to confound the Tempter, as he in per-
son, did in his tentation, and in our heaviest tribulation, which may extort from us the
voice of diffidence, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? He shall give us the as-
surance to say, In manus tuas &c. Into thy hands O Lord have I commended my spirit, and
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At a Christning.
and there I am safe; He shall use us in all things, as his sonne; and we shall find re-stored in us, the Image of the whole Trinity, imprinted at our creation; for by this
Regeneration, we are adopted by the Father in the bloud of the Sonne by the sanctificati-
on of the holy Ghost. Now this putting on of Christ, whereby we stand in his place at Gods Tribunall, Baptismus.
implies, as I said, both our Election, and our sanctification; both the eternall purpose
of God upon us, and his execution of that purpose in us. And because by the first (by
our Election) we are members of Christ, in Gods purpose, before baptisme, and the
second, (which is sanctification) is expressed after baptisme, in our lives, and conver-
sation, therefore Baptisme intervenes, and comes between both, as a seale of the first, (of
Election) and as an instrument, and conduit of the second, Sanctification. Now, Abscendita Domino, Dea nostro, quæ manifesta sunt nobis; let no Man be too
curiously busie, to search what God does in his hedchamber; we have all enough to
answer, for that, which we have done in our bedchamber. For Gods eternall decree,
himselfe is master of those Rolls; but out of those Rolls he doth exemplifie those decrees
in the Sacrament of baptisme; by which Copy, and exemplification of his invisible and
unsearchable decree, we plead to the Church, that we are Gods children, we plead to
our owne consciences, that we have the Spirit of adoption, and we plead to God him-
selfe, the obligation of his own promise, that we have a right to this garment, Christ
Jesus, and to those graces, which must sanctifie us; for from thence comes the reason
of this text, for all yee that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. As we cannot see the Essence of God, but must see him in his glasses, in his Images,
in his Creatures, so we cannot see the decrees of God, but must see them in their dupli-
cats, in their exemplification, in the sacraments. As it would doe him no good, that were
condemned of treason, that a Bedchamber man should come to the Judge, and swear
he saw the king signe the prisoners pardon, except he had it to pleade: so what assu-
rance soever, what privy marke soever, those men, which pretend to be so well acquaint-
ed, and so familiar with the decrees of God, to give thee to know, that thou art elect
to eternall salvation, yea if an Angel from heaven comedowne and tell thee, that he
saw thy name in the booke of life, if thou have not this Exemplification of the
decree, this seale, this Sacrament, if thou beest not baptized, never delude thy selfe
with those imaginary assurances. This Baptisme then is so necessary, that first, as Baptisme (in a large acceptation)
signifies our dying, and buriall with Christ, and all the acts of our regeneration, so
in that large sense, our whole life is a baptisme: But the very sacrament of Baptisme,
the actuall administration, and receiving thereof, was held so necessary, that even
for legall and Civill uses, (as in the law, that child, that dyed without circumcision,
had no interest in the family, no participation of the honor, nor name thereof) So
that we see in the reckning of the Genealogy, and pedegree of David, that first sonne of 1 Chron. 3.
his, which he had by Bathsheba, which dyed without circumcision is never mentioned,
nor toucht upon.) So also, since the time of Moses law, in the Imperiall law, by which
law, a posthume child, borne after the fathers death, is equall with the rest in division
of the state, yet if that child dye before he be baptized, no person which should derive
a right from him, (as the mother might, if he dyed) can have any title by him; because
he is not considered to have been at all, if he dye unbaptized. And if the State will not
beleeve him to be a full Man, shall the Church beleeve him to be a full Christian, be-
fore baptisme? Yea, the apprehension of the necessity of this Sacrament, was so com-
mon, and so generall, even in the beginning of the Christian Church, that out of an
excessive advancing of that trnth, they came also to a falshood, to an error, That
even they that dyed without baptisme, might have the benefit of baptisme, if another
were baptized in their name, after their death; And so, out of a mistaking of those
words, Else what shall they doe, Qui baptizantur pro mortuis (which is, that are ready 1 Cor. 15. 29.
to dye, when they are baptized) the Marcionites induc'd a custome, to lay one under
the dead bodyes bed, that he, in the name of the dead man, might answer to all the
questions usually asked, in administring of Baptisme. But this was a corrupt effect of pure, and sincere doctrine, which doctrine is,
That Baptisme is so necessary, as that God hath placed no other ordinary seale, nor con-
veyance of his graces in his Church, to them that have not received that, then baptisme. And
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At a Christning.
Serm. VII.
And they, who doe not provide duly, for the Baptisme of their children, if their children
die, have a heavier accompt to make to God for that child, then if they had not provided
a Nurse, and suffered the child to starve. God can preserve the child without Milke;
and he can save the child without a sacrament; but as that mother that throwes out,
and forsakes her child in the field, or wood, is guilty before God of the Temporall
murder of that child, though the child die not, so are those parents of a spirituall mur-
der, if their children, by their fault die unbaptized, though God preserve that child
out of his abundant, and miraculous mercy, from spirituall destruction. When the custome of the Christian Church was to baptize but twice in the year, at
Easter, and Whitsontide, for the greater solemnity of that action, yea when that ill
custome was grown (as it was even in the Primitive Church) that upon an opinion, that
all sins were absolutely forgiven in Baptisme, Men did defer their Baptisme, till their
death-bed, (as we see the Ecclesiasticall histories full of such examples, even in some of
the Christian Emperors: and according to this ill custome, we see Tertullian chides
away young children for comming so soon to Baptisme, quid festinat innocens ætas, ad
remissionem peccatorum, why should this child, that as yet hath done no sinne, make
such hast to be washed from sinnce?) which opinion had got so much strength, that Saint
Basil was faine to oppose it, in the Easterne Church, and both the Gregories, Nazianzen
and Nissen, and Saint Ambrose in the Western; yet, in the height of both their customes,
of seldome baptizing, and of late baptizing, the case of infants, that might be in dan-
ger of dying without baptisme, was ever excepted, So that none of those old customes,
(though some of them were extreamly ill) went ever so farre, as to an opinion, that it
were all one, whether the child were baptized or no. I speake not this, as though the state of children that died without baptisme were
desperate; God forbid, for who shall shorten the Arme of the Lord? God is able to
raine downe Manna and Quailes into the soules of these children, though negligent
parents turne them out into the wildernesse, and put God to that extraordinary work.
They may have Manna, and Quailes, but they have not the Milke, and Hony, of the
Land of promise; They may have salvation from God, but they have not those graces,
so sealed, and so testified to them, as God hath promised they should be in his Sacra-
ments. When God in spirituall offences, makes Inquisition of bloud, he proceeds not,
as Man proceeds; for we, till there appear a Man to be dead, never inquire who killed
him; but in the spirituall Murder, of an unbaptized child, though there be no child
spiritually dead, (though Gods mercy have preserved the child from that) yet God
imputes this as such a murder to them, who endangered the child, as farre as they could,
by neglecting his ordinance of baptisme. This is then the necessity of this Sacrament; not absolutely necessary, but necessary
by Gods ordinary institution; and as it is always necessary, so is it always certaine; who-
soever is baptized according to Christs institution, receives the Sacrament of baptisme;
and the truth is always infallibly annexed with the signe; Nec fieri potest visio hominis,
ut non sit Sacramentum quod figurat; Though the wicked may feele no working
by the Sacrament, yet the Sacrament doth offer, and present grace as well to the un-
Calvin. worthy as to the worthy Receiver: Nec fallaciter promittit; The wicked may be a
cause, that the Sacrament shall doe them no good; but that the Sacrament, become no
Sacrament, or that God should be false in his promises, and offer no grace, where he
pretends to offer it, this the wicked cannot doe; baptisme doth truly, and without
collusion, offer grace to all; and nothing but baptisme, by an ordinary institution, and
as an ordinary meanes, doth so: for when baptisme is called a figure, yet both that
1 Pet. 3. 21. figure is said there to save us, (The figure that now saveth us, baptisme; and it is a figure
of the Arke; it hath relation to it, to that Arke which did save the world, when it is
called a figure; So it may be a figure; but if we speake of reall salvation by it, baptisme
is more then a figure. Now as our putting on of Christ was double, by faith, and by sanctification, so
by this Sacrament also, we are baptized in Nomen Christi, into the Name of Christ,
and in mortem Christi, into the death of Christ: we are not therefore baptized into
his Name, because names are imposed upon us in our baptisme: for that was not al-
ways permanently accustomed, in the Christian Church, to give a name at baptisme.
To men who were of years, and well known in the world already by their name, if they
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At a Christning.
they were converted to the Christian faith, the Church did not use to give new names
at their baptisme: neither to Children alwayes; but sometimes as an indifferent thing,
they left them to the custome of that country, or of that family, from which they
were derived. When Saint Augustine sayes, that he came to Milan, to S. Ambrose, at
that time, quo dari nomina oportuit, when Names were to be given, it is true, that he
speaks of a time, when Baptisme was to be administred, but that phrase of Giving of
Names, was not a receiving of Names at Baptisme, (for neither Ambrose, nor Augustine,
received any new name at their Baptisme) but it was a giving up of their Names, a Re-
gistring, a Matriculating of their Names in the book of the profession of the Christian
Religion, and a publique declaration of that profession. To be baptized therefore into the name of Christ, is to be translated into his Family,
by this spirituall adoption, in which adoption (when it was legall) as they that were
adopted, had also the name of the family into which they were adopted, as of Octavius
Octavianus, and the rest, so are we so baptized, into his name, that we are of Christus
Christiani; and therefore to become truly Christians, to live Christianly, this is truly
to be baptized into his name. No other name is given under heaven, whereby we can be saved; nor must any other
name accompany the name of God, in our Baptisme. When therefore they teach in
the Romane Church, that it is a good Baptisme, which is administred in this forme,,
I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and Sonne, and holy Ghost, and the virgin Mary,
if he which baptizes so, doe not meane in his intention, that the virgin Mary is equall
to the Trinity, but onely an assistant, this is not onely an impertinent, but an impious
addition to that God, that needs no assistant. And as in our baptisme, we take no
other name necessarily, but the name of Christ: So in our Christian life, we accept
no other distinctions of Iesuits, or Franciscans; but onely Christians: for we are bapti-
zed into his name, and the whole life of a regenerate man is a Baptisme. For as in put-
ting on Christ, sanctification doth accompany faith, so in baptisme, the imitation of
his death (that is, mortification) and the application of his passion, (by fulfilling the
sufferings of Christ in our flesh) is that baptisme into his death. Which doe so certainly
follow one another, (that he that is truly baptized into the name of Christ, is also
baptized into his death) as that Saint Paul couples them together, 1 Cor. 1.13. Was Paul crucified
for you, or were you baptized into the name of Paul? If you were not baptized into his name,
then you have no interest, no benefit by his death, nor by any thing which he suffered,
that his merits, or his works of supererogation should be applied to you: And if he did
not suffer for you, (if all that any Paul (much lesse any IgnatinsIgnatius) could doe, were but
enough, and too little for himselfe) then you are not baptized into his name, nor to be
denominate by him. This is then to be Baptized into Christs death, Habere, & reddere testimonium, Chri-
stum pro me mortuum, to be sure that Chirst dyed for me; and to be ready to dye for
him; so, that I may fulfill his sufferings, and may think that all is not done, which
belongs to my Redemption, except I finde a mortification in my selfe. Not that any
mortification of mine, works any thing, as a cause of my redemption, but as an assu-
rance and testimony of it; ut sit pignus & sigillum redemptionis; It is a pledge, and it
is a Seale, of my redemption. Christ calls his death a Baptisme; So Saint Augustine calls our Baptisme a death,
Quod crux Christo, & Sepulcrum, id nobis Baptisma; Baptisme to us, says he, is our
Croffe, and our passion, and our buriall; that is, in that, we are conformed to Christ
as he suffered, dyed, and was buried. Because if we be so baptized into his Name, and
into his death, we are thereby dead to sinne, and have dyed the death o the righteous. Since then Baptisme is the death of sinne, and there cannot be this death, this con-
quest, this victory over sinne, without faith, there must necessarily faith, concurre
with this baptisme; for if there be not faith, (none in the child, none in the parents,
none in the sureties, none in the Church) then there is no baptisme performed; Now,
in the Child there is none actually; In the sureties, we are not sure, there is any; for
their infidelity cannot impeach the sacrament; The child is well baptized though they
should be misbeleevers; for, when the Minister shall aske them, Doest thou beleeve in God?
dost thou renounce the Devill? perchance they may ly in their owne behalfes; perchance
they doe not beleeve, they doe not renounce, but they speake truth in the behalfe of the
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At a Christning.
Serm. VII.
the child, when they speake in the voyce of the Church who receives this child for
her childe, and binds her selfe to exhibit, and reach out to that child, her spirituall
paps, for her future nourishment thereof. How comes it to passe, says Saint Augustine,
that when a man presents another mans child at the font, to be baptized, if the
Minister should aske him, Shall this man child be a valiant man, or a wise man, shall
this woman child, be a chast, and a continent woman? the surety would answer, I cannot
tell, and yet, if he be ask'd, of that child, of so few dayes old, Doth that child beleeve
in God now, will he renounce the Devill hereafter? the surety answers confidently, in his
behalfe, for the beleefe, and for the renouncing: How comes this to passe, says Saint
Augustine? He answers to this, that as Sacramentum Corporis Christi, est secundum mo-
dum Corpus Christi, so Sacramentum fidei est fides; As the Sacrament of the body, and
bloud of Christ is, in some sense, and in a kinde, the body, and bloud of Christ, says
Augustine, so in the sacrament of faith, says he, (that is, Baptisme) there is some kinde of
faith. Here is a child borne of faithfull parents; and there is the voyce of God, who hath
sealed a Covenant to them, and their seed; Here are sureties, that live (by Gods grati-
ous spirit) in the unity, and in the bosome of the Church: and so, the parents present
it to them, they present it to the Church, and the Church takes it into her care; It is
still the naturall child, of her parents, who begot it, it is the spirituall child of the
Sureties that present it; but it is the Christian child of the Church, who in the sacra-
ment of Baptisme, gives it a new inanimation, and who, if either parents, or sureties,
should neglect their parts, will have a care of it, and breed it up to a perfection, and full
growth of that faith, whereof it hath this day, an inchoation and beginning. As then we have said, that Baptisme is a death, a death of sinne, and as we said be-
fore, sinne dyes not without faith, so also can there be no death of sinne, without
sorrow, and contrition, which onely washes away sinne: as therefore we see the Church,
and Christs institution, furnishes this child, with faith, which it hath not of it selfe,
so let us bring to this action, that sorrow and that condoling, that we produce into
the world such miserable wretches, as even by peccatum involuntarium, by that sinne,
to which no act, nay no will of theirs concurred, that is, Originall sinne, are yet put in-
to the state of damnation. But let us also rejoyce, in our owne, and this childes behalfe, that as we that have
been baptized, so this child, that shall be, have, and shall put on Christ Jesus in
Augustine. Baptisme. Both as a garment, for Sacramenta sunt vestimenta, As Christ is a garment,
Idem. so the Sacraments are Christs garment, and as such a garment; as Ornat militem, and
convincit desertores, It gives him, that continues in Gods battailes, a dignity, and
discovers him that forsakes Gods tents, to be a fugitive; Baptisme is a garland,
in which two ends are brought together, he begins aright, and perseveres, so,
Ornat militem, It is an honour to him, that fights out in Gods battaile, but
Convincit Desertorem, Baptisme is our prest money, and if we forsake our colours,
after we have received that, even that forfaits our lives; our very having been
baptized, shall aggravate our condemnation. Yea it is such a garment, as those
of the children of Israel in the wildernesse, which are (by some expositors)
thought to have growne all the forty yeares, with their bodies; for so by Gods blessed
provision, shall grace grow with this infant, to the lifes end. And both we and it,
shall not onely put on Christ, as a garment, but we shall put on his person, and we shall
stand before his Father, with the confidence, and assurance of bearing his person, and
the dignity of his innocence. Serm.
59
Serm. VIII.
At a Churching.
Sermon VIII.
Preached at Essex house, at the Churching of the Lady Doncaster.
Cant. 5.3.
I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? ALLAll things desire to goe to their owne place, and that's but the effect of
Nature; But if Man desires to goe the right way, that's an effect of
grace, and of Religion. A stone will fall to the bottome naturally, and
a flame will goe upwards naturally; but a stone cares not whether it fall
through cleane water, or through Mud; a flame cares not whether it passe
through pure aire, or cloudy; but a Christian, whose end is heaven, will put himselfe
into a faire way towards it, and according to this measure, be pure as his father in hea-
ven is pure. That which is our end, salvation, we use to expresse in Schooles by these
two termes, we call it visionem Dei, the sight of God, and we call it unionem, an u-
nion with God; we shall see God, and we shall be united to God: for our seeing, we
shall see him Sicuti est, as he is; which we cannot expresse, till we see him; 1 Iohn 3.2. Cogno-
scam ut cognitus, I shall know as I am known, 1 Cor. 13.12. which is a knowledge reserved for that
Schoole, and a degree for that Commencement, and not to be had before. Moses ob-
tained a sight of God here, that he might see, Posteriora, Gods hinder parts; Exod. 33.23. and if
we consider God in posterioribus, in his later works, in the fulfilling of all his Prophe-
cies, concerning our Redemption, how he hath accomplished in novissimis, in the
later times, all that which he spake ab initio, by the mouth of his Prophets, which
have been since the world began, if we see God in them, it is a great beame of that
visio beatifica, that beautificall sight of God in heaven; for herein we see the whole
way of our salvation, to be in Christ Jesus; all promise, all performance, all prophecy,
all history concern us, in and by him. And then for that union with God, which is
also our salvation (as this vision is) when we shall be so united, as that we shall follow
the Lambe whither soever he goes, though that union be unexpressible here, yet here, there
is an union with God, which represents that too. Such an union, as that the Church
of which we are parts, is his spouse, and that's Eadem caro, the same body with him;
and such an union as that the obedient children of the Church, are Idem spiritus cum Do-
mino, we are the same body, and the same spirit: So united, as that by being sowed
in the visible Church, we are Semen Dei, the seed of God, 1 Iohn 3 9.3.9. and by growing up
there in godlinesse, and holinesse, we are participes Divinæ naturæ, partakers of the
divine Nature it selfe. Now these two unions, which represent our eternall union
with God (that is, the union of the Church to him, and the union of every good soule
in the Church to him) is the subject of this Song of songs, this heavenly Poeme, of
Solomons; and our baptisme, at our entrance into this world, is a Seale of this union;
our mariage, in the passage of this world, is a Sacrament of this union; and that
which seems to be our dissolution, (our death) is the strongest band of this union,
when we are so united, as nothing can disunite us more. Now, for uniting things
in this world, we are always put to imploy baser, and courser stuffe, to unite them to-
gether, then they themselves; If we lay Marble upon Marble, how well soever we
polish the Marble, yet we must unite them with morter: If we unite riches to riches,
we temper a morter (for the most part) of our owne covetousnesse, and the losse, and
oppressing of some other Men; if we unite honours to honours, titles to titles, we temper a
morter, (for the most part) of our owne Ambition, and the supplanting, or excluding
of some other Men; But in the uniting of a Christian soule to Christ Jesus, here is
no morter, all of one Nature; Nothing but spirit, and spirit, and spirit, the soule
of Man to the Lord Jesus, by the holy Ghost. Worldly unions have some corrupt
foulnesses in them, but for this spirituall union, Lavi pedes, I have washed my feet, how
shall I defile them? Which words, though in the rigor of the coherence, Divisio. and connexion of this Scrip-
ture, they imply a delay in the spouse of Christ, and so in every soule too, that when Christ
60
At a Christning.
Serm. VIII.
Christ called here, the soule was not ready to come forth to him, but made her
excuses, that she had put off her coate, and was loath to rise to put it on, that she had
washed her feet, and was loath to rise, and foule them againe, yet because the ex-
cuse it selfe, (if it were an excuse) hath a piety, and a Religious care in it, the Fathers
for the most part, pretermit that weaknesse that produced an excuse, and consider in
their expositions, the care that the soule had, not to defile her selfe againe, being
once washed. Gregory. Saint Gregory says, that the soule had laid off, Omnia externa, quæ
non tam ornant quàm onerant, all outward ornaments, which are rather encumbrances,
then ornaments; And Saint Ambrose says, Pedes lavi, dum egrederer de corporis con-
tubernio, when I departed from the confederation of my body, and the pampering of
that, I wash'd my feet, Quomodo in tenebrosum carcerem reverterer? And why should I
returne into that darke, and durty prison, againe, the love of mine owne body? Pur-
suing therefore their pious acceptation of these words, we have in them, two festivalls
of the soule, a Resurrection, and an ascension of it; This soule hath raised it selfe, from
the durt and Mud of this world, Lavit pedes, she hath washed her feet, and then she
hath ascended to a resolution, of keeping herselfe in that state, Quomodo inquinabo
eos, how shall I defile them? Call these two parts a Gratulation of the soule, and an
Indignation; first she congratulates with her good, and gratious God, that she is
cleansed from worldly corruptions, Lavi pedes, I have washed my feet; and then she
conceives a Religious scorne and indignation, of setting her foot in the same foule
way againe. Quomodo, how, how is it possible that I should descend, to so low a dis-
position, as to foule them againe? This Resurrection then of the soule, and gratulation,
& this Ascension of the soul & Indignation, will be our two parts. And in the first, we shal
stop a little, upon every one of these five branches; There is ablutio necessaria; There
is a washing, that is necessary to all; for we enter in foulenesse, and corruption into
this world; and that we have in Baptisme for Originall sinne; Secondly, there is ablutio
pedum, a washing of our feet, of our steps, and walkes in this world, and that's by re-
pentance, sealed in the other Sacrament, and properly, that is for actuall sinnes;
Thirdly, in this ablution, there is an Ego lavi, there is a washing, and I my selfe doe
something towards this cleansing of my selfe; And fourthly, it is Lavi, it is, I have
washed, not Lavabo, it is not, I will wash; it is already done, it is not put off to mine
age, nor to my death bed, but Lavi, I have washed; And lastly, it is Pedes meos, I
have washed mine owne feet; for if by my teaching, I cleanse others, and remaine, by
my bad life, in foule ways my selfe, I am not within this text, Lavi pedes meos; I
have not washed my feet; But if we have sincerely performed the first part, we shall
performe the other too, Quomodo, we shall come into a religious detestation, and
indignation of falling into the same foulenesse againe. To passe then through all these (for of all these that's true which Saint Basil says of First Part.
all words in the Scriptures, Habent minutissimæ particulæ sua mysteria, Basil. Every word hath
force and use, as in Pearle, every seed Pearle is as medicinall, as the greatest, so there is a
restorative nature in every word of the Scriptures, and in every word, the soule findes
a rise, and help for her devotion,) To begin with the first, the necessity of washing,
consider us in our first beginning, Psal. 51.5. Concepti in peccatis, our Mothers conceived us in
sin; and being wrapped up in uncleannesse there, can any Man bring a cleane thing out of
filthinesse? Iob 14.4. There is not one; for as we were planted, in our Mothers wombe, in
conception, so we were transplanted from thence into this world, in our Baptisme, Nasci-
mur filii iræ, Eph. 2.3. for we are by nature the children of wrath, as well as others. And
as in the bringing forth, and bringing up, of the best, and most precious, and most deli-
cate plants, Men employ most dung, so the greatest persons, where the spirit and grace
of God, doth not allay that intemperance, which naturally arises, out of abundance,
and provocation, and out of vanity, and ambitious glory, in outward ostentations;
there is more dung, more uncleannesse, more sinne in the conception, and birth
of their children, then of meaner and poorer parents; It is a degree of uncleannesse,
to fixe our thoughts too earnestly upon the uncleannesse of our conception, and of
our birth: when wee call that a testimony of a right comming, if we come into the
world with our head forward, in a head-long precipitation; and when we take no
other testimony of our being alive, but that we were heard cry; and for an earnest,
and a Prophecy, that we shall be viri sanguinum, et dolosi, bloudy, and deceitfull Men
61
Serm. VIII.
At a Churching.
Men, false and treacherous, to the murdering of our owne soules we come into this
world, as the Egyptians went out of it, swallowed, and smothered in a red sea,
Pueri sanguinum, & infirmi, weake, and bloudy infants at our birth. But to carry
our thoughts from materiall, to spirituall uncleannesses, In peccato concepti, we were
conceived in sinne, but who can tell us how? That flesh in our mothers wombe,
which we are, having no sinne in it selfe, (for that masse of flesh could not be dam-
ned, if there never came a soule into it) and that soule, which comes into that flesh
from God, having no sinne in it neither, (for God creates nothing infected with
sinne, neither should that soule be damned, if it came not into that body) The body,
being without sinne, and the soule being without sinne, yet in the first minute, that
this body and soule meet, and are united, we become in that instant, guilty of
Adams sinne, committed six thousand years before. Such is our sinne and unclean-
nesse, in Originall sinne, as the subtillest Man in the Schooles, is never able to
tell us, how, or when we contracted that sinne, but all have it; And therefore if
there be any, any any-where, of that generation, Prov. 30.12. that are pure in their owne eyes, and yet
are not washed from their filthinesse, as Solomon speakes, Bernard.Erubesce vas stercorum, says
good Saint Bernard, If it be a vessell of gold, it is but a vessell of excrements,
if it be a bed of curious plants, it is but a bed of dung; as their tombes hereaf-
ter shall be but glorious covers of rotten carcasses, so their bodies are now, but pam-
pered covers of rotten soules; Erubescat vas stercorum, let that vessell of uncleannesse,
that barrell of dung, confesse a necessity of washing, and seeke that, and rejoyce in
that, for thus farre, (that is, to the pollution of Originall sinne,) in peccato con-
cepti, and nascimur filii iræ, wee are conceived in sinne, first, and then we are borne
the children of wrath. But where's our remedy? Why for this, for this originall uncleannesse, is the
water of Baptisme. Oportet nos renasci; we must be borne againe; we must; There is
a necessity of Baptisme: Iohn 3.7. As we are the children of Christian parents, we have Jus
ad rem, a right to the Covenant, we may claime baptisme, the Church cannot de-
ny it us; And as we are baptized in the Christian Church, we have Jus in re, a right in the
Covenant, and all the benefits thereof, all the promises of the Gospell: we are
sure that we are conceived in sinne, and sure that we are borne children of wrath,
but not sure that we are cleansed, or reconciled to God, by any other meanes
then that, which he hath ordained, Baptisme. The Spirit of God moved first upon
the water; and the spirit of life grew first in the water; Primus liquor, quod viveret e-
didit: Tertullian. The first living creatures in the first creation, were in the waters; and the first
breath of spirituall life, came to us, 1 Reg. 7.24. from the water of baptisme. In the Temple
there was Mare æneum, a brasen sea; In the Church there is Mare aureum, a golden
sea, which is Baptisterium, the font, in which we discharge our selves, of all our
first uncleannesses, of all the guiltinesse of Originall sinne; but because we contract
new uncleannesses, by our uncleane ways here; therefore there must bee Ablutio pe-
dum, a washing of our feet, of our ways, of our actions, which is our second branch.
2.
Pedes.
Bern. Cecidimus in lutum, & super acervum lapidum, says Saint Bernard; we fell by A-
dams fall, into the durt; but from that, we are washed in baptisme; but we fell
upon a heape of sharpe stones too; and we feel those wounds, and those bruises,
all our lives after; Impingimus meridie, we stumble at noone day; In the brightest
light of the Gospell, Esay 59.10. in the brightest light of grace, in the best strength of Re-
pentance, and our resolutions to the contrary, yet we stumble, and fall againe. Duo
nobis pedes, says that Father, Natura, & Consuetudo; we stand, says he, upon two feet,
Nature, and Custome; and we are lame of one foot hereditarily, we draw a cor-
rupt Nature from our parents; and we have lamed the other foot, by crooked,
and perverse customes. Now, as God provided a liquor in his Church, for Ori-
ginall sinne, the water of Baptisme, so hath he provided another for those actuall
sinnes; that is, the bloud of his owne body, in the other Sacrament. In which Sa-
crament, besides the naturall union, (that Christ hath taken our Nature,) and
the Mysticall union, (that Christ hath taken us into the body of his Church)
by a spirituall union, when we apply faithfully his Merits to our soules,
and by a Sacramentall union, when we receive the visible seales thereof, worthily,
we are so washed in his bloud, as that we stand in the sight of his Father, as cleane, G and
62
At a Christning.
Serm. VIII.
and innocent, as himselfe, both because he and we are thereby become one body,
and because the garment of his righteousnesse covers us all. But, for a preparati-
on of this washing in the bloud of Christ, in that Sacrament, Christ commended
to his Apostles, and in them, to all the world, by his practise, and by his precept
too, ablutionem pedum, a washing of their feet; before they came to that Sacrament
he washed their feet; Iohn 13. And in that exemplary action of his, his washing of their
feet, Bernard. he powred water into a Bason, says the text: Aqua spiritus sanctus, pelvis Ec-
clesia,; These preparatory waters are the gift of the holy Ghost, the working of
his grace in repentance; but pelvis Ecclesia, the bason is the Church; that is,
these graces are distributed, and dispensed to us, in his institution, and ordinance
in the Church: No Man can wash himselfe at first, by Baptisme; no Man can
baptize himselfe; no Man can wash in the second liquor, no Man, (that is but a
Man) can administer the other Sacrament to himselfe: Pelvis ecclesia, the Church is
the bason, and Gods Minister in the Church, washes in both these cases. And, in
this ablutione pedum, in the preparatory washing of our feet, by a survey of all our
sinfull actions and repentance of them, no Man can absolve himselfe, but pelvis
ecclesia, the bason of this water of absolution, is in the Church and in the Minister
thereof. First then this washing of the feet, which prepares us for the great washing, in
the bloud of Christ, requires a stripping of them, a laying of them naked; cover-
ing of the feet in the Scriptures, is a phrase, that denotes a foule, and an uncleane
action; Iudg. 3.24. Saul was said to cover his feet, in the Cave, and Eglon was said to cover his
feet in his Parler; and we know the uncleane action, that is intended here: but
for this cleane action, for washing our feet, we must discover all our sinfull steps,
in a free and open confession to almighty God. This may be that which Solomon
calls, Prov. 3.21. sound wisdome; My sonne keep sound wisdome, and discretion. There is not a
more silly folly, then to thinke to hide any sinfull action from God. Nor sounder
wisdome then to discover them to him, by an humble, and penitent confession; This
is sound wisdome, and then, discretion is, to wash, and discerne, and debate, and ex-
amine all our future actions, and all the circumstances, that by this spirit of discretion
we may see, where the sting, and venome of every particular action lies: My sonne
keep sound wisdome, and discretion, says he, And then shalt thou walke in thy way
safely, and thy foot shall not stumble; If thy discretion be not strong enough, (if thou
Psal. 91.11.canst not always discerne, what is, and what is not sinne) he shall give his Angells
charge over thee, that thou dash not thy foot against a stone; and that's good securi-
ty; and if all these faile, though thou doe fall, thou shalt not be utterly cast
downe, Psal. 37.24. for the Lord shall uphold thee with his hand, says David; God shall give that
Man, that loves this sound wisdome, (humble confession of sinnes past) this spiritu-
all discretion, the spirit of discerning spirits, that is, power to discerne a tentation,
and to overcome it; confesse that which is past with true sorrow, that’s sound wis-
dome, and God shall enlighten thee for the future, and that's holy discretion. The washing of our feet then, being a cleane, and pure and sincere examination
of all our actions, we are to wash all the instruments of our actions, in repentance;
Lavanda facies, Gen. 43.31. we are to wash our face, as Joseph did, after he had wept, before
he looked upon his brethren againe: If we have murmured, and mourned, for any
crosse, that God hath laid upon us, we must returne to a cheerfull countenance
towards him, in embracing whatsoever he found best for us; we must wash our
Intestina, Exod. 29.17. our bowels, (as it is after commanded in the law) when our bowels, which
should melt at the relation, and contemplation, and application of the passion of
our Saviour, doe melt at the apprehension, or expectation, or fruition of any sin-
full delight, Exod. 19.10. Lavanda intestina, we must wash those bowells; Lavanda vestimenta,
we must wash our clothes; when we apparell and palliate our sinnes with excuses,
of our owne infirmity, or of the example of greater Men, these clothes must be
washed, these excuses; Lavanda currus & arma, as Ahabs chariot and armour were
washed; 1 Reg. 22.38. If the power of our birth or of our place, or of our favour, have armed
us against the power of the law, or against the clamour of Men justly incensed,
Lavandi currus, these chariots, and armes, this greatnesse must be washed; La-
vanda retia; Luk. 1.2. what Nets soever we have fished with, by what meanes soever we raise, or
63
Serm. VIII.
At a Churching.
or sustaine our fortune, Lavanda retia, These nets must be washed. Bernard. Saint Bernard hath
drawn a great deale of this heavenly water together, for the washing of all, when
he presents, (as he cals it) Martyrium, sine sanguine, triplex, a threefold Martyr-
dome, & all without bloud; and that is, Largitas in paupertate, a bountifull disposition,
even in a low fortune; parcitas in ubertate, a frugall disposition in a full fortune; and
Castitas in Juventute, a pure, and chaste disposition, in the years, and places of
tentation. These are Martyrdomes, without bloud, but not without the water
that washes our feet; This is sound wisdome, and discretion, to strip, and lay open
our feet, our sinfull actions, by Confession; To cover them, and wrap them up by
precaution, from new uncleannesse; and then to tye and bind up all safe, by parti-
cipation of the bloud of Christ Jesus, in the Sacrament; for that's the seale of all;
And Christ in the washing of his disciples feet, tooke a towell to dry them, as well,
as water to wash them; so when he hath brought us to this washing of our feet,
to a serious consideration of our actions, and to repentant teares, for them, Absterget
omnem lachrymam, he will wipe all teares from our eyes; all teares of confusion to-
wards Men, or of diffidence towards him; Absterget omnem lachrymam, and deliver
us over to a setled peace of conscience. Ego. There is a washing then, absolutely, generally necessary, the water of Baptisme;
and a washing occasionally necessary, because we fall into actuall sinnes, the bloud
of our Saviour in the Sacrament; and there is a washing between these, preparatory
to the last washing, the water of Contrite, and repentant teares, in opening our selves
to God, and shutting up of our selves against future tentations: of the two first, the
two Sacraments, fons in Ecclesia, the whole spring, and river is in the Church,
there is no baptisme, no bloud of Christ, but in the Church; And of this later,
which is most properly ablutio pedum, the washing of the feet, that is, teares shed
in repentance of our sinfull lives, of this water, there is Pelvis in Ecclesia, the
Bason is in the Church; for our best repentance (though this repentance be at home
in our owne hearts) doth yet receive a Seale, from the absolution of Gods Ministers
in the Church. But yet though there be no cleansing, but from the spirit of God,
no ordinary working of Gods spirit, but in the Church, and his ordinances there,
yet we our selves are not so left out, in this work, but that the spouse here, and e-
very carefull soule here, says, truly, Ego lavi, I my selfe have washed my feet; which
is our third branch. It is said often in Philosophy, Nihil in intellectu, quod non prius in sensu; till
some sense apprehend a thing, the Judgment cannot debate it, nor discourse it; It
may well be said in Divinity too, Nihil in gratia, quod non prius in natura, there is no-
thing in grace, that was not first in nature, so farre, as that grace always finds
nature, and naturall faculties to work on; though that nature be not disposed to
the receiving of grace, when it comes, yet that nature, and those faculties, which
may be so disposed by grace, are there, before that grace comes. And the grace of
God doth not work this cleansing, but where there is a sweet, and souple, and
tractable, and ductile disposition wrought in that soule. This disposition is no cause
why God gives his grace; for there is no cause, but his own meer, and unmeasu-
rable goodnesse; But yet, without such a disposition, God would not give that;
and therefore let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse, says the Apostle; 2 Cor. 7. 1. There
is something, which we ourselves may doe. A Man that had powred out himselfe
in a vehement, and corrupt solicitation of the chastity of any woman, if he found
himselfe surprized by the presence of a husband, or a father, he could give over in
the midst of a protestation; A Man that had set one foot into a house of dange-
rous provocations, if he saw a bill of the plague, upon the doore, he could goe
backe; A Man that had drawne his sword to rob a passenger, if he saw a hue and cry
come, could give over that; and all this is upon the Ego lavi, I have washed;
without use of grace, his owne naturall reason declines him from that sinne then.
How long shall we make this bad use, of this true doctrine, that, because we can-
not doe enough, for our salvation, therefore we will doe nothing? Shall I see any
Man shut out of heaven, that did what he could upon earth? Thou that canst
mourne for any worldly losse, mourne for thy sinne; Thou that lovest meetings of
company for society, and conversation, love the meeting of the Saints of God, in G2 the
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At a Christning.
Serm. VIII.
the Congregation, and communion of Saints; Thou that lovest the Rhetorique, the
Musique, the wit, the sharpnesse, the eloquence, the elegancy, of other authors, love
even those things in the Scriptures, in the word of God, where they abound more,
then in other authors. Put but thy affections out of their ordinary sinfull way,
and then Lavasti pedes, thou hast washed thy feet; and God will take thy work
in hand, and raise a building farre beyond the compasse, and comprehension of thy
foundation; that which the soule began, but in good nature, shall be perfected in
grace. Lavi. But doe it quickly; for the glory of this soule here was in the Lavi; It is not
Lavabo; that she had already; not that she would wash her feet; since thou art come
to know thy naturall uncleannesse, and baptisme for that, and thine actuall unclean-
nesse; and that for that, there is a River, that brings thee into the maine Sea, (the
water of repentance leads thee to the bottomelesse Sea of the bloud of thy Savi-
our, in the Sacrament) continue not in thy foulenesse, in confidence that all shall
be drowned in that at last, whensoever thou wilt come to it. It was a common,
but an erroneous practise, even in the Primitive Church, to defer their baptisme, till
they were old; because an opinion prevailed upon them, that baptisme discharged
them of all sinnes, they used to be baptized then, when they were past sinning, that
so they might passe out of this world, in that innocency, which their baptisme im-
printed in them: And out of this custome; Men grew to be the more carelesse all
their lives, because all was done at once in baptisme. But says Saint Augustine in
that case, (and it was his owne case) It were uncharitably said, Augustin. Vulneretur amplius,
that if we saw a Man welter in his bloud, and wounded in divers places, it were un-
charitably said, Vulneretur amplius, give him two or three wounds more, for the Sur-
geon is not come yet; It is uncharitably said to thine owne soule, Vulneretur amplius,
take thy pleasure in sinne yet, when I come to receive the Sacrament, I will repent al-
together, doe not thinke to put off all to the washing weeke; all thy sinnes, all thy re-
pentance, to Easter, and the Sacrament then; There may be a washing then, and no
drying; thou maist come to weep the teares of desperation, to seek mercy with teares,
and not find it; teares for worldly losses, teares for sinne, teares for bodily anguish,
may overflow thee then; and whereas Gods goodnesse to those, that are his, is, ut
abstergat omnem Lachrymam, to wipe all teares from their eyes; absterget nullam Lachry-
mam, he may leave all unwiped upon thee, he may leave thy soule to sinke, and to
shipwracke, under this tempest, and inundation, and current of divers tides, teares
of all kinds, and ease of none: for those of whom it is said, Deus absterget omnem lachry-
mam, God shall wipe all teares from their eyes, are they Qui laverunt Stolas, (as we
see there) who have already washed their long robes, and made them white in the bloud
of the Lambe: who have already by teares of repentance, become worthy receivers of
the seale of reconciliation, in the Sacrament of his body, and bloud; To them, God
shall wipe all teares from their eyes; but to the unrepentant sinner, he shall multiply
teares; from teares, for the losse, of a horse, or of a house, to teares for the losse of
a soule, and wipe no teare from his eyes. But yet though this Lavi, exclude the Lavabo, as it is dilatory, that is, I will wash,
but not yet, yet it excludes not the Lavabo, I will wash, as it is an often washing; I
must come to that, Lavi, I have washed, but yet I will wash againe: for till our feet
be so washed, as that they be wrapped up in our last linnen, and so raised from the
ground, as that they be laid upon other Mens shoulders, our feet will touch the
ground againe and need new washing. When Christ washed his disciples feet, there is
a great difference amongst the Fathers, where he beganne, whose feet he washed first:
Augustine &
Bernard.
Origen &
Chrysostome.Saint Augustine, and Saint Bernard thinke he beganne with Peter; they thinke Christ
respected the dignity of his person: Origen, & Chrysostome thinke he beganne with
Judas; they thinke Christ respected the necessity of the Patient, and applied the Phy-
sique soonest, where the disease was most malignant, and venemous. None of them
say he beganne with John, whom it is cleere he loved most. If any soule have ap-
prehended that Christ came late to her washing, not till now, let her not argue, to her
owne danger, that he loved her the lesse for that: if he have suffered sinne to abound,
that grace might abound, what Patient shall dare to appoint, that Physitian his Dosis,
or his times; whomsoever he washed first of his Apostles, he washed them all; and to
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Serm. VIII.
At a Churching.
to him that was forwardest ever in his owne strength, to Peter, he said, Non habebis
partem, If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me; If we come not to this
washing of our feet, this preparatory washing by teares of repentance, we can have no
part in him, that is, in the participation of his body, and his bloud; but when he hath
brought us to this Jordan, which is Fluvius Judicii, the water of Judgment, and that
we have judged, and condemned our selves of this Leprosie of sinne, Lavemur septies,
let us often call our selves to account, implore the councell often, often accept the ab-
solution of Gods Minister, and often settle our soules, in a true peace, by a worthy re-
ceiving of the seale thereof, in the Sacrament: And as in that we come to the Lavi,
(a peacefull testimony, that we have washed our consciences) so let us pursue it with
a Lavabo, with an humble acknowledgment, that we fall every day, and every day
need a new washing; for as from poore tenants, Landlords are not content to receive
their rent at the years end, but quarterly, or in shorter termes, so from such beggerly
and bankrupt soules as ours are, God is not content with an anniversary repentance
once a yeare, at Easter; but we shall finde our rent, our payment heavy enough, if we
pay every day, and wash our feet every night, for the uncleannesses of that one day. To shut up this part then; This washing of the feet, is the spirit of discerning, Meos. and
censuring particular actions: but it is pedes meos, a discerning, and censuring of my
actions, not onely, or not principally the actions of other Men; Quàm speciosi pedes
Evangelizantium, how beautifull are the feet of them, that preach peace, Rom. 10. says Saint Paul,
Isay 52.7. out of the mouth of two witnesses, two Prophets, that had said so before. If we will
Nah. 1.15. preach peace, that is, relieve the consciences of others, by presenting them their sinnes,
we must have speciosos pedes, cleane ways, and a cleane life of our owne; so it is with
us, and our profession; But Gens sancta, regale Sarcerdotium, as the Apostle joines
them, If you be a holy people, you are also a royall preisthood; If you be all Gods Saints,
1 Pet. 2.9. you are all Gods Preists; and if you be his preists, it is your office to preach too; as
we by words, you by your holy works; as we by contemplation, you by conversation;
as we by our doctrine, so you by your lives, are appointed by God to preach to one a-
nother: and therefore every particular Man, must wash his owne feet, looke that he
have speciosos pedes, that his example may preach to others, for this is truly Regale
Sacerdotium, a regall preisthood, not to work upon others by words, but by actions.
If we love one another, as Christ loved us, we must wash one anothers feet, as he com-
manded his Apostles; There is a preistly duty lies upon every Man, brotherly to re-
prehend a brother, whom he sees trampling in foule ways, wallowing in foule sinnes;
but I may preach to others and be my selfe a reprobate, (as Saint Paul speakes with ter-
ror to Men of our coate) in his owne person, I may bring others to heaven, 1 Cor. 9.27. and bee
shut out my selfe; And thou maist preach that a Man should not steale, and steale, That
a Man should not commit adultery, and commit it; And in these cases, Non speciosi pedes,
Rom. 2.21. here are no cleane, no faire feet, and therefore no edifying. Nay if, in either kind, we,
or you, abhor Idols, and yet commit sacriledge, that is, reprehend a sinne in another,
which we are free from our selves, but yet are guilty our selves, of another sinne as
great, here's no cleane feet, no profitable preaching; And therefore the onely way to
doe God service, is, to wash and to censure the feet, (that is, particular actions) but prin-
cipally, our owne feet, that which we doe our selves. 2. Part. There remaines yet a second part: and perchance but a little time for it; and I shall
proportion, and fit my selfe to it. It is, That as this soule had a Resurrection, she hath
an Ascension; As she had vocem gratulantis, a thanksgiving, that she hath washed her
feet, so she hath vocem indignantis, a religious scorne and indignation, to fall into those
foule ways againe. For this holy indignation, is one linke in the Apostles chaine of Re-
pentance, where, upon Godly sorrow, depends care, and upon that, cleansing of our selves,
and upon that indignation, 2 Cor. 7. 11. and so feare, and so desire, and so zeale, and
so punishments of our selves: every linke worthy of a longer consideration;
but here we consider onely this indignation; when that soule that is washed, and
thereby sees, to what a faire conformity with her Saviour she is come, is come also to
a scorne, to a disdaine to compare any beauty in this world, to that face, which An-
gells desire to looke upon; any nearenesse to great persons in this world, to the fol-
lowing of the Lambe wheresoever he goes; any riches of this world, to that riches where-
with the poverty of Christ Jesus hath made us rich; any length of life in this world, G3 to
66
At a Christning.
Serm. VIII.
to that union which we shall have, to the Antient of dayes; where even the everli-ving God, shall not overlive us, but carry out our days to the unmeasured measure
of his owne, to eternity. This indignation, this soule expresses here, in this question,
Quomodo, how shall I defile them? First then, this voice of indignation, hath this force;
Quomodo, how shall I defile them, is, how is it possible, that I should defile them? I have
washed my feet, repented my sinnes and taken the seale of my Reconciliation, the Sa-
crament, Bernard. and that hath this effect, ut sensum minuat in minimis, & toliat consensum in
magnis peccatis, That grace, that God gives in the Sacrament, makes us lesse sensible
of small tentations, (they move us not) and it makes us resist, and not yeild to the grea-
test tentations; since I am in this state, Quomodo inquinabo? How shall I defile them?
The difference will be, of whom thou askest this question: If thou aske the world, the
world will tell thee, well enough. Quomodo, How; It will tell thee, that it is a Melan-
choly thing, to sit thinking upon thy sinnes; That it is an unsociable thing, to seeke him,
who cannot be seen, an invisible God; That it is poore company, to passe thy time
with a Priest; Thou maiest defile thy selfe againe, by forgetting thy sinnes, and so do-
ing them over againe: And thou maist defile thy selfe againe, by remembring thy sins,
and so sinne over thy sinnes againe, in a sinfull delight of thy passed sinnes, and a desire
that thou couldst commit them againe. There are answers enough to this Quomodo,
How, how should I defile them, if thou aske the world: but aske thy Saviour, and he shall
tell thee, Iohn 4.11. That whosoever hath this water, shall never thirst more, but that water shall be in
him an everlasting spring; that is, he shall find meanes to keep himselfe in that clean-
nesse, Rom. 8. to which he is come; and neither things present, nor things to come shall separate
him from the love of God. Thus the voice of this religious indignation, Quomodo, is, how is it possible, but it is
also, Quomodo, how, that is, why should I? The first is, how should I be so base, the other,
how should I be so bold? Though I have my pardon, written in the bloud of my Savi-
our, sealed to me in his Sacrament, brought home to me in the testimony of the holy
Ghost, pleaded for me, at the tribunall of the Father, yet as Princes pardons have, so
Gods pardons have too, this clause, Ita quod se bene gerat; He that is pardoned must
continue of good behaviour; for whensoever he breakes the peace, he forfeits his par-
don; When I returne to my repented sinnes againe, I am under the burden of all my
former sinnes, and my very repentance, contracts the nature of a sinne: and therefore
Quomodo, how should I, that is, why should I defile them? To restore you to your liber-
ty, and to send you away with the meditation, which concernes you most, consider,
what an astonishment this would be, that when Christ Jesus shall lay open the great
volumes of all your sinnes, to your sight, who had forgot them, and to their sight,
from whom you had disguised them, at the last judgement, when you shall heare all the
wantonnesses of your youth, all the Ambitions of your middle years, all the covetous
desires of your age, published in that presence, and thinke then, this is the worst that
can be said, or laid to my charge, this is the last indictment, and the last evidence, there
shall follow your very repentances in the list of your sinnes, and it shall be told you, and
all the world then, Here, and here you deluded that God, that forbore to inflict his
Judgements, upon new vowes, new contracts, new promises, between you and him; even
your repentances shall bind up that booke, and tye your old sinnes, and new relapses
into one body. And let this meditation bring you ad vocem gratulantis, to rejoyce once
againe in this Lavi pedes, that you have now washed your feet, in a present sorrow, and
ad vocem indignantis, to a stronger indignation, and faster resolution, then heretofore
you have had, never to defile them againe. Serm.
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Serm. IX.
At a Churching.
Sermon IX.
Preached at a Churching.
Micah 2.10.
Arise and depart, for this is not your Rest. ALLAll that God asks of us, is, that we love him with all our heart: All that
he promises us, is, that he will give us rest, round about us; Judah sought
the Lord with a whole desire, and he gave her rest, round about her. Now
a Man might think himselfe well disposed for Rest, when he lies down, I
will lay me down, and sleep in peace, sayes David; but it is otherwise here;
Psal. 4.8. Arise, and depart; for here, (that is, in lying, and sleeping) is not your Rest, sayes
this Prophet. These words have a three-fold acceptation, and admit a three-fold
exposition; for, first, they are a Commination, the Prophet threatens the Jewes;
Secondly, they are a Commonition, the Prophet instructs all future ages; Thirdly,
they are a Consolation, which hath reference to the Consummation of all, to the ri-
sing at the generall Judgement. First, he foretels the Jewes of their imminent capti-
vity; Howsoever you build upon the pactum salis, the Covenant of salt, the everla-
sting Covenant, that God will be your God, and this land your land, yet since that
confidence sears you up in your sins, Arise and depart, for this is not your rest, your
Jerusalem must be chang'd into Babylon; there's the Commination: Secondly, he
warns us, who are bedded and bedrid in our sins; howsoever you say to your selves,
Soule take thy rest, enjoy the honors, the pleasures, the abundances of this world, Tush
the Lord sees it not, The Master will not come, we may ly still safely, and rest in the
fruition of this Happinesse, yet this Rest will betray you, this rest will deliver you over
to eternall disquiet: And therefore arise and depart, for this is not your Rest, and that's
the Commonition. And in the third acceptation of the words as they may have relation
to the Resurrection, they may well admit a little inversion; Howsoever you feel a
Resurrection by grace from the works of death, and darknesse in this life, yet in this
life, there is no assurednesse, that he that is risen, and thinks he stands, shall not fall;
here you arise and depart, that is, rise from your sins, and depart from your sinfull pur-
poses, but you arise, and depart so too, that you fall, and depart again into your sin-
full purposes, after you have risen; and therefore Depart and arise, for here is not your
rest; till you depart altogether out of this world, and rise to Judgement, you can have
no such rest, as can admit no disquiet, no perturbation; but then you shall; and that's
the Consolation. First then, as the words concern the Jewes; Here is first an increpation, 1. Part. a rebuke,
Divisio.that they are fallen from their station, and their dignity, implied in the first word, Arise,
for then they were fallen; Secondly, here is a demonstration in the same word, That
though they lik'd that state into which they were fallen, which was a security, and stub-
bornnesse in their sins, yet they should not enjoy even that security, and that stub-
bornnesse, that fall of theirs, but they should lose that; though it were but a false
contentment, yet they should be rouz'd out of that, Arise; first arise, because you are
fallen, and then, arise, though you think your selves at ease, by that fall. And then
thirdly, here is a continuation of Gods anger, when they are risen; for they are not
rais'd to their former state and dignity, from which they were fallen, they are not rais'd
to be established, but it is arise, and depart; And in all this (which is a fourth Con-
sideration) God precludes them from any hope by solicitation, he reveales his purpose
his Decree, and consequently his inexorablenesse evidently, in that word, for; never
murmur, never dispute, never intreat, you must depart, for it is determined, it
is resolved, and here is not your Rest; In which also the Commination is yet more, and
more aggravated; first, in that they lose their Rest, which God hath sold them so dear-
ly, by so many battailes, and so many afflictions, and which God had sworn to them
so solemnly by so many ratifications; they must lose their Rest, they must have no
Rest, Here; not there; not in the Land of Promise it selfe; And then lastly, as they are
68
At a Christning.
Serm. IX.
are denied all rest there; There, where was the wombe, and Center of their Rest, so
there is no intimation, no hope given, that they should have rest any where else, for as
they were to rise, onely to depart, so they were to depart into Captivity. Increpatio. The first is an increpation, they were fallen; but from whence? It was once said,
Ceciderunt. Qui jacet in terra, non habet unde cadat, but he that is earth it selfe, whither can he
fall? whither can Man, derived from earth before his life, enamored of the earth, em-
bracing it, and maried to it in his life, destined to the earth, betrothed to it for a second
mariage after this life, whither can he fall? It is true of us all, I shall say to corruption,
Thou art my father, and to the worme, Thou art my Mother, and my sister; Iob 16.14. and can we fall
into worse company, contract an alliance with a more base, and beggerly kindred then
this? Not if we were left there; then we could not: but when we consider a nation,
of whom God hath said, sponsabo te mihi, I will mary thee, without any respect of dis-
paragement in thy lownesse, I will not refuse thee for it, I will not upbraid thee with it,
I will mary thee for ever, and without any purpose of divorce (sponsabo in æternum,) of
this nation thus assum'd, thus contracted, thus endowed, thus assured, why may not
we wonder as vehemently, as the Prophet did, of the fallen Angels, Quomodo cecidisti
de cœlo, Lucifer filius Orientis, how did this nation fall out of Gods armes, out of Gods
bosome? Himselfe tells us how; what he had done to exalt them, what they had done
to devest his favours: for their naturall lownes, he says, In thy nativity when thou wast born,
thy Navell was not cut, thou wast not washed, thou wast not salted, thou wast not swadled; No
Ezek. 16.3. eye pitied thee, but thou wast cast into the open fields in contempt, I passed by, and saw thee in
thy bloud, and said thou shalt live; I sware unto thee, and entred into a covenant with
thee, and thou becamest mine; I washed thee, anointed thee, and adorned thee:
and thou wast perfect through my beauty, which I set upon thee; well then, in this state,
Quomodo cecidisti de cœlo; how fell she out of Gods armes, out of his bosome? thus;
Thou didst trust in thine owne beauty, because of thy renowne, and so playedst the harlot.
When that nation was in massa damnata, a loafe of Adams dow, through all which the
infectious leaven of sin had passed without difference, when that nation had no more
title, nor pretence to Gods mercy, then any of their fellow wormes, when God
had heaped, and accumulated his temporall blessings upon them, and above all, dwelt
with them, in the alliance, and in the familiarity of a particular Religion, which con-
tracted God and them, and left out all the world beside, when God had imprinted
this beauty in them, and that they had a renowne, and reputation for that, they trusted
to their owne beauty, (to worship whom they would, and how they would) they followed
their own invention; yea they trusted in beauty, which was not their owne, in borrowed
beauty, in painted beauty, and so tooke in, and applied themselves to all the spirituall
fornications, to all the Idolatries of the nations about them; some that were too absurd
to be hearkned to; some too obscene, and foule to be named now by us, though the
Prophets, (to their farther reproach, and confusion) have named them; some, too
ridiculous to fall into any Mans consideration, that could seriously thinke of a Majesty,
in a God, which should be worshipped; yet all these, absurd, and obscene, and ridicu-
lous Idolatries, they prostituted them selves unto. Take them in their lowness, for any disposition towards the next world, and this was
their state, Their navell was not cut; that is, they were still incorporated into their mo-
ther, to earth, and to sinne; and they were not one step higher, then all the world be-
side, in Jacobs ladder, whose top is in heaven. Take them in their dignity in this
world, and then we finde them in Egypt, where they were not Personæ, but Res, they
were not their Masters Men, but their Masters goods; they were their cattell, to vex, and
wear out, with their labours spent upon the delights of others; They must goe farre
for straw; a great labour, for a little matter; and they must burne it, when they had
brought it; they must make bricke, but others must build houses, with their materialls,
and they perish in the fields; they must beget children, but onely for the slaughter, and
to be murdred as soone as they were borne; what nation, what Man, what beast, what
worme, what weed, if it could have understood their state, would have changed with
them then? This was their dejection, their exinanition in Egypt, if we shall beginne there to
consider, what he did for them: As after, in the Christian Church, he made the bloud of
the Martyrs, the seed of the Church, so in Egypt, he propagated, and multiplied his Children,
69
Serm. IX.
At a Churching.
Children, in the midst of their cruell oppressions, and slaughters, as though their bloud
had been seed to encrease by; under the weight of their depressions, he gave them growth,
and stature, and strength, as though their wounds had been playsters, and their vexations
cordials; when he had made Egypt as a Hell, by kindling all his plagues, in her bosome,
yet Non dereliquit in Inferno, he left not his beloved in this Hell, he paled in a Paradise
in this Hell, a Goshen in Egypt, and gave his servants security; briefly, those whom the
sword should have lessen'd, whom labour should have creepled, whom contempt should
have begger'd, he brought out, numerous, and in multitudes, strong, and in cou-
rage, rich, and in abundance; and he opened the Red-sea, as he should have opened
the booke of life, to shew them their Names, their security, and he shut the sea, as
that book, upon the Egyptians, to shew them their irrecoverable exclusion. If we
consider, what he did for them, what he suffered from them, in their way, the battailes,
that he fought for them, in an out-stretched arm, the battails, that they fought against
him, in the stifnesse of their necks, and their murmuring, we must, to their confusi-
on, acknowledge, that at a great deale a lesse price, then he paid for them, he might
have gained all the people of the earth; all the Nations of the earth, (in appearance)
would have come in to his subjection, upon the thousand part of that which he did for
the Israelites in their way. But for that which he did for them, at home, when he had
planted them in the Land of Promise, as it were an ungratefull thing, not to remember
those blessings, so it is some degree of ingratitude, to think them possible to be num-
bred. Consider the narrownesse of the Land, (scarce equall to three of our shires) and
their innumerable armies; consider the barrennesse of many parts of that Countrey,
and their innumerable sacrifices of Cattell; consider their little trade, in respect, and
their innumerable treasures; but consider especially, what God had done for their
soules, in promising, and ratifying so often a Messias unto them, and giving them Law
and Prophets, in the mean time, and there you see their true height; and then con-
sider the abominations, and Idolatries, in which they had plung'd, and buried them-
selves, and there you see their lownesse, how far they were fallen. This then was their descent; Non gaude-
bunt. and as Saint Paul sayes (when he describes this de-
scent of the Jewes, into all manner of abominations) one step of this stayre, of this
descent, is, unnaturall affection, they were unnaturall to themselves; that is, not sen-
sible of their own misery, but were proud of their fall, and thought themselves at ease
in their ruine; and another stayre in this fall is, Rom. 1.28. that God had delivered them up to a
reprobate mind, to suffer them to think so still. And then for their farther vexation,
God would take from them, even that false, that imaginary comfort of theirs. Surgite,
sayes God; since you have made that perverse shift, to take comfort in your fall, Arise
from that, from that security, from that stupidity, for you shall not chuse but see your
misery; when all the people were descended to that basenesse, (as nothing is more
base, then to court the world, and the Devill, for poore and wretched delights, when
we may have plentifull, and rich abundance in our confidence in God) when the peo-
ple were all of one mind, and one voice, omnes unius labii, their hearts, Gen. 11. and tongues
Aug. spoke all one language, and, (populus tanto deterior, quanto in deterioribus concors, Men
are the worse, the more they are, and the more unanime, and constant they are in ill
purposes) when they were all come to that Venite comburamus, Come, and let us burn
brick, and trust in our own work, and Venite, ædificemus, Come, and let us build a
tower, and provide a safety for our selves; since they would descend from their dig-
nity, (which dignity consists in the service of God, whose service is perfect freedome)
God would descend with them, Venite descendamus, sayes God; but what to doe?
Descendamus, ut confundamus, let us goe down to confound their language, and to
scatter them upon the earth. Ascensio mendax, descensio crudelis, Bern. sayes holy Bernard,
A false ascending, is a cruell descending: when we lye weltring in our bloud, secure
in our sins, and can flatter our selves, that we are well, and where we would be, this de-
ceitfull ascension, is a cruell descent into hell; we lye still, we feel no pain, but it is be-
cause we have broke our necks; we doe not grone, we doe not sigh, but it is, because
our breath is gone, the spirit of God is departed from us. They were descended to
a flatnesse of tast, Egyptian Onions had a better savor, then the Manna of heaven; They
were descended to a new-fanglednesse in Civill government, they liked the form of go-
vernment amongst their neighbours, better then that of Judges, which God had esta-
blished
70
At a Christning.
Serm. IX.
blished for them then; They were descended to a newfanglednesse in matter of Religi-on, to the embracing of a foraine, and a frivolous, and an Idolatrous worship of
God: but then being in their descent, when they delighted in it, as Sea-sick men, who
had rather be troden upon, then rise up, then God frustrate that false joy and false ease
of theirs, he rouses them from all that, which they had proposed to themselves, Sur-
gite, arise, arise from this security, because you are fallen, you should rise, but because
you love your misery, you shall rise, you shall come to a sense, and knowledge of it, you
shall not enjoy the ease of an ignorance. But he raised them not, Depart. to reestablish them, to restore them to their former dignity;
there was no comfort in that Surgite, which was accompanied with an Ite, arise and de-
part: and depart into captivity. If we compare the captivity, which they were going
into, (that of Babylon) with the other bondage, which they had been delivered from,
(that of Egypt) it is true, there were many, and reall, and important differences. That
of Egypt was Ergastulum, Exod. 6.6. a prison; and it was fornax ferrea, an Iron fornace; but in
Deut. 4.20. Babylon, they were not slaves, as they were in Egypt, but they were such a kind of prisoners,
as onely had not liberty, to returne to their owne countrey. But yet, if we consider
their state in Egypt in their roote, in Jacob, and in his sonnes, they came for food thither
in a time of necessity; and consider them in that branch that overshadowed, and re-
freshed them, in Joseph, he came thither as a bondman, in a servile condition. So that
they were but few persons, and not so great, as that their pressures could be aggravated,
or taste much more the bitterly, by comparing it, with any greatnesse which they had
before; Though they were fallen into great misery, they were not fallen from any re-
markeable greatnesse. But between the two captivities of Egypt, and Babylon, they
were come to that greatnesse, and reputation, as that they had the testimony of all the
world, Deut. 4.6. Onely this people is wise, and of understanding, and a great nation. Now wherein? In
that which followes; what nation is so great, as to have the Lord come so neare unto them;
so great, as to have Lawes, and Ordinances, so righteous, as they had? Now
this peculiar greatnesse, they lost in this captivity; whether they lost absolutely the
bookes of the Law, or not, and that they were reinspired, and redictated againe by the ho-
ly Ghost to Esdras, or whether Esdras did but recollect them, and recompile them,
Saint Hierome will not determine: He will not say whether Moses, or Esdras, be author
of the first five bookes of the Bible; but it is cleare enough, that they were out of that
ordinary use wherein they had been before: and though they kept their Circumcision,
and their Sabbaths in Babylon, yet being cast thither for their sinnes, they had lost all
ordinary expiations of their sinnes, for they had no sacrifices there; (as the Jews,
which are now in dispersion, are everywhere without their sacrifices) They were to
rise, but not to stay, Arise and depart; And they were to depart, both from their Ima-
ginary comforts, which they had framed, and proposed to themselves (when they were
fallen from God, they should be deceived in their trust in themselves) and they were
to depart even with the law, and ordinances, in which their preheminence, and pre-
rogative above all nations consisted: when Man comes to be content with this world,
God will take this world from him: when Man frames to himselfe imaginary plea-
sures, God will inflict reall punishments; when he would lie still, he shall not sleep; but
God will take him and raise him, but to a farther vexation. And this vexation hath another heavy weight upon it, Quia. in this little word, for; for
this drawes a Curtain between the face of God, and them: this locks a dore between
the Court of mercy, and them, when God presents his judgements with such an assu-
rednesse, such a resolution, as leaves no hope in their heart, that God will alter it, no
power in themselves to solicite God to a pardon, Prov. or a reprieve; but as he was led as a
foole to the stocks, when he hearkened to pleasant sins before, so he is led as an oxe to
the slaughters, when he hears of Gods Judgements now; his own Conscience pre-
vents God, and tels him, there is a for, a reason, a necessity, an irrecoverablenesse in
his condemnation. God had iterated, and multiplied this Quia, this for, oftentimes
in their ears: This Prophet was no upstart, no sodain, no transitory Man, to passe
through the streets with a Væ, Væ, Wo, wo unto this City, and no more; but he pro-
phecied constantly, v. 1. during the reign of three Kings, of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah:
He was no suspitious Man out of his singularity; but he prophecied jointly with I-
saiah, without separation, and he held the communion of his fellow-Prophets; He was
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At a Churching.
was no particular man, (as many Interpreters have taken it) so, as that he addressed
his prophecies upon Judah onely; but he extended it to all, to all the Tribes. It
is not a prophecy limited to Idolatry, and the sins against the first Table, but to rob-
bery, and murder, and fornication, and oppression, and the sins between Man, and
Man: It is not a timorous prophecy, directed onely to persons, whom a low fortune,
and a miserable estate, or a sense of sin, and a wounded Conscience, had depress'd, and
dejected, but principally bent upon rulers and Magistrates, and great persons. So
that no Man hath a Quia against this Quia, a for against this for, to say, we need not
heed him, for he is an upstart, a singular person, and all these his threatnings are rather
Satyricall, then Propheticall, or Theologicall; but this thunderbolt, this Quia, this
reason, why these judgements must necessarily fall upon them, fell upon them with so
much violence, as that it stupefied with the weight, and precluded all wayes of escape.
These be the heaviest Texts that a Man can light upon in the Scriptures of God, and
these be the heaviest Commentaries, that a Man can make upon these Texts, that when
God wakens him and raises him from his dream, and bed of sin, and pleasure, and raises
him with the voice of his judgements, he suffers him to read to the Quia, but not to
come to the Tamen; He comes to see reason why that Judgement must fall, but not to
see any remedy. His inordinate Melancholy, and halfe desperate sadnesse carries his
eye, and mind upon a hundred places of Commination, of threatning in the Prophets,
and in them all he finds quickly that Quia, This curse must fall upon me, for I am
faln into it; but he comes not to the Tamen, to that reliefe, yet turn to the Lord, and
he will turne to thee. This was a particular step in their misery, that when they were
awaked, and risen, that is, taken away from all tast, and comfort, in their own ima-
ginations, and pleasures, when God was ready to give fire to all that artillery, which
he had charged against them, in the service of all the Prophets, they could see no re-
fuge, no sanctuary, nothing but a quia, an irresistiblenesse, an irremediablenesse, a ne-
cessity of perishing; a great while there was no such thing, as Judgement, (God can-
not see us) Now, there is no such thing as Mercy, (God will not see us.) What then is this heavy Judgement, Quies. that is threatned? It is the deprivation of
Rest. Though there be no war, no pestilence, no new positive calamity, yet priva-
tive calamities are heavy Judgements; to lose that Gospell, that Religion, which they
had, is a heavy losse; Deprivations are heavy Calamities; and here they are depri-
ved of Rest; Here is not your Rest: Now, besides that betwixt us and heaven, there is
nothing that rests, (all the Elements, all the planets, all the spheres are in perpetuall mo-
tion, and vicisitude) and so the Joyes of heaven are express'd unto us, in that name
of Rest; Certainly this blessing of Rest was more pretious, more acceptable to the
Jewes, then to any other Nation; and so they more sensible of the losse of it, then
any other. For as Gods first promise, and the often ratification of it, had ever accu-
stom'd them to a longing for that promis'd rest, as their long, and laborious peregri-
nations, had made them ambitious, and hungry of that Rest, so had they (which no
other Nation had but they) a particular feast of a Sabbath, appointed for them, both
for a reall cessation and rest from bodily labours, and for a figurative expressing of the
eternall Rest, their imagination, their understanding, their faith, was fill'd with this
apprehension of Rest. When the contentment and satisfaction, which God took in
Noah’s sacrifice, after he came out of the Ark, is express'd, it is express'd thus, The
Lord smelt a savor of Rest; Gen. 8.21. our services to God, are a Rest to him; he rests in our de-
votions; And when the Idolatrous service, and forbidden sacrifices of the people are
expressed, Ezek. 20. 28. they are expressed thus, When I had brought them into the Land, Posuerunt
ibi odorem quietum suarum, they placed there the sweet savors of their own Rest; not
of Gods Rest, (his true Religion) but their own Rest, a Religion, which they, for
collaterall respects, rested in. And therefore when God threatens here, that there shall
be no rest, that is, none of his rest, he would take from them their Law, their Sacrifices,
their Religion, in which he was pleas'd, and rested gratious towards them, he will
change their Religion: And when he sayes, Here is not your Rest, he threatens to take
from them, that Rest, that Peace, that Quiet which they had propos'd, and imagin'd
to themselves; when they say to themselves, Why, 'tis no great matter; we may doe
well enough for all that, though our Religion be chang'd; he will impoverish them, he
will disarm them, he wil infatuate them, he wil make them a prey to their enemies, & take
away all true, and all imaginary rest too. Briefly
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Serm. IX.
Briefly, Tertul. it is the mark of all men, even naturall men, Rest: for though Tertullian
condemn that, to call Quietis Magisterium Sapientiam, The act of being, and living
at quiet, wisdome, therein seeming to exclude all wisdome, that conduces not to
rest, as though there were no wisdome, in action, and in businesse; Though in the
person of Epicurus he condemn that, and that saying, Nemo alii nascitur, moriturus si-
bi, It is no reason, that any Man should think himselfe born for others, since he can-
not live to himselfe, or to labour for others, since himselfe cannot enjoy rest, yet Ter-
tullian leaving the Epicures, that placed felicity in a stupid, and unsociable retiring,
sayes in his own person, and in his own opinion, almost as much, Vnicum mihi nego-
tium, nec aliud curo, quam ne curem, All that I care for, is that I might care for no-
thing; and so, even Tertullian, in his Christian Philosophy, places happinesse in rest;
Now, he speaks not onely of the things of this world, they must necessarily be car'd
for, in their proportion; we must not decline the businesses of this life, and the offices
of society, out of an aëry, and imaginary affection of rest: our principall rest is, in the
testimony of our Conscience, and in doing that which we were sent to doe; And to have
a Rest, and peace, in a Conscience of having done that religiously, and acceptably to
God, is our true Rest: and this was the rest, which the Jewes were to lose in this place,
the testimony of their consciences, that they had perform'd their part, their Condi-
tions, so, that they might rely upon Gods promises, of a perpetuall rest in the Land
of Canaan; and that rest they could not have; not that peacefull testimony of their
Consciences. They could not have that rest, Hic. no Rest, not there, not in Canaan; which was the
highest degree of the misery, because they were confident in their term, their state in
that Land, that it should be perpetuall; and they were confident in the goodnesse of
the Land, that it should evermore give them all conveniencies in abundance, condu-
cing to all kind of rest: for, this Land, God himself cals by the name of rest, and of
his rest; Psal. 95.11. I sware they should not enter into my rest; So that, rest was proper to this Land,
Aug. Ser. 105. and this Land was proper to them. For, (as St. Augustine notes well) though God
de tempore.recover'd this Land for them, and reestablish'd miraculously their possession, yet they
came but in their Remitter, and in postliminio, the inheritance of that Land, was theirs
before: for, Sem the son of Noah, was in possession of this Land; and the sons of
Cham, the Canaanites, expel'd his race out of it; and Abraham of the race of Sem, was
restor'd unto it again: So that, as the goodnesse of the Land promis'd rest, so the good-
nesse of the title promis'd them the Land; and yet they might have no rest there. They had a better title then that; Those often oathes, which God had sworne unto
them, that that land should be theirs forever, was their evidence; If then that land
were Requies Domini, the rest of the Lord, that is, the best, and the safest Rest, and that
land were their land, why should they not have that rest here, when the Lord had
sworne they should? Why, because he swore the contrary after; but will God sweare
contrary things? Aug. why, solus securus jurat, qui falli non potest, says Saint Augustine, one-
ly he can sweare a thing safely, that sees all circumstances, and foresees all occurrences;
onely God can sweare safely, because nothing can be hid from him. God therefore that
knew upon what conditions he had taken the first oath, and knew againe how contem-
ptuously those conditions were broken, he takes knowledge that he had sworne, he denies
not that, Psal. 95.11. but he sweares againe, and in his anger, I sware in my wrath, that they should
not enter into my rest. Those Men (says he) which have seen my glory and my Miracles,
and have tempted me tenne times, and not obeyed my voyce, certainly they shall not see
the land whereof I sware unto their fathers; Numb. 14.23. neither shall any that provoke me see it; He
pleads not Non est factum, but he pleads conditions performed; he denies not that he swore
but he justifies himselfe, that he had done as much as he promised; for his promise was
conditionall. The Apostle seemes to assigne but one reason of their exclusion, from this
Land, and from this rest, and yet he expresses that one Reason so, as that it hath two
branches; Heb. 3.18,19. He sayes, we see that they could not enter, because of unbeleef; and yet he asks
the question; To whom sware he, that they should not enter into his Rest, but unto them, that
obeyed not? Vnbeleef is assigned for the cause, and yet they were shut out for disobedi-
ence; now, if the Apostle make it all one, whether want of faith, or want of works,
exclude us from the Land of Rest, let not us be too curious enquirers, whether faith
or works bring us thither; for neither faith, nor works bring us thither, as a full cause; but
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At a Churching.
but if we consider mediate causes, so they may be both causes; faith, instrumentall,
works, declaratory; faith may be as evidence, works as the seale of it; but the cause is one-
ly, the free election of God. Nor ever shall we come thither, if we leave out either; we
shall meet as many Men in heaven, that have lived without faith, as without works. This then was the case; God had sworne to them an inheritance permanently there,
but upon condition of their obedience; If they had not had a privity in the condition, if
they had not had a possibility to perform the condition, their exclusion might have seem-
ed unjust: and it had been so; for though God might justly have forborne the promise,
yet he could not justly breake the promise, if they had kept the conditions; therefore
he expressed the condition without any disguise, at first, Deut. 30.17. If thy heart turne away, I pro-
nounce unto you this day that you shall surely perish: you shall not prolong your dayes in
the land. And then, when those conditions were made, and made knowne, and made
easie, and accepted, when they so rebelliously broke all conditions, his first oath lay
not in his way, Ezek. 17. 19. to stop him from the second, As I live, saith the Lord, I will surely bring
mine oath that they have broken, and my covenant that they have despised upon their head;
shall they breake my covenant, and he delivered, says God there. v. 15. God confesses the oath
and the covenant, to be his covenant and his oath, but the breach of the oath, and cove-
nant, was theirs, and not his. He expresses his promise to them, and his departing from them together, in ano
ther Prophet; God says to the Prophet, Ier. 13. Buy thee a girdle, bury it in the ground, and fetch
it againe; And then it was rotten, and good for nothing: for says he, as the girdle
cleaveth to the loines, so have I tyed to me the house of Israel, and Judah, that they might
be my people, that they might have a name and a praise, and a glory, but they would not heare;
Therefore, say unto them, Every bottle shall be filled with wine; (Here was a promise of
plenty:) and they shall say unto thee, Doe not we know, that every bottle shall be filled
with wine? (that God is bound to give us this plenty?) because he hath tyed himselfe
by oath, and covenant, and promise.) But behold, I fill all the inhabitants with drunken-
nesse; (since they trust in their plenty, that shall be an occasion of sinne to them) and
I will dash them against one another, even the father, and sonnes together; I will not spare,
I will not pity, I will not have compassion, but destroy them. God could not promise
more, then he did in this place at first; he could not depart farther from that promise,
then by their occasion, he came to at last. Gods promise goes no farther with Moses him-
selfe; My presence shall goe with thee, and I will give thee rest; Exod. 24. 14. If we will steale out of
Gods presence, Prov. 4. 1. into darke and sinfull corners, there is no rest promised. Receive my
words, Psal. 37. 3. says Solomon, and the years of thy life shall be many; Trust in the Lord, says David,
and doe good, (performe both, stand upon those two leggs, faith, and works; not
that they are alike; there is a right, and a left legge: but stand upon both; upon one in
the sight of God; upon the other in the sight of Man;) Trust in the Lord, and doe
good, and thou shalt dwell in the land, and be fed assuredly. That paradise, that peace of
Conscience, which God establishes in thee, by faith, hath a condition, of growth, and
encrease, from faith to faith; heaven it selfe, in which the Angells were, had a conditi-
on; they might, they did fall from thence; The land of Canaan, was their own land,
and the rest of that land, their Rest by Gods oath, and covenant; and yet here was
not their rest: not here; nor for any thing expressed, or intimated in the word, any
where else. Here was a Nunc dimittis, but not in pace; The Lord lets them depart,
and makes them depart, but not in peace, for their eyes saw no salvation; they were
sent away to a heavy captivity. Beloved, we may have had a Canaan, an inheritance,
a comfortable assurance in our bosomes, in our consciences, and yet heare that voice
after, that here is not our rest, except, as Gods goodnesse at first moved him to make
one oath unto us, of a conditionall rest, as our sins have put God to his second oath, that
he sware we should not have his rest, so our repentance bring him to a third oath, as I live
I would not the death of a sinner, that so he doe not onely make a new contract with us,
but give us withall an ability, to performe the conditions, which he requires. H Serm.
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At a Christning.
Serm. X.
Sermon X.
Preached at the Churching of the Countesse of Bridgewater.
Micah 2. 10. [second Sermon.]
THusThus far we have proceeded in the first acceptation of these words, accor-ding to their principall, and literall sense, as they appertain'd to the
Jewes, and their state; so they were a Commination; As they apper-
tain to all succeeding Ages, and to us, so they are a Commonition, an alarm,
to raise us from the sleep, and death of sin: And then in a third acce-
ptation, they are a Consolation, that at last we shall have a rising, and a departing into
such a state, in the Resurrection, as we shall no more need this voice, Arise, and depart,
because we shall be no more in danger of falling, no more in danger of departing
from the presence, and contemplation; and service, and fruition of God; And in both
these latter senses, the words admit a just accommodation to this present occasion,
God having rais'd his honorable servant, and hand-maid here present, to a sense of the
Curse, that lyes upon women, for the transgression of the first woman, which is pain-
full, and dangerous Child-birth; and given her also, a sense of the last glorious resur-
rection, in having rais'd her, from that Bed of weaknesse, to the ability of coming
into his presence, here in his house. First then to consider them, in the first of these two latter senses, Divisio. as a Commonition
to them, that are in the state of sin, first there is an increpation implied in this word
Arise; when we are bid arise, we are told, that we are faln: sin is an unworthy descent,
and an ignoble fall; Secondly, we are bid to doe something, and therefore we are a-
ble to doe something; God commands nothing impossible so, as that that degree of
performance, which he will accept, should be impossible, to the man, whom his grace
hath affected; That which God will accept, is possible to the godly; And thirdly,
that which he commands here, is deriv'd into two branches; We are bidden to rise,
that is, to leave our bed, our habit of sin; and then not to be idle, when we are up,
but to depart; not onely to depart from the Custome, but from tentations of Recidiva-
tion; and not onely that, but to depart into another way, a habit of Actions, contrary
to our former Sins. And then, all this is press'd, and urged upon us, by a Reason; The
Holy Ghost appears not like a ghost in one sodain glance, or glimmering, but he testi-
fies his presence, and he presses the businesse, that he comes for; And the reason that
he uses here, is, Quia non requies, because otherwise we lose the Pondus animæ, the weight,
the ballast of our soule, rest, and peace of Conscience: for howsever there may be some
rest, some such shew of Rest, as may serve a carnall man a little while, yet, sayes our
Text, it is not your Rest, it conduces not to that Rest, which God hath ordained for
you, whom he would direct to a better Rest. That Rest, (your Rest) is not here; not
in that, which is spoken of here; not in your lying still, you must rise from it; not
in your standing still, you must depart from it; your Rest is not here: but yet, since
God sends us away, because our Rest is not here, he does tacitly direct us thereby,
where there is Rest; And that will be the third acceptation of these words; to which
we shall come anone. For that then, which rises first, the increpation of our fall implied in the word, Increpatio. Arise,
there is nothing, Bernard. in which, that which is the mother of all vertues, discretion, is more
tryed, then in the conveying, and imprinting profitably a rebuke, an increpation, a
knowledge, and sense of sinne, in the conscience of another. The rebuke of sin, is like
the fishing of Whales; the Marke is great enough; one can scarse misse hitting; but if
there be not sea room and line enough, & a dexterity in letting out that line, he that hath
fixed his harping Iron, in the Whale, endangers himselfe, and his boate; God hath
made us fishers of Men; and when we have struck a Whale, touch'd the conscience of any
person, which thought himselfe above rebuke, and increpation, it struggles, and strives,
and as much as it can, endevours to draw fishers, and boate, the Man and his fortune
into contempt, and danger. But if God tye a sicknesse, or any other calamity, to the end
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Serm. X.
At a Churching.
end of the line, that will winde up this Whale againe, to the boate, bring back this re-bellious sinner better advised, to the mouth of the Minister, for more counsaile, and to
a better souplenesse, and inclinablenesse to conforme himselfe, to that which he shall af-
ter receive from him; onely calamity makes way for a rebuke to enter. There was
such a tendernesse, amongst the orators, which were used to speake in the presence of
the people, to the Romane Emperors, (which was a way of Civill preaching) that they
durst not tell them then their duties, nor instruct them, what they should doe, any other
way then by saying, that they had done so before; They had no way to make the
Prince wise, and just, and temperate, but by a false praising him, for his former acts of
wisedome, and justice, and temperance, which he had never done; and that served to
make the people beleeve, that the Princes were so; and it served to teach the Prince,
that he ought to be so. And so, though this were an expresse, and a direct flattery, yet
it was a collaterall increpation too; And on the other side, our later times have seen,
another art, another invention, another workmanship, that when a great person hath so
abused the favour of his Prince, that he hath growne subject to great, and weighty in-
crepations, his owne friends have made Libells against him, thereby to lay some light
aspersions upon him, that the Prince might thinke, that this comming with the malice
of a Libell, was the worst that could be said of him: and so, as the first way to the Em-
perors, though it were a direct flattery, yet it was a collaterall Increpation too, so this
way, though it were a direct increpation, yet it was a collaterall flattery too. If I should
say of such a congregation as this, with acclamations and showes of much joy, Blessed
company, holy congregation, in which there is no pride at all, no vanity at all, no preva-
rication at all, I could be thought in that, but to convey an increpation, and a rebuke
mannerly, in a wish that it were so altogether. If I should say of such a congregation as
this, with exclamations and show of much bitternesse, that they were sometimes some-
what too worldly in their owne businesse, sometimes somewhat too remisse, in the busi-
nesses of the next world, and adde no more to it, this were but as a plot, and a faint li-
belling, a publishing of small sinnes to keep greater from being talk'd of: slight incre-
pations are but as whisperings, and work no farther, but to bring men to say, Tush, no
body hears it, no body heeds it, we are never the worse, nor never the worse thought of
for all that he says. And loud and bitter increpations, are as a trumpet, and work no o-
therwise, but to bring them to say, Since he hath published all to the world already, since
all the world knowes of it, the shame is past, and we may goe forward in our ways a-
gaine: Is there then no way to convey an increpation profitably? David could find no
way; Vidi prævaricatores & tabescebam, says he, I saw the transgressors, Psal. 119. 158. but I languished
and consumed away with griefe, because they would not keep the law; he could not mend
them, and so impaired himselfe with his compassion: but God hath provided a way here,
to convey, to imprint this increpation, this rebuke, sweetly, and succesfully; that is,
by way of counsaile: by bidding them arise, he chides them themthem for falling, by pre-
senting the exaltation and exultation of a peacefull conscience, he brings them to a fore-
sight, to what miserable distractions, and distortions of the soule, a habite of sinne will
bring them to. If you will take knowledge of Gods fearfull judgements no other way,
but by hearing his mercies preached, his Mercie is new every morning, and his dew falls
every evening; and morning, and evening we will preach his mercies unto you. If
you will beleeve a hell no other way, but by hearing the joyes of heaven presented to
you, you shall heare enough of that; we will receive you in the morning, and dismisse
you in the evening, in a religious assurance, in a present inchoation of the joyes of hea-
ven. It is Gods way, and we are willing to pursue it; to shew you that you are Ene-
mies to Christ, we pray you in Christs stead, that you would be reconciled to him; to shew
you, that you are faln, we pray you to arise, and si audieritis, if you hear us so, if any
way, any means, convey this rebuke, Mat. 18. 15. this sense into you, Si audieritis, lucrati sumus
fratrem, If you hear, we have gain'd a brother; and that's the richest gain, that we can
get, if you may get salvation by us. Gods rebukes and increpations then are sweet, and gentle, to the binding up, not to
the scattering of a Conscience; And the particular Rebuke in this place, conveyed by
way of counsail, is, That they were faln; and worse could not be said, how mild, Dejectio. and
easie soever the word be. The ruin of the Angels in heaven, the ruin of Adam in Pa-
radise, is still call'd by that word, it is but the fall of Angels, and the fall of Adam; H2 and
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At a Christning.
Serm. X.
and yet this fall of Adam cost the bloud of Christ, and this bloud of Christ, did not
rectifie the Angels after their fall. Inter abjectos, abjectissimus peccator; Chrysost. amongst
them that are faln, he fals lowest, that continues in sin: for (sayes the same Father,)
Man is a king in his Creation; he hath that Commission, Subjicite, & dominamini;
Idem. the world, and himselfe, (which is a lesse world, but a greater dominion) are within his
Jurisdiction; and then servilly, he submits himselfe, and all, to that, Quo nihil magis
barbarum, then which nothing is more tyrannous, more barbarous. All persons have
naturally, all Nations ever had, a detestation of falling into their hands who were
more barbarous, more uncivill then themselves, & peccato nihil magis barbarum; (sayes
that Father) sin doth not govern us by a rule, by a Law, but tyrannically, impetuously,
and tempestuously; It hath been said of Rome, Romæ regulariter malè agitur; There
a man may know the price of a sin, before he doe it; and he knowes what his dispensa-
tion will cost; whether he be able to sin at that rate, whether he have wherewithall, that
if not, he may take a cheap sin. Thou canst never say that of thy soule, Intus regula-
riter malè agitur; Thou canst never promise thy selfe to sin safely, and so to elude the
Law, for the Law is in thy heart; nor to sin wisely, and so to escape witnesses, for the
testimony is in thy Conscience; nor to sin providently, and thriftily, and cheaply, and
compound for the penalty, and stall the fine, for thy soule, that is the price, is indivisi-
ble, and perishes entirely, and eternally at one payment, and yet ten thousand thou-
sand times over and over. Thou canst not say: Thou wilt sin, that sin, and no more;
or so far in that sin, and no farther; If thou fall from an high place, thou maist fall
through thick clouds, and through moist clouds, but yet through nothing that can
sustain thee, but thou fall'st to the earth; If thou fall from the grace of God, thou
maist passe through dark Clouds, oppression of heart, and through moist Clouds, some
compunction, some remorsefull tears; but yet, (of thy selfe) thou hast nothing to take
hold of, till thou come to that bottome, which will embrace thee cruelly, to the bot-
tomlesse bottome of Hell it selfe. Our dignity, and our greatest height, is in our inte-
rest in God, and in the world, and in our selves; and we fall from all, either non utendo,
or abutendo; either by neglecting God, or by over-valuing the world; our greatest
fall of all is, into Idolatry; and yet Idolatry is an ordinary fall; Hieron:Hieron. for tot habemus Deos
recentes, quot habemus vitia, As many habituall sins as we embrace, so many Idols we
worship; If all sins could not be call'd so, Idols, yet for those sins, which possesse us
most ordinarily, and most strongly, we have good warrant to call them so; which sins
are Licentiousnesse in our youth, and Covetousnesse in our age, and voluptuousnesse in our
middle time. For, for Licentiousnesse, Idolatry, and that, are so often call'd by one ano-
thers names in the Scriptures, as many times we cannot tell, when the PropehtsProphets mean
spirituall Adultery, and when Carnall; when they mean Idolatry, and when Fornication.
For Covetousnesse, that is expresly called Idolatry by the Apostle: and so is voluptuous-
nesse too, in those men, whose belly is their God. We fall then into that desperate pre-
cipitation of Idolatry, by lust, when by fornication, we profane the temple of the
Holy Ghost, and make even his temple, our bodies, a Stewes: And we fall into Ido-
latry by Covetousnesse, when we come to be, tam putidi minutíque animi, Basil. of so narrow,
and contracted a soule; and of so sick, and dead, and buried, and putrefied a
soule, as to lock up our soule, in a Cabinet where we lock up our money, to ty our soul
in the corner of a handkerchiefe, where we ty our money, to imprison our soule, in the
imprisonment of those things, Quæ te ad gloriam subvecturæ, the dispensation, Idem. and
distribution whereof, would carry thy soul to eternall glory. And when, by our vo-
luptuousnesse, we raise the prices of necessary things, Et eorum vulnera, qui à Deo flagris
cæduntur, adaugemus; and thereby scourge them with deeper lashes of famine, whom
God hath scourged with poverty before, we fall into Idolatry by voluptuousnesse;
Numismatis inscriptiones inspicitis, & non Christi in fratre, thou takest a pleasure, Idem. to
look upon the figures, and Images of Kings in their severall coyns; and thou despisest
thine own Image in thy poore brother, and Gods Image in thy ruinous, and defaced
soule, and in his Temple, thy body, demolished by thy Licentiousnesse, and by all
these Idolatries. This is the fall, when we fall so farre into those sins, which have
naturally a tyranny in them, and that that sinne becomes an Idoll to us; which fall
of ours, God intimates unto us, and rebukes us for, by so mild a way, as to bid us
rise from it. Now
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Serm. X.
At a Churching.
Now when God bids us rise, as the Apostle sayes, Be not deceived, Gal. 6. 7. Non irridetur
Deus, God cannot be mocked by any man, so we may boldly say, Be not afraid, Non irri-
det Deus; God mocks no man; God comes not to a miserable bedrid man, as a man
would come in scorn to a prisoner, and bid him shake off his fetters, or to a man in a
Consumption, and bid him grow strong; when God bids us arise, he tels us, we are
able to rise; God bad Moses goe to Pharaoh; Moses said he was Incircumcisus labiis,
Exod. 4. 18. heavy, and slow of tongue; but he did not deny, but he had a tongue: God bade him
goe, and I will be with thy mouth, sayes he; He does not say, I will be thy mouth; but,
thou hast a mouth, and I will be with thy Mouth. It was Gods presence, that made
that mouth serviceable, and usefull, but it was Moses mouth; Moses had a mouth
of his own; we have faculties, and powers of our own, to be employed in Gods ser-
vice. So when God employed Jeremy, the Prophet sayes, O Lord God, behold, Ier. 1. 6. I cannot
speak, for I am a child; but God replies, say not thou, I am a child; for whatsoever
I command thee, thou shalt speake: When God bids thee rise from thy sin, say not thou
it is too late, or that thou art bedrid in the custome of thy sin, and so canst not rise;
when he bids thee rise, he enables thee to rise; and thou maist rise, by the power of that
will which onely his mercy, and his grace, hath created in thee; for as God conveyes
a rebuke in that counsaile, Surgite, arise, so he conveyes a power in it too; when he
bids thee rise, he enables thee to rise. That which we are to doe then, is to rise; to leave our bed, our sleep of Sin. Surgite. Saint
Augustine takes knowledge of three wayes, Aug. by which he escaped sins; first, occasionis
substractione; and that's the safest way, not to come within distance of a tentation;
secondly, resistendi data virtute, That the love, and the fear of God, imprinted in him,
made him strong enough for the sin; Can I love God, and love this person thus? thus,
that my love to it, should draw away my love from God? Can I feare God, and fear
any Man, (who can have power but over my body) so, as for feare of him, to renounce
my God, or the truth, or my Religion? Or affectionis sanitate, that his affections,
had, by a good diet, by a continuall feeding upon the Contemplation of God, such a
degree of health, and good temper, as that some sins he did naturally detest, and, though
he had not wanted opportunity, and had wanted particular grace, yet he had been safe
enough from them. But, for this help, this detestation, of some particular sins, that
will not hold out; We have seen men infinitely prodigall grow infinitely Covetous at
last. For the other way, (the assistance of particular grace) that we must not presume
upon; for, he that opens himselfe to a tentation, upon presumption of grace to pre-
serve him, forfaits by that, even that grace, which he had. And therefore there is no
safe way, but occasionis substractio, the forbearing of those places, and that Conversa-
tion, which ministers occasion of tentation to us. First therefore, let us find, that
we are in our bed, that we are naturally unable to rise; We are not born Noble: 2 Tim. 1. 3. Saint
Paul considers himselfe, and his birth, and his Title to grace, at best; That he was
a Jew, and of the Tribe of Benjamin, and of holy parents, and within the Covenant;
yet all this rais'd him not out of his bed, for, sayes he, Ephes. 2. 3. we were by nature the Children
of wrath, as well as others. But where then was the rising? that is, in the true recei-
ving of Christ. Ioh. 1. 12. To as many as received him, he gave, Potestatem prærogativæ, to be the
sons of God; yea, power to become the sons of God, as it is in our last Translation.
Christianus non de Christiano nascitur, nec facit generatio, sed regeneratio Christianum;
Tertullian. A Christian Mother does not conceive a Christian; onely the Christian Church con-
ceives Christian Children. Judæus circumcisus generat filium incircumcisum, Aug. A Jew
is circumcised, but his child is born uncircumcised: The Parents may be up, and
ready, but their issue abed, and in their bloud, till Baptisme have wash'd them, and till
the spirit of Regeneration have rais'd them, from that bed, which the sins of their
first Parents have laid them in, and their own continuing sins continued them in. This
rising is first, from Originall sin, by baptism, and then from actuall sin, best, by with-
drawing from the occasions of tentation to future sins, after repentance of former. But it is not, Arise, and stand still: But Surgite, & ite, arise, and depart; Ite. But whi-
ther? Into actions, contrary to those sinfull actions, and habits contrary to those ha-
bits. Let him that is righteous, be righteous still, and him that is holy, be holy still;
Apoc. 22. 11, 12 and that cannot be, without this; for it is but a small degree of Convalescence, and
reparation of health, to be able to rise out of our bed, to be able to forbear sin: Qui H3 febri
78
At a Christning.
Serm. X.
febri laborat, post morbum infirmior est; though the fever be off, we are weake after it;
though we have left a sinne, there is a weaknesse upon us, that makes us reel, and leane
towards that bed, at every turne; decline towards that sinne, upon every occasion. And
therefore according to that example, and pattern, of Gods proceeding at the creati-
on, who first made all, and then digested, and then perfected them; Ambros. Primò faciamus,
deinde venustemus, says Saint Ambrose; first let us make us up a good body, a good ha-
bitude, a good constitution, by leaving our beds, our occasions of tentations; and then
venustemus, let us dresse our selves, adorne our selves, yea, arme our selves, with the whole
armour of God, which is faith in Christ Jesus, and a holy and sanctified conversation.
Memento peregisse te aliquid, restare aliquid: Remember, Augusti. (and do not deceive thy selfe,
to remember that, which was never done) but remember truely, that thou hast done
something, towards making sure thy salvation already, and that thou hast much more
to doe; Divertisse te ad Refectionem, non ad defectionem; that God hath given thee a
bayting place, a resting place; peace in conscience, for all thy past sinnes, in thy pre-
sent repentance; but it is, to refresh thy selfe with that peace; it is not to take new cou-
rage, and strength to sinne againe. Let not the ease which thou hast found in the remis-
sion of sinnes now embolden thee to commit them againe; nor to trust to that strength
which thou hast already recovered; but arise and depart; avoid old tentations, and
apply thy selfe to a new course in the world, and in a calling; for there may be as
much sinne, to leave the world, as to cleave to the world: and he may be as inexcu-
sable at the last day, that hath done Nothing in the world, as hee that hath done
some ill. Now, we noted it to be a particular degree of Gods mercy, that he insisted upon it,
Quia. that he pressed it, that he urged it with a reason; doe thus, says God, for, it stands thus
with you. It is always a boldnesse, to aske a reason of those decrees of God, which
were founded, and established onely in his owne gratious will, and pleasure; In those
cases, Exitiales voculæ, cur & quomodo; to aske, why God elected some, Luther. and how it
can consist with his goodnesse, to leave out others, there the how, and why are dangerous,
and deadly Monosyllables. But of Gods particular purposes upon us, and revealed to
us, which are so to be wrought and executed upon us, as that we our selves have a fel-
low-working, and co-operation with God, of those, it becomes us to aske, and to
know the reason. When the Angell Gabriel promised such unexpected blessings to
Zachary, Zachary askes, whereby shall I know this? Luke 1. 18. and the Angel does not leave him
unsatisfied. When that Angel promises a greater miracle to the blessed Virgin Mary,
she says also, Quomodo, how shall this be? and the Angel settles, and establishes the assu-
rance in her: Whatsoever we are bid to beleeve, whatsoever we are bid to doe, God
affords us a reason for it, and we may try it by reason, but because that sinner, whom in
this text, he speakes to, to arise and depart, is likely to stand upon false reasons, against
his rising, to murmur, and ask Cur or quomodo, why should I arise, since me thinkes
I lye at my ease, how shall I arise, that am already at the top of my wishes? God who is
loath to lose any soule, that he undertakes, followes him with this reason. Quia non re-
quies, Arise, and depart, for here is not your rest. Now this rest, is in it selfe, so gratefull, so acceptable a thing, Requies. as all the service,
which David, and Solomon, could expresse towards God, in the dedication of the Tem-
ple, (which was then in intention, and project) is described in that phrase, Psal. 132. 8. Arise O Lord,
and come into thy rest, thou and the Arke of thy strength; God himselfe hath a Sabbath,
in our Sabbaths; It is welcome to God, and it is so welcome to Man, as that Saint
Augustine preaching upon those words, Augusti. Qui posuit fines tuos pacem, He maketh peace in
thy borders, Psal. 147. 14. (as we translate it) he observed such a passion, such an alteration in his au-
ditory, as that he tooke knowledge of it in his Sermon; Nihil dixeram, nihil exposue-
ram, verbum pronunciavi & exclamastis, says he; I have entred into no part of my text;
I have scarce read my text; I did but name the word, Rest, and Peace of conscience, and
you are all transported, affected, with an exultation, with an acclamation, in the hunger,
and ambition of it; That, that the naturall, that, that the supernaturall Man affects,
is Rest; Inquire pacem, & persequere eam; Psal. 36. it is not onely sequere, but persequere; seek peace &
ensue it; follow this rest, this peace so, as if it fly from you, if any interruption, any heavi-
nesse of heart, any warfare of this world, come between you, and it, yet you never give
over the pursuite of it, till you overtake it. Persquere, follow it, but first Inquire, says
David, seek after it, find where it is, for here is not your rest. Vna-
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Serm. X.
At a Churching.
Vnaquæque res in sua patria fortior; If a Starre were upon the Earth, Non hic. it would give no
light; If a tree were in the Sea, Chrys. it would give no fruit; every tree is fastest rooted, and
produces the best fruit, in the soile, that is proper for it. Heb. 13. 14. Now, here we have no conti-
nuing City, but we seek one; when we finde that, we shall finde rest. Here how shall we
hope for it? for our selves, Intus pugnæ, foris timores; 2 Cor. 7. 5. we feel a warre of concu-
piscencies within, aandand we feare a battery of tentations without: Si dissentiunt in domo
uxor & maritus: periculosa molestia, says Saint Augustine; If the Husband, and wife a-
gree not at home, it is a troublesome danger; and that's every mans case; Augusti. for Caro con-
jux, our flesh is the wife, and the spirit is the husband, and they two will never agree.
But si dominetur uxor, perversa pax, says he, and that's a more ordinary case, then we
are aware of, that the wife hath got the Mastery, that the weaker vessell, the flesh,
hath got the victory; and then, there is a show of peace, but it is a stupidity, a security,
it is not peace. Let us depart out of our selves, and looke upon that, in which most or-
dinarily we place an opinion of rest, upon worldly riches; They that will be rich, fall into
tentations, and snares, and into many foolish, and noysome lusts, 1 Tim. 6. 9. which drowne Men in
perdition, and in destruction, for the desire of money is the root of evill; Not the ha-
ving of Money, but the desire of it; for it is Theophylacts observation, Theophyl. that the A-
postle does not say this, of them that are rich, but of them, that will be made rich; that
set their heart upon the desire of riches, and will be rich, what way soever. As the Par-
tridge gathereth the young, which she hath not brought forth, Ier. 17. 11. so he that gathereth riches,
and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his dayes, and at his end shall be a
foole; (he shall not make a wise will) But shall his folly end, at his end, or the punish-
ment of his folly? We see what a restlesse fool he is, all the way; first, because he
wants roome, he says, he will pull downe his barnes, and build new; Luke 12. 10. (thus farre there's
no rest; in the Diruit, and ædificat, in pulling downe, and building up;) Then he says
to his soule, live at ease; he says it, but he gives no ease; he says it as he shall say to the
Hills, fall downe, and cover us; but they shall stand still; and his soule shall heare God
say, whilest he promises himselfe this ease, O foole, this night, they shall fetch away thy
soule; God does not onely not tell him, who shall have his riches, but he does not tell
him, who shall have his soule. He leaves him no assurance, no ease, no peace, no
rest, Here. This rest is not then in these things; not in their use; Vestra. for they are got with labor,
and held with feare; and these, labour and feare, admit no rest; not in their nature; for
they are fluid, and transitory, and moveable, and these are not attributes of rest. If that
word doe not reach to Land, (the land is not movable,) yet it reaches to thee; when thou
makest thine Inventory, put thy selfe amongst the moveables, for thou must remove
from it, though it remove not from thee. So that, what rest foever may be imagined in
these things, it is not your rest, for howsoever the things may seem to rest, yet you doe
not. It is not here at all: not in that Here, which is intimated in this Text; not in the
falling, that is Here; for sinne is a stupidity, it is not a rest; not in the rising that is
Here, for this remorse, this repentance, is but as a surveying of a convenient ground, or
an emptying of an inconvenient ground, to erect a building upon; not in the departing
that is here, for in that, is intimated a building of new habits, upon the ground so prepa-
red, and so a continuall, and laborious travaile, no rest; falling, and rising, and depar-
ting, and surveying, and building, are no words of rest, for give these words their spiri-
tuall sense, that this sense of our fall, (which is remorse after sinne) this rising from it,
(which is repentance after sinne) this departing into a safer station, (which is the building
of habits contrary to the former) doe bring an ease to the conscience, (as it doth that
powerfully, and plentifully) yet, as when we journey by Coach, we have an ease in
the way, but yet our rest is at home, so in the ways of a regenerate Man, there is an un-
expressible ease, and consolation here, but yet even this is not your rest; for, as the A-
postle says, If I be not an Apostle unto others, yet doubtlesse I am unto you, so what rest
soever others may propose unto themseleves, for you, whose conversation is in heaven,
(for this world to the righteous is Atrium templi, and heaven is that Temple it selfe, the
Militant Church, is the porch, the Triumphant, is the Sanctum Sanctorum, this Church
and that Church are all under one roofe, Christ Jesus) for you, who appertaine to
this Church, your rest is in heaven; And that consideration brings us to the last of the
three interpretations of these words. The
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At a Christning.
Serm. X.
The first was a Commination, a departing without any Rest, propos'd to the Jewes;
3. Part. The second was a Commonition, a departing into the way towards Rest, proposed to
repentant sinners; And this third is a Consolation, a departing into Rest it selfe, pro-
pos'd to us, that beleeve a Resurrection. It is a consolation, and yet it is a funerall;
for to present this eternall Rest, we must a little invert the words, to the departing
out of this world, by death, and so to arise to Judgement; Depart, and arise; for, &c. This departing then, is our last Exodus, our last passeover, our last transmigration,
Depart. our departing out of this life. And then, the Consolation is placed in this, that we are
willing, and ready for this departing; Chrysost. Qua gratia breve nobis tempus præscripsit Deus?
How mercifully hath God proceeded with Man, in making his life short? for by that
means he murmurs the lesse at the miseries of this life, and he is the lesse transported
upon the pleasures of this life, because the end of both is short. It is a weaknesse, sayes
Saint Ambrose, to complain, De immaturitate mortis, of dying before our time; Ambr. for
we were ripe for death at our birth; we were born mellow: Idem. Secundum aliquem modum,
immortalis dici posset homo, si esset tempus intra quod mori non posset, is excellently said
by the same Father; If there were any one minute in a mans life, in which he were
safe from death, a man might in some sort be said to be immortall, for that minute;
but Man is never so; Nunquam ei vicinius est, posse vivere, quàm posse morì: Idem. That pro-
position is never truer, This man may live to morrow, then this proposition is, This
man may dy this minute. Though then shortnesse of life be a malediction to the wic-
ked, (The bloudy and deceitfull men shall not live halfe their dayes) there's the sentence, Psal. 55. 23.
the Judgement, Iob 22. 16. the Rule, (And they were cut down before their time) there's the ex-
ecution, the example, God hath threatned, God hath inflicted, shortnesse of dayes to
the wicked, yet the Curse consists in their indisposition, in their over-loving of this
world, in their terrors concerning the next world, and not meerly in the shortnesse of
life; for this Ite, depart out of this world, is part of the Consolation. I have a Re-
version upon my friend, and (though I wish it not) yet I am glad, if he die; Men
that have inheritances after their fathers, are glad when they dye; though not glad that
they die, yet glad when they die: I have a greater, after the death of this body, and shall
I be loath to come to that? Yet, it is not so a Consolation, as that we should by
any means, be occasions to hasten our own death; Aug. Multi Innocentes ab aliis occidun-
tur, à seipso nemo; Many men get by the malice of others, if thereby, they dy the soon-
er; for they are the sooner at home, and dy innocently: but no man dies innocently,
that dies by his own hand, or by his own hast. We may not doe it, never; we may
not wish it, alwayes, nor easily. Before a perfect Reconciliation with God, it is dange-
rous to wish death. David apprehended it so, Psal. 102. 24. I said, O my God, take me not away in the
midst of my dayes. In an over tender sense, and impatience of our own Calamities, it is
dangerous to desire death too. Very holy men have transgressed on that hand: Elias
in his persecution came inconsiderately to desire that he might die; 1 Reg. 14. 4. It is enough, ô Lord,
take away my soule; He would tell God how much was enough. Iob 7. 15. And so sayes Job, My
soule chuseth rather to be strangled and to die, then to be in my bones; He must have that
that his soule chuses. But to omit many cases wherein it is not good, nor safe to
wish Death, certainly, when it is done primarily in respect of God, for his glory, and
then, for the respect which is of our selves, it is onely to enjoy the sight, and union of
God, and that also with a Conditionall submission to his will, and a tacite, and humble
reservation of all his purposes, we may think David's thought, and speak David's words,
Psal. 42. 2. My soule thirsteth for God, even for the living God, when shall I come, and appeare be-
fore the presence of Phil. 1. my Living God? Saint Paul had David's example for it, when
he comes to his Cupio dissolvi, Aug. to desire to be dissolved; And Saint Augustine had
both their examples, when he sayes so affectionately, Eia Domine videam, ut hîc
moriar, O my God, let me see thee in this life, that I may die the death of the Righteous,
dy to sin; & moriar ut te videam, let me dy absolutely, that I may see thee essentially.
Here we may be in his Presence, we see his state; there we are in his Bedchamber, Idem. and
see his eternall and glorious Rest. The Rule is good, given by the same Father, Non in-
justum est justo optare mortem, A righteous man, may righteously desire death; Si Deus
non dederit, injustum erit, non tolerare vitam amarissimam, but if God affords not
that ease, he must not refuse a laborious life; So that, this departing, is not a going
before we be call'd: Christ himselfe stay'd for his ascension, till he was taken up. But
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Serm. X.
At a Churching.
But when there comes a Lazare veni foras, that God calls us, from this putre-faction, which we think life, let us be not onely obedient, but glad to depart. For without such an Ite, there is no such Surgite, as is intended here; Surgite. without this
departing there is no good rising, without a joyfull Transmigration, no joyfull Re-
surrection; He that is loth to depattdepart, is afraid to rise againe; and he that is afraid of
the Resurrection, had rather there were none; and he that had rather there were none,
aut cæcitate, aut animositate, says S. Augustine, either he will make himselfe beleeve,
that there is none, or if he cannot overcome his Conscience so absolutely, he will make
the world beleeve, that he beleeves there is none: and truly to lose our sense of the
Resurrection, is as heavy a losse, as of any one point of Religion; It is the knot of all,
and hath this priviledge, above all, that though those Joyes of heaven, which we shall
possesse immediately after our death, be infinite, yet even to these infinite Joyes, the
Resurrection gives an addition, and enlarges even that which was infinite. And there-
fore is Job so passionately desirous, that this doctrine of the Resurrection, might be
imparted to all, imprinted in all; 19. 13. Oh that my words were now written, Oh that they were
written in a book; and graven with an Iron pen in lead, and stone, for ever: what is all
this, that Job recommends with so much devotion to all? I am sure that my Redeemer
liveth, and he shall stand the last on Earth, and though after my skin, wormes destroy this
body, yet I shall see God in my flesh; whom I my selfe shall see; and mine eyes shall behold,
and none other for me. This doctrine of the Resurrection, had Job, so vehement, and
so early a care of. Neither could the malicious, and pestilent inventions of man, no
nor of Satan himselfe, abolish this doctrine of the Resurrection: Hiero. Ep. 13.
ad Paulinum. for, as Saint Hierome
observes, from Adrian's time, to Constantin's, for 180 yeares, in the place of Christs
birth, they had set up an Idoll, a statue of Adonis; In the place of his Crucifying, they
had set up an Idoll of Venus; and in the place of his Resurrection, they had erected a
Jupiter: in opinion, that these Idolatrous provisions of theirs, would have abolish'd
the Mysteries of our Religion; but they have outliv'd all them, and shall outlive all
the world, eternally beyond all Generations. Ambros. And therefore doth Saint Ambrose ap-
ply well, and usefully to our Death, and Resurrection, to our departing, and rising,
these words, Esa. 26. 20. Come my people, enter thou into thy Chambers, and shut thy dores after thee;
Hide thy selfe for a very little while, untill the Indignation passe over thee; that is, Goe
quietly, to your graves, attend your Resurrection, till God have executed his purpose
upon the wicked of this world; Murmur not to admit the dissolution of body, and soul,
upon your death-beds, nor the resolution, and putrefaction of the body alone in your
graves, till God be pleased to repaire all, in a full consummation, and reuniting of body
and soule, in a blessed Resurrection. Ite & Surgite, depart so, as you may desire to rise;
Depart with an In manus tuas, and with a Veni Domine Jesu; with a willing surrendring
of your soules, and a cheerfull meeting of the Lord Jesus. For else, all hope of profit, and permanent Rest is lost: Requies. for, as Saint Hierome in-
terprets these very words; Here we are taught that there is no rest, in this life, Sed qua-
si àmortuis resurgentes; ad sublime tendere, & ambulare post Dominum Jesum; we de-
part, Hier. when we depart from sin, and we rise, when we raise our selves to a conformity
with Christ: And not onely after his example, but after his person, that is, to hasten
thither, whither he is gone to prepare us a Room. For, this Rest, in the Text, though
it may be understood of the Land of Promise; and of the Church, and of the Arke, and
of the Sabbath, (for, if we had time to pursue them, we might make good use of all
these acceptations) yet we accept Chrysostome's acceptation best, Chrys. Requies est ipse Chri-
stus, our rest is Christ himselfe. Not onely that rest that is in Christ, (peace of con-
science in him) but that Rest, that Christ is in; eternall rest in his kingdome, Heb. 4. 9. There
remaineth a Rest, to the people of God; besides that inchoation of Rest, which the godly
have here, there remains a fuller Rest. Jesus is entred into his Rest, 10. sayes the Apostle
there; his Rest was not here, in this world; and, 11. Let us study to enter into that Rest,
sayes he; for no other can accomplish our peace. 1 Thes. 1. 6. It is righteousnesse with God, to recom-
pence tribulation to them, that trouble you, and, to you, which are troubled, Rest; but,
when? in this world? no: when the Lord Jesus shall shew himselfe from heaven, with
his mighty Angels; then comes your Rest; for, for the grave, the body lies still, but
it is not a Rest, because it is not sensible of that lying still; in heaven the body shall
rest, rest in the sense of that glory. This
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Serm. X.
This Rest then is not here, Not onely not Here, Non hîc. as this Here was taken in the first
interpretation, Here in the Earth; but not Here in the second interpretation, not in
Repentance it selfe; for all the Rest of this life, even the spirituall Rest, is rather a Truce,
then a peace, rather a Cessation, then an end of the war. For when these words, (I will
set the Egyptians against the Egyptians, Every one shall fight against his brother, Esa. 19. 2. and every
one against his neighbour, City against City, and Kingdome against Kingdome) may be
interpreted, and are so interpreted of the time of the Gospell of Christ Jesus, when
Christ himselfe says, Nolite putare quod venerim mittere pacem in terrâ, Mat. 10. 34. Never think
that I came to settle peace, or Rest in this world; Nay, when Christ sayes, None of
them that were bidden shall come to his supper, Luke 14. 24. and that may be verified of any Congre-
gation, none of us that are call'd now, shall come to that Rest, a Man may be at a se-
curity in an opinion of Rest, and be far from it; A man may be neerer Rest in a trou-
bled Conscience, then in a secure. Here we have often Resurrections, that is, purposes to depart from sin: but they are
such Resurrections, as were at the time of Christs Resurrection: when (as the strongest
opinion is) Resurrexerunt iterum morituri, Many of the dead rose, but they died again;
we rise from our sins here, but here we fall again; Monumenta aperta sunt; (it is Saint
Hierome's note,) The graves were opened, presently upon Christs death; Hier. but yet the
bodies did not arise, Mat. 27. till Christs Resurrection: The godly have an opening of their
graves, they see some light, some of their weight, some of their Earth is taken from
them, but a Resurrection to enter into the City, to follow the Lamb, to come into an
established security, that they have not, till they be united to Christ in heaven. Here
we are still subject to relapses, and to looking back; Aug. Memento uxoris Lot, Ipsa in loco
manet, transeuntes monet, Shee is fixed to a place, that she might settle those, that are
not fix'd; Vt quid in statuam salis conversa, si non homines, ut sapiant, condiat? to
teach us the danger of looking back, till we be fix'd, she is fix'd. When the Prophet
Eliah was at the dore of Desperation, an Angell touch'd him, and said, 1 Reg. 19. 5. Vp, and eat:
and there was bread, and water provided, and he did eat; but he slept again; and we
have some of these excitations, and we come, and eat, and drink, even the body, and
bloud of Christ, but we sleep again, we doe not perfect the work. Our Rest Here
then, is never without a fear of losing it: This is our best state, Hebr. 4. 1. To fear lest at any time,
by forsaking the promise of entring into his rest, we should seem to be depriv'd. The A-
postle disputes not, (neither doe I) whether we can be depriv'd or no; but he assures
us, that we may fall back so far, as that to the Church, and to our own Consciences
we may seem to be depriv'd; and that's argument enough, that here is no Rest. To
end all, Alicubi. though there be no Rest in all this world, no not in our sanctification here,
yet this being a Consolation, there must be rest some where; And it is, Aug. In superna Ci-
vitate, unde amicus non exit, quâ inimicus non intrat, In that City, in that Hierusalem,
where there shall never enter any man, whom we doe not love, nor any goe from us,
whom we doe love. Which, though we have not yet, yet we shall have: for upon
those words, (because I live, ye shall live also) Saint Augustine sayes, Iohn 14. 19. that because his
Resurrection was to follow so soon, Aug. Christ takes the present word, because I doe live.
But because their life was not to be had here, he says, Vivetis, you shall live, in heaven;
not Vivitis; for here, we doe not live. So, 1 Cor. 15. 22. as in Adam we all die, even so in Christ shall all
be made alive; says the Apostle: All our deaths are here, present now; now we dy;
our quickning is reserv'd for heaven, that's future. And therefore let us attend that
Rest, as patiently as we doe the things of this world, and not doubt of it therefore,
because we see it not yet: even in this world we consider invisible things, more then
visible; Vidimus pelagus, non autem mercedem, Chrysost The Merchant sees the tempestuous
Sea, when he does not see the commodities, which he goes for: Videmus terram, non
autem messem, The Husbandman sees the Earth, and his labour, when he sees no harvest;
and for these hopes, that there will be a gain to the Merchant, and a harvest to the
Labourer, Naturæ fidimus, we rely upon Creatures; for our Resurrection, fidejus-
sorem habemus Coronatum; Not Nature, not Sea, nor Land, is our surety, but our
surety is one, who is already crown'd, with that Resurrection. Num in hominibus terra
degenerat, quæ omnia regenerat, sayes Saint Ambrose, will the earth. Ambr. that gives a new
life to all Creatures, faile in us, and hold us in an everlasting winter, without a spring,
and a Resurrection? Certainly no; but if we be content so to depart into the wombe of
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At Lincolns Inne.
of the Earth, our grave, as that we know that, to be but the Entry into glory, as we
depart contentedly, so we shall arise gloriously, to that place, where our eternall Rest
shall be, though here there be not our Rest; for he that shoots an arrow at a mark,
yet means to put that arrow into his Quiver again; and God that glorifies himselfe,
in laying down our bodies in the grave, means also to glorifie them, in reassuming them
to himselfe, at the last day. Sermon XI.
Preached at Lincolns Inne, preparing them to build their Chappell.
Gen. 28. 16, 17.
Then Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not
aware. And he was afraid, and said, How fearfull is this place! This is none other but
the House of God, and this is the gate of Heaven. INIn these verses Jacob is a Surveyor; he considers a fit place for the house
of God; and in the very next verse, he is a Builder, he erects Bethel, the
house of God it selfe. All was but a drowsinesse, but a sleep, till he came
to this Consideration; as soon as he awoke, he took knowledge of a fit
place; as soon as he found the place, he went about the work. But to
that we shall not come yet. But this Text, being a preparation for the building of a
house to God, though such a house as Jacob built then, require no contribution, yet be-
cause such Churches, as we build now, doe, we shall first say a little, of that great vertue
of Charity; and then somewhat of that vertue, as it is exercis'd by advancing the house
of God, and his outward worship; And thirdly we shall consider Jacob's steps, and pro-
ceedings, in this action of his. 1. Part.
Charitas This vertue then, Charity, is it, that conducts us in this life, and accompanies us in
the next. In heaven, where we shall know God, there may be no use of faith; In hea-
ven, where we shall see God, there may be no use of hope; but in heaven, where God the
Father, and the Son, love one another in the Holy Ghost, the bond of charity shall
everlastingly unite us together. But Charitas in patria, and Charitas in via, differ in
this, That there we shall love one another because we shall not need one another, for
we shall all be full; Here the exercise of our charity is, because we doe stand in need of
one another. Dives & pauper duo sunt sibi contraria; sed iterum duo sunt sibi necessaria; August.
Rich, and poor are contrary to one another, but yet both necessary to one another;
They are both necessary to one another; but the poor man is the more necessary; be-
cause though one man might be rich, though no man were poor, yet he could have no
exercise of his charity, he could send none of his riches to heaven, to help him there,
except there were some poor here. He that is too fat, would fain devest some of that, though he could give that to no
other man, that lack'd it; And shall not he that is wantonly pampered, nay, who is
heavily laden, and encombred with temporall abundances, be content to discharge him-
self of some of that, wherewith he is over-straighted, upon those poor souls, whom God
hath not made poor for any sin of theirs, or of their fathers, but onely to present rich
men exercise of their charity, and occasions of testifying their love to Christ; who ha-
ving given himselfe, to convey salvation upon thee, if that conveyance may be sealed
to thee, by giving a little of thine own, is it not an easie purchase? When a poore
wretch beggs of thee, and thou givest, thou dost but justice, it is his. But when he
begs of God for thee, and God gives thee, this is mercy; this was none of thine. When we shall come to our Redde rationem villicationis, to give an accompt of our
Stewardship, when we shall not measure our inheritance by Acres, but all heaven shall
be ours, and we shall follow the Lamb, wheresoever he goes, when our estate, and term
shall not be limited by years, and lives, but, as we shall be in the presence of the Ancient
of dayes, so our dayes shall be so far equall to his, as that they shall be without end;
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Serm. XI.
Then will our great Merchants, great practisers, great purchasers, great Contracters,
find another language, another style, then they have been accustom'd to, here. There
no man shall be call'd a prodigall, but onely the Covetous man; Onely he that hath
been too diligent a keeper, shall appear to have been an unthrift, and to have wasted
his best treasure, the price of the bloud of Christ Jesus, his own soule. There no man
shall be call'd good security, but he that hath made sure his salvation. No man shall be
call'd a Subsidy man, but he that hath relieved Christ Jesus, in his sick, and hungry
Members. No man shall be call'd a wise Steward, but he that hath made friends of the
wicked Mammon; Nor provident Merchant, but he that sold all to buy the pearle;
Nor a great officer, but he that desires to be a dore-keeper in the kingdome of Hea-
ven. Now, every man hath a key to this dore of heaven: Every man hath some means
to open it; every man hath an oyle to anoint this key, and make it turn easily; he may
goe with more ease to Heaven, then he doth to Hell. Every man hath some means to
pour this oile of gladnesse and comfort into anothers heart; No man can say, Quid
retribuam tibi Domine; Lord what have I to give thee? for every man hath something
to give God: Money, or labor, or counsail, or prayers: Every man can give; and he gives
to God, who gives to them that need it, for his sake. Come not to that expostulation,
When did we see thee hungry, or sick, or imprisoned, and did not minister? Nor to
that, Quid retribuam, What can I give, that lack my selfe? lest God come also to that
silence, and wearinesse of asking at thy hands, to say, as he sayes in the Psalme, If I be
hungry, I will not tell thee; That though he have given thee abundance, though he lack
himselfe in his children, yet he will not tell thee, he will not ask at thy hands, he will
not enlighten thine understanding, he will not awaken thy charity, he will not give
thee any occasion of doing good, with that which he hath given thee. But God hath given thee a key: yea as he sayes to the Church of Philadelphia, Revel. 3. 8. Be-
hold I set before thee an open dore, and no man can shut it. Thou hast a gate into Heaven
in thy selfe; If thou beest not sensible of others mens poverties, and distresses, yet Mi-
serere animæ tuæ, have mercy on thine own soule; thou hast a poor guest, an Inmate,
a sojourner, within these mud wals, this corrupt body of thine; be mercifull and com-
passionate to that Soule; cloath that Soul, which is stripp'd and left naked, of all her
originall righteousnesse; feed that Soule, which thou hast starv'd; purge that Soule,
which thou hast infected; warm, and thaw that Soul; which thou hast frozen with in-
devotion; coole, and quench that Soul which thou hast inflamed with licentiousness;
Miserere animæ tuæ, begin with thine own Soule; be charitable to thy self first, and thou
wilt remember, that God hath made of one bloud, all Mankind, and thou wilt find out
thy selfe, in every other poor Man, and thou wilt find Christ Jesus himselfe in them all. 2. Part.Now of those divers gates, which God opens in this life, those divers exercises of
charity, the particular which we are occasion'd to speak of here, is not the cloathing,
nor feeding of Christ, but the housing of him, The providing Christ a house, a dwel-
ling; whether this were the very place, where Solomons Temple was after built, is per-
plexedly, and perchance, impertinently controverted by many; but howsoever, here
was the house of God, and here was the gate of Heaven. It is true, God may be de-
voutly worshipped any where; Ubique. In omni loco dominationis ejus benedic anima mea Domino;
In all places of his dominion, my Soule shall praise the Lord, sayes David. It is not only
a concurring of men, a meeting of so many bodies that makes a Church; If thy soule,
and body be met together, an humble preparation of the mind, and a reverent dispo-
sition of the body, if thy knees be bent to the earth, thy hands and eyes lifted up to
heaven, if thy tongue pray, and praise, and thine ears hearken to his answer, if all thy
senses, and powers, and faculties, be met with one unanime purpose to worship thy God,
thou art, to this intendment, a Church, thou art a Congregation, here are two or three
met together in his name, and he is in the midst of them, though thou be alone in thy
chamber. The Church of God should be built upon a Rock, and yet Job had his Church
upon a Dunghill; The bed is a scene, and an embleme of wantonnesse, and yet Heze-
kiah had his Church in his Bed; The Church is to be placed upon the top of a Hill, and
yet the Prophet Jeremy had his Church in Luto, in a miry Dungeon; Constancy, and
setlednesse belongs to the Church, and yet Jonah had his Church in the Whales belly;
The Lyon that roares, and seeks whom he may devour, is an enemy to this Church, and
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and yet Daniel had his Church in the Lions den; Aquæ quietudinum, the waters of rest in
the Psalme, were a figure of the Church, and yet the three children had their Church in
the fiery furnace; Liberty & life appertaine to the Church, and yet Peter, & Paul had their
Church in prison, and the thiefe had his Church upon the Crosse. Every particular
man is himselfe Templum Spiritus sancti, a Temple of the holy Ghost; yea, Solvite
templum hoc, Iohn 10. destroy this body by death, and corruption in the grave, yet there shall
be Festum encæniorum, a renuing, a reedifying of all those Temples, in the generall Re-
surrection: when we shall rise againe, not onely as so many Christians, but as so many
Christian Churches, Heb. 3. 1. to glorifie the Apostle, and High-priest of our profession, Christ
Jesus, in that eternall Sabbath. In omni loco dominationis ejus, Every person, every
place is fit to glorifie God in. God is not tyed to any place; not by essence; Implet & continendo implet, In templo.
Augustin. God
fills every place, and fills it by containing that place in himselfe; but he is tyed by his
promise to a manifestation of himselfe, by working in some certain places. Though
God were long before he required, or admitted a sumptuous Temple, (for Solomons Tem-
ple was not built, in almost five hundred years after their returne out of Egypt) though
God were content to accept their worship, and their sacrifices, at the Tabernacle, (which
was a transitory, and moveable Temple) yet at last he was so carefull of his house, as
that himselfe gave the modell, and platforme of it; and when it was built, and after re-
paired again, he was so jealous of appropriating, and confining all his solemne worship
to that particular place, as that he permitted that long schisme, and dissention, be-
tween the Samaritans, and the Jews, onely about the place of the worship of God;
They differed not in other things: but whether in Mount Sion, or in Mount Garizim.
And the feast of the dedication of this Temple, which was yearly celebrated, received
so much honor, as that Christ himselfe vouchfafedvouchsafed to be personally present at that so-
lemnity; though it were a feast of the institution of the Church, and not of God im-
mediately, as their other festivalls were, yet Christ forbore not to observe it, upon that
pretence, that it was but the Church that had appointed it to be observed. So that, as
in all times, God had manifested, and exhibited himselfe in some particular places, more
then other, (in the Pillar in the wildernesse, and in the Tabernacle, and in the poole,
which the Angell troubled) so did Christ himselfe, by his owne presence, ceremoni-
ously, justifie, and authorise this dedication of places consecrated to Gods outward
worship, not onely once, but anniversarily by a yearly celebration thereof. To descend from this great Temple at Jerusalem, Synagogue. to which God had annexed his
solemne, and publique worship, the lesser Synagogues, and Chappells of the Jews, in
other places, were ever esteemed great testimonies of the sanctity and piety of the
founders, for Christ accepts of that reason which was presented to him, Luke 7. 4. in the behalfe
of the Centurion, He is worthy that thou shouldst do this for him, for he loveth our Na-
tion; And how hath he testified it? He hath built us a Synagogue. He was but a stranger
to them, and yet he furthered, and advanced the service of God amongst them, of whose
body he was no member. This was that Centurions commendation; Ambros. Et quanto com-
mendatior qui ædificat Ecclesiam, How much more commendation deserve they, that
build a Church for Christian service? And therefore the first Christians made so much
haste to the expressing of their devotion, that even in the Apostles time, for all their
poverty, and persecution, they were come to have Churches: as most of the Fathers,
and some of our later Expositors, understand these words, (Have ye not houses to
eate and drinke, or doe ye despise the Church of God?) 1 Cor. to be spoken, not of the Church
as it is a Congregation, but of the Church as it is a Material building. Abdias Anaclet.
Durant. d.rit.
l. I. C. 2. Yea, if we may
beleeve some authors, that are pretended to be very ancient, there was one Church
dedicated to the memory of Saint John, and another by Saint Marke, to the memory
of Saint Peter, whilest yet both Saint Iohn, and Saint Peter were alive. Howsoever, it
is certaine, that the purest and most innocent times, even the infancy of the Primitive
Church, found this double way of expressing their devotion, in this particular of
building Churches, first that they built them onely to the honour, and glory of God,
without giving him any partner, and then they built them for the conserving of the
memory of those blessed servants of God, who had sealed their profession with their
bloud, and at whose Tombs, God had done such Miracles, as these times needed, for
the propagation of his Church. They built their Churches principally for the glory I of
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Serm. XI.
of God, but yet they added the names of some of his blessed servants and Martyrs; Leo.
for so says he, (who as he was Peters successor, so he is the most sensible feeler, and
most earnest, and powerfull promover and expresser, of the dignities of Saint Peter, of
all the Fathers) speaking of Saint Peters Church, Beato Petri Basilica, quæ uni Deo vero
& vivo dicata est, Saint Peters Church is dedicated to the onely living God; They
are things compatible enough to beare the name of a Saint, and yet to be dedicated to
God. There the bodies of the blessed Martyrs, did peacefully attend their glorification;
There the Histories of the Martyrs were recited and proposed to the Congregation, for
their example, and imitation; There the names of the Martyrs were inserted into the
publique prayers, and liturgies, by way of presenting the thanks of the Congregation
to God, for having raised so profitable men in the Church; and there the Church did
present their prayers to God, for those Martyrs, that God would hasten their glory,
and finall consummation, in reuniting their bodies, and soules, in a joyfull resurrection.
But yet though this divers mention were made of the Saints of God, in the house of
God, Non Martyres ipsi, sed Deus eorum, nobis est Deus, Augustin. onely God, and not those
Martyrs, is our God; we and they serve all one Master; we dwell all in one house;
in which God hath appointed us severall services; Those who have done their days
work, God hath given them their wages, and hath given them leave to goe to bed;
they have laid down their bodies in peace to sleep there, till the Sunne rise againe; till
the Sunne of grace and glory, Christ Jesus, appeare in judgment; we that are yet left
to work, and to watch, we must goe forward in the services of God in his house, with
that moderation, and that equality, as that we worship onely our Master, but yet de-
spise not our fellow servants, that are gone before us: That we give to no person, the
glory of God, but that we give God the more glory, for having raised such servants:
That we acknowledge the Church to be the house onely of God, and that we admit no
Saint, no Martyr, to be a Iointenant with him; but yet that their memory may be an
encouragement, yea and a seale to us, that that peace, and glory, which they possesse,
belongs also unto us in reversion, and that therefore we may cheerfully gratulate their
present happinesse, by a devout commemoration of them, with such a temper, and e-
vennesse, as that we neither dishonor God, by attributing to them, that which is inse-
parably his, nor dishonor them in taking away that which is theirs, in removing their
Names out of the Collects, and prayers of the Church, or their Monuments, and me-
morialls out of the body of the Church: for, those respects to them, the first Christian
founders of Churches did admit in those pure times, when Damasc. Illa obsequia, ornamenta me-
moriarum, non sacrificia mortuorum, when those devotions in their names, were onely
commemorations of the dead, not sacrifices to the dead, as they are made now in the
Romane Church: when Bellarmine will needs falsifie Chrysostome, to read Adoramus
monumenta, in stead of Adornamus; and to make that which was but an Adorning, an
adoring of the Tombes of the Martyrs. This then was in all times, a religious work, an acceptable testimony of devotion, to
build God a house; to contribute something to his outward glory. The goodnesse,
and greatnesse of which work, appears evidently, and shines gloriously, even in those
severall names, by which the Church was called, and styled, in the writings, and monu-
ments of the Ancient Fathers, and the Ecclesiastique story. It may serve to our edifi-
cation (at least) and to the axalting of our devotion, to consider some few of them: First
then the Church was called Ecclesia, that is, a company, a Congregation; Ecclesia. That whereas
from the time of John Baptist, the kingdome of heaven suffers violence, and every vio-
lent Man, that is, every earnest, and zealous, and spiritually valiant Man, may take hold
of it, we may be much more sure of doing so, in the Congregation, Tertul. Quando agmine facto
Deum obsidemus, when in the whole body, we Muster our forces, and besiege God. For,
here in the congregation, not onely the kingdome of heaven, is fallen into our hands,
The kingdome of heaven is amongst you, (as Christ says) but the King of heaven is fallen
into our hands; When two, or three are gathered together in my Name, I will be in the midst
of you; not onely in the midst of us, to encourage us, but in the midst of us, to be taken
by us, to be bound by us, by those hands, those covenants, those contracts, those rich,
and sweet promises, which he hath made, and ratified unto us in his Gospell. A second name of the Church then in use, was Dominicum: Dominicum. The Lords possession;
It is absolutely, it is intirely his; And therefore, as to shorten, and contract the possession
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possession and inheritance of God, the Church, so much, as to confine the Church one-ly within the obedience of Rome, (as the Donatists imprisoned it in Afrique) or to
change the Landmarks of Gods possession, and inheritance, which is the Church; ei-
ther to set up new works, of outward prosperity, or of personall, and Locall successi-
on of Bishops, or to remove the old, and true marks, which are the Word, and Sacra-
ments, as this is Injuria Dominico mystico, a wrong to the mysticall body of Christ, the
Church, so is it Injuria Dominico materiali, an injury to the Materiall body of Christ
sacrilegiously to dilapidate, to despoile, or to demolish the possession of the Church,
and so farre to remove the marks of Gods inheritance, as to mingle that amongst your
temporall revenues, that God may never have, nor ever distinguish his owne part
againe. And then (to passe faster over these names) It is called Domus Dei, Domus. Gods dwelling
house. Now, his most glorious Creatures are but vehicula Dei; they are but chariots,
which convey God, and bring him to our sight; The Tabernacle it selfe was but Mo-
bilis domus, and Ecclesia portatilis, a house without a foundation; a running, a progresse
house: but the Church is his standing house; there are his offices fixed: there are his
provisions, which fat the Soule of Man, as with marrow and with fatnesse, his preci-
ous bloud, and body: there work his seales; there beats his Mint; there is absolution,
and pardon for past sinnes, there is grace for prevention of future in his Sacraments.
But the Church is not onely Domus Dei, but Basilica; Basilica. not onely his house, but his
Court: he doth not onely dwell there, but reigne there: which multiplies the joy of
his houshold servants: The Lord reigneth, let all the earth rejoyce, yea let the multitude of
the Islands be glad thereof. That the Church was usually called Martyrium, Martyrium. that is, a
place of Confession, where we open our wounds and receive our remedy, Oratorium. That it was
called Oratorium, where we might come, and aske necessary things at Gods hands, all
these teach us our severall duties in that place, and they adde to their spirituall com-
fort, who have been Gods instruments, for providing such places, as God may be glo-
rified in, and the godly benefited in all these ways. But of all Names, which were then usually given to the Church, the name of Temple
seems to be most large, and significant, as they derive it à Tuendo; for Tueri signifies
both our beholding, and contemplating God in the Church: and it signifies Gods pro-
tecting, and defending those that are his, in his Church: Tueri embraces both; And
therefore, though in the very beginning of the Primitive Church, to depart from the
custome, and language, and phrase of the Jews, and Gentiles, as farre as they could,
they did much abstain from this name of Temple, and of Priest, so that till Ireneus time,
some hundred eighty years after Christ, we shall not so often find those words, Temple,
or Priest, yet when that danger was overcome, when the Christian Church, and
doctrine was established, from that time downward, all the Fathers did freely, and
safely call the Church the Temple, and the Ministers in the Church, Priests, as names
of a religious, and pious signification; where before out of a loathnesse to doe, or say
any thing like the Jews, or Gentiles, where a concurrence with them, might have been
misinterpretable, and of ill consequence, they had called the Church by all those other
names, which we passed through before; and they called their Priests, by the name of
Elders, Presbyteros: but after they resumed the use of the word Temple againe, as the
Apostle had given a good patterne, who to expresse the principall holinesse of the
Saints of God, he chooses to doe it, in that word, 2 Cor. 6. 16. ye are the Temples of the holy Ghost:
which should encline us to that moderation, that when the danger of these ceremonies
which corrupt times had corrupted, is taken away, we should returne to a love of that
Antiquity, which did purely, and harmelesly induce them: when there is no danger of
abuse, there should be no difference for the use of things, (in themselves indifferent)
made necessary by the just commandement of lawfull authority. Thus then you see as farre (as the narrownesse of the time will give us leave to ex-
presse it) the generall manner of the best times, to declare devotion towards God, to
have been in appropriating certaine places to his worship; And since it is so in this
particular history of Jacobs proceeding in my text, I may be bold to invert these words
of David, Nisi Deus ædificaverit domum, unlesse the Lord doe build the house, in vaine
doe the labourers work, thus much, as to say, Nisi Domino ædificaveritis domum, ex-
cept thou build a house for the Lord, in vaine dost thou goe about any other buildings, I2 or
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or any other businesse in this world. I speake not meerly literally of building Materi-all Chappells; (yet I would speake also to further that;) but I speake principally of
building such a Church, as every man may build in himselfe: for whensoever we pre-
sent our prayers, and devotions deliberately, and advisedly to God, there we consecrate
that place, there we build a Church. And therefore, beloved, since every master of a
family, who is a Bishop in his house, should call his family together, to humble, and
powre out their soules to God, let him consider, that when he comes to kneele at the
side of his table, to pray, he comes to build a Church there; and therefore should
sanctifie that place, with a due, and penitent consideration how voluptuously he hath
formerly abused Gods blessings at that place, how superstitiously, and idolatrously
he hath flatter'd and humour'd some great and usefull ghests invited by him to that
place, how expensively, he hath served his owne ostentation and vain-glory, by exces-
sive feasts at that place, whilest Lazarus hath lien panting, and gasping at the gate; and
let him consider what a dangerous Mockery this is to Christ Jesus, if he pretend by
kneeling at that table, fashionally to build Christ a Church by that solemnity at the
table side, and then crucifie Christ again, by these sinnes, when he is sat at the table.
When thou kneelest down at thy bed side, to shut up the day at night, or to beginne it
in the morning, thy servants, thy children, thy little flock about thee, there thou buil-
dest a Church too: And therefore sanctifie that place; wash it with thy tears, and
with a repentant consideration; That in that bed thy children were conceived in sinne,
that in that bed thou hast turned mariage which God afforded thee for remedy, and
physique to voluptuosnesse, and licenciousnesse; That thou hast made that bed which
God gave thee for rest, and for reparation of thy weary body, to be as thy dwelling,
and delight, and the bed of idlenesse, and stupidity. Briefly, you that are Masters,
continue in this building of Churches, that is, in drawing your families to pray, and
praise God, and sanctifie those severall places of bed, and board, with a right use of
them; And for you that are servants, you have also foundations of Churches in you,
if you dedicate all your actions, consecrate all your services principally to God, and
respectively to them, whom God hath placed over you. But principally, let all of all
sorts, who present themselves at this table, consider, that in that receiving his body,
and his bloud, every one doth as it were conceive Christ Jesus anew; Christ Jesus
hath in every one of them, as it were a new incarnation, by uniting himselfe to them in
these visible signes. And therefore let no Man come hither, without a search, and a
privy search, without a consideration, and re-consideration of his conscience. Let
him that beganne to think of it, but this morning, stay till the next. When Moses
pulled his hand first out of his bosome, it was white as snow, but it was leprous; Exod. 1. 4. 6. when
he pulled it the second time, it was of the color of flesh, but it was sound. When thou
examinest thy conscience but once, but slightly, it may appear, white as snow, innocent;
but examine it againe, and it will confesse many fleshly infirmities, and then it is the
sounder for that; though not for the infirmity, yet for the confession of the infirmity.
Neither let that hand, that reaches out to this body, in a guiltinesse of pollution, and
uncleannesse, or in a guiltinesse of extortion, or undeserved fees, ever hope to signe a
conveyance, that shall fasten his inheritance upon his children, to the third generation,
ever hope to assigne a will that shall be observed after his death; ever hope to lift up it
selfe for mercy to God, at his death; but his case shall be like the case of Judas, if the
devill have put in his heart, to betray Christ, to make the body and bloud of Christ
Jesus false witnesses to the congregation of his hypocriticall sanctity, Satan shall en-
ter into him, with this sop, and seale his condemnation. Beloved, in the bowels of that
Jesus, who is coming into you, even in spirituall riches, it is an unthrifty thing, to
anticipate your monies, to receive your rents, before they are due: and this treasure of
the soule, the body, and bloud of your Saviour, is not due to you yet, if you have
not yet passed, a mature, and a severe examination, of your conscience. It were better
that your particular friends, or that the congregation, should observe in you, an absti-
nence and forbearing to day, and make what interpretation, they would of that for-
bearing, then that the holy Ghost should deprehend you, in an unworthy receiving;
lest, as the Master of the feast said to him that came without his wedding garment, then
when he was set, Amice quomodo intrâsti, friend how came you in? so Christ should say
to thee, then when thou art upon thy knees, and hast taken him into thy hands, Amice quomodo
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quomodo intrabo, friend how can I enter into thee, who hast not swept thy house, who
hast made no preparation for me? But to those that have, he knocks and he enters, and
he sups with them, and he is a supper to them. And so this consideration of making
Churches of our houses, and of our hearts, leads us to a third part, the particular cir-
cumstances, in Jacobs action. 3. Part. In which there is such a change, such a dependence, whether we consider the Me-
tall, or the fashion, the severall doctrines, or the sweetnesse, and easinesse, of raising
them, as scarce in any other place, a fuller harmony. Divisio. The first linke is the Tunc Jacob,
then Jacob; which is a Tunc consequentiæ, rather then a Tunc temporis; It is not so
much, at what time Jacob did, or said this, as upon what occasion. The second linke is,
Quid operatum, what this wrought upon Jacob; It awaked him out of his sleep; A third
is Quid ille, what he did, and that was, Et dixit, he came to an open profession of
that, which he conceived, he said; and a fourth is, Quid dixit, what this profession was;
And in that, which is a branch with much fruit, a pregnant part, a part containing ma-
ny parts, thus much is considerable, that he presently acknowledged, and assented to
their light which was given him, the Lord is in this place; And he acknowledged his
owne darknesse, till that light came upon him, Et ego nesciebam, I knew it not; And
then upon this light received, he admitted no scruple, no hesitation, but came present-
ly to a confident assurance, Verè Dominus, surely, of a certainty, the Lord is in this
place; And then another doctrine is, Et timuit, he was afraid; for all his confidence he
had a reverentiall feare; not a distrust, but a reverent respect to that great Majesty;
and upon this feare, there is a second, Et dixit, he spoke againe; this feare did not stu-
pifie him, he recovers againe and discerned the manifestation of God, in that particu-
lar place, Quam terribilis, how fearfull is this place; And then the last linke of this chaine
is, Quid inde, what was the effect of all this; and that is, that he might erect a Monu-
ment, and marke for the worship of God in this place, Quia non nisi domus, because
this is none other then the house of God, and the gate of heaven. Now I have no
purpose to make you a fraidafraid of enlarging all these points: I shall onely passe through
some of them, paraphrastically, and trust them with the rest, (for they insinuate
one another) and trust your christianly meditation with them all. The first linke then is, the Tunc Jacob, Tunc. the occasion, (then Jacob did this) which was,
that God had revealed to Jacob, that vision of the ladder, whose foot stood upon earth,
and whose top reached to heaven, upon which ladder God stood, and Angels went up
and down. Now this ladder is for the most part, understood to be Christ himselfe;
whose foot, that touched the earth, is his humanity, and his top that reached to hea-
ven, his Divinity; The ladder is Christ, and upon him the Angels, (his Ministers) labour
for the edifying of the Church; And in this labour, upon this ladder, God stands a-
bove it, governing, and ordering all things, according to his providence in his Church.
Now when this was revealed to Jacob, now when this is revealed to you, that God hath
let fall a ladder, a bridge between heaven, and earth, that Christ, whose divinity depar-
ted not from heaven, came downe to us into this world, that God the father stands
upon this ladder, as the Originall hath it, Nitzab, that he leanes upon this ladder, as
the vulgar hath it, Innixus scalæ, that he rests upon it, as the holy Ghost did, upon the
same ladder, that is, upon Christ, in his baptisme, that upon this ladder, which stretches
so farre, and is provided so well, the Angels labour, the Ministers of God doe their
offices, when this was, when this is manifested, then it became Jacob, and now it be-
comes every Christian, to doe something for the advancing of the outward glory, and
worship of God in his Church: when Christ is content to be this ladder, when God is
content to govern this ladder, when the Angels are content to labour upon this ladder,
which ladder is Christ, and the Christian Church, shall any Christian Man forbeare
his help to the necessary building, and to the sober and modest adorning of the mate-
riall Church of God? God studies the good of the Church, Angels labour for it; and
shall Man, who is to receive all the profit of this, doe nothing? This is the Tunc Jacob;
when there is a free preaching of the Gospell, there should be a free, and liberall dispo-
sition, to advance his house. Well; to make haste, the second linke is Quid operatum, Quid opera-
tum. what this wrought upon
Jacob: and it is, Jacob awoke out of his sleep. Now in this place, the holy Ghost im-
putes no sinfull sleep to Jacob; but it is a naturall sleep of lassitude and wearinesse after I3 his
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his travell; there is an ill sleep, an indifferent, and a good sleep, which is that hea-venly sleep, that tranquillity, which that soul, which is at peace with God, and di-
vided from the storms, and distractions of this world, enjoys in it selfe. That
peace, which made the blessed Martyrs of Christ Jesus sleep upon the rack, upon the
burning coales, upon the points of swords, when the persecutors were more troubled
to invent torments, then the Christians to suffer. That sleep, from which, ambition,
nor danger, no nor when their own house is on fire, (that is, their own concupiscen-
ces) cannot awaken them; not so awaken them, that it can put them out of their
own constancy, and peacefull confidence in God. That sleep, which is the sleep of the
spouse, Ego dormio, sed cor meum vigilat, I sleep, but my heart is awake; Cant. 5. It was no dead
sleep when shee was able to speak advisedly in it, and say she was asleep, and what sleep
it was: It was no stupid sleep, when her heart was awake. This is the sleep of
the Saints of God, which Saint Gregory describes, Gregory. Sancti non torpore, sed virtue so-
piuntur; It is not sluggishnesse, but innocence, and a good conscience, that casts them
asleep. Laboriosiùs dormiunt, they are busier in their sleep, nay, Vigilantiùs, dormi-
unt, they are more awake in their sleep, then the watchfull men of this world; for
when they close their eyes in meditation of God, even their dreames are services to
him, Somniant se dicere Psalmos, says Saint Ambrose; Ambros. they dream that they sing
psalmes; and they doe more then dream it, they do sing. But yet even from this holy, and religious sleep (which is a departing from the al-
lurements of the world, and a retiring to the onely contemplation of heaven, and hea-
venly things) Jacob may be conceived to have awaked, and we must awake; It is not e-
nough to shut our selves in a cloister, in a Monastery, to sleep out the tentations of the
world, but since the ladder is placed, the Church established, since God, and the
Angels are awake in this businesse, in advancing the Church, we also must labour,
in our severall vocations, and not content our selves with our own spirituall sleep; the
peace of conscience in our selves; Mar. 4. 37. for we cannot have that long, if we doe not some
good to others. When the storm had almost drown'd the ship, Christ was at his ease,
in that storm, asleep upon a pillow. Now Christ was in no danger himself; All the
water of Noahs flood, multiplyed over again by every drop, could not have drown'd
him. All the swords of an Army could not have killed him, till the houre was come,
when hee was pleased to lay down his soul. But though he were safe, yet they awa-
ked him, and said, Master car'st thou not though we perish? So though a man may be in a
good state, in a good peace of conscience, and sleep confidently in it, yet other mens
necessities must awaken him, and though perchance he might passe more safely, if he
might live a retired life, yet upon this ladder some Angels ascended, some descended,
but none stood still but God himself. Till we come to him, to sleep an eternall Sab-
bath in heaven, though this religious sleep of enjoying or retiring and contemplation of
God, be a heavenly thing, yet we must awake even out of this sleep, and contribute our
paines, to the building, or furnishing, or serving of God in his Church. Quid ille dixit. Out of a sleep (conceive it what sleep soever) Jacob awaked; and then, Quid ille?
what did he? Dixit, he spoke, he entred presently into an open profession of his
thoughts, he smother'd nothing, he disguised nothing. God is light, and loves cleer-
nesse; thunder, and wind, and tempests, and chariots, and roaring of Lyons, and falling
of waters are the ordinary emblems of his messages, and his messengers in the Scriptures.
Christ who is Sapientia Dei, the wisdome of God, is Verbum, Sermo Dei, the word of
God, he is the wisdome, and the uttering of the wisdome of God, as Christ is express'd
to be the word, so a Christians duty is to speak dearly, and professe his religion. With
how much scorn and reproach Saint Cyprian fastens the name of Libellaticos upon them,
who in time of persecution durst not say they were Christians, but under-hand com-
pounded with the State, that they might live unquestioned, undiscovered, for though
they kept their religion in their heart, yet Christ was defrauded of his honour. And
such a reproach, and scorn belongs to them, who for fear of losing worldly prefer-
ments, and titles, and dignities, and rooms at great Tables, dare not say, of what religi-
on they are. Beloved, it is not enough to awake out of an ill sleep of sinne, or of igno-
rance, or out of a good sleep, out of a retirednesse, and take some profession, if you
winke, or hide your selves, when you are awake, you shall not see the Ladder, not
discern Christ, nor the working of his Angels, that is, the Ministery of the Church, and
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and the comforts therein, you shall not hear that Harmony of the quire of heaven, if
you will bear no part in it; an inward acknowledgment of Christ is not enough, if you
forbear to professe him, where your testimony might glorify him. Chrys. Si sufficeret fides
cordis, non creasset tibi Deus os, If the heart were enough, God would never have made a
mouth; And to that, we may adde, Si sufficeret os, non creasset manus, if the mouth were
enough, God would never have made hands; for as the same Father says, Omni tuba
clarior est per opera demonstratio, no voice more audible, none more credible, then when
thy hands speak as well as thy heart or thy tongue; Thou art then perfectly awaked
out of thy sleep, when thy words and works declare, and manifest it. Quid. The next is, Quid dixit; he spake, but what said he? first, he assented to that light
which was given him. The Lord is in this place. He resisted not this light, he went not
about to blow it out, by admitting reason, or disputation against it. He imputed it not
to witchcraft, to illusion of the Devill; but Dominus est in loco isto, The Lord is in this
place; O how many heavy sinnes, how many condemnations might we avoid, if wee
would but take knowledge of this, Dominus in loco isto, That the Lord is present, and sees
us now, and shall judge hereafter, all that we doe, or think. It keeps a man sometimes
from corrupting, or soliciting a woman, to say, Peter, Maritus in loco, the Father, or
the Husband is present; it keeps a man from an usurious contract to say, Lex in loco,
the Law will take knowledge of it; it keeps a man from slandering or calummating a-
nother, to say, Testis in loco, here is a witnesse by; but this is Catholica Medicina, and
Omni morbia, an universall medicine for all, to say, Dominus in loco, The Lord is in this
place, and sees, and heares, and therefore I will say, and think, and do, as if I were now
summon'd by the last Trumpet, to give an account of my thoughts, and words, and
deeds to him. But the Lord was there and Jacob knew it not. Nesciebam. As he takes knowledge by the first
light of Gods presence, so he acknowledges that he had none of this light, of himself,
Ego nesciebam, Jacob a Patriarch and dearly beloved of God, knew not that God was
so near him. How much lesse shall a sinfull man, that multiples sinnes, like clouds be-
tween God and him, know, that God is near him? As Saint Augustine said, when hee
came out of curiousty to hear Saint Ambrose preach at Milan, without any desire of pro-
fiting thereby, Appropinquavi, & nesciebam, I came neer God, but knew it not; So the
customary and habituall sinners, may say, Elongavi, & nesciebam, I have eloyn'd my
selfe, I have gone farther, and farther from my God, and was never sensible of it; It is
a desperate ignorance, not to bee sensible of Gods absence; but to acknowledge with
Jacob, that we cannot see light, but by that light, that we cannot know Gods presence
but by his revealing of himself, is a religious, and a Christian humility. To know it
by Reason, by Philosophy, is a dimme and a faint knowledge, but onely by the testimony
of his own spirit, and his own revealing, we come to that confidence, Verè. Verè Domine,
Surely the Lord is in this place. Bern. Est apud malos, sed dissimulans, God is with the wicked, but he dissembles his bee-
ing there, that is, conceals it; he will not be known of it; Et ibi, malorum dissimula-
tio quodammodo Veritas non est, when God winks at mens sinnes, when he dissembles, or
disguises his knowledge, we may almost say, says Saint Bernard, Veritas non est,
Here is not direct dealing, here is not intire truth, his presence is scarce
a true presence. And therefore as the same Father proceeds, Si dicere licet,
if we may be bold to expresse it so, Apud impios est, sed in dissimulatione, he is with
the wicked, but yet he dissembles, he disguises his presence, he is there to no purpose,
to no profit of theirs; but Est apud justos in veritate, with the righteous he is in truth,
and in clearnesse. Est apud Angelos in fœlicitate, with the Angels and Saints in heaven,
he is in an established happinesse; Est apud inferos in feritate, he is in Hell in his fury, in
an irrevocable, and undeterminable execution of his severity: God was surely, and
truly with Jacob, and with all them, who are sensible of his approaches, and of his gra-
cious manifestation of himself. Verè non erat apud eos quibus dixit, quid vocatis me Do-
minum, & non facitis quæ dixi vobis? Idem. God is not truly with them, whom he rebukes
for saying; Why call ye me Lord, and do not my commandements? but ubi in ejus nomine
Angeli simul & homines congregantur, Idem. When Angels and men, Priest and people, the
Preacher and the congregation labour together upon this Ladder, study the advancing
of his Church (as by the working of Gods gratious Spirit we doe at this time) Ibi verè est
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est & ibi verè Dominus est, surely he is in this place, and surely he is Lord in this place,
he possesses, he fills us all, he governs us all: and as, though we say to him, Our Father
which art in heaven, yet we beleeve that he is within these walls, so though we say Ad-
veniat regnum tuum, thy kingdome come, we beleeve that his kingdome is come, and
is amongst us in grace now, as it shall be in glory hereafter. Timuit. When he was now throughly awake, when he was come to an open profession, when
he acknowledged himselfe to stand in the sight of God, when he confessed his owne
ignorance of Gods presence, and when after all he was come to a setled confidence,
Verè Dominus, surely the Lord is here, yet it is added, Et timuit, and he was
afraid. No man may thinke himselfe to bee come to that familiar
acquaintance with God, as that it should take away that reverentiall feare
which belongs to so high and supreme a Majesty. Iudg. 13. When the Angell appeared to
the wife of Manoah, foretelling Samsons birth, she says to her husband, the fashion of him
was like the fashion of the Angell of God; what's that? Exceeding fearfull. When
God appears to thy soule, even in mercy, in the forgivenes of thy sins, yet there belongs a
fear even to this apprehension of mercy: Not a fearfull diffidence, not a distrust, but a
fearfull consideration, of that height, and depth; what a high Majesty thou hast offen-
ded, what a desperate depth thou wast falling into, what a fearfull thing it had been, to
have fallen into the hands of the living God, and what an irrecoverable wretch thou
hadst been, if God had not manifested himselfe, to have been in that place, with thee.
And therefore though he have appeared unto thee in mercy, yet be afraid, lest he goe
away againe; As Manoah prayed, and said, I beseech thee my Lord, let the Man of God,
whom thou sentest, come againe unto us, and teach us, what we shall doe with the child,
when he is born, so when God hath once appeared to thy soul in mercy, pray him to come
again, and tell thee what thou shouldest doe with that mercy, how thou shouldest hus-
band those first degrees of grace and of comfort, to the farther benefit of thy soule,
and the farther glory of his name, and be afraid that thy dead flyes may putrefie his
ointment; Iob 4. 14. those reliques of sinne, (though the body of sinne, be crucified in thee)
which are left in thee, may overcome his graces: for upon those words, Pavor tenuit
me & tremor, & omnia ossa mea perterrita sunt, Gregory. feare came upon me, and trembling, which
made all my bones to shake, Saint Gregory says well, Quid per ossa nisi fortia acta desig-
nantur, our good deeds, our strongest works and those which were done in the best
strength of grace, are meant by our bones, and yet ossa perterrita our strongest works
tremble at the presence and examination of God. Psalm. 35. 10. And therefore to the like purpose
(upon those words of the Psalme) the same Father says, Omnia ossa mea dicent, Domine
quis similis tibi, all my bones say, Lord who is like unto thee? Carnes meæ, verba non
habent, (my fleshly parts, my carnall affections) Infirma mea funditus silent,
my sinnes, or my infirmities dare not speak at all, not appear at all, Sed ossa mea, quæ
fortia credidi, sua consideratione tremiscunt, my very bones shake, there is no degree, no
state neither of innocence, nor of repentance, nor of faith, nor of sanctification, above
that fear of God: and he is least acquainted with God, who thingsthinks that he is so familiar,
that he need not stand in feare of him. Et dixit. But this fear hath no ill effect. It brings him to a second profession, Et dixit; and
he spoke againe. He waked, and then he spoke, as soon as he came out of ignorance; He
was afraid, and then he spoke againe that he might have an increase of grace. The earth
stands still: and earthly Men may be content to doe so: Bern. but he whose conversation is
in heaven, is as the heavens are in continuall progresse. For Inter profectum, & defectum
& defectum& defectum,
medium in hac vita non datur. A Christian is always in a proficiency, or
deficiency: If he goe not forward, he goes backward. Nemo dicat, satis est, sic manere
volo; Let no man say, I have done enough, I have made my profession already, I have
been catechiz'd, I have been thought fit to receive the Communion, sufficit mihi esse
sicut heri & nudiustertius; though he be in the way, in the Church, yet he sleeps in the
way, he is got no farther in the way, then his godfathers carried him in their armes, to
engraffe him in the Church by Baptisme: for this man, says he, Idem. In via residet, in
scala subsistit, quod nemo angelorum fecit, Luke 2. 52. he stands still upon the ladder, and so did none
of the Angels. Christ himself, increased in wisdome, and in stature, and in favour with
God, and Man; so must a Christian also labour to grow and to encrease, by speaking
and speaking again, by asking more, and more questions, Act. 10. 58. and by farther, and farther in-
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informing his understanding, and enlightening his faith; per transiit benefaciendo, & sana-vit omnes, says Saint Peter of Christ; Acts 10. 38. He went about doing good, and healing all that
were oppressed of the Devill; and it was prophesied of him, Psal. 19. Exultavit ut Gigas ad
currendam vim, He went forth as a Gyant, to run a race; If it be Christs pace,
it must be a Christians pace too. Currentem non apprehendit, nisi qui & pariter currit; Bern.
There is no overtaking of him that runnes, without running too. Quid prodest Chri-
stum sequi, si non consequamur? and to what purpose do we follow Christ, if not to o-
vertake him, and lay hold upon him? Sic currite, ut comprehendatis, fige Christiane
cursus & profectus metam ubi Christus suum; runne so as ye may obtain; and if thou
beest a Christian, propose the same end of thy course, as Christ did; factus est obedi-
ens usque ad mortem; and the end of his course was, to be obedient unto death. Speak then, and talke continually of the name, and the goodnesse of God; speak
again, and again; It is no tautology, no babling, to speak, and iterate his
prayses: Who accuses Saint Paul for repeating the sweet name of Jesus so very many
times in his Epistles? Who accuses David for repeating the same phrase, the same
sentence [for his mercy endureth for ever] so many times, as he doth in his Psalms? nay,
the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm is scarce any thing else, then an often repetition
of the same thing. Thou spokest assoonas soon as thou wast awake, as soon as thou wast born, thou
spokest in Baptism. So proceed to the farther knowledge of Religion, and the mysteries
of Gods service in his house; and conceive a fearfull reverence of them in their institu-
tion, and speak again, enquire what they mean, what they signify, what they exhibit
to thee. Conceive a reverence of them, first, out of the authority that hath instituted
them, and then speak, and inform thy self of them. God spent a whole week in spea-
king for thy good; Dixit Deus, God spake that there might be light, Dixit Deus, God
spake that there might be a firmament; for immediately upon Gods speaking, the work
follow'd: Dixit & factum, he spake the word, and the world was created. As God did,
a godly man shall do; If he delight to talk of God, to mention often upon all occasi-
ons, the greatnesse, and goodnesse of God, to prefer that discourse, before obscene,
and scurrile, and licentious, and profane, and defamatory, and ridiculous, and frivolous
talke; If he delight in professing God with his tongue, out of the abundance of his
heart, his works shall follow his words, he will do as he says. If God had given over,
when he had spake of Light, and a Firmament, and Earth, and Sea, and had not con-
tinued speaking till the last day, when he made thee, what hadst thou got by all that?
what hadst thou been at all for all that? If thou canst speak when thou awakest, when
thou beginnest to have an apprehension of Gods presence, in a remorse, if then, that
presence, and Majesty of God, make thee afraid, with the horrour and greatnesse of thy
sinnes, if thou canst not speak again then, not goe forward with thy repentance; thy
former speech is forgotten by God, and unprofitable to thee. Jacob at first speaking
confessed God to be in that place; but so he might be every where; but he conceived
a reverentiall fear at his presence; and then he came to speak the second time, to pro-
fesse, that that was none other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven; that there
was an entrance for him in particular, a fit place for him to testifie and exercise his
Devotion; he came to see, what it was fit for him to doe, towards the advancing of
Gods house. Domus. Now whensoever a man is proceeded so far with Jacob, first to sleep, to be at peace
with God, and then to wake, to doe something for the good of others, and then to
speak, to make profession, to publish his sense of Gods presence, and then to attribute
all this onely to the Light of God himself, by which light he grows from faith to faith,
and from grace to grace, whosoever is in this disposition, he may say in all places, and
in all his actions, This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of hea-
ven. He shall see heaven open, and dwell with him, in all his undertakings: and
particularly, and principally in his expressing of a care, and respect, both to Christs
Mysticall, and to his materiall body; both to the sustentation of the poor, and to the
building up of Gods house. In both which kinds of Piety, and Devotion, (non nobis Do-
mine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam; Not unto us O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy
Name be given the glory;) As to the confusion of those shamelesse slanderers, who
place their salvation in works, and accuse us to avert men from good works, there
have been in this Kingdome, since the blessed reformation of Religion, more publick chari-
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charitable works perform'd, more Hospitals and Colleges erected, and endowed in
threescore, then in some hundreds of years, of superstition before, so may God be plea-
sed to adde one example more amongst us, that here in this place, we may have some
occasion to say, of a house erected, and dedicated to his service, This is none other but
the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven: and may he vouchsafe to accept at our
hands, in our intention, and in our endevour to consummate that purpose of ours, that
thanksgiving, that acclamation which he received from his Royall servant SalomonSolomon, at
the Consecration of his great Temple, when he said, 1 Reg. 8. 27. Is it true indeed, that God will dwell
on the earth? Behold, the heavens, and the heaven of heavens are not able to contain thee,
how much more unable shall this house bee, that we intend to build? But have thou respect
unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord, my God, to hear the cry & the
prayer that thy servant shall make before thee that day; That thine eye may bee open towards
that house night and day, that thou mayst heare the supplications of thy servants, and of thy
people, which shall pray in that place, and that thou mayst hear them in the place of thy habi-
tation even in heaven, and when thou hearest, mayst have mercy. Amen. Sermon XII.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
John 5. 22.
The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement to the Sonne. When our Saviour forbids us to cast pearl before swine, Mat. 7. 6. we understand
ordinarily in that place, that by pearl, are understood the Scri-
ptures, and when we consider the naturall generation and produ-
ction of Pearl, that they grow bigger and bigger, by a continu-
all succession, and devolution of dew, and other glutinous moy-
sture that fals upon them, and there condenses and hardens, so that
a pearl is but a body of many shels, many crusts, many films, many
coats enwrapped upon one another. To this Scripture which we have in hand, doth
that Metaphor of pearl very properly appertain, because our Saviour Christ in this
Chapter undertaking to prove his own Divinity and God-head to the Jews, who ac-
knowledged, and confessed the Father to be God, but denyed it of him, he folds
and wraps up reason upon reason, argument upon argument, that all things are com-
mon between the Father and him, That whatsoever the Father does, he does, what-
soever the Father is, he is; for first, he says, he is a partner, a cooperator with the Fa-
ther, in the present administration and government of the world, Verse 17. My Father worketh
hitherto, and I work; well, if the Father do ease himself upon instruments now, yet was
it so from the beginning? had he a part in the Creation? Yes; What things soever the
Father doth, those also doth the Son likewise. Verse 19. But doe those extend to the work properly,
and naturally belonging to God, to the remission, to the effusion of grace, to the spi-
rituall resurrection of them that are dead in their iniquities? Yes, even to that too, Verse 21.
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickneth them, even so the Son quickneth
whom he will. But hath not this power of his a determination, or expiration? shall it not
end, at least when the world ends? no, not then, for God hath given him authority to
execute judgment, because he is the Son of man. Verse 27. Is there then no Supersedeas upon this
commission? Is the Sonne equall with the Father in our eternall election, in our cre-
ation, in the meanes of our salvation, in the last judgement, in all? In all, Omne judici-
um, God hath committed all judgement to the Son; And here is a pearl made up,
the dew of Gods grace sprinkled upon your souls, the beams of Gods Spirit shed upon
your soules, that effectuall and working knowledge; That he who dyed for your salva-
tion is perfect God, as well as perfect man, fit, as willing to accomplish that salvation. In handling then this Iudgement, which is a word that embraces and comprehends
all, All from our Election, where no merit or future actions of ours were considered by
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by God to our fruition and possession of that election, where all our actions shall be con-sidered and recompensed by him, we shall see first that Judgment belongs properly to
God; And secondly, that God the Father whom we consider to be the root and foun-
dation of the Deity, can no more devest his Judgment then he can his Godhead, and
therefore in the third place we consider, what that committing of Judgment, which is
mentioned here imports, and then to whom it is committed, To the Sonne: and last-
ly the largnesse of that which is committed, Omne, all Judgment, so that we cannot
carry our thoughts so high, or so farre backwards, as to think of any Judgment given
upon us in Gods purpose or decree without relation to Christ; Nor so far forward, as
to think that there shall be a Judgment given upon us, according to our good, morall
dispositions or actions, but according to our apprehension and imitation of Christ.
Judgment is a proper and inseparable Character of God; that's first, the Father can-
not devest himself of that; that's next. The third is that he hath committed it to ano-
ther; And then the person that is his delegate, is his onely Sonne, and lastly his power
is everlasting; And that Judgment day that belongs to him, hath, and shall last from
our first Election, through the participation of the meanes prepared by him in his
Church, to our association and union with him in glory, and so the whole circle of time,
and before time was, and when time shall be no more, makes up but one Judgment
day to him, to whom the Father who judgeth no man hath committed all
Judgment. First then Judgment appertaines to God, It is his in Criminall causes, a 1. Part.
Iudiciũ Dei.
aRom. 12.19. Vindicta
mihi, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord; It is so in civill things too; for
God himself is proprietary of all, Domini est terra et plenitudo ejus, The earth is the Lords,
and all that is in, and on the earth; Your silver is mine, and your gold is mine, says the
Prophet, and the beasts on a Thousand hills are mine, says David, you are usufructuaries of
them, but I am proprietary; No attribute of God is so often iterated in the Scriptures, no
state of God so often incultated, as this Judge, and Judgment: no word concerning
God so often repeated, but it is brought to the height, where in that place of the Psalm,
where we read, God judgeth among the Gods, Psal. 82. 1. the Latine Church ever read it, Deus diju-
dicat Deos, God judgeth the Gods themselves, for though God say of Judges and Magi-
strats, Ego dixi dii estis; I have said ye are Gods, (and if God say it, who shall gainsay
it?) yet he says too, Moriemini, sicut homines, The greatest Gods upon earth shall die like
men; And if that be not humiliation enough, there is more threatned in that which fol-
lows, yee shall fall like one of the Princes, for the fall of a Prince involves the ruine of
many others too, and it fills the world with horror for the present, and ominous dis-
course for the future; but the farthest of all is Deus dijudicat Deos, even these Judges
must come to Judgment, and therefore that Psalme which begins so, is concluded thus,
Surge Domine, arise ô God, and judge the earth: If he have power to judge the earth,
he is God, and even in God himselfe it is expressed as a kind of rising, as some exalta-
tion of his power, that he is to Judge; And that place in the beginning of that Psalme
many of the antients read in the future Dijudicabit, God shall judge the Gods, because
the frame of the Psalme seems to referre it to the last Judgment; Turtullian reads it
Dijudicavit, as a thing past, God hath judged in all times; and the letter of the text
requires it to be in the present, Dijudicat. Collect all, and Judgment is so essentiall to
God, as that it is coeternall with him, he hath, he doth, and he will judge the world,
and the Judges of the world, other Judges die like men, weakely, and they fall, that's
worse ignominiously, and they fall like Princes, that's worst, fearfully, and yet scornfully,
and when they are dead and faln, they rise no more to execute Judgment, but have
Judgment executed upon them the Lord dyes not, nor he falls not, and if he seem to
slumber, the Martyrs under the Altar awake him with their Vsque quo Domine, how
long O Lord before thou execute Iudgment? And he will arise and Judge the world, for
Judgment is his; God putteth downe one, and setteth up another, says David; Psal 75. 7. where hath
he that power? Why, God is the Judge, not a Judge, but the Judge, and in that right
he putteth downe one, and setteth up another. IudicinmIudicium de-
testationis.Now for this Judgment, which we place in God, we must consider in God three
notions, three apprehensions, three kinds of Judgment. First, God hath Judicium
detestationis, God doth naturally know, and therefore naturally detest evill; for no man
in the extreamest corruption of nature is yet fallen so far, as to love or approve evill at the
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the same time that he knows, and acknowledges it to be evill. But we are so blind in
the knowledge of evill, that we needed that great supplement, and assistance of the law
it self to make us know what was evill; Moses magnifies (and justly) the law, Non ap-
propinquavit, says Moses, God came not so neare to any nation as to the Jews; Non
taliter fecit, God dealt not so well with any nation, as with the Jews, and wherein?
because he had given them a law, and yet we see the greatest dignity of this law, to be,
That by the law is the knowledge of sinne; for though by the law of nature written in
our hearts, there be some condemnation of some sinnes, yet to know that every sinne
was Treason against God, to know that every sinne hath the reward of death, and eter-
nall death annexed to it; this knowledge we have onely by the law. Now if man will
pretend to be a Judge, what an exact knowledge of the law is required at his hand?
for some things are sinne to one nation, which are not to another, as where the just
authority of the lawfull Magistrate, changes the nature of the thing, and makes a thing
naturally indifferent, necessary to them, who are under his obedience; some things are
sinnes at one time, which are not at another, as all the ceremoniall law, created new
sinnes which were not sinnes before the law was given, nor since it expir'd; some things
are sinnes in a man now, which will not be sinnes in the same man to morrow, as when
a man hath contracted a just scruple, against any particular action, it is a sinne to doe it
during the scruple, and it may be sinne in him to omit it, when he hath devested the
scruple; onely God hath Judicium detestationis, he knows, and therefore detests evill,
and therefore flatter not thy self with a Tush, God sees it not, or, Tush, God cares not,
Doth it disquiet him or trouble his rest in heaven that I breake his Sabbath here? Doth
it wound his body, or draw his bloud there, that I swear by his body and bloud here?
Doth it corrupt any of his virgins there, that I sollicit the chastity of a woman here?
Are his Martyrs withdrawn from their Allegeance, or retarded in their service to him
there, because I dare not defend his cause, nor speake for him, nor fight for him here?
Beloved, it is a degree of superstition, and an effect of an undiscreet zeale, perchance,
to be too forward in making indifferent things necessary, and so to imprint the nature,
and sting of sin where naturally it is not so: certainly it a more slippery and irreligious
thing to be too apt to call things meerely indifferent, and to forget that even in eating
and drinking, waking and sleeping, the glory of God is intermingled, as if we knew ex-
actly the prescience and foreknowledge of God, there could be nothing contingent or
casuall, (for though there be a contingency in the nature of the thing, yet it is certain
to God) so if we considered duly, wherein the glory of God might be promov'd in
every action of ours, there could scarce by any action so indifferent, but that the glory
of God would turne the scale and make it necessary to me, at that time; but then pri-
vate interests, and private respects create a new indifferency to my apprehension, and
calls me to consider that thing as it is in nature, and not as it is considered with that
circumstance of the glory of God, and so I lose that Judicium detestationis, which
onely God hath absolutely and perfectly to know, and therefore to detest evill, and so
he is a Judge. And as he is a Judge, so Judicat rem, he judges the nature of the thing, he is so too,
as he hath Judicium discretionis, Iudicium dis-
cretionis. and so Judicat personam, he knows what is evill, and
he discernes when thou committest that evill. Here you are fain to supply defects of
laws, that things done in one County may be tryed in another; And that in offences of
high nature, transmarine offences may be inquir'd and tryed here; But as the Pro-
phet says; Esay 40.12. Who measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or meted out the heavens
with a span, who comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, or weighed the mountains
in a scale? So I say, who hath divided heaven into shires or parishes, or limited the
territories and Jurisdictions there, that God should not have Judicium discretionis, the
power of discerning all actions, in all places? When there was no more to be seen, or
considered upon the whole earth but the garden of Paradise, for from the beginning
Deliciæ ejus esse cum filiis hominum, Gods delight was to be with the sons of men, and
man was only there, shal we not deminish God nor speak too vulgarly of him to say, that
he hovered like a Falcon over Paradise, and that from that height of heaven, the pier-
cing eye of God, saw so little a thing, as the forbidden fruit, and what became of that,
and the reaching eare of God heard the hissing of the Serpent, and the whispering of
the woman, and what was concluded upon that? Shall we think it little to have seen to have
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have things done in Paradise when there was nothing else to divert his eye, nothing else to
distract his counsels, nothing else done upon the face of the earth? Take the earth
now as it is replenished, and take it either as it is torn and crumbled into raggs, and
shivers, not a kingdome, not a family, not a man agreeing with himselfe; Or take it
in that concord which is in it, as Psalm 2. 2. All the Kings of the earth set themselves, and all the
Rulers of the earth take counsell together against the Lord; take it in this union, or this
division, in this concord, or this discord, still the Lord that sitteth in the heavens dis-
cernes all, looks at all, laughs at all, and hath them all in derision. Earthly Judges have
their distinctions, and so their restrictions, some things they cannot know, what mor-
tall man can know all? Some things they cannot take knowledge of, for they are
bound to evidence: But God hath Iudicium discretionis, no mist, no cloud, no dark-
nesse, no disguise keeps him from discerning, and judging all our actions, and so he is a
Judge too. And he is so lastly, as he hath Iudicium retributionis, God knows what is evill, he
knows when that evill is done, and he knows, how to punish and recompense that evill:
for the office of a Judge who judges according to a law, being not to contract, or ex-
tend that law, but to declare what was the true meaning of that Law-maker when
hee made that law, God hath this judgement in perfection, because hee himself
made that law by which he judges, and therefore when he hath said, Morte morieris;
If thou do this, thou shalt die a double death, where he hath said, Stipendium peccati mors
est, every sin shall be rewarded with death; If I sinne against the Lord, who shall entreat
for me? Who shall give any other interpretation, 1 Sam. 2. 15. any modification, any Non obstan-
te upon his law in my behalf, when he comes to judge me according to that law
which himself hath made? Who shall think to delude the Judge, and say, Surely this
was not the meaning of the Law-giver, when he who is the Judge was the Law-ma-
ker too? Sine Appel-
latione.And then as God is Judge in all these three respects, so is he a Judge in them all,
Sine Appellatione, and Sine judiciis, man cannot appeal from God, God needs no
evidence from man; for, for the Appeal first, to whom should we appeal from the So-
veraign? Wrangle as long as ye will who is Chief Justice, and which Court hath
Jurisdiction over another; I know the Chief Justice, and I know the Soveraign
Court, the King of heaven and earth shall send his ministring Spirits, his Angels to the
womb, and bowels of the Earth, and to the bosome, and bottome of the Sea, and
Earth must deliver, Corpus cum causâ, all the bodies of the dead, and all their actions,
to receive a judgement in this Court: when it will be but an erroneous, and frivolous
Appeal, to call to the Hils to fall down upon us, and the Mountains to cover, and hide
us from the wrathfull judgment of God. He is a Judge then Sine appellatione, with-
out any Appeal, from him, he is so too Sine judiciis, without needing any evidence
from us. Now if I be wary in my actions here, incarnate Devils, detractors, and in-
formers cannot accuse me; If my sinne come not to action, but lye onely in my heart,
the Devill himself who is the accuser of the brethren, hath no evidence against me,
but God knows my heart; doth not he that pondereth the heart, understand it? Prov. 24. 12. where it
is not in that faint word, which the vulgar Edition hath expressed it in, inspector cordium,
That God sees the heart; but the word is Tochen, which signifies every where to
weigh, to number, to search, to examine, as the word is used by SalomonSolomon again, The
Lord weigheth the spirits, Prov. 16. 2. and it must be a ready hand, and exact scales that shall weigh
spirits. So that though neither man, nor Devill, nay nor my self give evidence against
me, yea, though I know nothing by my selfe, I am not thereby justified, why? where
is the farther danger? In this which follows there in Saint Paul, 1 Cor. 4. 4. He that judges me is
the Lord, and the Lord hath meanes to know my heart better then my self: And there-
fore, as Saint Augustine makes use of those words, Abyssus Abyssum invocat, one depth
cals upon another, The infinite depth of my sins must call upon the more infinite depth
of Gods mercy, for if God, who is Judge in all these respects, judicio detestationis, he
knows, and abhors evill, and judicio discretionis, he discerns every evill person, and e-
very evill action, judicio retributionis, he can, and will recompense evill with evill;
And all these Sine Appellatione, we cannot appeal from him, & Sine judiciis, he needs no
evidence from us; If this judgement enter into judgement with me, not onely not I,
but not the most righteous man, no, nor the Church whom he hath washed in his K blood,
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blood, that she might be without spot or wrinckle, shall appear righteous in his sight.
2. Part. This being then thus, that Judgement is an unseparable character of God the Fa-ther, being Fons Deitatis, the root and spring of the whole Deity, how is it said,
that the Father judgeth no man? Not that we should conceive a wearinesse, or re-
tiring in the Father, or a discharging of himself upon the shoulders, and labours
of another, in the administration, and judging of this world; for as it is truly said,
that God rested the seventh day, that is, he rested from working in that kind,
from creating, so it is true that Christ says here; My Father worketh yet, and I
work, and so as it is truly said here, The Father judgeth no man, it is truly
sayd by Christ too, of the Father, I seek not mine own glory, there is one that seek-
eth, and judgeth; still it is true, that God hath Judicium detestationis, Thy eyes are
pure eyes O Lord, and cannot behold iniquity, says the Prophet, still it is true, that hee
hath Judicium discretionis (because they committed villany in Israel, and I know it, Ier. 29. 23. saith
the Lord;) still it is true, that he hath Judicium retributionis, The Lord killeth and ma-
keth alive, he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up; 1 Sam. 2. 6. still it is true, that he hath
all these sine appellatione; for go to the Sea, or Earth, or Hell, as David makes the
distribution, and God is there; and he hath them sine judiciis, for our witnesse is in
heaven, and our record is on high: Iob 16. 19. All this is undeniably true, and besides this, that
great name of God, by which he is first called in the Scriptures Elohim, is not incon-
veniently deriv'd from Elah, which is Jurare to swear, God is able as a Judge to
minister an oath unto us, and to draw evidence from our own consciences against our
selves, so that then, the Father he judges still, but he judges as God, and not as
the Father. In the three great judgements of God, the whole Trinity judges, In
the first judgement, before all times, which was Gods Judiciary separating of ves-
sels of honour, from vessels of dishonour, in our Election, and Reprobation; In his
second judgement, which is in execution now, which is Gods judiciary separating
of servants from enemies, in the seales, and in the administration of the Christian
Church; and in the last judgement, which shall be Gods Judiciary separating of sheep
from goats, to everlasting glory, or condemnation; in all these three judgements, all
the three Persons of the Trinity are Judges. Consider God altogether, and so in all
outward works, all the Trinity concurres, because all are but one God; but consider
God in relation, in distinct Persons, and so the severall Persons do something in which
the other Persons are not interessed; The Sonne hath not a generation from him-
self, so, as he had from the Father, and from the holy Ghost, as a distinct person,
he had none at all; the holy Ghost had a proceeding from the Father and Son, but from
the Sonne as a person, who had his generation from another, but not so from the Fa-
ther. Not to stray into clouds, or perplexities in this contemplation, God, that is,
the whole Trinity, judges still, but so as the Sonne judgeth, the Father judgeth
not, for that Judgment he hath committed. Commisit. That we may husband our hour well, and reserve as much as we can for our two
last considerations, the Cui, & Quid, to whom, and that's to the Sonne, and what
he hath committed, and that's all Iudgement, we will not stand much upon this,
more needs not then this; That God in his wisdome foreseeing, that man for his
weaknesse would not be able to settle himself upon God and his judgments, as they
are meerly heavenly, and spirituall, out of his abundant goodnesse hath established
a judgement, and ordained a Judge upon earth like himself, and like our selves too,
That as no man hath seen God, so no man should goe about to see his unsearchable de-
crees, and judgements, but rest in those sensible, and visible meanes which he hath
afforded, that is, Christ Jesus speaking in his Church, and applying his blood unto
us in the Sacraments to the worlds end: God might have suffered Abraham to rest
in the first generall promise, Semen mulieris, the Seed of the woman shall bruise the Ser-
pents head, but he would bring it neerer to a visible, to a personall Covenant, In semi-
ne tuo, In thy Seed shall all nations be blessed; he might well have let him rest in that ap-
propriation of the promise to his race, but he would proceed farther, and seal it with
a sensible seal in his flesh with Circumcision; he might have let him rest in that ratifi-
cation, that a Messias should come by that way, but he would continue it by a conti-
nuall succession of Prophets, till that Messias should come; and now that he is come
and gone, still God pursues the same way; How should they believe, except they hear? and
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and therefore God evermore supplies his Church with visible and sensible meanes,
and knowing the naturall inclination of man, when he cannot have, or cannot com-
prehend the originall, and prototype, to satisfie, and refresh himself with a picture, or
representation; So, though God hath forbidden us that slippery, and frivolous, and
dangerous use of graven Images, yet hee hath afforded us his Sonne, who is the
image of the invisible God, Col. 1. 15. and so more proportionall unto us, more apprehensible
by us; And so this committing is no more but that God in another form, then that
of God, hath manifested his power of judging, and this committing, this manifesta-
tion is in Filio, in his Son. Filio. But in the entrance into the handling of this, we aske onely this question, Cui filio,
to which Sonne of God is this commission given? Not that God hath more Sons
then one; but because that Sonne is his Sonne by a two-fold filiation; by an eternall,
and inexpressible generation, and by a temporary, but miraculous incarnation, in which
of these rights is this commission derived upon him? doth he judge as he is the Son
of God? or as he is the Son of man? I am not ordinarily bold in determining points
(especially if they were fundamentall) wherein I find the Fathers among themselves,
and the School in it selfe, and the reverend Divines of the Reformation amongst
themselves to differ; But yet neither am I willing to raise doubts, and leave the au-
ditory unsatisfyed, and unsetled; we are not upon a Lecture, but upon a Sermon,
and therefore we will not multiply variety of opinions; summe up the Fathers up-
on one side in Saint Ambrose mouth, and they will say with him, Huic dedit ubique ge-
nerando, non largiendo, God gave his Sonne this commission then (and when was
that then?) then when he begot him, and then he must have it by his eternall generati-
on, as the Son of God: sum up the Fathers on the other side, in Saint Augustines
mouth, and there they will say with him, that it is so clear, and so certain, that what-
soever is said in the Scripture to be committed, and given to Christ, belongs to Christ
as the Son of man, and not as the Son of God, as that th'other opinion cannot be main-
tained; and at this distance we shall never bring them to meet, but take in this rule, Iu-
dicium convenit ei ut homo, causa ut Deus, God hath given Christ this commission as
man, but Christ had not been capable of this commission if he had not been God
too, and so it is easily reconcil'd: If we shall hold simply to the letter of the text,
Pater dedit, then it will seem to have been committed to him in his eternall generation,
because that was a work of the Fathers onely, and in that generation the holy Ghost
had no part; But since in this judgement, which is now committed to him, the holy
Ghost hath a part, (for as we said before, the Judgement is an act of the whole Trinity)
we must look for a commission from the whole Trinity, and that is as he is man, for, to-
ta Trinitas univit humanitatem, August. The hypostaticall union of God and man in the person
of Christ, was a work of the whole Trinity. Taking it then so setled, that the capacity of this Judgment, and (if we may say so)
the future title to it, was given to him, as God by his essence, in his eternall genera-
tion, by which non vitæ particeps, sed vita naturaliter est, Cyrill. we cannot say that Christ
hath life, but that he is life, for whatsoever the Father is, he is, excepting onely
the name and relation of Father, the capacity, the ability is in him, eternally before
any imaginable, any possible consideration of time; But the power of the actuall exe-
cution of this Judgement, which is given, and is committed, is in him as man: because
as the same Father says, Ad hominem dicitur, Quid habes quod non accepisti? When
Saint Paul says, What hast thou that thou hast not received? he asks that question of a
man, that which is received, is received as man, De Christo.
l. 2. c. 19. For as Bellarmine in a place where
he disposes himself to quarrell, at some few words of Calvins, though he confesse the
matter to be true, and (as he cals it there) Catholique, says, Essentiam genitam negamus,
we confesse that Christ hath not his essence from his Father by generation, the relati-
on, the filiation, he hath from his Father, he hath the name of Son, but he hath not
this execution of this judgement by that relation, by that filiation, still as the Son of
God, he hath the capacity, as the Sonne of man, he hath the execution; And there-
fore Prosper that follows S. Augustine limits perchance too narrowly to the very flesh,
to the humanity, Ipsa (not Ipsæ) erit Judex, quæ sub Judice stetit, and ipsa judicabit, quæ
judicata est, where he places not this Judgement upon the mixt person (which is the sa-
fest way) of God and man, but upon man alone, God hath appointed a day, in which K2 he
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he will judge the world in righteousnesse; But by whom? By that man whom he hath
ordained God will judge still; but still in Christ; and therefore says S. Augustine upon
those words: Arise O Lord, and judge the earth, Cui Deo dicitur surge, nisi ei qui dormi-
vit? What God doth David call upon to arise, but that God who lay down to sleep
in the grave? as though he should say (says August.) Dormivisti judicatus à terra, surge
& judica terram. So that to collect all, though judgement be such a character of God
as he cannot devest, yet the Father hath committed such a Judgement to the Sonne,
as none but he can execute. Omne judici-
um. And what is that? Omne judicium, all judgement, that is, omne imperium, omnem po-
testatem; It is presented in the name of Judgement, but it involves all, It is literally, and
particularly Judgement in S. Iohn, 5. 27. The Father hath given him authority to execute judge-
ment, It is extended unto power in Saint Matthew, 28. 18. All power is given unto me in hea-
ven and in earth; And it is enlarg'd as far farther, as can be expressed or conceived in
another place of Saint Matthew, 11. 27. All things are deliver'd to me of my Father. Now all
things our Saviour Christ Jesus exercises, either per carnem, or at least in carne, what-
soever the Father does, the Sonne does too, In carne, because now there is an unsepara-
ble union betwixt God and the humane nature: The Father creates new souls every
day in the inanimation of Children, and the Sonne creates them with him; The Fa-
ther concurs with all second causes as the first moving cause of all naturall things, and
all this the Sonne does too; but all this in carne; Though he be in our humane flesh,
he is not the lesse able to doe the acts belonging to the Godhead, but per carnem, by
the flesh instrumentally, visibly, he executes judgement, because he is the Son of man,
God hath been so indulgent to man, as that there should be no judgement given upon
man, but man should give it; Christ then having all Judgment, we refresh to your me-
mory those three Judgements which we toucht upon before; first, the Judgement of
our Election, severing of vessels of honour and dishonor; next, the Judgement of our
Justification here, severing of friends from enemies; and then the Judgment of our Glori-
fication, severing sheep from goats; Iudicium E-
lectionis. and for the first, of our Election, As if I were under
the condemnation of the Law, for some capitall offence, and going to execution, and
the Kings mercy expressed in a sealed pardon were presented me, I should not stand
to enquire what mov'd the King to doe it, what hee said to any body else,
what any body else said to him, what hee saw in mee, or what hee look't for
at my hands, but embrace that mercy cheerfully, and thankfully, and attribute
it onely to his abundant goodnesse: So, when I consider my selfe to have been
let fall into this world, in massa Damnata, under the generall condemnation of man-
kind, and yet by the working of Gods Spirit, I find at first a desire, and after a
modest assurance, that I am delivered from that condemnation, I enquire not what
God did in his bed-chamber, in his cabinet counsell, in his eternall decree, I
know that hee hath made Judicium electionis in Christ Jesus: And therefore that
I may know, whether I doe not deceive my selfe, in presuming my self to be
of that number, I come down, and examine my selfe whether I can truly tell
my conscience, that Christ Jesus dyed for mee, which I cannot doe, if I have
not a desire and an endevour to conform my self to him; And if I do that,
there I finde my Predestination, I am a Christian, and I will not offer to goe before
my Master Christ Jesus, I cannot be sav'd before there was a Saviour, In Christ
Jesus is Omne judicium, all judgement, and therefore the judgment of Election,
the first separation of vessels of honour and dishonour in Election and Reprobation
was in Christ Jesus. Much more evidently is the second judgement of our Justification by means ordain'd
in the Christian Church, the Judgement of Christ, it is the Gospel of Christ which is
preacht to you there, There is no name given under heaven whereby you should be sa-
ved, there are no other means wherby salvation should be applyed in his name given, but
those which he hath instituted in his Church; So that when I come to the second judge-
ment, to try whether I stand justifyed in the sight of Christ, or no, I come for that
Judgement to Christ in his Church; Doe I remember what I contracted with
Christ Jesus, when I took the name of a Christian at my entrance into his
Church by Baptism? Doe I find I have endevoured to perform those Conditions?
Doe I find a remorse when I have not performed them? Doe I feele the remission of
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of those sinnes applyed to me when I hear the gracious promises of the Gospel shed
upon repentant sinners by the mouth of his Minister? Have I a true and solid consola-
tion, (without shift, or disguise, or flattering of my conscience) when I receive the seal
of his pardon in the Sacrament? Beloved, not in any morall integrity, not in keeping
the conscience of an honest man, in generall, but in using well the meanes ordain'd by
Christ in the Christian Church, am I justified. And therefore this Judgement of Justi-
fication is his too. And then the third and last judgement, which is the judgment of Judiciū Glo-
rificationis.
Glorification, that's easily agreed by all to appertain unto Christ, Idem Iesus, The
same Iesus that ascended, shall come to judgement, Videbunt quem pupugerunt, Apoc. 1. 7. Every eye
shall see him, and they also which pierc't him; Then the Son of man shall come in glo-
ry, and he, as man, shall give the judgement, for things done, or omitted towards
him as man, for not feeding, for not clothing, for not harbouring, for not visiting.
The sum of all is, that this is the overflowing goodnesse of God, that he deales with
man by the sonne of man; and that hee hath so given all judgement to the Sonne, as
that if you would be tryed by the first judgement; are you elected or no? The issue
is, doe you believe in Christ Jesus, or no? If you would be tryed by the second judge-
ment, are you justified or no? The issue is, doe you find comfort in the application of
the Word, and Sacraments of Christ Jesus, or no? If you would be tryed by the third
Judgement, do you expect a Glorification, or no? The issue is, Are you so reconcil'd
to Christ Jesus now, by hearty repentance for sinnes past, and by detestation of occa-
sion of future sin, that you durst welcome that Angel which should come at this time,
and sweare that time should be no more, that your transmigration out of this world
should be this minute, and that this minute you might say unfeignedly and effectually,
Veni Domine Iesu; come quickly, come now; if this be your state, then are you parta-
kers of all that blessednesse, which the Father intended to you, when for your sake, he
committed all Judgment to the Son. Sermon XIII.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
John 8. 15.
I judge no man. THeThe Rivers of Paradise did not all run one way, and yet they flow'd
from one head; the sentences of the Scripture flow all from one head,
from the holy Ghost, and yet they seem to present divers senses, and to
admit divers interpretations; In such an appearance doth this Text dif-
fer from that which I handled in the forenoon, and as heretofore I
found it a usefull and acceptable labour, to employ our Evening exerci-
ses, upon the vindicating of some such places of Scripture, as our adversaries of the Ro-
man Church had detorted in some point of controversie between them and us, and re-
storing those places to their true sense, (which course I held constantly for one whole
year) so I think it a usefull and acceptable labour, now to employ for a time those E-
vening exercises to reconcile some such places of Scripture, as may at first sight seem to
differ from one another; In the morning we saw how Christ judged all; now we are to
see how he judges none; I judge no man. To come then to these present words, here we have the same person Christ Jesus, and
hath not he the same Office? Is not he Judge? certainly though he retain'd all his other
Offices, though he be the Redeemer, and have shed his blood in value satisfa-
ctory for all our sins, though he be our Advocate and plead for us in heaven,
and present our evidence to that Kingdome, written in his blood, seal'd in his
wounds, yet if hee bee not our Judge, wee cannot stand in judgement; shall hee bee
our Judge, and is hee not our Judge yet? Long before wee were hee was our
Judge at the separation of the Elect and Reprobate, in Gods eternall Decree. K3 Was
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Was he our Judge then, and is hee not so still? still he is present in his Church, and
cleares us in all scruples, rectifies us in all errors, erects us in all dejections of spirit,
pronounces peace and reconciliation in all apprehensions of his Judgements, by his
Word and by his Sacraments, was hee, and is he, and shall he not be our Judge still?
I am sure my Redeemer liveth, and he shall stand the last on earth. Iob 19. 24. So that Christ Je-
sus is the same to day, and yesterday, and for ever, before the world begun, and world
without end, Sicut erat in principio, as he was in the beginning, he is, and shall be ever
our Judge. Divisio. So that then these words are not De tempre, but De modo, there was never any time
when Christ was not Judge, but there were some manner of Judgements which Christ
did never exercise, and Christ had no commission which he did not execute; for hee did
all his Fathers will. 1. In secularibus, in civill, or criminall businesses, which belong meer-
ly to the Judicatures, and cognisance of this world, Judicat neminem, Christ judges no
man. 2. Secundum carnem, so as they to whom Christ spake this; who judged, as him-
self says here, according to fleshly affections, Judicat neminem, he judges no man: and 3.
Ad internecionem, so as that upon that Judgement, a man should despair of any recon-
ciliation, any redintegration with God again, and be without hope of pardon, and re-
mission of sins in this world, Judicat neminem, he judges no man; 1. Christ usurps upon no
mans Jurisdiction, that were against justice. 2. Christ imputes no false things to any
man, that were against charity. 3. Christ induces no man to desperation, that were a-
gainst faith; and against Justice, against charity, against faith, Judicat nemi-
nem. First then, Christ judgeth not in secular judgements, 1. Part.
Non secularla. and we note his abstinence there-
in; first, in civill matters, when one of the company said to him, Master, bid my brother
divide the inheritance with me, Luke 12. 14. as Saint Augustine says, the Plaintiffe thought his cause
to be just, and hee thought Christ to bee a competent Judge in the cause, and yet
Christ declines the judgement, disavows the authority, and he answers, Homo, quis me
constituit Judicem, Man, who made me a Judge between you? To that Generall, which
we had in the morning, Omne judicium, the Son hath all judgement; here is an excep-
tion of the same Judges own making, for in secular judgements, Nemo constituit, he had
no commission, and therefore Judicat neminem, he judges no man; he forbore in cri-
minall matters too, for when the woman taken in adultery, was brought before him,
he condemned her not; It is true, he absolv'd her not, the evidence was pregnant a-
gainst her, but he condemned her not, he undertook no office of a Judge, but of a
sweet and spirituall Counsellor, Go, and sinne no more, for this was his Element, his
Tribunall. When then Christ says of himself, with such a pregnant negative, Quis me constituit
Judicem, may not we say so too, to his pretended Vicar, the Bishop of Rome, Quis te?
Who made you Judge of Kings, that you should depose them, in criminall causes? Or
who made you proprietary of Kingdomes, that you should dispose of them, as of civill
inheritances? when to countenance such a pretence, they detort places of Scripture,
not onely perversly, but senselesly, blasphemously, ridiculously, (as ridiculously as in
their pasquils, whç in an undiscreet shamlesnes, to make their power greater then it is, they
make their fault greater then it is too, & fil their histories with examples of Kings depo-
sed by Popes, which in truth were not depos'd by them, for in that they are more in-
nocent then they will confesse themselves to be) when some of their Authors say, that
the Primitive Church abstain'd from deposing Emperors, onely because she was not
strong enough to do it, when some of them say, That all Christian Kingdomes of
the earth, may fall into the Church of Rome, by faults in those Princes, when some of
them say, that De facto, the Pope hath already a good title to every Christian King-
dome, when some of them say, that the world will never be well governed, till the
Pope put himself into possession of all (all which severall propositions are in severall
Authors of good credit amongst them) will be not endure Christs own question, Quis
te constituit? Who made you Judge of all this? If they say Christ did; did he it in
his Doctrine? It is hard to pretend that, for such an institution as that must have very
cleer, very pregnant words to carry it; did he doe it by his example and practice? wee
see hee abstain'd in criminall causes, when they come to their last shift, that is, that
Christ did exercise Judiciary Authority, when he whipped Merchants out of the Tem-
ple,
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ple, when he curs'd the fig-tree, and damnified the owner thereof, and when he de-stroyed the Heard of Swine, (for there, say they, the Devill was but the Executioner,
Christ was the Judge) to all these, and such as these, it is enough to say, All these were
miraculous, and not ordinary; and though it might seem half a miracle how that
should exercise so much authority as he hath done over the world, yet when we look
neerer, and see his means, that he hath done all this by Massacres of millions, by
withdrawing Subjects from their Allegiance, by assasinating and murthering of Prin-
ces, when we know that miracles are without meanes, and we see the means of his pro-
ceedings, the miracle ceases, howsoever that Bishop as Christs Vicar can claim no o-
ther power, then was ordinary in Christ, and so exercis'd by Christ, and so Judicavit
neminem; In secular judgement, Christ judges no man, and therefore that Bishop as
his Vicar should not. Secondly, Christ judges no man by calumny, by imputing, 2. Part.
Detractio. or laying false aspersi-
ons upon him, nor truths extrajudicially, for that's a degree of calumny; We enter in-
to a large field, when we go about to speak against calumny, and slander, and detracti-
on, so large a field, as that we may fight out the last drop of our bloud, preach out
the last gaspe of our breath, before we overcome it, those to whom Christ spake here,
were such as gave perverse judgments, calumniating censures upon him, and so he
judges no man, we need not insist upon that, for it is manifestè verum; but that we
may see our danger, and our duty, what calumny is, and so how to avoid it actively,
and how to beare it passively, I must by your leave stop a little upon it. When then we would present unto you that monster Slander, and Calumny though
it be hard to bring it within any compasse of a division, yet to take the largenesse of the
schoole, and say, that every calumny is either direct, or indirect, that will compre-
hend all, and then a direct calumny, will have three branches, either to lay a false and
unjust imputation, or else to aggravate a just imputation, with unnecessary, but heavy
circumstances, or thirdly to reveale a fault which in it selfe was secret and I by no duty
bound to discover it, and then the indirect calumny will have three branches too, either
to deny expressly some good that is in another, or to smother it in silence, when my
testimony were due to him, and might advantage him, or lastly to diminish his good
parts, and say they are well, but not such as you would esteeme them to be; collect then
again, for that's all, that we shall be able to doe, that he is a calumniator directly, that
imputes a false crime, that aggravates a true crime, that discovers any crime extrajudi-
cially; That he is an indirect calumniator, that denies another mans sufficiencies, that
conceales them, that diminishes them; Take in some of Saint Bernards examples of
these rules, that it is a calumny to say, Doleo vehementer, Serm. 24. in
Can. I am sorry at the heart for such
a man because I love him, but I could never draw him from such and such a vice, or
to say, per me nunquam innotuisset, I would never have spoken of it, yet since all the world
talkes of it, the truth must not be disguised, and so take occasion to discover a fault
which no body knew before, and thereby (as the same Father says) cum gravitate et
tarditate aggredi maledictionem, to cut a mans throat gravely, and soberly, and so much
the more perswasively, because he seems, and pretends to do it all against his will;
This being the rule, and this the example, who amongst us is free from the passive ca-
lumny? Who amongst us hath not some other man calumniated? Nay who is free
from the active part? Which of us in some of these degrees hath not calumni-
ated some other? But those to whom Christ makes his exception here, that he judges
no man as they judge, were such calumniators, as David speaks of, Sedens adversus fra-
trem tuum loque baris, Thou sittest and speakest against thy neighbour, Psal. 50. 20. as Saint Augustin
notes upon that place, Non transitoriè, non surreptionis passione, sed quasi ad hoc vacans, not
by chance, & unawares, not in passion because he had offended thee, not for company, be-
cause thou wouldest be of their minds, but as though thy profession would beare thee out
in it, to leave the cause and lay aspersion upon the person, so thou art a calumniator,
They eate up my people as bread, Psal. 53. 4. as David says in Gods person: And upon those words
of the same Prophet, says the same Father, De cæteris, when we eate of any thing else,
we taste of this dish, and we tast of that, non semper hoc olus, says he we doe not always
eate one sallet, one meate, one kinde of fruit, sed semper panem, whatsoever we eate else
wee always eate bread, howsoever they imploied their thoughts, or their wits other-
ways, it was always one exercise of them to calumniate Christ Jesus, and in that kinde of
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of calumny, which is the bitterest of all, they abounded most, which is in scorne and
derision, David, and Iob, who were slander proofe, in a good measure, yet every where
complaine passionately that they were made a scorne, that the wits made libells, that
drunkards sung songs, that fooles, and the children of fooles derided them; And
when Saul was in his last, and worst agony, and had abandoned himselfe to a present
death, and prayed his armourbearer to kill him, it was not because the uncircumcised
should not kill him (for he desired death, and he had their deadly arrowes already in
his bosome) but it was (as it is expressed there) lest the uncircumcised should come
and abuse him, he was afraid of scorne when he had but a few minutes of life. Since
then Christ judges no man (as they did) secundum carnem ejus, according to the out-
ward appearance, for they thought no better of Christ then he seemed to be, (as Fa-
thers take that phrase, nor secundum carnem suam, according to his owne fleshly passions,
(as some others take it) judge not you so neither, first judge not that ye be not judged, Mat. 7. 1.
that is, as Saint Ambrose interprets it well enough, Nolite judicare de judiciis Dei, when
you see Gods judgments fall upon a man, when you see the tower of Silo fall upon a
man, doe not you judge that that man had sinned more then you, when you see ano-
ther borne blind, doe not you thinke that he or his Father had sinned, and that you
onely are derived from a pure generation, especially non maledicas surdo, speake not
evill of the deafe that heares not; That is, (as Gregory interprets it if not literally, yet
appliably, and usefully) calumniate not him who is absent, Lev. 19. 14. and cannot defend him-
selfe, it is the devills office to be Accusator fratrum, and though God doe not say in
the law, Non erit, yet he says, Non erit criminator, Lev. 19. 16. it is not plainely, there shall be no In-
former: (for as we dispute, and for the most part affirme in the Schoole, that though
we could, we might destroy no intire species of those creatures, which God made at
first, though it be a Tyger, or a viper, because this were to take away one link of Gods
chaine out of the world, so such vermine as Informers may not, for some good use that
there is of them, be taken away) though it be not non erit, there shall be none, yet it
is at least by way of good counsaile to thee, non eris, thou shalt not be the man, thou
shalt not be the Informer, and for resisting those that are, we are bound,
not onely not to harme our neighbours house, but to help him, if casually his
house fall on fire, Prov. 25. 23. wee are bound where wee have authority to stoppe the
mouthes of other calumniators where wee have no authority, yet since as the
North wind driveth away raine, an angry countenance driveth away a back-
biting tongue, at least deale so with a libeller, with a calumniator, for he that lookes
pleasantly, and hearkens willingly to one libell, makes another, occasions a second; al-
ways remember Davids case, when he thought that he had been giving judgment a-
gainst another he was more severe, more heavy, then the law admitted; The
law was, that he that had stoln the sheep should returne fourefold, and Davids
anger was kindled says the text, and he said, and he swore, As the Lord liveth, 2 Sam. 12. that man
shall restore fourfold, Et filius mortis, and he shall surely dye: O judicis superfluentem justi-
tiam, Chrysost. O superabundant and overflowing Justice, when we judge another in passion;
But this is judicium secundum carnem, according to which Christ judges no man, for
Christ is love, and that non cogitat malum, love thinks no evill any way; 1 Cor. 13. 5. The charitable
man neither meditates evill against another, nor beleeves not easily any evill to be in
another, though it be told him. Lastly, Christ judges no man Ad internecionem, he judges no man so, Non ad in-
ternecionem. in this world,
as to give a finall condemnation upon him here; There is no error in any of his Judg-
ments, but there is an appeal from all his Judgments in this world; There is a verdict
against every man, every man may find his case recorded, and his sinne condemned in
the law, and in the Prophets, there is a verdict, but before Judgment, God would have
every man sav'd by his book, by the apprehension, and application of the gratious pro-
mises of the Gospell, to his case, and his conscience, Christ judges no man so, as that
he should see no remedy, but to curse God, and die, not so, as that he should say, his
sinne is greater then God could forgive, for God sent not his Sonne into the world to
condemne the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Iohn 3. 17. Doe not thou then give malitious evidence against thy selfe, doe not weaken the
merit, nor lessen the value of the bloud of thy Saviour, as though thy sinne were
greater then it: Doth God desire thy bloud now, when he hath abundantly satisfied his
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his justice with the bloud of his Sonne for thee? what hast thou done? hast thou come
hypocritically to this place upon collaterall reasons, and not upon the direct service of
God? not for love of Information, of Reformation of thy selfe? If that be thy case,
yet if a man hear my words, says Christ, and beleeve not, I judge him not, Iob. 12. 47. he hath
one that judgeth him, says Christ, and who is that? The word that I have spoken,
the same shall judge him; It shall, but when? It shall judge him, says Christ, at
that last day, for till the last day, the day of his death, no man is past re-
covery, no man's salvation is impossible: Hast thou gone farther then this? Hast
thou admitted scruples of diffidence, and distrust in Gods mercy, and so tasted of the lees
of desperation? It is true, Isidor. perpetrare flagitium est mors animæ, sed desper are est descensus
ad inferos, In every sinne the soule dies, but in desperation it descends into hell, but yet
portæ inferi non prævalebunt, Mat. 16. 18. even the gates of this hell shall not prevaile against thee;
Assist thy selfe, argue thine own case, desperation it selfe may be without infidelity;
desperation aswell as hope is rooted in the desire of happinesse; desperation proceeds
out of a feare and a horror of sinne, Thom. 1. 2d.
9. 40. or 4. desperation may consist with faith thus farre,
that a man may have a true, and faithfull opinion in the generall, that there is a remissi-
on of sinne, to be had in the Church, and yet have a corrupt imagination in the par-
ticular, that to him in this sinfull state that he is in, this remission of sinnes shall not be
applied, so that the resolution of the Schoole is good, Desperatio potest esse ex solo ex-
cessu boni; desperation may proceed from an excesse of that which is good in it selfe,
from an excessive over fearing of Gods justice, from an excessive over hating thine own
sinnes, Et virtute quis malè utitur? Can any man make so ill use of so great virtues, as
the feare of God and the hare of sinne? yes they may, so froward a weed is sinne, as
that it can spring out of any roote, and therefore if it have done so in thee, and thou
thereby have made thy case the harder, yet know stil, that Objectum spei est arduū, et possi-
bile, the true object of hope is hard to come by, but yet possible to come by, and there-
fore as David said, 2. Sam. 22. 30. By my God have I leaped over a wall, so by thy God maist thou
breake through a wall, through this wall of obduration, which thou thy selfe hast be-
gunne to build about thy selfe. Feather thy wings againe, which even the flames of hell
have touched in these beginnings of desperation, feather them againe with this text
Neminem judicat, Christ judges no man, so as a desperate man judges himselfe, doe not
make thy selfe beleeve, that thou hast sinned against the holy Ghost; for this is the
nearest step thou hast made to it, to think that thou hast done it; walke in that large
field of the Scriptures of God, and from the first flower at thy entrance, the flower of
Paradise, Semen mulieris, the generall promise of the seed of the woman should bruise
the Serpents head, to the last word of that Messias upon the Crosse, Consummatum est,
that all that was promised for us is now performed, and from the first to the last thou
shalt find the savour of life unto life in all those flowers; walke over the same alley a-
gaine and consider the first man Adam in the beginning who involv'd thee in originall
sinne; and the thiefe upon the Crosse who had continued in actuall sinnes all his life,
and sealed all with the sinne of reviling Christ himselfe a little before his expiration,
and yet he recovered Paradise, and Paradise that day, and see if thou canst make any
shift to exclude thy selfe; receive the fragrancy of all these Cordialls, Vivit Dominus,
as the Lord liveth I would not the death of a sinner, Quandocunque, At what time so-
ever a sinner repenteth, and of this text Neminem judicat, Christ judgeth no man to de-
struction here, and if thou find after all these Antidotes a suspitious ayre, a suspicious
working in that Impossibile est, that it is impossible for them, who were once inlightened
if they fall away, to renew them againe by repentance, sprinkle upon that worme-wood
of Impossibile est, that Manna of Quorum remiseritis, whose sinnes yee remit, are remitted,
and then it will have another tast to thee, and thou wilt see that that impossibility lies
upon them onely, who are utterly fallen away into an absolute Apostasie, and infidelity,
that make a mocke of Christ, and crucifie him againe, as it is expressed there, who un-
dervalue, and despise the Church of God, & those means which Christ Jesus hath insti-
tuted in his Church for renewing such as are fallen. To such it is impossible, because
there are no other ordinary meanes possible, but that's not thy case, thy case is onely a
doubt, that those meanes that are shall not be applied to thee, and even that is a slip-
pery state to doubt of the mercy of God to thee in particular, this goes so neare ma-
king thy sinne greater then Gods mercy, as that it makes thy sinne greater then daily adulteries,
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adulteries, daily murthers, daily blasphemies, daily prophanings of the Sabbath could
have done, and though thou canst never make that true in this life that thy sinnes are
greater then God can forgive, yet this is a way to make them greater, then God
will forgive. Now to collect both our Exercises, and to connexe both Texts, Christ judgeth
all men and Christ judgeth no man, he claimes all judgment, and he disavows all judge-
ment, and they consist well together, he was at our creation, but that was not his first
sense; the Arians who say, Erat quando non erat, there was a time when Christ was not,
intimating that he had a beginning, and therefore was a creature, yet they will allow
that he was created before the generall creation, and so assisted at ours, but he was in-
finite generations before that, in the bosome of his Father, at our election, and there in
him was executed the first judgment of separating those who were his, the elect from
the reprobate, and then he knows who are his by that first Judgment: And so comes
to his second Judgment, to seale all those in the visible Church with the outward mark
of his baptisme, and the inward marke of his Spirit, and those whom he calls so, he
justifies, and sanctifies, and brings them to his third Judgment, to an established and
perpetuall glory. And so all Judgment is his. But then to judge out of humane affecti-
ons, and passions, by detraction, and calumny, as they did to whom he spoke at this
time, so he judges no man, so he denies judgment: To usurpe upon the jurisdiction of
others, or to exercise any other judgment, then was his commission, as his pretended
Vicar dothsodoth so he judges no man, so he disavows all judgment: To judge so as that our
condemnation should be irremediable in this life, so he judges no man, so he forswears all
judgment, As I live, saith the Lord of hosts, and as I have died, saith the Lord Jesus, so
I judge none. Acknowledge his first Judgment, thy election in him, Christ his second
Judgment, thy justification by him, breath and pant after his third Judgement, thy
Crown of glory for him; intrude not upon the right of other men, which is the first, de-
fame not, calumniate not other men, which is the second, lay not the name of repro-
bate in this life upon any man, which is the third Judgement, that Christ disavows
here, and then thou shalt have well understood, and well practised both these texts,
The Father hath committed all Judgment to the Sonne, and yet The Sonne judges no
man. Sermon XIIII.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
Job 19. 26. And though, after my skin, wormes destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. AMongstAmongst those Articles, in which our Church hath explain'd, and declar'd
her faith, this is the eight Article, that the three Creeds, (that of the coun-
cell of Nice, that of Athanasius, and that which is commonly known
by the name of the Apostles Creed) ought throughly to be received, and
embrac'd. The meaning of the Church is not, that onely that should be
beleev'd in which those three Creeds agree; (for, the Nicen Creed mentions no Article
after that of the holy Ghost, not the Catholique Church, not the Communion of Saints,
not the Resurrection of the flesh; Athanasius his Creed does mention the Resurrecti-
on, but not the Catholique Church, nor the communion of Saints,) but that all
should be beleev'd, which is in any of them, all which is summ'd up in the Apostles
Creed. Now, the reason expressed in that Article of our Church, why all this is to be
beleeved, is; Because all this may be prov'd by most certaine warrants of holy Scriptures.
The Article does not insist upon particular places of Scripture; not so much as point
to them. But, they who have enlarged the Articles, by way of explanation, have done
that. And when they come to cite those places of Scripture, which prove the Article
of the Resurrection, I observe that amongst those places they forbeare this text; so that it
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it may seem, that in their opinion, this Scripture doth not concerne the Resurrection.
It will not therefore be impertinent, to make it a first part of this exercise, whether this
Scripture be to be understood of the Resurrection, or no; And then, to make the par-
ticular handling of the words, a second part. In the first, we shall see, that the Jews
always had, and have still, a persuasion of the Resurrection. We shall look after, by
what light they saw that; whether by the light of naturall reason; And, if not by that,
by what light given in other places of Scripture; and then, we shall shut up this inqui-
sition with a unanime consent, (so unanime, as I can remember but one that denies it,
and he but faintly) that in this text, the doctrine of the resurrection is established. In
the second part, the doctrine it selfe comprised in the words of the text, (And though
after my skin, wormes destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God) we shall see first,
that the Saints of God themselves, are not priviledged from the common corruption
and dissolution of the body; After that curse upon the Serpent, super pectus gradieris, Gen. 3. 14.
upon thy belly shalt thou goe, we shall as soon see a Serpent goe upright, and not
craule, as, after that Judgment, In pulverem revertêris, to dust thou shalt returne, see a
man, that shall not see death, and corruption in death. Corruption upon our skin,
says the text, (our outward beauty;) corruption upon our body, (our whole strength,
and constitution.) And, this corruption, not a green palenesse, not a yellow jaundise,
not a blue lividnesse, not a black morpheu upon our skin, not a bony leannesse, not a
sweaty faintnesse, not an ungratious decrepitnesse upon our body, but a destruction, a
destruction to both, After my skin my body shall be destroyed. Though not destroyed
by being resolved to ashes in the fire, (perchance I shall not be burnt) not destroyed
by being washed to slime, in the sea, (perchance I shall not be drowned) but destroyed
contemptibly, by those whom I breed, and feed, by wormes; (After my skin wormes
shall destroy my body.) And thus farre our case is equall; one event to the good and bad;
wormes shall destroy all in them all. And farther then this, their case is equall too,
for, they shall both rise againe from this destruction. But in this lies the future glory,
in this lies the present comfort of the Saints of God, that, after all this, (so that this is
not my last act, to dye, nor my last scene, to lie in the grave, nor my last exit, to goe
out of the grave) after, says Job; And indefinitely, After, I know not how soone,
nor how late, I presse not into Gods secrets for that; but, after all this, Ego, I, I that
speak now, and shall not speak then, silenced in the grave, I that see now, and shall not
see then, ego videbo, I shall see, (I shall have a new faculty) videbo Deum, I shall see God
(I shall have a new object) and, In carne, I shall see him in the flesh, (I shall have a new
organ, and a new medium) and, In carne mea, that flesh shall be my flesh, (I shall have a
new propriety in that flesh) this flesh which I have now, is not mine, but the wormes;
but that flesh shall be so mine, as I shall never devest it more, but In my flesh I shall see
God for ever. In the first part then, which is an inquiry, 1. Part. whether this text concerne the Resurrecti-
on, or no, we take knowledge of a Crediderunt, and of a Credunt in the Jews, Iudhi cre-
dunt. that the
Jews did beleeve a Resurrection, and that they doe beleeve it still. That they doe so
now, appears out of the doctrine of their Talmud, where we find, that onely the Jews
shall rise againe, but all the Gentiles shall perish, body and soule together, as Korah, Numb. 16. 31.
26. 19.
Dathan, and Abiram were swallowed all at once, body, and soule into hell. And to this
purpose, (for the first part thereof, that the Jews shall rise) they abuse that place of
Esay; Thy dead men shall live; awake and sing, yee that dwell in the dust. And, 14. for the
second part, that the Gentiles shall not rise, they apply the words of the same Prophet
before, They are dead, they shall not live, they are deceased, they shall not rise. The Jews
onely, say they shall rise; but, not all they; but onely the righteous amongst them.
And, to that purpose, they abuse that place of the Prophet Zachary, two parts shall be
cut off, and dye, but the third shall be left therein, and I will bring that third part, 13. 8. through
the fire, and will refine them, as silver is refined, and try them, as gold is tried. The Jews
onely of all men, the good Jews onely of all Jews, and of these good Jews, onely they
who were buried in the land of promise shall have this present, and immediate resurrecti-
on; And to that purpose they force that place in Genesis where Jacob, upon his death-
bed, advised his sonne Joseph, to bury him in Canaan, and not in Egypt, 47. 29. and to that
purpose, they detort also, that place of Ieremy, where the Prophet lays that curse up-
on Pashur, That he should dye in Babylon, and be buried there. For, 20. 6. though the Jews doe not
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not absolutely say, that all that are buried out of Canaan, shall be without a resurrection,
yet, they say, that even those good and righteous Jews, which are not buried in that
great Churchyard, the land of promise, must, at the day of judgment, be brought
through the hollow parts of the earth into the land of promise at that time, and onely
in that place, receive their resurrection, wheresoever they were buried. But yet, though
none but Jews, none but righteous Jews, none but righteous Jews in that place, must
be partakers of the Resurrection, yet still a Resurrection there is in their doctrine. It is so now; it was so always. We see, in that time, when Christ walked upon the
earth, Crediderunt.
Iohn 11. 23. when he came to the raising of Lazarus, and said to his sister Martha, Thy bro-
ther shall rise againe, she replies to Christ, Alas, I know he shall rise againe, at the Re-
surrection of the last day, I make no doubt of that, we all know that. So also,
when Christ put forth that parable, that in placing of benefits, Luke 14. 12. we should rather choose such
persons, as were able to make no recompense, he gives that reason, Thou shalt be re-
compensed at the resurrection of the just. The Resurrection was a vulgar doctrine, well
knowne to the Jews then, and always. For, even Herod, when Christ preached and
did miracles, was apt to say, Mat. 6. 14. Iohn Baptist is risen from the dead; And when it is said of
those two great Apostles, Iohn 20. 9. (the loving, and the beloved Apostle, Peter, and Iohn) that
as yet they knew not the Scripture, that Christ must rise from the dead, this argues no
more, but that as Peters compassion before Christs death, made him disswade Christ
from going up to Jerusalem, to suffer, Mat. 16. 22. so their extreme passion after Christs death,
made them the lesse attentively to consider those particular Scriptures, which spoke of
the Resurrection. For, the Jews in generall, (much more, they) had always an ap-
prehension, and an acknowledgment of the Resurrection of the dead. By what light
they saw this, and how they came to this knowledge, is our next consideration. Had they this by the common notions of other men, An ex ratione. out of naturall Reason? Me-
lancthon, (who is no bold, nor rash, nor dangerous expressor of himselfe) says well,
Articulus resurrectionis propria Ecclesiæ vox; It is the Christian Church, that hath de-
livered to us the article of the resurrection. Nature says it not, Philosophy says it not;
it is the language and the Idiotisme of the Church of God, that the resurrection is to
be beleeved as an article of faith. For, though articles of faith be not facta Ecclesiæ,
they are dicta Ecclesiæ, though the Church doe not make articles, yet she declares
them. In the Creation, the way was, Dixit & facta sunt, God spake, and so things
were made; In the Gospell, the way is, Fecit, & dicta sunt, God makes articles of
faith, and the Church utters them, presents them. That's manifestè verum, evidently,
undeniably true, that Nature, and Philosophy say nothing of articles of faith. But,
even in Nature, and in Philosophy, there is some preparation A priore, and much illu-
stration A posteriore, of the Resurrection. For, first, we know by naturall reason, that it
is no such thing, as God cannot doe; It implies no contradiction in it selfe, as that
new article of Transubstantiation does; It implies no defectivenesse in God, as that
new article, The necessity of a perpetuall Vicar upon earth, does. For, things contradicto-
ry in themselves, (which necessarily imply a falshood) things arguing a defectivenesse
in God, (which implies necessarily a derogation, to his nature, to his naturall goodnesse,
to that which we may justly call even the God of God, that which makes him God to us,
his mercy) such things God himselfe cannot doe, not things which make him an un-
mercifull, a cruell, a precondemning God. But, excepting onely such things, God,
who is that, Greg. Narianz. Quod cum dicitur, non potest dici, whom if you name you cannot give him
halfe his name; for, if you call him God, he hath not his Christen name, for he is
Christ as well as God, a Saviour, as well as a Creator; Quod cum æstimatur, non potest
æstimari, If you value God, weigh God, you cannot give him halfe his weight; for,
you can put nothing into the balance, to weigh him withall, but all this world; and,
there is no single sand in the sea, no single dust upon the earth, no single atome in the
ayre, that is not likelyer to weigh down all the world, then all the world is to counter-
pose God; Mat. 8. 36. What is the whole world to a soule? says Christ; but what are all the soules
of the world, to God? What is man, that God should be mindefull of him, that God
should ever thinke of him, Psal. 8. 5. and not forget that there is such a thing, such a nothing?
Quod cum definitur, ipsa definitione crescit, says the same Father; If you limit God with
any definition, hee growes larger by that definition; for even by that de-
finition you discerne presently that he is something else then that definition com-
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comprehends. That God, Quem omnia nesciunt, & metuendo sciunt, whom no man
knows perfectly, Idem. yet every man knows so well, as to stand in feare of him, this incom-
prehensible God, I say, that works, and who shall let it? can raise our bodies again from the
dead, because, to doe so, implies no derogation to himselfe, Esay 43. 13. no contradiction to his word. Our reason tells us, he can doe it; doth our reason tell us as much of his will, that
he will doe it? Our reason tells us, that he will doe, An velit. whatsoever is most convenient
for the Creature, whom, because he hath made him, he loves, and for his owne glory.
Now this dignity afforded to the dead body of man, cannot be conceived, but, as a
great addition to him. Nor can it be such a diminution to God, to take man into hea-
ven, as it was for God to descend, and to take mans nature upon him, upon Earth. A
King does not diminish himselfe so much, by taking an inferior person into his bosome
at Court, as he should doe by going to live with that person, in the Countrey, or City;
and this God did, in the incarnation of his Sonne. It cannot be thought inconvenient,
it cannot be thought hard. Our reason tells us, that in all Gods works, in all his materiall
works, still his latter works are easier then his former. The Creation, which was the
first, and was a meer production out of nothing, was the hardest of all. The specificati-
on of Creatures, and the disposing of them, into their severall kinds, the making of that
which was made something of nothing before, a particular thing, a beast, a fowle, a fish,
a plant, a man, a Sun or Moon, was not so hard, as the first production out of nothing.
And then, the conservation of all these, in that order in which they are first created, and
then distinguished, the Administration of these creatures by a constant working of se-
cond causes, which naturally produce their effects, is not so hard as that. And so, ac-
cordingly, and in that proportion, the last worke is easiest of all; Distinction and spe-
cification easier then creation, conservation, and administration easier then that distin-
ction, and restitution by resurrection, easiest of all. Tertullian hath expressed it well, Plus
est fecisse quam refecisse, & dedisse quam reddidisse; It is a harder worke to make, Tertull. then
to mend, and, to give thee that which was mine, then to restore thee that which was
thine. Et institutio carnis quàm destitutio; It is a lesse matter to recover a sicke man, then
to make a whole man. Does this trouble thee, says Justin Martyr, (and Athenagoras
proceeds in the same way of argumentation too, in his Apology) does this trouble
thee, Just. Mart.
Athenago. Quòd homo à piscibus, & piscis ab homine comeditur, that one man is devoured
by a fish, and then another man that eats the flesh of that fish, eats, and becomes the
other man? Id nec hominem resolvit in piscem, nec piscem in hominem, that first man
did not become that fish that eate him, nor that fish become that second man, that
eate it; sed utriusque resolutio fit in elementa, both that man, and that fish are resolved
into their owne elements, of which they were made at first. Howsoever it be, if
thine imagination could carry thee so low, as to thinke, not onely that thou wert be-
come some other thing, a fish, or a dogge that had fed upon thee, and so, thou couldst
not have thine owne body, but therewithall must have his body too, but that thou
wert infinitely farther gone, that thou wert annihilated, become nothing, canst thou
chuse but thinke God as perfect now, at least as he was at first, and can hee not as
easily make thee up againe of nothing, Tertull. as he made thee of nothing at first? Re-
cogita quid fueris, antequam esses; Thinke over thy selfe; what wast thou before thou
wast any thing? Meminisses utique, si fuisses; If thou hadst been any thing then, sure-
ly thou wouldst remember it now. Qui non eras, factus es; Cum iterum non eris, fies;
Thou that wast once nothing, wast made this that thou art now, and when thou
shalt be nothing againe, thou shalt be made better then thou art yet. And, Redderati-
onem quâ factus es, & ego reddam rationem quâ fies; Doe thou tell me, how thou
wast made then, and I will tell thee how thou shalt be made hereafter. And yet as Solo-
mon sends us to creatures, & to creatures of a low rank & station, to Ants & Spiders, for
instruction, so Saint Gregory sends us to creatures, to learne the Resurrection. Lux quoti-
die moritur, & quotidie resurgit; Greg. That glorious creature, that first creature, the light,
dyes every day, and every day hath a resurrection. In arbustis folia resurrectione e-
rumpunt; from the Cedar of Libanus, to the Hyssop upon the wall, every leafe
dyes every yeare, and every yeare hath a Resurrection. Vbi in brevitate seminis,
tam immensa arbor latuit? (as he pursues that meditation.) If thou hadst seen
the bodies of men rise our of the grave, at Christs Resurrection, could that be
a stranger thing to thee, then, (if thou hadst never seen, nor hard, not imagined L it
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it before) to see an Oake that spreads so farre, rise out of an Akorne? Or if
Churchyards did vent themselves every spring, and that there were such a Re-
surrection of bodies every yeare, when thou hadst seen as many Resurrections as
years, the Resurrection would be no stranger to thee, then the spring is. And
thus, this, and many other good and reverend men, and so the holy Ghost him-
selfe sends us to Reason, and to the Creature, for the doctrine of the Resur-
rection; Saint Paul allowes him not the reason of a man, that proceeds not so;
Thou fool, says he, that which thou sowest, is not quickned except it dye; 1 Cor. 15. 36. but then
it is. It is truly harder to conceive a translation of the body into heaven, then
a Resurrection of the body from the earth. Ambr. Num in hominibus terra degenerat,
quæ omnia regenerare consuevit? Doe all kinds of earth regenerate, and shall onely
the Churchyard degenerate? Is there a yearely Resurrection of every other thing,
and never of men? Tertull. Omnia pereundo servantur, All other things are preserved,
and continued by dying; Tu homo solus ad hoc morieris, ut pereas? And canst
thou, O man, suspect of thy selfe, that the end of thy dying is an end of thee?
Fall as low as thou canst, corrupt and putrefie as desperately as thou canst,
Idem. sis nihil, thinke thy selfe nothing; Ejus est nihilum ipsum cujus est totum, even
that nothing is as much in his power, as the world which he made of nothing;
And, as he called thee when thou wast not, as if thou hadst been, so will he
call thee againe, when thou art ignorant of that being which thou hast in the grave,
and give thee againe thy former, and glorifie it with a better being.
The Jews then, if they had no other helpes, An ex Scripturis. might have, (as naturall men
may) preparations à Priore, and illustrations à Posteriore, for the doctrine of the
Resurrection. The Jews had seen resuscitations, from the dead in particular persons,
and they had seen miraculous cures done by their Prophets. And Gregory Nyssen
says well, Greg. Nyss. that those miraculous cures which Christ wrought, with a Tolle gra-
batum, and an Esto sanus, and no more, they were præudia resurrectionis, halfe-
resurrections, prologues, and inducements to the doctrine of the resurrection, which
shall be transacted with a Surgite mortui, and no more. So these naturall helps
in the consideration of the creature, are præludia resurrectionis, they are halfe-
resurrections, and these naturall resurrections carry us halfe way to the miracu-
lous resurrection. But certainely, the Jews, who had that, which the Gentiles
wanted, The Scriptures, had from them, a generall, though not an explicite
knowledge of the resurrection. That they had it, we see by that practise of Ju-
das the Maccabee, 2. Macab. 12. 43. in gathering a contribution to send to Jerusalem, which is
therefore commended, because he was therein mindefull of the Resurrection. Nei-
ther doth Christ find any that opposed the doctrine of the Resurrection, but
those, who though they were tolerated in the State, because they were otherwise
great persons, Act. 15. 5. were absolute Heretiques, even amongst the Jews, The Sadduces.
And Saint Paul, when, finding himselfe to bee oppressed in Judgement, hee
used his Christian wisedome, and to draw a strong party to himselfe, protested
himselfe to bee of the sect of the Pharisees, and that, as they, and all the rest,
in generall, did, he maintained the Resurrection, he knew it would seem a strange
injury, and an oppression, to be called in question for that, that they all be-
leeved; Though therefore our Saviour Christ, who disputed then, onely a-
gainst the Sadduces, argued for the doctrine of the Resurrection, onely from that
place of the Scripture, which those Sadduces acknowledged to be Scripture, (for Luke 20. 37.
they denied all but the bookes of Moses) and so insisted upon those words, Exod. 3. 6. I am
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, yet certainely the
Jews had established that doctrine, upon other places too, though to the Sadduces
who accepted Moses onely, Moses were the best evidence. It is evident enough
in that particular place of Daniel, Many of them that sleep in the dust of the
earth, shall awake, 12. 2. some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting
contempt. And in Daniel, that word many, must not be restrained to lesse
then all; Daniel intends by that many, that how many soever they are, they
shall all arise; Rom. 5. 19.
12. as Saint Paul does, when he says, By one mans disobedience, many
were made sinners; that is, All; for, death passed over all men; for all have sinned. And
Christ doth but paraphrase that place of Daniel, who says, Multi, many, when he says, Omnes,
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Omnes, all; All that are in the grave shall heare his voyce and shall come forth; They that
have done good, Mat. 5. 28. unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evill to the re-
surrection of damnation. This then being thus far settled, that the Jews understood the
resurrection, and more then that, they beleeved it, and therefore, as they had light
in nature, they had assurance in Scripture, come we now, to that which was our last
purpose in this first part, whether in this text, in these words of Iob, (though after my
skin, wormes destroy my body) there be any such light of the Resurrection given.
It is true, that in the new Testament, where the doctrine of the resurrection is more
evidently, An ex hâc
Scripturá. more liquidly delivered, then in the old, (though it be delivered in the old
too) there is no place cited out of the book of Iob, for the resurrection; and so, this
is not. But it is no marvaile; both upon that reason which we noted before, that they
who were to be convinced, were such as received onely the books of Moses, and therefore
all citations from this booke of Iob, or any other had been impertinently and frivo-
lously employed, and, because in the new Testament, there is but one place of this
booke of Iob cited at all. 1. 3. 19.
5. 13. To the Corinthians the Apostle makes use of those words in
Iob, God taketh the wise in their owne craft; And more then this one place, is not, (I
thinke) cited out of this booke of Iob in the new Testament. But, the authority of Iob
is established in another place; you have heard of the patience of Iob, and you have seen
the end of the Lord, 5. 11. says Saint Iames. As you have seen this, so you have heard that;
seen and heard one way, out of the Scripture; you have hardheard that out of the booke
of Iob, you have seen this out of the Gospell. And further then this, there is no na-
ming of Iobs person, or his booke in the new Testament. Saint Hierome confesses, Præfat. in Iob. that
both the Greeke, and Latine Copies of this booke, were so defective in his time, that
seven or eight hundred verses of the originall were wanting in the booke. And, for the
originall it selfe, he says, Obliquus totus liber fertur, & lubricus, it is an uncertaine and
slippery book. But this is onely for the sense of some places of the book; And that
made the authority of this book, to be longer suspended in the Church, and oftner
called into question by particular men, then any other book of the Bible. But, in those
who have, for many ages, received this book for Canonicall, there is an unanime ac-
knowledgement, (at least, tacitely) that this peece of it, this text, (When, after my skin,
wormes shall destroy my body, yet in my flesh I shall see God) does establish the Resur-
rection. Divide the expositors into three branches; (for, so, the world will needs divide Partes.
them) The first, the Roman Church will call theirs; though they have no other title
to them, but that they received the same translation that they doe. And all they use this
text for the resurrection. Greg. Verba viri in gentilitate positi erubescamus; It is a shame for
us, who have the word of God it selfe, (which Iob had not) and have had such a com-
mentary, such an exposition upon al the former word of God, as the reall, and actuall, and
visible resurrection of Christ himselfe, Erubescamus verba viri in gentilitate positi, let
us be ashamed and confounded, if Iob, a person that lived not within the light of the
covenant, saw the resurrection more clearly, and professed it more constantly then we
doe. Greg. Nyss.
42. 10. And, as this Gregory of Rome, so Gregory Nyssen understood Iob too. For, he con-
siders Iobs case thus; God promised Iob twofold of all that he had lost; And in his
sheep and camels, and oxen, and asses, which were utterly destroyed, and brought to
nothing, God performes it punctually, he had all in a double proportion. 12. But Iob had
seven sonnes; and three daughters before, and God gives him but seven sonnes;
and three daughters againe; And yet Iob had twofold of these too; for Postnati cum
prioribus numerantur, quia omnes deo vivunt; Those which were gone, and those which
were new given, lived all one life, because they lived all in God; Nec quicquam aliud est
mors, nisi vitiositatis expiatio; Death is nothing else, but a devesting of those defects,
which made us lesse fit for God. And therefore, agreeably to this purpose, says Saint
Cyprian, Scimus non amitti, sed præmitti; Cyprian. thy dead are not lost, but lent. Non recedere, sed
præcedere; They are not gone into any other wombe, then we shall follow them into;
nec acquirendæ, atræ vestes, pro iis qui albis induuntur, neither should we put on blacks,
for them that are clothed in white, nor mourne for them, that are entred into their
Masters joy. We can enlarge our selfes no farther in this consideration of the first
branch of expositors, but that all the ancients tooke occasion from this text to argue
for the resurrection. L2 Take
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Take into your Consideration the other two branches of moderne expositors, Lutheran. Calvinist. (whom
others sometimes contumeliously, and themselves sometimes perversly have call'd
Lutherans and Calvinists, and you may know, that in the first ranke, Osiander, and
with him, all his interpret these words so; And in the other ranke, Tremellius, and
Pellicanus, heretofore, Polanus lately, and Piscator, for the present; All these, and all
the Translators into the vulgar tongues of all our neighbours of Europe, do all esta-
blish the doctrine of the Resurrection by these words, this place of Job. And there-
fore, though one, (and truly for any thing I know, but one) though one, to whom we
all owe much, for the interpretation of the Scriptures, Calvin. do think that Job intends
no other resurrection in this place, but that, when he shall be reduc'd to the misera-
blest estate that can bee in this life, still he will look upon God, and trust in him for
his restitution, and reparation in this life; let us with the whole Christian Church,
embrace and magnifie this Holy and Heroicall Spirit of Iob; Scio, says he; I know
it, (which is more in him, then the Credo is in us, more to know it then, in that state,
then to believe it now, after it hath been so evidently declar'd, not onely to be a cer-
tain truth, but to be an article of faith) Scio Redemptorem, says he; I know not one-
ly a Creator, but a Redeemer; And, Redemptorem meum, My Redeemer, which
implies a confidence, and a personall application of that Redemption to himself. Scio
vivere, says he; I know that he lives; I know that hee begunne not in his Incarnation,
I know he ended not in his death, but it always was, and is now, and shall for ever
be true, Vivit, that he lives still. And then, Scio venturum, says he too; I know hee
shall stand at the last day to Judge me and all the world; And after that, and after
my skinne and body is destroyed by worms, yet in my flesh I shall see God. And so have you
as much as we proposed for our first part; That the Jews do now, that they always
did believe a Resurrection; That as naturall men, and by naturall reason they might
know it, both in the possibility of the thing, and in the purpose of God, that they
had better helpes then naturall reason, for they had divers places of their Scripture,
and that this place of Scripture, which is our text, hath evermore been received for
a proof of the Resurrection. Proceed we now, to those particulars which constitute
our second part, such instructions concerning the Resurrection, as arise out of these
words, Though after my skinne, worms destroy my body, yet in my flesh I shall see God. In this second part, the first thing that was propos'd, was, That the Saints of God, 2. Part.
Sancti non
eximuntur.
are not priviledg'd from this, which fell upon Job, This Death, this dissolution after
death. Upon the Morte morieris, that double death, interminated by God upon Adam,
there is a Non obstante; Revertere, turn to God, and thou shalt not dy the death, not the
second death. But upon that part of the sentence, In pulverem revertêris, To dust thou shalt
return, there is no Non obstante; though thou turn to God, thou must turn into the grave;
for, hee that redeem'd thee from the other death, redeem'd not himself from this.
Carry this consideration to the last minute of the world, 1 Thes. 4. 17. when we that remain shall bee
caught up in the clouds, yet even that last fire may be our fever, those clouds our
winding sheets, that rapture our dissolution; and so, with Saint Augustine, most of
the ancients, most of the latter men think, that there shall be a sudden dissolution of bo-
dy and soul, which is death, and a sudden re-uniting of both, which is resurrection,
in that instant; Quis Homo, is Davids question; What man is he that liveth and shall
not see death? Let us adde, Quis Deoram? What god is he amongst the Gentiles, Psal. 89. 48.
that hath not seen death? Which of their three hundred Jupiters, which of their
thousands of other gods, have not seen death? Mortibus moriuntur; we may adde to
that double death in Gods mouth, another death; The gods of the Gentiles have
dyed thrice; In body, in soul, and in fame; for, though they have been glorified with
a Deification, not one of all those old gods, is, at this day, worshipt, in any part of
the world, but all those temporary, and transitory Gods, are worn out, and dead in
all senses. Those gods, who were but men, fall under Davids question, Quis Homo?
And that man who was truly God, fals under it too, Christ Jesus; He saw death,
though he saw not the death of this text, Corruption. And, if we consider the effusion
of his precious blood, the contusion of his sacred flesh, the extention of those sinews,
and ligaments which tyed heaven, and earth together, in a reconciliation, the depar-
ting of that Intelligence from that sphear, of that high Priest from that Temple, of
that Dove from that Arke, of that soul from that body, that dissolution (which, as an ordinary
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ordinary man he should have had in the grave, but that the decree of God, declar'd in
the infallibility of the manifold prophesies, preserv'd him from it) had been but a
slumber, in respect of these tortures, which he did suffer; The Godhead staid with
him in the grave, and so he did not corrupt, but, though our souls be gone up to God,
our bodies shall. Corruption in the skin, says Iob; In the outward beauty, In pelle. These be the Records of
velim, these be the parchmins, the endictments, and the evidences that shall condemn
many of us, at the last day, our own skins; we have the book of God, the Law, written
in our own hearts; we have the image of God imprinted in our own souls; wee have
the character, and seal of God stamped in us, in our baptism; and, all this is bound
up in this velim, in this parchmin, in this skin of ours, and we neglect book, and i-
mage, and character, and seal, and all for the covering. It is not a clear case, if we con-
sider the originall words properly, That Iesabel did paint; and yet all translators, 2 Reg. 5. 30.
and expositors have taken a just occasion, out of the ambiguity of those words, to cry
down that abomination of painting. It is not a clear case, if we consider the proprie-
ty of the words, That Absolon was hanged by the hair of the head; 2 Sam. 18. 9. and yet the Fathers
and others have made use of that indifferency, and verisimilitude, to explode that abo-
mination, of cherishing and curling haire, to the enveagling, and ensnaring, and entan-
gling of others; Iudicium patietur æternum, says Saint Hierome, Thou art guilty of a
murder, though no body die; Quia vinum attulisti, si fuisset qui bibisset; Hieron:Hieron. Thou hast
poyson'd a cup, if any would drink, thou hast prepar'd a tentation, if any would swal-
low it. Tertullian Tertul. thought he had done enough, when he had writ his book De Habi-
tu muliebri, against the excesse of women in clothes, but he was fain to adde another
with more vehemence, De cultu fœminarum, that went beyond their clothes to their
skin. And he concludes, Illud ambitionis crimen, there's vain-glory in their excesse of
clothes, but, Hoc prostitutionis, there's prostitution in drawing the eye to the skin.
Pliny says, that when their thin silke stuffes were first invented at Rome, Excogitatum
ad fœminas denudandas; It was but an invention that women might go naked in
clothes, for their skins might bee seen through those clothes, those thinne stuffes:
Our women are not so carefull, but they expose their nakednesse professedly, and
paint it, to cast bird-lime for the passengers eye. Beloved, good dyet makes the best
Complexion, and a good Conscience is a continuall feast; A cheerfull
heart makes the best blood, and peace with God is the true cheerfulnesse of heart,
Thy Saviour neglected his skin so much, as that at last, hee scarse had any; all was
torn with the whips, and scourges; and thy skin shall come to that absolute corrupti-
on, as that, though a hundred years after thou art buryed, one may find thy bones,
and say, this was a tall man, this was a strong man, yet we shall soon be past saying,
upon any relique of thy skinne, This was a fair man; Corruption seises the skinne,
all outward beauty quickly, and so it does the body, the whole frame and constituti-
on, which is another consideration; After my skinne, my Body. If the whole body were an eye, or an ear, where were the body, says Saint Paul; but, In corpore.
1 Cor. 12. 17.
when of the whole body there is neither eye nor ear, nor any member left, where is
the body? And what should an eye do there, where there is nothing to be seen but
loathsomnesse; or a nose there, where there is nothing to be smelt, but putrefacti-
on; or an ear, where in the grave they doe not praise God? Doth not that body
that boasted but yesterday of that priviledge above all creatures, that it onely could
goe upright, lie to day as flat upon the earth as the body of a horse, or of a dogge?
And doth it not to morrow lose his other priviledge, of looking up to heaven? Is it
not farther remov'd from the eye of heaven, the Sunne, then any dogge, or horse,
by being cover'd with the earth, which they are not? Painters have presented to us
with some horrour, the sceleton, the frame of the bones of a mans body; but the state
of a body, in the dissolution of the grave, no pencil can present to us. Between that
excrementall jelly that thy body is made of at first, and that jelly which thy body dis-
solves to at last; there is not so noysome, so putrid a thing in nature. This skinne,
(this outward beauty) this body, (this whole constitution) must be destroy'd, says
Iob, in the next place. The word is well chosen, by which all this is expressed, in this text, Nakaph, Destroyed.
which is a word of as heavy a signification, to expresse an utter abolition, and annihi-
L3 lation,
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lation, as perchance can be found in all the Scriptures. Tremellius hath mollifyed it in
his translation; there it is but Confodere, to pierce. And yet it is such a piercing, such a
sapping, such an undermining, such a demolishing of a fort or Castle, as may justly
remove us from any high valuation, or any great confidence, in that skinne, and in
that body, upon which this Confoderint must fall. But, in the great Bible it is Con-
triverint, Thy skinne, and thy body shall be ground away, trod away upon the ground.
Aske where that iron is that is ground off of a knife, or axe; Aske that marble
that is worn off of the threshold in the Church-porch by continuall treading, and with
that iron; and with that marble, thou mayst finde thy Fathers skinne, and body;
Contrita sunt, The knife, the marble, the skinne, the body are ground away, trod a-
way, they are destroy'd, who knows the revolutions of dust? Dust upon the Kings
high-way, and dust upon the Kings grave, are both, or neither, Dust Royall, and
may change places; who knows the revolutions of dust? Even in the dead body of
Christ Jesus himself, one dram of the decree of his Father, one sheet, one sentence of
the prediction of the Prophets preserv'd his body from corruption, and incineration,
more then all Iosephs new tombs, and fine linnen, and great proportion of spices
could have done. O, who can expresse this inexpressible mystery? The soul of Christ
Jesus, which took no harm by him, contracted no Originall sin, in coming to him,
was guilty of no more sin, when it went out, then when it came from the breath
and bosome of God; yet this soul left this body in death. And the Divinity, the
Godhead, incomparably better then that soul, which soul was incomparably better
then all the Saints, and Angels in heaven, that Divinity, that God-head did not for-
sake the body, though it were dead. If we might compare things infinite in themselves,
it was nothing so much, that God did assume mans nature, as that God did still
cleave to that man, then when he was no man, in the separation of body and soul,
in the grave. But fall we from incomprehensible mysteries; for, there is mortificati-
on enough, (and mortification is vivification, and ædification) in this obvious consi-
deration; skinne and body, beauty and substance must be destroy'd; And, Destroyed
by wormes, which is another descent in this humiliation, and exinanition of man, in
death; After my skinne, wormes shall destroy this body. I will not insist long upon this, because it is not in the Originall; In the Originall there
is no mention of wormes. Vermes.
21. 26.
24. 20. But because in other places of Iob there is, (They shal lye down a-
like in the dust, and the worms shall cover them) (The womb shal forget them, and the worm
shal feed sweetly on them; & because the word Destroying is presented in that form & num-
ber, Contriverint, when they shall destroy, they and no other persons, no other creatures
named) both our later translations, (for indeed, our first translation hath no mention of
wormes) and so very many others, even Tremellius that adheres most to the letter of
the Hebrew, have filled up this place, with that addition, Destroyed by worms. It
makes the destruction the more contemptible; Thou that wouldest not admit the
beames of the Sunne upon thy skinne, and yet hast admitted the pollutions of sinne;
Thou that wouldst not admit the breath of the ayre upon thy skinne, and yet hast ad-
mitted the spirit of lust, and unchast solicitations to breath upon thee, in execrable
oathes, and blasphemies, to vicious purposes; Thou, whose body hath (as farre as it
can) putrefyed and corrupted even the body of thy Saviour, in an unworthy recei-
ving thereof, in this skinne, in this body, must be the food of worms, the prey of
destroying worms. After a low birth thou mayst passe an honourable life, after a sen-
tence of an ignominious death, Acts 12: 23. thou mayst have an honourable end; But, in the grave
canst thou make these worms silke worms? They were bold and early worms that
eat up Herod before he dyed; They are bold and everlasting worms, which after thy
skinne and body is destroyed, shall remain as long as God remains, in an eternall
gnawing of thy conscience; long, long after the destroying of skinne and body, by
bodily worms. Thus farre then to the destroying of skinne and body by worms, all men are equall;
Thus farre all's Common law, Post. and no Prerogative, so is it also in the next step too;
The Resurrection is common to all: The Prerogative lies not in the Rising, but in the
rising to the fruition of the sight of God; in which consideration, the first beam of
comfort is the Postquam, After all this, destruction before by worms; ruinous misery
before; but there is something else to be done upon me after. God leaves no state without
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without comfort. God leaves some inhabitants of the earth, under longer nights then
others, but none under an everlasting night; and, those, whom he leaves under those
long nights, he recompenses with as long days, after. I were miserable, if there were
not an Antequam in my behalfe; if before I had done well or ill actually in this world,
God had not wrapped me up, in his good purpose upon me. And I were miserable a-
gaine, if there were not a Postquam in my behalfe; If, after my sinne had cast me into
the grave, there were not a lowd trumpet to call me up, and a gracious countenance to
looke upon me, when I were risen. Nay, let my life have been as religious, as
the infirmities of this life can admit, 1 Cor. 15. 19. yet, If in this life onely we have hope in Christ, we
are, of all men, most miserable. For, for the worldly things of this life, first, the children
of God have them in the least proportions of any; and, besides that, those children of
God, which have them in larger proportion, do yet make the least use of them, of any o-
thers, because the children of the world, are not so tender conscienced, nor so much
afraid, lest those worldly things should become snares, and occasions of tentation to
them, if they open themselves to a full enjoying thereof, as the children of God are.
And therefore, after my wanting of many worldly things, (after a penurious life) and,
after my not daring to use those things that I have, so freely as others doe, after that
holy and conscientious forbearing of those things that other men afford themselves,
after my leaving all these absolutely behind me here, and my skin and body in destru-
ction in the grace, After all, there remaines something else for me. After; but how
long after? That's next. When Christ was in the body of that flesh, which we are in, Quando?
Mar. 13. 32. now, (sinne onely ex-
cepted) he said, in that state that he was in then, Of that day and houre, no man knoweth,
not the Angels, not the Sonne. Then, in that state, he excludes himselfe. And when
Christ was risen againe, in an uncorruptible body, he said, even to his nearest followers,
Non est vestrum, Acts. 17.
Basil. it is not for you, to know times, and seasons. Before in his state of
mortality, seipsum annumeravit ignorantibus, he pretended to know no more of this, then
they that knew nothing. After, when he had invested immortality, per sui exceptionem,
(says that Father) he excepts none but himselfe; all the rest, even the Apostles, were
left ignorant thereof. For this non est vestrum, (it is not for you) is part of the last
sentence that ever Christ spake to them. If it be a convenient answer to say, Christ
knew it not, as man, how bold is that man that will pretend to know it? And, if it be
a convenient interpretation of Christs words, that he knew it not, that is, knew it not
so, as that he might tell it them, how indiscreet are they, who, though they may seem
to know it, will publish it? For, thereby they fill other men with scruples, and vexa-
tions, and they open themselves to scorne and reproach, when their predictions prove
false, as Saint Augustine observed in his time, and every age hath given examples since,
of confident men that have failed in these conjectures. It is a poore pretence to say,
this intimation, this impression of a certaine time, prepares men with better dispositions.
For, they have so often been found false, that it rather weakens the credit of the thing
it selfe. In the old world they knew exactly the time of the destruction of the world;
that there should be an hundred & twenty years, Gén.Gen. 6. 3. before the flood came; And yet, upon
how few, did that prediction, though from the mouth of God himselfe, work to repen-
tance? Noah found grace in Gods eyes; but it was not because he mended his life upon
that prediction, but he was gratious in Gods sight before. At the day of our death, we
write Pridie resurrectionis, the day before the resurrection; It is Vigilia resurectionis; Our
Easter Eve. Adveniat regnum tuum, possesse my soule of thy kingdome then: And,
Fiat voluntas tua, my body shall arise after, but how soon after, or how late after,
thy will bee done then; by thy selfe, and thy will bee knowne, till then, to
thy selfe. We passe on. Ego. As in Massa damnata, the whole lump of mankind is under the con-
demnation of Adams sinne, and yet the good purpose of God severs some men from
that condemnation, so, at the resurrection, all shall rise; but not all to glory. But, a-
mongst them, that doe, Ego, says Iob, I shall. I, as I am the same man, made up
of the same body, and the same soule. Shall I imagine a difficulty in my body, because
I have lost an Arme in the East, and a leg in the West? because I have left some bloud
in the North, and some bones in the South? Doe but remember, with what ease you
have sate in the chaire, casting an account, and made a shilling on one hand, a pound on the
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the other, or five shillings below, ten above, because all these lay easily within your
reach. Consider how much lesse, all this earth is to him, that sits in heaven, and
spans all this world, and reunites in an instant armes, and legs, bloud, and bones, in
what corners so ever they be scattered. The greater work may seem to be in reducing
the soul; That that soule which sped so ill in that body, last time it came to it, as that
it contracted Originall sinne then, and was put to the slavery to serve that body, and
to serve it in the ways of sinne, not for an Apprentiship of seven, but seventy years
after, that that soul after it hath once got loose by death, and liv'd God knows how
many thousands of years, free from that body; that abus'd it so before, and in the
sight and fruition of that God, where it was in no danger, should willingly, nay desi-
rously, ambitiously seek this scattered body; this Eastern, and Western, and Nor-
thern, and Southern body, this is the most inconsiderable consideration, and yet, Ego, I,
I the same body, and the same soul, shall be recompact again, and be identically, numeri-
cally, individually the same man. The same integrity of body, and soul, and the same
integrity in the Organs of my body, and in the faculties of my soul too; I shall be all
there, my body, and my soul, & all my body, & all my soul. I am not all here, I am here
now preaching upon this text, and I am at home in my Library considering whether S.
Gregory, or S. Hierome, have said best of this text, before. I am here speaking to you,
and yet I consider by the way, in the same instant, what it is likely you will say to one
another, when I have done, you are not all here neither; you are here now, hearing
me, and yet you are thinking that you have heard a better Sermon somewhere else,
of this text before; you are here, and yet you think you could have heard some o-
ther doctrine of down-right Predestination and Reprobation roundly delivered some-
where else with more edification to you; you are here, and you remember your selves
that now yee think of it: This had been the fittest time, now, when every body else
is at Church, to have made such and such a private visit; and because you would bee
there, you are there. I cannot say, you cannot say so perfectly, so entirely now, as at
the Resurrection, Ego, I am here; I, body and soul; I, soul and faculties: as Christ
sayd to Peter, Noli timere, Ego sum, Fear nothing, it is I; so I say to my selfe, Noli
timere; My soul, why art thou so sad, my body, why dost thou languish? Ego, I, body
and soul, soul and faculties, shall say to Christ Jesus, Ego sum, Lord, it is I, and hee
shall not say, Nescio te, I know thee not, but avow me, and place me at his right hand.
Ego sum, Lam. 3. 1. 1
Pet. 5. 4. I am the man that hath seen affliction, by the rod of his wrath; Ego sum, and I
the same man, shall receive the crown of glory which shall not fade. Ego, Videbo. I, the same person; Ego videbo, I shall see; I have had no looking-glasse in
my grave, to see how my body looks in the dissolution; I know not how. I have had no
houre-glasse in my grave to see how my time passes; I know not when: for, when my
eylids are closed in my death-bed, Apoc. 10. 7.
Dan. 7. 9. the Angel hath said to me, That time shall be no more;
Till I see eternity, the ancient of days, I shall see no more; but then I shall: Now,
why is Job gladder of the use of this sense of seeing, then of any of the other? He is
not; He is glad of seeing, but not of the sense, but of the Object. It is true that is
said in the School, Aquin. sup. q.
82. ar. 4. Viciniùs se habent potentiæ sensitivæ ad animam quàm corpus; Our
sensitive faculties have more relation to the soul, then to the body; but yet to some
purpose, and in some measure, all the senses shall be in our glorifyed bodies, In actu,
or in potentiâ, say they; so as that wee shall use them, or so as that we might. But
this sight that Job speaks of, is onely the fruition of the presence of God, in which
consists eternall blessednesse. 1 Cor. 13. 12. Here, in this world, we see God per speculum, says the A-
postle, by reflection, upon a glasse; we see a creature; and from that there arises an
assurance that there is a Creator; we see him in ænigmate, says he; which is not ill
rendred in the margin, in a Riddle, we see him in the Church; but men have made it
a riddle; which is the Church, we see him in the Sacrament, but men have made it a
riddle; by what light, and at what window: Doe I see him at the window of bread
and wine; Is he in that; or doe I see him by the window of faith; and is he onely in
that? still it is in a riddle. Doe I see him à Priore, (I see that I am elected, and there-
fore I cannot sinne to death.) Or doe I see him à Posteriore, (because I see my selfe
carefull not to sin to death, therefore I am elected.) I shall see all problematicall
things come to be dogmaticall, I shall see all these rocks in Divinity, come to bee
smooth alleys; I shall see Prophesies untyed, Riddles dissolved, controversies recon-
ciled.
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ciled; but I shall never see that, till I come to this sight which follows in out text, Vi-
debo Deum, I shall see God. No man ever saw God and liv'd; Deum. and yet, I shall not live till I see God; and when
I have seen him I shall never dye. What have I ever seen in this world, that hath been
truly the same thing that it seemed to me? I have seen marble buildings, and a chip, a
crust, a plaster, a face of marble hath pilld off, and I see brick-bowels within. I have
seen beauty, and a strong breath from another, tels me, that that complexion is from
without, not from a sound constitution within. I have seen the state of Princes, and
all that is but ceremony; and, I would be loath to put a Master of ceremonies to define
ceremony, and tell me what it is, and to include so various a thing as ceremony, in so
constant a thing, as a Definition. I see a great Officer, and I see a man of mine own
profession, of great revenues, and I see not the interest of the money, that was paid for
it, I see not the pensions, nor the Annuities, that are charged upon that Office, or that
Church. As he that fears God, fears nothing else, so, he that sees God, sees every thing
else: 1 Iohn 3. 2. when we shall see God, Sicuti est, as he is, we shall see all things Sicuti sunt,
as they are; for that's their Essence, as they conduce to his glory. We shall be no more
deluded with outward appearances: for, when this sight, which we intend here comes,
there will be no delusory thing to be seen. All that we have made as though we saw, in
this world, will be vanished, and I shall see nothing but God, and what is in him; and
him I shall see In carne, in the flesh, which is another degree of Exaltation in mine Exina-
nition. I shall see him, In carne. In carne suâ, in his flesh: And this was one branch in Saint Augustines
great wish, That he might have seen Rome in her state, That he might have heard S.
Paul preach, That he might have seen Christ in the flesh: Saint Augustine hath seen
Christ in the flesh one thousand two hundred yeares; in Christs glorifyed
flesh; but, it is with the eyes of his understanding, and in his soul. Our flesh, even in
the Resurrection, cannot be a spectacle, a perspective glasse to our soul. We shall see
the Humanity of Christ with our bodily eyes, then glorifyed; but, that flesh, though
glorifyed, cannot make us see God better, nor clearer, then the soul alone hath done,
all the time, from our death, to our resurrection. But as an indulgent Father, or as a
tender mother, when they go to see the King in any Solemnity, or any other thing of
observation, and curiosity, delights to carry their child, which is flesh of their flesh,
and bone of their bone, with them, and though the child cannot comprehend it as well
as they, they are as glad that the child sees it, as that they see it themselves, such a
gladnesse shall my soul have, that this flesh, (which she will no longer call her prison,
nor her tempter, but her friend, her companion, her wife) that this flesh, that is, I, in
inthe re-union, and redintegration of both parts, shall see God; for then; one princi-
pall clause in her rejoycing, and acclamation, shall be, that this flesh is her flesh; In car-
ne meâ, in my flesh I shall see God. It was the flesh of every wanton object here, Mea. that would allure it in the petulancy of
mine eye. It was the flesh of every Satyricall Libeller, and defamer, and calumniator
of other men, that would call upon it, and tickle mine ear with aspersions and slanders
of persons in authority. And in the grave, it is the flesh of the worm; the possession is
transfer'd to him. But, in heaven, it is Caro mea, My flesh, my souls flesh, my Sav-
iours flesh. As my meat is assimilated to my flesh, and made one flesh with it; as my
soul is assimilated to my God, 2. Pet. 1. 4.
1. Cor. 6. 17. and made partaker of the divine nature, and Idem Spiri-
tus, the same Spirit with it; so, there my flesh shall be assimilated to the flesh of my Sa-
viour, and made the same flesh with him too. Verbum caro factum, ut caro resurgeret;
Therefore the Word was made flesh, Athanas. therefore God was made man, that that
union might exalt the flesh of man to the right hand of God. That's spoken of
the flesh of Christ; and then to facilitate the passage for us, Reformat ad immorta-
litatem suam participes sui; Cyril. those who are worthy receivers of his flesh here, are the
same flesh with him; Rom. 8. 11. And, God shall quicken your mortall bodies, by his Spirit that dwel-
leth in you.But this is not in consummation, in full accomplishment, till this resurre-
ction, when it shall be Caro mea, my flesh, so, as that nothing can draw it from the al-
legiance of my God; and Caro mea, My flesh, so, as that nothing can devest me of it.
Here a bullet will aske a man, where's your arme; and a Wolf wil ask a woman, where's
your breast. A sentence in the Star-chamber will aske him, where's your ear, and a mouths
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mouths close prison will aske him, where's your flesh? A fever will aske him, where's your
Red, and a morphew will aske him, where's your white? But when after all
this, when after my skinne worms shall destroy my body, I shall see God, I shall see him in
my flesh, which shall be mine as inseparably, (in the effect, though not in the manner) as
the Hypostaticall union of God, and man, in Christ, makes our nature and the God-
head one person in him. My flesh shall no more be none of mine, then Christ shall
not be man, as well as God. Sermon XV.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
1 Cor. 15. 50. Now this I say Brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God. SAintSaint Gregory hath delivered this story; Moral. 14. 29. That Eutychius, who was
Bishop of Constantinople, having written a book of the Resurre-
ction, and therein maintained that errour, That the body of
Christ had not, that our bodies, in the Resurrection should not
have any of the qualities of a naturall body, but that those bodies
were, in subtilitatem redacta, so rarifyed, so refined, so attenuated,
and reduced to a thinnesse, and subtlenesse, that they were aery bo-
dies, and not bodies of flesh and blood. This error made a great noise, and raised a
great dust, till the Emperour, to avoid scandall, (which for the most part arises out
of publick conferences) was pleased to hear Eutychius, and Gregory dispute this point
privately before himself, and a small company; And, that upon conference, the Em-
perour was so well satisfyed, that hee commanded Eutychius his books to bee
burnt. That after this, both Gregory and Eutychius fell sicke; but Eutychius
dyed; and dyed with this protestation, In hâc carne, in this flesh, (taking up
the flesh of his hand in the presence of them that were there) in this flesh, I acknow-
ledge, that I, and all men shall arise at the day of Judgement. Now, the principall
place of Scripture, which in his book, and in that conference Eutychius stood upon,
was this Text, these words of Saint Paul; (This I say brethren, that flesh and blood can-
not inherit the Kingdome of God.) And the directest answer that Gregory gave to it was,
Caro secundum culpam non regnabit, sed Caro secundum naturam; sinfull flesh shall not,
but naturall flesh, that is, flesh indued with all qualities of flesh, all such qualities
as imply no defect, no corruption, (for there was flesh before there was sin) such flesh,
and such blood shall inherit the Kingdome of God. As there have been more Heresies about the Humanity of Christ, then about his Di-
vinity, so there have been more heresies about the Resurrection of his body, and con-
sequently of ours, then about any other particular article, that concerns his Humilia-
tion, or Exaltation. Simon Magus strook deepest at first, to the root; That there
was no Resurrection at all; The Gnosticks, (who took their name from knowledge,
as though they knew all, and no body else any thing, which is a pride transferr'd
through all Heretickes: for, as that sect in the Roman Church, which call themselves
Ignorantes, and seem to pretend to no knowledge, doe yet believe that they know a
better way to heaven, then all other men doe, so that sect amongst them, which cal-
led themselves Nullanos, Nothings, thought themselves greater in the Kingdome of
God, then either of the other two sects of diminution, the Minorits, or the Minims
did) These Gnosticks acknowledged a Resurrection, but they said it was of the soul
onely, and not of the body, for they thought that the soul lay dead (at least, in a dead
sleep) till the Resurrection. Those Heretickes that are called the Arabians, did (as
the Gnosticks did) affirm a temporary death of the soul, as well as of the body, but
then they allowed a Resurrection to both soul, and body, after that death, which the
Gnostickes did not, but to the soul onely. Hymeneus and Philetus, (of whom Saint Paul
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Paul speakes) they restrained the Resurrection to the sonlesoule, 2. Tim. 2. 18:18. but then they re-strained this Resurrection of the soule to this life, and that in those who were
baptized, the Resurrection was accomplished already. Eutychius, (whom wee
mentioned before) enlarged the Resurrection to the body, as well as to the soul, but
enlarged the qualities of the body so far, as that it was scarce a body. The Armenian
hereticks said, that it was not onely Corpus humanum, but Corpus masculinum, That
all should rise in the perfecter sex, and none, as women. Origen allowed a Resurrection,
and allowed the Body to be a naturall body; but he contracted the time; he said, that
when we rose we should enjoy the benefits of the resurrection, even in bodily pleasures,
for a thousand years, and then be annihilated, or absorpted and swallowed up into the
nature, and essence of God himselfe; (for, it will be hard to state Origens opinion in
this point; Origen was not, herein, well understood in his owne time; nor doe we un-
derstand him now, (for the most part) but by his accusers, and those that have written
against him.) Divers of these Heretiques, for the maintenance of their severall heresies,
perverted this Scripture, (Flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdome of God) and that
occasioned those Fathers who opposed those heresies, so diverse from one another, to
interpret these words diversly, according to the heresie they opposed. All agree, that
they are an argument for the resurrection, though they seem at first, to oppose it. For,
this Chapter hath three generall parts; first, Resurrectionem esse, that there shall be a
Resurrection, which the Apostle proves by many and various arguments to the thirty
fifth verse.And then Quali corpore, the body shall rise, but some will say, How are the
dead raised, and with what body, doe they come? in that thirty fifth verse: And lastly, Quid
de superstitibus, what shall become of them, who shall be found alive, at the day? We
shall all be changed, verse fifty one. Now, this text is the knot, and corollary of all the
second part, concerning the qualities of the bodies in the resurrection; Now, says the
Apostle, now that I have said enough to prove that a resurrection there is, now, now that
I have said enough what kind of bodies shall arise, now, I show you as much in the
Negative as I have done in the Affirmative, now I teach you what to avoid, as well as
I have done what to affect, now this I say brethren, that flesh and bloud cannot inherit the
kingdome of God. Now, though those words be primarily, principally intended of the last Resur-
rection, yet in a secondary respect, they are appliable in themselves, and very often
applied by the ancients, Tertull. to the first Resurrection, our resurrection in this life. Tertullian
hath intimated, and presented both together, elegantly, when he says of God, Nobis
arrhabonem spiritus reliquit, & arrhabonem à nobis accepit, God hath given us his ear-
nest, and a pawn from him upon earth, in giving us the holy Ghost, and he hath re-
ceived our earnest, and a pawn from us into heaven, by receiving our nature, in the
body of Christ Jesus there. Flesh and bloud, when it is conformed to the flesh and bloud
of Christ now glorified, and made like his, by our resurrectienresurrection, may inherite the king-
dome of God, in heaven. Yea flesh and bloud being conformed to Christ by the
sanctification of the holy Ghost, here, in this world, may inherit the kingdome of God;
here upon earth; for, God hath a kingdome here; and there is a Communion in
Armes, as well as a communion in Triumph. Leaving then that acceptation of flesh
and bloud, which many thinke to be intended in this text, that is, Animalis caro, flesh
and bloud that must be maintained by eating, and drinking, and preserved by propa-
gation and generation, that flesh, and that bloud cannot inherit heaven, where there
is no marying, nor giving in mariage, but Erimus sicut Angeli, we shall be as the An-
gels, (though such a heaven, in part, Mahomet hath proposed to his followers, a hea-
ven that should abound with worldly delights, and such a heaven the Disciples of Ori-
gen, and the Millenarians, that look for one thousand years of all temporall felicity,
proposed to themselves; And, though amongst our latter men, Cajetan doe thinke,
that the Apostle in this text, bent himselfe upon that doctrine, non caro, non Animalis
caro, flesh and bloud, that is, no carnall, no worldly delights are to be looked for, in
heaven,) leaving that sense, as too narrow, and too shallow for the holy Ghost, in
this place, in which he hath a higher reach, we shall determine our selves at this time,
in these too acceptations of this phrase of speech; Divisio. first, non caro, that is, non caro cor-
rupta, flesh and bloud cannot, sinfull flesh, corrupt flesh, flesh not discharged of sinfull
corruption here, by repentance, and Sanctification, and the operation of Gods spirit, such
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such flesh cannot inherit the kingdome of God here. Secondly, noncaro, is non caro
corruptibilis, flesh and bloud cannot, that is, flesh that is yet subject to corruption, and
dissolution, and naturall passions and impressions, tending to defectivenesse, flesh that
is still subject to any punishment that God lays upon flesh, for sinne, such flesh can-
not inherit the kingdome of God hereafter; for our present possession of the kingdome
of God here, our corrupt flesh must be purged by Sanctification here, for the future
kingdome, our naturall Corruptiblenesse must be purged by glorification there. We will
make the last part first, as this flesh, and this bloud, by devesting the corruptiblenesse it
suffers here, by that glorification, shall inherit that kingdome; and, not stay long up-
on it neither. For, of that we have spoken conveniently before, of the resurrection it
selfe. Now we shall looke a little into the qualities of bodies in the resurrection; and
that, not in the intricacies, and subtilties of the Schoole, but onely in that one patterne,
which hath been given us of that glory, upon earth, which is the Transfiguration of
Christ; for, that Transfiguration of his, was a representation of a glorified body in a
glorified state. And then in the second place, we shall come to our first part, what that
flesh and bloud is that is denied to be capable of the inheritance of that kingdome here,
that is, that earnest of heaven, and that inchoation of heaven which may be had in this
world; and, in that part we shall see, what this inheritance, what this title to heaven
here, and what this kingdome of God, that heaven which is proposed to us here, is. First then, 1. Part.
Melancthon. for the first acceptation, (which is of the later resurrection) no man denies
that which Melancthon hath collected and established to be the summe of this text,
Statuit resurrectionem in corpore, sed non quale jam corpus est; The Apostle establishes
a resurrection of the body, but yet not such a body as this is. It is the same body, and
yet not such a body; which is a mysterious consideration, that it is the same body, and
yet not such as it selfe, nor like any other body of the same substance. But, what kind
of body then? We content ourselves with that, Transfiguratio specimen appositissimum
Resurrectionis, Musculus. the Transfiguration of Christ, is the best glasse to see this resurrection,
and state of glory in. But how was that transfiguration wrought? We content our
selves with Saint Hieromes expressing of it, Hierom. non pristinam amisit veritatem, vel formam
corporis; Christ had still the same ture, and reall body, and he had the same forme, and
proportion, and lineaments, and dimensions of his body, in it selfe. Transfiguratio
non faciem subtraxit, sed splendorem ad didit, sayes he; It gave him not another face, but
it super-immitted such a light, such an illustration upon him, as, by that irradiation,
that coruscation, the beames of their eyseyes were scattered, and disgregated, dissipated so,
as that they could not collect them, as at other times, nor constantly, and confidently
discerne him. Moses had a measure, a proportion of this; but yet when Moses came
down with his shining face, Exod. 23. 29.
Mat. 17. though they were not able to looke long upon him, they
knew him to be Moses. When Christ was transfigured in the presence of Peter, James and
John, yet they knew him to be Christ. Transfiguration did not so change him, nor shall
glorification so change us, as that we shall not be known. There is nothing to convince a
man of error, nothing in nature, nothing in Scriptures, if he beleeve that he shall know
those persons in heaven, whom he knew upon earth; and, if he conceive soberly, that it
were a lesse degree of blessednesse, not to know them, then to know them, he is bound to
beleeve that he shall know them, Aquin. for he is bound to beleeve, that all that conduces to
blessednes shall be given him. The School resolves, that at the Judgement, all the sins
of all, shall be manifested to all; even those secret sinfull thoughts that never came out of
the heart. And, when any in the School differs or departs from this cōmon opinion, they
say onely, Lombar. that those sins which have been, in particular, repented, shall not be manifested:
all others shall. And therefore it is a deep uncharitablenes, to reproach any man, of sins
formerly repented; and a deep uncharitablenesse, not to beleeve, that he whom thou seest
at the Communion, hath repented his former sins; Reproach no man, after thou hast seen
him receive, with last years sins; except thou have good evidence of his Hypocrisie then,
or of his Relapsing after; For, in those two cases, a man remaines, or becomes againe
guilty of his former sinnes. Now, if in heaven they shall know the hearts of one another,
whose faces they never knew before, there is lesse difficulty in knowing them, whom we
did know before. From this transfiguration of Christ, in which, the mortall eye of the
Apostles, did see that representation of the glory of Christ, the Schooles make a good
argument, that in heaven we shall doe it much more. And though in this case of the Trans-
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Transfiguration, in which the eyes of mortall men could have no proportion with that
glory of heaven, this may bee well said to have been done, either Moderando lumen,
(that God abated that light of glory) or Confortando visum, (that God exalted their
sense of seeing supernaturally) no such distinctions, or modifications will bee
needfull in heaven, because how highly soever the body of my Father, or of my
friend shall bee glorifyed there, mine eyes shall be glorifyed as much, and we are
both kept in the same proportion there, as wee had towards one another here;
here my naturall eye could see his naturall face, and there mine eye is as much
mended, as his body is, and my sense as much exalted as mine object; And as
well, as I may know, that I am I; I may know, that He is He; for, I shall not know
my selfe, nor that state of glory which I am then in, by any light of Nature which
I brought thither, but by that light of Glory which I shall receive there. When there-
fore a man finds, that this consideration does him good in his conversation, and re-
tards him towards some sinnes; how shall I stand then, when all the world shall see,
that my solicitation hath brought such a woman to the stews, to the Hospitall, to
hell, who had scap'd all this, if I had not corrupted her at first, (which no man in
the world knew before, and all shall know then.) Or that my whispering, and my
calumny hath overthrown such a man in his place, in his reputation, in his fortune
(which he himself knew not before, and all shall know then.) Or, that my counsell,
or my example hath been a furtherance to any mans spirituall edification here. He that
in rectified reason, and a rectified conscience finds this, in Gods name let him beleeve;
yea, for Gods sake let him take heed of not beleeving that we shall know one another,
Actions and Persons, in the Resurrection, as the Apostles did know Christ at the
Transfiguration, which was a Type of it. This Transfiguration then upon earth was the same glory, which Christ had after,
in heaven. Transfigu-
ratio.
Hierom. Qualis venturus, talis apparuit; such as all eyes shall see him to be, when
he comes in glory at last, those Apostles saw him then, but of the particular circum-
stances, even of this transfiguration upon earth, there is but little said to us. Let us
modestly take that which is expressed in it, and not search over-curiously farther into
that which is signifyed, and represented by it; which is, the state of glory in the Re-
surrection. First, his face shin'd as the Sunne, says that Gospell, he could not take a
higher comparison, Sol.
Mat. 17. 2. for our Information, and for our admiration in this world, then
the Sunne. And then, the Saints of God in their glorifyed state are admitted to the
same comparison. The righteous shall shine out as the Sunne in the Kingdome of the Fa-
ther; the Sunne of the firmament which should be their comparison, 13. 43. will be gone;
But the Sun of grace and of glory, the Son of God shall remain; and they shall shine
as he; that is, in his righteousnesse. In this transfiguration, Nix: his clothes were white, says the text; but how white, the
holy Ghost does not tell us at once, as white as snow, says Saint Mark, as white as light,
says Saint Matthew. Let the garments of the glorifyed Saints of God be their bodies,
and then, 9. 3. their bodies are as white as snow, as snow that fall's from heaven, and
hath toucht no pollution of the earth. For, though our bodies have been upon earth,
and have touched pitch, and have been defiled, yet that will not lye in proof, not be
given in evidence; Though he that drew me, and I that was drawen too, know, in
what unclean places, and what unclean actions, this body of mine hath been, yet it
lyes not in proof, it shall not be given in evidence, for, Accusator fratrum, The ac-
cuser of the brethren is cast down, Apoc. 12. 10. the Devill shall find nothing against me; And if I had
spontaneum Dæmonem, as Saint Chrysostome speaks, a bosome Devill, and could tempt
my self, though there had been no other tempter in this world, so I have spontaneum
Dæmonem, a bosome accuser, a conscience that would accuse me there, if I accuse my
self there, I reproach the mercy of God, who hath seal'd my pardon, and made even
my body, what sins soever had discoloured it, as white as snow. As white as snow, Lux: and as white as light, says that Gospel. Light implies an active
power, Light is operative, and works upon others. The bodies of the Saints of God,
shall receive all impressions of glory in themselves, and they shall doe all that is to bee
done, for the glory of God there. There, they shall stand in his service, and they shall
kneel in his worship, and they shall fall in his reverence, and they shall sing in his glo-
ry, they shall glorifie him in all positions of the body; They shall be glorified in M them-
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themselves passively, and they shall glorifie God actively, sicut Nix, sicut Lux, their
beeing, their doing shall be all for him; Thus they shall shine as the Sun; Thus their
garments shall be white, white as snow, in being glorified in their own bodies, white
as light, in glorifying God in all the actions of those bodies. Now, Societas. there is thus much more considerable, and applyable to our present purpose,
in this tranfiguration of Christ, that there was company with them. Be not apt to think
heaven in an Ermitage, or a Monastery, or the way to heaven a sullen melancholy; Hea-
ven, and the way to it, is a Communion of Saints, in a holy cheerfulnesse. Get thou
thither; make sure thine own salvation; but be not too hasty to think, that no body
gets thither, except he go thy way in all opinions, and all actions. There was company in the transfiguration; Quæ socie-
tas. but no other company then Moses, and
Elias, and Christ, and the Apostles; none but they, to whom God had manifested
himself otherwise then to a meer naturall man, otherwise then as a generall God.
For, in the Law, and in the Pædagogie, and Schoolmastership, and instruction there-
of, God had manifested himself particularly by Moses, In Elias and the Prophets,
whom God sent in a continuall succession, to refresh that manifestation which he had
given of himself in the Law, before, in the example of these rules, in him, who was the
consummation of the Law, and the Prophets, Christ Jesus; And then, in the Applica-
tion of all this, by the Apostles, and by the Church established by them, God
had more particularly manifested himself, then to naturall men. Moses, Elias, Christ,
and the Apostles, make up the houshold of the faithfull; and none have inter-
est in the Resurrection, but in, and by these; These, to whom, and by whom,
God hath exhibited himself, to his Church, by other notions, then as one uni-
versall God; For, nothing will save a man, but to believe in God; so as God hath
proposed himself, in his Son, in his Scriptures, in his Christ. These were with him in the transfiguration, Communica-
tio. and they talked with him, says that text.
As there is a Communion of Saints, so there is a Communication of Saints. Think
not heaven a Charter-house, where men, who onely of all creatures, are enabled by
God to speak, must not speak to one another. The Lord of heaven is Verbum, The
word, and his servants there talk of us here, and pray to him for us. They talked with him; but of what? They talked of his Decease, Quæ com-
municatio.
Luke 9. 31. (says the text there)
which he should accomplish at Jerusalem, all that they talked of, was of his Passion.
All that we shall say, and sing in heaven, will be of his Passion, accomplished at Jerusa-
lem, in that Hymn, Apoc. 5. 9. 12. This Lamb hath redeemed us to God, by his blood; Worthy is the
Lamb that was slaine, to receive power, and riches, and wisdome, and strength, and honour,
and glory, and blessing, Amen.Even our glory in heaven, at last, is not principally for
our selves, but to contribute to the glory of Christ Jesus. If we inquire further then
this, into the state of our glorifyed bodies, remember that in this reall Parable, in this
Type of the Resurrection, Mar. 9. 6. the transfiguration of Christ, it is said, that even Peter him-
self wist not what to say; and remember too, That even Christ himself forbad them
to say any thing at all of it, Mat. 17. 9. till his Resurrection. Till our Resurrection, we cannot
know clearly, we should not speak boldly, of the glory of the Saints of God, nor of
our blessed endowments in that state. The summe of all is, Tertull. Fiducia Christianorum est resurrectio mortuorum; My faith di-
rects it self first upon that which Christ hath done, he is dead, he is risen; and my hope
directs it selfe upon that which shall bee done, Luther. I shall rise again. And yet says Luther,
Papa, Cardinales & primarii viri, I know the Pope, the Cardinals, the Bishops are Inge-
nio, doctrinâ, ratione, prudentiâ excellentes, they abound in naturall parts, in reading, in
experience, in civill wisdome: yet says he, si tres sunt, qui hunc articulum indubitanter cre-
dunt, If there be three amongst them. that do faithfully and undoubtedly believe this
article of the Resurrection of the body, three are more then I look for amongst
them. Beloved, as no things are liker one another, then Court and Court, the
same ambitions, the same underminings in one Court as in another, so Church and
Church is alike too; All persecuted Churches are religious, all peaceable Churches
are dissolute, when Luther said that of the Church of Rome, (That few of them be-
lieved the Resurrection) the Roman Church wallowed in all abundances, and disso-
lutenesse, and scarce a man, (in respect) opened his mouth against her, otherwise then
that the holy Ghost, to make his continuall claime, and to interrupt their prescription, in
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in every age raised up some to declare their impieties and usurpations. But then, when
they bent all their thoughts entirely, and prosperously upon possessing this world,
they thought they might spare the Resurrection well enough; As hee that hath
a plentifull fortune in Europe, cares not much though there be no land of perfumes in
the East, nor of gold, in the West-Indies; God in our days, hath given us, and our
Church, the fat of the glory of this world too, and we also neglect the other: But
when men of a different religion from them, (for they will needs call a differing from
their errours, a different Religion, as though all their religion were errours, for (ex-
cepting errours) we differ in no point) when, I say, such men came to enquire into
them, to discover them, and to induce or to attempt in divers parts of their govern-
ment a reformation, then they shut themselves up closer, then they grew more care-
full of their manners, and did reform themselves somewhat, though not thoroughly,
and are the better for that reformation which was offered to them, and wrought more
effectually upon others? As we say in the School, that even the Devill is somewhat
the better for the death of Christ, so the Roman Church is somewhat the better
for the Reformation. Our assiduity of preaching hath brought them to another man-
ner of frequency in preaching, then before the Reformation they were accustomed to,
and our answers to their books have brought them to a more reserved manner of wri-
ting, then they used before. Let us therefore by their example, make as good use of
our enemies, as our enemies have done of us. For, though we have no military enmi-
ty, no hostility with any nation, though we must all, and doe, out of a true sense of
our duty to God, pray ever for the continuance of peace amongst Christian Prin-
ces, and to withhold the effusion of Christian blood, yet to that intendment, and in
that capacity as they were our enemies in 88. when they provoked by their Excom-
munications, dangerous invasions, and in that capacity as they were our enemies in
603. when they bent their malice even against that place, where the Laws for the
maintenance of our religion were enacted, so they are our enemies still, if we be still
of the same religion. He that by Gods mercy to us, leads us, is as sure that the Pope is
Antichrist, now, as he was then; and we that are blessedly led by him, are as sure, that
their doctrine is the doctrine of Devils, now, as we were then. Let us therefore
make use of those enemies, and of their aery insolences, and their frothy confidences, as
thereby to be the firmer in our selves, and the carefuller of our children, and servants,
that we send not for such a Physitian as brings a Roman Priest for his Apothecary, nor
entertain such a School-master, as brings a Roman Priest for his Vsher, nor such a Mercer,
as brings a Priest for his Tayler;) for, in these shapes they have, and will appear.) But
in true faith to God, true Allegiance to our Prince, true obedience to the Church, true
dealing with all men, make our selves sure of the Resurrection in the next life; In
carne incorruptibili, in flesh that shall bee capable of no corruption, by having that
resurrection in this life, in carne incorruptâ, in devesting or correcting the corrup-
tions which cleave to our flesh here, that we bee not corrupted spiritually, (not dis-
puted out of our Religion, nor jeasted out, nor threatened out, nor bought out,
nor beat out of the truth of God) nor corrupted carnally by the pleasures or profits
of this world, but that wee may conforme our selves to the purity of Christ
Jesus, in that measure, which wee are able to attain to, which is our spirituall
Resurrection, and constitutes our second part, That Kingdome of God, which flesh
and blood may inherit in this life. From the beginning we setled that, 2. Part. That the primary purpose of the Apostle in
these words, was to establish the doctrine of the last Resurrection. But in Tertullians
exposition, Arrabonem dedit, & arrabonem accepit; That God hath left us the earnest
of his Spirit upon earth, and hath taken the earnest of our flesh into heaven, it grew
indifferent, of which Resurrection, spirituall, or bodily, first, or last, it be accepted.
but take Tertullian in another place, upon the verse immediately preceding our Text
(Sicut portavimus, portemus, (for so Tertullian reads that place, and so does the Vulgate)
As we have born the image of the earthly, so let us beare the Image of the heavenly) there
from Tertullian it must necessarily be referred to the first Resurrection, the Resurrecti-
on by grace in this life; for, says he there, Non refertur ad substantiam resurrectionis, sed
ad præsentis temporis disciplinam; the Apostle does not speak of our glorious
resurrection at last, but of our religious resurrection now. Portemus, non portabimus, M2 Let
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Let us bear his image, says the Apostle; Let us now, not that we shall bear it at the
last day. Præceptivè dictum, non promissivè; The Apostle delivers it as a duty, that
we must, not as a reward, that wee shall bear that image. And therefore in Tertullians
construction, it is not onely indifferent, and probable, but necessary to refer this Text
to the first Resurrection in this life; where it will be fittest, to pursue that order, which
we proposed at first, first to consider Quid regnum, what Kingdome it is, that is pre-
tended to; And then, Quid hæredetas, what estate and term is to be had in it: It is
an Inheritance. And lastly, Quid caro, & sanguis, what flesh and blood it is, that is ex-
cluded out of this Kingdome. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God. First, for this kingdome of God in this world, let us be glad that it is a kingdome, Regnum
Dei.
that it is so much, that the government is taken out of the hands of Saints, and Angels
and re-united, re-annexed to the Crown, restoted to God, to whom we may come im-
mediately, and be accepted. Let us be glad that it is a kingdome, so much, and let us
be glad that it is but a kingdome, and no more, not a Tyranny; That we come not to
a God that will damne us, because he will damne us, but a God that proposes Conditi-
ons, and enables us to performe those conditions, in such a measure as he will vouch-
safe to accept from us; A God that governs us by his word, for in his word is truth,
and by his law, for in his law is clearnesse. Will you aske what this kingdome of God
is? What did you take it to be, or what did you mean by it, when, even now, you said
with me, in the Lords prayer, Thy kingdome come? Did you deliberately, and determi-
nately pray for the day of Judgment, and for his comming in the kingdome of glory,
then? Hierom. Were you all ready for that, when you said so? Puræ conscientiæ, & grandis
audaciæ est, It is a very great confidence, and (if it be not grounded upon a very pure
conscience) it must have a worse name, Regnum Dei postulare, & judicium non timere;
To call upon God for the day of Judgment, upon confidence of our own righteous-
nesse, is a shrewd distemper; To say, Veni Domine Jesu, come Lord Jesu, come and
take us, as thou findst us, is a dangerous issue. But Adveniat regnum, and then veniat
Rex, let his kingdome of grace come upon us, in this life, and then let himselfe come
too, in his good time, and when his good pleasure shall be, in the kingdome of Glory:
Sive velimus sive nolimus, Augustin. regnum Dei utique veniet, what need we hasten him, provoke
him? says Saint Augustine; whether we will or no, his kingdome, his Judgment will
come. Nay, before we called for it, even his kingdome of grace was come. Christ said
to the Mar. 12. 34. Scribe, Non longè, Thou art not far from the kingdome of God; And to the Phari-
sees Luke 17. 21. themselves he said; Intra vos, the kingdome of God is among you, within you. But,
where there is a whole Hospitall of three hundred blinde men together, (as there is at
Paris) there is as much light, amongst them there, as amongst us here, and yet all they
have no light, so this kingdome of God is amongst us all, and yet God knows whether we
see it, Augustin. or no. And therefore Adveniat ut manifestetur Deus, says S. Augustine, his kingdom
come, that we may discerne it is come, that we may see that God offers it to us; and, Ad-
veniat regnum, ut manefestemur Deo, his kingdome come so, that he may discern us in our
reception of that Kingdom, and our obedience to it. He comes when we see him, and he
comes again, Idem. when we receive him: Quid est, Regnum ejus veniat, quàm ut nos bonos inve-
niat? Then his Kingdome comes, when he finds us willing to be Subjects to that King-
dome. God is a King in his own right. By Creation, by Redemption, by many titles, and
many undoubted claimes. Chrys. But, Aliud est Regem esse, aliud regnare, It is one thing
to be a King, another to have Subjects in obedience; A King is not the lesse a
King, for a Rebellion; But, Verè justum regnum est, (says that Father) quando
& Rex vult homines habere sub se, & cupiunt homines esse sub eo, when the King would
wish no other Subjects, nor the Subjects other King, then is that Kingdom come, come
to a durable, and happy state. When God hath shewed himself in calling us, and wee
have shewed our willingnesse to come, when God shewes his desire to preserve
us, Psal. 97. 1. and we adhere onely to him, when there is a Dominus regnat, Latetur ter-
ra, When our whole Land is in possession of peace, and plenty, and the whole
Church in possession of the Word and Sacraments, when the Land rejoyces be-
cause the Lord reigns; and when there is a Dominus regnat, Lætentur Insulæ, Be-
cause the Lord reigneth, every Island doth rejoice; that is, every man; that every man
that is encompassed within a Sea of calamities in his estate, with a Sea of disea-
ses in his body, with a Sea of scruples in his understanding, with a Sea of transgres-
sions
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sions in his conscience, with a Sea of sinking and swallowing in the sadnesse of spirit,
may yet open his eyes above water, and find a place in the Arke above all these, a
recourse to God, and joy in him, in the Ordinances of a well established, and well go-
verned Church, this is truly Regnum Dei, the Kingdome of God here; God is wil-
ling to be present with us, (that he declares in the preservation of his Church) And
we are sensible of his presence, and residence with us, and that wee declare in our fre-
quent recourses to him hither, and in our practise of those things which we have learnt
here, when we are gone hence. This then is the blessed state that wee pretend to, Hæreditas. in the Kingdome of God in
this life; Peace in the State, peace in the Church, peace in our Conscience: In
this, that wee answer the motions of his blessed Spirit here in his Ordinance, and
endevour a conformity to him, in our life, and conversation; In this, hee is our
King, and wee are his Subjects, and this is this Kingdome of God, the Kingdome
of Grace. Now the title, by which we make claim to this Kingdome, is in our text
Inheritance: Who can, and who cannot inherit this Kingdome of God. I cannot
have it by purchase, by mine own merits and good works; It is neither my former
good disposition, nor Gods fore-sight of my future cooperation with him, that
is the cause of his giving mee his grace. I cannot have this by Covenant, or
by the gift, or bequeathing of another, by works of Supererogation, (that a
Martyr of the primitive Church should send mee a violl of his blood, a splin-
ter of his bone, a Collop of his flesh, wrapped up in a halfe sheet of paper,
in an imaginary six-penny Indulgence from Rome, and bid mee receive grace;
and peace of Conscience in that.) I cannot have it by purchase, I cannot have it
by gift, I cannot have it by Curtesie, in the right of my wife, That if I will let
her live in the obedience of the Roman Church, and let her bring up my chil-
dren so, for my selfe, I may have leave to try a Court, or a worldly fortune,
and bee secure in that, that I have a Catholique wife, or a Catholique child to
pray, and merit for mee; I have no title to this Kingdome of God, but In-
heritance, whence growes mine Inheritance? Ex semine Dei; because I am pro-
pagated of the seed of God, I inherit this peace. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sinne; 1 Ioh. 3. 9. for, his seed remaineth in him, and hee cannot sinne, because
hee is born of God: That is, hee cannot desire to sinne; Hee cannot antidate
a sinne, by delighting in the hope of a future sin, and sin in a præfruition of his sinne,
before the act; Hee cannot post-date a sinne, delight in the memory of a past-
sinne, and sin it over againe, in a post-fruition of that sinne; Hee cannot boast
himself of sinne, much lesse bely himself in glorying in sinnes, never done; Hee
cannot take sinnes dyet, therefore, that hee may bee able to sinne againe next
Spring; Hee cannot hunger and thirst, and then digest and sleepe quietly after a
sinne; and to this purpose, and in this sense Saint Bernard says, Prædesti-
nati non possunt peccare, That the Elect cannot sinne; And in this also,
That when the sinnes of the Elect, are brought to tryall, and to judgement,
there their sinnes are no sinnes; not because they are none in themselves,
but because the blood of Jesus covering them, they are none in the eyes of God. I am
Heir then as I am the Son of God, born of the seed of God. But, what is that seed?
Verbum Dei, Iames 1. 18. the seed is the word of God, Of his own will begat he us, (says that A-
postle) with the word of truth; And our Saviour himselfe speaks very clearly in ex-
pounding the Parable; Luke 8. 11. The seed is the word of God. We have this Kingdome of God,
as we have an inheritance, as we are Heirs; we are Heirs as we are Sons; we are Sons
as we have the seed, and the seed is the Word. So that all ends in this; We inherit not
this Kingdome if we possesse not the preaching of the Word; if we professe not the true
religion still: for, the word of this text which we translate to inherit, for the most part, in
the translation of the Septuagint, answers the Hebrew word, Nachal; and Nachal is Hæ-
reditas cum possessione; Exod. 34. 9.
Hier. not an inheritance in reversion, but in possession. Take us O
Lord for thine inheritance, says Moses; Et possideas nos, as Saint Hierome translates that
very place; Inherit us, and Possesse us; Et erimus tibi, whatsoever we are, we will bee
thine, says the Septuagint: You see then how much goes to the making up of this Inhe-
ritance of the Kingdome of God in this world, First, Vt habeamus verbum, That we
have this seed of God, his word; (In the Roman Church they have it not; not that M3 that
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Serm. XV.
that Church hath it not, not that it is not there; but they, the people that have
it not) and then, Vt possideamus, That we possesse it, or rather that it possesse us; that
we make the Word the onely rule of our faith, and of our actions; (In the Roman
Church they do not so, they have not pure wheat, but mestlin, other things joyned
with this good seed, the word of God) and lastly, Vt simus Deo, That we be his, that we be
so still, that we doe not begin with God, and give over, but that this seed of God, of
which we are born, 11. 23. may (as Saint Peter says) be incorruptible, and abide for ever; that
wee may be his so entirely, and so constantly, as that we had rather have no beeing,
then for any time of suspension, or for any part of his fundamentall truth, be without
it, and this the Roman Church cannot be said to do, that expunges and interlines ar-
ticles of faith, Mal. 2: 15. upon Reason of State, and emergent occasions. God hath made you one,
says the Prophet, Ribera. who bee the parties whom God hath maryed together, and made
One, in that place? you and your religion; (as our expositors interpret that place.)
And why One, says the Prophet there; That God might have a godly seed, says he, that
is, a continuation, a propagation, a race, a posterity of the same religion; Therefore
says he, Let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. Let none divorce him-
self from that religion, and that worship of God, which God put into his armes, and
which he embraced in his Baptism. Except there be errour in fundamentall points,
such as make that Church no Church, let no man depart from that Church, and that
religion, in which he delivered himself to the service of God at first. Wo be unto us,
if we deliver not over our religion to our posterity, in the same sincerity, and the same
totality in which our Fathers have delivered it us; for that, that continuation, is that,
that makes it an inheritance: for, (to conclude this) every man hath an inheritance in
the Law, and yet if he be hanged, he is hanged by the Law, in which hee had his inheri-
tance: so wee have our inheritance in the Word of God, and yet, if wee bee damned,
we are damned by that Word; Deut. 30. 18. If thy heart turn away, so as that thou worship other Gods,
I denounce unto you this day, that you shall surely perish. So then, wee have an inheri-
tance in this Kingdome, if we preserve it, and we incurre a forfeiture of it, if wee have
not this seed, (The Word, the truth of Religion) so as that we possesse it; that is, con-
form our selves to him, whose Word it is, by it, and possesse it so, as that we perse-
vere in the true profession of it, to our end; for, Perseverance, as well as Possession, enters
into our title, and inheritance to this Kingdome. You see then, Caro & san-
guis. what this Kingdome of God is; It is, when he comes, and his wel-
come, when he comes in his Sacraments, and speaks in his Word; when he speaks and
is answered; knocks and is received, (he knocks in his Ordinances, and is received in
our Obedience to them, he knocks in his example, and most holy conversation, and
is received in our conformity, and imitation.) So have you seen what the Inheritance of
this Kingdome is, it is a Having, and Holding of the Gospel, a present, and a perma-
nent possession, Apoc. 3. 11. a holding fast, lest another (another Nation, another Church) take
our Crown. There remains onely that you see, upon whom the exclusion fals; and for
the clearing of that, This I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the King-
dome of God. It is fully express'd by Saint Rom. 8. 7. Paul, The carnall mind is enmity against God. It is not a
coldnesse, a slacknesse, an omission, a preterition of some duties towards God, but it is
Enmity, and that's an exclusion out of the Kingdome; for, (says the Apostle there)
it is not subject to the Law of God; and no subjection, no Kingdome; it is not, says hee,
neither can it be; It is not, that excludes the present; It cannot be, that excludes the
future; so that it is onely this incorrigible, this desperate state that constitutes this
flesh, and blood, that cannot inherit the Kingdome of God; for this implies impe-
nitablenesse, which is the sin against the holy Ghost. Take the word flesh, so literally,
as that it be either the adorning of my flesh in pride, or the polluting of my flesh in
wantonnes, whether it be a pampering of my flesh with voluptuous provocations, or a wi-
thering, a shriveling of my flesh with superstitious and meritorious fastings, or other ma-
cerations, and lacerations by inhumane violence upon my body; Take the word
Bloud so literally, as that it be either an admiring and adoring of honourable blood, in
a servile flattering of great persons, or an insinuating of false and adulterous blood, in a
bastardizing a race, by supposititious children, whether it bee the inflaming the
blood of young persons by lascivious discourse, or shedding the blood of another in a murde-
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murderous quarrell, whether it be in blaspheming the blood of my Saviour, in execra-ble oathes, or the prophaning of his blood in an unworthy receiving thereof, all these
ways, and all such, doth this flesh and blood exclude from the Kingdome of God;
It is summarily, all those works which proceed meerly out of the nature of man,
without the regeneration of the Spirit of God; all that is flesh and blood, and enmity a-
gainst God, says the Apostle in that place. But in another place, Gal. 5. 19. that Apostle leads us into other considerations; to the Gala-
tians he says, The works of the flesh are manifest: And amongst those manifest works
of the flesh, he reckons not onely sins of wantonnesse, and sins of anger, not onely
sins in concupiscibili, and in irascibili, but in intelligibili, sins and errours in the under-
standing, particularly Heresie, and Idolatry are works of the flesh, in Saint Pauls invento-
ry, in that place, Heresie and Idolatry, are that flesh and blood which shall not inherit the
Kingdome of God. Bring wee this consideration home to our selves. The Church of
Rome does not charge us with affirming any Heresie, nor does she charge us with any
Idolatry in our practise. So far we are discharged from the works of the flesh. If they
charge us with Doctrine of flesh and blood because we prefer Mariage before Chastity,
it is a charge ill laid, for Mariage and Chastity consist well together; The bed unde-
filed is chastity. If they charge us that wee prefer Mariage before Continency, they
charge us unjustly, for we do not so: Let them contain that can, and blesse God for
that heavenly gift of Continency, and let them that cannot, mary, and serve God,
and blesse him for affording them that Physick for that infirmity. As Mariage was
ordained at first, for those two uses, Procreation of children, and mutuall assistance of
man, and wife, so Continency was not preferr'd before Mariage. As there was a third
use of Mariage added after the fall, by way of Remedy, so Mariage may well be said
to be inferiour to continency, as physick is in respect of health. If they charge us with
it, because our Priests mary, they doe it frivolously, and impertinently, because they
deny that wee are Priests. We charge them with Heresie in the whole new Creed of
the Councell of Trent, (for, if all the particular doctrines be not Hereticall, yet, the do-
ctrine of inducing new Articles of faith is Hereticall, and that doctrine runs through
all the Articles, for else they could not be Articles.) And we charge them with Idola-
try, in the peoples practise, (and that practise is never controld by them) in the greatest
mystery of all their Religion, in the Adoration of the Sacrament; And Heresie and Ido-
latry are manifest works of the flesh. Our Kingdome is the Gospel; our Inheritance
is our holding that; our exclusion is flesh and blood, Heresie and Idolatry. And there-
fore let us be able to say with the Apostle, when God had called us, and separated us, im-
mediately we conferred not with flesh and blood. Gal. 1. 16. Since God hath brought us into a fair
prospect, let us have no retrospect back; In Canaan, let us not look towards Ægypt,
nor towards Sodom being got to the Mountain; since God hath setled us in a true
Church, let us have no kind of byas, and declination towards a false; for that is one of
Saint Pauls manifest works of the flesh, and I shall lose all the benefit of the flesh and
bloud of Christ Jesus, if I doe so, for flesh and bloud cannot inherite the kingdome
of God. We have done; Adde we but this, by way of recollecting this which hath been
said now, upon these words, and that which hath been formerly said upon those words
of Job, 19. 26. which may seem to differ from these, (In my flesh I shall see God) Omne verum
omni vero consentiens, whatsoever is true in it selfe agrees with every other truth. Be-
cause that which Iob says, and that which Saint Paul says, agree with the truth, they
agree with one another. For, as Saint Paul says, Non omnis caro eadem caro, there is one
flesh of man, another of beasts, so there is one flesh of Job, another of Saint Paul; 1 Cor. 15. 39. And
Jobs flesh can see God, and Pauls cannot; because the flesh that Job speakes of hath
overcome the destruction of skin and body by wormes in the grave, and so is mellowed
and prepared for the sight of God in heaven; And Pauls flesh is overcome by the
world. Jobs flesh triumphes over Satan, and hath made a victorious use of Gods cor-
rections, Pauls flesh is still subject to tentations, and carnalities. Jobs argument is but
this, some flesh shall see God, (Mortified men here, Glorified men there shall) Pauls
argument is this, All flesh shall not see God, (Carnall men here, Impenitent men there,
shall not.) And therefore, that as our texts answer one another, so your resurrections
may answer one another too, as at the last resurrection, all that heare the sound of the Trumpet
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Serm. XVI.
Trumpet, shall rise in one instant, though they have passed thousands of years between
their burialls, so doe all ye, who are now called, by a lower and infirmer voice, rise to-
gether in this resurrection of grace. Let him that hath been buried sixty years, forty
years, twenty years, in covetousnesse, in uncleannesse, in indevotion, rise now, now this
minute, and then, as Adam that dyed five thousand before, shall be no sooner in heaven,
in his body, then you, so Abel that dyed for God, so long before you, shall be no bet-
ter, that is, no fuller of the glory of heaven, then you that dye in God, when it shall be
his pleasure to take you to him. Sermon XVI.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
Colos. 1. 24. Who now rejoyce in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions
of Christ in my flesh, for his bodies sake which is the Church.
WEWe are now to enter into the handling of the doctrine of Evangelicall coun-
sailes; And these words have been ordinarily used by the writers of the
Roman Church, for the defence of a point in controversie between them
and us; which is a preparatory to that which hereafter is to be more ful-
ly handled upon another Text. Out of these words, they labour to esta-
blish works of supererogation, in which (they say) men doe or suffer more then was
necessary for their owne salvation; and then the superfluity of those accrues to the
Treasury of the Church, and by the Stewardship, and dispensation of the Church may
be applied to other men living here, or suffering in Purgatory by way of satisfaction to
Gods justice; But this is a doctrine which I have had occasion heretofore in this place
to handle; And a doctrine which indeed deserves not the dignity to be too diligently
disputed against; And as we will not stop upon the disproving of the doctrine, so we
need not stay long, nor insist upon the vindicating of these words, from that wresting
and detortion of theirs, in using them for the proofe of that doctrine. Because though
at first, Greg. de Valent. they presented them with great eagernesse and vehemence, and assurance, Quic-
quid hæretici obstrepunt, illustris hic locus, say the Heretiques what they can, this is a clear
and evident place for that doctrine, yet another after him is a little more cautelous and
reserv'd, Bellar. Negari non potest quin ita exponi possint, it cannot be denied, but that these
words may admit such an exposition; And then another more modified then both
says, Cornel a
Lapide. Primò & propriè non id intendit Apostolus; the Apostle had no such purpose in his
first and proper intention to prove that doctrine in these words. Sed innuitur ille sensus;
qui et si non genuinus, tamen à pari deduci potest: some such sense (says that author) may
be implied and intimated, because, though it be not the true and naturall sense, yet by
way of comparison, and convenience, such a meaning may be deduced. Generally
their difference in having any patronage for that corrupt doctrine out of these words,
appeares best in this, that if we consider their authors who have written in controver-
sies, we shall see that most of them have laid hold upon these words for this doctrine;
because they are destitute of all Scriptures, and glad of any, that appear to any, any
whit that way inclinable; But if we consider those authors, who by way of com-
mentary and exposition (either before, or since the controversies have been stirred)
have handled these words, we shall find none of their owne authors of that kind, which
by way of exposition of these words doth deliver this to be the meaning of them, that
satisfaction may be made to the justice of God by the works of supererogation one
man for another. To come then to the words themselves in their true sense, and interpretation, Divisio. we shall
find in them two generall considerations. First, that to him that is become a new crea-
ture, a true Christian, all old things are done away, and all things are made new: As
he hath a new birth, as he hath put on a new man, as he is going towards a new Jerusa-
lem
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lem, so hath he a new Philosophy, a new production, and generation of effects out of
other causes, then before, he finds light out of darknesse, fire out of water, life out of
death, joy out of afflictions; Nunc gaudeo, now I rejoyce in my sufferings &c. And then
in a second consideration he finds that this is not by miracle, that he should hope for
it but once, but he finds an expresse, and certaine, and constant reason why it must ne-
cessarily be so, because I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ &c. It is
strange that I should conceive joy out of affliction, but when I come to see the reason
that by that affliction, I fill up the sufferings of Christ &c. it is not strange, it cannot
chuse but be so. The parts then will be but two, a proposition, and a reason; But in
the first part it will be fit to consider first, the person, not meerely who it is, but in what
capacity, the Apostle conceives this joy; And secondly, the season, Now, for joy is
not always seasonable, there is a time of mourning, but now rejoycing; And then in a
third place we shall come to the affection it selfe, Joy, which when it is true, and tru-
ly placed, is the nearest representation of heaven it selfe to this world. From thence
we shall descend to the production of this joy, from whence it is derived, and that is
out of sufferings, for this phrase in passionibus, in my sufferings, is not in the middest of
my sufferings, it is not that I have joy and comfort, though I suffer, but in passionibus
is so in suffering, as that the very suffering is the subject of my joy, I had no joy, no oc-
casion of joy, if I did not suffer. But then these sufferings which must occasion this joy,
are thus conditioned, thus qualified in our text; That, first, it be passio mea, my suffering,
and not a suffering cast by my occasion upon the whole Church, or upon other men;
mea, it is determined and limited in my selfe, and mea, but not pro me, not for my
selfe, not for mine owne transgressions, and violating of the law, but it is for others,
pro vobis, says the Apostle, for out of that root springs the whole second part why there
appertaines a joy to such sufferings, which is that the suffering of Christ being yet, not
unperfect, but unperfected, Christ having not yet suffered all, which he is to suffer to
this purpose, for the gathering of his Church, I fill up that which remaines undone;
And that in Carne, not onely in spirit and disposition, but really in my flesh; And all
this not only for making sure of mine own salvation, but for the establishing and edifying
a Church, but yet, his Church; for men seduced, and seducers of men have their
Churches too, and suffer for those Churches; but this is for his Church, and that
Church of his which is properly his body, and that is the visible Church: and these will
be the particular branches of our two generall parts, the proposition, Gaudeo in afflictio-
nibus &c. And the reason, Quiæ adimpleo &c. To beginne then with the first branch of the first part, 1. Part.
Ego. The person; we are sure it
was Saint Paul, who we are sure was an Apostle, for so he tells the Colossians in the be-
ginning of the Epistle; Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, but yet he was
not properly, peculiarly their Apostle, he was theirs as he was the Apostle of the Gen-
tiles; but he was not theirs, Rom. 11. 12. 1
Cor. 9. 1. as he was the Apostle of the Corinthians; If I be not an
Apostle to others (says he) yet doubtlesse I am to you; for amongst the Corinthians
he had laid the foundations of a Church, Are ye not my worke in the Lord? (says he
there) but for the Colossians, he had never preached to them, never seen them; Epa-
phras had laid the foundation amongst them; And Archippus was working, now at the
writing of this Epistle, upon the upper buildings, as we may see in the Epistle it selfe;
Epaphras had planted, Col. 1. 7. 4. 17. and Archippus watered; How entred Paul? First as an Apostle,
he had a generall jurisdiction, and superintendency over them, and over all the Gentiles,
and over all the Church; And then, as a man whose miraculous conversion, and reli-
gious conversation, whose incessant preaching, and whose constant suffering, had made
famous, and reverend over the whole Church of God, all that proceeded from him
had much authority, and power, in all places to which it was directed; As himselfe
says of Andronicus and Junia his kinsmen; Rom. 16. 7. that they were Nobiles in Apostolis, Nobly
spoken of amongst the Apostles, so Saint Paul himselfe was Nobilis Apostolus in Disci-
pulis, reverendly esteemed amongst all the Disciples, August. for a laborious Apostle; Saint
Augustine joyned his desire to have heard Saint Paul preach, with his other two wishes,
to have seen Christ in the flesh, and to have seen Rome in her glory; Chrysost. And Saint Chryso-
stome admires Rome, so much admired for other things, for this principally, that she
had heard Saint Paul preach; And that, Sicut corpus magnum & validum, ita duos ha-
beret illustres oculos, as she was a great and glorious body, so she had two great and glo-
rious
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rious eyes; The presence and the memories of Saint Peter, and Saint Paul; he writes
not to them then meerely as an Apostle not in that capacity, for he joines Timothy with
himselfe at the beginning of the Epistle, who was no Apostle, properly; though upon
that occasion, of Pauls writing in his owne, and in Timothies name, Saint Chrysostome
say, Chrysoft. in a larger sense, Ergo Timotheus Apostolus, if Timothy be in commission with Paul,
Timothy is an Apostle too: But Saint Paul by his fame and estimation, having justly
got a power and interest in them, he cherishes that by this salutation, and he binds them
the more to accept his instructions, by giving them a part in all his persecutions, and by
letting them see, how much they were in his care, even in that distance; A servile ap-
plication of himselfe to the humors of others, becomes not the ministers of God; It
becomes him not to depart from his ingenuity, and freedome, to a servile humoring,
but to be negligent of their opinion of him, with whom he is to converse, and upon
whose conscience he is to worke, becomes him not neither. It is his doctrine that must
beare him out; But if his discretion doe not make him acceptable too, his doctrine
will have the weaker root when; Saint Paul and the Colossians thought well of one a-
nother, the work of God was likely to goe forward amongst them; And where it is
not so, the work prospers not. This was then the person; Nunc. Paul, as he had a calling, and an authority by the Apo-
stleship, and Paul as he had made his calling, and authority, and Apostleship acceptable
to them, by his wisedome and descreet behaviour towards them, and the whole
Church. The season followes next, when he presents this doctrine to them Nunc
Gaudeo, now I rejoyce, and there is a Nunc illi, and a Nunc illis to be considered, one
time it hath relation to Saint Paul himselfe, and another that hath relation to the
Colossians. His time, Illi. the Nunc illi, was nunc in vinculis, now when he was in prison at Rome,
for from thence he writ this Epistle; Ordinarily a prisoner is the lesse to be beleeved
for his being in prison and in fetters, if he speak such things as conduce to his discharge
of those fetters, or his deliverance from that imprisonment, it is likely enough that a
prisoner will lye for such an advantage; But when Saint Paul being now a prisoner for
the preaching of the Gospell, speaks still for the advancement of the Gospell, that he
suffers for, and finds out another way of preaching it by letters and by epistles, when
he opens himselfe to more danger, to open to them more doctrine, then that was
very credible which he spake, though in prison; There is in all his epistles impetus Spi-
ritus Christi, as Irenæus says, a vehemence of the holy Ghost, but yet amplius habent
quæ è vinculis, says Chrisostome, Irenæ.
Chrysost. Those epistles which Saint Paul writ in prison, have
more of this vehemency in them: a sentence written with a cole upon a wall by a close
prisoner, affects us when we come to read it; Stolne letters, by which a prisoner adven-
ters the losse of that liberty which he had, come therefore the more welcome, if they
come; It is not always a bold and vehement reprehension of great persons, that is
argument enough of a good and a rectified zeale, for an intemperate use of the liber-
ty of the Gospell, and sometimes the impotency of a satyricall humor, makes men
preach freely, and over-freely, offensively, scandalously; and so exasperate the magi-
strate; God forbid that a man should build a reputation of zeale, for having been
called in question for preaching of a Sermon; And then to think it wisdome, redimere
se quo queat minimo, to sinke againe and get off as good cheape as he can; But when
the malignity of others hath slandred his doctrine, or their galled consciences make
them kicke at his doctrine, then to proceed with a Christian magnanimity, and a spiri-
tuall Nobility in the maintenance of that doctrine, to preferre then before the great-
nesse of the their persons and the greatnesse of his owne danger, the greatnesse of the
glory of God, and the greatnesse of the losse which Gods Church should suffer by his
lenity and prevarication: To edifie others by his constancy, then when this building in
apparence and likelyhood must be raised upon his owne ruine, then was Saint Pauls
Nunc, concerning himselfe, then was his season to plant and convey this doctrine to
these Colossians, when it was most dangerous for him to doe so. Now to consider this season and fitnesse as it concerned them; The Nunc illis, Illis. It
was then, when Epaphras had declrareddeclared unto him their love, and when upon so good
testimony of their disposition, he had a desire that they might be fulfilled with know-
ledge of Gods will in all wisdome and spirituall understanding, as he says verse 9. when he
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he knew how farre they had proceeded in mysteries of the Christian Religion, and
that they had a spirituall hunger of more, then it was seasonable to present to them this
great point, that Christ had suffered throughly, sufficiently, aboundantly, for the re-
conciliation of the whole world, and yet that there remained some sufferings, (and those
of Christ too) to be fulfilled, by us; That all was done; and yet there remained more
to be done, that after Christs consummatum est, which was all the text, there should be
an Adimplendum est, interlined, that after Christ had fulfilled the Law, and the Prophets
by his sufferings, Saint Paul must fulfill the residue of Christs sufferings, was a doctrin
unseasonably taught, till they had learnt much, and shewed a desire to learn more;
In the Primitive Church men of ripe understandings were content to think two or
three yeares well spent in learning of Catechisms and rudiments of Christian Religi-
on; and the greatest Bishops were content to think that they discharged their duties
well, if they catechized ignorant men in such rudiments, for we know from Gennadius
an Ecclesiasticall author, that the Bishops of Greece, and of the Eastern Church, did
use to con S. Cyrils sermons (made at Easter and some other Festivals) without book,
and preached over those Sermons of his making, to Congregations of strong under-
standings, and so had more time for their Catechizing of others; Optatus thinks, that
when Saint Paul says, Ego plantavi, Apollos rigavit, I planted the faith, and Apollos wa-
tered, he intended in those words, Optatus. Ego de pagano feci catechumenum, ille de catechumeno
Christianum, That Saint Paul took ignorant persons into his charge, to catechize
them at first, and when they were instructed by him, Apollos watered them with the
water of Baptism, Tertullian thought hee did young beginners in Christianity no
wrong, Tertull. when he called them catulos infantiæ recentis, nec perfectis luminibus reptantes,
Young whelps which are not yet come to a perfect use of their eyes, in the mysteries
of Religion. Now God hath delivered us in a great measure from this weaknesse in
seeing, because we are catechized from our cradles, and from this penury in preaching,
we need not preach others Sermons, nor feed upon cold meat, in Homilies, but wee
are fallen upon such times too, as that men doe not thinke themselves Christians, ex-
cept they can tell what God meant to doe with them before he meant they should bee
Christians; for we can be intended to be Christians, but from Christ; and wee must
needs seek a Predestination, without any relation to Christ; a decree in God for sal-
vation, and damnation, before any decree for the reparation of mankind, by Christ,
every Common-placer will adventure to teach, and every artificer will pretend to
understand the purpose, yea, and the order too, and method of Gods eternall and
unrevealed decree, Saint Paul required a great deal more knowledge then these
men use to bring, before he presented to them, a great deal, a lesse point of Doctrin then
these men use to aske. This was then the Nunc illis their season, when they had humbly received
so much of the knowledge of the fundamentall points of Religion. Gaudium. Saint
Paul was willing to communicate more and more, stronger and stronger meat
unto them; That which he presents here is, that which may seem least to appertain
to a Christian, (that is Joy) because a Christian is a person that hath surrendred him-
self over to a sad and serious, and a severe examination of all his actions, that all bee
done to the glory of God; but for all this, this joy, true joy is truly, properly, onely be-
longing to a Christian; because this joy is the Testimony of a good conscience, that
wee have received God, so as God hath manifested himself in Christ, and worshipt
God, so God hath ordained: In a true Church there are many tesseræ externæ, out-
ward badges and marks, by which others may judge, and pronounce mee to bee a
true Christian; But the tessera interna, the inward badge and marke, by which I know
this in my selfe, is joy; The blessednesse of heaven it selfe, Salvation, and the fruits of
Paradise, (that Paradise which cannot be expressed, cannot be comprehended) have
yet got no other name in the subtilty of the Schools, nor in the fulnesse of the Scri-
ptures, but to be called the joys of heaven; Matth. 25. 21.
Luke 15. 7.
& 10. 2. 10. Essentiall blessednesse is called so, Enter
into thy Masters joy, that is, into the Kingdome of heaven; and accidentall happinesse
added to that essentiall happinesse is called so too: There is joy in heaven at the con-
version of a sinner; and so in the Revelation, Rejoyce ye heavens, and yee that dwell in
them, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down; There is now joy even in heaven, which
was not there before; Certainly as that man shall never see the Father of Lights af-
ter
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ter this, to whom the day never breaks in this life: As that man must never look to
walk with the Lamb wheresoever he goes in heaven, that ranne away from the Lamb
whensoever he came towards him, in this life; so he shall never possesse the joyes of
heaven hereafter, that feels no joy here; There must be joy here, which Tanquam
Cellulæ mellis (as Saint Bernard says in his mellifluous language) as the honey-comb
walles in, Bernard. and prepares, and preserves the honey, and is as a shell to that kernell; so
there must bee a joy here, which must prepare and preserve the joys of heaven it self,
and be as a shell of those joys. For heaven and salvation is not a Creation, but a Mul-
tiplication; it begins not when wee dye, but it increases and dilates it self infinitely
then; Christ himself, when he was pleased to feed all that people in the wildernesse,
he asks first, Quot panes habetis, how many loafes have you? and then multiplyed them
abundantly, as conduced most to his glory; but some there was before. When thou
goest to eat that bread, of which whosoever eates shall never dye, the bread of life
in the Land of life, Christ shall consider what joy thou broughtest with thee
out of this world, and he shall extend and multiply that joy unexpressibly; but
if thou carry none from hence, thou shalt find none there. Hee that were to travell
into a far country, would study before, somewhat the map, and the manners, and
the language of the Country; Hee that looks for the fulnesse of the joyes of hea-
ven hereafter, will have a taste, an insight in them before he goe: And as it is not e-
nough for him that would travail, to study any language indifferently (were it not an
impertinent thing for him that went to lye in France, to study Dutch?) So if wee pre-
tend to make the joys of heaven our residence, it is a madnesse to study the joys of
the world; The Kingdome of heaven is righteousnesse, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost, Rom. 14. 7. says Saint Paul; And this Kingdome of heaven is Intra nos, says Christ, it is in us,
and it is joy that is in us; but every joy is not this Kingdome, and therefore says
the same Apostle, Phil. 4.4. Rejoyce in the Lord; There is no other true joy, none but that; But yet
says he there, Rejoyce, and again, I say rejoice; that is, both again we say it, again, and
again we call upon you to have this spirituall joy, for without this joy ye have
not the earnest of the Spirit; And it is again rejoyce, bring all the joys ye have, to a se-
cond examination, and see if you can rejoyce in them again; Have you rejoyced all
day in Feasts, in Musickes, in Conversations? well, at night you must be alone, hand
to hand with God. Again, I say rejoyce, sleep not, till you have tryed whether your joy
will hold out there too. Have you rejoyced in the contemplation of those temporall
blessings which God hath given you? 'tis well, for you may do so: But yet again I
say Rejoyce; call that joy to an accompt, and see whether you can rejoyce again, in
such a use of those blessings, as he that gave them to you, requires of you. Have you
rejoyced in your zeal of Gods service? that's a true rejoycing in the Lord; But yet
still rejoyce again, see that this joy be accompanyed with another joy; that you have
zeal with knowledge: Rejoyce, but rejoyce again, refine your joy, purge away all drosse,
and lees from your joy, there is no false joy enters into heaven, but yet no sadnesse
neither. There is a necessary sadnes in this life, Tristitiæ. but even in this life necessary only so, as Physick
is necessary, Chrisost. Tristitia data, ut peccata deleamus, It is Data, a gift of God, a sadnes and so-
rrow infused by him, & not assumed by our selves upon the crosses of this world; And so
it is physick, and it is Morbi illius peccati, it is proper and peculiar physick for that disease
for sinne; But, (as that Father pathetically enlarges that consideration) Remedium
lippitudinis non tollit alios morbos, water for fore eyes, will not cure the tooth-ach,
sorrow and sadnesse which is prescribed for sinne, will not cure, should not be applyed
to the other infirmities and diseases of our humane condition; Pecunia mulctatus est,
(says that Father still) Doluit, non emendavit, A man hath a decree passed against him
in a Court of Justice, or lost a Ship by tempest, and hee hath griev'd for this, hath
this revers'd the decree, or repaired the shipwrack? Filium amisit, doluit, non resuscita-
vit. His Son, his eldest Son, his onely Son, his towardly Son is dead, and he hath
grieved for this; hath he raised his Son to life again? Infirmatur ipse, doluit, abstulit
morbum? Himself is fallen into a consumption, and languishes, and grieves, but doth it
restore him? Why no, for sadnesse, and sorrow is not the physick against decrees, and
shipwracks, and consumptions, and death: But then Peccavit quis (says he still) & do-
luit? peccata delevit; Hath any man sinned against his God, and come to a true sor-
row
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row for that sinne? peccata delevit he hath wash't away that sinne, from his soule; for
sorrow is good for nothing else, intended for nothing else, but onely for our sinnes, out
of which sadnesse first arose: And then, considered so, this sadnesse is not truly, not
properly sadnesse, because it is not so intirely; There is health in the bitternesse of
physique; There is joy in the depth of this sadnesse; Saint Basill inforces those
words of the Apostle, Concor. 2. in
Psal. 48. 2 Cor. 6. 10. Quasi tristes, semper autem gandentes, usefully to
this point; Tristitia nostra habet quasi, gaudium non habet, Our sorrow, says he, hath a
limitation, a modification, it is but as it were sorrow, and we cannot tell whether we
may call it sorrow or no, but our joy is perfect joy, because it is rooted in an assurance:
Est in spe certa, our hope of deliverance is in him that never deceived any; for says he
then, our sadnesse passes away as a dreame, Et qui insomnium judicat, addit quasi, quasi
dicebam, quasi equitabam, quasi cogitabam, he that tells his dreame, tells it still in that
phrase, me thought I spoke, me thought I went, and me thought I thought, so all the
sorrow of Gods children is but a quasi tristes, because it determines in joy, and deter-
mines soon. To end this, because there is a difference inter delectationem & gaudium,
between delight and joy (for delight is in sensuall things, and in beasts, as well as in
men, but joy is grounded in reason, and in reason rectified, which is, conscience (there-
fore we are called to rejoyce againe; to try whether our joy be true joy, and not one-
ly a delight, and when it is found to be a true joy, we say still rejoyce, that is, continue
your spirituall joy till it meet the eternall joy in the kingdome of heaven, and grow up
into one joy, but because sadnesse and sorrow have but one use, and a determined and
limited imployment, onely for sin, we doe not say, be sorry, and again be sorry, but when
you have been truly sorry for your sinnes, when you have taken that spirituall phy-
sique, beleeve your selfe to be well, accept the seale of the holy Ghost, for the remissi-
on of your sins, in Christ Jesus, and come to that health which that physique promises,
peace of conscience. This joy then which Saint Paul found to be so essentiall, In passioni-
bus. so necessary for man, he
found that God placed within mans reach; so neare him as that God afforded man
this joy where he least looked for it, even in affliction; And of this joy in affliction, we
may observe three steps, three degrees; one is indeed but halfe a joy; and that the
Philosophers had; A second is a true joy, and that all Christians have; but the third
is an overflowing, and aboundant joy, to which the Apostle was come,
and to which by his example, hee would rouse others, that joy, of
which himselfe speaks againe; 1. Cor. 17. 4. I am filled with comfort and am exceeding joyfull, in
all our tribulations; The first of these, which we call a halfe joy, is but an indolency,
and a forced unsensiblenesse of those miseries which were upon them; a searing up, a
stupefaction, is not of the senses, yet of the affections; That resolution which some
morall men had against misery, Non facies ut te dicam malam, no misery should draw
them to doe misery that honour, as to call it misery; And, in respect of that extreme
anguish which out of an over tendernesse, ordinary men did suffer under the calamities
of this life, even this poore indolency and privation of griefe, was a joy, but yet but a
halfe joy; the second joy, which is a true joy, but common to all Christians, is that
assurance, which they have in their tribulations, that God will give them the issue with
the temptation; not that they pretend not to feel that calamity, so the Philosophers
did, but that it shall not swallow them, this is naturall to a Christian, he is not a
Christian without this; Thinke it not strange, says the Apostle, as though some strange
thing were come unto you, (for we must accustome our selves to the expectation of
tribulation) but rejoyce, says he, and when his glory shall appeare, yee shall be made
glad and rejoyce; He bids us rejoyce, and yet all that he promises, is but rejoycing at
last, he bids us rejoyce, all the way; though the consummate, audand determinable joy come
not till the end, yet God hath set bounds to our tribulations, as to the sea, and they
shall not overflow us; But this perfect joy (to speake of such degrees of perfection,
as may be had in this life) this third joy, the joy of this text, is not a collaterall joy,
that stands by us in the tribulation, and sustaines us, but it is a fundamentall joy, a
radicall joy, a viscerall, a gremiall joy, that arises out of the bosome and wombe and
bowels of the tribulation it selfe. It is not that I rejoyce, though I be afflicted, but I
rejoyce because I am afflicted; It is not because I shall not sink in my calamity, and
be buried in that valley, but because my calamity raises me, and makes my valley a N hill
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hill, and gives me an eminency, and brings God and me nearer to one another, then
without that calamity I should have been, Acts 5. 41. when I can depart rejoycing, and that there-
fore, because I am worthy to suffer rebuke for the name of Christ, as the Apostles did,
when I can feel that pattern proposed to my joy, Matth. 5. 12. and to my tribulation, which Christ
gives, Rejoyce and be glad, for so persecuted they the Prophets, when I can find that seale
printed upon me, 1 Pet. 4. 14. by my tribulation, If ye be railed on for the name of Christ, blessed
are ye, for the spirit of God and of glory resteth on you, that is, that affliction fixes the
holy Ghost upon me, which in prosperity, falls upon me but as Sun-beames; Briefly
if my soule have had that conference, that discourse with God, that he hath declared to
me his purpose in all my calamities, (as he told Ananias that he had done to Paul, he is
a chosen vessell unto me, Acts 9. 16. for I will shew him how many things he must suffer for my sake)
If the light of Gods Spirit shew us the number, the force, the intent of our tribula-
tions, then is our soule come to that highest joy, which she is capable of in this life, when
as cold and dead water, when it comes to the fire, hath a motion and dilatation and a
bubling and a kind of dancing in the vessell, so my soule, that lay asleep in prosperity,
hath by this fire of Tribulation, a motion, a joy, an exaltation. This is the highest degree of suffering; In passioni-
bus meis. but this suffering hath this condition here,
that it be passio mea; And this too, that it be mea, and not pro me, but pro aliis: that
it be mine, and no bodies else, by my occasion; That it be mine without any fault of
mine, that I be no cause that it fell upon me, and that I be no occasion, that it fall up-
on others. And first, it is not mine, if I borrow it; I can have no joy in the sufferings
of Martyrs and other Saints of God, by way of applying their sufferings to me, by
way of imitation and example I may, by way of application and satisfaction I cannot,
borrowed sufferings are not my sufferings: They are not mine neither, if I steale them,
if I force them; If my intemperate, and scandalous zeal, or pretence of zeal, extort a
chastisement from the State, if I exasperate the Magistrate and draw an affliction upon
my self, this stoln suffering, this forced suffering is not passio mea, it is not mine, if it
should not be mine; August. Natura cujusque rei est, quam Deus indidit, That onely is the na-
ture of every thing which God hath imprinted in it: That affliction onely is mine,
which God hath appointed for me, and what he hath appointed we may see by his ex-
clusions: Let none of you suffer as a murtherer, 1 Pet. 4. 15. or as a thief, or as an evill doer, or as
a busie-body in other mens matters, (and that reaches far:) I am not possessor bonæ fidei,
I come not to this suffering by a good title, I cannot call it mine; I may finde joy in it,
that is, in the middest of it, I may finde comfort in the mercy of Christ, though I
suffer as a malefactor; But there is no joy in the suffering it self, for it is not mine, it
is not I, but my sinne, my breach of the law, my disobedience that suffers. It is not
mine again, if it be not mine in particular, mine, and limited in me. To those suffe-
rings that fall upon me for my conscience, or for the discharge of my duty, there be-
longs a joy, but when the whole Church is in persecution, and by my occasion espe-
cially, or at all, woe unto them, by whom the first offence comes; this is no joyfull
matter, and therefore væ illis per quos scandalum, they who by their ambition of pre-
ferment, or indulgence to their present case, or indifferency how things fall out, or pre-
sumptuous confidence in Gods care, for looking well enough to his own, how little
soever they doe, give way to the beginnings of superstition, in the times of persecu-
tion; when persecutions come, either they shall have no sufferings, that is, God shall
suffer them to fall away, and refuse their testimony in his cause, or they shall have no
joy in their sufferings, because they shall see this persecution is not theirs, it is not li-
mited in them, but induced by their prevarication upon the whole Church; And last-
ly, this suffering is not mine, if I stretch it too far; if I over-value it, it is not mine; A
man forfeits his priviledge, by exceeding it; There is no joy belongs to my suffe-
ring, if I place a merit in it; Meum non est cujus nomine nulla mihi superest actio, says the
Law; That's none of mine for which I can bring no action; and what action can I
bring against God, for a reward of my merit? Have I given him any thing of mine?
Quid habeo quod non accepi? what have I that I received not from him? Have I gi-
ven him all his own? how came I to abound then, and see him starve in the streets in
his distressed members? Hath he changed his blessings unto me in single mony? Hath
he made me rich by half pence and farthings; and yet have I done so much as that for
him? Have I suffered for his glory? Am not I vas figuli, a potters vessell, and that Potters
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Potters vessel; and whose hand soever he imploys, the hand of sicknesse, the hand
of poverty, the hand of justice, the hand of malice, still it is his hand that breakes the
vessell, and this vessell which is his own; for, can any such vessell have a propriety in
it selfe, or bee any other bodies primarily then his, from whom it hath the beeing?
To recollect these, if I will have joy in suffering it must be mine, mine, and not borrow-
ed out of an imaginary treasure of the Church; from the works of others Supereroga-
tion: mine, and not stollen or enforced by exasperating the Magistrate to a persecuti-
on: mine by good title and not by suffering for breach of the Law, mine in particu-
lar, and not a generall persecution upon the Church by my occasion; And mine by
a stranger title then all this, mine by resignation, mine by disavowing it, mine by con-
fessing that it is none of mine; Till I acknowledge, that all my sufferings are even
for Gods glory, are his works, and none of mine, they are none of mine, and by that
humility they become mine, and then I may rejoyce in my sufferings. Through all our sufferings then, there must passe an acknowledgement that we are
unprofitable servants; Pro vobis. towards God utterly unprofitable; So unprofitable to our
selves, as that we can merit nothing by our sufferings; but still we may and must have
a purpose to profit others by our constancy; it is Pro vobis, that Saint Paul says hee
suffers for them, 1 Cor. 12. 15. for their souls; I will most gladly bestow, and be bestowed for your soules,
(says he.) 1 Cor. 1. 13. But Numquid Paulus crucifixus pro vobis, was Paul crucified for you? is his
own question, as he suffered for them here, so we may be bold to say he was crucified
for them; that is, that by his crucifying and suffering, the benefit of Christs suffer-
ings, and crucifying might be the more cheerfully embraced by them, and the more
effectually applyed to them; Pro vobis, is Pro vestro commodo, for your advantage, and
to make you the more active in making sure your own salvation; 1 Cor. 1. 16. We are afflicted (says
he) for your consolation; that's first, that you might take comfort, and spirituall cou-
rage by our example, that God will no more forsake you, then he hath done us, and
then, hee addes salvation too; for your consolation and salvation; for our sufferings
beget this consolation; and then, this consolation facilitates your salvation; and then,
when Saint Paul had that testimony in his own conscience, that his purpose in his
sufferings, was Pro illis, to advantage Gods children, and then saw in his experience so
good effect of it, as that it wrought, and begot faith in them, then the more his suffer-
ings encreast, the more his joys encreast; Though (says he) I be offered up, upon the
service, and sacrifice of your faith, I am glad and rejoyce with you all; And there-
fore hee calls the Philippians, who were converted by him, Gaudium, & Coronam,
his Joy and his Crown; not onely a Crown, in that sense, as an auditory, a congrega-
tion that compasses the Preacher, was ordinarily called a Crown, Corona. (In which
sense that Martyr Cornelius answered the Judge, when he was charged to have held in-
telligence, and to have received Letters from Saint Cyprian against the State, Ego de
Corona Domini, (says he, from Gods Church, 'tis true, I have, but Contra Rempublicam,
against the State, I have received no Letters.) But not onely in this sense, Saint Paul
calls those whom he had converted, his Crown, his Crown, that is, his Church; but
he cals them his Crown in heaven, What is our hope, our joy, our Crown of rejoy-
cing, are not even you it? and where? even in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ
at his coming, says the Apostle; And therefore not to stand upon that contemplation
of Saint Gregories, that at the Resurrection Peter shall lead up his converted Jewes,
and Paul his converted Nations, and every Apostle his own Church; Since you, to
whom God sends us, doe as well make up our Crown, as we doe yours, since your be-
ing wrought upon, and our working upon you conduce to both our Crowns, call you
the labour, and diligence of your Pastors, (for that's all the suffering they are called to,
till our sins together call in a persecution) call you their painfulnesse your Crown, and
we shall call your applyablenesse to the Gospel, which we preach, our Crown, for both
conduce to both; but especially childrens children, are the Crown of the Elders, says
Solomon: If when we have begot you in Christ, by our preaching, you also beget o-
thers by your holy life and conversation, you have added another generation unto us,
and you have preached over our Sermons again, as fruitfully as we our selves; you
shall be our Crown, and they shall be your Crowns, and Christ Jesus a Crown of e-
verlasting glory to us all. Amen. N2 SER.
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Serm. XVII.
Sermon XVII.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
Matth. 18. 7.
Wo unto the world, because of offences. THeThe Man Moses was very meeke, above all the men which were upon the face of
the Earth. Numb. 12. 3. The man Moses was so; but the Child Iesus was meeker then
he. Compare Moses with men, and Moses will scarce be parallel'd;
Compare him with him, who being so much more then man, as that he
was God too, was made so much lesse then man, as that he was a worme
and no man, and Moses will not be admitted. If you consider Moses his highest expres-
sion, what he would have parted with for his brethren, in his Dele me, Pardon them,
or blot my name out of thy book, yet Saint Pauls zeale will enter into the balance, and come
into comparison with Moses in his Anathema pro fratribus, in that he wished himselfe to
be separated from Christ, rather then his brethren should be. But what comparison
hath a sodaine, a passionate, and indigested vehemence of love, expressed in a phrase
that tasts of zeale, but is not done, (Moses was not blotted out of the book of life, nor
Saint Paul was not separated from Christ for his brethren) what comparison hath such
a love, that was but said, and perchance should not have been said (for, we can scarce
excuse Moses, or Saint Paul, of all excesse and inordinatenesse, in that that they said)
with a deliberate and an eternall purpose in Christ Jesus conceived as soon as we can
conceive God to have knowen that Adam would fall, to come into this world, & dye for
man, and then actually and really, in the fulnesse of time, to do so; he did come, and he did
dye. The man Moses was very meeke, the child Jesus meeker then hee. Moses his
meeknesse had a determination, (at least an interruption, a discontinuance) when
hee revenged the wrong of another upon that Egyptian whom he slew. Exod. 2. 11.
Esay 42. 3. But a brui-
sed reed might have stood unbroken, and smoking flax might have lien unquenched
for ever, Mat. 23. 1. for all Christ. And therefore though Christ send his Disciples to School,
to the Scribes and Pharisees, because they sate in Moses seat, for other lessons,
yet for this, 11. 29. hee was their School-master himselfe, Discite à me, learne of mee,
for I am meek. In this Chapter hee gives them three lessons in this doctrine of
meeknesse; Hee gives them foundations, and upperbuildings, The Text, and a
Comment, all the Elements of true instruction, Rule and Example. First, hee findes
them contending for ver. 1. place, Quis maximus, who should be greatest in the kingdome
of heaven. The disease which they were sick of, was truly an ignorance what this
kingdome was; For, though they were never ignorant that there should bee
an eternall kingdome in heaven, yet they thought not that the kingdome of Christ
here should onely be a spirituall kingdome, but they looked for a temporall in-
choation of that kingdome here. That was their disease, and a dangerous one. But
as Physitians are forced to doe sometimes, to turne upon the present cure of some
vehement symptome, and accdient, and leave the consideration of the maine
disease for a time, so Christ leaves the doctrine of the kingdome for the present,
and does not rectifie them in that yet, but for this pestilent symptome, this ma-
lignant accident of precedency, and ambition of place, he corrects that first, and
to that purpose gives them the example of a little child, and tells them, that except
they become as humble, as gentle, as supple, as simple, as seely, as tractable,
as ductile, as carelesse of place, as negligent of precedency, as that little child,
they could not onely not be great, but they could not at all enter into the kingdome of
heaven. He gives them a second lesson in this doctrine of meeknesse against scandals,
and offences, against an easinesse in giving or an easinesse in taking offences. For,
how well soever we may seeme to be in our selves, we are not well, if we forbear
not that company, and abstaine not from that conversation, which by ill exam-
ple may make us worse, or if wee forbear not such things, as, though they bee in different
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different in themselves, and can do us no harme, yet our example may make weaker
persons then we are, worse, because they may come to doe as we do, and not proceed
upon so good ground as we doe; They may sin in doing those things by our example,
in which we did not sinne, because we knew them to be indifferent things, and there-
fore did them, and they did them though they thought them to bee sinnes. And
for this Doctrine, vers. 8. Christ takes an example very near to them, If thy hand, or foot,
or eye offend thee, cut it off, pull it out. His third lesson in this doctrine of meeknes is against
hardnesse of heart, against a loathnesse, a wearinesse in forgiving the offences of other
men, vers. 21. against us, occasioned by Peters question, Quoties remittam, How oft shall my
brother sinne against me, and I forgive him? and the example in this rule Christ hath
wrapped up in a parable, vers. 28. The Master forgave his servant ten thousand Talents, (more
money then perchance any private man is worth) and that servant took his fellow by
the throat, and cast him into prison, because he did not presently pay an hundred
pence, perchance fifty shillings, not three pound of our money: in such a proportion was
Christ pleased to expresse the Masters inexhaustible largenesse and bounty, (which
is himselfe,) and the servants inexcusable cruelty, and penuriousnesse, (which is e-
very one of us.) The root of all Christian duties is Humility, meeknesse, that's vio-
lated in an ambitious precedency, for that implyes an over-estimation of our selves,
and an undervalue of others; And it is violated in scandals, and offences, for that im-
plies an unsetlednesse and irresolution in our selves, that we can bee so easily shaked,
or a neglecting of weaker persons, of whom Christ neglected none; and it is violated
in an unmercifulnesse, and inexorablenesse, for that implies an indocilenesse, that we will
not learn by Christs doctrine; & an ungratefulnesse, that we will not apply his example,
and do to his servants, as he, our Master, hath done to us: And so have you some Para-
phrase of the whole Chapter, as it consists of Rules and Examples in this Doctrine of
meeknes, endangered by pride, by scandall, by uncharitablenes. But of those two, pride &
uncharitabenes (though they deserve to be often spoken of,) I shal have no occasion from
these words of my text, to speak, for into the second of these three parts, The Doctrine
of scandals, our text fals, and it is a Doctrine very necessary, and seldome touched upon. As the words of our Text are, Divisio. our parts must be three. First, that heavy word Væ,
woe; Secondly, that generall word, Mundo, Woe be unto the world; And lastly, that
mischievous word, A scandalis, Woe bee unto the world because of scandals, of offences.
each of these three words wil receive a twofold consideration; for the first, Væ, is first Vox
dolentis, a voice of condoling and lamenting, Christ laments the miseries imminent
upon the world, because of scandals, and then it is Vox minantis, a voice of threatning,
and intermination, Christ threatens, he interminates heavy judgements upon them,
who occasion and induce these miseries by these scandals; This one Væ denotes both
these; sorrow, and yet infallibility; They always go together in God; God is loath
to doe it, and yet God will certainly inflict these judgements. The second word,
Mundo, Woe be unto the world, lookes two ways too; Væ malis, woe unto evill men
that raise scandals, væ bonis, woe unto them who are otherwise good in themselves,
if they be so various, as to be easily shaked and seduced by scandals. And then upon
the last word A scandalis, Woe be unto the world, because of scandals, of offences, wee
must look two ways also; first, as it denotes Scandalum activum, a scandall given by
another, and then, as it denotes Scandalum passivum, a scandal taken by another. First then, 1. Part. our first word, in the firrstfirst acceptation thereof, is Væ dolentis, the voice of
condoling and lamentation; God laments the necessity that he is reduced to, and
those judgements which the sinnes of men have made inevitable. In the person of the
Prophets which denounced the judgements of God, it is expressed so, Onus Babylo-
nis, Onus Egypti, Onus Damasci; O the burthen of Damascus, the burthen of Egypt,
the burthen of Babylon; And not only so, but Onus visionis, Not onely that that judg-
ment would be a heavy burthen, when it fell upon that Nation, but that the very
pre-contemplation, and pre-denunciation of that judgement upon that people, was a
burthen and a distastfull bitternesse, to the Prophet himself, that was sent upon that
message. In reading of an Act of Parliament, or of any Law that inflicts the heaviest pu-
nishment that can be imagined upon a delinquent, and transgressour of that Law, a man
is not often much affected, because hee needs not, when he does but read that
law, consider that any particular man is fallen under the penalty, and bitternesse thereof. N3 But
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But if upon evidence and verdict he be put to give judgement upon a particular man
that stands before him, at the bar, according to that Law, That that man that
stands there that day, must that day be no man; that that breath breathed in by God,
to glorify him, must be suffocated and strangled with a halter, or evaporated with an
Axe, he must be hanged or beheaded, that those limbs which make up a Cabinet for
that precious Jewell, the image of God, to be kept in, must be cut into quarters, or
torne with horses; that that body which is a consecrated Temple of the Holy Ghost,
must be chained to a stake, and burnt to ashes, hee that is not affected in giving such a
judgment, upon such a man, hath no part in the bowels of Christ Jesus, that melt in cō-
passion, when our sinnes draw and extort his Judgements upon us in the mouth of
those Prophets, those men whom God sends, it is so, and it is so in the mouth of
God himself that sends them. Esa. 1. 24. Heu vindicabor, (says God) Alas, I will revenge mee of
mine enemies; Alas, I will, is Alas, I must, his glory compels him to doe it, the good
of his Church, and the sustentation of his Saints compell him to it, and yet he comes
to it with a condolency, with a compassion, Heu vindicabor, Alas, I will revenge mee
of mine enemies: Ezech. 6. 11. so also in another Prophet, Heu abominationes, Alas for all the evill a-
bominations of the house of Israel; for (as it is added there) they shall fall, (that is, they
will fall) by the sword, by famine, by pestilence, and (as it follows) I will accomplish my
fury upon them; Though it were come to that height, fury, and accomplishment, con-
summation of fury, yet it comes with a condolency, and compassion, Heu abominati-
ones, Alas for all the evill abominations of the house of Israel, I would they were not so
ill, that I might be better to them. Men sent by God do so, so does God that sends
those men, & he that is both God and man, Christ Jesus does so too: We have but two
clear records in the Scriptures of Christs weeping, and both in compassion for others;
when Mary wept for her dead brother Lazarus, Ioh. 11. 33. and the Jews that were with her wept
too, Jesus also wept, and he groan'd in the spirit, and was troubled. This was but for the
discomfort of one family, (it was not a mortality over the whole Country) It was
but for one person in that family, (it was not a contagion that had swept, or did threa-
ten the whole house) it was but for such a person in that family, as he meant forthwith to
restore to life again, and yet Iesus wept, & groaned in the Spirit, & was trobled; he would
not lose that opportunity of shewing his tendernesse, and compassion in the behalf of
others. How vehement, how passionate then, must we beleeve his other weeping to have
been, Luke. 19. 41. when hee had his glorious and beloved City Jerusalem in his sight, and wept o-
ver that City, and with that stream of tears powred out that Sea, that tempestuous
Sea, those heavy judgements, which, (though he wept in doing it) he denounced up-
on that City, that glorious, that beloved City, which City (though Christ charge, to
have stoned them that were sent to her, Mat. 23. 34. and to bee guilty of all the righteous blood
shed upon the earth) the holy Ghost cals the holy City for all that, 4. 5. not onely at the be-
ginning of Christs appearance, (The Devill took him up into the holy City) (for at that
time she was not the unholyer for any thing that shee had done upon the person of
Christ,) but when they had exercised all their cruelty, even to death, the death of the
Crosse upon Christ himselfe, Mat. 27. 33. the Holy Ghost calls still the holy City; Many bodies
of Saints, which slept, arose, and went into the holy City. When the Fathers take in-
to their contemplation and discourse, that passionate exclamation of our Saviour up-
on the Crosse, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? those blessed Fathers, that
never thought of any such sense of that place, that Christ was, at that time, actually in
the reall torments of hell, assign no fitter sense of those words, then that the foresight of
those insupportable, and inevitable, and imminent judgements upon his City, and his
people, occasioned that passionate exclamation, My God, my God, why hast thou forsa-
ken me? Acts 9. 4. That as, after he was ascended into heaven, he said to Saul, Cur me perseque-
ris? He called Sauls persecuting of his Church, a persecuting of him, so when hee
considered that God had forsaken his people, his Citie, his Jerusalem, he cryed out,
that God had forsaken him. God that sent the Prophets; the Prophets that were sent;
Christ who was both, the person sent, and the sender, came to the inflicting and de-
nouncing of judgements, with this Væ dolentis, a heart, and voice of condoling and la-
mentation. Grieve not then the holy Spirit of God, Eph. 4. 30. says the Apostle; extort not from him those
Judgements, which he cannot in justice forbear, and yet is grieved to inflict. How of-
ten
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ten doe we use that motive, to divert young men from some ill actions, and ill cour-ses, How will this trouble your friends, how will this grieve your Mother, this will kill
your Father? The Angels of heaven who are of a friendship and family with us, as
they rejoyce at our conversion, so are they sorry and troubled at our aversion from
God. Our sins have grieved our Mother; that is, made the Church ashamed, and
blush that he hath washed us, and clothed us, in the whitenesse and innocency of Christ
Jesus in our baptisme, and given us his bloud to drinke in the other Sacrament. Our
sins have made our mother the Church ashamed in her selfe, (we have scandalized and
offended the Congregation) and our sinnes have defamed and dishonoured our mo-
ther abroad, that is, imprinted an opinion in others, that that cannot be a good
Church, in which we live so dissolutely, so falsely to our first faith, and con-
tract, and stipulation with God in Baptisme. Wee have grieved our brethren,
the Angels, Mal. 2. 10. our mother, the Church, and we have killed our Father: God is the father of
us all; Act 20. 28. and we have killed him; for God hath purchased a Church with his bloud, says
Saint Paul. And, oh, how much more is God grieved now, that we will make no be-
nefit of that bloud which is shed for us, then he was for the very shedding of that
bloud! We take it not so ill, (pardon so low a comparison in so high a mystery; for,
since our blessed Saviour was pleased to assume that metaphor, Mat. 20. 22. and to call his passion a
Cup, and his death a drinking, we may be admitted to that Comparison of drinking too)
we take it not so ill, that a man go down into our Cellar, and draw, and drinke his fill,
as that he goe in, and pierce the vessells, and let them runne out, in a wastfull wanton-
nesse. To satisfie the thirst of our soules, there was a necessity that the bloud of Christ
Jesus, should be shed; To satisfie Christs own sitto, that thirst which was upon him,
when he was upon the Crosse, there was a necessity too, that Christ should bleed to
death. On our part there was an absolute and a primary necessity; God in his justice
requiring a satisfaction, nothing could redeem us, by way of satisfaction, but the bloud
of his Sonne. And though there were never act more voluntary, more spontaneous,
then Christs dying for man, nor freer from all coaction, and necessity of that kind, yet
after Christ had submitted himselfe to that Decree and contract that passed between
him, Luke 24. 26. and his Father, that he, by shedding his bloud, should redeem Mankind, there lay
a necessity upon Christ himselfe to shed his bloud, as himselfe says first to his Disciples
that went with him to Emans, Nonne oportuit, ought not Christ to suffer all these things?
do ye not find by the prophets that he was bound to do it? and then to his Apostles at
Jerusalem, verse 36. Sic oportuit, Thus it behoved Christ to suffer. There was then an absolute ne-
cessity upon us, an obedientiall necessity upon Christ, that his bloud must be shed; But
to let him dye in a wantonnesse, to let out all that precious liquor, and taste no drop of
it, to draw out all that immaculate and unvaluable bloud, and make no balsamum, no
antidote, no plaister, no fomentation in the application of that bloud, to labour still un-
der a burning fever of lust, and ambition, and presumption, and finde no cooling julips
there, in the application of that bloud, to labour under a cold damp of indevotion, and
under heartlesse desperation, and find no warming Cordialls there, to be still as farre
under judgements and executions for finne, as if there had been no Messias sent, no
ransome given, no satisfiaction made, not to apply this bloud thus shed for us, by those
meanes which God in his Church presents to us, this puts Christ to his wofull Inter-
jection, to cast out this wo upon us, (which he had rather have left out) wo be unto the
world, which, though it begin in a væ dolentis, a voice of condoling and lamenting,
yet it is also væ minantis, a voice of threatning, and intermination, denoting the infal-
libility of Judgements, Væ minantis. and that's our next consideration. I thinke we find no words in Christs mouth so often, as væ, and Amen. Each of them
hath two significations; as almost all Christs words, and actions have; consolation,
and commination. For, as this væ signifies (as before) a sorrow, (wo, that is, wo is me,
for this will fall upon you) and signifies also a Judgment inevitable and infallible, (wo,
that is, wo be unto you, for this Judgement shall fall upon you) so Amen is sometimes
vox Asserentis, and signifies verè, verily, Verily I say unto you, when Christ would con-
firm, and establish a beleefe in some doctrine, Iohn 14. 12. or promise of his, (as when he says Amen,
Amen, verily verily I say unto you, he that beleeveth on me, the works that I doe, shall he
doe also, and greater works then these shall he doe) so it is vox Asserentis, a word of
assertion, Mat. 5. 26. and it is also vox Deserentis, a word of desertion, when God denounces an infallabi-
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infallibility, Mat. 5. 26. an unavoydablenesse, an inevitablenesse in his judgements, Amen dico, ve-rily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no meanes come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost
farthing; so this Amen signifies Fiat, this shall certainly be thus done. And this
seale, this Amen, as Amen is Fiat, is always set to his væ, as his væ is vox minantis;
whensoever God threatens any Judgement, he meanes to execute that Judgement as
farre as he threatens it; God threatens nothing in terrorem onely, onely to frighten
us; every væ hath his Amen, every Judgement denounced, a purpose of execution.
This then is our wofull case; every man may find upon record, in the Scriptures, a væ
denounced upon that sinne, which he knows to be his sinne; and if there be a væ,
there is an Amen too, if God have said it shall, it shall be executed, so that this is
not an execution of a few condemned persons, but a Massacre of all: It is not a Decima-
tion, as in a rebellion, to spare nine, and hang the tenth, but it is a washing, a sweeping a-
way of all: every man may find a Judgement upon record against him. It doth not
acquit him that he hath not committed an adultery; and yet, is he sure of that? He
may have done that in a looke, in a letter, in a word, in a wish: It doth not acquit him,
that he hath not done a murder; and yet, is he sure of that? He may have killed a man,
in not defending him from the oppression of another, if he have power in his hand, and
he may have killed in not relieving, if he have a plentifull fortune. He may have killed in
not reprehending him who was under his charge, whē he saw him kil himself in the sinful
ways of death. Ardoinus. As they that write of Poysons, and of those creatures that naturally ma-
ligne and would destroy man, do name the Flea, as well as the Viper, because the Flea
sucks as much bloud as he can, so that man is a murderer that stabs as deep as he can,
though it be but with his tongue, with his pen, with his frowne; for a man may kill with
a frowne, in withdrawing his countenance from that man, that lives upon so low a
pasture as his countenance, nay he may kill with a smile, with a good looke, if he afford
that good looke with a purpose to delude him. And, beloved, how many dye of this
disease; how many dye laughing, dye of a tickling; how many are overjoyed with
the good looks, and with the familiarity of greater persons then themselves, and led
on by hopes of getting more, wast that they have? An adultery, a murder may be done
in a dreame, if that dreame were an effect of a murderous, or an adulterous thought con-
ceived before. 1 Cor. 4. 4. The Apostle says, I know nothing by my selfe, yet am I not thereby justified,
we sinne some sinnes, that all the world sees, and yet we see not, but then, how many
more, which none in the world sees but our selves? Scarce any man scapes all degrees
of any sinne; scarce any man some great degree of some great sinne; no man escapes
so, but that he may find upon record, in the Scriptures, a væ, and an Amen, a Judg-
ment denounced, and an execution sealed against him. And, if that be our case, where
is there any roome for this milder signification of these two words, væ, and Amen,
which we spoke of before, as they are words of Consolation? If because God hath said
Stipendium peccati mors est, the wages of sinne is death, because I have sinned, I must
dye, what can I doe in a Prayer? can I flatter God? what can I doe in an Almes? Can
I bribe God, or frustrate his purpose? Can I put an Euge upon his væ, a vacat upon
his Fiat, a Nonobstante upon his Amen. God is not man; not a false man that he can
lie, nor a weake man that he can repent. Where then is the restorative, the consola-
tory nature of these words? In this, beloved, consists our comfort, that all Gods væ's
and Amens, all judgments, and all his executions are Conditionall; There is a Crede
& vives, Beleeve and thou shalt live; there is a Fac hoc & vives, doe this and thou shalt
live; If thou have done otherwise, there is a Converte & vives, turne unto the Lord
and thou shalt live; If thou have done so, and fallen off, there is a Revertere & vives,
returne againe unto the Lord, and thou shalt live. How heavy so ever any of Gods
judgements be, 2 Sam. 12. 22. yet there is always roome for Davids question, Quis scit, who can
tell whether God will be gracious unto mee? What better assurance could one
have, then David had? The Prophet Nathan had told David immediately from the
mouth of God, this child shall surely dye, and ratified it by that reason, because thou hast
given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, this child shall surely dye, yet
David fasted, and wept, and said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gratious unto me,
that the child may live? There is always roome for Davids question, Quis scit, who can
tell? Nay there is no roome for it, as it is a question of diffidence and distrust; every man
may and must know, that whatsoever any Prophet have denounced against any sinne of
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of his, yet there are conditions, upon which the Lord will be gracious and thy soule
shall live. But if the first condition, that is Innocency, and the second, that is Repentance, be
rebelliously broken, then every man hath his væ, and every væ hath his Amen, the
judgements are denounced against him; and upon him they shall bee executed; for
God threatens not to fright children, but the Mountains melt, and Powers, and
Thrones, and Principalities tremble at his threatning. And so have you the doubled
signification of the first word væ, as it is vox Dolentis, and as it is Vox minantis, God
is loath, but God will infallibly execute his judgement, and we proceed to the extension
of this væ, over all, væ mundo, woe unto the world, and the double signification of
that word. I have wondred sometimes that that great Author, 2. Part.
Mundo. and Bishop in the Roman
Church, Abulensis, is so free, as to confesse that some Expositors amongst them,
have taken this word in our Text, Mundo, adjectivè, not to signify the world, but a
clean person, a free man, that it should be væ immuni, woe unto him that is free from
offences, that hath had no offences; perchance they mean from crosses. And so, though
it be a most absurd, and illiterate, and ungrammaticall construction of the place that
they make, yet there is a doctrine to bee raised from thence, of good use. As
God brought light out of darknesse, and raises glory out of sin, so we may raise
good Divinity out of their ill Grammar; for væ mundo, indeed, væ immuni, woe
be unto him that hath had no crosses. There cannot be so great a crosse as to have
none. I lack one loaf of that dayly bread that I pray for, if I have no crosse; for af-
flictions are our spirituall nourishment; I lacke one limb of that body I must grow in-
to, which is the body of Christ Jesus, if I have no crosses; for, my conformity to
Christ, (and that's my being made up into his body) must be accomplished in my ful-
filling his sufferings in his flesh. So that, though our adversaries out of their ignorance
mislead us in a wrong sense of the place; the Holy Ghost leads us into a true, and right
use thereof. But there is another good use of their error too, another good doctrine
out of their ill Grammar; Take the word mundo, adjectivè, for an adjective, and væ
mundo, væ immuni, wo unto him that is so free from all offences, as to take offence
at nothing; to be indifferent to any thing, to any Religion, to any Discipline, to any
form of Gods service; That from a glorious Masse to a sordid Conventicle, all's
one to him; all one to him whether that religion, in which they meet, and light can-
dles at Noon; or that, in which they meet, and put out candles at midnight; what
innovations, what alterations, what tolerations of false, what extirpations of true
Religion soever come, it shall never trouble, never offend him; 'Tis true, Væ mundo
indeed, wo unto him that is so free, so unsensible, so unaffected with any thing in this
kinde; for, as to bee too inquisitive into the proceedings of the State, and the
Church, out of a jealousie and suspicion that any such alterations, or tolerations in Re-
ligion are intended or prepared, is a seditious disaffection to the government, and a
disloyall aspersion upon the persons of our Superiours, to suspect without cause,
so, not to be sensible that the Catterpillars of the Roman Church, doe eat up our ten-
der fruit, that the Jesuites, and other enginiers of that Church, doe seduce our forwar-
dest and best spirits, not to be watchfull in our own families, that our wives and chil-
dren and servants be not corrupted by them, for the Pastor to slacken in his duty,
(not to be earnest in the Pulpit) for the Magistrate to slacken in his, (not to be vigi-
lant in the execution of those Laws as are left in his power) væ mundo, væ immuni, woe
unto him that is unsensible of offences. Jealously, suspiciously to mis-interpret the acti-
ons of our Superiours, is inexcusable, but so is it also not to feel how the adversa-
ry gains upon us, and not to wish that it were, and not to pray that it may be other-
wise; væ mundo, væ immuni, wo to him that is un-offended unsensible, thus. But as
I have wondred that that Bishop would so easily confesse, that some of their Exposi-
tors were so very unlearned, so barbarously ignorant, so enormously stupid, as to take
this væ mundo adjectivè, so doe I wonder more, that after such confessions, and ac-
knowledgements of such ignorances and stupidities amongst them, they will not re-
medy it in the cause, but still continue so rigid, so severe in the maintenance of their
own Translation, their Vulgate Edition, as in places, and cases of doubt, not to
admit recourse to the Originall, as to the Supreme Judge, nor to other Translations:
for, by either of those ways, it would have appeared, that this væ mundo could not be taken
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Serm. XVII.
taken adjectivè, but is a cloud cast upon the whole world, a woe upon all, no place,
no person, Gen. 25. no calling free from these scandals, and offences, from tentations, and tri-
bulations; when there was a væ Sodom, that God raigned fire and brimstone up-
on Sodom, yet there was a Zoar, where Lot might be safe. When there was a væ Egyp-
to, wo and wo upon wo upon Ægypt, there was a Goshen a Sanctuary for the children of
God in Egypt. When there is a væ inhabitantibus, a persecution in any place, there
is a Fuge in aliam, leave to fly into another City. But in such an extension, such an
expansion, such an exaltation, such an inundation of woe, as this in our text, Væ mun-
do, woe to the world, to all the world, a tide, a flood without any ebbe, a Sea with-
out any shoare, a darke skie without any Horizon; That though I doe withdraw my
selfe from the wofull uncertainties, and irresolutions and indeterminations of
the Court, and from the snares and circumventions of the City; Though I would
devest, and shake off the woes and offences of Europe in Afrique, or of Asia in Amer-
ica, I cannot, since wheresoever, or howsoever I live, these woes, and scandals, and
offences, tentations, and tribulations will pursue mee, who can expresse the
wretched condition, the miserable station, and prostration of man in this world? væ
mundo. Take the word, Ioh. 17. 9. World, in as ill a sense as you will, as ill as when Christ says, I pray
not for the world, (and they are very ill, for whom Christ Jesus who prayed for them
that crucifyed him, would not pray:) Take the word world, in as good a sense as you
will, 6. 51. as good as when Christ says, I give my flesh for the life of the world, (and they are
very good that are elemented, made up with his flesh, and alimented and nursed with
his blood:) Take it for the Elect, take it for the Reprobate, the Reprobate and the E-
lect too are under this væ, wo to the world, from tentations, and tribulations, scandals,
and offences. So it is if the world be persons, and it is so also, if it be times; Take the world for
the times wee live in now, 1 Ioh. 2. 18. and it is Novissima hora, this is the last time, and the Apo-
stle hath told us, that the last times are the worst. Take the world for the Old world, O-
riginalis mundus, 2. 2. 5. as Saint Peter call'scalls it; the Originall world, of which, this world;
since the flood, is but a copy, and God spared not the Old world, says that Apostle.
Take it for an elder world then that, the world in Paradise, when one Adam, the
Son of God, and one Eve produced by God, from him, made up the world: or take it
for an elder world then that, the world in heaven, when onely the Angels, and no o-
ther creatures made up the world; Take it any of these ways, we in this latter world
do, Noah in the old world did, so did Adam in the world in Paradise, and so did the
Angels in the oldest world of all, find these woes from offences, and scandals, tentati-
ons, and tribulations. So it is in all persons, in all men, so it is in all times, in all ages, and so it is in all pla-
ces too; for hee that retires into a Monastery upon pretence of avoiding tentations,
and offences in this world, he brings them thither, and hee meets them there; Hee
sees them intramittendo, and extramittendo, he is scandalized by others, and others
are scandalized by him. That part of the world that sweats in continuall labour in se-
verall vocations, is scandalized with their laziness, and their riches, to see them a-
noint themselves with other mens sweat, and lard themselves with other mens fat; and
then these retired and cloistrall men are scandalized with all the world, that is out of
their walls. There is no sort of men more exercised with contentious and scandalous
wranglings, then they are: for, first, with all eager animosity they prefer their Mona-
sticall life before all other secular callings, yea, before those Priests, whom they call
Secular Priests, such as have care of souls, in particular parishes, (as though it were a
Diminution, and an inferiour state to have care of souls, and study and labour the sal-
vation of others.) And then as they undervalue all secular callings, (Mechaniques, and
Merchants, and Magistrates too) in respect of any Regular order, (as they call them) so
with the same animosity doe they prefer their own Order, before any other Order.
A Carthusian is but a man of fish, for one Element, to dwell still in a Pond, in his Cell
alone, but a Jesuit is a usefull ubiquitary, and his Scene is the Court, as well as the
Cloister. And howsoever they pretend to bee gone out of the world, they are never
the farther from the Exchange for all their Cloister; they buy, and sell, and purchase
in their Cloister. They are never the farther from Westminster in their Cloister, they occasion
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occasion and they maintain suits from their Cloister; and there are the Courts of Ju-stice noted to abound most with suits, where Monasteries abound most. Nay, they
are never the farther from the field for all their Cloister; for they give occasions of
armies, they raise armies, they direct armies, they pay armies from their Cloister. Men
should not retire from the mutuall duties of this world, to avoid offences, tentations,
tribulations, neither doe they at all avoid them, that retire thus, upon that pre-
tence. Shall we say then, Mat. 19. 9. as the Disciples said to Christ; If the case of the man be so with
his wife, it is not good to mary? If the world be nothing but a bed of Adders, a quiver
of poysoned arrows, from every person, every time, every place, woes by occasion of
offences, and scandals, it had been better God had made no world, better that I had
never been born into the world, better, if by any meanes I could get out of the world
quickly, Iob. 2. 22.1. 22 shall we say so? God forbid. As long as Job charged not God foolishly, it is
said, in all this Job sinned not; but when he came to curse his birth, and to loath his
life, 1 Reg. 19. 4. then Job charged God foolishly. When one Prophet (Eliah) comes to proporti-
on God the measure of his corrections, Ion. 4. Satisest, Lord, this is enough; Thou hast
done enough, I have suffered enough, now take away my life. When another Prophet
comes to wish his own death in anger, and to justify his anger, and dispute it out with
God himselfe, for not proceeding with the Ninivites, as he would have had him doe;
nay for the withering of his gourd that shadowed him, in all these, they did, in all such,
we doe charge God foolishly; And shall we that are but wormes, but silke-wormes,
but glow-wormes at best, chide God that hee hath made slow-wormes, and other veni-
mous creeping things? shall we that are nothing but boxes of poyson in our selves, re-
prove God for making Toads and Spiders in the world? shall we that are all discord,
quarrell the harmony of his Creation, or his providence? Can an Apothecary make a
Soveraign triacle of Vipers, and other poysons, and cannot God admit offences, and
scandals into his physick? scandals, and offences, tentations, and tribulations, are our
leaven that ferment us, and our lees that preserve us. Use them to Gods glory, and
to thine own establishing, and then thou shall be a particular exception to that gene-
rall Rule, the Væ mundo à scandalis, shall be an Euge tibi à scandalis, thou shalt see that
it was well for thee, that there were scandals and offences in the world, for they shall
have exercised thy patience, they shall have occasioned thy victory, they shall have as-
sured thy triumph. Sermon XVIII.
Preached at Lincolns Inne. The second Sermon on Matth. 18. 7.
Wo unto the world, because of offences. WEeWee have seen in the first word the væ, as it is vox Dolentis, the voice of
condoling and lamenting, that it is accompanyed with a Heu; Gods judg-
ements come against his will, he had rather they might be forborn, he had
rather those easie conditions had been performed; And as it is vox mi-
nantis, a voice of threatning and intermination, it is accompanyed with
an Amen; if conditions be rebelliously broken, Gods judgements doe come infallibly,
inevitably; And we have seen in the second word, væ mundo, and the twofold signifi-
cation of that, that these offences, and scandals fall upon all the world; the wicked em-
brace tentations, and are glad of them, and sorry when they are but weak; the godly
meet tentations, and wrastle with them, and sometimes doe overcome them, and are
sometimes overcome by them; but all have them, and yet we must not break out of
the world by a retired life, nor break out of the world by a violent death, but take
Gods ways, and stay Gods leasure. In this our third part, we are to consider the root
from which this over-spreading væ, this woe proceeds, A scandalis, from scandals, from
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from offences, and the double signification of that word, first, Scandalum activum, the
active scandall, which is a malice, or at least an indiscretion in giving offence, and Scan-
dalum passivum, the passive scandall, which is a forwardnesse, at least an easinesse in
taking offence; To know the nature of the thing, look we to the derivation, the ex-
traction, the Origination of the word. The word from which scandall is derived (sca-
zein) signifies claudicare, to halt; and thence, a scandall is any trap, or Engin, any
occasion of stumbling, and laming, hid in the way that I must goe, by another person;
and as it is transferred to a spirituall use, appropriated to an Ecclesiasticall sense, it is
an occasion of sinning. It hath many branches; too many to bee so much as named;
but some fruits from some of them we shall gather, Activum. and present you. First, in our first,
the Active Scandall, to doe any thing that is naturally ill, formally sin, whereby ano-
ther may be occasioned or encouraged by my example to do the like, this is the
active scandall most evidently, and most directly, and this is morbus complicatus, a dis-
ease that carries another disease in it, a fever exalted to a frenzy; It is Peccatum prag-
nans, peccatum gravidum, a spauning sin, a sin of multiplication, to sinne purposely, to
lead another into tentation. But there is a lesse degree then this, and it is an active
scandall too; To doe any thing that in it selfe is indifferent, (and so no sin in mee,
that do it) in the sight of another that thinks it not indifferent, but unlawfull, and yet be-
cause he hath a reall, or a reverentiall dependence upon me, (my Son, my Servant, my
Tenant) and thinks I would be displeased if he did it not, does it against his conscience
by my example, though the sinne be formally his, radically it is mine, because I gave
the occasion, And there is a lower degree then this; and yet is an active scandall. If
I doe an indifferent thing in the sight and knowledge of another, that thinks it unlaw-
full, though he doe not come to doe it, out of my example, by any dependence up-
on me, yet if he come to think uncharitably of me, or to condemn me for doing it,
though this uncharitablenesse in him bee his sinne, yet the root grew in me, and I
gave the scandall. And there is a lower degree then this, and yet is an Active scandall
too. Origen hath expressed it thus, Scandalum est quo scandentium pedes offenduntur;
To hinder the feet of another, that would goe farther, or climbe higher in the ways of
godlinesse; but for me, to say to any man, What need you be so pure, so devout, so god-
ly, so zealous, will this make you rich, will this bring you to preferment? this is an
active scandall in me, though hee that I speak to, be not damnified by me. Of which
kind of scandall, Mat. 16. 23. there is an evident, and an illustrious example, between Saint Peter,
and Christ; Christ cals Peter a scandall unto him, when Peter rebuked Christ for of-
fering to goe up to Jerusalem in a time of danger. Christ was to accomplish the work
of our salvation at Jerusalem, by dying, and Peter disswades, discounsels that journey;
and for this, Christ lays that heavy name upon his indiscreet zeal, and that heavy
name upon his person, Vade retro, Get thee behind me Satan, thou art a scandall unto
me. This is Scandalum oppositionis, the scandall of opposing, disswading, discounsel-
ling, discountenancing, and consequently the frustrating of Gods purpose in man;
This is but by word, and yet there is a lesse then this, which is Scandalum timoris,
when he that hath power in his hand, in a family, in a parish, in a City, in a Court, in-
timidates them who depend upon him, (though nothing bee expressely done or said
that way) and so slackens them in their religious duties to God; and in their constancy
in Religion it selfe; And v æ illis, woe unto them that doe so, and v æ mundo ab illis;
woe unto the world, because there are so many that doe so. And yet there is another
scandall which seems lesse then this, Scandalum amoris, the scandall of love; as Saul
gave David his daughter Michol, ut esset ei in scandalum, that she might be a snare unto
him; 1 Sam. 18. 21. that is, that David being over-uxorious, and over-indulgent to his wife, might
thereby lye the more open to Sauls mischievous purposes upon him, and væ illis, woe
unto them that doe so; and væ munde ab illis, woe unto the world, because there are
so many that doe so, that study the affections, and dispositions, and inclinations of men,
and then, minister those things to them, that affect them most, which is the way of the
instruments of the Roman Church, to promise preferments to discontented persons,
and is indeed, his way, whose instrument the Roman Church is, The Devill; for this
is all that the Devill is able to doe, in the ways of tentation, Applicare passivis activa,
To finde out what will work upon a man, and to work by that. The Devill did not
create me, nor bring materials to my creation; The Devill did not infuse into mee, that
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that choler, that makes me ignorantly and indiscreetly zealous, nor that flegm that
choakes mee with a stupid indevotion; Hee did not infuse into mee that bloud, that
inflames mee in licentiousnesse, nor that melancholy that dampes me in a jealou-
sie and suspicion, a diffidence and distrust in God. The Devill had no hand in com-
posing me in my constitution. But the Devill knows, which of these govern, and pre-
vail in me, and ministers such tentations, as are most acceptable to me, and this is
Scandalum amoris, the scandall of Love. So have ye then the Name, and Nature, and extent of the Active Scandall; against
which, the inhibition given in this Text is generall, wee are forbidden to scanda-
lize any person by any of these ways, The scandall of Example, or the scandall
of Perswasion, The scandall of Fear, or the scandall of Love. For, there is scarce
any so free to himselfe, so entirely his own, so independent upon others, but that
Example, or Perswasion, or Fear, or Love may scandalize him, that is, Lead him in-
to tentation, and make him doe some things against his own mind. Our Saviour
Christ had spoken, De pusillis, of little children, of weak persons, easie to be scandali-
zed, before this Text, and he returns, ad pusillos, to the consideration of little chil-
dren, persons easie to bee scandalized again; ver. 10. this Text is not of them, or not of them
onely, but of all; say not thou of any man, ætatem habet, he is old enough, let him look
to himselfe, he hath reason as other men have, he hath had a learned and a religious e-
ducation, ill example can doe him no harm; but give no ill example to any,
study the setling, and the establishing of all; for, scarce is there any so strong, but
may bee shaked by some of these scandals, Example, Perswasion, Fear, or Love.
And hee that employs his gift of wit, and Counsell to seduce and mislead men, or
his gift of Power, and Authority to intimidate, and affright men, or his gift of o-
ther graces, lovelinesse of person, agreeablenesse of Conversation, powerfulnesse of
speech, to ensnare and entangle men by any of these scandals, may draw others into
perdition, but he falls also with them, and shall not be left out by God in the punish-
ments inflicted upon them that fall by his occasion. The Commandement is generall, scandalize none, scarce any but may bee over-
thrown, by some of these ways; And then the Apostles practise was generall too,
we give no occasion of offence in any thing. 2 Cor. 6. 3. As he requires that wee should eat
and drinke to the glory of God, so hee would have us study to avoid scandalizing of
others, 1 Cor. 10. 31.
8. 13. even in our eating and drinking; If meat make my brother to offend, (offend ei-
ther in eating against his own conscience, or offend in an uncharitable mis-interpre-
tation of my eating) In æternum, Rom. 14. 15. says the Apostle there, I will eat no flesh while the world
standeth; Nor, destroy my brother with my meat, for whom Christ dyed. That's the Apo-
stles tendernesse in things; (He would give no occasion of offence in any thing) And it is
as generall in contemplation of persons, he would have no offence given, neither to the
Iew, 1 Cor. 10. 32. nor to the Grecian, nor to the Church of God: He was as carefull not to scanda-
lize, not to give just occasion of offence to Jew, not Gentile, as not to the Church of
God; so must we be towards them of a superstitious religion amongst us, as carefull
as towards one another, not to give any scandall, any just cause of offence. But what is
to be called a just cause of offence towards those men? Good ends, and good ways,
plain, and direct, and manifest proceedings, these can be called no scandall, no just cause
of offence, to Jew, nor Gentile, to Turk, nor Papist; nor does Saint Paul intend that
we should forbear essentiall and necessary things, for fear of displeasing perverse and
peevish men. To maintain the doctrinall truths of our religion, by conferences, by dis-
putations, by writing, by preaching, to avow, and to prove our religion to be the same,
that Christ Jesus and his Apostles proposed at beginning, the same that the generall
Councels established after, the same that the blessed Fathers of those times, unanimely,
and dogmatically delivered, the same that those glorious Martyrs quickned by their
death, and carryed over all the world in the rivers, in the seas of their blood, to avow
our religion by writing, and preaching, to be the same religion, and then to pre-
serve and protect that religion which God hath put into our hearts, by all such
meanes as hee hath put into our hands, in the due execution of just Laws, this is
no scandall, no just cause of offence to Jew nor Gentile, Turke nor Papists. But
when leaving fundamentall things, and necessary truths, we wrangle uncharitably
about Collaterall impertinencies, when wee will refuse to doe such things as O conduce
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conduce to the exaltation of Devotion, or to the order, and peace of the Church,
not for any harme in the things, but onely therefore because the Papists doe them,
when, because they kneel in the worship of the bread in the Sacrament, wee will not
kneel in Thanksgiving to God for the Sacrament; when because they pray to
Saints, we will reproach the Saints, or not name the Saints, when because they abuse
the Crosse, we will abhor the Crosse; This is that that Saint Paul protests against, and in
that protestation Catechizes us, that as he would give no just occasion of offence to
the true Church of God, so neither would hee doe it to a false or infirme Church.
He would not scandalize the true Church of God, by any modifications, any in-
clinations towards the false; nor hee would not scandalize the false and infirme
Church, by refusing to communicate with them, in the practise of such things, as
might exalt our Devotion, and did not endanger nor shake any foundation of religi-
on: which was the wisdome of our Church, in the beginning of the Reformation,
when the Injuctions of our Princes forbad us to call one another by the odious
names of Papist, or Papisticall Heretique, or Schismatique, or Sacramentary, or such
convitious (as the word of the Injunction is) and reproachfull names; but cleaving al-
ways intirely, and inseparably to the fundamentall truths of our own religion, as farre
as it is possible we should live peaceably with all men. Saint Paul would give no offence
to the true Church of God, he would not prevaricate, nor to the Jew nor Gentile nei-
ther, he would not exasperate. And this may bee enough to have been said of the a-
ctive scandall, and passe we now, in our order, to the Passive. It is no wonder to see them who put all the world, Passivum. into differences, (the Jesuits) to
differ sometimes amongst themselves. And therefore though the Jesuit Maldonat say
of this Text, That Christ did not here intend to warne, or to arm his Disciples against
scandals, as scandals are occasions of sin, but onely from offering injury to one ano-
ther, That scandall in this text is nothing but wrong, yet another Jesuit, (Vincemius
Rhegius) is not onely of another opinion himselfe, but thinks that opinion (as he
calls it) absurd; It is absurd, says he, to interpret it so; for, can a mans own hand
or foot, or eye, be said to injure him? And yet, in this place, they are often said to
scandalize him, to offend him. The interpretation that Maldonat departs from, him-
selfe acknowledges to be the interpretation of Saint Chrysostome, of Euthymius, of The-
ophylact, of others of the Fathers; and, by the councell of Trent, he is bound to inter-
pret Scriptures according to the Fathers, and he is angry with us, if at any time we doe
not so; and here he departs from them, where, not onely his reverence to them, but the
frame, and the evidence of the place should have kept them to him; for here Christ ut-
ters his væ, as it is væ Dolentis, as he laments their miseries, and as it is væ Minantis, as
he threatens his judgements, not onely upon them that offend and scandalize others,
but upon them also that are easily scandalized by others, and put from their religion,
and Christian constancy with every rumour. Hierom. Parum distat scandalizare, & scandaliza-
ri; It is almost as great a sin to be shaked by a scandall given, as to give it. Christ in-
tends both in this Text; the Active, and the Passive scandall; but the latter, meliùs qua-
drat, says a later Divine, Calvin. worthy to be compared to the Ancients, for the exposition of
Scriptures, it fits the scope and purpose of Christ best, to accept and interpret this væ,
(Woe be unto the world) of the Passive scandall, the scandall taken. In that, we consider the working of this Væ,, three ways; first, væ quia illusiones for-
tes, woe unto the world because these scandals and offences, tentations, and tribulati-
ons are so strong in their nature; and then væ quia infirmi vos, woe because you are so
weak in your nature; and again, væ quia Prævaricatores, woe because wee prevaricate
in our own case, and make our selves weaker then we are, and are scandalized with
things which are not in their nature scandalous, nor were scandalously intended. The
two first, are woe because we shall be scandalized, for scandals are truly strong, and
you are truly weak; The other is woe because ye will bee scandalized, when, and
where you might easily unentangle the snare, and devest the scruple. First, for the ve-
hemence, the violence, the unavoydablenesse and impetuousnesse of these scan-
dals, tentations, and tribulations under which wee all suffer in this world, it may
bee enough to consider that one saying of our Saviours, They shall seduce, Si
possibile, Mat. 24. 23. even the elect, where (by the way, it is not meerly, not altogether, as we have
translated it, If it were possible, for that sounds, as if Christ had positively, and dogma
tically
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tically determined, that it is not possible for the elect to be seduced; but Christ
says onely, Si possibile, if it be possible, as being willing to leave it in doubt, and in sus-
pense how farre, in so great scandals, so very great tentations, even the elect might bee
seduced. Gregor. Ista Dominici sermonis dubitatio, trepidationem mentis in electis relinquit;
this doubtfulnesse in Christs speech, makes the very elect stand in fear of falling, in the
midst of such tentations, for, howsoever the elect shall rise again, the elect may fall by
these scandals, and though they may be reduced, they may be seduced. We are to con-
sider men, as they are delivered in the approbation, and testimony of the Church, that
judges secundum allegata & probata, according to the evidence that she sees and heares,
and not as they are wrapped up in the infallible knowledge of God; and so, our election
admits an outward tryall, 1 Pet. 1. 1. that is, Sanctification: so S. Peter writes, to the strangers elect
through sanctification. They were strangers, strangers to the Covenant, and yet Elect;
for, as all of the houshold, all within the Covenant, all children of the faithfull, are not
elect, (for to be born of Christian parents within the Covenant, gives us a title to the
Sacrament of Baptism, so as that we may claim it, and the Church cannot deny it us; but
this birth doth not give us that title to heaven, which Baptism it self does) so all stran-
gers, all that are without the Covenant, are not excluded in the election. S. Peter admits
strangers to election, but yet no otherwise then through sanctification; when we are come
to that hill, 2 Thes. 2. 13. to sanctification, we have a fair prospect to see our election in: so, God hath e-
lected you to salvation, says S. Paul, to the Thes. but how? To salvation through sancti-
fication; that's your hill, there opens your prospect. Agreeably to these two great A-
stlesApo-
stles, says the beloved Apostle, 2 Ioh. 1. 1. the Elder unto the elect Lady, and her children; but still,
how elect? verse 6. as he tels you, elect if she walk in the Commandements of God, elect if she lose
not her former good works, verse 8. that she may receive a full reward; elect, if she abide in the
doctrine of Christ. Always from that mount of sanctification arises our prospect to electi-
on; and sanctification were glorification, if it were impossible to fall from it. If a tentation
of mony made Iudas an Apostle fall from his Master, how easily will such a tentation
make men fall with their Master, that is, run into dangerous and ruinous actions with
them? How easily will our children, our servants, our tenants fall from the truth
of God, if they have both the example of their superiors to countenance them,
and their purse to reward them for it? That scandal, that tentation is a Giant,
and an armed Gyant, a Goliah, and a Goliah with a speare like a weavers beame,
that marches upon those two leggs, Example to doe it, and Preferment for doing it. This is the væ, in the consideration of the passive scandal, as it arises out of the ve-
hemence of the scandal, Quia infirmi and tentation, Quia illusiones fortes, because they are so strong
in themselves. It arises also out of our weaknesse, Quia infirmi nos, because we are
so weak, even the strongest of us. And for this, it may also be enough to consider
those words of our Saviour; Mat. 13. 21. That a man may receive the word, and receive it with
joy, and yet, Temporalis est, says Christ, it may bee but for a while, hee may be but
a time-server, for, assoon as persecution comes, Illico continuò scandalizatur, by
and by, instantly, forthwith hee is scandalized and shaked. Hee stays not to give
God his leasure, whether God will succour his cause to morrow, though not to day.
Hee stays not to give men their Law, to give Princes, and States time to consi-
der, whether it may not be fit for them to come to leagues, and alliances, and de-
clarations for the assistance of the Cause of Religion next year, though not this.
But continuò scandalizatur, as soon as a Catholique army hath given a blow, and got
a victory of any of our forces, or friends, or as soon as a crafty Jesuit hath forged
a Relation, that that Army hath given such a blow, or that such
an Army there is, (for many times they intimidate weake men, when they
shoote nothing but Paper, when they are onely Paper-Armies, and Pam-
phlet-Victories, and no such in truth) Illico scandalizatur, yet with these for-
ged rumours, presently hee is scandalized, and hee comes apace to those dan-
gerous conclusions, Non potens Deus, (for any thing I see, God is not so pow-
erfull a God, as they make him, for his enemies Armies prevaile against his)
Non sapiens Deus, (for any thing I see, God does not take so wise courses for
his glory, of which hee talkes so much, and pretends to bee so jealous, for
his enemies Counsels prevaile against his;) And hee comes at last to the Non
est Deus, to labour to over-rule his own Conscience, and make himselfe be-
O2 leeve
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beleeveleeve, or (at least) to wish, though hee cannot beleeve it, that there were no
God. Now to correct, or to repair this weaknesse, you see our Saviours physique here; If
thy foot, thy hand, thine eye, scandalize thee, offend thee, abscinde & projice, erue & projice,
Cut it off, pull it out, and then cast it away. You see Christs method in his physique, It
determines not in a preparative, that does but stirre the humours, (for every
remorse, and every compunction, and every sense that a man hath, that such,
and such company leades him into tentation, does that, it workes in the nature
of such a preparative, as stirres the humours, affects the soul,) Christs physique
determines not in a blood-letting, no not in cutting off the gangren'd part, for
it is not onely Cut off, and pull out, but, Cast away, it is an absolute evacuation
and purging out of the peccant humour. It is not a halting with the foot, nor a
shifting with the hand, it is not a winking with the eye, but abscinde, and erue,
Cut off, pull out; and, after that, Though hee bee the foot upon which thou
standest, thy Master, thy Patron, thy Benefactor; Though hee be thy hand by
which thou gettest thy living, thy meanes, the instrument of thy maintenance,
or preferment; Though hee bee thine eye, the man from whom thou receivest
all thy Light, and upon whose learning thou engagest thy Religion, abscindatur,
& projice, if hee scandalize thee, shake thee in thy Religion at the heart, or in
the ways of godlinesse in thine actions, Cut him off; that is, cut off thy selfe
from that conversation, and cast him away, returne no more within distance of that
tentation: for, as sinne hath that quality of a worm, that it gnawes, (it gnawes
the conscience) so hath it also that quality of a worm, that if you cut it into pieces,
yet if those pieces come together again, they will re-unite again; sinne, though
discontinued, will finde his old pieces, if they keep not farre asunder. And since
it is said of God himself by David, Psalm 18. Cum perverso perverteris, That God will grow fro-
ward with the froward, and since God says of himselfe, That with them that goe crooked-
ly, hee will goe crookedly too, that the behaviour of other men are said to make impressions
upon God himselfe, consider the slipperinesse of our corrupt nature, how easily the vices
of other men insinuate and infuse themselves into us, and how much need wee have of
all Christs physique, abscinde, erue, projice, Cut off, pull out, and cast away. But to come to our last note, Besides the woe arising from the strength of the scan-
dall, and the woe from the corruptnesse of our weak nature, there is a woe upon
our wilfulnesse, upon our easinesse in being scandalized by an over-jealousie, and su-
spicious mis-interpretations of the actions of other men. And for this, in the highest
consideration, as it hath relation to our Saviour himselfe, and his Gospell, it may
be enough to consider that which himselfe says, Mat. 11. 6. Blessed is hee, whosoever shall not be of-
fended in me. But, Quis homo, What man is hee that is not offended in him, and his
Gospel? Qui non crubescit, aut timet, what man is he that is not ashamed of the Gos-
pel, or afraid of it; that does not desire that the religion that he professes, were a religion
of more liberty & of less threatnings? We see, that though the Cross of Christ, that is,
Christ crucified, were daily represented to the Jews in their sacrifices, & preached to thē
in the succession of their Prophets, 1 Cor. 1. 23. yet this Crosse of Christ was Scandalum Iudais, a
scandal to the Jews; It was, (as the Apostle says there) Stultitia Gracis, to the Gentiles,
that had no such preparation to the Gospel, as the Jews had in their Law, and Sacrifices,
the Gospel was meer foolishnes, a religion unconformable to nature, and to reason, but
even to the Jews themselves, it was a scandal, a stumbling block; they grudged that
that religion left them so narrow a way open to pleasure, and to profit, and that it referred
all to a spirituall Kingdome, whereas the Jews looked for a temporall Kingdome in
their Messias. And so truly Christ and his Gospel will be a scandal to all them that
will needs set Christ a price, at which hee shall sell his Gospel. If Tithes, or some
some small matter in lieu of Tithes, will serve his turn, and now and then a
groat to a Brief, and sometimes an extraordinary contribution, when extraordi-
nary knowledge may bee taken of it, if this will serve his turn hee shall have it.
But if it must come to a Non pacem, that Christ profess hee comes not to
settle peace, but to kindle a warre, if wee must maintain armies for his Gospel,
if it come to an Odisse vitam, to hate Father, and Mother, and Wife, and
Children, and our owne lifes for his Gospel, this is too high a price, Nolumus
hunc
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hunc regnare, now the Gospell growes a Tyran, and wee will not be under a tyran-nous government; If hee will govern by his Law, that hee be content with our
coming to Church every Sunday, and our receiving every Easter, wee will live under
his Law; but if he come to exercise his Prerogative, and presse us to extraordinary du-
ties, in watching all our particular actions, and calling our selves to an account, for
words and thoughts, then Christ and his Gospell become a scandall, a stumbling block
unto us, and lye in our way, and retard our ends, our pleasures, and our profits. But
if we can overcome this one scandall of the Gospell, that we be not ashamed nor afraid
of that, (that is, well satisfied in the sufficiency of that Gospel for our salvation, and
then content to suffer for that Gospel) if we can devest this scandall, no other shall
trouble us. Psal. 119. 165. Great peace have they which love thy Law, says David; To love it, is to
prefer it before all things; and great peace have they that doe so, says he; Wherein
consists this peace? In this, Et non est illis scandalum, Great peace have they that love
thy Law, for they have no scandals; nothing shall offend them. Prov. 12. 21. There shall no evill hap-
pen to the just, says his Son Solomon; not that the just shall feel no worldly misery, but
that that misery shall not make them miserable; how evill so ever it be in it self, it shall
not be evill to them, Rom. 8. 28.
1. 3. 13. but Omnia in bonum, All things work together for good, to them
that love God. Who is he that will harme you, if you be followers of God? says Saint Peter,
The wicked will not follow you in that strange Country; their conversation is not
in heaven; if yours be, they will not follow you thither. They will doe, as he, whose
instruments they are, Iacob. 4. 7. do, the Devill; and Resist the Devill, and he will flee from you.
A religious constancy blunts the edge of any sword, dampes the spirits of any counsel,
benums the strength of any arme, opens the corners of any Labyrinth, and brings the
subtilest plots against God and his servants, not onely to an invalidnesse, an ineffectual-
nesse, but to a derision; Iude 5. 20.
Psal. 2. 4. not onely to a Dimicatum de cælis, that the world shall see,
that the Lord fights for his servants from heaven, but to an Irridebit in cælis, that
he that sits in heaven, shall laugh them to scorn; he shall ruine them, and ruine them in
contempt. That prayer that David makes, Libera me Domine ab homine malo, deliver
me O Lord, from the evill man, is a large, an extensive, an indefinite prayer; for, there
is an evill man (occasion of tentation) in every man, in every woman, in every action;
there is Coluber in via, a snake in every path, danger in every calling. But Saint Augu-
stine contracts that prayer, and fixes it, Liberet te Deus à temet, noli tibi esse malius;
God blesse me from my selfe, that I be not that evill man to my selfe, that I lead not my
selfe into tentation, and nothing shall scandalize me. To which purpose it concerns us
to devest that naturall, but corrupt easinesse of uncharitable mis-construing that which
other men doe, especially those whom God hath placed in his own place, for govern-
ment over us; that we doe not come to think that there is nothing done, if all bee not
done; that no abuses are corrected, if all be not removed; that there's an end of all
Protestants, if any Papists bee left in the world. Upon those words of our Saviour,
speaking of the last day of Judgement, Mat. 13. 41. The son of man shall send forth his Angels, and
they shall gather out of his Kingdome, Omnia scandala, All things that might offend:
Calvin says learnedly and wisely, Qui ad extirpandum quicquid displicet pråpostere fe-
stinant, They that make too much haste to mend all at once, antevertunt Christi judi-
cium, & ereptum Angelis officium sibi temereusurpant, They prevent Christs judgment,
and rashly, and sacrilegiously they usurp the Angels office. Christ hath reserved the
cleansing and removing of all scandals, all offences to the last day; the Angels of
the Church, the Minister, the Angels of the State, the Magistrate, cannot doe it; not
the Angels of heaven themselves, till the day of judgement. All scandals cannot be re-
moved in this life; but a great many more might be then are, if men were not so apt
to suspect, and mis-constru, and imprint the name of scandall upon every action, of
which they see not the end, nor the way; for from this jealousie and suspicion, and mis-
construction of the Angels of Church and State (our Superiours in those sphears) wee
shall become jealous, and suspicious of God himselfe, that he hath neglected us, aban-
doned us, if he do not deliver us, and establish us, at those times, and by those means,
which we prescribe him; we shall come to argue thus against God himselfe, Surely, if
God meant any good to us, he would not put us into their hands, who doe us no good.
Reduce all to the precious mediocrity; To be unsensible of any declination, of any di-
minution of the glory of God, or his true worship and religion, is an irreligious stupi-
O3 dity
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Serm. XVIII.
dity; But to bee so ombragious, so startling, so apprehensive, so suspicious, as to
think every thing that is done, is done to that end; this is a seditious jealousie, a Sa-
tyr in the heart, and an unwritten Libell; and God hath a Star-chamber, to punish
unwritten Libels before they are published; Libels against that Law, Curse not, or
speak not ill of the King, no not in thy thought. Not to mourn under the sense of evils, Eccles. 10. 20.
that may fall upon us, is a stony disposition; Nay, the hardest stone, marble, will
weep towards foul weather. But, to make all Possible things Necessary, (this may fall
upon us, therefore it must fall upon us,) and to make contingent, and accidentall
things, to be the effects of counsels, (this is fallen upon us, therefore it is fallen by
their practise that have the government in their hands) this is a vexation of spirit in our
selves, and a defacing, a casting of durt in the face of Gods image, of that representa-
tion, and resemblance of God, which he hath imprinted in them, of whom hee hath
sayd, They are Gods. In divine matters there is principally exercise of our faith, That
which we understand not, we beleeve. In civill affairs, that are above us, matters of
State, there is exercise of our Hope; Those ways which we see not, wee hope are dire-
cted to good ends. In Civill actions amongst our selves, there is exercise of our Cha-
rity, Those hearts which we see not, let us charitably beleeve to bee disposed to Gods
service. That when as Christ hath shut up his woe onely in those two, Væ quia fortes
illusiones, Woe because scandals and offences are so strong in their nature; and Væ quia in-
firmi vos, woe because you are so weak in yours, we doe not create a third Woe, Væ quia pra-
evaricatores, in an uncharitable jealousie, and mis-interpretation of him, (that we are not
in his care) nor of his Ministers (that they doe not execute his purposes,) nor of one a-
nother; that when as God hath placed us in a Land, where there are no wolfes, we doe
not think Hominem homini Lupum, imagine every man to be a wolf to us, or to intend
our destruction. But as in the Arke there were Lions, but the Lion shut his mouth,
and clincht his paw, (the Lion hurt nothing in the Arke) and in the Arke there were
Vipers and Scorpions, but the Viper shewed no teeth, nor the Scorpion no taile, (the
Viper bit none, the Scorpion stung none in the Arke) (for, if they had occasioned a-
ny disorder there, their escape could have been but into the Sea, into irreparable
ruine) so, in every State, (though that State be an Arke of peace, and preservation)
there will be some kind of oppression in some Lions, some that will abuse their power;
but Væ si scandalizemur, woe unto us if we be scandalized with that, and seditiously lay
aspersions upon the State and Government, because there are some such in every
Church, (though that Church bee an Arke, for integrity and sincerity) there will bee
some Vipers, Vipers that will gnaw at their Mothers belly, men that will shake the ar-
ticles of Religion; But Væsi scandalizemur, woe if we be so scandalized at that, as to de-
fame that Church, or separate our selves from that Church which hath given us our
Baptism, for that. It is the chasing of the Lion, and the stirring of the Viper, that ag-
gravates the danger; The first blow makes the wrong, but the second makes the fray;
and they that will endure no kind of abuse in State or Church, are many times more
dangerous then that abuse wch they oppose. It was only Christ Jesus himself that could
say to the Tempest, Mar. 4. 39. Tace, obmutesce, peace, be still, not a blast, not a sob more; onely
he could becalm a Tempest at once. It is well with us, if we can ride out a storm at an-
chour, that is, lie still and expect, and surrender ourselves to God, and anchor in that
confidence, till the storm blow over. It is well for us if we can beat out a storm at sea,
with boarding to and again; that is, maintain and preserve our present condition in
Church, and State, though we encrease not, that though we gain no way, yet wee
lose no way whilst the storm lasts. It is well for us, if, though we be put to take
in our sayls, and to take down our masts, yet we can hull it out; that is, if in storms
of contradiction, or persecution, the Church, or State, though they be put to accept
worse conditions then before, and to depart with some of their outward splendor, be
yet able to subsist and swimme above water, and reserve it selfe for Gods farther glo-
ry, after the storme is past; onely Christ could becalm the storme; He is a good Chri-
stian that can ride out, or board out, or hull out a storme, that by industry, as long as
he can, and by patience, when he can do no more, over-lives a storm, and does not for-
sake his ship for it, that is not scandalized with that State, nor that Church, of which
he is a member, for those abuses that are in it. The Arke is peace, peace is good dispo-
sitions to one another, good intepretations of one another; for, if our impatience put
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At Lincolns Inne.
put us from our peace, and so out of the Arke, all without the Arke is sea; The bot-tomlesse and boundlesse Sea of Rome, will hope to swallow us; if we dis-unite our
selves, in uncharitable mis-interpretations of one another; The peace of God is the peace
that passeth all understanding; Phil. 4. 7. That men should subdue and captivate even their under-
standing to the love of this peace, that when in their understanding they see no reason
why this or this thing should be thus or thus done, or so and so suffered, the peace of
God, that is, charity, may passe their understanding, and goe above it; for, how-
soever the affections of men, or the vicissitudes and changes of affairs may vary, or ap-
ply those two great axiomes, and aphorisms of ancient Rome, Salus populi suprema lex
esto, The good of the people is above all Law, and then, Quod Principi places, lex esto,
The pleasure of the Prince is above all Law, howsoever I say, various occasions may
vary their Laws, adhere we to that Rule of the Law, which the Apostle prescribes,
that we always make, 1 Tim. 1. 5. Finem præcepti charitatem, The end of the Commandement chari-
ty; for, no Commandement, (no not those of the first Table) is kept, if, upon pretence
of keeping that Commandement, or of the service of God, I come to an uncharitable
opinion of other men. Ephes. 3. 17. That so first, Fundemur & radicemur in charitate, that wee be
planted, and take root in that ground, in charity, (so wee are, by being planted in
that Church, that thinks charitably even of that Church, that uncharitably condemns
us) And then, 1 Pet. 1. 2. Vt multiplicemur, That Grace and peace may be multiplyed in us, (so it is, if
to our outward peace, God adde the inward peace of conscience in our own bosomes)
and lastly, 1 Thes. 3. 11. Vt abundemus, that we may not onely encrease, (as the Apostle says there)
but (as he adds) abound in charity towards one another, and towards all men, for this
abundant and overflowing charity, (as long as we can, to beleeve well, for the present,
and where we cannot do so, to hope well of the future) is the best preservative and an-
tidote against the woe of this Text, Woe unto the world because of scandals and offences;
which, though it be spoken of the Active, is more especially intended of the Passive
scandal; and though it be pressed upon us, first, Quia Illusiones fortes, because those scan-
dals are so strong, and then, Quia infermi nos, because we are so weak, doe yet endanger
us most, in that respect, Quia prævaricatores, because we open ourselves, nay offer our
selves to the vexation of scandals, by an easie, a jealous, a suspicious, an uncharitable in-
terpreting of others. Sermon XIX.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
Psal. 38. 2. For thine arrowes stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. ALmostAlmost every man hath his Appetite, and his tast disposed to some kind of
meates rather then others; He knows what dish he would choose, for
his first, and for his second course. We have often the same disposition
in our spirituall Diet; a man may have a particular love towards such or
such a book of Scripture, and in such an affection, I acknowledge, that my
spirituall appetite carries me still, upon the Psalms of David, for a first course, for the
Scriptures of the Old Testament: and upon the Epistles of Saint Paul, for a second
course, for the New, and my meditations even for these publike exercises to Gods
Church, returne oftnest to these two. For, as a hearty entertainer offers to others, the
meat which he loves best himself, so doe I oftnest present to Gods people, in these
Congregations, the meditations which I feed upon at home, in those two Scriptures.
If a man be asked a reason why he loves one meat better then another, where all are e-
qually good, (as the books of Scripture are) he will at least, finde a reason in some good
example, that he sees some man of good tast, and temperate withall, so do: And for
my Diet, I have Saint Augustines protestation, that he loved the Book of Psalms, and
Saint Chrysostomes, that he loved Saint Pauls Epistles, with a particular devotion. I may
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Serm. XIX.may have another more particular reason, because they are Scriptures, written in such
forms, as I have been most accustomed to; Saint Pauls being Letters, and Davids be-
ing Poems: for, God gives us, not onely that which is meerly necessary, but that which
is convenient too; He does not onely feed us, but feed us with marrow, and with fat-
nesse; he gives us our instruction in cheerfull forms, not in a sowre, and sullen, and an-
gry, and unacceptable way, but cheerfully, in Psalms, which is also a limited, and a
restrained form; Not in an Oration, not in Prose, but in Psalms; which is such a form
as is both curious, audand requires diligence in the making, and then when it is made,
can have nothing, no syllable taken from it, nor added to it: Therefore is Gods will
delivered to us in Psalms, that we might have it the more cheerfully, and that we might
have it the more certainly, because where all the words are numbred, and measured,
and weighed, the whole work is the lesse subject to falsification, either by substracti-
on or addition. God speaks to us in oratione strictâ, in a limited, in a diligent form;
Let us speak to him in oration solutâ; not pray, not preach, not hear, slackly, suddenly,
unadvisedly, extemporally, occasionally, indiligently; but let all our speech to him,
be weighed, and measured in the weights of the Sanctuary, let us be content to preach,
and to hear within the compasse of our Articles, and content to pray in those formes
which the Church hath meditated for us, and recommended to us. This whole Psalm is a Prayer, Divisio. and recommended by David to the Church; And a
Prayer grounded upon Reasons. The Reasons are multiplyed, and dilated from the se-
cond to the 20. verse. But as the Prayer is made to him that is Alpha, and Omega,
first, and last; so the Prayer is the Alpha and Omega of the Psalme; the Prayer possesses
the first and the last verse thereof; and though the Reasons be not left out, (Christ him-
self settles that Prayer, which he recommended to our daily use, upon a Reason, Quia
tuum est Regnum, for thine is the Kingdome,) yet David makes up his Circle, he begins,
and ends in prayer. But our text fals within his Reasons; He prays in the first verse
that God would forbear him, upon the Reasons that follow; of which some are extrin-
secall, some arising out of the power, some out of the malice, some out of the scorn of o-
ther men; And some are intrinsecall, arising out of himself, and of his sense of Gods
Judgements upon him; and our Text begins the Reasons of that last kind, which be-
cause David enters, with that particle, not onely of Connexion, but of Argumentation
too, For, (Rebuke me not O Lord, for it stands thus and thus with me) we shall make it
a first short part, to consider, how it may become a godly man, to limit God so far, as
to present and oppose Reasons against his declared purpose, and proceedings. And then
in those calamities which he presents for his Reasons in this Text, For thine arrows stick
fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore, we shall passe by these steps, first, we shall see
in what respect, in what allusion, in what notification he cals them arrows: And therein
first, that they are alienæ, they are shot from others, they are not in his own power; a man
shoots not an arrow at himselfe; And then, that they are Veloces, swift in coming, he
cannot give them their time; And again, they are Vix visibiles, though they bee not
altogether invisible in their coming, yet there is required a quick eye, and an expresse
diligence, and watchfulnesse to discern and avoid them; so they are arrows in the hand
of another; not his own; and swift as they come, and invisible before they come.
And secondly, they are many arrows; The victory lies not in scaping one or two;
And thirdly, they stick in him; they finde not David so good proof, as to rebound
back again, and imprint no sense; And they stick fast; Though the blow be felt, and the
wound discerned, yet there is not a present cure, he cannot shake them off; Infixæ sunt;
And then, with all this, they stick fast in him; that is, in all him; in his body, and soul;
in him, in his thoughts, and actions; in him, in his sins and in his good works too; In-
fixæ mihi, there is no part of him, no faculty in him, in which they stick not: for,
(which may well bee another consideration) That hand, which shot them, presses him:
follows the blow, and presses him sore, that is, vehemently. But yet, (which will be our
conclusion) Sagittæ tuæ, and manus tua, These arrows that are shot, and this hand that
presses them so sore, are the arrows, and is the hand of God; and therefore, first, they
must have their Effect, they cannot be dis-appointed; But yet they bring their com-
fort with them, because they are his, because no arrows from him, no pressing with his
hand, comes without that Balsamum of mercy, to heal as fast as he wounds. and of
so many pieces will this exercise consist, this exercise of your Devotion, and perchance
Patience. First
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First then, 1 Part.
this particle of connexion and argumentation, For, which begins our text,
occasions us, in a first part, to consider, that such an impatience in affliction, as brings
us toward a murmuring at Gods proceedings, and almost to a calling of God to an ac-
count, in inordinate expostulations, is a leaven so kneaded into the nature of man, so in-
nate a tartar, so inherent a sting, so inseparable a venim in man, as that the holyest of
men have scarce avoided it in all degrees thereof. Iob had Gods testimony of being
an upright man; and yet Iob bent that way, O that I might have my request, says Iob,
and that God would grant me the thing that I long for. 6. 8. Well, if God would, what would,
Iob aske? That God would destroy me, and cut me off. Had it not been as easie, and as
ready, and as usefull a prayer, That God would deliver him? Is my strength the strength
of stones, or is my flesh of brasse? says hee, in his impatience. What though it bee not?
Not stones, not brasse; is there no remedy, but to wish it dust? Moses had Gods te-
stimonies of a remarkable and exemplar man, for meeknesse. But did God always finde
it so? was it a meek behaviour towards God, to say, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy ser-
vant? Have I conceived all this people, Numb. 11. 11. have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me,
Carry them in thy bosome? Elias had had testimonies of Gods care and providence in
his behalf; and God was not weary of preserving him, and he was weary of being pre-
served; He desired that he might dye, 1 Reg. 19. 4. and said, Sufficit Domine, It is enough O Lord,
now take my soul. Ionas, even then, when God was expressing an act of mercy, takes
occasion to be angry, and to bee angry at God, and to be angry at the mercy of God.
we may see his fluctuation and distemper, and irresolution in that case, and his trans-
portation; He was angry, says the text; very angry; And yet, the text says, He pray-
ed, but he prayed angerly; O Lord take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for
me to dye, then to live. Better for him, that was all he considered; not what was best 4. 1. 3.
for the service and glory of God, but best for him. God asks him, If he doe well to be an-
gry? And he will not tell him there; 4. God gives him time to vent his passion, and he
askes him again after: Doest thou well to bee angry? And he answers more angerly, I
doe well to be angry, even unto death. Ieremy 9. was under this tentation too. Jonas was
angry because his Prophesie was not performed; because God would not second his
Prophesie in the destruction of Nineveh. Jeremy was angry because his Prophesie was
like to be performed; he preached heavy Doctrin, and therfore his Auditory hated him;
Woe is me, my Mother, says he, that thou hast born me a man of strife, and a man of conten-
tion to the whole earth! 15. 11. I preach but the messages of God; and (væ mihi si non, wo be un-
to me if I preach not them) I preach but the sense of Gods indignation upon mine
own soul, in a conscience of mine own sins, I impute nothing to another, that I confesse
not of my selfe, I call none of you to confession to me, I doe but confesse my self to
God, and you, I rack no mans memory, what he did last year, last week, last night,
I onely gather into my memory, and powr out in the presence of my God, and his
Church, the sinfull history of mine own youth, and yet I am a contentious man, says
Jeremy, a worm, and a burthen to every tender conscience, says he, and I strive with
the whole earth, I am a bitter, and satyricall preacher; This is that that wearies mee,
says hee, I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent me on usury, yet, as though I
were an oppressing lender, or a fraudulent borrower, every one of them doth curse
me. This is a naturall infirmity, which the strongest men, being but men, cannot devest,
that if their purposes prosper not, they are weary of their industry, weary of their lifes;
But this is Summa ingratitudo in Deum, malle non esse, quàm miserum esse: There cannot
be a greater unthankfulnesse to God then to desire to be Nothing at all, rather then to
be that, that God would have thee to be; To desire to be out of the world, rather
then to glorifie him, by thy patience in it. But when this infirmity overtakes Gods
children, Chrysost. Patiuntur ut homines, sustinent ut Dei amici; They are under calamities, as
they are men, but yet they come to recollect themselves and to bear those calamities, as
the valiant Souldiers, as the faithfull servants, as the bosome friends of almighty God:
Si vis discere, qualis esse debeas, disce post gratiam, says the same Father; Learn pati-
ence, not from the stupidity of Philosophers, who are but their own statues, men of
stone, without sense, without affections, and who placed all their glory, in a Non facies
ut te dicam malum, that no pain should make them say they were in pain; nor from the
pertinacy of Heretiques, how to bear a calamity, who gave their bodies to the fire, for the
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the establishing of their Disciples, but take out a new lesson in the times of Grace; Con-sider the Apostles there, Act. 5. 42. Gaudentes & Gloriantes, They departed from the Councell,
rejoycing that they were counted worthy, 1. 2. to suffer rebuke for his name. It was Joy, and
all Joy, says S. James; It was Glory, and all Glory, says S. Paul, Absit mihi, God
forbid that I should glory, save in the Crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ; Gal. 6. 14. And
if I can glory in that, (to glory in that, is to have a conscience testifying to me, that
God receives glory by my use of his correction) I may come to God, reason with
God, plead with God, wrastle with God, and be received and sustained by him.
This was Davids case in our Text: therefore he doth not stray into the infirmities
of these great, and good Men, Moses, Iob, Elias, Ieremy, and Ionah; whose errours,
it is labour better bestowed carefully to avoid, then absolutely to excuse, for that
cannot be done. But David presents onely to God the sense of his corrections, and
implies in that, that since the cure is wrought, since Gods purpose, which is, by cor-
rections, to bring a sinner to himself, and so to God, is effected in him, God would
now be pleased to remember all his other gracious promises too; and to admit such
a zealous prayer as as he doth from Esay after, 64. 9. Be not angry, O Lord, above measure;
(that is, above the measure of thy promises to repentant souls, or the measure of the
strength of our bodies) Neither remember iniquities for ever; But, loe, wee beseech
thee, Behold, we are thy people. To end this first part, (because the other extends it
self in many branches.) Then when we are come to a sense of Gods purpose, by his
corrections, it is a seasonable time to flie to his mercy, and to pray, that he would re-
move them from us; and to present our Reasons, to spare us, for thy corrections
have wrought upon us; Give us this day, our daily bread, for thou hast given us stones,
and scorpions, tribulations and afflictions, and we have fed upon them, found nourish-
ment even in those tribulations and afflictions, and said thee grace for them, blessed
and glorified thy name, for those tribulations, and afflictions; Give us our Cordials
now, and our Restoratives, for thy physick hath evacuated all the peccant humour,
and all our naturall strength; shine out in the light of thy countenance now, for this
long cold night hath benum'd us; since the drosse is now evaporated, now withdraw
thy fire; since thy hand hath anew cast us, now imprint in us anew thine Image; since
we have not disputed against thy corrections, all this while, O Lord open thou our
lips now, and accept our remembring of thee, that we have not done so; Accept our
Petition, and the Reason of our Petition, for thine Arrows stick fast in us, and thy hand
presseth us sore. David in a rectified conscience findes that he may be admitted to present reasons 2. Part.
against farther corrections, And that this may be received as a reason, That Gods Ar-
rows are upon him; for this is phrase or a Metaphore, in which Gods indignation is
often expressed in the Scripture. Ps. 18. 14. He sent out his Arrows, and scattered them; sayes Da-
vid; magnifying Gods goodness in his behalf, against his enemies. And so again, God
will ordaine his Arrrowes for them that persecute me. Ps. 7. 13. Complebo sagittas, says God, I
will heap mischiefs upon them, Deut. 32. 23.
v. 42. and I will spend mine arrows upon them: yea, Inebriabo
sanguine, I will make mine Arrows drunk in their bloud. It is Idiotismus Spiritus san-
cti, a peculiar character of the holy Ghosts expressing Gods anger, in that Meta-
phore of shooting Arrows. In this place, some understand by these Arrows, foul and
infectious diseases, in his body, derived by his incontinence. Others, the sting of Con-
science, and that fearfull choice, which the Prophet offered him, war, famine, and pe-
stilence. Others, his passionate sorrow in the death of Bethsheba's first childe; or in the
Incest of Amnon upon his sister, or in the murder upon Amnon by Absolon; or in the
death of Absolen by Joab; or in many other occasions of sorrow, that surrounded Da-
vid and his family, more, perchance, then any such family in the body of story. But
these Psalmes were made, not onely to vent Davids present holy passion, but to serve
the Church of God, to the worlds end. And therefore, change the person, and wee
shall finde a whole quiver of arrows. Extend this Man, to all Mankind; carry Da-
vids History up to Adams History, and consider us in that state, which wee inherit
from him, and we shall see arrows fly about our ears, A Deo prosequente, the anger of
God hanging over our heads, in a cloud of arrows; and à conscientia remordente, our
own consciences shooting poisoned arrows of desperation into our souls; and ab Homi-
ne Contemnente, Men multiplying arrows of Detraction, and Calumny, and Contumely upon
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upon our good name, and estimation. Briefly, in that wound, as wee were all shot in
Adam, we bled out Impassibilitatem, and we sucked in Impossibilitatem; There we lost
our Immortality, our Impassibility, our assurance of Paradise, and then we lost Possibi-
litatem boni, says S. August: all possibility of recovering any of this by our selves.
So that these arrows which are lamented here, are all those miseries, which sinne hath
cast upon us; Labor, and the childe of that, Sicknesse, and the off-spring of that,
Death; And the security of conscience, and the terrour of conscience; the searing of
the conscience, and the over-tendernesse of the conscience; Gods quiver, and the De-
vils quiver, and our own quiver, and our neighbours quiver, afford, and furnish ar-
rows to gall, and wound us. These arrows then in our Text, proceeding from sin,
and sin proceeding from tentations, and inducing tribulations, it shall advance your
spirituall edification most, Eph. 6. 16. to fixe your consideration upon those fiery darts, as they
are tentations, and as they are tribulations. Origen says, he would wish no more, for
the recovery of any soul, but that she were able to see Cicatrices suas, those scars which
these fiery darts have left in her, the deformity which every sinne imprints upon the
soul, and Contritiones suas, the attenuating and wearing out, and consumption of
the soul, by a continuall succession of more, and men wound upon the same place.
An ugly thing in a Consumption, were a fearfull spectacle, And such Origen imagins
a soul to be, if she could see Cicatrices, and Contritiones, her ill-favourednesse, and her
leannesse in the deformity, and consumption of sin. How provident, how diligent a
patience did our blessed Saviour bring to his Passion, who foreseeing that that
would be our case, our sicknesse, to be first wounded with single tentations, and then
to have even the wounds of our soul wounded again, by a daily reiterating of tenta-
tions in the same kinde, would provide us physick agreeable to our Disease, Chy-
rurgery conformable to our wound, first to be scourged so, as that his holy body was
torn with wounds, and then to have those wounded again, and often, with more vio-
latings. So then these arrows, are those tentations and those tribulations, which are
accompanied with these qualities of arrows shot at us, that they are alienæ, shot
from others, not in our power; And veloces, swift and sudden, soon upon us; And
vix visibiles, not discernible in their coming, but by an exact diligence. First then, Alienæ. these tentations are dangerous arrows, as they are alienæ, shot from others,
and not in our own power. It was the Embleme, and Inscription, which Darius took
for his coin, Insculpere sagittarium, to shew his greatnesse, that he could wound afar
off, as an Archer does. And it was the way, by which God declared the delive-
rance of Israel from Syria; Elisha 2 Reg. 13. 17. bids the King open the window East-ward, and
shoot an arrow out. The King does shoot: And the Prophet says, Sagitta salu-
tis Domini, The arrow of the Lords deliverance: He would deliver Israel, by shoot-
ing vengeance into Syria. One danger in our arrows, as they are tentations, is, that
they come unsuspectedly; they come, we know not, from whence; from others; that's a
danger; But in our tentations, there is a greater danger then that, for a man cannot
shoot an arrow at himself; but we can direct tentations upon our selves; If we were
in a wildernesse, we could sin; and where we are, we tempt temptations, and wake
the Devil, 1 Reg. 22. 34. when for any thing that appears, he would sleep. A certain man drew a
bow at a venture, says that story; He had no determinate mark, no expresse aime,
upon any one man; He drew his bow at a venture, and he hit, and he slew the King
Ahab. A woman of tentation, Tendit arcum in incertum, as that story speaks; shee
paints, she curls, she sings, she gazes, and is gazed upon; There's an arrow shot at
randon; shee aim'd at no particular mark; And thou puttest thy self within shot, and
meetest the arrow; Thou soughtest the tentation, the tentation sought not thee. A
man is able to oppresse others; Ps. 52. 1. Et gloriatur in malo quia potens, He boasts himselfe
because he is able to doe mischief; and tendit arcum in incertum, he shoots his arrow
at randon, he lets it be known, that he can prefer them, that second his purposes, and
thou putt'st thy self within shot, and meet'st the arrow, and mak'st thy self his in-
strument; Thou sought'st the tentation, the tentation sought not thee; when we ex-
pose our selves to tentations, tentations hit us, that were not expresly directed, nor
meant to us. And even then, when we begin to flie from tentations, the arrow over-
takes us. 2 Reg. 9. 23. Jehoram fled from Jehu, and Jehu shot after him, and shot him through
the heart. But this was after Jehoram had talk'd with him. After wee have parled with
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with a tentation, debated whether we should embrace it or no, and entertain'd some
discourse with it, though some tendernesse, some remorse, make us turn our back up-
on it, and depart a little from it, yet the arrow overtakes us; some reclinations, some
retrospects we have, a little of Lots wife is in us, a little sociablenesse, and conversati-
on, a little point of honour, not to be false to former promises, a little false gratitude,
and thankfulnesse, in respect of former obligations, a little of the compassion and cha-
rity of Hell, that another should not be miserable, for want of us, a little of this, which
is but the good nature of the Devill, arrests us, stops us, fixes us, till the ar-
row, the tentation shoot us in the back, even when wee had a purpose of departing
from that sin, and kils us over again. Thus it is, when we meet a tentation, and put
our selves in the arrows way; And thus it is when we fly not fast enough, nor farre e-
nough from a tentation. But when we doe all that, and provide as safely as we can to
get, and doe get quickly out of distance, yet, The wicked bend their bowes, Ps. 11. 2. that they
may privily shoot at the upright in heart; In occulto; It is a work of Darknesse, Detra-
ction; and they can shoot in the dark; they can wound, and not be known. They can
whisper Thunder, and passe an arrow through another mans eare, into mine heart;
Let a man be zealous, and fervent in reprehension of sin, and there flies out an ar-
row, that gives him the wound of a Puritan. Let a man be zealous of the house of
God, and say any thing by way of moderation, for the repairing of the ruines of that
house, and making up the differences of the Church of God, and there flies out an ar-
row, that gives him the wound of a Papist. One shoots East, and another West, but
both these arrows meet in him, that means well, to defame him. And this is the first
misery in these arrows, these tentations, Quia alienæ, they are shot from others,
they are not in our own quiver, not in our own government. Another quality that tentations receive from the holy Ghosts Metaphore of ar-
rows is, Veloces. Quia veloces, because this captivity to sin, comes so swiftly, so impetuously
upon us. Consider it first in our making; In the generation of our parents, we were
conceiv'd in sin; that is, they sinn'd in that action; so we were conceiv'd in sinne; in
their sin. And in our selves, we were submitted to sin, in that very act of generation,
because then we became in part the subject of Originall sin. Yet, there was no arrow
shot into us then; there was no sinne in that substance of which we were made; for
if there had been sin in that substance, that substance might be damn'd, though God
should never infuse a soul into it; and that cannot be said well then; God, whose
goodnesse, and wisdome will have that substance to become a Man, he creates a soul
for it, or creates a soul in it, (I dispute not that) he sends a light, or hee kindles a
light, in that lanthorn; and here's no arrow shot neither; here's no sin in that soul,
that God creates; for there God should create something that were evill; and that
cannot be said; Here's no arrow shot from the body, no sin in the body alone; None
from the soul, no sin in the soul alone; And yet, the union of this soul and body is so
accompanied with Gods malediction for our first transgression, that in the instant of
that union of life, as certainly as that body must die, so certainly the whole Man must
be guilty of Originall sin. No man can tell me out of what Quiver, yet here is an
arrow comes so swiftly, as that in the very first minute of our life, in our quickning in
our mothers womb, wee become guilty of Adams sin done 6000 years before, and
subject to all those arrows, Hunger, Labour, Grief, Sicknesse, and Death, which have
been shot after it. This is the fearfull swiftnesse of this arrow, that God himself cannot
get before it. In the first minute that my soul is infus'd, the Image of God is imprin-
ted in my soul; so forward is God in my behalf, and so early does he visit me. But
yet Originall sin is there, as soon as that Image of God is there. My soul is capable
of God, as soon as it is capable of sin; and though sin doe not get the start of God,
God does not get the start of sin neither. Powers, that dwell so far asunder, as Hea-
ven, and Hell, God and the Devill, meet in an instant in my soul, in the minute of my
quickning, and the Image of God, and the Image of Adam, Originall sin, enter into
me at once, in one, and the same act. So swift is this arrow, Originall sin, from which,
all arrows of subsequent tentations, are shot, as that God, who comes to my first mi-
nute of life, cannot come before death. And then, a third, and last danger, which we noted in our tentations, Invisibiles. as they are
represented by the holy Ghost, in this Metaphore of arrows, is, that they are vix visi-
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visibiles, hardly discernible. 'Tis true, that tentations doe not light upon us, as bullets,
that we cannot see them, till we feel them. An arrow comes not altogether so: but an
arrow comes so, as that it is not discern'd, except we consider which way it comes, and
watch it all the way. An arrow, that findes a man asleep, does not wake him first, and
wound him after; A tentation that findes a man negligent, possesses him, before be sees
it. In gravissimis criminibus, confinia virtutum lædunt; This is it that undoes us, Ambros. that
vertues and vices are contiguous, and borderersborders upon one another; and very often, we
can hardly tell, to which action the name of vice, and to which the name of vertue ap-
pertains. Many times, that which comes within an inch of a noble action, fals under
the infamy of an odious treason; At many executions, half the company will call a
man an Heretique, and half, a Martyr. How often, an excesse, makes a naturall affection,
an unnaturall disorder? Vtinam aut sororem non amasset, Hamon, aut non vindicasset
Absolon; Hamon lov'd his sister Tamar; but a little too well; Idem. Absolon hated his bro-
thers incest, but a little too ill. Though love be good, and hate be good, respectively,
yet, says S. Ambrose, I would neither that love, nor that hate had gone so far. The con-
tract between Ionathan and David, was, If I say, The arrow on this side of thee, all is wel; 1 Sam. 20.
If I say, The arrow is beyond thee, thou art in an ill case. If the arrow, the tentation, be
yet on this side of thee, if it have not lighted upon thee, thou art well; God hath di-
rected thy face to it, and thou may'st, if thou wilt, continue thy diligence, watch it,
and avoid it. But if the arrow be beyond thee, and thou have cast it at thy back, in
a forgetfulnesse, in a security of thy sin, thy case is dangerous. In all these respects,
are these arrows, these infirmities, deriv'd from the sin of Adam, dangerous, as they
are alienæ, in the hand of others, as they are veloces, swift in seising us, and as they are
vix visibiles, hardly discern'd to be such; And these considerations fell within this
first branch of this second part, Thine arrows, tentations, as they are arrows, stick
fast in me. These dangers are in them, as they are sagittæ, arrows; and would be so, Plures. if they were
but single arrows; any one tentation would endanger us, any one tribulation would en-
cumber us; but they are plurall, arrows, and many arrows. A man is not safe, because
one arrow hath mist him; nor though he be free from one sin. Ios. 7. 25. In the execution of A-
chan, all Israel threw stones at him, and stoned him. If Achan had had some brother, or
cousin amongst them, that would have flung over, or short, or weakly, what good had
that done him, when he must stand the mark for all the rest? All Israel must stone
him. A little disposition towards some one vertue, may keep thee from some one ten-
tation; Thou mayst think it pity to corrupt a chast soul, and forbear soliciting her; pi-
ty to oppresse a submitting wretch, and forbear to vex him; and yet practise, and that
with hunger and thirst, other sins, or those sins upon other persons. But all Israel stones
thee; arrows flie from every corner; and thy measure is not, to thank God, that thou art
not as the Publican, as some other man, but thy measure is, to be pure and holy, as thy fa-
ther in heaven is pure, and holy, and to conform thy self in some measure, to thy pat-
tern, Christ Jesus. Against him it is noted, that the Jews took up stones twice to stone
him. Once, whē they did it, He went away and hid himself. Our way to scape these arrows, Iob. 8. 59.
these tentations, is to goe out of the way, to abandon all occasions, and conversation,
that may lead into tentation. In the other place, Christ stands to it, 10. 31. and disputes it
out with them, and puts them from it by the scriptum est; and that's our safe shield,
since we must necessarily live in the way of tentations, (for coluber in via, there is a
snake in every path, tentation in every calling) still to receive all these arrowes, upon
the shield of faith, still to oppose the scriptum est, the faithfull promises of God, that
he will give us the issue with the tentation, when we cannot avoid the tentation it self.
Otherwise, these arrows are so many, as would tire, and wear out, all the diligence,
and all the constancy of the best morall man. Wee finde many mentions in the Scri-
ptures of filling of quivers, and emptying of quivers, and arrows, and arrows, still in
the plurall, many arrows. But in all the Bible, I think, we finde not this word, (as it
signifies tentation, or tribulation) in the singular, one arrow, any where, but once,
where David cals it, The arrow that flies by day; And is seen, that is, known by
every man; for, for that, the Fathers, and Ancients runne upon that Exposition, Psal. 91. 5.
that that one arrow common to all, that day-arrow visible to all, is the natu-
rall death; (so the Chalde paraphrase calls it there expresly, Sagitta mortis, The P arrow
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arrow of death) which every man knows to belong to every man; (for, as clear-ly as he sees the Sunne set, he sees his death before his eyes.) Therefore it is such
an arrow, as the Prophet does not say, Thou shalt not feel, but, Thou shalt not feare
the arrow that flies by day. The arrow, the singular arrow that flies by day, is that
arrow that fals upon every man, death. But every where in the Scriptures, but this
one place, they are plurall, many, so many, as that we know not whence, nor what
they are. Nor ever does any man receive one arrow alone, any one tentation, but
that he receives another tentation, to hide that, though with another, and ano-
ther sin. And the use of arrows in the war, was not so much to kill, as to rout, and
disorder a battail; and upon that routing, followed execution. Every tentation, every
tribulation is not deadly. But their multiplicity disorders us, discomposes us, unsettles us,
and so hazards us. Not onely every periodicall variation of our years, youth and age,
but every day hath a divers arrow, every houre of the day, a divers tentation. An old
man wonders then, how an arrow from an eye could wound him, when he was young,
and how love could make him doe those things which hee did then; And an arrow
from the tongue of inferiour people, that which we make shift to call honour, wounds
him deeper now; and ambition makes him doe as strange things now, as love did then;
A fair day shoots arrows of visits, and comedies, and conversation, and so wee goe a-
broad: and a foul day shoots arrows of gaming, or chambering, and wantonnesse, and
so we stay at home. Nay, the same sin shoots arrows of presumption in God, before it
be committed, and of distrust and diffidence in God after; we doe not fear before, and
we cannot hope after: And this is that misery from this plurality, and multiplacity of
these arrows, these manifold tentations, which David intends here, and as often as he
speaks in the same phrase of plurality, vituli multi, many buls, canes multi, Ps. 22. 13. 17. many dogs,
and bellantes multi, many warlike enemies, and aquæ multæ, many deep waters compasse
me. For as it is said of the spirit of wisdome, that it is unicus multiplex, Wisd. 7. 22. manifoldly
one, plurally singular: so the spirit of tentation in every soul is unicus multiplex, singular-
ly plurall, rooted in some one beloved sin, but derived into infinite branches of tentation. And then, these arrows stick in us; the raine fals, Fixæ. but that cold sweat hangs not up-
on us; Hail beats us, but it leaves no pock-holes in our skin. These arrows doe not so
fall about us, as that they misse us; nor so hit us, as they rebound back without hur-
ting us: But we complain with Jeremy, The sons of his quiver are entred into our reins.
Lam. 3. 13. The Roman Translation reads that filias, The daughters of his quiver; If it were but
so, daughters, we might limit these arrows in the signification of tentations, by the
many occasions of tentation; arising from that sex. But the Originall hath it filios,
the sons of his quiver, and therefore we consider these arrows in a stronger significa-
tion, tribulations, as well as tentations; They stick in us; Consider it but in one kinde,
diseases, sicknesses. They stick to us so, as that we are not sure, that any old diseases
mentioned in Physicians books are worn out, but that every year produces new, of
which they have no mention, we are sure. We can scarce expresse the number, scarce
sound the names of the diseases of mans body; 6000 year hath scarce taught us what
they are, how they affect us, how they shall be cur'd in us, nothing, on this side of the
Resurrection, can teach us. They stick to us so, as that they passe by inheritance, and
last more generations in families, then the inheritance it self does; and when no land,
no Manor, when no title, no honour descends upon the heir, the stone, or the gout
descends upon him. And as though our bodies had not naturally diseases, and infirmi-
ties enow, we contract more, inflict more, (and that, out of necessity too) in mortifica-
tions, and macerations, and Disciplines of this rebellious flesh. I must have this body
with me to heaven, or else salvation it self is not perfect; And yet I cannot have this
body thither, except as S. Paul did his, I beat down this body, 1 Cor. 9. ult. attenuate this body by
mortification; Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?
I have not body enough for my body, and I have too much body for my soul; not
body enough, not bloud enough, not strength enough, to sustain my self in health,
and yet body enough to destroy my soul, and frustrate the grace of God in that mi-
serable, perplexed, riddling condition of man; sin makes the body of man miserable,
and the remedy of sin, mortification, makes it miserable too; If we enjoy the good
things of this world, Duriorem carcerem præparamus, Basil. wee doe but carry an other wall
about our prison, an other story of unwieldy flesh about our souls; and if wee give our
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our selves as much mortification as our body needs, we live a life of fridays, and see no
Sabbath, we make up our years of Lents, and see no other Easters, and whereas God
meant us Paradise, we make all the world a wildernesse. Sin hath cast a curse upon all
the creatures of the world, they are all worse then they were at first, and yet we dare not
receive so much blessing, as is left in the creature, we dare not eat or drink, and enjoy
them. The daughters of Gods quiver, and the sons of his quiver, the arrows of tentati-
on, and the arrows of tribulation, doe so stick in us, that as he lives miserably, that lives
in sicknes, and he as miserably, that lives in physick: so plenty is a misery, and mortifica-
tion is a misery too; plenty, if we consider it in the effects, is a disease, a continuall sicknes,
for it breeds diseases; And mortification, if we should consider it without the effects,
is a disease too, a continuall hunger, and fasting; and if we consider it at best, and in the
effects, mortification is but a continuall physick, which is misery enough. They stick, and they stick fast; altè infixæ; every syllable aggravates our misery. Altè Infixæ. Now
for the most part, experimentally, we know not whether they stick fast or no, for we
never goe about to pull them out: these arrows, these tentations, come, and welcome:
we are so far from offering to pull them out, that we fix them faster and faster in us; we
assist our tentations: yea, we take preparatives and fomentations, we supple our selves by
provocations, lest our flesh should be of proof against these arrows, that death may en-
ter the surer, and the deeper into us by them. And he that does in some measure, so-
berly and religiously, goe about to draw out these arrows, yet never consummates, ne-
ver perfects his own work; He pulls back the arrow a little way, and he sees blood, and
he feels spirit to goe out with it, and he lets it alone: He forbears his sinfull companions,
a little while, and he feels a melancholy take hold of him, the spirit and life of his life de-
cays, and he falls to those companions again. Perchance he rushes out the arrow with
a sudden, and a resolved vehemence, and he leaves the head in his body: He forces a
divorce from that sinne, he removes himself out of distance of that tentation; and yet
he surfets upon cold meat, upon the sinfull remembrance of former sins, which is a
dangerous rumination, and an unwholesome chawing of the cud; It is not an ill deri-
vation of repentance, that pœnitere is pœnam tenere; that's true repentance, when we
continue in those means, which may advance our repentance. When Joash the King
of Israel came to visit Elisha upon his sick bed, 2 Reg. 13. 17. and to consult with him about his
war, Elisha bids the King smite the ground, and he smites it thrice, and ceases: Then
the man of God was angry, and said, Thou shouldst have smitten five or sixe times, and
so thou shouldst have smitten thine enemies, till thou hadst consumed them. Now, how
much hast thou to doe, that hast not pull'd at this arrow at all yet? Thou must
pull thrice and more, before thou get it out; Thou must doe, and leave undone
many things, before thou deliver thy selfe of that arrow, that sinne that transports
thee. One of these arrows was shot into Saint Paul himselfe, and it stuck, 1 Cor. 12. 7. and
stuck fast; whether an arrow of tentation, or an arrow of tribulation, the Fathers
cannot tell; And therefore, wee doe now, (not inconveniently) all our way, in this
exercise, mingle these two considerations, of tentation, and tribulation. Howso-
ever Saint Paul pull'd thrice at this arrow, and could not get it out; I besought the
Lord thrice, says he, that it might depart from mee. But yet, Joash his thrice striking
of the ground, brought him some victory; Saint Pauls thrice praying, brought him
in that provision of Grace, which God cals sufficient for him. Once pulling at these ar-
rows, a slight consideration of thy sins will doe no good. Do it thrice; testifie some true
desire by such a diligence; Doe it now as thou sitt'st, doe it again at the Table, doe it
again in thy bed; Doe it thrice, doe it in thy purpose, do it in thine actions, doe it in
thy constancy; Doe it thrice, within the wals of thy flesh, in thy self, within the wals
of thy house in thy family, and in a holy and exemplar conversation abroad, and God
will accomplish thy work, which is his work in thee; And though the arrow be not ut-
terly pull'd out, yet it shall not fester, it shall not gangrene; Thou shalt not be cut off
from the body of Christ, in his Church here, nor in the Triumphant Church hereaf-
ter, how fast soever these arrows did stick upon thee before. God did not refuse Israel
for her wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores, though from the sole of the foot, Esa. 1. 6.
to the crown of the head, but because those wounds were not closed, nor bound up,
nor suppled with ointments, therefore he refused her. God shall not refuse any soul,
because it hath been shot with these arrows; Alas, God himself hath set us up for a P2 mark,
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mark, says Job, and so says Jeremy, against these arrows.
Lam. 3. 12. But that soul that can pour
out flouds of tears, for the losse, or for the absence, or for the unkindnes, or imagination
of an unkindness of a friend, mis-beloved, beloved a wrong way, and not afford one
drop, one tear, to wash the wounds of these arrows, that soul that can squeaze the
wound of Christ Jesus, and spit out his bloud in these blasphemous execrations, & shed
no drop of this bloud upon the wounds of these arrows, that soul, and only that soul,
that refuses a cure, does God refuse; not because they fell upon it, and stook, and stook
fast, and stook long, but because they never, never went about to pull them out; ne-
ver resisted a tentation, never lamented a transgression, never repented a recidivation. Now this is more put home to us in the next addition, Infixæ mihi, Mihi. they stick, and
stick fast, in mee, that is, in all mee. That that sin must be sav'd or damn'd; That's not
the soul alone, nor body alone, but all, the whole man. God is the God of Abraham,
as he is the God of the living; Therefore Abraham is alive; And Abraham is not alive,
if his body be not alive; Alive actually in the person of Christ; alive in an infallible as-
surance of a particular resurrection. Whatsoever belongs to thee, belongs to thy body
and soul; and these arrows stick fast in thee; In both. Consider it in both; in things be-
longing to the body and to the soul; We need clothing; Baptisme is Gods Wardrobe;
there Induimur Christo; In Baptisme we put on Christ; there we are invested, apparell'd
in Christ; And there comes an arrow, that cuts off half our garment, 2 Sam. 10. 4. (as Hammon did
Davids servants) A tentation that makes us think, it is enough to be baptized, to pro-
fesse the name of Christ; for Papist, or Protestant, it is but the train of the garment, mat-
ter of civility, and policy, and government, and may be cut off, and the garment remain
still. So we need meat, sustenance, and then an arrow comes, a tentation meets us, Edi-
te, & bibite, Eat and drink, tomorrow you shall die; That there is no life, but this life, no
blessednesse but in worldly abundances. If we need physick, and God offer us his phy-
sick, medicinall corrections, there flies an arrow, a tentation, Medice cura teipsum, that
hee whom wee make our Physician, died himselfe, of an infamous disease, that
Christ Jesus from whom we attend our salvation, could not save himself. In our clo-
thing, in our diet, in our physick, things which carry our consideration upon the
body, these arrowes stick fast in us, in that part of us. So in the more spirituall acti-
ons of our souls too. In our alms there are trumpets blowne, there's an arrow of
vaine-glory; In our fastings, there are disfigurings, there's an arrow of Hypocrisie;
In our purity, there is contempt of others; there's an arrow of pride; In our co-
ming to Church, there is custome and formality; In hearing Sermons, there is affe-
ction to the parts of the Preacher. In our sinfull actions these arrows abound; In
our best actions they lie hid; And as thy soul is in every part of thy body, so these ar-
rows are in every part of thee, body, and soul; they stick, and stick fast, in thee, in
all thee. And yet there is another weight upon us, in the Text, Manus. there is still a Hand that
follows the blow, and presses it, Thy hand presses me sore; so the Vulgat read it, Con-
firmasti super me manum tuam, Thy hand is settled upon mee; and the Chalde
paraphrase carries it farther then to man, Sit super me vulnus manus tua; Thy hand
hath wounded mee, and that hand keeps the wound open. And in this sense the A-
postle says, It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Heb. 10. 31. But as
God leaves not his children without correction, so he leaves them not without com-
fort, and therefore it behoves us to consider his hand upon these arrows, more then
one way. First, because his hand is upon the arrow, it shall certainly hit the mark; Tua ut affli-
ctio. Gods pur-
pose cannot be disappointed. If men, and such men, left-handed men, and so many, 700
left-handed men, and so many of one Tribe, 700 Benjamites, Iud. 20. 16. could sling stones at a
hairs breadth, and not fail, God is a better Mark-man then the left-handed Benjamites;
his arrows alwayes hit as he intends them. Take them then for tribulation, his hand
is upon them; Though they come from the malice of men, his hand is upon them.
S. Ambrose observes, that in afflictions, Gods hand, and the Devils are but one hand.
Stretch out thy hand, says Satan to God, concerning Job; And, all that he hath is in
thy hand, says God to Satan. Stretch out thy hand, and touch his bones, says Satan a-
gain to God; And again, God to Satan, He is in thy hand, but touch not his life. A diffe-
rence may be, that when Gods purpose is but to punish, as he did Pharaoh, in those se-
verall
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verall premonitory plagues, there it is Digitus Dei; It was but a finger, Exod. 8. 19. and Gods fin-ger. When Balshazzar was absolutely to be destroyed, there were Digiti, Dan. 5. 5. and Manus
hominis, mens fingers, and upon a mans hand. The arrows of men are ordinary, more
venimous, and more piercing, then the arrows of God. 2 Reg. 13. 17. But as it is in that story of
Elisha, and Joash, The Prophet bade the King shoot, but Elisha laid his hand upon the
Kings hand; So from what instrument of Satan soever, thy affliction come, Gods hand
is upon their hand that shoot it, and though it may hit the mark according to their pur-
pose, yet it hath the effect, and it works according to his. Yea, let this arrow be considered as a tentation, yet his hand is upon it; Tua ut Pec-
catum. at least
God sees the shooting of it, and yet lets it flie. Either hee tries us by these arrows,
what proof we are; Or he punishes us by those arrows of new sins, for our former sins;
and so, when he hath lost one arrow, he shoots another. He shoots a sermon, and that
arrow is lost; He shoots a sicknesse, and that arrow is lost; He shoots a sin; not that
he is authour of any sin, as sin; but as sin is a punishment of sin, he concurs with it. And
so he shoots arrow after arrow, permits sin after sin, that at last some sin, that draws
affliction with it, might bring us to understanding; for that word, in which the Pro-
phet here expresses this sticking, and this fast sticking of these arrows, which is Na-
chath, is here, (as the Grammarians in that language call it) in Niphal, figere factæ,
they were made to stick; Gods hand is upon them, the work is his, the arrows are his,
and the sticking of them is his, whatsoever, and whosesoever they be. His hand shoots the arrow, as it is a tribulation, he limits it, whosoever inflict it. Tua ut Me-
dicamenta. His
hand shoots it, as it is a tentation; He permits it, & he orders it, whosoever offer it. But
it is especially from his hand, as it hath a medicinall nature in it; for in every tentation,
and every tribulation, there is a Catechisme, and Instruction; nay, there is a Canticle, a
love-song, an Epithalamion, a mariage song of God, to our souls, wrapped up, if wee
would open it, and read it, and learn that new tune, that musique of God; So when
thou hearest Nathans words to David, The child that is born unto thee, shall surely die, 2 Sam. 12. 14.
(let that signifie, the children of thy labour, and industry, thy fortune, thy state shall
perish) so when thou hear'st Gods word to 2 Sam. 24. David, Choose famine, or war, or pestilence, for
the people, (let that signifie, those that depend upon thee, shal perish) so when thou hear'st
Esays words to Hezekiah, Put thy house in order, for thou shalt die; (let that signifie, Esa. 38. thou
thy self in person shalt perish) so when thou hear'st all the judgements of God, as
they lie in the body of the Scriptures, so the applications of those judgements, by Gods
Ministers, in these services, upon emergent occasions, all these are arrows shot by the
hand of God, and that child of God, that is accustomed to the voice, and to the ear
of God, to speak with him in prayer, when God speaks to him, in any such voice here,
as that to David, or Hezekiah, though this be a shooting of arrows, Iob 41. 19. Non fugabit eum
vir sagittarius, The arrow, (as we read it) The Archer, (as the Romane Edition reades
it) cannot make that child of God afraid, afraid with a distrustfull fear, or make him
loth to come hither again to hear more, how close soever Gods arrow, and Gods ar-
cher, that is, his word in his servants mouth, come to that Conscience now, nor make
him mis-interpret that which he does hear, or call that passion in the Preacher, in which
the Preacher is but sagittarius Dei, the deliverer of Gods arrows; for Gods ar-
rows, are sagittæ Compunctionis, arrows that draw bloud from the eyes; Tears of repentance
from Mary Magdalen, and from Peter; And when from thee? There is a probatum est
in S. Aug. Sagittaveras cor meum, Thou hast shot at my heart; Confess. l. 9. c. 2. and how wrought
that? To the withdrawing of his tongue, à nundinis loquacitatis, from that market
in which I sold my self, (for S. Aug. at that time taught Rhetorique) to turn the stream
of his eloquence, and all his other good parts, upon the service of God in his Church.
You may have read, or heard that answer of a Generall, who was threatned with that
danger; that his enemies arrows were so many, as that they would cover the Sun from
him; In umbra pugnabimus; All the better, says he, for then we shall fight in the sha-
dow. Consider all the arrows of tribulation, even of tentation, to be directed by the
hand of God, and never doubt to fight it out with God, to lay violent hands up-
on heaven, to wrastle with God for a blessing, to charge and presse God upon his
contracts and promises, for in umbra pugnabis, though the clouds of these arrows may
hide all suns of worldly comforts from thee, yet thou art still under the shadow of his
wings. Nay, thou art still, for all this shadow, in the light of his countenance. To P3 which
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which purpose there is an excellent use of this Metaphor of arrows, Habak. 3. 11.
where it is said, that Gods servants shall have the light of his arrows, and the shining of
his glittering spear: that is, the light of his presence, in all the instruments, and actions
of his corrections. To end all, and to dismisse you with such a re-collection, as you may carry away Christus.
with you; literally, primarily, this text concerns David: He by tentations to sin, by
tribulations for sin, by comminations, and increpations upon sin, was bodily, and
ghostly become a quiver of arrows of all sorts; they stook, and stook fast, and stook
full in him, in all him. The Psalm hath a retrospect too, it looks back to Adam, and to eve-
ry particular man in his loines, and so, Davids case is our case, and all these arrowes
stick in all us. But the Psalm and the text hath also a prospect, and hath a propheticall
relation from David to our Saviour Christ Jesus. And of him, and of the multiplicity
of these arrows upon him in the exinanition, and evacuation of himself, in this world
for us, have many of the Ancients interpreted these words literally, and as in their first
and primary signification; Turne we therefore to him, before we goe, and he shall re-
turn home with us. How our first part of this text is applyable to him, that our prayers
to God, for ease in afflictions, may be grounded upon reasons, out of the sense of those
afflictions, Saint Basil tels us, that Christ therefore prays to his Father now in heaven,
to spare mankinde, because man had suffered so much, and drunk so deep of the bitter
cup of his anger, in his person and passion before: It is an avoidable plea, from
Christ in heaven, for us, Spare them O Lord in themselves, since thou didst not spare them
in me. And how far he was from sparing thee, we see in all those severall weights which
have aggravated his hand, and these arrowes upon us: If they be heavy upon us, much
more was their weight upon thee, every dram upon us was a Talent upon thee, Non do-
lor sicut dolor tuus, take Rachel weeping for her children, Mary weeping for her brother
Lazarus, Hezekiah for his health, Peter for his sins, Non est delor sicut dolor tuus. The
arrows that were shot at thee, were Alienæ, Afflictions that belonged to others; and
did not onely come from others, as ours doe; but they were alienæ so, Alienæ. as that they should
have fallen upon others; And all that should have fallen upon all others, were shot at
thee, and lighted upon thee. Lord, though we be not capable of sustaining that part,
this passion for others, give us that, which we may receive, Compassion with others. They
were veloces, these arrows met swiftly upon thee; from the sin of Adam that induced
death, to the sin of the last man, that shall not sleep, but be changed, Veloces. when thy hour came
they came all upon thee, in that hour. Lord put this swiftnesse into our sins, that in
this one minute, in which our eyes are open towards thee, and thine eares towards us,
our sins, all our sins, even from the impertinent frowardnesse of our childhood, to the un-
sufferable frowardnesse of our age, may meet in our present confessions, and repentances,
and never appear more. They were (as ours are too) Invisibiles; Invisibiles. Those arrows which
fell upon thee, were so invisible, so undiscernible, as that to this day, thy Church, thy
School cannot see, what kinde of arrow thou tookest into thy soul, what kinde of affli-
ction it was, that made thy soul heavy unto death, or dissolved thee into a gelly of
blood in thine agony. Be thou O Lord, a Father of Lights unto us, in all our ways and
works of darkenes; manifest unto us, whatsoever is necessary for us to know, & be a light
of understanding and grace before, and a light of comfort and mercy after any sin hath be-
nighted us. These arrows were, as ours are also, plures, Plures. plurall, many, infinite; they
were the sins of some that shall never thank thee, never know that thou borest their
sins, never know that they had any such sins to bee born. Lord teach us to number thy
corrections upon us, so, as still to see thy torments suffered for us, and our own sins, to
be infinitely more that occasioned those torments, then those corrections that thou
layst upon us. Thine arrows stook and stook fast in thee; the weight of thy torments,
thou wouldest not cast off, nor lessen, when at thy execution they offered thee, Fixæ. that
stupefying drink, (which was the civil charity of those times to condemned persons, Mar. 15. 23.
to give them an easier passage, in the agonies of death) thou wouldest not tast of that
cup of ease. Deliver us, O Lord, in all our tribulations, from turning to the miserable
comforters of this world, or from wishing or accepting any other deliverance, then
may improve and make better our Resurrection. These arrows were in thee, in all thee:
from thy Head torn with thorns, to thy feet pierced with nayls; and in thy soul so as
we know not how, so as to extort a Si possibile, If it be possible let this cup passe, and an Vt
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Vt quid dereliquisti, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Lord, whilest we re-main entire here, in body and soul, make us, and receive us an entire sacrifice to thee,
in directing body and soul to thy glory, and when thou shalt be pleased to take us in
pieces by death, receive our souls to thee, and lay up our bodies for thee, in consecrated
ground, and in a Christian buryall. And lastly, thine arrows were followed, and pressed
with the hand of God; The hand of God pressed upon thee, in that eternall decree, in that
irrevocable contract, between thy Father and thee, in that Oportuit pati, That all that thou
must suffer, and so enter into our glory. Establish us, O Lord, in all occasions of diffidences
here; and when thy hand presses our arrows upon us, enable us to see, that that very
hand, hath from all eternity written, and written in thine own blood, a decree of the
issue, as well, and as soon, as of the tentation. In which confidence of which decree,
as men, in the virtue thereof already in possession of heaven, we joyn with that Quire
in that service, in that Anthem, Blessing, and glory, and wisdome, and thanksgiving, Apoc. 7. 11, 12. and
honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever, and ever, Amen. Sermon XX.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
Psal. 38. 3. There is no soundnesse in my flesh, because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my
bones, because of my sinne. INIn that which is often reported to you, out of Saint Hierome, Titulus
clavis, that the title of the Psalme, is the key of the Psalm, there
is this good use, That the book of Psalms is a mysterious book; and,
if we had not a lock, every man would thrust in, and if we had not a
key, we could not get in our selves. Our lock is the analogy of the
Christian faith; That wee admit no other sense, of any place in any
Psalm, then may consist with the articles of the Christian faith; for so, no Heretique,
no Schismatique, shall get in by any countenance of any place in the Psalms: and then
our key is, that intimation which we receive in the title of the Psalm, what duty that
Psalm is principally directed upon; and so we get into the understanding of the Psalm,
and profiting by the Psalm. Our key in this Psalm, given us in the title thereof, is, that
it is Psalmus ad Recordationem, a Psalm of Remembrance; The faculty that is awake-
ned here, is our Memory. That plurall word nos, which was used by God, in the ma-
king of Man, when God said Faciamus, Let us, us make man, according to our image, as it
intimates a plurality, a concurrence of all the Trinity in our making, so doth it also a
plurality in that image of God, which was then imprinted in us; As God, one God crea-
ted us, so wee have a soul, one soul, that represents, and is some image of that one
God; As the three Persons of the Trinity created us, so we have, in our one soul, a
threefold impression of that image, and, as Saint Bernard calls it, A trinity from the Tri-
nity, in those three faculties of the soul, the Vnderstanding, the Will, and the Memory.
God calls often upon the first faculty, O that this people would but understand; But un-
derstand? Inscrutabilia judicia tua; Thy judgements are unsearchable, and thy ways
past finding out; And, oh that this people would not goe about to understand those un-
revealed decrees, and secrets of God. God calls often upon the other faculty, the Will too,
and complaines of the stiffe perversnesse, and opposition of that. Through all the Pro-
phets runs that charge, Noluerunt, and Noluerunt, they would not, they refused me, Nolu-
erunt audire, says God in Esay; They are rebellious children, that will not hear. 30. 9. Domus
Israel noluit, says God to Ezekiel, The house of Israel will not hear thee; 3. 7. not Thee, not
the minister; That's no marvail; it is added by God there, Noluit me, they will not
hear me. Noluerunt erubescere, says God to 3. 3. Ieremy, They will not be ashamed of their
former ways, And therefore Noluerunt reverti, They will not return to better ways: 5 3.5. 3. Hee
that is past shame of sin, is past recovery from sin. So Christ continues that practise, and
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and that complaint in the Gospel too; He sends forth his servants, (us) to call them, Mat. 22. 3.
that were bidden, Et noluerunt venire, and they would not come upon their call; Hee
comes himself, and would gather them, as a hen her chickens, and they would not; 23. 37. Their
fault is not laid in this, that they had no such faculty, as a will, (for then their not co-
ming were not their fault) but that they perverted that will. Of our perversenesse in
both faculties, understanding, and will, God may complain, but as much of our me-
mory; for, for the rectifying of the will, the understanding must be rectified; and that
implies great difficulty: But the memory is so familiar, and so present, and so ready a
faculty, as will always answer, if we will but speak to it, and aske it, what God hath
done for us, or for others. The art of salvation, is but the art of memory. When God
gave his people the Law, he proposes nothing to them, but by that way, to their me-
mory; I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt; Exod. 20. Remember but
that. And when we expresse Gods mercy to us, we attribute but that faculty to God,
that he remembers us; Lord, what is man, that thou art mindfull of him? Ps. 8.6. And when
God works so upon us, as that He makes his wonderfull works to be had in remembrance, 111. 4.
it is as great a mercy, as the very doing of those wonderfull works was before. It was
a seal upon a seal, a seal of confirmation, it was a sacrament upon a sacrament, when in
instituting the sacrament of his body and his bloud, Christ presented it so, Luc 22. 19. Doe this in
remembrance of me. Memorare novissima, remember the last things, and fear will keep
thee from sinning; Memorare præterita, remember the first things, what God hath done
for thee, and love, (love, which, mis-placed, hath transported thee upon many sins)
love will keep thee from sinning. Plato plac'd all learning in the memory; wee may
place all Religion in the memory too: All knowledge, that seems new to day, sayes
Plato, is but a remembring of that, which your soul knew before. All instruction,
which we can give you to day, is but the remembring you of the mercies of God, which
have been new every morning. Nay, he that hears no Sermons, he that reads no Scri-
ptures, hath the Bible without book; He hath a Genesis in his memory; he cannot for-
get his Creation; he hath an Exodus in his memory; he cannot forget that God hath
delivered him, from some kind of Egypt, from some oppression; He hath a Leviticus
in his memory; hee cannot forget, that God hath proposed to him some Law, some
rules to be observed. He hath all in his memory, even to the Revelation; God hath
revealed to him, even at midnight alone, what shall be his portion, in the next world;
And if he dare but remember that nights communication between God and him, he
is well-near learned enough. There may be enough in remembring our selves; but
sometimes, that's the hardest of all; many times we are farthest off from our selves;
most forgetfull of our selves. It was a narrow enlargement, it was an addition that di-
minish'd the sense, when our former Translators added that word, themselves; Ps. 22.27. All
the world shall remember themselves; there is no such particularity, as themselves, in
that text; But it is onely, as our later Translators have left it, All the world shall re-
member, and no more; Let them remember what they will, what they can, let them
but remember thoroughly, and then as it follows there, They shall turn unto the Lord,
and all the kindreds of the Nations shall worship him. Therefore David makes that the
key into this Psalme; Psalmus ad Recordationem, A Psalm for Remembrance. Being
lock'd up in a close prison, of multiplied calamities, this turns the key, this opens the
door, this restores him to liberty, if he can remember. Non est sanitas, there is no sound-
nesse, no health in my flesh; Doest thou wonder at that? Remember thy selfe, and thou
wilt see, that thy case is worse then so; That there is no rest in thy bones. That's true
too; But doest thou wonder at that? Remember thy self, and thou wilt see the cause
of all that, The Lord is angry with thee; Find'st thou that true, and wondrest why the
Lord should be angry with thee? Remember thy self well, and thou wilt see, it is be-
cause of thy sins, There is no soundnesse in my flesh, because of thine anger, neither is
there any rest in my bones, because of my sinne. So have I let you in, into the whole
Psalm, by this key, by awaking your memory, that it is a Psalm for Remembrance:
And that that you are to remember, is, that all calamities, that fall upon you, fall not
from the malice or power of man, but from the anger of God; And then, that Gods
anger fals not upon you, from his Hate, or his Decree, but from your sins, There is no
soundnesse in my flesh, because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones, because
of my sinne. Which
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Divisio.Which words we shall first consider, as they are our present object, as they are hi-storically, and literally to be understood of David; And secondly, in their retrospect, as
they look back upon the first Adam, and so concern Mankind collectively, and so you, and
I, and all have our portion in these calamities; And thirdly, we shall consider them in
their prospect, in their future relation to the second Adam, in Christ Jesus, in whom also
all mankinde was collected, and the calamities of all men had their Ocean and their
confluence, and the cause of them, the anger of God was more declared, and the cause
of that anger, that is sin, did more abound; for the sins of all the world were his, by
imputation, for this Psalm, some of our Expositors take to be a historicall, and perso-
nall Psalm, determin'd in David; some, a Catholique, and universall Psalm, extended
to the whole condition of man, and some a Propheticall, and Evangelicall Psalm, di-
rected upon Christ. None of them inconveniently; for we receive help and health, from
every one of these acceptations; first, Adam was the Patient, and so, his promise, the
promise that he received of a Messiah, is our physick; And then David was the Pati-
ent, and there, his Example is our physick; And lastly, Christ Jesus was the Patient,
and so, his blood is our physick. In Adam we shall finde the Scriptum est, the medicine
is in our books, an assurance of a Messiah there is; In David we shall find the Proba-
tum est, that this medicine wrought upon David; and in Christ we finde the deceit it self;
Thus you may take this physick, thus you may apply it to your selves. In every accep-
tation, as we consider it in David, in our selves, in Christ, we shall consider first, That
specification of humane misery and calamity, expressed here, sicknesse, and an univer-
sall sicknesse; No soundnesse in the flesh: And more then that, trouble, and an universall
trouble; No peace, no rest, not in the bones. And then in a second branch, we shall see, that
those calamities proceed from the anger of God; we cannot discharge them, upon Na-
ture, or Fortune, or Power, or Malice of Men or Times; They are from the anger of God, and
they are, as the Originall Text hath it, à facie iræ Dei, from the face of the anger of
God, from that anger of God that hath a face, that looks upon something in us, and
growes not out of a hate in God, or decree of God against us. And then lastly, this
that Gods anger lookes upon is sin; God is not angry till he see sin; nor with me,
till it come to be my sinne; and though Originall sinne be my sinne, and sicknesse, and
death would follow, though there were no more but Originall sinne, yet God comes
not to this, Non sanitas, No soundnesse in my flesh, nor to this, Non pax, No rest in my
bones, till I have made sinne, my sinne, by act, and habit too, by doing it, and using to
doe it. But then, though it bee but Peccatum in the singular, (so the Text hath it) One
sinne, yet for that one beloved sinne, especially when that my sinne comes to have a
face, (for so, the Originall phrase is in this place too, à facie peccati, from the face of
my sinne) when my sin looks bigge, and justifies it self, then come these calamities,
No soundnesse in the flesh, no rest in the bones, to their heighth, because the anger of God
which exalsexalts them, is in the exaltation: There is no soundnesse in my flesh, because of thine
anger, neither any rest in my bones, because of my sin. 1. Part.All these particulars will best arise to us in our second consideration, when wee
consider, Humanitatem, not Hominem, our humane condition, as we are all kneaded
up in Adam, and not this one person David. But because we are in the consideration of
health, and consequently of physick, (for the true and proper use of physick, is to pre-
serve health, and, but by accident to restore it) we embrace that Rule, Paracels. Medicorum theo-
ria experientia est, Practise is a Physicians study; and he concludes out of events: for,
says he, He that professes himself a Physician, without experience, Chronica de futuro
scribit, He undertakes to write a Chronicle of things before they are done, which is an
irregular, and a perverse way. Therefore, in this spirituall physick of the soul, we will
deal upon Experience too, and see first, how this wrought upon this particular person,
upon David. David durst not presume, that God could not, or would not bee angry. Anger is
not always a Defect, nor an inordinatenesse in man; Be angry, and sin not: Ephes. 4. 26. anger is not
utterly to be rooted out of our ground, and cast away, but transplanted; A Gardiner does
wel to grub up thornes in his garden; there they would hinder good herbes from grow-
ing; but he does well to plant those thorns in his hedges, there they keep bad neigh-
bours from entring. In many cases, where there is no anger, there is not much zeal.
David himself came to a high exaltation in this passion of anger. He was ordinarily so meek
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meek, as that that which we translate afflictions, the Vulgat Edition translates meek-nesse, and patience in his afflictions. Remember David and all his afflictions, Psal. 132. 1. says our tran-
slation; and Memento David & omnis mansuetudinis ejus, say they, Remember David,
and all his mildness. How mildly he endured Ioabs insultation; Thou lovest, says Ioab,
thine enemies, and thou hatest thy friends. Bitterly spoken; 2 Sam. 19. 6. Come out, and speak comforta-
bly, says Ioab, or, I swear by the Lord, there will not tarry a man with thee this night; Sedi-
tiously spoken; And David obeyed him. How mildly he endured Shimei's cursing? 2 Sam. 16. 5.
He cast stones at him and at all his servants; He charges him with murder; and, that
which is heaviest of all, he cals Absolons rebellion, a judgement of God; and David ac-
cepts it so, and says, The Lord hath bidden him to curse David. And yet this exemplar
mild man, David himself, upon a scorn offered to him by Hanun in the abuse of his
Ambassadours, goes himself in person, into a dangerous war, against the Ammonites,
assisted with 32000 chariots of their neighbours the Aramites, 2 Sam. 10. and there he destroys
those great numbers, which are mentioned in that story: and after this defeat, in cold
blood, 1 Chron. 19. he goes out against them, that had assisted them; He takes the City Rabbah,
and the people he cuts with Saws, and with Harrows of iron, and with Axes; David
saw that a mild man can grow angry, and that a fire that is long kindling, burns most
vehemently. That which is an Adage, and Proverb now, was ever true in substance,
Ab inimico flegmatico libera me Domine; from him that is long before hee be angry,
for he is long before hee be reconciled again. Gods goodnesse hath that disposition,
to bee long suffering; mans ilnesse and abuse of that, is able to inflame God. So Davids
sin had inflamed him; and the fire of Gods anger produced the calamities of this text
upon him: which our Expositors ordinarily take to have been historically this, that
when David had provoked God, with that sinfull confidence in numbring his people,
2 Sam. 24.17. when Gods anger was executed in that devouring plague, and David saw the persecu-
ting Angel, then à facie iræ Domini, from that face, that manifestation of Gods anger,
he fell into that dampe, and dead cold, that howsoever they covered him, 1 Reg. 1. they could
never get heat in him: And this was the sin, say our Expositors, and this was the anger,
and this was the manifestation, and this was the disease that David complains of here.
And be this enough of the personall acceptation of these words; There is no soundness
in my flesh, because of thine anger, neither is there rest in my bones, because of my sinne; for
in their second acceptation as they are referred to the miserable condition of all man-
kinde by sinne, the particulars which we laid down before, will fall into more parti-
cular consideration. 2. Part.
Miseria.In this second part, first we contemplate man, as the Receptacle, the Ocean of all
misery. Fire and Aire, Water and Earth, are not the Elements of man; Inward decay,
and outward violence, bodily pain, and sorrow of heart may be rather styled his Ele-
ments; And though he be destroyed by these, yet he consists of nothing but these.
As the good qualities of all creatures are not for their own use, (for the Sun sees not
his own glory, nor the Rose smells not her own breath: but all their good is for man)
so the ill conditions of the creature, are not directed upon themselves. (the Toad poi-
sons not it selfe, nor does the Viper bite it self) but all their ill powrs down upon man.
As though man could be a Microcosm, a world in himself, no other way, except all the
misery of the world fell upon him. Adam was able to decypher the nature of every
Creature in the name thereof, and the Holy Ghost hath decyphered his in his name
too; In all those names that the Holy Ghost hath given man, he hath declared him
miserable, for, Adam, (by which name God calls him, and Eve too) Gen. 5. 2. signifies but Red-
ness, but a Blushing: and whether we consider their low materials, as it was but earth,
or the redness of that earth, as they stained it with their own blood, and the blood of all
their posterity, and as they drew another more precious blood, the blood of the Mes-
sias upon it, every way both may be Adam, both may blush. So God called that pair,
our first Parents, man in that root, Adam: But the first name, by which God called
man in generall, mankinde, is Ish, Therefore shall a man leave his Father, &c. Gen. 2. 24. And Ish,
is but à sonitu, à rugitu: Man hath his name from crying, and the occasion of cry-
ing, misery, testified in his entrance into the world, for he is born crying; and our very
Laws presume, that if he be alive, he will cry, and if he be not heard cry, conclude
him to be born dead. And where man is called Gheber, (as he is often) which is derived
from Greatness, man is but great so, as that word signifies; It signifies a Giant, an op-
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oppressour, Great in power, and in a delight to doe great mischiefs upon others, or Great,
as he is a Great mark, and easily hit by others. But man hath a fourth name too in Scri-
pture, Enosh, and that signifies nothing but misery. When David says, Put them in
fear O Lord, that the Nations may know they are but men; Psal. 9. 20. there's that name Enosh, that
they are but miserable things. Adam is Blushing, Ish is lamenting, Geber is oppressing,
Enosh is all that; but especially that, which is especially notified for the misery in our
Text, Enosh is Homo æger, a man miserable, in particular, by the misery of sicknesse,
which is our next step, Non sanitas, There is no soundnesse, no health in me. Morbus. God created man in health, but health continued but a few hours, and sicknesse
hath had the Dominion 6000 years. But was man impassible before the fall? Had
there been no sicknesse, if there had been no sinne? Secundum passiones perfectivas, Aquin. we
acknowledge in the School, man was passible before: Every alteration is in a degree a
passion, a suffering; and so, in those things which conduced to his well-being, eating,
and sleeping, and other such, man was passible: that is, subject to alteration; But,
Secundum passiones destructivas, to such sufferings, as might frustrate the end for which
he was made, which was Immortality, he was not subject, and so, not to sicknesse.
Now he is; and put all the miseries, that man is subject to, together, sicknesse is more
then all. It is the immediate sword of God. Phalaris could invent a Bull; and others
have invented Wheels and Racks; but no persecutor could ever invent a sicknesse or a
way to inflict a sicknesse upon a condemned man: To a galley he can send him, and to the
gallows, and command execution that hour; but to a quartane fever, or to a gout, hee
cannot condemn him. In poverty I lack but other things; In banishment I lack but
other men; But in sicknesse, I lack my self. And, as the greatest misery of war, is, when
our own Country is made the seat of the war; so is it of affliction, when mine own Body
is made the subject thereof. How shall I put a just value upon Gods great blessings of
Wine, and Oyle, and Milke, and Honey, when my tast is gone, or of Liberty, when the
gout fetters my feet? The King may release me, and say, Let him goe whither he will,
but God says, He shall not goe till I will. God hath wrapped up all misery, in that con-
demnation, Morte morietur, That the sinner shall die twice: But if the second death did
not follow, the first death were an ease, and a blessing in many sicknesses. And
no sicknesse can be worse, then that which is intended here, for it is all over, Non sani-
tas, no soundnesse, no health in any part. Non sanitas. This consideration arises not onely from the Physicians Rule, that the best state of
Mans body is but a Neutrality, neither well nor ill, but Nulla sanitas, a state of true and
exquisit health, say they, no man hath. But not onely out of this strictnesse of Art,
but out of an acknowledgment of Nature, we must say, sanitas hujus vitæ, bene intelli-
gentibus, sanitas non est; Augustin. It is but our mistaking, when we call any thing Health. But
why so? fames naturalis morbus est; Hunger is a sicknesse; And that's naturally in us
all. Medicamentum famis cibus, & potus sitis, & fatigationis somnus; when I eate, I
doe but take Physique for Hunger, and for thirst, when I drink, and so is sleep my phy-
sique for wearinesse. Detrahe medicamentum, & interficient; for beare but these Phy-
siques, and these diseases, Hunger, and thirst, and wearinesse, will kill thee. And as this
sickness is upon us all, and so non sanitas, there is no Health, in none of us, so it is upon
us all, at all times, and so Non sanitas, there is never any soundness in us: for, Augustin. semper de-
ficimus; we are Borne in a Consumption, and as little as we are then, we grow less from
that time. Vita cursus ad mortem, Before we can craule, we runne to meet death; &
urgemur omnes pari passu: Though some are cast forward to death, by the use, which
others have of their ruine, and so throw them, through Discontents, into desperate en-
terprises; and some are drawn forward to death, by false Markes, which they have set
up to their own Ambitions; and some are spurred forward to death, by sharp Diseases
contracted by their own intemperance and licentiousness; and some are whip'd for-
ward to death, by the Miseries, and penuries of this life, take away all these acciden-
tall furtherances to death, this drawing, and driving, and spurring, and whipping, pari
passu urgemur omnes, we bring all with us into the world, that which carries us out of
the world, a naturall, unnaturall consuming of that radicall vertue, which sustaines our
life. Non sanitas, there is no health in any, so universall is sickness; nor at any time in
any, so universall; and so universall too, as that not in any part of any man, at any time.
As the King was but sick in his feet, and yet it killed him: 2 Chron. 16. 12. It was but in his feet, yet it flew
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flew up into his head, it affected his head; as our former translation observed it in their
margin; that the disease did not onely grow to a great height in the disease, but to the
highest parts of the body: It was at first but in the feet, but it was presently all over. Io-
siah the King was shot with an arrow at the battail of Megiddo; One book that reports
the story says he was carried out of the field alive & dyed at Ierusalem 2 Chron. 35. 24. and another, that
he was carried out of the field dead. 2 Reg. 23. 30. Deadly wounds & deadly sicknesses spread them-
selvs all over, so fast, as that the holy Ghost, in relating it, makes it all one, to tell the be-
ginning, and the end thereof. If a man doe but prick a finger, and binde it above that
part, so that the Spirits, or that which they call the Balsamum of the body, cannot de-
scend, by reason of that ligature, to that part, it will gangrene; And, (which is an
argument, and an evidence, that mischiefes are more operative, more insinuating,
more penetrative, more diligent, then Remedies against mischiefes are) when the Spirits,
and Balsamum of the body cannot passe by that ligature to that wound, yet the Gan-
grene will passe from that wound, by that ligature, to the body, to the Heart, and de-
stroy. In every part of the body death can finde a door, or make a breach; Mortall
diseases breed in every part. But when every part at once is diseased, death does not
b si e gebesiege him, but inhabit him. Eccles. 12. 3. In the day, when the keepers of the house shall tremble
and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease, because they are few, and
those that look out at the windows, be darkned, when age of Gods making, age grown by
many years, or age of the Devills making, age grown by many sinnes, hath spred an uni-
versall debility upon me, that all sicknesses are in me, & have all lost their names, as all
simples have in Triacle, I am sick of sicknesse, and not of a Fever, or any particular
distemper, then is the misery of this Text fallen upon me, Non sanitas, no health, none
at any time, none in any part, non in Carne, not in my flesh, not in my whole substance,
which is also another circumstance of exaltation in humane misery. Non in car-
ne. Take flesh in the largest extent and signification, that may be, as Moses calls God,
The God of the spirits of all flesh, that is, of the Beeing of all Creatures, and take all
these Creatures to be ours in that Donation, Numb. 27. 16. Subjicite & dominamini, subdue, and
rule all Creatures, yet there is no soundnesse in our flesh, for, all these Creatures are
corrupted, and become worse then they were, (to us) by the sinne of Adam. Bring
flesh to a nearer signification, to our own, there was Caro juxta naturam, and there is
Caro juxta culpam. Gregor. That flesh which was naturall to man, that which God gave man
at first, that had health and soundnesse in it; but yet not such a degree of soundnesse,
as that it needed no more, then it then had. That had been naturally enough, (if that
had been preserved to carry that flesh it selfe to heaven; but even that flesh if it had
not sinned, though it had an Immortality in it self, yet must have received a glorificati-
on in heaven; as well, (though in another measure) as those bodies, which shall be a-
live at the last day, and shall be but changed, and not dissolved in the dust, must receive
a glorification there, besides that preservation from dissolution. Now this Caro juxta
culpam, sinfull flesh, is farther from that Glorification; Our naturall flesh, when
it was at best, had some thing to put on; but our sinfull flesh hath also something to
put off, before it can receive glory. So then, for flesh in generall, the body of Crea-
tures, though that flesh be our flesh, because all Creatures are ours, in that flesh there is
no soundnesse, because they are become worse; for that flesh, which we call naturall,
Adams first flesh, besides that it was never capable of glory in it selfe, but must have re-
ceived that, by receiving the light of Gods presence, there is none of that flesh re-
maining now; now universa caro, all flesh is corrupted; and that curse is gone upon
it, The glory of Iacob shall be empoverished, and the fatnesse of his flesh shall be made leane.
Esay 4. 17.Quia elatum sumpsimus spiritum, because we have raised our spirits in pride, higher then
God would, Ecce defluens quotidie portamus lutum, Gregory. Behold God hath walled us with
mud walls, and wet mud walls, that waste away faster, then God meant at first, they
should. And by sinnes, this flesh, that is but the loame and plaster of thy Tabernacle,
thy body, that, all, that, that in the intire substance is corrupted. Those Gummes, and
spices, which should embalme thy flesh, when thou art dead, are spent upon that disea-
sed body whilest thou art alive: Thou seemest, in the eye of the world, to walk in
silks, and thou doest but walke in searcloth; Thou hast a desire to please some eyes,
when thou hast much to doe, not to displease every Nose; and thou wilt solicite an a-
dulterous entrance into their beds, who, if they should but see thee goe into thine own bed,
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bed, would need no other mortification, nor answer to thy solicitation. Thou pursuest
the works of the flesh, and hast none, for thy flesh is but dust held together by plai-
sters; Dissolution and putrefaction is gone over thee alive; Thou hast over liv'd
thine own death, and art become thine own ghost, and thine own hell; No soundnesse in
all thy flesh; and yet beyond all these, beyond the generall miserable condition of
man, and the highest of humane miseries, sicknesse, and sicknesse over all the
parts, and so over them all, as that it hath putrefied them all, there is another
degree, which followes in our Text, and David calls Trouble, There is no sound-
nesse in my flesh, nor rest in my bones. Non Pax. That which such a sicke man most needs, this sick soule shall not have, Rest.
The Physician goes out, and says, hee hath left him to Rest, but hee hath left
no Rest to him. The anguish of the disease, nay, the officiousnesse of visitors,
will not let him rest. Such send to see him as would faine heare hee were dead,
and such weep about his sick-bed, as would not weep at his grave. Psal. 41. 5. Mine enemies
speake evill of mee, (says David) and say, When shall hee die, and his name perish?
And yet these evill-speaking enemies come there to see him. ver. 6. They say, an evill
disease cleaveth fast unto him; and that they say is true, but they say it not out
of compassion, for they adde, And now that hee lyeth, let him rise no more. Hee
shall not get to that good trouble, to that holy disquiet of a conscientious con-
sideration, how his state was got; and, it shall bee a greater trouble then hee can
overcome, how to dispose it: He shall not onely not make a religious restitution,
but he shall not make a discreet Will. He shall suspect his wifes fidelity, and his chil-
drens frugality, and clogge them with Executors, and them with Over-seers, and
be, or be afraid hee shall bee over-seen in all. And yet a farther trouble then all this,
is intended in the other word, which is the last and highest of these vexations, Non in
ossibus, no rest in my bones. In ossibus. Saint Basil will needs have us leave the obvious, and the naturall signification of
this, Bones; for, Habet & anima ossa sua, says he, The soule hath Bones, as well as
the body, and there shall be no Rest in those Bones. Such a signification is apply-
able to the Flesh, as well as the Bones; The flesh may signifie the lower faculties
of the soule, or the weaker works of the higher faculties thereof; There may bee a
Carnality in the understanding; a concupiscence of disputation, and controversie
in unnecessary points. Requirit quod sibi respondere nequit, Grego. The mind of a curious
man delights to examine it selfe upon Interrogatories, which, upon the Racke,
it cannot answer, and to vexe it selfe with such doubts as it cannot resolve.
Sub eo ignara deficit, quod prudenter requirit; Wee will needs shew wit in mo-
ving subtile questions, and the more ignorance, in not being able to give our
selves satisfaction. But not onely seditions, and contentions, but Heresies too, Gal. 5. 20. are
called workes of the flesh; howsoever men thinke themselves wittie, and subtile,
and spirituall in these wranglings, yet they have carnall respects, they are of the
flesh, and there is no soundnes in them. But beyond this carnality in matters of Opinions,
in points of a higher nature, this diseased man in our Text, comes to trouble in his Bones,
S. Basils spirituall bones: Hee shall suspect his Religion, suspect his Repentance, suspect
the Comforts of the Minister, suspect the efficacy of the Sacrament, suspect the
mercy of God himselfe. Every fit of an Ague is an Earth-quake that swal-
lows him, every fainting of the knee, is a step to Hell; every lying down at night
is a funerall; & every quaking is a rising to judgment; every bell that distinguishes times,
is a passing-bell, and every passing-bell, his own; every singing in the ear, is an Angels
Trumpet; at every dimnesse of the candle, he heares that voice, Fool, this night they
will fetch away thy soul; and in every judgement denounced against sin, he hears an Ito
maledicte upon himselfe, Goe thou accursed into hell fire. And whereas such
meditations as these, might sustaine a rectified soule, as Bones in this sin-
ner, despaire shall have suck'd out all the marrow of these Bones, and so there
shall bee no soundnesse in his flesh, no rest in his bones. And so have you this
sicke sinner dissected and anatomized; Hee hath not onely his portion in mi-
sery that lies upon all mankinde, which was our first branch, but in the heavyest of all,
sicknesse, which was a second, and then a third sicknesse spread over all, no soundnesse,
nor rest in that sicknesse, which was a fourth consideration, No soundnesse in his flesh, Q in
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in his weaker faculties and operations, No rest in his bones, no acquiescence in his
best actions, with which we end this first part. In which, wee consider sinfull man,
in himself, and so all is desperate; But in the second, where we find him upon the
consideration of the cause of all these distresses, That it is from the Contem-
plation of the anger of God, There is no soundnesse in my flesh, because of thine
Anger, there wee shall finde a way offered to him, that may, if hee pursue it a-
right, bring him to a Reparation, to a Redintegration; for, if hee look upon the
Anger of God in a right line, it will shew him, that as that Anger is the cause
of his Calamities, so his sinnes are the cause of that Anger. Ira Dei. May wee not piously apply that Proverbiall speech, Corruptio optimi pessima,
(that when good things take in another nature then their own, they take it in the
highest exaltation) thus, that when God, who is all mercy, growes angry, he becomes
all anger? The Holy Ghost himselfe seemes to have given us leave to make that
application, when expressing God in the height of his anger, hee calls God then,
in that anger, a Dove; wee read it the fiercenesse of an oppressour, but Saint Hierome
reads it, The anger of a Dove. Ier. 25. ult. And truly there is no other word then that, in that
tongue, (the word is Ionah,) that signifies a Dove, and that word does signifie a Dove,
in many other places of Scripture; And that Prophet which made his flight from
God, when hee sent him to Nineveh, is called by that name, Ionah, a Dove;
And the Fathers of the Latine Church, have read, and interpreted it so, of a
Dove. Some of them take Nebuchadnezzar to be this angry Dove, because hee left
his owne Dove-coat to feed abroad, to prey upon them; and some, because the Dove
was the Armes and Ensigne of the Assyrians from the time of Semiramis; But
the rest take this Dove to bee God himselfe, and that the sinnes of men had
put a Gall into a Dove, Anger into God. And then, to what height that anger
growes, is expressed in the Prophet Hosea; I will meet them, says God, (when
hee is pleased, he says, hee will wait for them) as a Bear, 13.8. (no longer a Dove) as
a Bear robbed of her whelpes, (sensible of his injuries) and I will rent the caule of
their hearts, (shiver them in peeces with a dispersion, with a discerption) And I will
devour them as with a Lyon, (nothing shall re-unite them again But I will break them as
a Potters vessell, that cannot be made whole again.) Ier. 19. 11. Honour not the malice of thine ene-
my so much, as to say, thy misery comes from him: Dishonour not the complexion of
the times so much, as to say, thy misery comes from them; justifie not the Deity
of Fortune so much, as to say, thy misery comes from her; Finde God pleased with
thee, and thou hast a hook in the nostrils of every Leviathan, power cannot shake thee,
Iob 40. 19. Thou hast a wood to cast into the waters of Marah, the bitternesse of the times can-
not hurt thee, Exod. 15. 23. thou hast a Rock to dwell upon, and the dream of a Fortunes wheel, can
not overturn thee. But if the Lord be angry, he needs no Trumpets to call in Armies,
if he doe but sibilare muscam, hisse and whisper for the flye, and the Bee, there is no-
thing so little in his hand, as cannot discomfort thee, discomfit thee, dissolve and powr
out, attenuate and annihilate the very marrow of thy soul. Every thing is His, and
therefore every thing is Hee; thy sicknesse is his sword, and therefore it is Hee
that strikes thee with it, still turne upon that consideration, the Lord is angry;
But then look that anger in the face, take it in the right line, as the Originall phrase
in this text directs, à facie iræ Dei, There is no soundnesse in my flesh, from the face of
thine anger. A facie iræ. As there is a Manifestation of Gods anger in this phrase, The face of Gods anger,
so there is a Multiplication, a plurality too, for it is indeed, Mippenei à faciebus,
the faces, the divers manifestations of Gods anger; for, the face of God, (and
so of every thing proceeding from God) is that, by which God, Aug. or that work of God
is manifested to us. And therefore since God manifests his anger so many usefull,
and medicinall ways unto thee, take heed of looking upon his anger, where his
anger hath no face, no manifestation; take heed of imagining an anger in God, a-
mounting to thy Damnation, in any such Decree, as that God should be angry with
thee in that height, without looking upon thy sinnes, or without any declaration
why hee is angry. Hee opens his face to thee in his Law, he manifests himself to thee in
the Conditions, by which he hath made thy salvation possible, and till he see thee,
in the transgression of them, he is not angry. And when he is angry so, be glad he shews it
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it in his face, in his outward declarations; that fire smothered, would consume all Gods
anger reserved till the last day, will last as long as that day, as that undeterminable
day, for ever. When should we goe about to quench that fire, that never bursts out,
or to seek reconciliation, before a hostility be declared? Therefore Saint Bernard begs
this anger at Gods hands, Irascaris mihi Domine, O Lord, be angry with me; And
therefore David thanks God, in the behalf of that people, for his anger, Psalm 99. 8. Thou forgavest
them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions. The fires of hell, in their place,
in hell, have no light; But any degrees of the fires of Hell, that can break out in this
life, have, in Gods own purpose, so much light, as that through the darkest smother of
obduration, or desperation, God would have us see him. Therefore Saint Hierome
makes this milder use of this phrase, that God shewes faciem iræ, but non iram, that
his face of anger is rather a telling us, that hee will bee angry, then that hee is angry
yet; the corrections that God inflicts to reduce us, if wee profit not by them,
were anger Ab initio, wee shall suffer for the sinnes, from which those correcti-
ons should have reduced us, and for that particular sinne, of not being reduced
by them; but if they have their effect, there was not a drop of gall, there was
not a dramme of anger in the anger. Now that that God intends in them is,
that as wee apprehend our calamities to proceed from Gods anger, and to dis-
charge Destiny, and Fortune, so wee apprehend that anger to proceed from
our own sinnes, and so discharge God himselfe; There is no rest in my bones because
of my sin. 3 Part.
Peccatum. As we are the sons of Dust, (worse, the sonnes of Death) we must say to Corruption,
Thou art my Father, and to the worm, Thou art my Mother, so we may say to the anger of
God, it is our grandfather, that begot these miseries, but wee must say too, to our Iob 17. 14.
sinne, Thou art my great-grandfather, that begot Gods anger upon us: and here is
our wofull pedegree, howsoever wee be otherwise descended. Gregor. 'Tis true, there is no
soundnesse, there is misery enough upon thee; and true, that God is angry, vehemently
angry; But, Expone juststiam iræ Dei, deal clearly with the world, and clear God, and
confesse it is because of thy sinne. When Cain says, My sin is greater then can be for-
given, Gen. 4. that word Gnavon is ambiguous, it may bee sinne, it may bee punish-
ment, and wee know not whether his impatience grew out of the horrour
of his sinne, or the weight of his punishment. But here wee are directed by
a word that hath no ambiguity; Kata signifies sin, and nothing but sinne; Here the
holy Ghost hath fixed thee upon a word, that will not suffer thee to consider the pu-
nishment, nor the cause of the punishment, the anger, but the cause of that anger, and all,
the sin. Wee see that the bodily sicknesse, and the death of many is attributed to
one kind of sinne, to the negligent receiving of the Sacrament, 1 Cor. 11. 30. For this cause many
are weak and sick amongst you, and many sleep. Imaginem judicii ostenderat, Ambrose. God had
given a representation of the day of Judgement in that proceeding of his, for then
we shall see many men condemned for sinnes, for which we never suspected them:
so wee thinke men dye of Fevers, whom we met lately at the Sacrament, and God
hath cut them off perhaps for that sin of their unworthy receiving the Sacrament.
My miseries are the fruits of this Tree; Gods anger is the arms that spreads it; but the
root is sin. My sin, which is another consideration. Meum. We say of a Possession, Transit cum onere, It passes to me, with the burthen that
my Father laid upon it; his debt is my debt: so does it, with the sin too; his sin, by
which he got that possession, is my sin, if I know it: and, perchance, the punishment
mine, though I know not the sin. Adams sin, 6000 years agoe, is my sin; and their sin,
that shall sinne by occasion of any wanton writings of mine, will be my sin, though
they come after. Wofull riddle; sin is but a privation, and yet there is not such another
positive possession: sin is nothing, and yet there is nothing else; I sinned in the first
man that ever was; and, but for the mercy of God, in something that I have said or
done, might sin, that is, occasion sin, in the last man that ever shall be. But that sin that
is called my sinne in this text, is that that is become mine by an habituall practise, or
mine by a wilfull relapse into it. And so my sin may kindle the anger of God, though
it bee but a single sinne, One sinne, as it is delivered here in the singular, and no far-
ther, Because of my sinne. Singulare. Every man may find in himself, Peccatum complicatum, sinne wrapped up in sinne, a Q2 body
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body of sin. We bring Elements of our own; earth of Covetousnesse, water of un-steadfastnesse, ayre of putrefaction, and fire of licentiousnesse; and of these elements
we make a body of sinne; as the Apostle says of the Naturall body, 1 Cor. 12. 20. There are many
members, but one body, so we may say of our sin, it hath a wanton eye, a griping hand,
an itching ear, an insatiable heart, and feet swift to shed blood, and yet it is but one
body of sin; It is all, and yet it is but One. But let it be simply, and singularly but One,
(which is a miracle in sin, truly I think an impossibility in sin, to be single, to be but One)
(for that unclean Spirit, which possessed the man that dwelt amongst the tombs, Mar. 5. carryed
it at first, as though he had been a single Devill, and he alone in that man, I, I adjure thee,
says he to Christ, and torment not me, not me, so far in the singular, but when Christ
puts him to it, he confesses, we are many, and my name is legion: So though thy sinne,
slightly examined, may seem but One, yet if thou dare presse it, it will confesse a plu-
rality, a legion) if it be but One, yet if that One be made thine, by an habituall love to
it, as the plague needs not the help of a Consumption to kill thee, so neither does Adul-
tery need the help of Murder to damn thee. For this making of any One sin, thine,
thine, by an habituall love thereof, will grow up to the last and heaviest waight, in-
timated in that phrase, which is also in this clause of the Text, In facie paccati; that
this sin will have a face, that is, a confidence, and a devesting of all bashfulnes or disguises. Facies pec-
cati. There cannot bee a heavier punishment laid upon any sinne, then Christ lays upon
scandall: It were better for him a mil-stone were hanged about his neck, and hee drowned
in the Sea. Luke 17. 2. If something worse, then such a death, belong to him, surely it is eternall
Death. And this, this eternall death, is interminated by Christ, in cases, where
there is not always sinne, in the action which wee doe, but if we doe any action, so, as
that it may scandalize another, or occasion sin in him, we are bound to study, and fa-
vour the weaknesse of other men, and not to doe such things, as they may think sins.
We must prevent the mis-interpretation, yea the malice of other men; for though the
fire be theirs, the fewell, or at least, the bellows, is ours; The uncharitablenesse, the ma-
lice is in them, but the awaking, and the stirring thereof, is in our carelesnesse, who
were not watchfull upon our actions. But when an action comes to be sin indeed, and
not onely occasionally sin, because it scandalizes another, but really sin in it selfe, then e-
ven the Poet tels you, Maxima debetur pueris reverentia, si quid Turpe paras, Take
heed of doing any sinne, in the sight of thy Child: for, if we break through that wall,
we shall come quickly to that faciem Sacerdotis non erubuerunt, they will not be afraid,
nor ashamed in the presence of the Priest, Lam. 4.16. they will look him in the face, nay receive at
his hands, and yet sin their sinne, that minute, in their hearts; and to that also, faciem
seniorum non erubuerunt, they will not be afraid, nor ashamed of the Office of the Ma-
gistrate; but sin for nothing, or sin at a price, bear out, or buy out all their sins. They sin as
Sodom, and bide it not, is the highest charge that the Holy Ghost could lay upon the
sinner. When they come to say, Our lips are ours, who is Lord ever us? Psal. 12. 4. They will say so
of their hands, and of all their bodies, They are ours, who shall forbid us, to doe what wee
will with them? And what lack these open sinners of the last judgement, and the con-
demnation therof? That judgement is, that men shall stand naked in the sight of one
another, and all their sinnes shall be made manifest to all; and this open sinner, does so,
and chuses to doe so, even in this world. When David prays so devoutly, Psal. 19. 12. to be clean-
sed from his secret sins; and Saint Paul glories so devoutly, in having 2 Cor. 4. 2.renounced the hid-
den things of dishonesty, how great a burthen is there, in these open and avowed sins;
sins that have put on so brasen a face, as to out-face the Minister, and out-face the Ma-
gistrate, and call the very Power, and Justice of God in question, whether he do hate
or can punish a sinne? for, they doe what they can to remove that opinion out of mens
hearts. Truly, as an Hypocrite at Church, may doe more good, then a devout
man in his Chamber at home, be causebecause the Hypocrites outward piety, though
counterfeit, imprints a good example upon them, who doe not know it to bee
counterfeit, and wee cannot know, that he that is absent from Church now, is now at
his prayers in his Chamber: so a lesser sinne done with an open avowment, and confi-
dence, may more prejudice the Kingdome of God, then greater in secret. And this is
that which may be principally intended, or, at least, usefully raised out of this phrase of
the Holy Ghost in David, A facie peccati, that the habituall sinner comes to sin, not
onely with a negligence, who know it, but with a glorious desire, that all the world might
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might know it; and with a shame, that any such Judge as feared not God nor re-garded man Luke 18.2., should be more feareless of God, or regardless of man, then he. But now, beloved, when we have laid man thus low, Miserable, because Man, and
then Diseased, and that all over, without any soundnesse, even in his whole substance,
in his flesh, and in the height of this disease, Restlesse too, and Restlesse even in his
bones, diffident in his strongest assurances; And when we have laid him lower then that,
made him see the Cause of all this misery to be the Anger of God, the inevitable anger
of an incensed God, and such an anger of God as hath a face, a manifestation, a reality,
and not that God was angry with him in a Decree, before he shewed man his face in the
Law, and saw Mans face in the transgression of the law; And laid him lower then that
too, made him see the cause of this anger, as it is sinne, so to be his sinne, sinne made
his by an habituall love thereof, which, though it may be but one, yet is become an
out-facing sinne, a sinne in Contempt and confidence, when we have laid Man, laid you,
thus low, in your own eyes, we returne to the Canon and rule of that Physician whom
they call Evangelistam medicinæ, the Evangelist of Physique, Mesues. Sit intentio prima in omni
medicina comfortare, whether the physician purge, or lance, or sear, his principall care,
and his end, is to comfort and strengthen: so though we have insisted upon Humane
misery, and the cause of that, the anger of God, and the cause of that anger, sinne in that
excesse, yet we shall dismisse you with that Consolation, which was first in our intenti-
on, and shall be our conclusion, that as this Text hath a personall aspect upon David a-
lone, and therefore we gave you his case, and then a generall retrospect upon Adam, and
all in him, and therefore we gave you your own case, so it hath also an Evangelicall
prospect upon Christ, and therefore, for your comfort, and as a bundle of Myrrhe in
your bosomes, we shall give you his case too, to whom these words belong, as well as
to Adam, or David, or you; There is no soundnesse in my flesh, because of thine anger,
neither is there any rest in my bones, because of my sinne. Christus. If you will see the miseries of Man, in their exaltation, and in their accumulation too,
in their weight, and in their number, take them in the Ecce homo, when Christ was pre-
sented from Pilate, scourged and scorned, Ecce homo, behold man, in that man, in the
Prophets; They have reproched the footsteps of thine Anointed, says David, Psal. 89. 51. slandred his
actions, and conversation; He hath no form, nor comlinesse, nor beauty, that we should de-
sire to see him, says Esay; 53. 2. Despised, rejected of men; A man of sorrows, and acquainted
with griefes. And Ecce homo, behold man, in that man, in the whole history of the
Gospell. That which is said of us, of sinfull men, is true in him, the salvation of
men, Esay 1. 6.from the sole of the foot, even unto the Head, there is no soundnesse, but
wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores. That question will never receive answer, which
Christ askes, Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow? Lam. 1. 12. Never was, never will there be
any sorrow like unto his sorrow, because there can never be such a person, to suffer sorrow.
Affliction was upon him, and upon all him; for, His soule was heavy unto death; Even
upon his Bones; fire was sent into his bones, and it prevailed against him. ver. 13. And the highest
cause of this affliction was upon him, the anger of God; ver. 12. The Lord had afflicted him, in
the day of his fierce anger. The height of Gods anger, is Dereliction; and he was
brought to his Vt quid dereliquisti, My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? We did
esteem him striken of the Lord, says Esay; 53. 4. And we were not deceived in it; Percutiam
pastorem, says Christ himselfe of himselfe, out of the Prophet, Mat. 26. 31.
Zech. 13. 7.I will smite the shepheard,
and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered; And then, the cause of this anger, sinne, was so
upon him, as that, though in one consideration, the raine was upon all the world, and
onely this fleece of Gedeon dry, all the world surrounded with sinne, and onely He inno-
cent, yet in another line we finde all the world dry, and onely Gedeons fleece wet, Iud. 6. all the
world innocent, and onely Christ guilty. Esay 5. 3. But, as there is a Verè tulit, and a Verè portavit,
surely he bore those griefes, and surely he carried those sorrows, so they were Verè nostri,
surely he hath borne our griefes, and carried our sorrows, he was wounded for our trans-
gression and bruised for our iniquities; The Chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and therefore it must necessarily follow, (as it does follow there) with his stripes wee
were healed; for, God will not exact a debt twice; of Christ for me, and of me too.
And therefore, Quare moriemini Domus Israel? Ezek. 18. since I have made ye of the houshold
of Israel, why will ye die? since ye are recovered of your former sicknesses, why will
yes die of a new disease, of a suspicion, or jealousie, that this recovery, this redemption in Q3 Christ
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Christ Jesus belongs not to you? Will ye say, Heb. 10. It is a fearfull thing to fall into the
hands, Dei viventis, of the living God? 'Tis so; a fearfull thing; But if Deus mortu-
us, the God of life bee but dead for mee, be fallen into my hands, applied to mee,
made mine, it is no fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hippocrates. Non
satis est medicum fecisse suum officium, nisi ægrotus, & adstantes sua; It is not enough
for Christ Jesus to have prepared you the balm of his bloud, not enough for us, to mi-
nister it to you, except every one of you help himself, in a faithfull application, and
help one another, in a holy and exemplar conversation. Chrysost. Quàm exactè, & accuratè u-
sus dictionibus? How exact and curious was the holy Ghost, in David, in choice of
words? He does not say, Non sanitas mihi, sed non in carne; not that there is no health for
me, but none in me; non in carne mea, not in my flesh, but in carne ejus, in the flesh
and bloud of my Saviour, there is health, and salvation. In ossibus ejus, in his bones, in
the strength of his merits, there is rest, and peace, à facie peccati, what face soever
my sin have had, in my former presumptions, or what face soever they put on now, in
my declination to desperation. The Lord waiteth that he may have mercy upon you; Esa. 30.18. He
stays your leisure; and therefore will he be exalted, (says that Prophet there) that hee
may have mercy upon you; He hath chosen that for his way of honour, of exaltati-
on, that he may have mercy upon you. And then, Quare moriemini? If God bee so
respective towards you, as to wait for you, if God be so ambitious of you, as to af-
fect a kingdome in you, why will ye die? since he will not let ye die of Covetousnesse,
of adultery, of ambition, of prophanenesse in your selves, why will yee die of jealousie,
of suspition in him? It was a mercifull voice of David; 2 Sam. 9.1. Is there yet any man left of the
house of Saul, that I may shew mercy for Jonathans sake? It is the voice of God to
you all, Is there yet any man of the house of Adam, that I may shew mercy for Christ Je-
sus sake? that takes Christ Jesus in his arms, and interposes him, between his sins, and
mine indignation, and non morietur, that man shall not die. We have done; Paracels. Est ars
sanandorum morborum medicina, non rhetorica; Our physick is not eloquence, not di-
rected upon your affections, but upon your consciences; To that wee present this for
physick, The whole need not a Physician, but the sick doe. If you mistake your selves
to be well, or think you have physick enough at home, knowledge enough, divinity e-
nough, to save you without us, you need no Physician; that is, a Physician can doe
you no good; but then is this Gods physick, and Gods Physician welcome unto you,
if you be come to a remorsefull sense, and to an humble, and penitent acknowledge-
ment, that you are sick, and that there is no soundnesse in your flesh, because of his anger,
nor any rest in your bones, because of your sins, till you turn upon him, in whom this an-
ger is appeas'd, and in whom these sins are forgiven, the Son of his love, the Son of
his right hand, at his right hand Christ Jesus. And to this glorious Sonne of God,
&c. Sermon XXI.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
Psalme 38. 4.
For mine iniquities are gone over my head, as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for
mee. DAvidDavid having in the former verses of this Psalm assign'd a reason, why he
was bound to pray, because he was in misery, (O Lord rebuke me not in
thine anger, for thine arrows stick fast in mee) And a reason why hee
should be in misery, because God was angry, (Thy hand presseth me sore
v. 2. And, there is no soundnesse in my flesh, because of thine anger, v.3.)
And a reason, why God should be angry, because he had sinn'd, (There is no rest in
my bones, because of my sin, in the same verse) He proceeds to a reason, why this pray-
er of his must be vehement, why these miseries of his are so violent, and why Gods anger
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anger is permanent, and he findes all this to be, because in his sins, all these venimous
qualities, vehemence, violence, and continuance, were complicated, and enwrapp'd; for,
hee had sinn'd vehemently, in the rage of lust, and violently, in the effusion of bloud,
and permanently, in a long, and senslesse security. They are all contracted in this Text,
into two kinds, which will be our two parts, in handling these words; first, the super-
gressæ super, Mine iniquities are gone over my head, there's the multiplicity, the num-
ber, the succession, and so the continuation of his sin: and then, the Gravatæ super,
My sins are as a heavy burden, too heavy for me, there's the greatnesse, the weight, the
insupportablenesse of his sin. S. Augustine cals these two distinctions, or considerati-
ons of sin, Ignorantiam, & Difficultatem; first, that David was ignorant, that he saw
not the Tide, as it swell'd up upon him, Abyssus Abyssum, Depth call'd upon Depth;
and, all thy waters, and all thy billows are gone over me, (says he, in another place) hee
perceiv'd them not coming till they were over him, he discern'd not his particular sins,
Ps. 42. 7. then when he committed them, till they came to the supergressæ super, to that height,
that he was overflowed, surrounded, his iniquities were gone over his head, and in that
S. Aug. notes Ignorantiam, his in-observance, his inconsideration of his own case; and
then he notes Difficultatem, the hardnesse of recovering, because he that is under wa-
ter, hath no aire to see by, no aire to hear by, he hath nothing to reach to, he touches
not ground, to push him up, he feels no bough to pull him up, and therein that Fa-
ther notes Difficultatem, the hardnesse of recovering. Now Moses expresses these two
miseries together, in the destruction of the Egyptians, in his song, after Israels delive-
rance, and the Egyptians submersion, The Depths have covered them, (there's the su-
pergressæ super, their iniquities, in that punishment of their iniquities, Exod. 15. 5. were gone over
their heads) And then, They sank into the bottome as a stone (says Moses) there's the gra-
vatæ super, they depressed them, suppressed them, oppressed them, they were under
them, and there they must lie. The Egyptians had, David had, we have too many sins, to swim above water, and
too great sins to get above water again, when we are sunk; The number of sins then,
and the greatnesse of sin, will be our two parts; the dangers are equall, to multiply
many lesser sins, or to commit a few, more hainous: except the danger be greater,
(as indeed it may justly seem to be) in the multiplication, and custome, and habit of
lesser sins; but how great is the danger then, how desperate is our state, when our sins
are great in themselves, and multiplied too? In his many sins, we shall touch thus many circumstances: First, Divisio. they were pecca-
ta, sins, iniquities; and then peccata sua, his sins, his iniquities, which intimates actuall
sins; for though God inflict miseries for originall sin, (death, and that, that induces it,
sicknesse, and the like) yet those are miseries common to all, because the sin is so too;
But these, are his punishments, personall calamities, and the sins are his own sins; And
then, (which is a third circumstance) they are sins in the plurall, God is not thus an-
gry for one sin; And again, they are such sins, as have been long in going, and are now
got over, supergressæ sunt, they are gone, gone over; And then lastly, for that first
part, supergressæ Caput, they are gone my head, In which exaltation, is intima-
ted all this; first, sicut tectum, sicut fornix, they are over his head, as a roofe, as a
cieling, as an Arch, they have made a wall of separation, betwixt God and us, so they
are above our head; And then sicut clamor, they are ascended as a noise, they are got
up to heaven, and cry to God for vengeance, so they are above our head; And again
sicut aquæ, they are risen and swollen as waters, they compass us, they smother us, they
blinde us, they stupefie us, so they are above our head; But lastly and principally, si-
cut Dominus, they are got above us, as a Tyran, and an usurper, for so they are above
our head too: And in these we shall determine our first part. When from thence we
come to our second part, in which, (as in this we shall have done their number) we shall
consider their greatnesse, we finde them first heavy, sinne is no light matter; And then,
they are too heavy, a little weight would but ballast us, this sinkes us; Too heavy
for me, even for a man equall to David; and where is he? when is that man? for,
says our text, they are as heavy, as a heavy Burden; And the nature, and incovenience
of a Burden is, first to Crooken, and bend us downward from our naturall posture,
which is erect, for this incurvation implies a declination in the inordinate love of the
Creature, Incurvat. And then the nature of a burden is, to Tyre us; our very sinne be-
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becomes fulsome, and wearisome to us, fatigat; and it hath this inconvenience too, ut
retardet, it slackens our pace, in our right course though we be not tired, yet we can-
not goe so fast, as we should in any way towards godliness; and lastly, this is the in-
convenience of a burden too, ut præcipitet, it makes us still apt and ready to stumble,
and to fall under it: It crookens us, it deprives us of our rectitude; it tires us, extin-
guishes our alacrity; It slackens us, enfeebles and intepidates our zeale; It occasi-
ons our stumbling, opens and submits us, to every emergent tentation. And these be
the dangers, and the mischievous inconveniences, notified to us, in those two Elegan-
cies of the holy Ghost, the supergressæ, the multiplicity of sinnes, They are gone over my
head, and the gravatæ, They are a heavy burden, too heavy for me. First then, all these things are literally spoken of David; By application, of us;
David. and by figure, of Christ. Historically, David; morally, we; Typically, Christ is the sub-
ject of this text. In Davids person, we shal insist no longer upon them, but onely to look
upon the two generall parts, the multiplicity of his sinne, and the weight and greatnesse
thereof: And that onely in the matter of Vriah, as the Holy Ghost, 1 Reg. 15. 5. (without reproch-
ing the adultery or the murder, after Davids repentance) vouchsafes to mollifie his ma-
nifold, and his hainous sinne. First, he did wrong to a loyall and a faithfull servant;
and who can hope to be well served, that does so? He corrupted that woman, who for
ought appearing to the contrary, had otherwise preserved her honour, Psal. 50. 18. and her Consci-
ence entire; It is a sinne, To runne with a theife when thou seest him, or to have thy por-
tion with them that are adulterers already; to accompany them in their sinne, who
have an inclination to that sinne before, is a sinne; but to solicite them, who have no
such inclination, nor, but for thy solicitation, would have had, is much more inexcu-
sable. In Davids sinne, there was thus much more, he defrauded some, to whom his
love was due, in dividing himselfe with a strange woman. To steale from another man,
though it be to give to the poor, and to such poor, as would otherwise sterve, if that
had not been stollen, is injustice, is a sinne. To divide that heart, which is intirely given
to a wife, in mariage, with another woman, is a sinne, though she, to whom it is so
given, pretend, or might truly suffer much torment and anguish if it were not done.
Davids sinne flew up to a higher spheare; He drew the enemy to blaspheme the name of
God, in the victory over Israel, where Vriah was slaine: God hates nothing more in
great persons, then that prevarication, to pretend to assist his cause, and promove his
Religion, and yet underhand give the enemies of that Religion, way to grow greater.
His sinnes, indeed, were too many to be numbred; too great too, to be weighed in
comparison with others. Vriah was innocent towards him, and faithfull in his imploy-
ment, and, at that time, in an actuall, and in a dangerous service, for his person, for
the State, for the Church. Him David betrays in his letter to Ioab; Him David
makes the instrument of his own death, by carrying those letters, the warrants of his
own execution; And he makes Ioab, a man of honour, his instrument for a murder
to cover an adultery. Thus many sinnes, and these heavy degrees of sin, were in this
one; and how many, and how weighty, were in that, of numbring of his people, 1 Chron. 21. 1. wee
know not. We know, that Satan provoked him to doe it; and we know, that Ioab,
who seconded and accomplished his desire in the murder of Vriah, did yet disswade,
and dis-counsell this numbring of the people, and not out of reason of State, but as an
expresse sin. Put all together, and lesse then all, we are sure David belied not himself,
ver. 3. His iniquities were gone over his head, and as a heavy burden, they were too heavy for
him; Though this will be a good rule, for the most part, in all Davids confessions
and lamentations, that though that be always literally true of himself, for the sinne,
or for the punishment, which he says, personally David did suffer, that which he com-
plains of in the Psalms, in a great measure, yet David speaks prophetically, as well as
personally, and to us, who exceed him in his sins, the exaltation of those miseries, which
we finde so often in this book, are especially intended; That which David relates to
have been his own case, he foresees will be ours too, in a higher degree. And that's
our second, and our principall object of all those circumstances, in the multiplicity,
and in the hainousnesse of sin; And therefore, to that second part, these considerations
in our selves, we make thus much hast.
First then, they were peccata, sins, iniquities. And we must not think to ease our
selves in that subtilty of the School, Peccatum nihil; That sin is nothing, because sinne had
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had no creation, sin hath no reality, sin is but a deflection from, but a privation of the
rectitude required in our actions; that’s true; ’tis true, that is said by Catarinus, Let
wives be subject to their husbands in omnibus, in every thing, omnium appellatione, in
Scripturis, nunquam venit malum Eph. 5. 24. wheresoever the Scripture says all things, it never
means any ill thing, quia malum, ut malum, defectio est, nihil est, because, says hee,
ill things, are no things, ill, considered as ill, is nothing; for, whatsoever is any thing,
was made by God, and ill, sin, is no creature of his making. This is true; but that
will not ease my soul, no more then it will ease my body, that sicknesse is nothing, and
death is nothing: for, death hath no reality, no creation, death is but a privation; & dam-
nation, as it is the everlasting losse of the sight and presence of God, is but a privati-
on. And therefore as we fear death, and fear damnation, though in discourse, and in
disputation, we can make a school-shift, to call them nothing, and but privations, so
let us fear sin too, for all this imaginary nothingnesse, which the heat of School hath
smoak’d it withall. Sin is so far from being nothing, as that there is nothing else but sin in us: sin hath Vniversality
of sin.
not onely a place, but a Palace, a Throne, not onely a beeing, but a dominion, even
in our best actions: and if every action of ours must needs be denominated from the
degrees of good, or of bad, that are in it, howsoever there may be some tincture of
some morall goodnesse, in some actions, every action will prove a sin, that is, vitia-
ted and depraved with more ill, then rectified with good conditions. And then, e-
very Treason of Sin sin with prove læsio Dei, a violence, a wound inflicted upon God himselfe, and
therefore it is not nothing. It is strangely said in the Roman Church, for the establishing of their kind of veni-
all Coster. sin, that every sin is not læsio Dei, a violation, and a wounding of God, because
God is charity, and charity is not extinguished by every sin. The Priest and the Levite neglected the man, that lay in his bloud, in the way to
Jericho; but they did not argue so, Tush this man is not hurt, for we see him breathe,
and move. Out of the Civill Law, we assign divers Diminutiones Capitis, many things,
that are called capitall, and yet doe not take away mans life; And it were strangely
concluded, that a man were not hurt in his head, because he was not beheaded. Yet
so they conclude, that say, a veniall sin is not læsio Dei, not a violation of God, who
is charity, because it does not extinguish charity: so that, at the last, nothing shall be
sin with them, except it kill God; that is, nothing. And indeed they have brought it
too near to that, when they have left no sin, which may not be bought out after, no
sin, to which, by some just consequence, and inference upon some points of their do-
ctrine, a man may not be encouraged before. Turpis omnis pars suo universo non con-
sentiens; August. Every lim that is not proportionable to the whole body, deforms the bo-
dy. God made a body of goodnesse; Deformity of sin. all good; and he that enters an ill action, a sin, de-
forms this body of God, defaces this work of his making. Mentis principatus in pec-
cato obliviscimur; Leo. we resigne, we disavow that soveraignty, which God has given
us, when we sin.
God spake not onely of the beasts of the forest, but of those beasts, that is, those
Slavery of sin. brutish affections, that are in us, when he saidSubjicite & dominamini, subdue, and
govern the world; and in sinning we lose this dominion over our selves, and forfeit
our dominion over the creature too. Qui peccat, quatenus peccat, seipso deterior; Clem. Alex. E-
very sin leaves us worse, then it found us, and we rise poorer, ignobler, weaker, for
Debility of sin. every nights sin, then we lay down. Plerumque non implemus bonum propositum, ne
offendamus eos quibscum vivimus; August.
Facility of sin. If any good purpose arise in us, we dare not pur-
sue it, for fear of displeasing those, with whom we live, and to whom we have a rela-
tion, and a dependence upon them. We sin, and sin, and sin, lest our abstinence from
sin, should work as an increpation, as a rebuke upon them that doe sin; for this they
will call an ambition in us, that being their inferiours, we goe about to be their betters,
if we will needs be better, that is, less vicious than they. First then, personally in
himselfe, prophetically in us, David laments our state, quia peccata, because we are
under sin, sin which is a depravation of man in himself, and a deprivation of God from
man. And then our next cause of lamentation is, the propriety in sin, that they are no-
stra, our own, iniquitates meæ, says David, My sins, Mine iniquities are gone over my
head.
Wee
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We are not all Davids, amabiles, lovely and beloved in that measure that David
was, Sua. men according to Gods heart: But we are all Adams, terrestres, and lutosi, earth,
and durty earth, red, and bloudy earth, and therefore in our selves, as deriv'd from
him, let us finde, and lament all these numbers, and all these weights of sin. Here we
are all born to a patrimony, to an inheritance; an inheritance, a patrimony of sin;
and we are all good husbands, and thrive too fast upon that stock, upon the encrease
of sin, even to the treasuring up of sin, and the wrath of God for sin. How naked so-
ever we came out of our mothers wombe, otherwise, thus we came all apparell'd, ap-
parell'd and invested in sin; And we multiply this wardrobe, with new habits, habits
of customary sins, every day. Every man hath an answer to that question of the A-
postle, What hast thou, that thou hast not received from God? Every man must say, I
have pride in my heart, wantonnesse in mine eyes, oppression in my hands; and that I
never receiv'd from God. Our sins are our own; and we have a covetousnesse of
more; a way, to make other mens sins ours too, by drawing them to a fellowship
in our sins. I must be beholden to the loyalty and honesty of my wife, whether my
children be mine own, or no; for, he whose eye waiteth for the evening, the adulterer,
may rob me of that propriety. I must be beholden to the protection of the Law, whe-
ther my goods shall be mine, or no; A potent adversary, a corrupt Judge may rob
me of that propriety. I must be beholden to my Physician, whether my health, and
strength shal be mine, or no; A garment negligently left off, a disorderly meal may rob
me of that propriety. But without asking any man leave, my sins will be mine own.
When the presumptuous men say, Our lips are our own, and our tongues are our own, Ps. 12. the
Lord threatens to cut off those lips, and those tongues. But except we doe come to
say, Our sins are our own, God will never cut up that root in us, God will never blot
out the memory in himself, of those sins. Nothing can make them none of ours, but
the avowing of them, the confessing of them to be ours. Onely in this way, I am a
holy lier, and in this the God of truth will reward my lie; for, if I say my sins are
mine own, they are none of mine, but, by that confessing and appropriating of those
sins to my selfe, they are made the sins of him, who hath suffered enough for all, my
blessed Lord, and Saviour Christ Jesus. Therefore that servant of God, S. August.
confesses those sins, which he never did, to be his sins, and to have been forgiven him:
Peccata mihi dimissa fateor, & quæ mea sponte feci, & quæ te duce non feci; Those sins
which I have done, and those, which, but for thy grace, I should have done, are all, my
sins. Alas, I may die here, and die under an everlasting condemnation of fornicati-
on with that woman, that lives, and dies a Virgin, and be damn'd for a murderer of
that man, that out-lives me, and for a robbery, and oppression, where no man is dam-
nified, nor any penny lost. The sin that I have done, the sin that I would have done,
is my sin. We must not therefore transfer our sins upon any other. Wee must not
think to discharge our selves upon a Peccata Patris; To come to say, Non patris. My father thriv'd
well in this course, why should not I proceed in it? My father was of this Religion,
why should not I continue in it? How often is it said in the Scriptures, of evill Kings,
he did evill in the sight of the Lord, and walk'd in via Patris, in the way of his father?
father in the singular; It is never said plurally, In via Patrum; in the way of his fa-
thers. Gods blessings in this world, are express'd so, in the plurall, thou gavest this
land patribus, to their fathers, says Solomon, in the dedication of the Temple; 1 Reg. 8. 48.
v. 53.
v. 57.
37. 25. And,
thou brought'st Patres, our Fathers out of Egypt; And again, Be with us, Lord, as
thou wast with our Fathers; So; in Ezekiel, where your Fathers dwelt, you, their
children, shall dwell too, and your children, and their childrens children for ever. His
blessings upon his Saints, his holy ones in this world, are expressed so, plurally, and
so is the transmigration of his Saints out of this world also; Thou shalt sleep cum pa-
tribus, Deut. 31. 13. with thy fathers, says God to Moses; And David slept cum patribus, with his
fathers; And Jacob had that care of himselfe, as of that in which consisted, 1 Reg. 2. 10. or in
which, was testified the blessing of God, I will lie cum patribus, with my fathers, and
be buried in their burying place, says Jacob to his son Joseph: Good ways, Gen. 47. 30. and good
ends are in the plurall, and have many examples; else they are not good; but sins are
in the singular, He walk'd in the way of his father, is in an ill way: But carry our man-
ners, or carry our Religion high enough, and we shall finde a good rule in our fathers:
Stand in the way, says God in Jeremy, and ask for the old way, which is the good way. 6. 16. We must
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must put off veterem hominem, but not antiquum; Wee may put off that Religion,
which we think old, because it is a little elder then our selves, and not rely upon that,
it was the Religion of my Father. But Antiquissimum dierum, Him, whose name is, He
that is, and was, and is for ever, and so involves, and enwraps in himself all the Fathers,
him we must put on. Be that our issue with our adversaries at Rome, By the Fathers,
the Fathers in the plurall, when those fathers unanimely deliver any thing dogmatical-
ly, for matter of faith, we are content to be tried by the Fathers, the Fathers in that
plurall. But by that one Father, who begets his children, not upon the true mother, the
Church, but upon the Court, and so produces articles of faith, according as State bu-
sinesses, and civill occasions invite him, by that father we must refuse to be tried: for,
to limit it in particular, to my father, we must say with Nehemiah, Ego & domus patris
mei, Nihem. 1. If I make my fathers house my Church, my father my Bishop, I, and my fathers
house have sinned, says he; and with Mordecai to Esther, Thou, and thy fathers house
shall be destroyed. 4. 51. They are not peccata patris, I cannot excuse my sins, upon the example of my fa-
ther: nor are they peccata Temporis, Non temporis. I cannot discharge my sins upon the Times, and
upon the present ill disposition that reigns in men now, and doe ill, because every bo-
dy else does so. To say, there is a rot, and therefore the sheep must perish; Corrupti-
ons in Religion are crept in, and work in every corner, and therefore Gods sheep,
simple souls, must be content to admit the infection of this rot. That there is a mur-
rain, and therefore cattell must die; superstition practis'd in many places and there-
fore the strong servants of God, must come to sacrifice their obedience to it, or their
bloud for it. Then no such rot, no such murrain, no such corruption of times, as
can lay a necessity, or can afford an excuse to them who are corrupted with the times.
As it is not pax temporis, such a State-peace, as takes away honour, that secures a Na-
tion, nor such a Church-peace, as takes away zeal, that secures a conscience, so neither
is it peccatum temporis, an observation what other men incline to, but what truth,
what integrity thou declin'st from, that appertains to thy consideration. It is not peccatum ætatis; not the sin of thy father, not the sin of the times, Non ætatis. not
the sin of thine own years. That thou shouldst say in thy old age, in excuse of thy co-
vetousnesse, All these things have I observed from my youth, I have lived temperately,
continently all my life, and therefore may be allowed one sin for mine ease in mine
age. Or, that thou shouldest say in thy youth, I will retire my self in mine age, and live
contentedly with a little then, but now, how vain were it to goe about to keep out a
tide, or to quench the heats, and impetuous violence of youth? But fuge juveni-
lia desideria, fly also youthfull lusts; 2 Tim. 2. 22. And lest God hear not thee at last, when thou comest
with that petition, Remember not the sins of my youth, Remember thou thy Creator, Ps. 25. 7.
Eccles. 12. 1. now
in the days of thy youth: for, if thou think it enough to say, I have but liv'd, as other
men have liv'd, wantonly, thou wilt finde some examples to die by too; and die, as
other old men, old in years, and old in sins, have died too, negligently, or fearfully;
without any sense at all, or all their sense turned into fearfull apprehensions, and des-
peration. They are not peccata ætatis, such sins, as men of that age must needs commit, Non artis. nor
peccata artis, such sins as men of thy calling, or thy profession, cannot avoid; that
thou should'st say, I shall not be beleeved to understand my profession, as well as other
men, if I live not by it, as well as other men doe. Is there no being a Carpenter, Esa. 44. 13. but
that after he hath warmed him by the chips, and baked, and roasted by it, hee must
needs make an idoll of his wood, & worship it? Is there no being a Silver-smith, Acts 19. 24. but he
must needs make shrines for Diana of the Ephesians, as Demetrius did? No being a
Lawyer, without serving the passion of the Client? no being a Divine, without sowing
pillows under great mens elbows? It is not the sin of thy Calling that oppresses
thee; As a man may commit a massacre, in a single murder, and kill many in one man,
if he kill one, upon whom many depended, so is that man a generall libeller, that
defames a lawfull Calling, by his abusing thereof; that lives so scandalously in the
Ministery, as to defame the Ministery it self, or so imperiously in the Magistracy, as to
defame the Magistracy it self, as though it were but an engine, and instrument of
oppression, or so unjustly in any Calling, as his abuse dishonours the Calling it self.
God hath instituted Callings, for the conservation of order in generall, not for the justifi-
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justification of disorders in any particular. For he that justifies his faults by his calling,
hath not yet received that calling from above, whereby he must be justified, and sancti-
fied in the way, and glorified in the end. There is no lawfull calling, in which, a man
may not be an honest man. It is not peccatum Magistratus, thou canst not excuse thy selfe upon the unjust com-
mand of thy superiour; Non Magi-
stratus. that's the blinde and implicite obedience practised in the
Church of Rome; Nor peccatum Pastoris, the ill example of thy Pastor, whose life coun-
ter-preaches his doctrine, for, that shall aggravate his, but not excuse thy sinne; Nor
Peccata Cœli, the influence of Stars, concluding a fatality, amongst the Gentiles, or such
a working of a necessary, and inevitable, and unconditioned Decree of God, as may
shut up the ways of a Religious walking in this life, or a happy resting in the life to
come; It is none of these, not the sinne of thy Father, not the sinne of the present
times, not the sin of thy years, and age, nor of thy calling, nor of the Magistrate, nor
of thy Pastor, nor of Destiny, nor of decrees, but it is peccatum tuum, thy sin, thy own
sin. And not onely thy sin so, as Adams sin is communicated to thee, by propagation
of Originall sin; for, so thou mightest have some colour to discharge thy selfe upon
him, as he did upon Eve, and Eve upon the Serpent; Though in truth it make no dif-
ference, in this spirituall debt, of that sin, who is first in the bond: Adam may stand first,
but yet thou art no surety but a Principall, and for thy selfe; and he, and thou are
equally subject to the penalty. For though Saint Augustine confesse, that there are
many things concerning Originall sin, of which he is utterly ignorant yet of this he
would have no man ignorant, that to the guiltinesse of originall sin, our own wills con-
curre as well as to any actuall sin: An involuntary act, cannot be a sinfull act; and
though our will work not now, in the admitting of originall sin, which enters with our
soule in our conception, or in our inanimation and quickening, yet, at first, August. Sicut omini-
um natura, ita omnium voluntates erant in Adam, as every man was in Adam, so every
faculty of every man, and consequently the will of every man concurred to that sin,
which therefore lies upon every man now: So that that debt, Originall sin, is as much
thine as his; And for the other debts, which grow out of this debt, (as nothing is so
generative, so multiplying, as debts are, especially spirituall debts, sins) for actuall sins,
they are thine, out of thine own choice; Thou mightest have left them undone, and
wouldest needs doe them; for God never induces any man into a perplexity, that is,
into a necessity of doing any particular sin. Thou couldest have disswaded a Son, or
a friend, or a servant, from that sin, which thou hast embraced thy selfe: Thou hast
been so farre from having been forced to those sins, which thou hast done, as that thou
hast been sorry, thou couldest not doe them, in a greater measure. They are thine,
thine own, so, as that thou canst not discharge thy selfe upon the Devill; Chrysost. but art, by
the habit of sin, become Spontaneus Dæmon, a Devill to thy selfe, and wouldest mini-
ster tentations to thy selfe, though there were no other Devill. And this is our propri-
ety in sin; They are our own. This is the propriety of thy sin; The next is the Plurality, the Plural. multiplicity, iniqui-
tates; Not onely the committing of one sin often; and yet, he deceives himselfe in his
account dangerously, that reckons but upon one sin, because he is guilty but of one
kinde of sin. Would a man say he had but one wound, if he were shot seven times in
the same place? Could the Jews deny, that they flead Christ, with their second or
third or twentieth blow, because they had torne skin, and flesh, with their former
scourges, and had left nothing but bones to wound? But it is not onely that, the re-
peating of the same sin often, but it is the multiplicity of divers kinds of sins, that is
here lamented in all our behalfes. It is not when the conscience is tender, and afraid
of every sin, 2 Reg. 5. and every appearance of sin. When Naaman desired pardon of God by
the Prophet, for sustaining the King upon his knees, in the house of Rimmon, the Idol,
and the Prophet bad him goe in peace, it is not that he allows him any peace under the
conscience, and guiltinesse of a sin; That was indispensable. Neither is their any dis-
pensation in Naamans case, but onely a rectifying of a tender and timoruostimorous conscience,
that thought that to be a sin, which was not, if it went no further, but to the exhibi-
ting of a Civill duty to his Master, in what place soever, Religious, or prophane, that
service of kneeling were to be done. Naamans service was truely no sin; but it had
been a sin in him to have done it, when he thought it to be a sin. And therefore the Pro-
phets
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phets phrase, Goe in peace, may well be interpreted so, set thy minde at rest; for all that,
that thou requirest, may be done without sin. Now that tendernesse of conscience is not
in our case in the Text. He that proceeds so, to examine all his actions, may meet scru-
ples all the way, that may give him some anxiety, and vexation, but he shall never come
to that overflowing of sin, intended in this plurality, and multiplicity here. For, this
plurality, this multiplicity of sin, hath found first a spunginesse in the soul, an aptnesse
to receive any liquor, to embrace any sin, that is offered to it; and after a while, a hun-
ger and thirst in the soul, to hunt, and pant and draw after a tentation, and not to be
able to endure any vacuum, any discontinuance, or intermission of sinne: and hee will
come to think it a melancholique thing, still to stand in fear of Hell; a sordid, a yeo-
manly thing, still to be plowing, and weeding, and worming a conscience; a mechani-
call thing, still to be removing logs, or filing iron, still to be busied in removing occa-
sions of tentation, or filing and clearing particular actions: and, at last he will come
to that case, which S. Augustine out of an abundant ingenuity, and tendernesse, and
compunction, confesses of himself, Ne vituperarer; vitiosior fiebam, I was fain to sin,
lest I should lose my credit, and be under-valued; Et ubi non suberat, quo admisso,
æquarer perditis, when I had no means to doe some sins, whereby I might be equall
to my fellow, Fingebam me fecisse quod non feceram, ne viderer abjectior, quo innocen-
tior, I would bely my self, and say I had done that, which I never did, lest I should
be under-valued for not having done it. Audiebam eos exaltantes flagitia, sayes that
tender blessed Father, I saw it was thought wit, to make Sonnets of their own sinnes,
Et libebat facere, non libidine facti, sed libidine laudis, I sinn'd, not for the pleasure I had
in the sin, but for the pride that I had to write feelingly of it. O what a Leviathan is
sin, how vast, how immense a body! And then, what a spawner, how numerous! Between
these two, the denying of sins, which we have done, and the bragging of sins, which we
have not done, what a space, what a compasse is there, for millions of millions of sins!
And so have you the nature of sin, which was our first; The propriety of sin, which was
our second; and the plurality, the multiplicity of sin, which was our third branch; And
follows next, the exaltation thereof; supergressæ sunt, My sins are gone over my head. They are, that is, they are already got above us; Supergressæ
sunt. for in that case we consider this
plurall, this manifold sinner, that he hath slipt his time of preventing, or resisting
his sins; His habits of sins are got, already got above him. 1 Reg. 18. 41. Elisha bids his man look
towards the Sea, and he saw nothing; He bids him look again, and again to a seventh
time, and he saw nothing. After all, he sees but a little cloud, like a mans hand;
and yet, upon that little appearance, the Prophet warns the King, to get him into
his Chariot, and make good hast away, lest the rain stopp'd his passage, for, in-
stantly the heaven was black, with clouds, and rain. The sinner will see nothing, till
he can see nothing; and, when he sees any thing, (as to the blindest conscience some-
thing will appear) he thinks it but a little cloud, but a melancholique fit, and, in an in-
stant, (for 7 years make but an instant to that man, that thinks of himself, but once in
7 years) Supergressæ sunt, his sins are got above him, and his way out is stopp'd. The
Sun is got over us now, though we saw none of his motions, and so are our sins, though
we saw not their steps. You know how confident our adversaries are in that argument,
Why doe ye oppugne our doctrine of prayer for the dead, or of Invocation of Saints, or of the
fire of Purgatory, since you cannot assigne us a time, when these doctrines came into the
Church, or that they were opposed or contradicted, when they entred? When a consci-
ence comes to that inquisition, to an iniquitates supergressæ, to consider that our sins are
gone over our head, in any of those ways, wch we have spoken of, if we offer to awaken
that conscience farther, it startles, & it answers us drowsily, or frowardly, like a new wak'd
man, Can you remember when you sin'd this sin first, or did you resist it then, or since?
whence comes this troublesome singularity now? pray let me sleep still, says this start-
led conscience. Beloved, if we fear not the wetting of our foot in sin, it will be too late,
when we are over head and ears. Gods deliverance of his children, was sicco pede, hee
made the sea dry land, and they wet not their foot. At first, in the creation, Exod. 14. subjecit omnia
sub pedibus, God put all things under their feet; In mans wayes, in this world, his
Angels beare us up in their hands; why? Ne impingamus pedem, Ps. 8. 7. that we should not
hurt our foot against a stone, but have a care of every step we make. If thou have
defiled thy feet, (strayed into any unclean ways) wash them again, and stop there, and R there,that
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that will bring thee to the consideration of the Spouse, I have washed my feet, Cant. 5. 3. how shall I
then defile thē again? I have found mercy for my former sins, how shal I dare to provoke
God wth more? stil God appoints us a permanēt means to tread sin under our feet here,
in this life; The woman, that is, the Church, hath the Moon, that is, all transitory things, Apoc. 12.
(& so, all tentatiōs) under her feet; As Christ himself expressed his care of Peter, to consist
in that, That if his feet were washed, all was clean; And as in his own person he admitted
nails in his feet, as wel as in his hands, so crucifie thy hands, abstain frō unjust actions, but
crucifie thy feet too, make not one step towards the way of Idolaters, or other sinners.
If we watch not the ingressus sum, we shall be insensible of the supergressæ sunt; If we look
not to a sin, when it comes towards us, we shal not be able to look towards it, when it is
got over us: for, if a man come to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, he wil come to sit
in the seat of the scornful; for, that's the sinners progress, in the first warning that David
gives in the beginning of his 1t Psal. If he give himself leave to enter into sinful ways, he
wil sit & sin at ease, & make a jest of sin; & he that loveth danger, shal perish therein. So
have you then the nature of sin; it was sin that oppressed him; and the propriety of sin,
it was his sin, actuall sin; and the plurality of sin, habituall, customary sin; and the victory
of sin, they had been long climing, and were now got up to a height; and this height &
exaltation of theirs, is expressed thus, super caput, Mine iniquities are got above my head. S. Augustine, (who truly had either never true copy of the Bible, Super caput. or else cited some-
times, as the words were in his memory, and not as they were in the Text) he reads not
these words so, supergressæ super caput, but thus, sustulerunt caput; And so he interprets
the words, not that his sins had got over his head, and depressed his head, subdued and
subjugated his head, but that they had extoll'd his head, made him lift his head high,
and say, Who is the Lord? Sursum tollitur, says he upon this place, cui erigitur caput contra
Deum, his head is exalted, who is set against God. And certainly, that's a desperate state
in sin, when a man thinks himself the wiser, or the better, or the more powerfull for his
sin; That he can the better stand upon his own legs, or the lesse needs the assistance of
God, because he hath prosper'd in the world, by the ways of sin. S. August’ is an useful
mistaking, but it is a mistaking. But to pursue the right word, and the true meaning of
this metaphoricall expressing, supergressæ caput, My sins are got above my head, sin may
be got to our foot, & yet not to the eye. A man may stray into company of tentations,
& yet not be tempted; A man may make a covenant with his eye, that he will not see a maid. Iob.
Sin may come to the eye, & yet the hand be above water; we may look, & lust, & yet, by
Gods watchfull goodnes, & studious mercy, escape action. But if it be above our head,
then the brain is drown'd that is, our reason, and understanding, which should dispute a-
gainst it, and make us asham'd of it, or afraid of it; And our memory is drown'd, we have
forgot that there belongs a repentance to our sins, perchance forgot that there is such a
sin in us; forgot that those actions are sins, forgot that we have done those actions;
and forgot that there is a law, even in our own hearts, by which we might try, whether
our actions were sins, or no. If they be above our heads, they are so, in many dangerous
acceptations. Of which, the first is, that they cover our heads sicut tectum, sicut fornix,
as a roof, as an arch, as a separation between God and us. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, says the Prophet. Tectum.
Esa. 59. 2. A wall
of separation between man and man, even in the service of God, there was always; a
wall of Gods making; that is, the Ceremoniall Law, by which God enclos'd the Jews
from the Gentiles. But this was but a side wall, and Christ threw it down; He is our peace, Eph. 2. 14.
says the Apostle, and hath made of both one, and hath broken the stop of the partition wall;
This he did when he opened the Gentiles a way into his religion. This wall was the di-
stinction between the Jew, & Gentile, when the Jew call'd thē ignominiously Incircum-
cisos, uncircumcised, and they call'd the Jews, with as much scorn, Recutitos, & Apellas;
when the Jew wondred at the Gentiles eating of unclean things, and the Gentiles won-
dred to hear them call things, of as good nourishment, as their clean meats, uncleane;
when the Jew placed his holinesse in singularity, and ceremonies of distinction, and
the Gentiles call'd that but a pride in them, and a scornefull detestation of their neigh-
bours. And truly it is a lamentable thing, when ceremoniall things in matter of di-
scipline, or problematicall things in matter of doctrine, come so farre, as to separate
us from one another, in giving ill names to one another. Zeal is directed upon God, and
charity upon our brethren; but God will not be seen, but by that spectacle; not accept any
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any thing for an act of zeal to himself, that violates charity towards our brethren, by
the way. Neither should we call any man Lutheran, or Calvinist, or by any other name,
ignominiously, but for such things, as had been condemned in Luther, or Calvin, and
condemned by such, as are competent Judges between them, and us; that is, by the u-
niversall, or by our own Church. This wall then, between the Jew and Gentile, (as it
was the ceremony it self, and not the abuse of it) God built, and Christ threw downe.
There are outward things, Ceremoniall things, in the worship of God, that are tempo-
rary, and they did serve God that brought them in, and they doe serve God also, that
have driven them out of the Church, because their undeniable abuse had clog'd them
with an impossibility of being restor'd to that good use, which they were at first ordai-
ned for; of which, the brazen serpent is evidence enough. God set up a wall, which
God himself meant should be demolish'd again. Such another wal, (as well as the Devil
can imitate Gods workmanship) the Devil hath built now in the Christian Church; and
hath morter'd it in the brains & bloud of men, in the sharp and virulent contentions a-
risen, and fomented in matters of Religion. But yet, says the Spouse, Cant. 2. 9. My well beloved
stands behind the wall, shewing himself through the grates: he may be seen on both sides.
For all this separation, Christ Jesus is amongst us all, and in his time, will break downe
this wall too, these differences amongst Christians, & make us all glad of that name,
the name of Christians, without affecting in our selves, or inflicting upon others, other
names of envy, and subdivision. But besides this wall of Gods making, the Ceremoniall
law, & this wall of the Devils making, dissention in Christian Churches, there is a wall
of our own making, a roof, an arch above our heads, by which our continuall sins have
separated God and us. God had covered himself with a cloud, so that prayer could not
passe thorough; That was the misery of Ierusalem. But in the acts and habits of sin, Lam. 3. 44. we
cover our selves, with a roof, with an arch, which nothing can shake, nor remove, but
Thunder, and Earthquakes, that is, the execution of Gods fiercest judgments; And whe-
ther in that fall of the roof, that is, in the weight of Gods judgments upon us, the stones
shall not brain us, overwhelm and smother, and bury us, God only knows. How his
Thunders, and his Earthquakes, when we put him to that, will work upon us, he onely
knows, whether to our amendment, or to our destruction. But whil'st we are in the con-
sideration of this arch, this roof of separation, between God and us, by sin, there may be
use in imparting to you, an observation, a passage of mine own. Lying at Aix, at Aquis-
grane, a well known Town in Germany, and fixing there some time, for the benefit of
those Baths, I found my self in a house, which was divided into many families, & indeed
so large as it might have been a little Parish, or, at least, a great lim of a great one; But it
was of no Parish: for when I ask'd who lay over my head, they told me a family of A-
nabaptists; And who over theirs? Another family of Anabaptists; and another family of
Anabaptists over theirs; and the whole house, was a nest of these boxes; severall artifi-
cers; all Anabaptists; I ask'd in what room they met, for the exercise of their Religion; I
was told they never met: for, though they were all Anabaptists, yet for some collaterall
differences, they detested one another, and, though many of them, were near in bloud, &
alliance to one another, yet the son would excommunicate the father, in the room above
him, and the Nephew the Uncle. As S. John is said to have quitted that Bath, into
which Cerinthus the Heretique came, so did I this house; I remembred that Hezekiah in
his sicknesse, turn'd himself in his bed, to pray towards that wall, that look'd to Ierusa-
lem; And that Daniel in Babylon, when he pray'd in his chamber, opened those windows
that look'd towards Ierusalem; for, in the first dedication of the Temple, at Ierusalem,
there is a promise annext to the prayers made towards the Temple: And I began to think,
how many roofs, how many floores of separation, were made between God and my
prayers in that house. And such is this multiplicity of sins, which we consider to be
got over us, as a roof, as an arch, many arches, many roofs: for, though these habi-
tuall sins, be so of kin, as that they grow from one another, and yet for all this kind-
red excommunicate one another, (for covetousnesse will not be in the same roome
with prodigality) yet it is but going up another stair, and there's the tother Anabaptist;
it is but living a few years, and then the prodigall becomes covetous. All the way,
they separate us from God, as a roof, as an arch; & then, an arch will bear any weight;
An habituall sin got over our head as an arch, will stand under any sicknesse, any dis-
honour, any judgement of God, and never sink towards any humiliation.
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They are above our heads, sicut tectum, as a roofe, as an arch, Clamor. and they are so too
sicut clamor, as a voice ascending, & not stopping, till they come to God. O my God, I am
confounded and ashamed to lift up mine eyes to thee, O my God; why not thine eyes? Ezra 9. 6. there
is a cloud, a clamour in the way; for as it follows, Our iniquities are encreased over
our heads, and our trespasse is grown up to the heaven. I think to retain a learned man
of my counsell, and one that is sure to be heard in the Court, and when I come to
instruct him, I finde mine adversaries name in his book before, and he is all ready for
the other party. I think to finde an Advocate in heaven, when I will, and my sin is
in heaven before mee. The voice of Abels bloud, and so, of Cains sin, was there: The
voice of Sodomes transgression was there. Bring down that sin again from heaven to
earth: Bring that voice that cries in heaven, to speake to Christ here in his Church,
upon earth, by way of confession; bring that clamorous sin to his bloud, to be washed
in the Sacrament, for, as long as thy sin cries in heaven, thy prayers cannot be heard
there. Bring thy sinne under Christs feet there, when hee walks amongst the Candle-
sticks, in the light, and power of his Ordinances in the Church, and then, thine absolu-
tion will be upon thy head, in those seals which he hath instituted, and ordained there,
and thy cry will be silenced. Till then, supergressæ, caput, thine iniquities will be over thy
head, as a roof, as a cry, and, in the next place, sicut aquæ, as the overflowing of waters. We consider this plurality, this multiplicity of habituall sinnes, to bee got over our
heads, as waters, especially in this, that they have stupefied us, Aquæ. and taken from us all
sense of reparation of our sinfull condition. The Organ that God hath given the na-
turall man, is the eye; he sees God in the creature. The Organ that God hath given
the Christian, is the ear; he hears God in his Word. But when we are under water,
both senses, both Organs are vitiated, and depraved, if not defeated. The habitu-
all, and manifold sinner, sees nothing aright; Hee sees a judgement, and cals it an
accident. He hears nothing aright; He hears the Ordinance of Preaching for salvati-
on in the next world, and he cals it an invention of the State, for subjection in this
world. And as under water, every thing seems distorted and crooked, to man, so does
man himself to God, who sees not his own Image in that man, in that form as he made
it. When man hath drunk iniquity like water, Iob 15. 16. then, The flouds of wickednesse shall make
him afraid; The water that he hath swum in, the sin that he hath delighted in, Ps. 18. 4. shall
appear with horrour unto him. As God threatens the pride of Tyrus, Ezek. 26. 19. I shall bring
the deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee, That, God will execute upon this
sinner; And then, upon every drop of that water, upon every affliction, every tribula-
tion, he shall come to that fearfulnesse, Waters flowed over my head; then said I, Lam. 3. 54. I am cut
off; Either he shall see nothing, or see no remedy, no deliverance from desperation. Keep
low these waters, as waters signifie sin, and God shall keep them low, as they signifie
punishments; And his Dove shall return to the Ark with an Olive leaf, Gen. 8. 8. to shew thee that
the waters are abated; he shall give thee a testimony of the return of his love, in his
Oyle, and Wine, and Milk, and Honey, in the temporall abundances of this life. And,
si impleat Hydrias aqua, if he doe fill all your vessels with water, Iob. 2. 7. with water of bitter-
nesse, that is, fill and exercise all your patience, and all your faculties with his corre-
ctions, yet he shall doe that, but to change your water into wine, as he did there, he shall
make his very Judgements, Sacraments, conveyances and seals of his mercy to you,
though those manifold sins be got over your heads, as a roof, as a noise, as an overflow-
ing of waters: And, that, which is the heaviest of all, and our last consideration, sicut
Dominus, as a Lord, as a Tyran, as an Usurper. Pretio redempti estis, nolite fieri servi, says the Apostle, you are bought with a price, Dominus.
therefore glorifie God. There he shews you, your own value; and then, 1 Cor. 6. 20. Ne dominetur
peccatum, Let not sin have dominion over you; there he shews you the insolency of
that Tyran. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, Iob. 8. 32. says Christ
to the Jews. Well; They stood not much upon the truth; but for the freedome, We were
Abrahams seed, and were never bound to any; but Christ replies, Whosoever commit-
teth sin, is the servant of sin; And, of whomsoever a man is overcome, 2 Pet. 9. 19. to the same he is
in bondage. Now we are slaves to sin, not onely as we have been overcome by sin (for
he that is said to be overcome by sin, is presumed to have made some resistance) but
as we have sold our selves to sin, which is a worse, and a more voluntary act. There
was none like him, like Ahab; 1 Reg. 21. 20. (says the holy Ghost) wherein was his singularity above all?
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all? He had sold himself, to work wickednesse, in the sight of the Lord. Now, how are
we sold to sin? By Adam? That's true; Ejus præ;varicatione, & ut ita dicam, Cassian. Nego-
tiatione, damnoso, & frandulento commercio venditi sumus: Wee were all sold under
hand, fraudulently sold, and sold under foot, cheaply sold by Adam. But thus, wee
might seem to be sold by others; so Joseph was, and no fault in himself; But we have
sold our selves since. Did not Adam sell himself too? Did God sell him by any se-
cret Decree, or contract, between the Devil and him? Was God of counsel in that bar-
gain? God forbid. Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mothers divorce, Esa. 50. 1.
whom I have put away? or, which of my creditours is it, to whom I have sold you? Behold,
for your iniquities you have sold your selves, and for your transgressions, is your mother put
away. In Adam we were sold in grosse; in our selves we are sold by retail; In the first, and
generall sale, we all pass'd, even the best of us. We know the Law is spirituall, Rom. 7. 14. but I
am carnall, sold under sin, says the Apostle, even of himselfe. But when does the A-
postle say this? in what state was hee, when he accuses himselfe of this mancipation,
and sale under sin? Says he this onely with relation to his former times, when he was
a Jew, and under the Law? Or, but then when he was newly come to the light of the
Gospel, and not to a clear sight of it? It is true, that most of the Eastern Fathers,
and it is true, that S. Augustine himselfe was of that opinion, that S. Paul said of him-
selfe, that he was sold under sin, respecting himself before his regeneration. Non qui
vult esse sapiens, statim fit sapiens, says Origen; A man is not presently learned, because
he hath a good desire to be learned; nor hath he that hath begun a conversion, pre-
sently accomplished his regeneration; nor is he discharged of his bargain of being sold
under sin, as soon as hee sees that he hath made an ill bargain. But when he growes
up in grace, (say they) as S. Paul had done, when hee said this, then he is discharged.
But, as S. Augustine ingenuously retracts that opinion, which, (as he says) he had held, Retract. 1. c. 23.
when he was a young Priest at Carthage, so is there nothing clearer, by the whole pur-
pose of the Apostle in that place, then that he in his best state, was still sold under
sin. As David speaks of himself being then regenerated, In thy sight shall no man li-
ving be justified. So S. Paul speaks of himself in his best state, still he was sold under
sin, because still, that concupiscence, under which he was sold in Adam, remains in him.
And that concupiscence is sin, Quia inest ei inobedientia contra dominatum mentis. August. Be-
cause it is a rebellion against that soveraignty which God hath instituted in the soul of
man, and an ambition of setting up another Prince; so it is peccatum, sin in it self; And
it is pœna peccati, says that Father, Quia reddita est meritis inobedientis; Because it is
laid upon us for that disobedience, it hath also the nature of a punishment of sin, as
well as of sin it self; And then it is Causa peccati too, Defectione consentientis, because
man is so enfeebled by this inherence, and invisceration of Originall sin, as that there-
by he is exposed to every emergent tentation, to any actuall sin. So, Originall sinne, is
called by many of the Ancients, the cause of sin, and the effect of sin, but not so, ex-
clusively, as that it is not sin, really sin in it self too. Now, as Originall sin causes
Actuall, in that consideration (as we sell our selves over again in our acts of recogni-
tion, in ratifying our first sale, by our manifold sins here) so is sin gone over our heads,
by this dominion, as a Tyran, as an usurper. Hoc lex posuit, Non concupisces; August. This
is the Law, Thou shalt not covet: Non quod sic valeamus, sed ad quod perficiendo ten-
damus; Not that we can perform that Law, but that that Law might be a rule to
direct our endevours: Multum boni facit, qui facit quod scriptum est, Post concupiscentias
tuas non eas; He does well, and well in a fair measure, that fulfils that Commande-
ment, Thou shalt not walk in the concupiscences of thine own heart; sed non perficit, quia
non implet quod scriptum est, Non concupisces, But yet, says he, hee does not all that is
commanded, because he is commanded not to covet at all: Vt sciat, quò debeat in hac
mortalitate conari, That that commandement might teach him, what he should labour
for in this life, Et quò possit in illa immortalitate pervenire, to what perfection wee
shall come in the life to come, but not till then. Though therefore we did our best,
yet we were sold under sin, that is, sold by Adam; but because we doe not, but consent
to that first sale, in our sinfull acts, and habits, wee have sold our selves too, and so
sin is gone over our heads, in a dominion, and in a tyrannicall exercise of that dominion.
If we would goe about to expresse, by what customes of sin this dominion is establi-
shed, we should be put to a necessity of entring into every profession, and every consci-
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ence. And the morall man says usefully, Si tantum irasci vis sapientem, Seneca. quantum exi-git indignitas scelerum, (we will translate it in the Church tongue, and make his mo-
rality divinity) If we would have a zealous Preacher, cry out as fast, or as loud, as sins
are committed, non irascendum, sed in saniendum, says he, you would not call that man
an angry man, but a mad man, you would not call that Preacher, a zealous preacher,
but a Puritan. Touch we but upon one of his reprehensions, because that may have the
best use now; he considers the iniquities, and injustices, admitted, and committed in
Courts of justice; and he says, Turpes lites, turpiores Advocati; Ill sutes are set on
foot, and worse advocates defend them. Delator est criminis qui manifestior reus, even
in criminall matters, he informes against another, that should be but defendant in that
crime; And (as he carries it higher) Iudex damnaturus quæ fecit, eligitur, the Judge himself
condemns a man for that, which himselfe is farre more guilty of, then the prisoner. Nullus
nisi ex alieno damno quæstus, and one man growes rich, by the empoverishing of ma-
ny. But then it is so in all other professions too. And this Tyranny, and domi-
nion is justly permitted by God upon us, ut qui noluit superiori obedire, nec ei obediat in-
ferior caro, we have been rebellious to our Soveraigne, to God, and therefore
our subject, the flesh, is first rebellious against us, and then Tyrannicall over us.
But he that leadeth into captivity shall goe into captivity; yea, Revel. 13. 10. Christ hath led captivity
it selfe captive, Ephes. 4. 8. and given gifts to men; that is, he hath established his Church,
where, by a good use of those meanes which God hath ordained for it, the most op-
pressed soule, may raise it selfe above those exaltations, and supergressions of sin; And
so we have done with our first part, and with all that will enter into this time, where
David in his humble spirit feels in himselfe, but much more in his propheticall spirit,
foresees, and foretells in others, the infectious nature of sin; It is a mortall wound,
and in a strange consideration; for, it is a wound upon God, and mortall upon man;
And then the propriety of sin, that sin is not at all from God, nor it is not all from the
Devill, but our sin is our own; Our sins in a Plurality; our sins of one kind, deter-
mine not in one sin, we sin the same sin often, and then we determine not in one kinde,
but slide into many. And after this multiplication of sin, the continuation thereof, to
an irrecoverablenesse, supergressæ sunt, we thinke not of them, till it be too late to think
of them, till they produce no thought but despaire; for supergressæ Caput, they are
got above our Heads, above our strongest faculties; Above us, in the nature of an
arched roof, they keep Gods grace in a separation from us, and our prayers from him,
so they have the nature of a roof, and then, they feel no weight, they bend not under
any judgement, which he lays upon us, so they have the nature of an Arch. Above
us, as a voice, as a cry; Their voice is in possession of God, and so prevents our prayers;
above us as waters, they disable our eyes, and our eares, from right conceiving all ap-
prehensions; And above us, as Lords, and Tyrans, that came in by conquest, and so
put what Laws they list upon us. And these instructions have arisen from this first,
the Multiplicity, Mine iniquities are gone over my Head, and more will from the other,
the weight and burden, They are as a heavy burden, too heavy for me. Sermon XXII.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
Second Sermon on Psal. 38. 4.
For mine iniquities are gone over my head, as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. ASAs the Philosopher says, if a man could see vertue, he would love it, so if a
man could see sin, he would hate it. But as the eye sees every thing but it
selfe, so does sinne, too. It sees Beauty, and Honour, and Riches, but it sees
not it selfe, not the sinfull coveting, and compassing of all these. To
make, though not sin, yet the sinner to see himselfe, for the explication,
and application of these words, we brought you these two lights; first, the Multiplicity of
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of sin, in that elegancy of the holy Ghost, supergressæ sunt, Mine iniquities are gone o-
ver my head, and the weight, and oppression of sin, in that, Gravatæ nimis, As a heavy
burden they are too heavy for me; In the first, how numerous, how manifold they are, in
the other, how grievous, how insupportable; first, how many hands, then how
fast hold sinne lays upon me. The first of these two, was our exercise the last day,
when we proposed and proceeded in these words, in which we presented to you, the
dangerous multiplicity of sinne, in those pieces, which constituted that part. But be-
cause, as men, how many soever, make but a Multitude, or a Throng, and not an
Army, if they be unarmed, so sin, how manifold, and multiform so ever, might seem a
passable thing, if it might be easily shaked off, we come now to imprint in you a sense
of the weight and oppression thereof, As a heavy burthen, they are too heavy for mee; The
particular degrees whereof, we laid down the last day, in our generall division of the
whole Text, and shall now pursue them, according to our order proposed then. First then, sinne is heavy. Does not the sinner finde it so? No marvail, Gravatæ. nothing
is heavy in his proper place, in his own Sphear, in his own Center, when it is where
it would be, nothing is heavy. He that lies under water finds no burthen of all that
water that lies upon him; but if he were out of it, how heavy would a small quantity of
that water seem to him, if he were to carry it in a vessell? An habituall sinner is the
naturall place, the Center of sinne, and he feels no weight in it, but if the grace of
God raise him out of it, that he come to walke, and walke in the ways of godlinesse,
not onely his watery Tympanies, and his dropsies, those waters which by actuall and
habituall sinnes he hath contracted, but that water, of which he is properly made, the
water that is in him naturally, infused from his parents, Originall sinne, will be sen-
sible to him, and oppresse him. Scarce any man considers the weight of Originall
sinne; And yet, as the strongest tentations fall upon us when wee are weakest, in
our death-bed, so the heavyest sinne seises us, when wee are weakest; as soon as wee
are any thing, we are sinners, and there, where there can be no more tentations mi-
nistred to us, then was to the Angels that fell in heaven, that is, in our mothers womb,
when no world, nor flesh, nor Devill could present a provocation to sinne to us, when
no faculty of ours is able to embrace, or second a provocation to sin, yet there, in
that weaknesse, we are under the weight of Originall sin. And truly, if at this time,
God would vouchsafe mee my choice, whether hee should pardon me all those actuall
and habituall sins, which I have committed in my life, or extinguish Originall sinne in
me, I should chuse to be delivered from Originall sin, because, though I be deliver-
ed from the imputation thereof, by Baptism, so that I shall not fall under a condemnati-
on for Originall sin onely, yet it still remains in me, and practises upon me, and oc-
casions all the other sins, that I commit: now, for all my actuall and habituall sins, I
know God hath instituted meanes in his Church, the Word, and the Sacraments, for
my reparation; But with what a holy alacrity, with what a heavenly joy, with what a
cheerfull peace, should I come to the participation of these meanes and seals of my re-
conciliation, and pardon of all my sins, if I knew my selfe to be delivered from Origi-
nall sinne, from that snake in my bosome, from that poyson in my blood, from that
leaven and tartar in all my actions, that casts me into Relapses of those sins which I
have repented? And what a cloud upon the best serenity of my conscience, what an
interruption, what a dis-continuance from the sincerity and integrity of that joy, which
belongs to a man truly reconciled to God, in the pardon of his former sins, must it
needs be still to know, and to know by lamentable experiences, that though I wash my
selfe with Soap, and Nitre, and Snow-water, mine own cloathes will defile me again,
though I have washed my selfe in the tears of Repentance, and in the blood of my Sa-
viour, though I have no guiltinesse of any former sin upon me at that present, yet I
have a sense of a root of sin, that is not grub'd up, of Originall sinne, that will cast me
back again. Scarce any man considers the weight, the oppression of Originall sinne.
No man can say, that an Akorn weighs as much as an Oak; yet in truth, there is an
Oak in that Akorn: no man considers that Originall sinne weighs as much as Actu-
all, or Habituall, yet in truth, all our Actuall and Habituall sins are in Originall.
Therefore Saint Pauls vehement, and frequent prayer to God, to that purpose, could
not deliver him from Originall sin, and that stimulus carnis, that provocation of
the flesh, that Messenger of Satan, which rises out of that, God would give him suf-
ficient
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ficient grace, it should not worke to his destruction, but yet he should have it: Nay,
the infinite merit of Christ Jesus himself, that works so upon all actuall and habituall
sins, as that after that merit is applyed to them, those sins are no sins, works not so
upon Originall sin, but that, though I be eased in the Dominion, and Imputation there-
of, yet the same Originall sin is in me still; and though God doe deliver me from e-
ternall death, due to mine actuall and habituall sins, yet from the temporall death, due
to Originall sin, he delivers not his dearest Saints. Thus sin is heavy in the seed, in the grain, in the akorn, how much more when it is
a field of Corn, a barn of grain, a forest of Oaks, in the multiplication, and complica-
tion of sin in sin? And yet wee consider the weight of sin another way too, for as
Christ feels all the afflictions of his children, so his children will feel all the wounds
that are inflicted upon him; even the sins of other men; as Lots righteous soule was
grieved with sins of others. If others sin by my example & provocation, or by my con-
nivence and permission, when I have authority, their sin lies heavyer upon me, then
upon themselves; for they have but the weight of their own sinne; and I have mine, and
theirs upon me; and though, I cannot have two souls to suffer, and though there can-
not be two everlastingnesses in the torments of hell, yet I shall have two measures of
those unmeasurable torments upon my soul. But if I have no interest in the sins of other
men, by any occasion ministred by me, yet I cannot chuse but feel a weight, a burthen
of a holy anguish, and compassion and indignation, because every one of these sins in-
flict a new wound upon my Saviour, when my Saviour says to him, that does but in-
jure me, Why persecutest thou me, and feels the blow upon himselfe, shall not I say to
him that wounds my Saviour, Why woundest thou me, and groane under the weight of
my brothers sin, and my Fathers, my Makers, my Saviours wound? If a man of my
blood, or allyance, doe a shamefull act, I am affected with it; If a man of my calling,
or profession, doe a scandalous act, I feel my self concerned in his fault; God hath
made all mankinde of one blood, and all Christians of one calling, and the sins of every
man concern every man, both in that respect, that I, that is, This nature, is in that man
that sins that sin; and I, that is, This nature, is in that Christ, who is wounded by that
sin. The weight of sin, were it but Originall sin, were it but the sins of other men, is an
insupportable weight. But if a sinner will take a true balance, and try the right weight of sin, let him goe
about to leave his sin, and then he shall see how close, and how heavily it stook to him.
Then one sin will lay the weight, of seelinesse, of falshood, of inconstancy, of dishonour,
of ill nature, if you goe about to leave it: and another sin will lay the weight of poverty,
of disestimation upon you, if you goe about to leave it. One sin will lay your pleasures
upon you, another your profit, another your Honour, another your Duty to wife and
children, and weigh you down with these. Goe but out of the water, goe but about to
leave a sin, and you will finde the weight of it, and the hardnesse to cast it off. Grava-
tæ sunt, Mine iniquities are heavy, (that was our first) and gravatæ nimis, they are too
heavy, which is a second circumstance. Some weight, some balast is necessary to make a ship goe steady; Nimis. we are not without
advantage, in having some sinne; some concupiscence, some tentation is not too heavy
for us. The greatest sins that ever were committed, were committed by them, who
had no former sinne, to push them on to that sin: The first Angels sin, and the sin of
Adam are noted to be the most desperate and the most irrecoverable sins, and they
were committed, when they had no former sin in them. The Angels punishment
is pardoned in no part; Adams punishment is pardoned in no man, in this world. Now
such sins as those, that is, sins that are never pardoned, no man commits now; not
now, when he hath the weight of former sins to push him on. Though there be a
heavy guiltinesse in Originall sin, yet I have an argument, a plea for mercy out of that,
Lord, my strength is not the strength of stones, nor my flesh brasse; Lord, Iob 6. 12. no man can bring
a clean thing out of uncleannesse; Lord, no man can say after, I have cleansed my heart, I
am free from sinne, I could not be borne cleane, I could not cleanse my selfe since. It
magnifies Gods glory, it amplifies mans happinesse, that he is subject to tentation.
If man had been made impeccable, that he could not have sinned, he had not been so
happy; for then, he could onely have enjoyed that state, in which he was created, and
not have risen to any better; because that better estate, is a reward of our willing obe-
dience
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dience to God, in such things, as we might have disobeyed him in. Therefore when
the Apostle was in danger, of growing too light, lest he should be exalted out of measure,
2 Cor. 12. 7. through the abundance of revelation, (says that Scripture) he had a weight hung upon
him; There was something given him, therefore it was a benefit, a gift; And it was
Angelus, an Angel, that was given him; But it was not a good Angel, a Tutelar, a Gar-
dian Angel, to present good motions unto him, but it was Angelus Satanæ, a messenger of
Satan, sent, as he says, to buffet him; and yet this hostile Angel, this messenger of Satan
was a benefit, a gift, and a fore-runner, and some kind of Inducer of that Grace, which
was sufficient for him; and it would not have appeared to us, no nor to himselfe, that
he had had so much of that grace, if he had not had this tentation. God is as power-
full upon us when he delivers us from tentation, that it doe not overtake us; but not
so apparent, so evident, so manifest, as when he delivers us in a tentation, that it doe
not overcome us: some weight does but ballast us, as some enemies never doe us
more harme, but occasion us, to arme and to stand upon our gard. Therefore, this
weight that is complained of here, is not In carne, in our naturall flesh; (though in
that be no goodnesse) it is nothing that God from the beginning hath imprinted in our
nature, not that peccability, and possibility of sinning; nor it is not in stimulo carnis, in
these accessary tentations, and provocations which awaken, and provoke the maligni-
ty of this flesh, and put a sting into it; we doe not consider this heavy weight to be the
naturall possibility which was in man, before Originall sinne entred, nor to be that natu-
rall pronenesse to sinne, which is originall sinne it selfe. But it is, when we our selves
whet that sting, when we labour to breake hedges, and to steale wood, and gather up
a stick out of one sin, and stick out of another, and to make a fagot to load us, in this
life, and burne us in the next, in multiplying sins, and aggravating circumstances, so it is
Heavy, so it is too heavy, It is too heavy for me, (for that's also another circumstance)
for David himselfe, for any man even in Davids state. Though this consideration might be enlarged, Mihi. and usefully carried into this expostu-
lation, can sin be too heavy for me, any burden of sin sink me into a dejection of spirit,
that am wrapped up in the Covenant, borne of Christian Parents, that am bred up in
an Orthodox, in a Reformed Church, that can perswade my selfe sometimes, that I am
of the number of the elect; Can any sin be too heavy for me, can I doubt of the execution
of his first purpose upon me, or doubt of the efficacy of his ordinances here in the Church,
what sin soever I commit, can any sins be too heavy for me? yet it is enough that in this
Sea, God holds no man up by the chin so, but that if he sin in confidence of that susten-
tation, he shall sink. But in this personall respect in our text, we consider onely with what
weights David weighed his sins, when hee found here that they were too heavy for
him. He weighed his sin with his punishment, and in his punishment hee saw the an-
ger, and indignation of God, and when we see sin through that spectacle, through an
angry God, it appears great, and red, and fearefull unto us; when David came to
see himselfe in his infirmity, in his deformity, when his body could not bear the pu-
nishment here in this world, he considered how insupportable a weight the sin, and the
anger of God upon that sin, would be in the world to come. For me that rise to prefer-
ment by my sin, for me that come to satisfie my carnall appetites by my sin, my sin is
not too heavy; But for me that suffer penury in the bottome of a plentifull state ex-
hausted by my sin, for me that languish under diseases and putrefaction contracted by
my sin, for me upon whom the hand of God lies heavy in any affliction for my sin,
for me, my sins are too heavy. Till I come to hear that voice, Mat. 11. Come unto me all you
that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you, till I come to consider my sin in
the mercy of God, and not onely in his justice, in his punishments, my sins will be too
heavy for me; for, though that be a good way, to consider the justice of God, yet it
is not a good end; I must stop, but not stay at it, I must consider my sin in his justice,
how powerfull a God I have provoked; but I must passe through his justice to his
mercy; his justice is my way, but his mercy is my lodging; for wee cannot tell
by the construction and origination of the words, whether Cain said, My sin is
greater then can bee pardoned, or, my punishment is greater then can bee borne:
But it needes not bee disputed; for it is all one; He that considers onely the an-
ger of God in the punishment, will thinke his sin unpardonable, his sinne will be
too heavy for him. But as a feaver is well spent, when the patient is fit to take physick, so
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so if God give me physick, if I take his corrections as medicines, and not as punish-ments, then my disease is well spent, my danger is well overcome; If I have buryed
my sins in the wounds of my Saviour, they cannot be too heavy for me, for they are
not upon me at all; But if I take them out again, by relapsing into them, or imagine
them to rise again, by a suspicion and jealousie in God, that he hath not forgiven
them, because his hand lies still upon me, in some afflictions, so, in such a relapse, so,
in such a jealous mis-interpretation of Gods proceeding with me, my sins are too heavy
for me; for me, because I do not sustain my self by those helps that God puts into my
hands. It is heavy, too heavy, too heavy for me, says David; Onus. if you consider the elect them-
selves, their election will not beare them out in their sins. But here we consider the in-
supportablenesse, in that, wherein the holy Ghost hath presented it, Quia onus, be-
cause it lies upon me, in the nature and quality of a Burden, Mine iniquities are as a
burden, too heavy for me. When all this is packed up upon me, that I am first under a
Calamity, a sicknesse, a scorne, an imprisonment, a penury, and then upon that calamity,
there is laid the anger and indignation of God, and then upon that, the weight of mine
own sinnes; this is too much to settle me, it is enough to sinke me, it is a burden, in
which the danger arises from the last addition, in that, which is last laid on: for, as the
sceptique Philosopher pleases himselfe in that argumentation, that either a penny makes
a man rich, or he can never be rich, for says he, if he be not rich yet, the addition of a
penny more would make him rich: or if not that penny, yet another, or another, so
that at last it is the addition of a penny that makes him rich; so without any such fallaci-
ous or facetious circumvention in our case, it is the last addition, that that we look on
last, that makes our burden insupportable, when upon our calamity we see the anger of
God piled up, and upon that, our sin, when I come to see my sin, in that glasse, in that
glasse, not in a Saviour bleeding for me, but in a Judge frowning upon mee; when
my sins are so far off from me, as that they are the last thing that I see; for, if I would
look upon my sins, first, with a remorsefull, a tearfull, a repentant eye, either I should see
no anger, no calamity; or it would not seem strange to me, that God should bee an-
gry, nor strange, that I should suffer calamities, when God is angry; Therefore is sin
heavy as a burden, because it is the last thing that I lay upon my selfe, and feel not
that till a heavy load of calamity and anger be upon me before. But then, as when we
come to be unloaded of a burden, that that was last laid on, is first taken off, so when
we come, by any meanes, though by the sense of a calamity, or of the anger of God, to
a sense of our sin, before the calamity it selfe be taken off, the sin is forgiven. When
the Prophet found David in this state, the first act that the Prophet came to was the
Transtulit peccatum, God hath taken away thy sinne, but the calamity was not yet taken
away. The child begot in sin shall surely die, though the sin be pardoned. The fruit
of the tree may be preserved and kept, after the tree it selfe is cut down and burnt;
The fruit, and off-spring of our sin, calamity, may continue upon us, after God hath
removed the guiltinesse of the sin from us. In the course of civility, our parents goe
out before us, in the course of Mortality, our parents die before us; In the course
of Gods mercy, it is so too; The sin that begot the calamity, is dead, and gone, the
calamity, the child, and off-spring of that sin, is alive and powerfull upon us. But
for the most part, as if I would lift an iron chain from the ground, if I take but the
first linke, and draw up that, the whole chain follows, so if by my repentance, I re-
move the uppermost weight of my load, my sin, all the rest, the declaration of the
anger of God, and the calamities that I suffer, will follow my sin, and depart from me.
But still our first care must be to take off the last weight, the last that comes to our
sense, The sin. You have met, I am sure, in old Apophthegms, an answer of a Philosopher celebrated,
that being asked, what was the heaviest thing in the world, answered, Senex Tyrannus,
An old Tyran; For a Tyran, at first, dares not proceed so severely; but when he
is established, and hath continued long, he prescribes in his injuries, and those injuries
become Laws. As sin is a Tyran, so he is got over our head, in Dominio, as we shewed
you in the supergressæ sunt, in our former part; As he is an, old Tyran, so he is the hea-
viest burden that can be imagined; An inveterate sin, is an inveterate sore, we may
hold out with it, but hardly cure it; we may slumber it, but hardly kill it. Weigh sin
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sin in heaven; heaven could not beare it, in the Angels; They fell: In the waters; The
Sea could not beare it in Jonas; He was cast in: In the earth; That could not beare it
in Dathan, and Abiram; They were swallowed: And because all the inhabitants of the
earth are sin it selfe, Esay 24. 20. The earth it selfe shall reel to and fro, as a Drunkard, and shall be
removed like a Cottage, and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall
and not rise againe; There's the totall, the finall fall, proper to the wicked; they shall
fall; so shall the godly; And fall every day; and fall seven times a day; but they
shall rise againe and stand in judgement; The wicked shall not doe so; They shall rise, Psal. 1. rise
to judgement; and they shall stand, stand for judgement, stand to receive judgement;
and then not fall, but be cast out, out of the presence of God, and cast down, down into
an impossibility of rising, for ever, for ever, for ever. There is a lively expressing of
this deadly weight, this burden in the Prophet Zechary. First, there was a certaine ves-
sell, a measure shewed, 5. 6. and the Angel said, Hic est oculus, This is the sight, (says our
first translation) This is the resemblance through all the earth, (says our second.) That
is, to this measure, and to that that is figured in it, every man must look, this every
man must take into his consideration; what is it? In this measure sate a woman whose
name was Wickednesse; At first, this woman, this wickednesse, sate up in this vessell,
she had not filled the measure, she was not laid securely in it, she was not prostrate, not
groveling, but her nobler part, her head, was yet out of danger, she sate up in it. But be-
fore the Vision departs, she is plunged wholly into that measure; (into darknesse, into
blindnesse) and not for a time; for, then, there was a cover, (says the text) and a great
cover, and a great cover of Lead put upon that vessell; and so, a perpetuall imprison-
ment, no hope to get out; and heavy fetters, no ease to be had within; Hard ground
to tread upon, and heavy burdens to carry; first a cover, that is, an excuse; a great cover,
that is, a defence, and a glory; at last, of Lead; all determines in Desperation. This is
when the multiplicity and indifferencie to lesser sins, and the habituall custome of some
particular sin, meet in the aggravating of the burden: for then, Iob 6. 3. they are heavyer then
the sand of the Sea, says the holy Ghost: where he expresses the greatest weight by the
least thing; Nothing lesse then a graine of sand, nothing heavyer then the sands of
the Sea, nothing easier to resist then a first tentation, or a single sinne in it selfe, nothing
heavyer, nor harder to devest, then sinnes complicated in one another, or then an old
Tyran, and custome in any one sin. And therefore it was evermore a familiar phrase
with the Prophets, when they were to declare the sins, or to denounce the punishments
of those sins upon the people, to call it by this word, Onus visionis, Onus Babylonis,
Onus Ninives, O the burden of Babylon, the burden of Niniveh. And because some of
those woes, those Iudgements, those burdens, did not always fall upon that people pre-
sently, they came to mock the Prophets, and say to them, Now, what is the burden of
the Lord, What Burden have you to preach to us, Ier. 23. 23. and to talke of now? Say
unto them, says God to the Prophet there; This is the Burden of the Lord,
I will even forsake you. And, as it is elegantly, emphatically, vehemently
added, Every mans word shall be his burden; That which he says, shall be that that
shall be laid to his charge; ver. 36. His scorning, his idle questioning of the Prophet, What bur-
den now, what plague, what famine, what warre now? Is not all well for all your crying
The burden of the Lord? Every mans word shall be his burden, the deriding of Gods Or-
dinance, and of the denouncing of his Judgements in that Ordinance shall be their
burden, that is, aggravate those Judgements upon them. Nay, there is a heavyer
weight then that, added; Ye shall say no more (says God to the Prophet) the burden of the
Lord, ver. 38. that is, you shall not bestow so much care upon this people, as to tell them, that
the Lord threatens them. Gods presence in anger, and in punishments, is a heavy, but
Gods absence, and dereliction, a much heavyer burden; As (if extremes will admit
comparison) the everlasting losse of the sight of God in hell, is a greater torment,
then any lakes of inextinguishable Brimstone, then any gnawing of the incessant worme,
then any gnashing of teeth can present unto us. Now, let no man ease himself upon that fallacy, sin cannot be, nor sin cannot induce
such burdens as you talk of, for many men are come to wealth, and by that wealth,
to honour, who, if they had admitted a tendernesse in their consciences, and forborn
some sins, had lost both; for, are they without burden, because they have wealth, and
honour? In the Originall language, the same word, that is here, a burden, Chabad, sig-
nifies
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nifies honour, and wealth, as well as a burden. And therefore says the Prophet, Habak. 2. 9. Grego Woe
unto him that loadeth himselfe with thick clay. Non densantur nisi per laborem; There
goes much pains to the laying of it thus thick upon us; The multiplying of riches is
a laborious thing; and then it is a new pain to bleed out those riches for a new office,
or a new title; Et tamen lutum, says that Father, when all is done, we are but rough-
cast with durt; All those Riches, all those Honours are a Burden, upon the just man,
they are burbut a multiplying of fears, that they shall lose them; upon the securest man,
they are but a multiplying of duties & obligations; for the more they havet, hehave, the more they
have to answer; and upon the unjust, they are a multiplying of everlasting torments. Iob 7. 3. They
possess months of vanity, and wearisom nights are appointed them. Men are as weary of the
day, upon Carpets and Cushions, as at the plough. And the labourers wearinesse, is
to a good end; but for these men, They weary themselves to commit iniquity. Some
doe, and some doe not; All doe. The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them; Ier. 9. 5.
Why? Because he knows not how to goe to the City. Eccles. 10. 15. He that directs not his labours to
the right end, the glory of God, he goes not to Jerusalem, the City of holy peace,
but his sinfull labours shall bee a burden to him; and his Riches, and his Office, and
his Honour hee shall not be able to put off, then when he puts off his body in his
death-bed; He shall not have that happinesse, which he, till then, thought a misery,
To carry nothing out of this world, for his Riches, his Office, his Honour shall follow
him into the next world, and clog his soule there. But we proposed this consideration
of this Metaphor, That sinne is a burden, (as there is an infinite sweetnesse, and infi-
nite latitude in every Metaphor, in every elegancy of the Scripture, and therefore I
may have leave to be loath to depart from it) in some particular inconveniences, that
a burden brings, and it is time to come to them. Sermon XXIII.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
The third Sermonon Psal. 38. 4.
For mine iniquities are gone over my head, as a heavy Burden, they are too
heavy for mee. ASAs a Torch that hath been lighted, and used before, is easier lighted then a
new torch, so are the branches, and parts of this Text, the easier reduced
to your memory, by having heard former distributions thereof. But as a
Torch that hath been lighted & us’d before, will not last so long as a new
one, so perchance your patience which hath already been twice exercised
with the handling of these words, may be too near the bottom to afford much. And
therefore much I have determined not to need. God did his greatest work upon the last
day, and yet gave over work betimes. In that day he made man, and, (as the context
leades us, most probably, to thinke) he made Paradise, and placed man in Paradise
that day. For the variety of opinions amongst our Expositors, about the time when
God made Paradise, arises from one errour, an errour in the Vulgat Edition, in the
translation of the Roman Church, that reads it Plantaverat, God had planted a garden, Gen. 2. 8.
as though God had done it before. Therefore some state it before the Creation, which
Saint Hierome follows, or at least relates, without disapproving it; and others place
it, upon the third day, when the whole earth received her accomplishment; but
if any had looked over this place with the same ingenuity as their own great man Tyr:
(an active man in the Councell of Trent) hath done over the Book of Psalms, in which
one Booke he hath confessed 6000 places, in which their translation differs from the
Originall, they would have seen this difference in this place, that it is not Plantaverat,
but Plantavit, not that God had before, but that he did then, then when hee had made
man, make a Paradise for man. And yet God made an end of all this days work be-
times; in that day, He walked in the garden in the cool of the Evening. The noblest
part of our work, in handling this Text falls upon the conclusion, reserved for this day;
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day; which is, the application of these words to Christ. But for that, I shall be short,
and rather leave you to walke with God in the cool of the Evening, to meditate of the
sufferings of Christ, when you are gone, then pretend to expresse them here. The pas-
sion of Christ Jesus is rather an amazement, an astonishment, an extasie, a consternati-
on, then an instruction. Therefore, though something we shall say of that anone. First,
we pursue that which lies upon our selves, the Burden, in those four mischievous in-
conveniences wrapped up in that Metaphor. Of them, the first was, Inclinat; That a Burden sinkes a man, declines him, Inclinat. crookens
him, makes him stoop. So does sin. It is one of Saint Augustines definitions of sinne,
Conversio ad creaturam, that it is a turning, a withdrawing of man to the creature. And
every such turning to the creature, let it be upon his side, to her whom he loves, let it
be upwards, to honour that he affects, yet it is still down-ward, in respect of him, whom
he was made by, and should direct himselfe to. Every inordinate love of the Crea-
ture is a descent from the dignity of our Creation, and a disavowing, a disclaiming
of that Charter, Subjicite & dominamini, subdue, and govern the Creature. Est quod-
dam bonum, quod si diligat anima rationalis, peccat. August. De.
ver. releg c. 20. There are good things in the
world, which it is a sin for man to love, Quia infra illam ordinantur, because though
they be good, they are not so good as man; And man may not decline, and every thing,
except God himself, is inferiour to man, and so, it is a declination, a stooping in man,
to apply himselfe to any Creature, till he meet that Creature in God; for there, it is
above him; And so, as Beauty and Riches, and Honour are beames that issue from
God, and glasses that represent God to us, and idea’s that return us into him, in our
glorifying of him, by these helpes, so we may apply our selves to them; for, in this
consideration, as they assist us in our way to God, they are above us, otherwise, to
love them for themselves, is a declination, a stooping under a burden; And this decli-
nation, this incurvation, this descent of man, in the inordinate love of the Creature, may
very justly seem to be forbidden in that Commandement, that forbids Idolatry, Thou
shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them; If we bow down to them, we doe wor-
ship them; for it is in the love of all Creatures, as it is in money; Covetousnesse, that
is, the love of money, is Idolatry, says the Apostle; and so is all other inordinate love
of any, Idolatry. And then, as we have seen some grow crooked, by a long sitting,
a lying in one posture, so, by an easie resting in these descents and declination of the
soule, it comes to bee a fashion to stoop, and it seemes a comely thing to be crooked;
and we become, infruniti, that is, quibus nemo frui velit, such as no body cares for
our conversation, or company, except we be ill company, sociable in other sinnes, August. Et
viliores quò castiores, if we affect Chastity, or any other vertue, we disaffect and distast
other men; for one mans vertue chides, and reproaches a whole vicious company.
But if he will needs bee in fashion, Cum perverso perverti, to grow crooked with the
crooked, His iniquities shall take him, and hee shall be holden with the cords of his sinne; Prov. 5. 22.
that is, in that posture that he puts himself, he shall be kept; kept all his life; and then,
(as it follows there) He shall die without instruction; Die in a place, where he can have
no Absolution, no Sacrament, or die, in a disposition, that he shall receive no benefit
by them, though he receive them. He hath packed a burden upon himself, in habitu-
all sinne, he hath chosen to stoop under this burden, in an Idolatrous love of those
sinnes, and nothing shall be able to erect him again, not Preaching, not Sacraments,
no not judgements. And this is the first inconvenience, and mischief, implyed in this
Metaphor which the holy Ghost hath chosen, Mine iniquities are as a burden, Incli-
nant, they bend down my soule, created streight, to an incurvation, to a crookednesse.
A second inconvenience intimated in this Metaphore, a burden, is the fatigat, Fatigat. a
burden wearies us, tires us: and so does our sinne, and our best beloved sinne.
It hath wearied us, and yet we cannot devest it. We would leave that sin, and
yet there is one talent more to be added, one childe more to be provided for, one office,
or one title more to be compassed, one tentation more to be satisfied. Though we grum-
ble, not out of remorse of conscience, but out of a bodily wearinesse of the sinne,
yet wee proceed in it. How often men goe to Westminster, how often to the
Exchange, called by unjust suits, or called by corrupt bargaines to those places, when
their ease, or their health perswades them to stay at home? How many go to forbidden
beds, then when they had rather stay at home, if they were not afraid of an unkind inter-
S pretation?
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pretation? We have wearied our selves in the ways of wickednesse; Plus miles in uno
torneamento, quàm sanctus Monachus in decem annis, says our Holkot, upon that place,
a soldier suffers more in one expedition, then a Monk does, in ten years, says he; and
perchance he says true, and yet no commendation to his Monke neither; for that
soldier may doe even the cause of God, more good, in that one expedition, then
that Monke in ten years: But it is true as Holkot intended it, (though perchance
his example doe not much strengthen it) vicious men are put to more pains, and
to doe more things against their own mindes, then the Saints of God are in the
ways of holinesse. We have wearied our selves in the ways of wickednesse, says he, that
is, in doing as other wicked men have done, in ways which have been beaten out
to us, by the frequent practise of other men; but he addes more, We have gone tho-
rough Deserts, where there lay no way; that is, through sins, in which, wee had no ex-
ample, no precedent, the inventions of our hearts. The covetous man lies still, and
attends his quarter days, and studies the endorsements of his bonds, and he wonders
that the ambitious man can endure the shufflings and thrustings of Courts, and can
measure his happinesse by the smile of a greater man: And, he that does so, won-
ders as much, that this covetous man can date his happinesse by an Almanack, and
such revolutions, and though he have quick returns of receipt, yet scarce affords him-
self bread to live till that day come, and though all his joy be in his bonds, yet denies
himself a candles end to look upon them. Hilly ways are wearisome ways, and tire the
ambitious man; Carnall pleasures are dirty ways, and tire the licentious man; Desires
of gain, are thorny ways, and tire the covetous man; Æmulations of higher men, are
dark and blinde ways, and tire the envious man; Every way, that is out of the way, wea-
ries us; But, lassati sumus; sed lassis non datur requies; we labour, and have no rest, Lam. 5. 5. when
we have done; we are wearied with our sins, and have no satisfaction in them; we goe
to bed to night, weary of our sinfull labours, and we will rise freshly to morrow, to the
same sinfull labours again; And when a sinner does so little remember yesterday, how
little does he consider to morrow? He that forgets what he hath done, foresees not what
he shall suffer: so sin is a burden, it crookens us, it wearies us; And those are the
two first inconveniences. And then a third is Retardat. Retardat. Though a man can stand under a burden, that he doe
not sink, but be able to make some steps, yet his burden slackens his pace, and he goes
not so fast, as without that burden he could have gone. So it is in habituall sinnes;
though we doe not sinke into desperation, and stupefaction, though we doe come to
the participation of outward means, and have some sense, some feeling thereof, yet, as
long as any one beloved and habituall sin hangs upon us, it slackens our pace in all the
ways of godlinesse. And we come not to such an appropriation of the promises of the
Gospel, in hearing Sermons, nor to such a re-incarnation, and invisceration of Christ
and his merits into our selves, in the Sacrament, as if wee were altogether devested of
that sin, and not onely at that time, we should doe. Quis ascendet, says David; Ps. 24. 3. who
shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? It is a painfull clambring; up a hill. And Saint
August. makes use of the answer, Innocens manibus, He that hath clean hands; first, he
must have hands, as well as feet; He must doe something for himself; And then, In-
nocent hands; such as doe no harme to others; such as hold, and carry no hurtfull
thing to himself; Either he must have the first Innocence, Abstinence from ill get-
ting, or the second Innocence, Restitution of that which was ill gotten, or he shall
never get up that hill; for, it is a steep hill, and there is no walking up, but he must
crawle, hand and foot. Therefore, says the Apostle, Deponamus pondus, Let us lay aside
every weight; He does not say, sin in generall, but every weight, every circumstance that
may aggravate our sin, every conversation that may occasion our sin; And, (as hee
addes, particularly and emphatically) The sin, that does so easily beset us; Easily, because
customarily, habitually; And then, says that Apostle, in that place, Let us run; when
we have laid down the sin, that does so easily beset us, our beloved and habituall sinne,
and laid down every weight, every circumstance that aggravates that sin, then we may
be able to run, to proceed with a holy chearfulnesse and proficiency in the wayes of
sanctification; but till that we cannot, how due observers soever we be of all outward
means; for, sin is a burden, in perverting us, in tyring us, in retarding us.
And last of all, it is a burden, quatenus præcipitat, Præcipitat. as it gives him ever new occasion of
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of stumbling; He that hath not been accustomed to a sin, but exercised in resisting it,
will finde many tentations, but as a wash way that he can trot thorough, and goe for-
ward religiously in his Calling for all them;) for though there be coluber in via, A
snake in every way, tentations in every calling, yet, In Christo omnia possumus, In Christ,
we can doe all things, and therefore, in him, we can bruise the Serpents head) and spurn
a tentation out of his way. But he that hath been long under the custome of a sin,
evermore meets with stones to stumble at, and bogges to plunge in. It is S. Chryso-
stomes application; He that hath had a fever, though he have cast it off, yet he walks
weakly, and he hath an inclination to the beds side, or to a chaire, at every turn that
he makes about his chamber. So hath he to relapses, that hath been under the custome
of an habituall sin, though he have discontinued the practise of that sin. And these be
the inconveniences, the mischiefs, represented to us in this metaphore, A burden, Mine
iniquities are as a burden too heavy for me, Because they sink me down, from the Crea-
tor to the creature; Because they tire and weary me, and yet I must bear them; Be-
cause when they doe not absolutely tire me, yet they slacken my pace; And because,
though I could lay off that burden, leave off that sin, for the present practise, yet the
former habit hath so weakned me, that I always apt to stumble, and fall into re-
lapses. Thus have you the mischievous inconveniences of habituall sin laid open to you, Conclusio.
Christus. in
these two elegancies of the holy Ghost, supergressæ, Mine iniquities are gone over my
head, and the gravatæ, As a burden they are too heavy for me. But as a good Emperour
received that commendation, that no man went ever out of his presence disconten-
ted, so our gracious God never admits us to his presence in this his Ordinance, but
with a purpose to dismisse us in heart, and in comfort; for, his Almoner, he that di-
stributeth his mercies to Congregations, is the God of comfort, of all comfort, the holy
Ghost himself. Nay, they whom he admits to his presence here, goe not out of his
presence, when they goe from hence; He is with them, whilst they stay here, and hee
goes home with them, when they goe home. Princes out of their Royall care call
Parliaments, and graciously deliver themselves over to that Representative Body;
God out of his Fatherly love calls Congregations, and does not onely deliver him-
self over, in his ordinance, to that Representative Body, the whole Church there, but
when every man is become a private man again, when the Congregation is dissolv’d,
and every man restored to his own house, God, in his Spirit, is within the doores,
within the bosomes of every man that receiv’d him here. Therefore we have reser-
ved for the conclusion of all, the application of this Text to our blessed Saviour; for
so our most ancient Expositors direct our meditations, first, historically, and literal-
ly, upon David, and that we did at first; Then morally, and by just application to
our selves, and that we have most particularly insisted upon; And lastly, upon our
Saviour Christ Jesus himself; and that remains for our conclusion and consolation; for,
even from him, groaning under our burden, we may hear these words, Mine iniquities
are gone over my head, and, &c. First then, that that lay upon Christ, was sin, properly sin. Peccatum. Nothing could estrange
God from man, but sin; and even from this Son of man, though he were the Son of
God too, was God far estranged; therefore God saw sin in him. Non novit peccatum,
He knew no sin; not by any experimentall knowledge, not by any perpetration; for, 2 Cor. 5. 21.
Non fecit peccatum, He did no sin, he committed no sin. 1 Pet. 2. 23. What though? we have sin
upon us, sin to condemnation, Originall sin before we know sin, before we have com-
mitted any sinne. They esteemed him stricken, and smitten of God; Esa. 53. 4. and they mistook
not in that; He was stricken and smitten of God; It pleased the Lord v. 10. to bruise him, and
to put him to grief; And the Lord proceeds not thus, where he sees no sin. There-
fore the Apostle carries it to a very high expression, God made him to be sin for our sakes; 2 Cor. 5. 21.
not onely sinfull, but sin it self. And as one cruell Emperour wished all mankinde in
one man, that hee might have beheaded mankinde at one blow, so God gathered the
whole nature of sinne into one Christ, that by one action, one passion, sin, all sin, the
whole nature of sinne might bee overcome. It was sin that was upon Christ, else
God could not have been angry with him, nor pleased with us.
It was sin, and his own sin; Mine iniquities, says Christ, in his Type, and figure, Sua. Da-
vid; and in his body, the Church; and, (we may be bold to adde) in his very person; S2 Mine
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Serm. XXIII.
Mine iniquities. Many Heretiques denied his body, to be his Body, they said it was
but an airy, an imaginary, an illusory Body; and denied his Soul to be his Soul, they
said he had no humane soul, but that his divine nature supplied that, and wrought all
the operations of the soul. But we that have learnt Christ better, know, that hee
could not have redeemed man, by that way that was contracted betweene him and
his Father, that is, by way of satisfaction, except he had taken the very body, and the
very soul of man: And as verily as his humane nature, his body and soul were his, his
sins were his too. As my mortality, and my hunger, and thirst, and wearinesse, and all
my naturall infirmities are his, so my sins are his sins. And now when my sins are by
him thus made his sins, no Hell-Devill, not Satan, no Earth-Devill, no Calumnia-
tor, can any more make those sins my sins, then he can make his divinity, mine. As
by the spirit of Adoption, I am made the childe of God, the seed of God, the same Spi-
rit with God, but yet I am not made God, so by Christs taking my sins, I am made a
servant of my God, a Beads-man of my God, a vassall, a Tributary debtor to God, but
I am no sinner in the sight of God, no sinner so, as that man or the Devill can im-
pute that sin unto me, then when my Saviour hath made my sins his. As a Soldier
would not part with his scars, Christ would not. They were sins, Plura. that lay upon him, part with our sins; And his sins; and, as it fol-
lows in his Type, David, sins in a plurality, many sins. I know nothing in the world
so manifold, so plurall, so numerous, as my sins; And my Saviour had all those. But, if
every other man have not so many sins, as I, he owes that to Gods grace, and not
to the Devils forbearance, for the Devill saw no such parts, nor no such power
in me to advance or hinder his kingdome, no such birth, no such education, no such
place in the State or Church, as that he should be gladder of me, then of other men.
He ministers tentations to all; and all are overcome by his tentations; And all these
sins, in all men, were upon Christ at once. All twice over; In the root, and in the
fruit too; In the bullein, and in the coin too; In grosse, and in retail; In Originall,
and in Actuall sin. And, howsoever the sins of former ages, the sins of all men for
4000 years before, which were all upon him, when he was upon the Crosse, might
possibly be numbred, (as things that are past, may easilier fall within a possibility of
such an imagination) yet all those sinnes, which were to come after, he himself
could not number; for, hee, as the Sonne of man, though hee know how long the
world hath lasted, knowes not how long this sinfull world shall last, and when
the day of Judgement shall be; And all those future sins, were his sins before they
were committed; They were his before they were theirs that doe them. And lest
this world should not afford him sins enow, he took upon him the sins of heaven it
self; not their sins, who were fallen from heaven, and fallen into an absolute incapa-
city of reconciliation, but their sins, which remained in heaven; Those sins, which
the Angels that stand, would fall into, if they had not received a confirmation, gi-
ven them in contemplation of the death and merits of Christ, Christ took upon him,
for all things, in Earth, and Heaven too, were reconciled to God by him: for, if there
had been as many worlds, as there are men in this, (which is a large multiplication) or
as many worlds, as there are sins in this, (which is an infinite multiplication) his me-
rit had been sufficient to all. They were sins, Supergressæ. his sins, many sinnes, the sinnes of the world; and then, as in his
Type, David, Supergressæ, his sins, these sins were got above him. And not as Da-
vids, or ours, by an insensible growth, and swelling of a Tide in course of time,
but this inundation of all the sins of all places, and times, and persons, was upon
him in an instant, in a minute; in such a point as admits, and requires a subtile, and a
serious consideration; for it is eternity; which though it doe infinitely exceed all
time, yet is in this consideration, lesse then any part of time, that it is indivisible, e-
ternity is so; and though it last for ever, is all at once, eternity is so. And from
this point, this timelesse time, time that is all time, time that is no time, from all e-
ternity, all the sins of the world were gone over him. And, Caput. in that consideration, supergressæ caput, they were gone over his head. Let
his head bee his Divine nature, yet they were gone over his head: for, though
there bee nothing more voluntary, then the love of God to man, (for, he loves us, not
onely for his own sake, or for his own glories sake, but he loves us for his loves sake, he
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he loves us, and loves his love of us, and had rather want some of his glory, then
wee should not have, nay, then he should not have so much love towards us) though
this love of his be an act simply voluntary, yet in that act of expressing this love,
in the sending a Saviour, there was a kinde of necessity contracted on Christs part;
such a contract had passed between him and his Father, that as himself says, there
was an oportuit pati, Luc. 24. a necessity that he should suffer all that he suffered, and so en-
ter into glory, when he was come; so there was an oportuit venire, a necessity, (a ne-
cessity induced by that contract) that he should come in that humiliation, and smo-
ther, and suppresse the glory of the divine nature, under a cloud of humane, of
passible, of inglorious flesh. So, Tectum. be his divine nature this head, his sins, all our sins made his, were gone above his
head; And over his head, all those ways, that we considered before, in our selves; Sicut
tectum, sicut fornix, as a roof, as an arch, that had separated between God, and him, in
that he prayed, and was not heard; when in that Transeat Calix, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup passe from me, the Cup was not onely not taken out of his hands, but filled
up again as fast, as he, in obedience to his Father, dranke of it, more and worse mise-
ries succeeding, and exceeding those which hee had born before. They were above
him in clamore, Clamor. in that voice, in that clamour which was got up to heaven, and in
possession of his Fathers ears, before his prayer came, Father, forgive them, for
they are not forgiven that sinne of crucifying the Lord of life, yet. They were
above his head, Aquæ. tanquam aquæ, as an inundation of waters, then when he swet wa-
ter and bloud, in the Agony, when hee, who had formerly passed his Israel tho-
rough the Red Sea, as though that had not been love large enough, was now him-
self overflowed with a Red Sea of his owne bloud, for his Israel again. And they
were over his head in Dominio, Dominium,. in a Lordship, in a Tyranny, then when those
marks of soveraign honour, a robe, and a scepter, and a Crown of thorns were added
to his other afflictions. And so is our first part of this Text, the supergressæ sunt, the
multiplicity of sin, appliable to Christ, as well as to his Type, to David, and to
us, the members of his body. And so is the last part, Graves. that which we handled to day, too, the gravatæ sunt,
the weight and insupportablenesse of sin. They were heavy, they weighed him down
from his Fathers bosome, they made God Man. That one sin could make an Angel a
Devill, is a strange consideration; but that all the sins of the world, could make
God Man, is stranger. Yet sinne was so heavy; Nimis. Too heavy, sayes the Text. It did
not onely make God Man, in investing our nature by his birth, but it made him no
Man, by devesting that body, by death; and, (but for the vertue, and benefit of a
former Decree) submitting that body, to the corruption, and putrefaction of the
grave; But this was the peculiar, the miraculous glory of Christ Jesus. He had
sin, all our sin, and yet never felt worme of conscience; He lay dead in the grave,
and yet never felt worm of corruption. Sin was heavy; It made God Man; Too hea-
vy; It made Man no Man; Mihi. Too heavy for him, even for him, who was God and Man
together; for, even that person, so composed, had certain velleitates, (as wee
say in the School) certain motions arising sometimes in him, which required a ve-
runtamen, a review, a re-consideration, Not my will, O Father, but thine be done;
and such, as in us, who are pushed on by Originall sinne, and drawn on by sinfull
concupiscences in our selves, would become sins, though in Christ they were farre
from it. Sin was heavy, even upon him, in all those inconveniences, which wee
noted in a burden; Onus. Incurvando, when he was bowed down, and gave his back to
their scourges; Fatigando, when his soul was heavy unto death; Retardando, when
they brought him to think it long, Viquid dereliquisti, Why hast thou forsaken mee?
And then, præcipitando, to make that haste to the Consummatum est, to the fini-
shing of all, as to die before his fellows that were crucified with him, died; to
bow down his head, and to give up his soul, before they extorted it from him. Thus we burdned him; Bernard. And thus he unburdned us; Et cum exonerat nos onerat,
when he unburdens us, he burdens us even in that unburdening: Onerat beneficio, cum
exonerat peccato. He hath taken off the obligation of sinne, but he hath laid upon us,
the obligation of thankfulnesse, Ps. 116. 12. and Retribution. Quid retribuam? What shall I render to
the Lord, for all his benefits to me? is vox onerati, a voyce that grones under the burden, S3 though
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Serm. XXIII.
though not of sinne, Luke 5. 8. yet of debt, to that Saviour, that hath taken away that sinne. Exi à
me Domine, that which Saint Peter said to Christ, Lord depart from me, for I am a sin-
full man, is, says that Father, vox onerati, the voyce of one oppressed with the blessings
and benefits of God, and desirous to spare, and to husband that treasure of Gods be-
nefits, as though he were better able to stand without the support of some of those be-
nefits, then stand under the debt, which so many, so great benefits laid upon him:
Truly he that considers seriously, what his sins have put the Son of God to, cannot but
say, Lord lay some of my sinnes upon me, rather then thy Sonne should beare all this; that
devotion, that says after, Spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most preci-
ous bloud, would say before, spare that Son, that must die, spare that precious bloud,
that must be shed to redeeme us. And rather then Christ should truely, really beare
the torments of hell, in his soule, (which torments cannot be severed from obduration,
nor from everlastingness) I would, I should desire, that my sins might return to me, and
those punishments for those sins; I should be ashamed to be so farre exceeded in zeal,
by Moses, who would have been blotted out of the book of life, or by Paul, who would
have been separated from Christ for his brethren, as that I would not undertake as much,
to redeem my redeemer, and suffer the torments of Hell my selfe, rather then hee should;
But it is an insupportable burden of debt, that he hath laid upon me, by suffering
that which he suffered, Idem. without the torments of Hell. Those words, Vis sanus
fieri, hast thou a desire to be well, and a faith that I can make thee well: are vox exo-
nerantis, the words of him that would take off our burden; But then, the Tolle gra-
batum & ambula, Take up thy bed and walke, this is vox onerantis, the voyce of Christ,
as he lays a new burden upon us; ut quod prius suave, jam onerosum sit, that bed which
he had ease in before, must now be born with pain; that sin which was forgotten with
pleasure, must now be remembred with Contrition; Christ speaks not of a vacuity, nor
of a levity; when he takes off one burden, he lays on another; nay, two for one.
He takes off the burden, of Irremediablenesse, of irrecoverablenesse, and he reaches out
his hand, in his Ordinances, in his Word and Sacraments, by which we may be dis-
burdened of all our sins; but then he lays upon us, Onus resipiscentiæ, the burden of
Repentance for our selves, and Onus gratitudinis, the burden of retribution, and thank-
fulnesse to him, in them who are his, by our relieving of them, in whom he suffers. The
end of all, (that we may end all in endlesse comfort) is, That our word, in the originall,
in which the holy Ghost spoake, is Jikkebedu, which is not altogether, as we read them,
graves sunt, but graves fieri; not that they are, but that they were as a burden, too heavy
for me; till I could lay hold upon a Saviour to sustaine me, they were too heavy for me:
And by him, Psal. 18. 29. I can runne through a troop (through the multiplicity of my sins,) and by
my God I can leap over a wall; Though mine iniquities be got over my head, as a wall of
separation, yet in Christo omnia possum, In Christ I can doe all things; Mine iniquities
are got over my head; but my head is Christ; and in him, I can doe whatsoever hee
hath done, by applying his sufferings to my soule for all; my sins are his, and all his
merit is mine: And all my sins shall no more hinder my ascending into heaven, nor my
sitting at the right hand of God, in mine own person, then they hindered him, who
bore them all in his person, mine onely Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus, blessed for
ever. SESMSERM.
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Sermon XXIV.
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Ezek. 34. 19.
And as for my flock, they eate that, which yee have troden with your feet,
and they drink that which yee have fouled with your feet. THoseThose four Prophets, whom the Church hath called the great Prophets,
Esay, and Ieremy, Ezekiel and Daniel, are not onely therefore called
great, because they writ more, then the lesser Prophets did, (for
Zechary, who is amongst the lesser, writ more then Daniel who is a-
mongst the greater) but because their Prophecies are of a larger com-
prehension, and extent, and, for the most part, speake more of the
comming of Christ, and the establishing of the Christian Church, then the lesser Pro-
phets doe, who were more conversant about the temporall deliverance of Israel from
Babylon, though there be aspersions of Christ, and his future government in those
Prophets too, though more thinly shed. Amongst the four great ones, our Pro-
phet Ezekiel is the greatest. I compare not their extraction and race; for, though
Ezekiel were de genere sacerdotali, of the Leviticall and Priestly race; (And, as Philo
Judæus notes, all nations having some markes of Gentry, some calling that ennobled
the professors thereof, (in some Armes, and Merchandize in some, and the Arts in o-
thers) amongst the Jews, that was Priesthood, Priesthood was Gentry) though Eze-
kiel were of this race, Esay was of a higher, for he was of the extraction of their
Kings, of the bloud royall. But the extraordinary greatnesse of Ezekiel, is in his ex-
traordinary depth, and mysteriousnesse, for this is one of those parts of Scripture, (as
the beginning of Genesis, and the Canticles of Solomon, also are) which are forbid to
be read amongst the Iews, till they come to be thirty years old, which was the Ca-
nonicall age to be made Priests; In so much, that Saint Gregory says, when he comes
to expound any part of this Prophet, Nocturnum iter ago, that he travelled by night,
and did but ghesse at his way. But, besides that many of the obscure places of the
Prophets are more open to us, then they were to the ancients, because many of those
prophecies are now fulfilled, and so that which was Prophecy to them, is History to us,
in this place, which we have now undertaken, there never was darknesse, nor difficulty,
neither in the first emanation of the light thereof, nor in the reflection; neither in the
Literall, nor in the Figurative sense thereof; for the literall sense is plainly that, that
amongst the manifold oppressions, under which the Children of Israel languished in
Babylon, this was the heaviest, that their own Priests joyned with the State against them,
and infused pestilent doctrines into them, that so themselves might enjoy the favour
of the State, and the people committed to their charge, might slacken their obedience
to God, and surrender themselves to all commandements of all men; This was their
oppression, the Church joyned with the Court, to oppresse them; Their own Priests
gave these sheep grasse which they had troden with their feet, (doctrines, not as God gave
them to them, but as they had tampered, and tempered them, and accommodated
them to serve turnes, and fit their ends; whose servants they had made themselves,
more then Gods) And they gave them water to drink which they had troubled with
their feet, that is, doctrines mudded with other ends then the glory of God; And that
therefore God would take his sheep into his own care, and reduce them from that
double oppression of that Court, and that Church, those Tyrannous officers, and those
over-obsequious Priests. This is the literall sense of our text, and context, evident
enough in the letter thereof. And then the figurative and Mysticall sense is of the same
oppressions, and the same deliverance over againe in the times of Christ, and of the
Christian Church; for that’s more then figurative, fully literall, soon after the Text, ver. 23.
29.
11. 1.
23. 5.
I will set up one shepheard, my servant David, And I will raise up for them a plant of
renoune, which is the same that Esay had called A rod out of the stem of Jesse, and Iere-
my had called A righteous branch, a King that should raigne, and prosper. This prophecy then
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then comprehending the kingdome of Christ, it comprehends the whole kingdome of
Christ, not onely the oppressions, and deliverances of our forefathers, from the Hea-
then, and the Heretiques in the Primitive Church, but that also which touches us more
nearly, the oppressions and deliverance of our Fathers, in the Reformation of Religion,
and the shaking off of the yoak of Rome, that Italian Babylon, as heavy as the Chaldæan.
We shall therefore at this time fix our meditations upon that accommodation of the
Text, the oppression that the Israel of God was under, then, when he delivered them by
that way, the Reformation of Religion, and consider how these metaphors of the holy
Ghost, The treading with their feet the grasse that the sheep were to eate, and the troubling
with their feet the water that the sheep were to drink, doe answer and set out the oppres-
sions of the Roman Church then, as lively as they did in the other Babylon. And so,
having said enough of the primary sense of these words, as they concern Gods Israel,
in the first Babylon, and something by way of commemoration, and thankfulnesse, for
Gods deliverance of his Israel, from the persecutions in the Primitive Church, insist
we now, upon the severall metaphors of the Text, as the holy Ghost continues them
to the whole reigne of Christ, and so to the Reformation. First, Pastores con-
currebant. the greatest calamity of those sheep in Babylon, was that their own shepherds
concurred to their oppression. In Babylon they were a part, but in Rome they were all;
In Babylon they joyned with the State, but in Rome they were the State. Mal. 1. 7. Saint Hierome
notes out of a Tradition of the Iews, that those loafes which their Priests were to offer
to the Lord, were to be of such corne as those Priests had sowed, and reaped and thresh-
ed, and ground, and baked all with their own hands. But they were so farre from that
at Babylon, Iob 4. 8. and at Rome, as that they ploughed iniquity, and sowed wickednesse, and reaped
the same; Ier. 12. 20. and (as God himselfe complaines) trod his portion under foot; That is, first,
neglected his people, (for Gods people are his portion) And then whatsoever pious
men had given to the Church, is his portion too, and that portion they had troden un-
der foot; not neglected it, not despised it, for they collected it, and audited it pro-
vidently enough, but they trod it under foot, when that which was given for the su-
stentation of the Priest, they turned upon their own splendour, and glory, and surfet:
Christ will be fed in the poor that are hungry, and hee will be cloathed in the poore
that are naked, so he would be enriched in those poor Ministers that serve at his Al-
tar; when Christ would be so fed, he desires not feasts and banquets; when he would
be so cloathed, hee desires not soft rayment fit for Kings houses, nor embroyderies,
nor perfumes; when he would be enriched in the poor Church-man, he desires not
that he should be a spunge, to drinke up the sweat of others, and live idly; but yet,
as he would not be starved in the hungry, nor submitted to cold and unwholesome
ayre in the naked, so neither would he be made contemptible, nor beggerly in the Mini-
ster of his Church. Nor, was there in the world, (take in Turky, and all the heathen)
(for they also have their Clergy) a more contemtible & more beggerly Clergy then that
of Rome; I speak of the Clergy in the most proper sense, that is, they that minister, they
that officiate, they that execute, they that personally & laboriously do the service of
the Church. The Prelacies, and Dignities of the Church, were multiplyed in the hands
of them, who under pretext of Government, took their ease, and they that labored, were
attenuated & macerated, with lean, & penurious pensions. In the best governed Churches
there are such Dignities, & supplies without Cure of soules, or personall service; but they
are intended for recompence of former labours, and sustentation of their age, of whose
youth, and stronger days, the Church had received benefit. But in the Roman Church
these preferments are given almost in the wombe; and children have them not onely
before they can merit them, but before they can speake for them; and they have some
Church-names, Dean, or Bishop, or Abbat, as soon almost as they have any Chri-
stian names. Yea, we know many Church dignities, entailed to noble families, and, if
it fall void, whilest the child is so incapable, it must be held for him, by some that must
resigne it, when it may, by any extent of dispensation, be asked for him. So then the
Church joyned with the State, to defraud the people; The Priest was poorly maintain-
ed, and so the people poorely instructed. And this is the first conformity between the
two Babylons, the Chaldæan and the Italian. Pursue we then the holy Ghosts purpose and manner of implying, Gramen. and expressing it
the food ordained for sheep, Grasse. In which make we onely these two stops, that the sheep
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sheep are to eate their grasse super terram, Super ter-
ram. upon the ground; And they are to eate it
sine rore, when the dew is off. First, upon the ground; that is, where the hand of God
hath set it; which for spirituall food is the Church. In hard winters we give sheep hay,
but in open times open grasse. In persecutions of Tyrans, in Interdicts of Antichristian
Bishops, who sometimes out of passion, or some secular respect shut up Church dores
and forbid service, and Sacraments, to whole Cities, to whole nations, sheep must
live by hay, Gods Children must relieve themselves at home, by books of pious and de-
vout meditation; But when God affords abundant pastures, and free entrance there-
unto, Gods sheep are to take their grasse upon the ground, Gods grace at the Church.
Impossibile est eum corrigere, qui omnia scit, Chrysost: It is an impossible thing to cor-
rect him, that thinks he knows all things already. As long as he will admit counsaile
from another, he acknowledges the other, to know more then he; but if he thinks, he
knows all before, he hath no room for farther instruction, nor love to the place where
it is to be had. We read in the Eastern Histories, of a navigable River, that afforded
all the inhabitants exportation, and importation, and all commerce. But when every
particular man, to serve his own curiosity, for the offices of his house, for the pleasures
of his gardens, and for the sumptuousnesse of Grots and aqueducts, and such water-
works, drew severall channells, infinite channells out of this great River, this exhausted
the maine channell, and brought it to such a shallownesse, as would beare no boats,
and so, took from them the great and common commodities that it had afforded
them. So if every man think to provide himselfe Divinity enough at home, for him-
selfe and his family, and out of laziness and singularity, or state, or disaffection to the
preacher leave the Church unfrequented, he frustrates the Ordinance of God, which
is, that his sheep should come to his pastures, and take his grasse upon his ground, his
instructions at his house at Church. And this we could not doe in the Roman Church,
where all our prayers, and all Gods service of that kinde, were in a language, not one-
ly not understood by him that heard it, but for the most part, not by him that spoake it,
It is not of their manifold, and scornfull, and ridiculous and histrionicall Ceremonies
in their service, nor of the dangerous poysons, the direct Idolatries (in the practise of the
people) in their service, that we complain of now, but of this, that though it had
been never so wholesome grasse, it was not so to those sheep, they could not know it
to be their proper aliment; for certainly they aske without faith, that aske without
understanding; nor can I beleeve or hope that God will give me that I aske, if I know
not what I asked. And what a miserable supply had they for this in their Legends; for
many of those Legends were in vulgar tongues and understood by them. B. Virgo femora-
lia. B. Tho. Can-
tuar. reparavit.
Cantiprat.
l. 2. c. 29. In which Le-
gends, the Virgin Mary was every good mans wife, and every good womans mid-wife,
by a neighborly, and familiar, and ordinary assistant in all houshold offices, as we see
in those Legends, and revelations. In which Legends, they did not onely faine actions,
which those persons never did, but they fained persons which never were; and they
did not onely mis-canonize men, made Devills Saints, but they mis-christened men,
put names to persons, and persons to names that never were. And these legends being
transferred into the Church, the sheep lacke their grasse upon the ground, that is, the
knowledge of Gods will, in his house, at Church. And this is another conformity
between the two Babylons, the Chaldean, and the Italian Babylon, that the sheep lacked
due food in the due place. So is it also, Ros super
gramen. that the sheep eat their grasse, whilest the Dew was upon it, which
is found by experience to be unwholesome. The word of God is our grasse, which
should be delivered purely, simply, sincerely, and in the naturall verdure thereof. The
Dews which we intend, are Revelations, Apparitions, Inspirations, Motions, and Inter-
pretations of the private spirit. Now, though we may see the naturall dew to descend
from heaven, yet it did first ascend from the earth, and retains still some such earthly
parts, as sheep cannot digest. So howsoever these Revelations and Inspirations seem
to fall upon us from heaven, they arise from the earth, from our selves, from our own
melancholy, and pride, or our too much homelinesse and familiarity in our accesses, and
conversation with God, or a facility in beleeving, or an often dreaming the same thing.
And with these Dews of Apparitions and Revelations, did the Romane Church make
our fathers drunk and giddy; And against these does S. Augustine devoutly pray,
and praise God, that he had delivered him from the curiosity of sipping these dews, of heark-
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hearkning after these apparitions and revelations. But so ordinary were these appari-tions then, as that any son, or nephew, or friend, could discern his fathers, or uncles,
or companions soul, ascending out of Purgatory into heaven, and know them as di-
stinctly, as if they kept the same haire, and beard, and bodily lineaments, as they had
upon earth. And as a ship which hath struck Sail, will yet goe on with the winde
it had before, for a while, so now, when themselves are come to acknowledge, That
it was the unanime opinion of the Fathers, Maldon.that the souls of the dead did not appeare
after death, but that it was stil the Devil, howsoever sometimes that that he proposed
were holy & religious, Coccius. yet we see a great Author of theirs attribute so much to these
apparitions, and revelations, that when he pretends to prove all controversies by the
Fathers of the Church, he every where intermingles that reverend Book, of Brigids
Revelations, that they might also have some Mothers of the Church too; which is
not disproportionall in that Church; if they have had a woman Pope, to have Mothers
of the Church too. I speak not this, as though God might not, or did not mani-
fest his will by women; The great mystery of the Resurrection of Christ was revealed
to women before men; and to the sinfullest woman of the company, first. But I speak
of that bold injury done to the mysteries of the Christian Religion, by pouring out
that dew upon the grasse, the Revelations of S. Brigid, upon the controversies of Re-
ligion. A book of so much blasphemy, and impertinency, and incredibility, that if
a Heathen were to be converted, he would sooner be brought to beleeve Ovids Meta-
morphoses, then Brigids Revelations, to conduce to Religion. And this is also ano-
ther conformity between the two Babylons, the Chaldean, and the Italian Babylon, that
we could not receive our grasse pure, but infected, and dewed with these frivolous, nay
pernicious apparitions, and Revelations. But press we a little closer to the very steps, Gramen con-
culcatum. & metaphor of the holy Ghost, who here
lays the corrupting of the sheeps grasse in this, That the shepheards had troden it down.
And this treading down will be pertinently considered two ways. Tertullian in his
Book De habitu muliebri, notes two excesses in womens dressing; One he cals Orna-
tum, the other cultum; One mundum muliebrem, the other, (according to the liberty
that he takes in making words) Immundum muliebrem; the first is a superfluous dili-
gence in their dressing, but the other an unnaturall addition to their complexion; the
first he pronounces to be always ad ambitionem, for pride, but the other, ad prostitu-
tionem, for a worse, for the worst purpose. These two sorts of Excesses doe note
these two kindes of treading down the grasse, which we intend; of which one is, the
mingling of too much humane ornament, and secular learning in preaching, in presen-
ting the word of God, which word is our grasse; The other is of mingling humane
Traditions, as of things of equall value, and obligation, with the Commandements of
God. For the first, humane ornament, if in those pastures, which are ordain’d for
sheep, you either plant rare and curious flowers, delightfull onely to the eye, or fra-
grant and odoriferous hearbs delightfull onely to the smell, nay, be they medicinall
hearbs, usefull, and behovefull for the preservation, and restitution of the health of
man, yet if these specious and glorious flowers, and fragrant, and medicinall hearbs,
be not proper nourishment for sheep, this is a treading down of the grasse, a peste-
ring and a suppressing of that which appertained to them. So if in your spirituall
food, our preaching of the Word, you exact of us more secular ornament, then may
serve, as Saint Augustine says, Ad ancillationem, to convey, and usher the true word of
life into your understandings, and affections, (for both those must necessarily be
wrought upon) more then may serve ad vehiculum, for a chariot for the word of God
to enter, and triumph in you, this is a treading down of the grasse, a filling of that
ground which was ordained for sheep, with things improper, and impertinent to them.
If you furnish a Gallery with stuffe proper for a Gallery, with Hangings and Chairs, and
Couches, and Pictures, it gives you all the conveniencies of a Gallery, walks and pro-
spect, and ease; but if you pester it with improper and impertinent furniture, with
Beds, and Tables, you lose the use, and the name of a Gallery, and you have made it
a Wardrobe; so if your curiosity extort more then convenient ornament, in delivery
of the word of God, you may have a good Oration, a good Panegyrique, a good Enco-
miastique, but not so good a Sermon. It is true that Saint Paul applies sentences of
secular Authors, even in matters of greatest importance; but then it is to persons that were
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were accustomed to those authors, and affected with them, and not conversant, not
acquainted at all, with the phrase and language of Scripture amongst us now, almost
every man (God be blessed for it) is so accustomed to the text of Scripture, as that
he is more affected with the name of David, or Saint Paul, then with any Seneca or
Plutarch. I am far from forbidding secular ornament in divine exercises, especially in
some Auditories, acquainted with such learnings. I have heard men preach against witty
preaching; and doe it with as much wit, as they have; and against learned preaching,
with as much learning, as they could compasse. If you should place that beast, which
makes the Bezoar stone, in a pasture of pure, but onely grasse, it is likely, that out of
his naturall faculty, he would petrifie the juyce of that grasse, and make it a stone, but
not such a medicinall stone, as he makes out of those herbes which he feeds upon. Let
all things concur in the name of God, to the advancing of his purpose, in his ordi-
nance, which is, to make his will acceptable to you, by his word; onely avoid excesse
in the manner of doing it. Saint Augustines is an excellent rule, when after in his book
De Doctrina Christiana, he had taught a use of all Arts in Divinity, he allows them onely
thus far, ut cum ingenia his reddantur exercitatiora, cavendum ne reddantur maligniora,
that when a man by these helps is the more ful, and the more ready & the more able for
Church service, he be not also thereby made the more bold and the more confident; Nec
ament decipere verisimili sermone, lest because he is able to make any thing seem probable
and likely to the people, by his eloquence, he come to infuse paradoxicall opinions, or
schismaticall, or (which may be beleeved either way) problematicall opinions, for certain
and constant truths, and so be the lesse conversant, and the lesse diligent in advancing
plaine, and simple, and fundamentall doctrines and catechisticall, which are truely ne-
cessary to salvation, as though such plaine, and ordinary, and catechisticall doctrines
were not worthy of his gifts and his great parts. In a word, in sheep-pastures you may
plant fruit trees in the hedge-rowes; but if you plant them all over, it is an Orchard; we
may transfer flowers of secular learning, into these exercises; but if they consist of
those, they are but Themes, and Essays. But why insist we upon this? Was there any
such conformity between the two Babylons as that the Italian Babylon can be said to
have troden down the grasse in that kinde, with overcharging their Sermons with too
much learning. Truly it was far, very very far from it; for when they had prevailed
in that Axiome, and Aphorisme of theirs, that it was best to keep the people in igno-
rance, they might justly keep the Priest in ignorance too; for when the people needed
no learned instruction, what needed the Church a learned instructer? And there-
fore I laid hold of this consideration, the treading down of grass, by oppressing
it with secular learning, there by to bring to your remembrance, the extreme ignorance
that damp’d the Roman Church, at that time; where Aristotles Metaphysicks were
condemned for Heresie, Hosius. and ignorance in generall made not onely pardonable, but
meritorious. Of which times, if at any time, you read the Sermons, which were then
preached, and after published, you will excuse them of this treading down the grass,
by oppressing their auditories with over-much learning, for they are such Sermons as
will not suffer us to pity them, but we must necessarily scorne, and contemne, and
deride them; Sermons, at which the gravest, and saddest man could not choose but
laugh; not at the Sermon, God forbid; nor at the plainness, and homeliness of it;
God forbid; but at the Soloecismes, the barbarismes, the servilities, the stupid igno-
rance of those things which fall within the knowledge of boys of the first forme in eve-
ry School. This was their treading down of grass, not with over-much learning, but
with a cloud, a dampe, an earth of ignorance. After an Oxe that oppresseth the grass,
after a Horse that devours the grass, sheep will feed; but after a Goose that stanches the
grass, they will not; no more can Gods sheep receive nourishment from him that puts
a scorne upon his function, by his ignorance. But in the other way of treading down grass, Conculca-
tum per tra-
ditiones. (that is, the word of God) by the
Additions and Traditions of men, the Italian Babylon Rome abounded, superaboun-
ded, overflowed, surrounded all. And this is much more dangerous then the other;
for this mingling of humane additions, and traditions, upon equall necessity, and e-
quall obligation as the word of God it selfe, is a kneading, an incorporating of grasse
and earth together, so, as that it is impossible for the weake sheep, to avoid eating the
meat of the Serpent, Gen. 3. Dust shalt thou eate all the days of thy life. Now man upon his
trans-
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transgression, was not accursed, nor woman; The sheep were not accursed; But the
earth was, and the Serpent was; and now this kneading, this incorporating of earth
with grasse, traditions with the word, makes the sheep to eate the cursed meat of the
cursed Serpent, Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. Now, in this treading down this grasse, this way, this suppressing it by traditions,
be pleased to consider these two applications; some traditions doe destroy the word
of God, Scicut Por-
cus. extirpate it, annihilate it, as when a Hog doth root up the grass; In which
case, not onely that turfe withers, and is presently useless, and unprofitable to the
sheep, but if you dig never so low after, down to the Center of the earth, it is impos-
sible ever to finde any more grass under it: so some traditions doe utterly oppose the
word of God, without having under them, any mysterious signification, or any occa-
sion or provocation of our devotion, which is the ordinary pretext of traditions, and
Ceremoniall additions in their Church. And of this sort was that amongst the Jews,
of which our blessed Saviour reproches them, Mat. 15. that whereas by the law, children were
to relieve decayed parents, they had brought in a tradition, of Commutation, of Com-
pensation, that if those children gave a gift to the Priest, or compounded with the Priest,
they were discharged of the former obligation. And of this sort are many traditions
in the Roman Church; where, not onely the doctrines of men but the doctrine of De-
vills, (as the Apostle calls the forbidding of Mariage, and of meats) did not onely
tread down, 1 Tim. 1. but root up the true grass. The other sort of Traditions, Sicut Talpa. and Ceremonies, doe not as the Hog, root up the
grass, but as a Mole, cast a slack, and thin earth upon the face of the grass. Now, if
the shepheard, or husbandman be present to scatter this earth againe, the sheep receive
no great harme, but may safely feed upon the wholesome grass, that is under; but if
the sheep, who are not able to scatter this earth, nor to finde the grass that lies under, be
left to their own weakness, they may as easily starve in this case, as in the other; the
Mole may damnifie them as much as the Hog. And of this sort, are those traditions,
which induce Ceremonies into the Church, in vestures, in postures of the body, in par-
ticular things, and words, and actions, in Baptisme or Mariage, or any other thing to
be transacted in the Church. These ceremonies are not the institutions of God imme-
diately, but they are a kind of light earth, that hath under it good and usefull signifi-
cations, which when they be understood conduce much to the encrease and advance-
ment of our devotion, and of the glory of God. And this is the iniquity that we
complaine of in the Roman Church, that when we accuse them of multiplying imper-
tinent, and insupportable ceremonies, they tell us, of some mysterious and pious signi-
fication, in the institution thereof at first; They tell us this, and it is sometimes true;
But neither in Preaching nor practise, doe they scatter this earth to their own sheep, or
shew them the grass that lies under, but suffer the people, to inhere, and arrest their
thoughts, upon the ceremony it selfe, or that to which that ceremony mis-leads them;
as in particular, (for the time will not admit many examples) when they kneel at the
Sacrament, they are not told, that they kneel because they are then in the act of recei-
ving an inestimable benefit at the hands of God, (which was the first reason of kneeling
then) And because the Priest is then in the act of prayer in their behalfe, that that may
preserve them, in body and soule, unto eternall life. But they are suffered to go one, in
kneeling in adoration of that bread, which they take to be God. We deny not that there
are Traditions, nor that there must be ceremonies, but that maters of faith should depend
of these, or be made of these, that we deny; and that they should be made equall to
Scriptures; for with that especially doth Tertullian reproch the Heretiques, that being
pressed with Scriptures, they fled to Traditions, as things equall or superiour to the
word of God. I am loth to depart from Tertullian, both because he is every where a
Patheticall expresser of himselfe, and in this point above himselfe. Nobis curiositate
opus non est, post Jesum Christum, nec Inquisitione, post Evangelium. Have we seen that
face of Christ Jesus here upon earth, which Angels desired to see, and would we see
a better face? Traditions perfecter then the word? Have we read the four Evangelists,
and would we have a better Library? Traditions fuller then the word? Cum credimus,
nihil desideramus ultra credere; when I beleeve God in Christ, dead, and risen againe
according to the Scriptures, I have nothing else to beleeve; Hoc enim prius credimus,
non esse quod ultra credere debeamus; This is the first Article of my Faith, that I am bound
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bound to beleeve nothing but articles of faith in an equall necessity to them. Will we be
content to be well, and thank God, when we are well? Hilary tells us, when we are
well; Bene habet quod iis, quæ scripta sunt, contentus sis; then thou art well, when thou
satisfiest thy self with those things, which God hath vouchsafed to manifest in the
Scriptures. Si aliquis aliis verbis, quàm quibus à Deo dictum est, demonstrare velit, if any
man will speake a new language, otherwise then God hath spoken, and present new
Scriptures, (as he does that makes traditions equall to them) Aut ipse non intelligit,
aut legentibus non intelligendum relinquit, either he understands not himself, or I may
very well be content not to understand him, if I understand God without him. The
Fathers abound in this opposing of Traditions, when out of those traditions, our ad-
versaries argue an insufficiency in the Scriptures. Solus Christus audiendus, says Saint
Cyprian, we hearken to none but Christ; nec debemus attendere quid aliquis ante nos
faciendum putarit, neither are we to consider what any man before us thought fit to be
done, sed quid qui ante omnes est, fecerit; but what he, who is before all them, did; Christ
Jesus and his Apostles, who were not onely the primitive but the pre-primitive Church,
did and appointed to be done. In this treading down of our grasse then in the Roman
Church, first by their supine Ignorance, and barbarisme, and then by traditions, of
which, some are pestilently iufectiousinfectious and destroy good words, some cover it so, as
that not being declared to the people in their signification, they are uselesse to
them, no Babylon could exceed the Italian Babylon, Rome, in treading down their
grasse. Their oppression was as great in the other, Aqua.
Psal. 23. 2. In troubling their water, My sheep drink that
which you have troubled. When the Lord is our shepherd, he leadeth us ad aquas qui-
etudinum, to the waters of rest, of quietnesse; of these, in the plurall, quietudinum,
quietness of body, and quietness of Conscience too. The endowments of heaven are Joy,
and Glory; joy, and glory are the two Elements, the two Hemispheres of Heaven;
And of this Joy, and this Glory of heaven, we have the best earnest that this world can
give, if we have rest; satisfaction and acquiescence in our religion, for our beleefe, and
for our life and actions, peace of Conscience. And where the Lord is our shepherd
he leads us, and ad aquas quietudinum, to the waters of rest, multiplyed rest; all kind
of rest. But the shepherds, in our text, troubled the waters; and more then so; for we
have just cause to note the double signification of this word, which we translate Trou-
ble, and to transfer the two significations to the two Sacraments, as they are exhibi-
ted in the Roman Babylon; The word is Mirpas; and it denotes not onely Contur-
bationem, a troubling, a mudding, but Obturationem too, an interception, a stopping,
as the Septuagint translates it, Prov. 35. and in these two significations of the word,
a troubling, and a stopping of the waters, hath the Roman Church exercised her tyran-
ny, and her malignity, in the two Sacraments. For, in the Sacrament of Baptisme, they
had troubled the water, with additions of Oile, and salt, and spittle, and exorcismes;
But in the other Sacrament they came Ad obturationem, to a stopping, to an intercisi-
on, to an interruption of the water, the water of life, Aquæ quietudinum, the water of
rest to our souls, and peace to our consciences, in withholding the Cup of salvation, the
bloud of Christ Jesus from us. Psal. 116. 12. So that if thou come to Davids holy expostulation,
Quid retribuam, what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me; And
pursue it to Davids holy resolution, Accipiam Calicem, I will take the Cup of salvation,
you shall be told, Sir you must take Orders first, or you cannot take that Cup. But
water is as common as Aire; And as that Element Aire, in our spirituall food, that
is preaching, (which is Spiritus Domini, the breath of God) is common to all, Ite,
prædicate omni Creaturæ, Mar. 16. 15.
Mat. 26. 27. goe preach the Gospell to every Creature, so is this water of life
in the Sacrament, common to all, Bibite ex eo omnes, Drink yee all of this; and thereby
doe the names of Communion, and participation accrew to it, because all have an inte-
rest in it. This is that bloud, of which Saint Chrysostome says, Hic sanguis facit, ut
Imago Dei in nobis floreat; That we have the Image of God in our souls, we have by
the benefit of the same nature, by which we have our souls; There cannot be a humane
soule without the Image of God in it. But, ut floreat, that this Image appear to us,
and be continually refreshed in us, ut non languescat animæ nobilitas, that this holy no-
blenesse of the soule doe not languish not degenerate in us, we have by the benefit of
this bloud of Christ Jesus the seale of our absolution in that blessed and glorious Sa-
T crament;
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And that bloud they deny us. This is that bloud of which they can
make as much as they will, with a thought, with an intention; so, as they pretend a
power, of changing a whole vintage at once, all the wine of all the nations in the
world, into the bloud of Christ, if the Priest have an intention to doe so, in the time of
his Consecration; And yet, as easily as they come by it, they will give us none. They
have told us, that we had it per Concomitantiam, by a necessary concomitancy; That
because we had the body in the bread, and that body could not be without the bloud,
that therefore we had the bloud also. But if the bread alone be enough, if the Cup be
impertinent, why did Christ give it? If we have no losse in their detaining it from us,
what gain have they in retaining it to themselves, let all have it, or none? It is true
that they can performe all the ill, that they would doe, by the bread alone. They can
worke the spirituall ill, of inducing adoration to a Creature, by the bread alone; And
they could work the temporall ill, of poysoning an Emperour in the Sacrament, by the
bread alone. They can come to all their purposes, to all their ill, by the bread alone;
but we have not all our good, because we have not Christs intire Institution. And so
in this troubling, and in this stopping of these waters, in these confusions, we challenge
any Babylon, in the behalfe of this Italian Babylon, Rome. All these oppressions are aggravated by the last, Pedes. and (as weightiest things sink to
the bottome) so is this in the bottome the heaviest pressure, that they did this with
their feet, they corrupted the grasse with their feet, and troubled the waters with their
feet. Now, in the Scriptures, when this word, feet, doth not signifie that part of
mans body which is ordinarily so called, but is transferred to a Metaphoricall significa-
tion, (as in our text it is) it does most commonly signifie Affections, 1 Sam. 2. 9. or Power. So the
Lord will keep the feet of his Saints; that is, direct their desires, and affections in the
ways of holinesse. And then for Power, (which is the more frequent acceptation of the
word) he will not suffer thy foot to be moved, that is, thy Power to be shaked; And
all such places, qui festinus, he hath hasteth with his feet sinneth, our interpreters ex-
pound of a hasty abuse of Power; Psal. 121. 3. And those, they have not refrained their feet, and
then, Prov. 19. 2. thy feet are sunk in the mire, are still interpreted of Power, of a wonton abuse of
Power, Ier. 14. 10.
38. 22. or of a withdrawing this Power from man, by God; feet signifies Affections,
and them corrupted and depraved, and power, and that abused. David seems to have
joyned them, (as when they are joyned, they must necessarily be the most heavy) in
that prayer, Psal. 36. 11. Let not the foot of pride come against me. The hand of pride, nay the sword
of pride, affects not a tender soule so much, as the foot of pride; to be oppressed, and
that with scorne; not so much in an anger, as in a wantonnesse. Rehoboams people were
more confounded, with that scornfull answer of his to them, when they were come,
(My little finger shall be thicker then my Fathers loynes; my father chastised you with
whips, 1 King. 12. 10. but I will chastise you with Scorpions) then they were with the grievances them-
selves, for which they came; when the King would not onely be cruelly sharp, but
wittily sharp upon them, this cut on every side, and pierced deep. And so doe the
Rabbins, the Jewish expositors expound this text, literally, that in the captivity of Ba-
bylon, the great men of their Synagogues, compounded with the State, and for certain
tributes, had commissions, by which they governed their people at their pleasure, and so
milked them to the last drop, the last drop of bloud, and sheared them to the naked skin,
& then flead off that, & al this while laughed at them, contemned them, because they had
no where, to appeal, nor relieve themselves: And this we complain to have been the
proceeding in the Italian Babylon, Rome, with our Fathers, They oppressed them, with
their feet, that is, with Power, and with scorne. First, Pes potesta-
tis. for their illimited and enormous Power, they had so slumbred, so intoxica-
ted the Princes of the Earth, the weaker by intimidations, the stronger by communica-
ting the spoile, and suffering those Princes to take some fleeces, from some of the
sheep in their dominions, as there was no reliefe any way. They record, nay they boast,
gloriously, triumphantly, of three score thousand of the Waldenses, slain by them in a day,
in the beginning of the Reformation; and Possevine the Jesuit will not lose the glory
of recording the five hundred thousand, slain in a very few years, onely in France, and
the low Countrey, for some declarations of their desire of a Reformation. Let all those
innumerable numbers of wretches, (but now victorious Saints in the Triumphant
Church) who have breathed out their souls in the Inquisition (where even the solicita-
tions
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tions of Kings, and that for their own sons, have not prevailed) confess the power, the
immensness of that power, then, when as under some of the Roman Emperours, it was
treason to weep, treason to sigh, treason to look pale, treason to fall sicke, and all these
were made arguments of discontent, and ill affection, to the present government: so in
Rome, there were Hereticall sighes, Hereticall teares, Hereticall palenesse, and Hereticall
sicknesse; every thing was interpreted to be an accusation of the present times, and an
anhelation after a Reformation, and that was formall heresie, three pil’d, deep-died
heresie: so that a man durst scarce have prayed for the enlarging of Gods blessings
to the Church, because to wish it better, seemed a kind of accusing of it, that it was
not well already; and it was heresie to thinke so. Let those Israelites, which found no
way from this Egypt, but by the red sea, no way out of Idolatry, but by Martyrdome,
as they have testified for Christ, so testifie against Antichrist, how heavy his feet, as
feet signifie Power, trod upon the necks of Princes and people. But that that affected and afflicted most, Pessuperbiæ. was the scorne and the contempt, that ac-
companied their oppressions. To bring Kings to kisse his feet, was a scorne; but that
scorne determined in man; but it was a scorne to God himselfe, to say that he had said,
it should be so, to apply Scripture to the justification thereof, Kings and Queens shall
bow down to thee, Esay. 49. 23. their faces towards the Earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet. But limit we
all considerations of their scorne in one; In this, that they did these wrongs professed-
ly, and without any disguise. Great men will oppresse and ruine others, a great while be-
fore they will be content to be seen and known to doe it. There is such a kinde of re-
verence, not onely to Law, but even to honour, and opinion, as that men are lothe to
publish their evill actions; To sinne as Sodome did, and not to hide it, is an evidence,
of neglecting, and scorning of all the world. And therefore the Roman Historiographers
would not forbeare to note the insolency of that young gallant, who knowing what
any man whom he strook could recover by action against him, would strike every poor
soul or inferiour person, whom he met in the street, and then bid his man give him so
much money, as the Law would for damages. And this oppressing with scorne, this
proceeding without any respect of fame, we note (for hast) but in two things, in the
Italian Babylon Rome; Taxa ca-
meræ. first, in that Book, their Taxa Cameræ, and then in that doctrine,
their Reservatio Casuum, that they durst compose, and divulge such a book, as their
Taxa Cameræ, which is an Index, a Repertory for all sinnes, and in which every man
may see beforehand, how much money, an Adultery, an Incest, a Murder, a Parricide,
or any other sinne, whose name he would never have thought of, but by that Remem-
brancer, that book will cost him, that so, he may sinne, and not undoe himself, sinne
according to his means, and within his compasse, that they durst let the world see such
a book, was argument enough that they were fear’d up, and scorned all that all men
could think, or say, or doe in opposition. So also is their Reservation of Cases; that though all Priests have an equall power
of remitting all sins, Reservatio
casuum. yet are some sinnes reserved onely to Prelates, some onely to the
Popes Legats, some onely to the Pope himselfe. Is not this a scornfull spurning and
kicking of the world, a plain telling them that all is done for money, and shall be so,
say all the world what it can. They have a nationall custome in civill curtesies in that
place in Italy, to offer entertainments and lendings of money, and the like, but it must
not be accepted. It is a discurtesie, to take their courteous offers in earnest.
Will they play so with the great Seale of heaven, the remission and absolution of sins,
and send out their Priests with that commission, whose sinnes yee forgive, are forgiven,
but see you forgive none upon which we have set a higher price, and reserved to our
selves. They had such a fashion in old Rome, whilest the Republique stood; He that
was admitted to Triumph must invite the Consuls to the feast, and the Consuls must
promise to come, but they must forbeare, lest their presence should diminish the glo-
ry of the Triumpher. So the Priest must professe that he hath (as he hath indeed)
power to remit all sinnes, but there are a great many, that he must not meddle withall.
They practise this reservation upon higher persons then their ordinary Priests, upon
Cardinals. A Cardinall is created, and by that creation he hath a voice in all the great
affairs of the world, but at his creation Os clauditur à Papa, he that made him, makes
him dumbe, and he that out of the nature of his place is duly to be heard over all the
world, must not be heard in the Consistory, the Pope gives him an universall voice, T2 and
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Serm. XXV.
and then shuts his mouth; He makes him first a Giant, and then a dwarfe in an houre;
He makes him thunder, and speechlesse, all at once; fearfull to the Kings of the
earth, if he might speak, but he must not. They were not content to make Merchan-
dize of our souls, but they make plays, jests, scornes, of matter of salvation, and play
fast and loose with that soveraign Balsamum of our souls, the absolution and remission
of sins. Though, no doubt, many of them confess in their own bosomes, that which one
of them professes ingenuously, Tapperus. and publiquely, Diffiteri non possumus abusum Reservati-
onum, & stragem animarum in iis; we cannot deny the abuse of reservations, even to
the butchery of those poor souls, who, by reason of these reservations, want their abso-
lution, Dolendum, deflendum, pecuniâ numeratâ, omnia dispensare; This deserves all
our teares, all our sighs, that for money, and not without it, all sinnes are dispen-
sed withall; but there are fixed seasons for salvation, (some remissions and pardons
are reserved to certain times of the year) and there are fixt shops of salvation, (some re-
missions and pardons are appropriated to certain Fairs and Markets, and cannot be gi-
ven (that is sold) at any other time, or place. And farther we cannot (we need not)
extend this accommodation of the words of our text, literally intended of the condi-
tion of Gods Children in Babylon, but pregnantly appliable to the condition of our Fa-
thers in the Italian Babylon, Rome. But having at this time seen the oppressions that
those shepheards inflicted there, for the rest which are many and important conside-
rations, as first that they staid, that they eate that grasse, that yet they remained Gods
sheep, and remained his flock, his Church, though a Church under a greater Church;
And then the behaviour of the sheep, whilst they staid there, their obedience to Gods
call in comming from them when he called them, and made them way; And lastly
the little ground that our Separatists can have, for their departing from us either by
Israels departing from Babylon, or our Fathers departing from Rome, must be the exer-
cise of your devotion another day. Sermon XXV.
Preached at White-Hall.
The second Sermon on Ezek. 34. 19.
And as for my flock, they eate that, which yee have troden with your feet, and they drink
that which yee have fouled with your feet. ASAs by way of accommodation, we have considered these words, as they
concern the iniquity and oppression of the shepheards, (that is, the chief
rulers amongst the Jews) in the Chaldean Babylon, and as they are ap-
pliable to the condition of our Fathers in the Italian Babylon, Rome, so
now in this exercise are we to consider, the behaviour of the sheep, their
nature, and their demeanour under all these pressures; in which we have many
steps to goe; All these; first, Manebant, that for all this ill usage there they did stay,
they did not breake out, not scatter themselves, manebant; And then Edebant, though
their grasse were troden, and their water troubled, yet they did eat that grasse, and they
did drink that water, Edebant; And doing so, Manebant Oves, they continued sheep,
they lost not the nature, nor property of sheep, Manebant Oves, and Oves Dei, they con-
tinued Gods sheep; (for the Devill hath his sheep too) my sheep, says God; not those
which had been mine, when they eat fresh grasse, and drunke pure water, but then,
when they eat troden grasse, and drunke troubled water, they were Gods sheep; And
more then that, they were Grex Dei, Gods flock; for those whom our former translati-
on calls my sheep, the latter calls my flock; God hath single sheep in many corners of
the heathen, but these, though thus fed, were his flock, his Church. But then, though
they staid Gods leasure, and lived long upon this ill diet, yet when God was pleased to
call them out of Babylon, out of Babylon they went, when God was pleased to lead
our Fathers out of Rome, they left it. And justly, howsoever our Adversaries load us with
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with contumelious names for that departure; in which branch, we shall see the va-
nity of their criminations, and imputations to us for that secession from them. And
then lastly, by way of condoling and of instructing, we shall make it appear to our
weak brethren, that our departing from Rome, can be no example, no justification
of their departing from us. Our branches then, from whence we are to gather our
fruit, being thus many, it is time to lay hold upon the first, which is Manebant,
Though these sheep were thus ill fed, yet they did stay. Optimis ovibus pedes breves; Manebant.
Plinie.
Prov. 19. 2.
Chrysost. The best sheep have shortest leggs; Their commen-
dation is, not to make hast in straying away. He that hasteth with his feet sinneth;
that is, from the station in which God hath placed him. Si innumera bona fecerimus,
If we have abounded in good works, and done God never so good service, Non mi-
nores poenas dabimus, quàm qui Christi corpus proscindebant, si integritatem Ec-
clesiarum discerpserimus, we are as guilty in the eies of God, as they that crucifyed
the Lord of life himselfe, if we violate his spouse, or rent the intirenesse of his
Church. Vir quidam sanctus dixit, (says the same father of another, Chrysostome
of Cyprian) A certaine holy man hath ventured to say, Quod audaciùs sapere videtur,
attamen dixit, That which perchance may seem bodily sayd, but yet he sayd it; what
was it? This, peccatum istud nec martyrio deleri; That this sin of schisme, of renting
the unity of the Church, cannot be expiated no not by Martyrdome it self. When
God had made but a hedge about Job, Job 1. 10. yet that hedge was such a fence as the De-
vill could not break in: Jer. 1. 18. when God hath carryed Murum æneum a wall of brasse, nay
Murum igneum, a wall of fire about his Church, wilt thou break out through that
wall, Zech. 2. 5. that brasse, that fire? Paradise was not walled, nor hedged; and there were
serpents in Paradise too; Gen. 3. 24. yet Adam offered not to goe out of Paradise, till God
drove him out; and God saw that he would have come in againe, if the Cherubims
and the flaming sword had not been placed by God to hinder him. Charme the
Charmer never so wisely, Psal. 58. 5. (as David speaks) he cannot utter a sweeter, nor a more
powerfull charme, then that, Ego te baptizo, I baptize thee in the name of the Father,
and of the Sonne, and of the Holy Ghost; And, Nos admittimus, we receive this child, in-
to the congregation of Christs flock; There is a sweet and a powerfull charm, in the Ego te
absolvo, I absolve thee from all thy sins; But this blessed charm I may heare from ano-
ther, if I stray into another Church. But the Ego te baptizo I can heare but once;
and to depart from that Church, in which I have received my baptism, and in which
I have made my Contracts and my stipulations with God, and pledged and engaged
my sureties there, deserve a mature consideration; for I may mistake the reasons
upon which I goe, and I may finde after, that there are more true errours in the
Church I goe to, then there were imaginary in that that I left. Truly I have been
sorry to see some persons converted from the Roman Church, to ours; because I
have known, that onely temporall respects have moved them, and they have lived after
rather in a nullity, or indifferency to either religion, then in a true, and established zeale.
Of which kinde, I cannot forbeare to report to you so much of the story of a French
gentleman, Peletier. who though he were of good parts, and learned, yet were not worthy to be
mentioned in this place, but that he soar’d so high, as to write against the learnedst
King, that any age hath produc’d, our incomparable King James. This man, who was
turned from the Reformed to the Roman religion, being asked, halfe in jest; Sir,
which is the best religion, you must needs know, that have been of both? answered,
Certainely, the religion I left, the reformed religion, must needs be the best religion,
for when I changed, I had this religion, the Romans religion, for it, and three hun-
dred Crowns a year to boot; which was a pension given him, upon his conversion.
Neither truely doth any thing more loosen a mans footing, nor slacken his hold
upon that Church in which he was baptized, nor open him more to an undervalua-
tion of all Churches, then when he gives himselfe leave, to thinke irreverently,
slightly, negligently of the Sacraments, as of things, at best, indifferent, and, many
times, impertinent. I should thinke I had no bowels, if they had not earn’d and mel-
ted, when I heard a Lady, whose child of five or sixe daies, being ready to die every
minute, she being mov’d often that the child might be christened, answered, That, if
it were Gods will, that the child should live to the Sabbath, that it might be bapti-
zed in the Congregation, she should be content, otherwise, Gods will be done upon S3T3 it,
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it, for God needs no Sacrament. With what sorrow, with what holy indignation did I
heare the Sonne of my friend, who brought me to that place, to minister the Sacra-
ment to him, then, upon his death-bed, and almost at his last gaspe, when my ser-
vice was offered him in that kinde, answer his Father, Father, I thanke God, I have
not lived so in the sight of my God, as that I need a Sacrament. I name a few of
these, because our times abound with such persons as undervalue, not onely all rituall,
and ceremoniall assistances of devotion, which the wisdome, and the piety of the
Church hath induced, but even the Sacraments themselves, of Christs owne
immediate institution, and are alwaies open to solicitations to passe to another
Church, upon their own surmises of errours in their own. Whereas there belongs
much consideration, and a well grounded assurance, of fundamentall errours in one
Church, and that those errours are repayred, and no other, as great as those, ad-
mitted, in the other Church, before, upon any collaterall pretences, we abandon
that Church, in which God hath sealed us to himselfe in Baptisme. Our Fathers
stayd in Rome; Manebant, They stayd, and Edebant, they eat that grasse, and
they drunke that water, which was troden and troubled. Alasse, Edebant. what should they have eaten, what should they have drunke? should a
man strangle himselfe rather then take in an ill ayre? Or forbear a good table, be-
cause his stomach cannot digest every dish? We doe not call money, base money, till
the Allay exceed the pure metall; and if it doe so, yet it may be currant, and
serve to many offices; Those that are skilfull in that art, know how to sever the
base from the pure, the good parts of the religion from the bad; and those that are
not, will not cast it away, for all the corrupt mixture. It is true, they had been better
to have stayd at home and served God in private, then to have communicated in a su-
perstitious service. Domum vestram Christi Ecclesiam deputamus, I shall never doubt
to call your House the Church of Christ. Aug. Iulianæ
viduæ. ep. 242. But this was not permitted to our
Fathers; to serve God at home; to Church they must come, and there, all their
grasse was troden, and all their water troubled. What should they doe? God ne-
ver brings us to a perplexity, so as that we must necessarily do one sinne to avoyd an-
other. Never. It seemes that the Apostles had been traduced, and insimulated of teaching
this Doctrine, That in some cases evill might be done that good might follow; Rom. 3. 8.
and therefore doth S. Paul with so much diligence discharge himself of it. And yet,
long after this, when those men, who attempted the Reformation, whom they cal-
led Pauperes de Lugduno, taught that Doctrine, That no lesse sinne might be done, to
escape a greater, this was imputed to them, then, by the Roman Church, for an
Heresie; Prateolus Art.
23. That that was Orthodox in Saint Paul, was Heresie in them that studyed
a Reformation. But the Doctrine stands like a rocke against all waves, That no-
thing that is naturally ill, intrinsecally sinne, may upon any pretence be done, not
though our lifes, nor the lifes of all the Princes in the world, though the frame,
and beeing of the whole world, though the salvation of our souls lay upon it; no
sinne, naturally, intrinsecally sinne might be done, for any respect. Christus pecca-
tum factus est, August. sed non fecit peccatum, Though Christ pursued our redemption with
hunger, and thirst, yet he would have left us unredeemed, rather then have commit-
ted any sinne. Of this kinde therefore, naturally, intrinsecally sinne, and so known to
be to them that did it, certainely our Fathers coming to the superstitious service in
the Church of Rome, was not: for had it been, naturally sinne, and so known to
them, when they did it, they could not have been saved, otherwise then by repen-
tance after, which we cannot presume in their behalfe, for there are no testimonies
of it. If any of them had invested at any time a scruple, a doubt whether they did
well or no, alasse how should they devest and overcome that scruple? To whom
durst they communicate that doubt? They were under an invincible ignorance, and
sometimes under an indevestible scruple. They had heard that Christ commanded
to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, Mat. 16. 6. and Sadduces, and so of the Herodians; that is,
of the doctrines of those particular sects; Mar. 8. 15. of affirming Fate, and Destiny, and Stoicall
necessity, with the Pharisees; of denying Spirits, and Resurrection with the Sadduces;
of mis-applying the prophesies concerning the Messias, to the person of Herod, or
any earthly King; Mat. 23. 1. But yet, after all this, he commands them to observe, and per-
forme the doctrine of the Pharisees, because they sate in Moses chaire; Though with
much
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much vehemence and bitternesse, he call them Hypocrites, though with many ingemi-nations upon every occasion, he reiterate that name, though he aggravate that name
with other names of equall reproach, Fools, blinde guides, painted tombes, and the
like, yet he commands to obey them; and, which is most remarkable, this is sayd,
not onely to the common sort, but even to his own disciples too; Christ had be-
gunne his work of establishing a Church, which should empty their Synagogues;
but because that worke was not yet perfected, he would not withdraw the people
from their Synagogues; for there wrought Gods Ordinance, (though corrupted by
the workmen) which Ordinance was, that the law should be publiquely expounded
to the people; and so it was there; There God was present; And though the De-
vill (by their corruption) were there too, yet, the Devill came in at the window,
God at the dore; the Devill by stealth, God by his declared Ordinance, and Co-
venant. And this was the case of our Fathers in the Roman Church; They must
know that all that hath passed between God and man hath passed Ex pacto, by
way of contact and covenant. The best works of the best man have no proportion with the kingdome of
heaven, The best. for I give God but his own: But I have it Ex pacto, God hath co-
venanted so, Fac, hoc & vives, Doe this and thou shalt live; and at the last
judgement, Christ shall ground his Venite benedicti, Come ye blessed, and his
Ite maledicti, Goe ye accursed, upon the Quia, and upon the Quia non, Because
you have, and Because you have not done this and this. Faith, that is of infinite value
above works, hath yet no proportion to the kingdome of heaven; Faith saves mee,
as my hand feeds mee; It reaches the food, but it is not the food; but faith saves
Ex pacto, Mar. 5. 36. by vertue of that Covenant, which Christ hath made, Tantummodo crede,
Onely beleeve. To carry it to the highest, the merit of Christ Jesus himselfe,
though it bee infinite so, as that it might have redeemed infinite worlds,
yet the working thereof is safeliest considered in the School to be Ex pacto,
by vertue of that contract which had passed between the Father and him, that all
things should thus and thus be transacted by Christ, and so man should be saved;
for, if we shall place it meerely, onely in the infinitenesse of the merit, Christs
death would not have needed; for his first drops of bloud in his Circumcision, nay
his very Incarnation (that God was made man) and every act of his humiliation af-
ter, being taken singly, yet, in that person, God and man, were of infinite merit; and
also, if it wrought meerly by the infinitnesse of the merit, it must have wrought, not
onely upon all men, but to the salvation of the Devill; for, certainely there is more
merit in Christ, then there is sinne in the Devill. But the proceeding was Ex pacto,
according to the contract made, and to the conditions given; Ipse conteret caput tu-
um, That the Messias should bruise the Serpents head for us, included our redem-
ption, That the Serpents head should be bruised, excluded the Serpent himselfe.
This contract, then between God and man, as it was able to put the nature of a great
fault, in a small offence, if we consider onely the eating of an apple, and so to make
even a Trespass High-Treason, (because it was so contracted) so does this contract, the
Ordinance of God, infuse a great vertue & efficacie, in the instruments of our reconcili-
ation, how mean in gifts, or how corrupt in manners soever they be. Circumcision in it self
a low thing, yea obscene, & subject to mis-interpretation, yet by reason of the covenant,
He that is not circumcised, Gen. 17. 14. that person shall be cut off from my people. So also Baptism, con-
sidered in it selfe, Iohn 3. 3. a vulgar, and a familiar thing; yet, except a man be born of water,
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven. The Sacrament of the
body and blood of Christ, a domestique, a dayly thing, if we consider onely the brea-
king of the bread and participation of the Cup, but if we ascend up to the contract
in the institution, it is to every worthy receiver, the seale, and the Conduit
of all the merits of Christ, Ios. 6. 4. to his soule. God threw down the walls of Jericho,
with the sound of Horns, not of Trumpets. A homely sound, yet it did the worke;
so neither is the weaknesse, no, nor the corruptnesse of the instruments always to be
considered in the Church of God. Our Fathers knew there had passed a contract
between God and man, A Church there should be Ad consummationem, to the
end of the world, therefore they might safely make their recourse thither; and
Porta Inferi, Mat. 16. 18. the gates of hell should not prevaile against it, therefore they might con-
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Serm. XXV.
confidently dwell there; Mat. 18. 17. They knew there was a Dic Ecclesiæ a bill to be exhibited
to the Church, upon any disorder, and a Si noluerit, an excommunication upon
disobedience, If he neglect to heare the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man,
and as a Publican. This Church they saw, and Gods contract upon them sealed in
Baptism, they knew, God had revealed no other Church, nor contract to them.
And therefore, though they did not eat their troden grasse, with that ridiculous
tentation, as the Fryar is boasted to have eaten a Toad which was set upon the Ta-
ble, because he had read, 1 Cor. 10. 27. whatsoever is set before you eat; Nor, as their Dorotheus,
who when his man had reachd him rats-bane, in stead of honey, which he called for,
refused it not, because sayd he, If Gods will had been, that I should have had honey,
he would have directed thy hand to the honey, but being under an invincible ignorance,
and indevestible scruples, and having this contract, and this Church, to give them
some satisfaction and acquiescence, they were partakers of that blessing, That though
Serpents and Scorpions lurked in their grasse, Luke 10. 19. they had power to tread on scorpions and
on serpents, and nothing could hurt them, and That if they drinke any deadly thing,
it shall doe them no harme. Mar. 16. 18. And so our Fathers with a good conscience, Manebant,
stayd there, and Edebant, they eat troden grasse, and drunke troubled water, and
yet Manebant oves, they continued sheep still. Sheep, Oves. that is, without Barking, or biting. Some faint and humble bleatings
there were alwaies in the daies of our Fathers; In every age there arose some men,
who did modestly, and devoutly, but yet couragiously and confidently appear, and
complaine against those treadings, and those troublings. Every age, every nation
had some such bleatings, some men who by writing or preaching against those abu-
ses, interrupted the tyrannicall prescriptions of that Church, and made their con-
tinuall claime, to their Christian liberty; But still they continued sheep, without
denying either their fleece or their throats to those Pastors. We read in Naturall
story of divers pastures, and divers waters, which will change the colour of cat-
tell, or sheep, but none that changes the forme, and makes them no such cattell,
or no sheep. Some waters change sheep of any colour to white. And these trou-
bled waters, temporall or spirituall afflictions, may bring Gods children to a faint and
leane, 1. 15. and languishing palenesse. If it doe, as Daniel and his fellows, appeared fair-
er, and fatter in flesh, with their pults and water, which they desired rather then the
Kings polluted delicates, then others that fed voluptuously: so the hearts of Gods
children shall be filled, Psalm 63. 5. as with marrow and with fatnesse, when others shall have all
their hearts desire, but leannesse in their soules. There are waters that change
all coloured sheep to black. Joel 2. 6. So may these troubled waters, afflictions, effect that
upon Gods children, The enemy shall come, and before him all faces shall gather
blacknesse; Lam. 4. 8. as Jerusalem complains, That their faces were blacker then coals. If it
doe, yet as long as they stay, and continue sheep, members of the body, as long as
they partake of the body, they shall partake of the complexion of the Church, who
saies of her selfe, I am black, O daughters of Jerusalem, but comely, (acceptable in
the sight of my Christ) and that shall be verifyed in them, Eccles. 7. 5. which SalomonSolomon says, By the
sadnesse of the countenance, the heart is made better; that is, by the occasion of the
sadnesse, Gods correction. But the strangest change is, that some waters change
sheep into red, the most unlikely, most extraordinary, most unproper colour for
sheep, of any other. Yet there is one rednesse naturall to our sheep in the Text,
the rednesse of blushing, and modesty, and selfe-accusing; And there is another
rednesse, which is not improper, the rednesse of zeale and godly anger. The worst
rednesse that can befall them, is the rednesse of sinne, and yet, lest that should de-
ject them, Esai. 1. 18. God proceeds familiarly with them, Come now, and let us reason together,
Though your sinnes be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like
Crimson, they shall be as wooll. Rom. 5. 20. Yea, to shew, that where sinne abounds, grace al-
so may abound, to shew that that whitenesse of Gods mercy doth pursue and over-
take this rednesse of sinne, it pleases the Holy Ghost to use such a phrase as expresses
a rednesse in whitenesse it self; He says, that the religious men of the Jewes before
that time, Lam. 4. 7. were whiter then milke, and redder then pearle: Mippeninim is the ori-
ginall word, which the Rabbins translate pearle; And the Vulgate Edition hath it,
Rubicundiores ebore antiquo, redder then the oldest yvory, which is the whitest thing
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thing, that can be presented. Perchance to intimate thus much, that there is neither
in the holiest actions, of the holiest man, any such degree of whitenesse, but that it is
always accompanied with some rednes, some tincture, some aspersion of sin, nor any such
deep rednesse in sin, any sin so often, and deeply died in grain, but that it is capable of
whitenesse, in the application of the candor, and purenesse, and innocency of Christ
Jesus: Therefore may the Holy Ghost have wrapped up this whitenesse in rednesse,
redder then Pearl. Our Fathers were not discouraged, when they were discolored;
what palenesse, what blacknesse, what rednesse soever, these troubled waters induced
upon them, still they were sheep; They become not Foxes, to delude the State with
equivocations; nor Wolves, to join with the State to the oppression of the rest; nor
Horses, to suffer themselves to be ridden by others, and so made instruments of their
passions; no nor Vnicorns, to think to purge and purifie the waters for all the forest,
to think to reforme all abuses in State, and Church at once; but they continued
sheep; opened not their mouthes in biting, nor barking, in murmuring, or reproach-
ing the present government. So our Fathers staied, Manebant, so they eat that grasse,
so they continued sheep, and, as it followes next, Oves Dei, Gods sheep, my sheep have
eaten, my sheep have drunken. Gods sheep; Oves Dei. for nature hath her sheep; some men by naturall constitution, are lazy,
drowsie, frivolous, unactive, sheepish men. And States have their sheep; timorous
men, following men, speechlesse men, men, who because they abound in a plentifull
State, are loth to stirre. Nay the Devill hath his sheep too; Men whom he possesses
so entirely, that, as the Law says, Dominium est potestas, tum utendi, tum abutendi, One-
ly he is truly Lord of any thing, who may doe what he will with it, he does what he
will with those men, even to their own ruine. And from these folds and flocks did
the Devill always serve his shambles, in his false Martyrdomes in the Primitive Church;
when (as Eusebius notes) envying the honour which the Orthodox Christians had in
their thousands of Martyrs, the Heretiques studied ways of equalling them in that.
And though within four hundred years after Christ, the Church, (who could not pos-
sibly take knowledge of all) was come to celebrate, by name, five thousand Martyrs
(as some books have the account) for every day in the year, yet the Heretiques went
so far towards equalling them, as that they had some whole sects, (particularly the
Euphemitæ) which called themselves Martyrians, men exposed to the slaughter. One
limbe of the Donatists, the Circumcelliones, might have furnished their shambles; They
would provoke others to kill them; and if they fail’d in that, they would kill them-
selves. And this was, as Saint Augustine says, Ludus quotidianus, their daily sport, they
plaid at no other game. And left all these meanes should not have provided Martyrs
enow, Petilian, against whom Saint Augustine writes, invented a new way of Martyr-
dome, when he taught, that if a man were guilty in his Conscience of any great offence
to God, and onely to punish that fault, did kill himselfe, he was by that act of Justice
a Martyr. The Devill had his sheep then; He hath so still; Those Emissarii papæ,
those whom the Bishop of Rome sends hither into this kingdome; whom Baronius
calls Candidatos Martyrii, pretenders to Martyrdome, suters for Martyrdome; Men,
who (as he adds there) do sacramento spondere sanguinem, take an oath at Rome that
they will be hanged in England; and, in whose behalfe he complaines de sterilitate
Martyrii, that there is such a dearth of Martyrdome, that they finde it hard to be
hanged; and therefore, (perchance) they finde it necessary to enter into Powder plots,
and actuall Treasons, because they see that for Religion meerly, this State would never
draw drop of bloud, & sacramento sanguinem, they have taken an oath to be hanged,
and are loth to be forsworne. But the sheep of our text, were not Natures sheep, men
naturally lazy, and unactive, nor State sheep, men loth to adventure, by stirring, nor
the Devills sheep, men headlong to their own ruine, even by way of provocation;
But they were Gods sheep, men, who, out of a rectified conscience, would not preva-
ricate, not betray nor forsake God, if his glory required the expense of their lives, and
yet would not exasperate nor provoke their superiours, how corrupt soever, by un-
seasonable, and unprofitable complaints: so our Fathers staid in Rome, so they eat
troden grasse, and drunke troubled waters, so they continued harmlesse sheep towards
others, and the sheep of God, such as though they staid there and fed upon an ill diet,
God had distinguished from Goats, and reserved for his right hand, at the day of separation.
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separation. And they were more then so; they were not onely his sheep, but his flock;
for so, this translation reads it, my flock hath eaten, my flock hath drunk. God had single sheep in many nations; Grex. Jobs, and Naamans, and such; servants,
and yet not in the Covenants, sheep, and yet not brought into his flock. For though
God have revealed no other way of salvation to us, but by breeding us in his Church,
yet we must be so far, from straitning salvation, to any particular Christian Church,
of any subdivided name, Papist or Protestant, as that we may not straiten it to the whole
Christian Church, as though God could not, in the largenesse of his power, or did not,
in the largenesse of his mercy, afford salvation to some, whom he never gathered in-
to the Christian Church. But these sheep in our text, were his flock, that is, his
Church. Though they durst not communicate their sense of their miseries, and their
desires to one another, yet they were a flock. When Elias complained, I, even I onely
am left, 1 King. 19. 14. and God told him, that he had seven thousand besides him, perchance Elias
knew none of this seven thousand, perchance none of this seven thousand knew one
another, and yet, they were his flock, though they never met. That timber that is
in the forest, that stone that is in the quarry, that Iron, that Lead that is in the mine,
though distant miles, Counties, Nations, from one another, meet in the building of
a materiall Church; So doth God bring together, living stones, men that had no
relation, no correspondence, no intelligence together, to the making of his Mysticall
body, his visible Church. Who ever would have thought, that we of Europe,
and they of the Eastern, or Western Indies, should have met to the making of Christ a
Church? And yet, before we knew, on either side, that there was such a people, God
knew there was such a Church. He that lies buried, in the consecrated dust under
your feet, knowes not who lies next him; but one Trumpet at last shall raise them
both together, and show them to one another, and joyn them, (by Gods grace)
in the Triumphant Church. These that knew not one another, that knew not of one
another, were yet Gods flock, the Church in his eye; for there, (and onely there)
the Church is always visible. So were our Fathers in Rome, though they durst not
meet, and communicate their sorrows, nor fold themselves so in the fold of Christ
Jesus, that is in open, and free Confessions. They therefore that aske now, Where was
your Church before Luther, would then have asked of the Jews in Babylon, Where was
your Church before Esdras; that was in Babylon, ours was in Rome. Now, Secessio. beloved, when our Adversaries cannot deny us this truth, that our Church
was enwrapped, (though smothered) in theirs, that as that Balsamum naturale, which
Paracelsus speaks of, that naturall Balme which is in every body, and would cure any
wound, if that wound were kept clean, and recover any body, if that body were pur-
ged, as that naturall balme is in that body, how diseased soever that body be, so was
our Church in theirs, they vexe us now, with that question, Why, if the case stood so,
if your Fathers, when they eat our troden grasse, and drunk our troubled waters, were
sound and in health, and continued sheep, and Gods sheep, and Gods flock, his
Church with us, why went they from us? They ought us their residence, because
they had received their Baptisme from us. And truly, it is not an impertinent, a frivolous
reason, that of Baptisme, where there is nothing but conveniency, and no necessity in
the case. But, if I be content to stay with my friend in an aguish aire, will he take it
ill, if I go when the plague comes? Or if I stay in town till 20 die of the plague, shall it be
lookd that I should stay when there die 1000? The infection grew hotter and hotter in
Rome; & their may, came to a must, those things which were done before de facto, came at
last to be articles of Faith, and de jure, must be beleeved and practised upon salvation.
They chide us for going away, and they drove us away; If we abstained from com-
municating with their poysons, (being now growen to that height) they excommu-
nicated us; They gave us no room amongst them but the fire, and they were so for-
ward to burne Heretiques, that they called it heresie, not to stay to be burnt. Yet we went not upon their driving, Vox Dei. but upon Gods calling. As the whole prophecy
of the deliverance of Israel, from Babylon, belongs to the Christian Church, both to
the Primitive Church, at first, and to the Reformed since, so doth that voice, spoken
to them, reach unto us, Egredimini de Babylone, Goe ye out of Babylon with a voice of
singing, Esay 48. 20. declare, show to the ends of the earth, that the Lord hath redeemed his ser-
vant Jacob. Lud. Vives. For, that Rome is not Babylon, they have but that one half-comfort, that one
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one of their own authors hath ministred, that Romæ regulariter malè agitur; that
Babylon is Confusion, disorder, but at Rome all sinnes are committed in order, by the
book, and they know the price, and therefore Rome is not Babylon. And since that ma-
ny of their authors confesse, 1 Pet. 5. 13. that Rome was Babylon, in the time of the persecuting
Emperours, and that Rome shall be Babylon againe, in the time of Antichrist, how they
will hedge in a Jerusalem, a holy City, between these two Babylons, is a cunning peece
of Architecture. From this Babylon then were our Fathers called by God; not onely
by that whispering sibilation of the holy Ghost, Zech. 10. 8. sibilabo populum, I will hisse for my
people, and so gather them, for I have redeemed them, and they shall increase, not
onely by private inspirations, but by generall acclamations; every where principall
writers, and preachers, and Princes too, (as much as could stand with their safety) crying
out against them before Luther, howsoever they will needs doe him that honour, to
have been the first mover, in this blessed revolution. They reproach to us our going from them, Curia. when they drove us, and God drew us,
and they discharge themselves for all, by this one evasion; That all that we com-
plain of, is the fault of the Court of Rome, and not of the Church; of the extortion
in the practise of their Officers, not of error in the doctrine of their Teachers. Let that
be true, (as in a great part it is) for, almost all their errors proceed from their cove-
tousness and love of money) this is that that we complain most of, and in this especially
lies the conformity of the Jewish Priests in the Chaldean Babylon, and these Prelates
in the Roman Babylon, that the Court, and the Church, joined in the oppression. But
since the Court of Rome, and the Church of Rome are united in one head, I see no
use of this distinction, Court and Church. If the Church of Rome be above the Court, the
Church is able to amend these corruptions in the Court. If the Court be got above
the Church, the Church hath lost, or sold away, her supremacy. To oppresse us, Miracula. and ease themselves, now, when we are gone from them, they re-
quire Miracles at our hands; when indeed it was miracle enough, how we got from them.
But, Chrysost. magnum charitatis argumentum, credere absque pignoribus miraculorum, He loves
God but a little that will not beleeve him without a miracle. Miracles are for the esta-
blishing of new religions; All the miracles of, and from Christ and his Apostles, are
ours, because their Religion is ours. Indeed it behooves our adversaries to provide
new miracles every day, because they make new articles of Faith every day. As Esop
therefore answered in the Market, when he that sold him was asked what he could
do, that he could do nothing, because his fellow had said, that he could do all, so we say,
we can do no miracles, because they do all; all ordinary cures of Agues, and tooth-
ach being done by miracle amongst them. We confesse that we have no such tye upon
the Triumphant Church, to make the Saints there do those anniversary miracles,
which they do by their reliques here, upon their own holy days, ten days sooner every
year, then they did before the new computation. We pretend not to raise the dead, but
to cure the sick; and that but by the ordinary Physique, the Word, and Sacraments,
and therefore need no miracles. Ios. Acosta. And we remember them of their own authors, who
do not onely say, that themselves do no miracles, in these latter times, but assigne
diligently strong reasons, why it is that they doe none. If all this will not serve, we
must tell them, that we have a greater miracle, then any that they produce; that is,
that in so few years, they that forsook Rome, were become equall, even in number, to
them that adhered to her. We say, with Saint Augustine, That if we had no other
miracle, hoc unum stupendum & potentissimum miraculum esse, that this alone were
the most powerfull, and most a mazingamazing miracle, ad hanc religionem, totius orbis ampli-
tudinem, sine miraculis subjugatam, that so great a part of the Christian world, should
become Protestants of Papists, without any miracles. They pursue us still, Dissensiones. being departed from them, and they aske us, How can ye pre-
tend to have left Babylon, confusion, Dissention, when you have such dissentions, & con-
fusions amongst your selves? But neither are our differences in so fundamental points, as
theirs are, (for a principall author of their own, who was employed by Clement the eight,
to reconcile the differences between the Jesuits and the Dominicans, Benius. about the con-
currence of the grace of God, and the free will of man, confesses that the principall
articles, and foundations of faith were shaken between them, between the Jesuits, and
Dominicans) neither shall we finde such heat, and animosity, and passion between any
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any persons amongst us, as between the greatest amongst them; The succeeding Pope
mangling the body of his predecessor, casting them into the river for buriall, disan-
nulling all their decrees, and ordinations; their Ordinations; so that no man could
be sure who was a Priest, nor whether he had truely received any Sacrament, or no.
Howsoever, as in the narrowest way there is most justling, the Roman Church going
that broad way, to beleeve as the Church beleeves, may scape some particular diffe-
rences, which we that goe the narrower way, to try every thing by the exact word of
God, De doctri.
Christia. may fall into. Saint Augustine tells us of a City in Mauritania Cæsarea, in which
they had a custome, that in one day in the year, not onely Citizens of other parishes,
but even neighbours, yea brethren, yea Fathers, did fling stones dangerously, and
furiously at one another in the streets; and this they so solemnized, as a custome received
from their ancestors; which was a licentious kind of Carnavall. If any amongst us
have fallen into that disease, to cast stones, or dirt at his friends, it is an infection
from his own distemper, 1 Cor. 11. 16. not from our doctrine; for, if any man list to be contentious,
we have no such custome, neither the Church of God. We departed not from them then,
till it was come to a hot plague, in a necessity of professing old opinions to be new
articles of Faith; not till we were driven by them, and drawn by the voice of God,
in the learnedest men of all nations; when they could not discharge themselves by
the distinction of the Court of Rome, and the Church of Rome, because, if the abuses
had been but in the Court, it was the greatest abuse of all, for that Church, which is
so much above that Court, not to mend it. Nor can they require Miracles at our
hands, who doe none themselves, and yet need them, because they induce new articles
of Religion; neither can they reproach to us our Dissentions amongst our selves; be-
cause they are neither in so fundamentall points, nor pursued with so much uncharita-
blenesse, as theirs. So we justifie our secession from them; but all this justifies in no
part, the secession of those distempered men, who have separated themselves from us,
which is our next, and our last consideration. When the Apostle says, Separatistæ. study to be quiet, (1 Thes. 4. 11.) me thinks he intimates
something towards this, that the lesse we study for our Sermons, the more danger is
there to disquiet the auditory; extemporall, unpremeditated Sermons, that serve the
popular eare, vent, for the most part, doctrines that disquiet the Church. Study for
them, and they will be quiet; consider ancient and fundamentall doctrines, and this
will quiet and settle the understanding, and the Conscience. Many of these extempo-
rall men have gone away from us, and vainly said, that they have as good cause to
separate from us, as we from Rome. But can they call our Church, a Babylon; Con-
fusion, disorder? All that offends them, is, that we have too much order, too much re-
gularity, too much binding to the orderly, and uniforme service of God in his Church.
It affects all the body, Ambros. when any member is cut off; Cum dolore amputatur, etiam quæ
putruit, pars corporis; and they cut off themselves, and feel it not; when we lose but
a mysticall limbe, and they lose a spirituall life, we feel it and they doe not. When
that is pronounced sit tibi sicut ethnicus, if he hear not the Church, let him be to thee
as a Heathen, August. gravius est quàm si gladio feriretur, flammis absumeretur, feris subigeretur,
it is a heavier sentence, then to be beheaded, to be burnt, or devoured with wild
beasts; and yet these men, before any such sentence pronounced by us, excommuni-
cate themselves. Of all distempers, Calvin falls oftenest upon the reproof of that
which he calls Morositatem, a certain peevish frowardnesse, which, as he calls in one
place, deterrimam pestem, the most infectious pestilence, that can fall upon a man, so,
in another, he gives the reason, why it is so, semper nimia morositas est ambitiosa,
that this peevish frowardnesse, is always accompanied with a pride, and a singularity,
and an ambition to have his opinions preferred before all other men, and to condemn
all that differ from him. A civill man will depart with his opinion at a Table, at a
Councell table, rather then hold up an argument to the vexation of the Company;
so will a peaceable man doe, in the Church, in questions that are not fundamentall.
That reverend man whom we mentioned before, who did so much in the establishing
of Geneva, professes, that it was his own opinion, that the Sacrament might be admi-
nistred in prisons, and in private houses; but because he found the Church of Geneva,
of another opinion, and another practise before he came, he applied himselfe to them
and departed, (in practise) from his own opinion, even in so important a point, as the
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the ministration of the Sacrament. Which I present to consideration the rather,
both because thereby it appears, that greater matters then are now thought fnndamentall funda-
mentall, were then thought but indifferent, and arbitrary, (for, surely, if Calvin had
thought this a fundamentall thing, he would never have suffered any custome to have
prevailed against his conscience) and also, because divers of those men, who trouble
the Church now, about things of lesse importance, and this of private Sacraments in
particular) will needs make themselves beleeve, that they are his Disciples, and al-
ways conclude that whatsoever is practised at Geneva was Calvins opinion. Saint
Augustine saith excellently, Ep. 209. Feliciæ
virgini. and appliably, to a holy Virgin, who was ready to leave
the Church, for the ill life of Church-men, Christus nobis imperavit Congregationem,
sibi servavit separationem; Christ Jesus hath commanded us to gather together, and
recommended to us the Congregation; as for the separation, he hath reserved
it to himself, to declare at the last day, who are Sheep and who are Goats. And hee
wrought that separation which our Fathers made from Rome, by his expresse writ-
ten Word, and by that which is one word of God too, Vox populi, The invitation
and acclamation of Doctors, and People, and Princes; but have our Separatists a-
ny such publique, and concurrent authorising of that which they doe, since of all
that part from us, scarse a dozen meet together in one confession? When you have
heard the Prophet say, Amos. Can two walke together, except they be agreed, when you have
heard the Apostle say, 1. Cor. 1. 10. I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that ye all speake the same things, and that there be no divisions among you, (for, if
preachers speake one one way, another another, there will be divisions among the
people) And then, it is not onely, that in obedience to authority, they speake the
same things; But, Be perfectly joyned in the same mind, and in the same judgement,
you had need make haste to this union, this pacification; for when we are come thi-
ther, to agree among our selves, we are not come to our journeys end. Our life is a warfare; Conclusio. other wars, in a great part, end in mariages: Ours in a di-
vorce, in a divorce of body and soule in death. Till then, though God have brought
us, from the first Babylon, the darknesse of the Gentiles, and from the second Baby-
lon, the superstitions of Rome, and from the third Babylon, the confusion of tongues,
in bitter speaking against one another, after all this, every man shall finde a fourth
Babylon, enough to exercise all his forces, The civill warre, the rebellious disorder,
the intestine confusion of his own Concupiscencies. This is a transmigration, a trans-
portation layd upon us all, by Adams rebellion, from Jerusalem to Babylon, from
our innocent state in our Creation, to this confusion of our corrupt nature. God
would have his children first brought to Babylon, before he would be glorifyed in
their deliverance, Mich. 4. 10. Venies usque ad Babylonem; Ibi liberaberis; To Babylon thou shalt
come; there I will deliver thee; but not till then; that is, till you come to a holy
sense of the miseries you are in, and what hath brought you to them. Though then you have suffred the calamities of all these Babylons, in some propor-
tions, though you be not Incolæ but Indigenæ, not naturalized but borne Baby-
lonians, (Originall sinne makes you so) yet since you are within the Covenant, heare
him, Gen. 12. 1. that sayd to you in Abrahams ears, Egredere de terrâ tuâ, Get thee out of thy
Country, and from thy kindred, unto the land I will shew thee; Come out of
Babylon to Jerusalem; since ye are within his Adoption, and may cry Abba father,
hear that voice, Cant. 3. 11. Egredimini filiæ Sion, Come forth ye daughters of Sion, come to
Jerusalem. Though ye be dead, and buryed, and putrefyed in this corrupted, and
corrupting flesh, yet since he cries with a loud voice, (as it is said in that Text)
Lazare veni foras, Ioh. 11. 43. Lazarus come forth, come forth of your Tombs in Babylon, to
this Jerusalem, come from your troubled waters, your waters of contention, of an-
xiety, of envy, of solicitude, and vexation for worldly encumbrances, and come
Ad aquas quietudinum, Psal. 23. to the waters of rest, the application of the merits of Christ,
in a true Church: Vinum non habetis? have ye no wine to refresh your hearts; no
merits of your own to take comfort in? Ioh. 2. 4. Implete Hydrias aquâ, fill all your vessels
with water, that water of life, remorsefull teares, perchance he will change your
water into wine, as he did in that place; perchance he will give you abundance of
temporall blessings; perchance he will change that water into blood, as in Egypt;
that is, into persecutions, into afflictions, into Martyrdome, for his sake, for hee V will
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will accept our water for blood, our tears of repentance and contrition for Martyr-
dome, ut cum desit Martyrium sanguinis, habeamus Martyrium aquæ, that we may be
Martyrs in his sight, and shed no blood; Martyrs of a new die, white Martyrs. That
our waters of sorrow for sinne may answer our Saviours tears over Lazarus and over
Ierusalem; and the sweat of our brows in a lawfull calling may answer our Saviours
sweat of water and blood in his agony; and that our reverent and profitable receiving
of the Sacrament, may answer the water and blood that issued from his side, which
represented omnia Sacramenta, all the Sacraments; That, as we do, we may still feed
upon grace that is not troden, and drink water, that is not troubled, with the feet of
others, or our own; that we be never shaked in the sinceritie nor in the integritie of
Religion with their power, nor our own distempers of fears or hopes. But that our
meat may be, to do the will of him that sent us, and to finish his work, Joh. 4. 2. Sermon XXVI.
Preached to the King, at White-Hall, the first Sunday in Lent.
Esai. 65. 20.
For the child shall die a hundred years old; But the sinner, being a hundred years old, shall
be accursed.
PEacePeace is in Sion; Gods whole Quire is in tune; Nay, here is the
musick of the Sphears; all the Sphears (all Churches) all the
Stars in those Sphears (all Expositours in all Churches) agree in
the sense of these words; and agree the words to be a Prophesie,
of the Distillation, nay Inundation, of the largenesse, nay
the infinitenesse of the blessings, and benefits of Almighty God,
prepared and meditated before, and presented, and accomplisht
now in the Christian Church. The Sun was up betimes, in the
light of nature, but then the Sun moved but in the winter Tropick, short and cold,
dark and cloudy dayes; A Diluculum and a Crepusculum, a Dawning and a Twilight,
a little Traditionall knowledge for the past, and a little Conjecturall knowledge
for the future, made up their day. The Sunne was advanced higher to the
Jewes in the Law; But then the Sunne was but in Libra; as much day as night:
There was as much Baptisme, as Circumcision in that Sacrament; and as much
Lamb as Christ, in that Sacrifice; The Law was their Equinoctiall, in which, they
might see both the Type, and that which was figured in the Type: But in the Chri-
stian Church the Sun is in a perpetuall Summer Solstice; which are high degrees,
and yet there is a higher, the Sun is in a perpetuall Meridian and Noon, in that Summer sol-
stice. There is not onely a Surge Sol, but a Siste Sol: God hath brought the Sunne to
the height, and fixt the Sun in that height in the Christian Church; where he in his
own Sonne by his Spirit hath promised to dwell, usque ad consummationem, till the end of
the world. Here is Manna; and not in Gomers, but in Barns; and Quails; and not in Heaps,
but in Hills; the waters above the Firmament, and not in drops of Dew, but in
showers of former and latter Rain; and the Land of Canaan; not in Promise onely, nor
onely in performance, and Possession, but in Extention, and Dilatation. The Graces,
and blessings of God, that is, means of salvation, are so aboundantly poured upon the
Christian Church, as that the triumphant Church if they needed means, might fear
they should want them. And of these means and blessings, long life, as it is a Modell
and abridgement of Eternity, and a help to Eternitie, is one; and one in this Text, The
childe shall die 100. Job 2. 10. yeares old. But shall we receive good from God, and not receive
evill too? shall I shed upon you Lumen visionis, the light of that vision, which God
hath afforded me in this Prophecie, the light of his countenance, and his gracious bles-
sings upon you, and not lay upon you Onus visionis, as the Prophets speak often, The
burthen of that vision which I have seen in this Text too? It was a scorn to David,
that his servants were half cloath’d; The Samaritane woman beleeved, that if she might see
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see Christ, Joh 4. 25. he would tell her all things: Christ promises of the Holy Ghost, that he should
lead them into all Truth: 16. 3. And the Apostles discharge in his office was, that he had
spoken to them all Truth: And therefore lest I should be defective in that integritie, 2 Cor. 7. 14.
I say with Saint Augustine, Non vos fallo, non præsumo, non vos fallo; I will not be so
bold with you as flatter you, I will not presume so much upon your weaknesse, as to
go about to deceive you, as though there were nothing but blessing in God, but shew
you the Commination, and judgement of this Text too, that though the childe should
die a hundred years old, yet the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. If God
had not lengthened his childes life, extended my dayes, but taken me in the sinnes of
my youth, where had I been, may every soul here say? And where would you be too,
if no man should tell you, that though The childe should die a hundred years old, yet the
sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed? What can be certain in this world,
if even the mercy of God admit a variation? what can be endlesse here, if even the
mercy of God receive a determination? and sin doth vary the nature, sin doth deter-
mine even the infinitenesse of the mercy of God himself, for though The childe shall die
a hundred yeares old, yet the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. Disconso-
late soul, dejected spirit, bruised and broken, ground and trodden, attenuated, evapo-
rated, annihilated heart come back; heare thy reprieve, and sue for thy pardon; God
will not take thee away in thy sins, thou shalt have time to repent, The childe shall die
a hundred years old. But then lame and decrepit soul, gray and inveterate sinner, be-
hold the full ears of corn blasted with a mildew, behold this long day shutting up in
such a night, as shall never see light more, the night of death; in which, the deadliest
pang of thy Death will be thine Immortality: In this especially shalt thou die, that
thou canst not die, when thou art dead; but must live dead for ever: for The sinner be-
ing a hundred yeers old, shall be accursed, he shall be so for ever. In this discovery from this Red Sea, Divisio. to this dead Sea; from the mercy of God, in
the blood of his Son, to the malediction of God, in the blood of the sinner, be pleased
to make these the points of your Compasse, and your Land-marks by the way, in those,
the two parts of this exercise. First, in the first, consider the precedencie, and primo-
geniture of Mercy; God begins at Mercy, and not at Judgement: God’s method here, is
not, The sinner shall be accursed, but The childe shall have long life: but first, the blessing,
and then the malediction. And then secondly, we shall see, in what form the particular
blessing is given here; In long life; The childe shall die a hundred years old. And then
also, because we find it in the company of Mercies, in the region of Mercies, in this
first part of the Text, which is the Sphear of Mercy; we shall look also how this very
dying is a Mercy too: The mercy is especially plac’d in the long life: The childe shall
live a hundred yeares; but the Holy Ghost would not leave out that, that he should
die; The childe shall die a hundred yeares old. And in these three, first the preceden-
cie, and primogeniture of God’s mercy, and then the specification of that mercy in
long life, and lastly, the association of mercy, that death as well as life is a blessing to
the Righteous; we shall determine that first part. And in the second, But the sinner
being a hundred years old, shall be accursed, we shall see first, that the malediction of God
hath no object but a sinner: God antidates no malediction: Till there be a sinner, there
is no malediction; nay not till there be an inveterate sinner; A sinner of a hundred yeares,
at least, such a sinner, as would be so, if God would spare him a hundred yeares here.
And upon such a sinner, God thunders out this Prosternation, this Consternation, in
this one word of our Text, which involves and inwraps all kinds of miseries, feeble-
nesse in body, infatuation in mind, evacuation of power, dishonour in fame, eclipses in
favour, ruine in fortune, dejection in spirit, He shall be accursed. Where, because in
this second part we are in the Region and Sphear of maledictions, we cannot consider
this future, He shall be, as a future of favour, a prorogation, a deferring of the maledi-
ction: He shall be, is not, he shall be hereafter, but not yet: but it is a future of conti-
nuation; He shall be accursed, that is, he shall be so for ever. And so have you the frame,
and partitions of this Bethel, this House of God in which he dwells, which is both Io-
suah’s Beth-hagla, the house of Joy, and John’s Bethania, his house of affliction too;
and we passe now to the furnishing of these roomes, with such stuff as I can have laid
together. First, Part. 1. in our first part, we consider the precedency, and primogeniture of Mercy. It V2 is
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is a good thing to be descended of the eldest Brother; To descend from God, to de-pend upon God, by his eldest Son, the Son of his love, the Sonne of his right hand,
Mercy, and not to put God to his second way, his sinister way, his way of judgement.
David prophesies of God’s exaltation of Solomon so, Psal. 89. 27. Ponam in Primogenitum, I will
make him my first-born: Though Solomon were not so, God would make him so. And
in that Title, Ecclus. 36. 12. the Wiseman makes his prayer for Israel; Quem coæquasti Primoge-
genito, whom thou hast nam’d thy first-born; for so God had in Exod. Israel is my
Sonne, 4. 22. even my first-born: and in Job, the fiercest terrour of death is exprest so, Pri-
mogenitus mortis, 18. 13. the first-born of Death shall devour his strength: Still the exaltation,
the Superlative is called so; The first-born. And in such a sense; if we could think of
more degrees of goodnesse in God, of an exaltation of God himself in God, of more
God in God, of a Superlative in God, we must necessarily turn upon his mercy, for
that Mercie must be the Superlative: So is it too, if we consider Gods first action, or
God’s first thought towards Man; Mercy was the first-born by every Mother; by
that Understanding, by that Will, by that Power, which we conceive in God; Mer-
cy was the first-born, and first-mover in all. We consider a preventing Grace in God;
and that preventing Grace is before all; for that prevents us so, as to Visite us when we
sit in darknesse. And we consider an Antecedent-Will in God, and that Antecedent
Will is before all; for by that Will, God would have all men saved. And when we
call Gods Grace by other names then Preventing, whether Assisting Grace, that it
stand by us and sustain us, or Concomitant Grace, that it work with us, and inanimate
our action, when it is doing, or his Subsequent Grace, that rectifies or corrects an acti-
on, when it is done; when all is done, still it is the Preventing Power, and quality of
that Grace, that did all that in me: If I stand by his Assisting Grace, if I work with his
Concomitant Grace, if I rectifie my errour by his Subsequent Grace, that that moves
upon me in all these, is still the preventing power of that Grace. For as all my Na-
turall actions of life are done by the power of that Soul, which was in me before, so all
the Supernaturall actions of that Soul, are done by that power of that Grace, that pre-
vents and preinanimates that action; and all my co-operation is but a post-operation,
a working by the Power of that All-preventing Grace. I moved not at first by the
Tide, by the strength of naturall faculties, nor do I move after by that winde which
had formerly fill’d my sails: I proceed not now by the strength of that Grace which
God gave me heretofore. But as God infuseth a Soul into every man, and that Soul
elicites a new Act in it self, before that man produce any action; so God infuses a par-
ticular Grace into every good work of mine, and so prevents me, before I co-operate
with him. For as Nature in her highest exaltation, in the best Morall man that is, can-
not flow into Grace, Nature cannot become Grace; so neither doth former Grace
flow into future Grace, but I need a distinct influence of God, a particular Grace, for
every good work I do, for every good word I speak, for every good thought I conceive.
When God gives me accesse into his Library, Liber vitæ. leave to consider his proceedings
with man, I find the first book of Gods making to be the Book of Life. The Book
where all their names are written that are elect to Glory. But I find no such Book of
Death: All that are not written in the Book of Life, are certainly the sonnes of Death:
To be pretermitted there, there to be left out, wraps them up, at least leaves them
wrapt up, in death. But God hath not wrought so positively, nor in so primary a con-
sideration in a book of Death, as in the Book of Life. As the aftertimes made a Book
of Wisdome out of the Proverbs, of SalomonSolomon, and out of his Ecclesiastes; but yet it is not
the same Book, nor of the same certainty: so there is a Book of Life here, but that is
not the same book that is in Heaven, nor of the same certainty: For in this Book of
Life, which is the Declaration and Testimony which the Church gives of our Electi-
on, by those marks of the Elect, which she seeth in the Scriptures, and believeth that
she seeth in us, Psal. 9. 28. a man may be Blotted out of the Book of the living, as David speaketh;
and as it is added there, Not written with the Righteous: Intimating that in some cases,
and in some Book of Life, a man may have been written in, and blotted out, and written
in again. The Book of Life in the Church, The Testimony of our Election here, ad-
mits such expunctions, and such redintegrations: but Gods first Book, his Book of
Mercy; (for this Book in the Church, is but his Book of Evidence) is inviolable in it
self, and all the names of that Book indelible. In
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In Gods first Book, Liber Scrip-turæ the Book of Life, Mercy hath so much a precedency, and pri-
mogeniture, as that there is nothing in it, but Mercy. In Gods other Book, his Book
of Scripture, in which he is put often to denounce judgements, as well as to exhibite
mercies, still the Tide sets that way, still the Biass leads on that hand, still his method
directs us ad Primogenitum, to his first-born, to his Mercy. So he began in that Book:
He made man to his Image, Gen. 1. 26. and then he blest him. Here is no malediction, no intermina-
tion mingled in Gods first Act, in Gods first purpose upon man: In Paradise there is,
That if he eat the forbidden fruit, Gen. 2. 17. if he will not forbear that, that one Tree, He shall
die. But God begins not there: before that, he had said, of every tree in the Garden
thou maist freely eat; neither is there more vehemency in the punishment, then in the
libertie. For as in the punishment there is an ingemination, Morte morieris, Dying thou
shalt die; that is, thou shalt surely die; so in the liberty, there was an ingemination too,
Comedendo comedes, Deut. 27. Eating thou shalt eat; that is, thou maist freely eat. In Deut. we
have a fearfull Chapter of Maledictions; but all the former parts of that Chapter, are
blessings in the same kind: And he that reads that Chapter, will beginne at the begin-
ning, and meet Gods first-born, his Mercy first. And in those very many places of that
Book where God divides the condition, If you obey you shall live, if you rebell you shall
die, still the better Act, and the better condition, and the better reward, is placed in
the first place, that God might give us possession, In jure Primogeniti, in the right of
his first-born, his mercy. And where God pursues the same method, and first dilates
himself, Psalm. 89. 23. and expatiates in the way of mercy, I will beat down his foes before his face, and
plague them that hate him; when after that he is brought to say, If his children forsake
my Law, I will visit their transgression with the rod; where first he puts it off for one
Generation from himself, verse 30. to his Children, which was one Mercy: And then he puts
it upon a forsaking, an Apostasie, and not upon every sinne of infirmity, which was
another Mercy; when it comes to a correction, it is but a milde correction, with the
rod: And in that, he promises to visite them; to manifest himself, and his purpose
to them in the correction; all which are higher and higher degrees of Mercy: yet be-
cause there is a spark of anger, a tincture of judgement mingled in it, God remembers
his first-born, verse 33. his Mercy, and returns where he begun: Neverthelesse my Covenant will
I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips; once have I sworn by my Holi-
nesse, that I will not lie unto David. There are elder pictures in the world of Water, then
there are any of oyl; but those of oyl have got above them, and shall outlive them.
Water is a frequent embleme of Affliction, in the Scriptures; and so is oyl of Mercy; If
at any time in any place of Scripture, God seemed to begin with water, with a judge-
ment, yet the oyl will get to the top: in that very judgement, you may see that God
had first a mercifull purpose in inflicting that medicinall judgement; for his mercy is
his first-born. His Mercy is new every morning, saith the Prophet; not onely every day,
but as soon as it is day. Trace God in thy self, and thou shalt find it so. If thou beest drowzie now, and un-
attentive, curious or contentious, or quarrelsome now, now God leaves thee in that
indisposition, and that is a judgement: But it was his Mercy that brought thee hither
before. In every sinne thou hast some remorse, some reluctation, before thou do that
sinne; and that pre-reluctation, and pre-remorse was Mercy. If thou hadst no such re-
morse in thy last sinne, before the sinne, and hast it now, this is the effect of Gods for-
mer mercy, and former good purpose upon thee, to let thee see that thou needest the
assistance of his Minister, and of his Ordinance, to enable thee to lay hold on Mercy
when it is offered thee. Can any calamity fall upon thee, in which thou shalt not be
bound to say, I have had blessings in a greater measure then this? If thou have had
losses, yet thou hast more, out of which God took that. If all be lost, perchance thou
art but where thou begunst at first, at nothing. If thou begunst upon a good heighth,
and beest fallen from that, and fallen low, yet as God prepared a Whale to transport
Jonas, before Jonas was cast into the Sea, God prepared thee a holy Patience, before
he reduced thee to the exercise of that Patience. If thou couldest apprehend nothing
done for thy self, yet all the mercies that God hath exhibited to others, are former
mercies to thee, in the Pattern, and in the Seal, and in the Argument thereof: They
have had them, therefore thou shalt. All Gods Prophecies, are thy Histories: whatso-
ever he hath promised others, he hath done in his purpose for thee: And all Gods Hi V3 stories
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stories are thy Prophesies; all that he hath done for others, he owes thee. Hast thou a
hardnesse of heart? knowest thou not that Christ hath wept before to entender that
hardnesse? hast thou a palenesse of soul, in the apparition of God in fire, and in judge-
ment? knowest thou not, that Christ hath bled before, to give a vigour, and a vege-
tation, and a verdure to that palenesse? is thy sinne Actuall sinne? knowest thou not,
that there is a Lamb bleeding before upon the Altar, to expiate that? Is thy terrour
from thy inherence, and encombrance of Originall sinne? knowest thou not, that the
effect of Baptism hath blunted the sting of that sinne before? art thou full of sores,
putrid and ulcerous sores? full of wounds, through and through piercing
wounds? full of diseases, namelesse and complicate diseases? knowest thou not
that there is a holy Charm, a blessed Incantation, by which thou art, though not
invulnerable, yet invulnerable unto death, wrapt up in the eternall Decree of thine Ele-
ction? that’s thy pillar, the assurance of thine Election: If thou shake that, if thou
cast down that Pillar, if thou distrust thine Election, with Samson, who pulled down
pillars in his blindnesse, in thy blindnesse thou destroyest thy self. Begin where thou
wilt at any Act in thy self, at any act in God, yet there was mercy before that, for his
mercy is eternall, eternall even towards thee. I could easily think that that, that past
between God and Moses in their long conversation; that that, that past between Christ
and Moses in his trans-figuration; that that, that past between Saint Paul and the Court
of Heaven in his extasie was instruction and manifestation on one part, and admiration
and application on the other part of the mercy of God. Earth cannot receive, Heaven
cannot give such another universall soul to all: all persons, all actions, as Mercy. And
were I the childe of this Text, that were to live a hundred yeares, I would ask no other
marrow to my bones, no other wine to my heart, no other light to mine eyes, no
other art to my understanding, no other eloquence to my tongue, then the power of
apprehending for my self, and the power of deriving and conveying upon others by my
Ministery, the Mercy, the early Mercy, the everlasting Mercy of yours, and my God.
But we must passe to the consideration of this immense Light, in that one Beam, where-
in it is exhibited here, that is, long life: The childe shall die a hundred yeares old.
Long life is a blessing, Vita longa. as it is an image of eternity: as Kings are blessings, because they
are Images of God. And as to speak properly, a King that possest the whole earth, hath
no proportion at all to God, (he is not a dramme, not a grain, not an atome to God)
so neither if a thousand Methusalems were put in one life, had that long life any propor-
tion to eternity; for Finite and Infinite have no proportion to one another. But yet
when we say so, That the King is nothing to God, we speak then between God and the
King; and we say that, onely to assist the Kings Religious humiliation of himself in the
presence of God. But when we speak between the King and our selves his Subjects,
there we raise our selves to a just reverence of him, by taking knowledge that he is the
Image of God to us. So though long life be nothing to eternity, yet because we need
such Glasses and such Images, as God shews us himself in the King, so he shewes us his
eternitie in a long life. In this, that the Patriarchs complain every where of the short-
nesse of life, Gen. 47. 9. and neernesse of death; (Jacob at a hundred and thirtie yeares tells Pharaoh,
that his dayes were few,) In this, that God threatens the shortnesse of life for a punish-
ment to Eli, 1 Sam. 2. 32. God saies, There shall not be an old man in thy house for ever: In this, that
God brings it into Promise, and enters it, as into his Audite, and his revenue, (With
long life will I satisfie him, Psal. 91. 16. and shew him my salvation,) That God would give him
long life, and make that long life a Type of Eternity; In this, that God continues that
promise into performance, and brings it to execution, in some of his chosen servants;
at a hundred and twenty Moses his eyes were not dim, Deut. 24. 7. nor his naturall force abated;
and Caleb saith of himself, Jos. 14. 10. I am this day 85. yeares old, and as my strength was at first, for
warre, so is my strength now; In all these and many others, we receive so many testimo-
nies that God brings long life out of his Treasurie, as an immediate blessing of his. And
therefore, as such his blessing, let us pray for it, where it is not come yet, in that ap-
precation and acclamation of the antient generall Councells, Multos annos Cæsari, Æter-
nos annos Cæsari, Long life to our Cesar in this world, everlasting life to our Cesar in the
world to come: and then let us reverence this blessing of long life, where it is come,
in honouring those Ancient heads, by whose name, God hath been pleased to call him-
self, Antiquus dierum, the ancient of dayes: and let us not make this blessing of long life,
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life, impossible to our selves, by disappointing Gods purpose of long life upon us, by
our surfets, our wantonnesse, our quarrels, which are all Goths, and Vandals, and Gi-
ants, called in by our selves to fight with God against us. But yet, so receive we long life,
as a blessing, as that we may also find a blessing in departing from this life: For so ma-
nifold, and so multifornmultiform are his blessings, as even death it self hath a place in this Sphear
of blessings, The childe shall live a hundred yeares, but yet The childe shall die.
When Paradise should have extended, Morietur. as man should have multiplied, and every
holy family, every religious Colony have constituted a new Paradise, that as it was
said of Egypt, when it abounded with Hermitages in the Primitive persecutions, That
Egypt was a continuall City of Hermitages; so all the world should have been a conti-
nuall Garden of Paradises, when all affections should have been subjects, and all crea-
tures servants, and all wives helpers, then life was a sincere blessing. But, but a mixt
blessing now, when all these are so much vitiated; onely a possible blessing; a dispu-
table, a conditionable, a circumstantiall blessing now. If there were any other way to
be saved and to get to Heaven, then by being born into this life, I would not wish to
have come into this world. And now that God hath made this life a Bridge to Hea-
ven; it is but a giddy, and a vertiginous thing, to stand long gazing upon so narrow a
bridge, and over so deep and roaring waters, and desperate whirlpools, as this world
abounds with: Psal. 90. 12. So teach us to number our dayes, saith David, that we may apply our
hearts unto wisedome: Not to number them so, as that we place our happinesse, in
the increase of their number. Psal. 21. 14. What is this wisedome? he tells us there; He asked life
of thee, and thou gavest it him: But was that this life? It was Length of dayes for ever
and ever, the dayes of Heaven. As houses that stand in two Shires, trouble the execution of Justice, the house of death
that stands in two worlds, may trouble a good mans resolution. As death is a sordid
Postern, by which I must be thrown out of this world, I would decline it: But as death
is the gate, by which I must enter into Heaven, would I never come to it? certainly
now, now that Sinne hath made life so miserable, if God should deny us death, he
multiplied our misery. We are in this Text, upon blessings appropriated to the Chri-
stian Church, and so to these times. And in theseTimes, we have not so long life, as
the Patriarchs had before. They were to multiply children for replenishing the world,
and to that purpose had long life. We multiply sinnes, and the children and off-spring
of sinnes, miseries, and therefore may be glad to get from this generation of Vipers.
God gave his Children Manna and Quails, in the Wildernesse, where nothing else
was to be had; but when they came to the Land of Promise, that Provision ceas’d: God
gave them long life in the times of Nature, and long, (though shorter then before) in
the times of the Law; because in nature especially, but in the Law also, it was hard to
discern, hard to attain the wayes to Heaven. But the wayes to Heaven are made so
manifest to us in the Gospel, as that for that use, we need not long life; and that is all
the use of our life here. He that is ready for Heaven, hath lived to a blessed age; and
to such an intendment, a childe newly baptized may be elder then his Grandfather.
Therefore we receive long life for a blessing, when God is pleased to give it; though
Christ entered it into no Petition of his Prayer, that God would give it: and so though
we enter it into no Petition, nor Prayer, we receive it as a blessing too, when God will
afford us a deliverance, a manumission, an emancipation from the miseries of this life.
Truely I would not change that joy and consolation, which I proposed to my hopes,
upon my Death-bed, at my passage out of this world, for all the joy that I have had in
this world over again. And so very a part of the Joy of Heaven is a joyfull transmigra-
tion from hence, as that if there were no more reward, no more recompence, but that
I would put my self to all that belongs to the duty of an honest Christian in the world,
onely for a joyfull, a cheerfull passage out of it. And farther we shall not exercise
your patience, or your devotion, upon these three pieces which constitute our first
part: The Primogeniture of Gods Mercy, which is first in all; The specification of
Gods Mercy, long Life, as it is a figure of, and a way to eternity; and then the associ-
ation of Gods Mercy; that Death, as well as Life, is a blessing to the Righteous.
So then we have brought our Sunne to his Meridianall height, Part. 2. to a full Noon,
in which all shadows are removed: for even the shadow of death, death it self is a blessing,
and in the number of his Mercies. But the Afternoon shadows break out upon us, in our second
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second part of the Text. And as afternoon shadowes do, these in our Text do also;
they grow greater and greater upon us, till they end in night, in everlasting night, The
sinner being a hundred yeares old shall be accursed. Now of shadowes it is appliably said,
Vmbræ non sunt tenebræ sed densior lux, shadowes are not utter darknesse, but a thicker
light; shadowes are thus much nearer to the nature of light then darknesse is, that
shadowes presume light, which darknesse doth not; shadowes could not be, except
there were light. The first shadowes in this dark part of our Text, have thus much
light in them, that it is but the sinner, onely the sinner that is accursed. The Object
of Gods malediction, is not man, but sinfull man. If God make a man sinne, God
curses the man; August. but if sinne make God curse, God curses but the sinne. Non talem De-
um tuum putes, qualis nec tu debes esse, Never propose to thy self such a God, as thou
wert not bound to imitate: Thou mistakest God, if thou make him to be any such
thing, or make him to do any such thing, as thou in thy proportion shouldst not be,
or shouldst not do. And shouldst thou curse any man that had never offended, never
transgrest, never trespast thee? Can God have done so? Imagine God, as the Poet
saith, Ludere in humanis, to play but a game at Chesse with this world; to sport himself
with making little things great, and great things nothing: Imagine God to be but at
play with us, but a gamester; yet will a gamester curse, before he be in danger of losing
any thing? Deut. 27. 13. Will God curse man, before man have sinned? In the Law there are de-
nuntiations of curses enjoyned and multiplied: There is maledictus upon maledictus;
but it is maledictus homo, cursed be the man; He was not curst by God, before he was
a man; nor curst by God, because he was a man; but if that man commit Idolatry, Adul-
tery, Incest, Beastiality, Bribery, Calumny, (as the sinnes are reckoned there) there he
meets a particular curse, upon his particular sinne. The book of Life is but names writ-
ten in Heaven; all the Book of Death, that is, is but that in the Prophet, when names
are written in the Earth. Ier. 17. 13. But whose names are written in the Earth there? They that
depart from thee, shall be written in the Earth: They shall be, when they depart from
thee. For saith he, They have forsaken the Lord, the Fountain of Living water: They
did not that, because their names were written in the Earth, but they were written
there, because they did that. Our Saviour Christ came hither to do all his Fathers will;
and he returned cheerfully to his Father again, as though he had done all, when he had
taken away the sinnes of the world by dying for all sinnes, and all sinners. But if there
were an Hospitall of miserable men, that lay under the reprobation and malediction of
Gods decree, and not for sinne; the blood of that Lamb is not sprinkled upon the Po-
stills of that doore. Forgive me O Lord, O Lord forgive me my sinnes, the sinnes of
my youth, and my present sinnes, the sinne that my Parents cast upon me, Originall
sinne, and the sinnes that I cast upon my children, in an ill example; Actuall sinnes,
sinnes which are manifest to all the world, and sinnes which I have so laboured to hide
from the world, as that now they are hid from mine own conscience, and mine own
memory; Forgive me my crying sins, and my whispering sins, sins of uncharitable hate,
and sinnes of unchaste love, sinnes against Thee and Thee, against thy Power O Al-
mighty Father, against thy Wisedome, O glorious Sonne, against thy Goodnesse, O
blessed Spirit of God; and sinnes against Him and Him, against Superiours and Equals,
and Inferiours; and sinnes against Me and Me, against mine own soul, and against my
body, which I have loved better then my soul; Forgive me O Lord, O Lord in the me-
rits of thy Christ and my Jesus, thine Anointed, and my Saviour; Forgive me my
sinnes, all my sinnes, and I will put Christ to no more cost, nor thee to more trouble,
for any reprobation or malediction that lay upon me, otherwise then as a sinner. I ask
but an application, not an extention of that Benediction, Blessed are they whose sinnes are
forgiven; Let me be but so blessed, and I shall envy no mans Blessednesse: say thou to
my sad soul, Sonne be of good comfort, thy sinnes are forgiven thee, and I shall never trou-
ble thee with Petitions, to take any other Bill off of the fyle, or to reverse any other
Decree, by which I should be accurst, before I was created, or condemned by thee, be-
fore thou saw’st me as a sinner; For the object of malediction is but a sinner, (which
was our first) and an Inveterate sinner, A sinner of a hundred yeares, which is our next
consideration. First, 100. Anno-
rum. Quia centum annorum, because he is so old; so old in sinne, He shall be accursed.
And then, Quamvis centum annorum, though he be so old, though God have spared him
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him so long, Ecclus. 4. 30. he shall be accursed. God is not a Lion in his house, nor frantick amongst
his servants, saith the Wiseman; God doth not rore, nor tear in pieces for every thing
that displeaseth him. Amos 1. 3. But when God is prest under us, as a cart is prest that is full of
sheaves; the Lord will grone under that burthen a while, but he will cast it off at last.
That which is said by David, Psal. 18. 26. is, if it be well observed, spoken of God himself, Cum per-
verso pervertêris; from our frowardnesse God will learn to be froward: But he is not
so, Levit. 26. 21. of his own nature. If you walk contrary unto me, I will walk contrary unto you, saith
God. But this is not said of one, first, wry step; but it is a walking, which implies
a long, and a considerate continuance. And if man come to sinne so, and will not walk
with God, God will walk with that man in his own pace, and overthrow him in his
own wayes. Nay, it is not onely in that place, If you walk contrary to me, In occursu, as
Calvin hath it, ex adverso, as the vulgate hath it, which implies an Actuall Opposition
against the wayes of God: but the word is but Chevi, and Chevi is but In accidente,
in contingente; if you walk negligently, inconsiderately; if you leave out God, preter-
mit, and slight God; if you come to call Gods Providence Fortune, to call Gods
Judgements Accidents, or to call the Mercies of a God, favours of great Persons, if
you walk in this neglect of God, God shall proceed to a neglect of you; and then though
God be never the worse for your leaving him out, (for if it were in your power to an-
nihilate this whole world, God were no worse, then before there was a World) yet
if God neglect you, forget, pretermit you, it is a miserable annihilation, a fearfull ma-
lediction. But God begins not before sinne, nor at the first sinne. God did not curse
Adam and Eve for their sinne; it was there first, and God foresaw they would not be
sinners of a hundred yeares. But him that was in the Serpent, that inveterate sinner, him,
who had sinned in Gods Court, in Heaven, before, and being banished from thence,
fell into this transmarine treason, in another land, to seduce Gods other Subjects there,
him God accurs’d. Who amongst us can say, that he had a Fever upon his first excesse,
or a Consumption upon his first wantonnesse, or a Commission put upon him for his first
Briberie? Till he be a sinner of a hundred yeares, till he have brought age upon himself,
by his sinne, before the time, and thereby be a hundred yeares old at fourtie, and so a sin-
ner of a hundred yeares, till he have a desire that he might, and a hope that he shall be able
to sinne to a hundred yeares; and so be a sinner of a hundred yeares; Till he sinne hun-
gerly and thirstily, and ambitiously, and swiftly, and commit the sinnes of a hundred
yeares in ten, and so be a sinner of a hundred yeares; till he infect and poyson that age,
and spoile that time that he lives in by his exemplary sinnes, till he be Pestis secularis,
the plague of that age, peccator secularis, the proverbiall sinner of that age, and so be
a sinner of a hundred yeares, till in his actions he have been, or in his desires be, or in the
fore-knowledge of God would be a sinner of a hundred yeares, an inveterate, an incorri-
gible, an everlasting sinner, God comes not to curse him. But then Quamvis centum annorum, though he have lived a hundred yeares, though
God have multiplied upon him Evidences, and Seals, and Witnesses, and Possessions,
and Continuances, and prescriptions of his favour, all this hath not so riveted God to
that man, as that God must not depart from him. God was crucified for him, but will
not be crucified to him; still to hang upon this Crosse, this perversnesse of this habi-
tuall sinner, and never save himself and come down, never deliver his own Honour, by
delivering that sinner to malediction. It is true, that we can have no better Title to
Gods future Blessings, then his Blessings formerly exhibited to us; God former bles-
sings are but his marks set up there, that he may know that place, and that man the
better against another time, when he shall be pleased to come thither again with a sup-
ply of more Blessings: God gives not Blessings as payments, but as obligations; and
becomes a debtor by giving. If I can produce that, Remember thy mercies of old, I need
ask no new; for even that is a Specialty by which God hath bound himself to me for
more. But yet not so, if I abuse his former Blessings, and make them occasions of
sinne. How often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chickens, saith Christ, I
know not how often; surely very often; for many hundreds of yeares: But yet, how
often soever, God left them open to the Eagle, the Romane Eagle at last. God gives
thee a recovery from sicknesse, that doth not make thee Immortall. God gives thee a
good interpretation of thine actions from a gracious Prince, this doth not make thee
impeccable in thy self. God gives thee titles of Honour upon thy self, this doth not always
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alwayes give thee honour, Psalm. 113. 7. and respect from others. For as it is God that Raiseth
up the poore out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may set him with
Princes; Psal. 86. 12. so it is God that Cuts off the spirit of Princes, and is terrible to the Kings of the
Earth. Psalm. 33. 10. It is God that maketh the devices of the People of none effect, and it is God
that destroyes the Counsels of Egypt. Esay 19. 3. It is God that maketh their Nobles like Oreb, and like
Zeb, and like them that perisht at Endor, and became as dung for the Earth; that is, pro-
fitable onely in their ruine, and conculcation. And so with the same unwillingnesse,
that God comes to the execution, we come to the denunciation of this malediction.
They, They, these inveterate, incorrigible sinners, Quam vis centum annorum, though
God have spared them so long, yet Quia centum annorum, because they have imployed
all that time in sinne, They shall be accursed. Accursing is malediction, Maledictus. malediction is literally but maledicence; and that is but
evill speaking. Now all kinds of evill speaking do not inwrap a man within the curse
of this Text; For, though it be a shrewd degree of this curse of God, to be generally
ill spoken of by sad, sober, and discreet, and dis-passioned, and dis-interessed Men, yet
we are fallen into times, when men will speak ill of men, in things which they do not
know, nor should not know, and out of credulity and easie beleeving of men, whom
they should not beleeve; men distempered and transported with passion: So men speak
evill out of passion, and out of compassion; out of humour, and out of rumour. But
malediction in our Text, is an Imprecation of evil, by such men as would justly in-
flict it if they could, and because they cannot, they pray to God that he would, and
he doth: When God seconds the Imprecations of good men, that is this curse. The
Person that is curst here is Peccator centum annorum; an habituall, an incorrigible sin-
ner. If you put me to assigne, in what rank of men, Magistrates or Subjects, rich or
poore, Judges or prisoners, All. If you put me to assigne, for what sinnes, sins of com-
plexion and constitution, sinnes of societie and conversation, sinnes of our profession,
and calling, sinnes of the particular place, or of the whole times, that we live in, sins of
profit, or sins of pleasure, or sins of glory; (for we all do some sins which are sins merely
of glory; sins that we make no profit by, nor take much pleasure in, but do them onely
out of a mis-imagined necessity, lest we should go too much lesse, and sink in the esti-
mation of the World, if we did them not;) if I must say which of these sinnes put us
under this curse, All; If he be centum annorum, Inveterate, Incorrigible, He is accur-
sed. But then who curses him? God put an extraordinary spirit, and produc’d extra-
ordinary effects from curses, in the mouths of his Prophets which have been since the
World began. 2 Reg. 2. So Elizeus curses, and two Bears destroy fourty two persons. These
curses are deposited by God, in the Scriptures, and then inflicted by the Church, in her
ordinary jurisdiction, by excommuuicationsexcommunications, and other censures. But this may be but
matter of form in the Church, or matter of indignation in the Prophet. Not so, but as
God saith, Esay. That the rod in Ashurs hand is his rod, and the sword in Babylons hand his
sword, so the curse deposited in the Scripture, and denounced by the Church, is his
curse. Amos. For as the Prophet saith, Non est malum, all the evill (that is, all the penall ill,
all plagues, all warre, all famine,) that is done in the World, God doth; so all the evill
that is spoken, all the curses deposited in the Scriptures, and denounced by the Church,
God speaks. But be all this so; there is a curse deposited, denounced, seconded by
God; yet, all this is but malediction, but a speaking, here is no execution spoken of:
yes, there is, for as the sight of God is Heaven, and to be banisht from the sight of
God, is Hell in the World to come, so the blessing of God, is Heaven, and the curse
of God is Hell and damnation, even in this Life. The Hieroglyphique of silence, is the
hand upon the mouth; If the hand of God be gone from the mouth, it is gone to
strike. Esay. If it be come to an Os Domini locutum, that the mouth of the Lord have spoken
it, it will come presently to an Immittam manum, That God will lay his hand upon us,
in which one Phrase, Exod. 7. 4. all the plagues of Egypt are denounced. Solomon puts both hand
and tongue together; Prov. 18. 21. In manibus linguæ, saith he, Death and Life are in the hand of the
tongue: Gods Tongue hath a hand; where his Sentence goeth before, the execution fol-
loweth. Nay, in the execution of the last sentence, we shall feel the Hand, before we
heare the Tongue, the execution is before the sentence; It is, Ite maledicti, go ye ac-
cursed: First, you must Go, go out of the presence of God; and by that being gone, you
shall know, that you are accursed; Whereas in other proceedings, the sentence de nounces
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nounces the execution, here the execution denounces the sentence. But be all this al-lowed to be thus; There is a malediction deposited in the Scriptures, denounced by
the Church, ratified by God, brought into execution, yet it may be born, men doe
bear it. How men do bear it, we know not; what passes between God and those men,
upon whom the curse of God lieth, in their dark horrours at midnight, they would not
have us know, because it is part of their curse, to envy God that glory. But we may
consider in some part the insupportablenesse of that weight, if we proceed but so farre,
as to accommodate to God, that which is ordinarily said of naturall things. Corruptio
optimi pessima; when the best things change their nature, they become worst. When
God, who is all sweetnesse, shall have learned frowardnesse from us, as David speaks;
and being all rectitude, shall have learned perversenesse and crookednesse from us, as
Moses speaks; and being all providence, shall have learned negligence from us: when
God who is all Blessing, hath learned to curse of us, and being of himself spread as an
universall Hony-combe over All, takes in an impression, a tincture, an infusion of gall
from us, what extraction of Wormwood can be so bitter, what exaltation of fire can
be so raging, what multiplying of talents can be so heavy, what stifnesse of destiny can
be so inevitable, what confection of gnawing worms, of gnashing teeth, of howling
cries, of scalding brimstone, of palpable darknesse, can be so, so insupportable, so inex-
pressible, so in-imaginable, as the curse and malediction of God? And therefore let
not us by our works provoke, Jam. 3. 9. nor by our words teach God to curse. Lest if with the
same tongue that we blesse God, we curse Men; that is, seem to be in Charity in our Pray-
ers here, and carry a ranckerous heart, and venemous tongue home with us God come
to say, Psal. 109. 7. (and Gods saying is doing) As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him; as he
clothed himself with cursing, as with a garment, so let it be as a girdle, wherewith he is
girded continually: When a man curses out of Levity, and makes a loose habit of that
sinne, God shall so gird it to him, as he shall never devest it. The Devils grammar is
Applicare Activa Passivis, to apply Actives to Passives; where he sees an inclination,
to subminister a temptation; where he seeth a froward choler, to blow in a curse. And
Gods grammar is to change Actives into Passives: where a man delights in cursing,
to make that man accursed. And if God do this to them who do but curse men, will
he do lesse to them, who blaspheme himself? where man wears out Æternum suum,
(as Saint Gregory speaketh) his own eternity, his own hundred yeares; that is, his whole
life, in cursing and blaspheming, God shall also extend his curse, In æterno suo, in his
eternity, that is, for ever. Which is that, that falls to the bottome, as the heaviest of
all, and is our last consideration; that all the rest, that there is a curse deposited in the
Scriptures, denounced by the Church, avowed by God, reduced to execution, and
that insupportable in this life, is infinitely aggravated by this, that he shall be accursed
for ever. This is the Anathema Maran-atha, Æternum. accursed till the Lord come; and when the Lord
cometh, he cometh not to reverse, nor to alleviate, but to ratifie and aggravate that
curse. As soon as Christ curst the fig-tree, it withered, and it never recovered: for
saith that Gospell, Matth. 21. 19. he curst it In æternum, for ever. In the course of our sinne, the Ho-
ly Ghost hath put here a number of yeares, a hundred yeares: We sinne long, as long
as we can, but yet sinne hath an end. But in this curse of God in the Text, there is
no number; it is an indefinite future; He shall be accursed: A mile of cyphers or fi-
gures, added to the former hundred, would not make up a minute of this eternity.
Men have calculated how many particular graines of sand, would fill up all the vast
space butween the Earth and the Firmament: and we find, that a few lines of cyphers
will designe and expresse that number. But if every grain of sand were that number,
and multiplied again by that number, yet all that, all that inexpressible, inconsidera-
ble number, made not up one minute of this eternity; neither would this curse, be a
minute the shorter for having been indured so many Generations, as there were grains
of sand in that number. Our Esse, our Being, is from Gods saying, Dixit & facti, God
spoke, and we were made: our Bene esse, our well-being, is from Gods saying too;
Bene-dicit God blesses us, in speaking gratiously to us. Even our ill-being, our con-
demnation is from Gods saying also: for Malediction is Damnation. So far God hath
gone with us that way, as that our Being, our well-being, our ill-being is from his say-
ing: But God shall never come to a Non esse, God shall never say to us, Be nothing, God
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God shall never succour us with an annihilation, nor give us the ease of resolving into
nothing, for this curse flowes on into an everlasting future, He shall be accurst, he shall
be so for ever. In a true sense we may say, that Gods fore-knowledge growes lesse and
lesse every day; for his fore-knowledge is of future things, and many things which
were future heretofore are past, or present now; and therefore cannot fall under his
fore-knowledge: His fore-knowledge in that sense, growes lesse, and decaieth. But
his eternity decayeth in no sense; and as long as his eternity lasts, as long as God is
God, God shall never see that soul, whom he hath accurst, delivered from that curse,
or eased in it. But we are now in the work of an houre, and no more. If there be a minute of sand
left, (There is not) If there be a minute of patience left, heare me say, This minute that
is left, is that eternitie which we speake of; upon this minute dependeth that eternity:
And this minute, God is in this Congregation, and puts his eare to every one of your
hearts, and hearkens what you will bid him say to your selves: whether he shall blesse
you for your acceptation, or curse you for your refusall of him this minute: for this
minute makes up your Century, your hundred yeares, your eternity, because it may be
your last minute. We need not call that a Fable, but a Parable, where we heare, That
a Mother to still her froward childe told him, she would cast him to the Wolf, the
Wolf should have him; and the Wolf which was at the doore, and within hearing,
waited, and hoped he should have the childe indeed: but the childe being still’d, and
the Mother pleased, then she saith, so shall we kill the Wolf, the Wolf shall have none
of my childe, and then the Wolf stole away. No metaphor, no comparison is too
high, none too low, too triviall, to imprint in you a sense of Gods everlasting good-
nesse towards you. God bids your Mother the Church, and us her Servants for your
Souls, to denounce his judgements upon your sinnes, and we do it; and the executi-
oner Satan, beleeves us, before you beleeve us, and is ready on his part. Be you also
ready on your part, to lay hold upon those conditions, which are annext to all Gods
maledictions, Repentance of former, preclusion against future sinnes, and we shall be al-
wayes ready, on our part to assist you with the Power of our Intercession, to deliver you
with the Keies of our Absolution, and to establish you with the seales of Reconciliation,
and so disappoint that Wolf, that roaring Lion, that seeks whom he may devour: Go in
Peace, and be this your Peace, to know this, Maledictus qui pendet in Cruce, God hath
laid the whole curse belonging to us upon him, that hangs upon the Crosse; But Bene-
dictus qui pendet in pendentem; To all them that hang upon him, that hangeth there,
God offereth now, all those blessings, which he that hangeth there hath purchased with
the inestimable price of his Incorruptible blood; And to this glorious Sonne of God,
who hath suffered all this, and to the most Almighty Father, who hath done all this,
and to the blessed Spirit of God, who offereth now to apply all this, be ascribed by us,
and by the whole Church, All power, praise, might, majesty, glory, and dominion,
now and for evermore Amen. Sermon XXVII.
Preached to the King, at White-Hall, the first of April, 1627.
Mark. 4. 24.
Take heed what you heare.
WHetherWhether that which is recorded by this Evangelist, in, and about
this Chapter, be one intire Sermon of our Saviours, preached at
once, or Notes taken and erected from severall Sermons of his, we
are no further curious to inquire, then may serve to ground this
Note, that if it were one intire Sermon our Saviour preached me-
thodically, and eased his hearers with certain landmarks by the
way, with certain divisions, certain transitions, and callings upon
them, verse 3. to observe the points as they arose: For as he beginneth so, Hearken, Behold, so
he returneth to that refreshing of their considerations, Et dixit illis, He said unto them; and
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and, Again, he said unto them, seaven or eight times, in this Chapter; so many times he
calleth upon them, to observe his passing from one point to another. If they be but
Notes of severall Sermons, we onely note this from that, That though a man under-
stand not a whole Sermon, or remember not a whole Sermon, yet he doth well, that
layeth hold upon such Notes therein as may be appliable to his own case, and his own
conscience, and conduce to his own edification. The widow of Sarepta had no Pa-
laces to build, 1 Reg. 17. and therefore she went not out to survay Timber; she had onely a poore
cake to bake to save her own and her childs life, and she went out to gather a few sticks,
two sticks as she told the Prophet Elias, to do that work. Every man that cometh to
heare here, every man that cometh to speak here, cometh not to build Churches, nor
to build Common-wealths; to speak onely of the duties of Kings, and of Prelates,
and of Magistrates; but that poore soul that gathers a stick or two, for the baking of
her own cake, that layeth hold upon any Note for the rectifying of her own perverse-
ness hath performed the commandment of this Text, Take heed what ye heare. He that is
drowning, will take hold of a bulrush; and even that bulrush may stay him, till stronger
means of succour come. If you would but feel, that you are drowning in the whirle-
pooles of sinne, and Gods judgements for sin, and would lay hold upon the shallowest
man, (be that man dignified with Gods Character, the Character of Orders,) and lay hold
upon the meanest part of his speach, (be that speach dignified with Gods Ordinance,
be it a Sermon) even I, and any thing that I say here, and say thus, (spoken by a Mi-
nister of God, in the house of God, by the Ordinance of God) might stop you till you
heard better, and you might be the fitter for more, if you would but take heed now
what you heard; Take heed what you heare. These words were spoken by Christ, Divisio. to his Apostles upon this occasion. He had told
them before, That since there was a candle lighted in the world, it must not be put un-
der a bushell, nor under a bed, verse 21. That all that is hid, should be made manifest;
That all that was kept secret, should come abroad, verse 22. That if any man had ears
to heare, he might heare, verse 23. That is, that the Mystery of salvation, which had
been hid from the world till now, was now to be published to the world, by their
Preaching, their Ministery, their Apostleship: And that therefore, since he was now
giving them their Commission, and their instructions; since all that they had in charge
for the salvation of the whole world, was onely that, that he delivered unto them, that
which they heard from him, they should take heed what they heard; Take heed what
you heare. In which he layeth a double obligation upon them: First, All that you hear
from me, you are to preach to the world; and therefore Take heed what you heare; for-
get none of that; And then, you are to preach no more then you heare from me; and
therefore Take heed what you heare; adde nothing to that. Be not over-timorous so to
prevaricate and forbear to preach that, which you have truely heard from me; But be
not over-venturous neither, to pretend a Commission when you have none, and to
preach that for my word, which is your own passion, or their purpose that set you up.
And when we shall have considered these words in this their first acceptation, as they
were spoken literally, and personally to the Apostles, we shall see also, that by reflexion
they are spoken to us, the Ministers of the Gospell; and not onely to us, of the Refor-
mation, but to our Adversaries of the Romane perswasion too; and therefore, in that
part, we shall institute a short comparison, whether they or we do best observe this
commandment, Take heed what you heare; Preach all that, preach nothing but that,
which you have received from me. And having passed through these words, in both
those acceptations, literally to the Apostles, and by reflexion to all the Ministers of the
Gospell, the Apostles being at this time, when these words were spoken, but Hearers,
they are also by a fair accommodation appliable to you that are Hearers now, Take
heed what you heare: And since God hath extended upon you that glorification, that
beatification, as that he hath made you regale Sacerdotium, a royall Priesthood, since
you have a Regality and a Priesthood imprinted upon you, since by the prerogative
which you have in the Gospell of the Kingdome of Christ Jesus, and the co-inheri-
tance which you have in that Kingdome with Christ Jesus himself, you are Regum ge-
nus, and Sacerdotum genus, of kin to Kings, and of kin to Priests, be carefull of the
honour of both those, of whose honour, you have the honour to participate, and
take heed what you heare of Kings, take heed what you heare of Priests, take heed of X heark-
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hearkning to seditious rumours, which may violate the dignity of the State, or of schis-maticall rumours, which may cast a cloud, or aspersion upon the government of the
Church; Take heed what you hear. First then as the words are spoken, in their first acceptation, literally to the Apo-
stles, the first obligation that Christ layes upon them, 1 Part. is the publication of the whole
Gospell. Take heed what you heare; for, all that, which you hear from me, the world
must heare from you; for, for all my death and resurrection the world lies still sur-
rounded under sinne, and Condemnation, if this death and resurrection, be not prea-
ched by you, Acts 1. 8. unto them. Therefore the last words that ever our Saviour spoke un-
to them, were a ratification of this Commission, You shall be my witnesses both in Jeru-
salem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. God pro-
ceeds legally; Publication before Judgement. God shall condemn no man, for not
beleeving in Christ, to whom Christ was never manifested. ‘Tis true, that God is said
to have come to Eliah in that still small voice, and not in the strong wind, not in the
Earth-quake, 1. Reg. 19. 12.
Zech. 10. 8.
Mat. 10. 27. not in the fire. So God says, Sibilabo populum meum, I will but kisse, I
will but whisper for my people, and gather them so. So Christ tells us things in dark-
nesse; And so Christ speakes to us in our Ear; And these low voices, and holy whis-
perings, and halfe-silences, denote to us, the inspirations of his Spirit, as his Spirit
beares witnesse with our spirit; as the Holy Ghost insinuates himselfe into our soules,
and works upon us so, by his private motions. But this is not Gods ordinary way, to
be whispering of secrets. The first thing that God made, was light; The last thing,
that he hath reserved to doe; is the manifestation of the light of his Essence in our Glo-
rification. And for Publication of himselfe here, by the way, he hath constituted a
Church, in a Visibility, in an eminency, as a City upon a hill; And in this Church, his
Ordinance is Ordinance indeed; his Ordinance of preaching batters the soule, and by
that breach, the Spirit enters; His Ministers are an Earth-quake, and shake an earth-
ly soule; They are the sonnes of thunder, and scatter a cloudy conscience; They are
as the fall of waters, and carry with them whole Congregations; 3000 at a Sermon,
5000 at a Sermon, a whole City, such a City as Niniveh at a Sermon; and they are
as the roaring of a Lion, where the Lion of the tribe of Juda, cries down the Lion
that seekes whom he may devour; that is, Orthodoxall and fundamentall truths, are
established against clamorous, and vociferant innovations. Therefore what Christ tels
us in the darke, he bids us speake in the light; and what he saies in our eare, he bids us
preach on the house top. Nothing is Gospell, not Evangelium, good message, if it
be not put into a Messengers mouth, and delivered by him; nothing is conducible to
his end, nor available to our salvation, except it be avowable doctrine, doctrine that
may be spoke alowd, though it awake them, that sleep in their sinne, and make them
the more froward, for being so awaked. God hath made all things in a Roundnesse, from the round superficies of this earth,
which we tread here, to the round convexity of those heavens, wch (as long as they shal
have any beeing) shall be our footstool, when we come to heaven, God hath wrapped
up all things in Circles, and then a Circle hath no Angles; there are no Corners in a
Circle. Corner Divinity, clandestine Divinity are incompatible termes; If it be Divi-
nity, it is avowable. The heathens served their Gods in Temples, sub dio, without roofs or
coverings, in a free opennesse; and, where they could, in Temples made of Specular
stone, that was transparent as glasse, or crystall, so as they which walked without in
the streets, might see all that was done within. And even nature it self taught the na-
turall man, to make that one argument of a man truly religious, Aperto vivere voto,
That he durst pray aloud, and let the world heare, what he asked at Gods hand; which
duty is best performed, when we joyne with the Congregation in publique prayer.
Saint Augustine, hath made that note upon the Donatists, That they were Clancularii,
clandestine Divines, Divines in Corners. And in Photius, we have such a note almost
upon all Heretiques; as the Nestorian was called Coluber, a snake, because though he
kept in the garden, or in the meadow, in the Church, yet he lurked and lay hid, to doe
mischief. And the Valentinian was called a Grashopper, because he leaped and skip-
ped from place to place; and that creature, the Grashopper, you may hear as you passe,
but you shall hardly find him at his singing; you may hear a Conventicle Schismatick,
heare him in his Pamphlets, heare him in his Disciples, but hardly surprize him at his exer-
exer-
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cise. Publication is a fair argument of truth. That tasts of Luthers holy animosity,
and zealous vehemency, when he says, Audemus gloriari Christum à nobis primo vulga-
tum; other men had made some attempts at a Reformation, and had felt the pulse of
some persons, and some Courts, and some Churches, how they would relish a Refor-
mation; But Luther rejoyces with a holy exultation, That he first published it, that
he first put the world to it. So the Apostles proceeded; when they came in their pe-
regrination, to a new State, to a new Court, to Rome it selfe, they did not enquire,
how stands the Emperour affected to Christ, and to the preaching of his Gospel; Is
there not a Sister, or a Wife that might be wrought upon to further the preaching of
Christ? Are there not some persons, great in power and place, that might be content
to hold a party together, by admitting the preaching of Christ? This was not their
way; They only considered who sent them; Christ Jesus: And what they brough; salva-
tion to every soul that embraced Christ Jesus. That they preached; and still begunne
with a Væ si non; Never tell us of displeasure, or disgrace, or detriment, or death, for
preaching of Christ. For, woe be unto us, if we preach him not: And still they ended
with a Qui non crediderit, Damnabitur, Never deceive your own souls, He, to whom
Christ hath been preached, and beleeves not, shall be damned. All Divinity that is
bespoken, and not ready made, fitted to certaine turnes, and not to generall ends; And
all Divines that have their soules and consciences, so disposed, as their Libraries may bee,
(At that end stand Papists, and at that end Protestants, and he comes in in the middle,
as neare one as the other) all these have a brackish taste; as a River hath that comes
near the Sea, so have they, in comming so neare the Sea of Rome. In this the Prophet
exalts our Consolation, Esai. 30. 20. Though the Lord give us the bread of Adversity, and the water of
Affliction, yet shall not our Teachers be removed into corners; (They shall not be silenced
by others, they shall not affect of themselves Corner Divinity. But (saies he there) our
eyes shall see our Teachers, and our eares shall hear a word, saying, This is the way, walke
in it. For so they shall declare, that they have taken to heart this Commandement of
him that sent them, Christ Jesus. All that you receive from me, you must deliver
to my people; therefore, Take heed what you hear; forget none of it. But
then you must deliver no more then that; and therefore in that respect also, Take heed
what you hear; adde nothing to that, and that is the other obligation which Christ
laies here upon his Apostles. That reading of those words of Saint John, Oblig. 2. 1
Ioh. 4. 3. Omnis spiritus qui solvit Jesum, Every
spirit that dissolves Jesus, that takes him asunder, in pieces, and beleeves not all, is a very
ancient reading of that place. And upon that Ancient reading, the Ancients infer well,
That not onely that spirit that denies that Christ being God, assumed our flesh, not
onely he that denies that Christ consists of two natures, God and Mam, but he also
that affirmes this Christ, thus consisting of two natures, to consist also of two persons,
this man dissolves Jesus, takes him asunder, in pieces, and slackens the band of the Chri-
stian faith, which faith is, That Christ consisting of two natures, in one person, suffer-
ed for the salvation of man. So then, not onely to take from Jesus, one of his natures,
God or man, but to adde to him, another person, this addition is a Diminution, a disso-
lution, an annihilation of Jesus. So also to adde to the Gospel, to adde to the Scri-
ptures, to adde to the articles of faith, this addition is a Diminution, a Dissolution, an
Annihilation of those Scriptures, that Gospel, that faith, and the Author, and finisher
thereof. Jesus grew in stature, says the Gospel; But he grew not to his lifes end; we
know to, how many feet he grew. So the Scriptures grew to; the number of the books
grew; But they grow not to the worlds end, we know to how many bookes they
grew. The body of man and the vessels thereof, have a certain, and a limited capacity,
what nourishment they can receive and digest, and so a certaine measure and stature to
extend to. The soul, and soul of the soul, Faith, and her faculties, hath a certain capa-
city too, and certain proportions of spirituall nourishments exhibited to it, in certaine vessels,
certaine measures, so many, these Bookes of Scriptures. And therefore as
Christ saies, Mat. 6. 27. Which of you can adde one Cubit to your stature? (how plentifully, and how
delicately soever you feed, how discreetly, and how providently soever you exercise, you
cannot doe that) so may he say to them who pretend the greatest power in the Church,
Which of you can adde another booke to the Scriptures, A Codicill to either of my Te-
staments? 22. 18. The curse in the Revelation fals as heavy upon them that adde to the booke X2 of
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of God, as upon them that take from it: Nay, it is easie to observe, that in all those
places of Scripture which forbid the taking away, or the adding to the Book of God,
still the commandment that they shall not, and still the malediction if they do, is first
placed upon the adding, and after upon the taking away. So it is in that former place,
Plagues upon him, 4. 2. that takes away: but first, Plagues upon him, that addes: so in Deut.
you shall not diminish, 12. 32. but first, you shall not adde: So again in that Book, whatsoever
I command you observe to do it: Thou shalt not diminish from it; but first, Thou
shalt not adde to it. And when the same commandment seems to be given in the Pro-
verbs, 30. 6. there is nothing at all said of taking away, but onely of adding, as though the
danger to Gods Church consisted especially in that; Every word of God, is pure, saith
Solomon there: Adde thou not unto his word, lest thou be reproved and found a lyer.
For, though heretofore some Heretiques have offered at that way, to clip Gods coin in
taking away some book of Scripture, yet for many blessed Ages, the Church hath en-
joyed her peace in that point: None of the Books are denied by any church, there is
no substraction offered; But for addition of Apocryphal Books to Canonicall, the
Church of God is still in her Militant state, and cannot triumph: and though she have
victory, in all the Reasons, she cannot have peace. You see Christs way, to them that
came to heare him; Matth. 5. Audiistis, and Audiistis, This, and that you have heard others say;
Ego autem dico; your Rule is, what I say; for Christ spoke Scripture; Christ was Scri-
pture. As we say of great and universall Scholars, that they are viventes Bibliothecæ,
living, walking, speaking Libraries; so Christ was loquens Scriptura; living, speaking
Scripture. Our Sermons are Text and Discourse; Christ Sermons were all Text:
Christ was the Word; not onely the Essentiall Word, which was alwayes with God,
but the very written word too; Christ was the Scripture, and therefore, when he re-
fers them to himselfe, he refers them to the Scriptures, for though here he seem onely,
to call upon them, to hearken to that which he spoke, yet it is in a word, of a deeper
impression; for it is Videte; See what you hear. Before you preach any thing for my
word, see it, see it written, see it in the body of the Scriptures. Here then lies the dou-
ble obligation upon the Apostles, The salvation of the whole world lies upon your
preaching of that, of All That, of onely That, which you hear from me now, And
therefore, take heed what you hear. And farther we carry not your consideration, up-
on this first acceptation of the words as they are spoken personally to the Apostles, but
passe to the second, as by reflexion, they are spoken to us, the Ministers of the Go-
spel. In this consideration, Part. 2. we take in also our Adversaries; for we all pretend to be suc-
cessors of the Apostles; though not we, as they, in the Apostolicall, yet they as well as
we in the Evangelicall, and Ministeriall function: for, as that which Christ said to Saint
Peter, he said in him, to all the Apostles, Vpon this Rock will I build my Church, so in this
which he saith to all the Apostles, he saith to all us also, Take heed what you heare. Be
this then the issue between them of the Roman distemper, and us; whether they or we,
do best perform this commandment, Take heed what you heare, conceal nothing of that
which you have heard, obtrude nothing but that which you have heard: Whether they
or we do best apply our practise to this rule, Preach all the Truth, preach nothing but
the Truth, be this lis contestata, the issue joyned between us, and it will require no long
pleading for matter of evidence; An omnem.
Matth. 4. 4.
Deut. 8. 3. first, our Saviour saith, Man liveth by every word, that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And this Christ saith from Moses also: so that
in the mouth of two unreproachable witnesses, Moses, and Christ, the Law, and the Gos-
pel, we have this established, Mans life is the Word of God, the Word is the Scrip-
ture. And then our Saviour saith further, The Holy Ghost shall teach you all things,
and bring all things to your remembrance: Ioh. 14. 26. and here is the Latitude, the Totality,
the Integrality of the meanes of salvation; you shall have Scriptures delivered to you,
by them the Holy Ghost shall teach you all things; and then you shall be remembred of
all, by the explication and application of those Scriptures, at Church, where lies the
principall operation of the Holy Ghost. Now, is this done in the Roman Church?
Are the Scriptures delivered, and explicated to them? so much of the Scriptures as
is read to them, in their Lessons and Epistles, and Gospels, is not understood when
it is read, for it is in an unknown language; so that, that way, the Holy Ghost teaches
them nothing. Neither are all the Scriptures distributed into these Lessons and Epi-
stles,
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stles, and Gospels which are read: so that if they did understand all they heard, yet
they did not heare all they were bound to understand. And for remembring them by
the way of preaching, though it be true, that the Reformation (by way of example,
though not by Doctrine) have so much prevailed upon them, as that they have now
twenty Sermons in that Church, for one that they had before Luther, yet if a man could
heare six Sermons a day, all the days of his life, he might die without having heard all
the Scriptures explicated in Sermons: But when men have a Christian liberty affor-
ded to them to read the Scriptures at home, and then are remembred of those things at
Church, and there taught to use that liberty modestly, to establish their faith upon
places of Scripture that are plain, and to suspend their judgment upon obscurer pla-
ces, till they may, by due meanes, preaching or conference, receive farther satisfaction
therein, from them, who are thereunto authorized by God in his Church, there cer-
tainly is this Rule of our Saviours, Take heed what you hear, preach all that you have re-
ceived from me, likelyer to be observed then there, where the body of the conveyance,
the Scripture it self is locked up from us; and the soule of the conveyance, the sense,
and interpretation of the Scriptures, is locked into one mans brest; and the Great Seal of
that conveyance, the Sacrament of our Reconciliation, is broken, and mutilated, and gi-
ven us but by halfe. But they do not onely stray on that hand, An solam. in not giving all that the Scripture gives;
(They doe not give the liberty of meates, nor the liberty of mariage, which the Scri-
pture gives; Nay, they doe not give the liberty of trying, whether the Scripture give
it or no; for they doe not give the liberty of reading the Scriptures) But on the other
hand, they stray too, and further, That they deliver more then the Scriptures doe, and
make other Rules and Canons equall to Scriptures. In which excesse, they doe not
onely make the Apocryphall Books, (Books that have alwaies had a favourable aspect,
and benigne countenance from the Church of God) equall to Canonicall Scriptures,
But they make their decretall Epistles of their Popes and of their Extravagants, (as
they call them) and their occasionall Bulls, nay their Bull-baitings, their Buls fighting,
and crossing and contradicting one another, equall to Canonicall Scripture. So that
these men have put the salvation of the world, upon another science, upon another pro-
fession; It is not the Divine, that is the Minister of salvation, but the Canonist. I must
not determine my beleef in the Apostles Creed, nor in Athanasius, nor in that of the
Nicen Fathers; not onely not the Scriptures, but not the Councels, nor Fathers must
give the Materials, and Elements of my faith, but the Canon law; for so they rule it:
Gratian that hath collected the sentences of Fathers and Councels, and digested them
into heads of Divinity, he is no rule of our beleef, because, say they, he is no part of
the body of the Canon law; But they that first compiled the Decretals, and the Ex-
travagants, and they who have since recompiled more Decretals, and more Extrava-
gants, the Clementins, and the Sextins, and of late yeares the Septims, with those of
John the 22. these make up the body of the Canon law, and these must be our Rule;
what to beleeve. How long? Till they fall out with some State, with whom they are
friends yet, or grown friends with some State, that they are fallen out with now; and
then upon a new Decretall, a new Extravagant, I must contract a new, or enlarge, or
restrain my old beleef. Certainly, as in naturall things, the assiduity takes off the admi-
ration, (The rising, and the setting of the sunne, would be a miracle to him, that should
see it but once) and as in civill things, the profusenesse, and the communication, and
the indifferency takes off the Dignity, (for, as gold is gold still, the heaviest metall of
all, yet if it be beat into leaf gold, I can blow it away; so Honour is honour still, the
worthyest object of the worthyest spirits, and the noblest reward of the greatest Princes,
yet the more have it, the lesse every one hath of it) So in the Roman Church, they
have not found a better way to justify their blasphemy of the insufficiency of the Scri-
ptures, then by making contemptible writings, as sufficient as Scriptures, equall to Scri-
pture. If they could make me beleeve, the Scriptures were no more sufficient then their
Decretals, and Extravagants, I should easily confesse there were no Scriptures suffici-
ent for salvation. And farther we presse not this evidence, how farre they depart from
this rule, Take heed what you heare, How much lesse, and how much more then Christ
gave, they give, but passe to the third acceptation of these words, as, in a fair accom-
modation, they are spoken to you, who are now as the Apostles were then, Hearers, Take
heed what you heare. X3 And
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And into this part I enter with such a protestation, 3 Part. as perchance may not become
me: That this is the first time in all my life, (I date my life from my Ministery; for I received
mercy, as I received the ministery, as the Apostle speaks) this is the first time, that in the ex-
ercise of my Ministery, I wished the King away; That ever I had any kinde of loathnesse
that the King should hear all that I sayd. Here, for a little while, it will be a little other-
wise; because in this branch, I am led, to speak of some particular duties of subjects;
and in my poor way, I have thought it somewhat an Eccentrique motion, and off of the
naturall Poles, to speake of the Duties of subjects before the King, or of the duties of
Kings, in publike and popular Congregations. As every man is a world in himself, so
every man hath a Church in himself; and as Christ referred the Church for hearing
to the Scriptures, so every man hath Scriptures in his own heart, to hearken to. Obe-
dience to Superiours, and charity to others, are In-nate Scriptures; Obedience and
Charity, are the Naturall mans, the Civill mans, the Morall mans Old and New Te-
stament. Take heed, that is, observe what you heare from them, and they will direct
you well. And first, Take heed what you heare, is, take heed that you hear; That you
do hearken to them, Iohn 8. 47. whom you should hear. Our Saviour saith, He that is of God, heareth
his words; ye therefore hear them not, because you are not his. Transferre this to a
civill application; to obedience to Superiors. Christ makes account that he hath ar-
gued safely so; If you heare him not, you are none of his. If you heare him not in his
Lawes, heare him not in his Proclamations, heare him not in the Declarations of his
wants and necessities, you are none of his, that is, you had rather you were none of his:
There is a Nolumus hunc regnare smothered in our breasts, if we will not hear, and
we had rather we might devest our Allegeance, rather we might be no subjects. By the
Law, Exod. 21. 6. he that was willing to continue in the service of his Master, was willing to bee
boared in the eare, willing to testify a readinesse of hearing and obedience. And when
David describes the refractary man so, Psalm 58. 4. He is like the deafe Adder, that stoppeth her
eare, which will not hearken to the voyce of Charmers, charming never so wisely, that
word Charmer, signifies an eloquent, a persuasive man, a powerfull speaker; this Viper
will not hear such. And for the sinnes of a Nation, when those sinnes come to the
height, 8. 17. God will first inflict that punishment in the Prophet Jeremy, I will send Serpents,
Cockatrices amongst you, which will not be charmed, that is, venimous, and mutinous, and
seditious spirits, upon whom, no language, no reason, no counsell, no perswasion can
prevail; 3. 1. And then, he will second, and aggravate that punishment, with that in Esay,
The Lord shall take from Ierusalem, the man of warre, and the Iudge, and the Prophet, and
the honourable man, and the Counseller, and the eloquent Oratour. As when they will not
embrace religious duties, God shall take away their Preachers, so when they will not
believe their Civill dangers, God shall take from them the spirit of persuasibility, and
the power of perswasivenesse towards them, from them who should work upon them;
and leave them a miserable example of that fearefull rule, whom God will destroy, he
will infatuate first; from that Nation from whom God will depart, as he is the Lord of
hosts, and not fight their battels, he will depart first, as he is the Angel of the great coun-
sell, and not enlighten their understandings, that they might see their dangers. The
Potion of jealousie, Num. 5. 12. was a bitter potion, and a putrefying potion, where it was to be mi-
nistred; and it was to be ministred to them, who gave the occasion of the jealousie.
Now not to have brought Saul presents, not to have contributed to his present wars,
and his present wants, 1 Sam. 10. ult. this occasioned the jealousie; for so, says the text, They despised
Saul, and brought him no presents; This was evidence enough of their contempt, That
they brought him no presents. And where jealousies are so occasioned, much bitter-
nesse may follow; many bitter potions may be administred; many bitter pilles may be
swallowed. And therefore, take heed that you heare, and hear so, as may in one act
testify your obedience to Superiours, and charity towards others, who are already en-
wrapped in the same miseries, that may reach you; for obedience and charity are an
Old, and a New Testament. Take heed that you heare them whom God hath appointed to speake to you; But,
when you come abroad, take heed what you hear; for, certainely, the Devill doth
not cast in more snares at the eye of man, then at the eare. Our Saviour Christ propo-
ses it as some remedy against a mischief, Mat. 18. 8. That if the eye offend thee, thou mayst pull it
out, and if thy hand or foot offend thee, thou mayst cut it off, and thou art safe from that
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that offence. But he does not name nor mention the ear: for, if the ear betray thee,
though thou doe cut it off, yet thou art open to that way of treason still, still thou canst
heare. Where one man libels with the tongue, or hand, a hundred libel with the ear;
One man speakes, or writes, but a hundred applaud and countenance a calumny.
Therefore sepi aures tuas spinis, Ecclus. 28. 28. as the Vulgate reads that place, hedge thine eares with
thornes; that he that would whisper a calumny in thine ear, against another man, may
be pricked with those thornes, that is, may discern from thee, that he is not welcome to
thee, and so forbear; or if he will presse upon thee, those thorns may prick thee, and
warne thee that there is an uncharitable office done which thou shouldest not counte-
nance. Neither onely may thy charity towards another, be violated by such a whisperer,
but thine own safety endangered; And therefore, Take heed what you hear. There are
two dangerous sorts of men, whom we call Auricularios, Earwigs transformed into men.
And certainely there is no Lycanthropie so dangerous, not when men are changed into
devouring wolfes, as when these Earwigs are metamorphos’d into men. The first sort
is of those, who take us into their eares; the other, that put themselves into ours. The
first are they, that receive Auricular confessions; in which a man will propose to his
Confessar, treasonable and bloody purposes; and if he allow them, then it is no lon-
ger a confession, but a consultation, and he may disclose it to any, whom he may there-
by draw in; But if his Confessar disallow it, then it retaines the nature of a confession
still, and being delivered under that Seale, it may not be revealed, though the con-
cealing cost Christendome, or, (as they expresse it) all the souls, that Christ hath dy-
ed for. And of these Earwigs, of these Auricular men, we had shrewd experience in
the carriage of that treason, the Emphaticall Treason, in respect of which, all other
Treasons are but Trespasses, all Rebellions but Ryots, all Battayls but Frays. But
then, the more frequent, and the more dangerous Earwig is he, that upon pretence of
trusting thee with a secret, betrays thee, and therefore Take heed what you hear. Barto-
lus that great Lawyer, had delivered it for law, that whosoever hears treason, and re-
veals it not, is a Traitour. And though Baldus, a great Lawyer, and one between
whom, and Bartolus, the scales are even, say, That Bartolus his soule, and all their
soules that follow him in that opinion, burne in hell for that uncharitablenesse, yet, to
verify that, that the most doe goe to hell, the most doe follow Bartolus, and so thy
danger, that huntest after the knowledge of great secrets, is the greater, and therefore,
Take heed what you heare. Arridet tibi homo, & instar privati sermones occupat, says the
little great Epictetus, or Arrian upon him, a man will put himself into thy company,
and speake in the confidence of a deare friend, and then, De Principe inclementer loqui-
tur, he comes to speake boldly and irreverently of the greatest persons; and thou
thinkest thou hast found Exemplum & monumentum fidei, a rare, a noble, an ingenuous,
a free, and confident Spirit, Et pertexis, quod prior inceperat; Thou doest but say on
that which he was saying, and make up his sentence, or doest but believe him, or doest
but not say, that thou doest not believe him, and thy few words, thy no words, may
cost thee thy life. Per ornamenta ferit, says the Patriarch, and Oracle of Morall men,
Seneca; This whisperer wounds thee, and with a stilletta of gold, he strangles thee with
scarfes of silk, he smothers thee with the down of Phoenixes, he stifles thee with a
perfume of Ambar, he destroys thee by praising thee, overthrows thee by exalting thee,
and undoes thee by trusting thee; By trusting thee with those secrets that bring thee
into a desperate perplexity, Aut alium accusare in subsidium tui, (as the Patriarch, and
Oracle of States-men, Tacitus, says) Either to betray another, that pretends to have
trusted thee, or to perish thy selfe, for the saving of another, that plotted to betray
thee. And therefore, if you can heare a good Organ at Church, and have the musique
of a domestique peace at home, peace in thy walls, peace in thy bosome, never hearken
after the musique of sphears, never hunt after the knowledge of higher secrets, then ap-
pertaine to thee; But since Christ hath made you Regale Sacerdotium, Kings and Priests,
in your proportion, Take heed what you hear, in derogation of either the State, or the
Church. In declaring ill affections towards others, Regnum.
Exod. 21. 17. the Holy Ghost hath imprinted these steps.
First, he begins at home, in Nature, He that curseth Father or Mother shall surely be put
to death; and then, as families grow out into Cities, the Holy Ghost goes out of the house,
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house, Exod. 22. 28. into the consideration of the State, and says, Thou shalt not curse the Ruler of
the people, no Magistrate. 2 Sam. 19. 21. And from thence he comes to the highest upon earth, for in
Samuel, Lev. 24. 15. it comes to a cursing of the Lords Anointed; and from thence to the high-
est in heaven, Whosoever curseth his God, shall bear his sinne; and as though both those
grew out of one another, The cursing of the King, and the cursing of God, the Pro-
phet Esai hath joyned them together, 8. 21. They shall be hungry, says he, (indigent, poor,
penurious) and they shall fret, (be transported with ungodly passion) and they shall curse
their King and their God: If they doe one, they will doe the other. The Devil re-
members from what height he is fallen, and therefore still clambers upward, and still
directs all our sinnes, in his end, upon God: Our end, in a sin, may be pleasure, or
profit, or satisfaction of affections, or passions; but the Devils end in all is, that
God may be violated and dishonoured in that sinne: And therefore by casting in ill
conceptions and distasts, first, against Parents and Masters at home, and then against
subordinate Magistrates abroad, and so against the Supreme upon earth, He brings us
to ill conceptions and distasts against God himself; first, to thinke it liberty to bee
under no Governour, and then, liberty to be under no God; when as, onely those
two services, of a gracious God, and of a good King, are perfect freedome. Therefore
the wise King Solomon meets with this distemper in the root, at first ebullition, in the
heart; Eccles. 10. 20. Curse not the King, no not in thy thought; for, that Thought hath a tongue, and
hath spoken, and sayd Amen in the eares of God; That which thy heart hath said,
though the Law have not, though the Jury have not, though the Peers have not,
God hath heard thee say. The word which Solomon uses there, is Iadung; and that
our Translators have in the margin called Conscience; Curse not the King, no not in
thy conscience; Doe not thou pronounce, that whatsoever thou dislikest, cannot con-
sist with a good conscience; never make thy private conscience the rule of publique a-
ctions; for to constitute a Rectitude, or an Obliquity in any publique action, there en-
ter more circumstances, then can have fallen in thy knowledge. But the word that So-
lomon takes there, Iadang, signifies properly all waies of acquiring knowledge, and
Hearing is one of them, and therefore, Take heed what you heare: Come not so neare
evill speaking, as to delight to heare them, that delight to speake evill of Superiours.
A man may have a good breath in himself, and yet be deadly infected, if he stand in
an ill ayre; a man may stand in a cloud, in a mist, in a fogge of blasphemers, till, in the
sight of God, himself shall be dissolved into a blasphemous wretch, and in that cloud,
in that mist, God shall not know him, that endured the hearing, from him, that ad-
ventured the speaking of those blasphemies. The ear, in such cases, is as the clift in the
wall, that receives the voice, and then the Echo is below, in the heart; for the most
part, the heart affords a returne, and an inclination to those things that are willingly
received at the ear; The Echo returnes the last syllables; The heart concludes with
his conclusions, whom we have been willing to hearken unto. We make Satyrs; and
we looke that the world should call that wit; when God knowes, that that is in a great
part, self-guiltinesse, and we doe but reprehend those things, which we our selves have
done, we cry out upon the illnesse of the times, and we make the times ill: so the ca-
lumniator whispers those things, which are true, no where, but in himselfe. But thy
greater danger, is that mischievous purpose, (which we spake of before) to endanger
thee by hearing, and to entangle thee in that Dilemma, of which, an ingenuous man ab-
hors one part, as much as a conscientious man does the other, That thou must be a
Delinquent, or an Accuser, a Traitour or an Informour: God hath imprinted in thee
characters of a better office, and of more dignity, of a Royall Priesthood; as you have
sparks of Royaltie in your soules, Take heed what you hear of State-government;
as you have sparks of holy fire, and Priesthood in your soules, Take heed what you
heare of Church-government, which is the other consideration. The Church is the spouse of Christ: Noble husbands do not easily admit defama-
tions of their wives. Ecclesia. Very religious Kings may have had wives, that may have retai-
ned some tincture, some impressions of errour, which they may have sucked in their in-
fancy, from another Church, and yet would be loth, those wives should be publikely
traduced to be Heretiques, or passionately proclaimed to be Idolaters for all that. A
Church may lacke something of exact perfection, and [?] yet that Church should not be
said to be a supporter of Antichrist, or a limme of the beast, or a thirster after the cup of Babylon,
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Babylon, for all that. From extream to extream, from east to west, the Angels them-selves cannot come, but by passing the middle way between; from that extream im-
purity, in which Antichrist had damped the Church of God, to that intemerate purity,
in which Christ had constituted his Church, the most Angelicall Reformers cannot
come, but by touching, yea, and stepping upon some things, in the way. He that is
come to any end, remembers when he was not at the middle way; he was not there as
soon as he set out. It is the posture reserved for heaven, to sit down, at the right hand
of God; Here our consolation is, that God reaches out his hand to the receiving of
those who come towards him; And nearer to him, and to the institutions of his Christ,
can no Church, no not of the Reformation, be said to have come, then ours does. It is
an ill nature in any man, to be rather apt to conceive jealousies, and to suspect his Mo-
thers honour, or his sisters chastity, then a strange womans. It is an irreverent unthank-
fulnesse, to think worse of that Church, which hath bred us, and fed us, and led us
thus far towards God, then of a forein Church, though Reformed too, and in a good
degree. How often have I heard our Church condemned abroad, for opinions, which
our Church never held? And how often have I heard forein Churches exalted and
magnified at home, for some things in the observation of the Sabbath, and in the ad-
ministration of the Sacrament, which, indeed, those Churches doe not hold, nor practise?
Take heed what you heare; And that ill, which you heare of your own Church, at
home, by Gods abundant goodnesse to it, is not true; And, I would all that good,
which you heare of Churches abroad, were true; but I must but wish, that it were so,
and pray that it may be so, and praise God, for those good degrees towards it, which
they have attained; But no Church in the world, gives us occasion of emulation to-
wards them, or of undervaluing Gods blessings upon ours. And therefore, as to us,
who pretend an ambassage from him, if we make our selves unworthy of that employ-
ment, God shall say, Psal. 50. 16. What hast thou to doe, to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest
take my Covenant into thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind
thee? So to them, that hearken greedily after defamations of the persons and actions
of his Church, God shall say, Why takest thou mine Ordinance into thy construction,
or my servants into thy consideration, since thou hatest my yoake, and proposest to
thy selfe no other end, in defaming others, then a licentious liberty, and an uncon-
trolled impunity in thy selfe? As you are Christians, God hath given you a Royall
Priesthood; be so Noble, be so Holy, as to take heed what you heare, of State and
Church, and of those persons, whom God hath called Gods, in both those firmaments.
And, for conclusion of all, Take heed what you heare of yourselves. Men speake to you, Conclusio. and God speakes to you, and the Devill does speake to you
too; Take heed what you hear of all three. In all three the words look two ways;
for, in them, there is both a Videte, and a Cavete, first see that you doe heare them, and
then take heed what you heare from them. Men will speake; and they will speake of
you: Men will discourse, and you must be their subject; Men will declame, and
you must be their Theme. And truely you should desire to be so: As onely man can
speake, so onely man can desire to be spoken of. If gold could speake, if gold could
wish, gold would not be content to lie in the darke, in the mine, but would desire to
come abroad, to entertain Armies, or to erect, or endow Civill, or Ecclesiasticall
buildings. He that desires to Print a book, should much more desire, to be a book; to
do some such exemplar things, as men might read, and relate, and profit by. He that
hath done nothing worth the speaking of, hath not kept the world in reparations, for
his Tenement and his Terme. Videte, see that you doe hear, That you doe give occasion
to be spoken of, that you doe deserve the praise, the thankes, the testimony, the appro-
bation of the good men of your own times, for that shall deliver you over fairely to
posterity. But then, Cavete, Take heed what you hear, that you suffer not these approba-
tions to swerve, Eccles. 7. 5. or swell into flattery: for, it is better to hear the Rebuke of the wise, then
to heare the songs of fools, Prov. 26. 25. says the wise King: And, when the flatterer speaks thee faire,
says he, beleeve him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart; And, (by the
way) the Holy Ghost at any time, had as lieve say seventy millions, as seven;
for seven is the holy Ghosts Cyphar of infinite; There are infinite abominations, in the flatte-
rers heart. And of these flatterers, these waspes, that swarme in all sweet, and warme
places, and have a better outside then the Bee, (the Waspe hath a better shape, and a better
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better shape, and a better appearance then the Bee, but a sharper and a stronger sting,
and, at last, no hony) of these, no authors of any books of the Bible, have warned us
so much, and armed us so well, as those two Royall Authors, those two great Kings,
David, and Solomon; In likelyhood because they, as such, had been most offered at
by them, Psal. 55. 22. and could best give a true character of them, as David does, Their words are
smoother then butter, but warre is in their hearts, and softer then oile, and yet they are naked
swords. Videte, Cavete, see that you do hear, that you give good men occasion to speak
well of you; But take heed what you hear, that you encourage not a flatterer, by your
over easie acceptation of his praises. Man speakes; and God speakes too; and first Videte, Deus. see that you do heare him;
for, as he that fears God, fears nothing else, so he that hears God hears nothing else,
that can terrifie him. Ab Auditione mala non timebit, Psal. 112. 7. says David, a good man shall not
be afraid of evill tydings, for his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. A rumor shall come
one year, 51. 46. says Jeremy, and next year another rumor; new inventions from Satan, for new
intimidations; but still he is at home, for he dwells in God. Videte, see that you heare
him; But then Cavete, take heed what you heare, even from God himself, that you mis-
take not what God says, for as all Gods pardons have an Ita quòd se bene gerat; He
whom God pardons, for that that is past, is bound to the good behaviour for the fu-
ture, Esa. 1. 19. so all Gods promises have a Si audiertis, si volueritis, if I hearken, if I obey, I shall
eat the good things of the land; otherwise I shall sterve, body, and soule. There is a
Vives proposed to me, I may conceive justly an infallibility of eternall life, but still it is;
fac hoc & vives, this I must doe, and then I shall live; otherwise, moriar, and morte
moriar, I shall dy both ways, body and soule. There is not much asked of Ioshua, but
something there is; It is but a Tantummodo hoc, onely this; but a Tantummodo hoc,
an onely this there is, Onely be thou valiant, and of a good courage; forsake not the cause
of God, and God will never forsake thee. There is not much asked of Jairus, for the
resuscitation of his dead daughter, but something there is, it is Tantummodo hoc, but
onely this; but an onely this there is, Tantummodo crede, & non metuas; doe not
mistrust Christ, doe not disable Christ, from doing a miracle, in thy behalfe, by not
beleeving; as, in one place, where he came, it is said that Christ could not doe much,
by reason of their unbeleefe. Heare God there, where God speaks to thee, and then
thou shalt heare, that, that he speakes to thee. Above, in heaven, in his decrees, he
speakes to himselfe, to the Trinity: In the Church, and in the execution of those de-
crees, he speakes to thee. Climbe not up, to the search of unsearchable things,
to the finding out of investigable things, as Tertullian speakes; but look to that
which is neare thee; not so much to those Decrees which have no conditions, as to be
able to plead conditions performed, or, at least, a holy sorrow, that thou hast not
performed them. Videte, Cavete; see that you doe heare God, else every rumor will
scatter you; But take heed what you heare, else you may come to call conditionall things
absolute. And lastly, since Satan will be speaking too, Videte, be sure you doe heare him, be
sure you discerne it to be his voice, and know what leads you into tentation. For, you
may hear a voice that shall say, youth must have pleasures, and greatnesse must have
State, and charge must have support. And this voice may bring a young man to
transfer all his wantonesse upon his years, when it is the effect of high dyet, or licenti-
ous discourse, or wanton Images admitted, and cherished in his fancy; and this voice
may bring great officers, to transfer their inaccessiblenesse, upon necessary State, when
it is an effect of their own lazinesse, or indulgence to their pleasures; and this voice
may bring rich landlords to transfer all their oppression of tenants, to the necessity of
supporting the charge of wives and children, when it is an effect of their profusenesse
and prodigality. Nay you may heare a voice, that may call you to this place, and yet
be his voice; which is that, which Saint Augustine confesses and laments, that even to
these places persons come to look upon one another, that can meet no where else.
Videte; see you doe heare, that you doe discerne the voice; for, that is never Gods voice
that puts upon any man, a necessity of sinning, out of his years and constitution, out of
his calling and profession, out of his place, and station, out of the age, and times
that he lives in, out of the pleasure of them, that he lives upon, or out of the charge
of them, that live upon him. But then, Cavete, take heed what you heare from him too
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too, especially then, when he speakes to thee upon thy death-bed, at thy last transmigra-tion; then when thine eares shall be deafe, with the cryes of a distressed, and a distracted
family, and with the sound, and the change of the sound of thy last bell; then when thou
shalt heare a hollow voice in thy selfe, upbraiding thee, that thou hast violated all thy
Makers laws, worn out all thy Saviours merits, frustrated all the endeavours of his
blessed Spirit upon thee, evacuated all thine own Repentances, with relapses; then when
thou shalt see, or seem to see his hand turning the streame of thy Saviours bloud into
another channell, and telling thee, here’s enough for Jew and Turke, but not a drop for
thee; then when in that multiplying glasse of Despaire, which he shall present, every
sinfull thought shall have the proportion of an Act, and every Act, of a Habite, when
every Circumstance of every sin, shall enter into the nature of the sin it selfe, and vary the
sinne, and constitute a particular sinne; and every particular sinne, shall be a sinne
against the holy Ghost; Take heed what you heare; and be but able to say to Satan
then, as Christ said to Peter, in his name, Vade retro Satan, come after me Satan, come
after me tomorrow; come a minute after my soule is departed from this body, come to
me, where I shall be then, and when thou seest me washed in the bloud of my Saviour,
clothed in the righteousnesse of my Saviour, lodged in the bosome of my Saviour,
crowned with the merits of my Saviour, confesse, that upon my death-bed, thou wast
a lyer, and wouldest have been a murderer, and the Lord shall, and I, in him, shall re-
buke thee. See that yee refuse not him, that speaketh, says the Apostle; Heb. 12. 25. not any that
speakes in his name; but especially not him, whom he names there, that speakes better
things, then the bloud of Abel; for, the bloud of Abel speakes but by way of example,
and imitation; the bloud of Christ Jesus, by way of Ransome, and satisfaction.
Heare what that bloud says for you, in the eares of the Father, and then no singing
of the flatterer, no lisping of the tempter, no roaring of the accuser, no thunder of the
destroyer shall shake thy holy constancy. Take heed what you heare, remember what
you have heard; and the God of heaven, for his Sonne Christ Jesus sake, by the wor-
king of his blessed Spirit, prosper and emprove both endevours in you. Amen. Sermon XXVIII.
Preached to the King, at the Court in April, 1629.
Gen. 1. 26.
And God said, Let us make man, in our Image, after our likenesse. NEverNever such a frame, so soon set up, as this, in this Chapter. For, for
the thing it selfe, there is no other thing to compare it with. For it
is All, it is the whole world. And for the time, there was no other
time to compare it with, for this was the beginning of time, In the
beginning God created Heaven and Earth. That Earth, which in some
thousands of years, men could not look over, nor discern what form
it had: (for neither Lactantius, almost three hundred years after Christ, nor Saint
Augustine, more then one hundred years after him, would beleeve the earth to be
round) that earth, which no man, in his person, is ever said to have compassed, till
our age; That earth which is too much for man yet, (for, as yet, a very great part of
the earth is unpeopled) that earth, which, if we will cast it all but into a Mappe, costs
many Months labour to grave it, nay, if we will cast but a peece of an acre of it, into a
garden, costs many years labour to fashion, and furnish it: All that earth, and then,
that heaven, which spreads so farre, as that subtile men have, with some appearance of
probability, imagined, that in that heaven, in those manifold Sphears of the Planets,
and the Starres, there are many earths, many worlds, as big as this, which we inhabite;
That earth and that heaven, which spent God himselfe, Almighty God, six days in
furnishing; Moses sets up in a few syllables, in one line, In principio, in the beginning
God created heaven and earth. If a Livy or a Guicciardine, or such extensive and volu minous
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Serm. XXVIII.
minous authors, had had this story in hand; God must have made another world,
to have made them a Library to hold their Books, of the making of this world. Into
what Wire would they have drawn out this earth? Into what leafe-gold would they
have beate out these heavens? It may assist our conjecture herein to consider, that
amongst those men, who proceed with a sober modesty, and limitation in their wri-
ting, and make a conscience not to clogge the world with unnecessary books; yet the
volumes which are written by them, upon this beginning of Genesis, are scarce lesse
then infinite. God did no more but say, let this and this be done; And Moses does no more
but say, that upon Gods saying it was done. God required not nature to help him to do
it: Moses required not reason to help him to be beleeved. The holy Ghost hovered upon
the waters, and so God wrought: The holy Ghost hovered upon Moses too, and so he
wrote. And we beleeve these things to be so, by the same Spirit in Moses mouth, by
which they were made so, in Gods hand. Onely, beloved, remember, that a frame
may be thrown down in much lesse time, then it was set up. A child, an Ape can give
fire to a Canon: And a vapour can shake the earth: And these fires, and these va-
pours can throw down cities in minutes. When Christ said, Throw down this Temple,
and in three days I will raise it; they never stopped upon the consideration of throw-
ing it down; they knew, that might be soon done; but they wondred at the speedy
raising of it. Now, if all this earth were made in that minute, may not all come to
the generall dissolution in this minute? Or may not thy acres, thy miles, thy Shires
shrinke into feet, and so few feet, as shall but make up thy grave? When he who was
a great Lord, must be but a Cottager; and not so well; for a Cottager must have so
many acres to his Cottage; but in this case, a little peece of an acre, five foot, is be-
come the house it selfe; The house, and the land; the grave is all: lower then that; the
grave is the Land, and the Tenement, and the Tenant too: He that lies in it, becomes
the same earth, that he lies in. They all make but one earth, and but a little of it. But
then raise thy selfe to a higher hope againe. God hath made better land, the land of
promise; a stronger city, the new Jerusalem; and, inhabitants for that everlasting
city, Vs; whom he made, not by saying, let there be men, but by consultation, by
deliberation, God said, Let us make Man in our Image, after our likenesse. We shall pursue our great examples; Divisio. God in doing, Moses in saying; and so make
hast in applying the parts. But first receive them. And since we have the whole
world in contemplation, consider in these words, the foure quarters of the world, by
application, by fair, and just accommodation of the words. First, in the first word,
that God speaks here, Faciamus, Let us, us in the plurall, (a denotation of divers
Persons in one Godhead) we consider our East where we must beginne, at the know-
ledge and confession of the Trinity. For, though in the way to heaven, we be travelled
beyond the Gentiles, when we come to confess but one God, (The Gentiles could not do
that) yet we are still among the Iews, if we thinke that one God to be but one Person.
Christs name is Oriens the East, if we will be named by him, (called Christians) we
must look to this East, Zech. 6. 12. the confession of the Trinity. There’s then our East, in the Faci-
amus; Let us, us make man: And then our West is in the next word, Faciamus Hominem.
Though we be thus made, made by the counsell, made by the concurrence, made by the
hand of the whole Trinity; yet we are made but men: And man, but in the appellation,
in this text: and man there, is but Adam: and Adam is but earth, but red earth, earth dyed
red in bloud, in Soul-bloud, the bloud of our own soules. To that west we must all
come, Psal. 104. 19. to the earth. The Sunne knoweth his going down: Even the Sun for all his glory,
and heighth, hath a going down, and he knowes it. The highest cannot devest mor-
tality, Luke 22. 54. nor the discomfort of mortality. When you see a cloud rise out of the west,
straightway you say there commeth a storme, says Christ. When out of the region
of your west, that is, your later days, there comes a cloud, a sicknesse, you feele a
storme, even the best morall constancy is shaked. But this cloud, and this storme, and
this west there must be; And that’s our second consideration. But then the next
words designe a North, a strong, and powerfull North, to scatter, and dissipate these
clouds: Ad imaginem, & similitudinem; That we are made according to a pattern,
to an image, to a likenesse, which God proposed to himselfe for the making of man.
This consideration, that God did not rest, in that præexistent matter, out of which he
made all other creatures, and produced their formes, out of their matter, for the making 241
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making of man; but took a forme, a patterne, a modell for that work, this is the
North winde, Cant. 4. 16.
37. 22. that is called upon to carry out of the perfumes of the garden, to spread
the goodnesse of God abroad. This is that which is intended in Iob; faire weather
commeth out of the North. Our West, our declination is in this, that we are but earth,
our North, our dissipation of that darknesse, is in this, that we are not all earth;
Though we be of that matter, we have another forme, another image, another likenesse.
And then, whose image and likenesse it is, is our Meridionall height, our noon, our
south point, our highest elevation. In Imagine nostra, Let us make man in our Image.
Though our Sun set at noon, as the Prophet Amos speakes; 8. 8. though we die in our
youth, or fall in our height: yet even in that Sunset, we shall have a Noon. For this
Image of God shall never depart from our soule; no, not when that soule departs
from our body. And that’s our South, our Meridionall height and glory. And when
we have thus seen this East, in the faciamus, That I am the workmanship and care of
the whole Trinity; And this West in the Hominem, That for all that, my matter, my
substance, is but earth: But then a North, a power of overcomming that low and mi-
serable state, In Imagine; That though in my matter, the earth, I must die; yet in my
forme, in that Image which I am made by, I cannot die: and after all a South, a know-
ledge, That this Image is not the Image of Angels, to whom we shall be like, but it is
by the same life, by which those Angels themselves were made; the Image of God
himselfe: When I am gone over this east, and west, and north, and south, here in this
world; I should be as sorry as Alexander was, if there were no more worlds. But
there is another world, which these considerations will discover, and lead us to, in
which our joy, and our glory shall be, to see that God essentially, and face to face, af-
ter whose Image, and likenesse we were made before. But as that Pilot which had har-
bor’d his ship so farre within land, as that he must have change of Winds, in all the points
of the Compasse, to bring her out, cannot hope to bring her our in one day: So being
to transport you, by occasion of these words, from this world to the next; and in this
world, through all the Compasse, all the foure quarters thereof; I cannot hope
to make all this voyage to day. To day we shall consider onely our longitude, our
East, and West; and our North and South at another tyde, and another
gale. First then we looke towards our East, the fountaine of light, and of life. There this
world beganne; 1 Part.
Oriens. the Creation was in the east. And there our next world beganne too.
There the gates of heaven opened to us; and opened to us in the gates of death; for,
our heaven is the death of our Saviour, and there he lived, and dyed there, and there he
looked into our west, from the east, from his Terasse, from his Pinacle, from his exal-
tation (as himselfe calls it) the Crosse. The light which arises to us, in this east, the
knowledge which we receive in this first word of our text, Faciamus, Let us, (where
God speaking of himselfe, speakes in the Plurall) is the manifestation of the Trinity;
the Trinity, which is the first letter in his Alphabet, that ever thinks to read his name
in the book of life; The first note in his Gammut, that ever thinks to sing his part,
in the Quire of the Triumphant Church. Let him him have done as much, as all the
Worthies; and suffered as much as all Natures Martyrs, the penurious Philosophers;
let him have known as much, as they that pretend to know, Omne scibile, all that can
be known nay, and in-intelligibilia, In-investigabilia, (as Turtullian speakes) un-un-
derstandable things, unrevealed decrees of God; Let him have writ as much, as
Aristotle writ, or as is written upon Aristotle, which is, multiplication enough: yet he
hath not learnt to spel, that hath not learnt the Trinity; not learnt to pronounce the first
word that cannot bring three Persons into one God. The subject of naturall philosophy,
are the foure elements, which God made, the Subject of supernaturall philosophy,
Divinity, are the three elements, which God is; and (if we may so speake) which
make God, that is, constitute God, notifie God to us, Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost.
The naturall man, that hearkens to his owne heart, and the law written there; may
produce Actions that are good, good in the nature and matter, and substance of the
worke. He may relieve the poore, he may defend the oppressed. But yet, he is but
as an open field; and though he be not absolutely barren, he bears but grasse. The
godly man, he that hath taken in the knowledge of a great, and a powerfull God, and
enclosed, and hedged in himselfe with the feare of God, may produce actions better Y then
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then the meere naturall man, because he referres his actions to the glory of his imagined
God. But yet this man, though he be more fruitfull, then the former, more then a
grassy field; yet he is but a ploughed field, and he bears but corne, and corne, God
knowes, choaked with weeds. But that man, who hath taken hold of God, by those
handles, by which God hath delivered, and manifested himselfe in the notions of Fa-
ther, Sonne, and holy Ghost; he is no field, but a garden, a Garden of Gods planting,
a Paradise in which grow all things good to eate, and good to see, (spirituall refection,
and spirituall recreation too) and all things good to cure. He hath his beeing, and his
diet, and his physique, there, in the knowledge of the Trinity; his beeing in the mercy
of the Father; his physique in the merits of the Sonne; his diet, his daily bread, in
the daily visitations of the holy Ghost. God is not pleased, not satisfied, with our
bare knowledge, Heb. 11. 6. that there is a God. For, it is impossible to please God, without faith:
and there is no such exercise of faith, in the knowledge of a God, but that reason, and
nature will bring a man to it. When we professe God, in the Creed, by way of beleefe,
Credo in Deum, I beleeve in God, in the same article we professe him to be a Father too,
I beleeve in God the father Almighty: And that notion, the Father, necessarily im-
plies, a second Person, a Sonne: And then we professe him to be maker of heaven, and
earth: And in the Creation, the holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, is expresly named.
So that we doe but exercise reason, and nature, in directing our selves upon God. We
exercise not faith, (and without faith it is impossible to please God) till we come to
that, which is above nature, till we apprehend a Trinity. We know God, we beleeve
in the Trinity. The Gentiles multiplyed Gods. There were almost as many Gods
as men, that beleeved in them. And I am got out of that thrust, and out of that
noise, when I am come into the knowledge of one God: But I am got above staires,
got in the Bedchamber, when I am come to see the Trinity, and to apprehend not one-
ly, that I am in the care of a great, and a powerfull God, but that there is a Father,
that made me, a Sonne that Redeemed me, a holy Ghost, that applies this good pur-
pose of the Father, and Sonne, upon me, to me. The root of all is God. But it is
not the way to receive fruits, to dig to the root, but to reach to the boughs. I reach
for my Creation to the Father, for my Redemption to the Sonne, for my sanctificati-
on to the holy Ghost: and so I make the knowledge of God, a Tree of life unto me;
and not otherwise. Truly it is a sad Contemplation, to see Christians scratch and
wound & teare one another, with the ignominious invectives, and uncharitable names of
of Heretique, and Schismatique, about Ceremoniall, and Problematicall, and indeed but
Criticall, verball controversies: and in the meane time, the foundation of all, the
Trinity, undermined by those numerous, those multitudinous Anthills of Socinians,
that overflow some parts of the Christian world, and multiply every where. And
therefore the Adversaries of the Reformation, were wise in their generation, when to
supplant the credit of both those great assistants of the Reformation, Luther, and
Calvin, they impute to Calvin fundamentall error, in the Divinity of the second Per-
son of the Trinity, the Sonne; And they impute to Luther, a detestation of the very
word Trinity, and an expunction thereof, in all places of the Liturgy, where the
Church had received that word. They knew well, if that slander could prevaile a-
gainst those persons, nothing that they could say, could prevaile upon any good Chri-
stians. But though in our doctrine, we keep up the Trinity aright; yet, God knowes,
in our practice we doe not. I hope it cannot be said of any of us, that he beleeves not
the Trinity, but who amongst us thinkes of the Trinity, considers the Trinity? Father,
and Sonne doe naturally imply, and induce one another; and therefore they fall oft-
ner into our consideration. But for the holy Ghost, who feels him, when he feels
him? Who takes knowledge of his working, when he works? Indeed our Fathers
provided not well enough, for the worship of the whole Trinity, nor of the holy
Ghost in particular, in the endowments of the Church, and Consecrations of Churches,
and possessions in their names. What a spirituall dominion, in the prayers, and wor-
ship of the people, what a temporall dominion in the possessions of the world had the
Virgin Mary, Queen of heaven, and Queen of earth too? She was made joint purchaser
of the Church with her Sonne, and had as much of the worship thereof as he, though
she paid her fine in milke, and he in bloud. And, till a new Sect came in her Sonnes
name; and in his name, the name of Jesus, tooke the regency so farre out of that Queen
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Queen Mothers hands, and sued out her Sonnes Livery so farre, as that though her
name be used, the Virgin Mary is but a feoffee in trust, for them; all was hers. And
if God oppose not these new usurpers of the world, posterity will soon see Saint Igna-
tius worth all the Trinity in possessions and endowments, as that sumptuous, and
splendid foundation of his first Temple at Rome, may well create a conjecture, and sus-
picion. Travaile no farther; Survay but this City; And of their not one hundred
Churches, the Virgin Mary hath a dozen; The Trinity hath but one; Christ hath but
one; The holy Ghost hath none. But not to goe into the City, nor out of our selves;
which of us doth truly, and considerately ascribe the comforts, that he receives in dan-
gers, or in distresses, to that God of all comfort, the comforter, the holy Ghost?
We know who procured us, our Presentation, and our dispensation: you know
who procured you, your offices, and your honours. Shall I ever forget who gave me
my comfort in sicknesse? Who gave me my comfort, in the troubles, and perplexities,
and diffidencies of my conscience? The holy Ghost brought you hither. The holy
Ghost opens your eares, and your hearts here. Till in all your distresses, you can say,
Veni Creator Spiritus, come holy Ghost, and that you feel a comfort in his comming:
you can never say Veni Domine Jesu, come Lord Jesus, come to Judgement. Never
to consider the day of Judgement, is a fearfull thing. But to consider the day of
Judgement, without the comfort of the holy Ghost, is a thousand times more
fearfull. This Seale then, this impression, this notion of the Trinity being set upon us, Trinitarii. in the
first Creation, in this first plurall word of our text, Faciamus; Let us, (for Father,
Sonne, and holy Ghost made man) and this seale being re-imprinted upon us, in our
second Creation, our Regeneration, in Baptisme, (Man is Baptized In the name of the
Father, of the Sonne, and of the holy Ghost) This notion of the Trinity being our distin-
ctive Character, from Jew and Gentile; This being our specifique forme: why does
not this our forme, this soule of our Religion denominate us? why are we not called
Trinitarians, a name that would embrace the profession of all the Persons, but onely
Christians, which limits, and determines us upon one? The first Christians, amongst
whose manifold Persecutions, scorne, and contempt, was not the least, in contempt
and scorne, were called Nazaræi, Nazarites in the mouth of the Vulgar; and Galilæi,
Galilæans in the mouth of Julian; and Judæi, Jews in the mouth of Nero, when he
imputed the burning of Rome (his owne act) to them; and Chrestiani; (as Tertullian
says) that they could accuse Christians of nothing, but the name of Christians; and
yet they could not call them by their right name, but Chrestians, (which was gentle,
quiet, easie patient men, made to be troden upon) They gave them divers names in
scorne, yet never called them Trinitarians. Christians themselves amongst themselves
were called by divers names in the Primitive Church, for distinction; Fideles, the
faithfull, and Fratres, the Brethren, and Discipuli, Disciples; And, after, by com-
mon custome at Antioch, Christians. And after that, (they say) by a councell which
the Apostles held, Act. 11. 26. at the same city, at Antioch, there passed an expresse Canon of the
Church, that they should be called so, Christians. And before they had this name
at Antioch, first by common usage, after by a determinate Canon, to be called
Christians, from Christ, at Alexandria, Epiph. Heres. 29 they were called (most likely from the name
of Jesus) Jesseans. And so Philo Judæus, in that book, which he writes De Iessenis,
intends by his Iessenis, Christians; and in divers parts of the world, into which Chri-
stians travell now, they find some elements; some fragments, some reliques of the
Christian Religion, in the practice of some religious Men, whom those Countreys call,
Jesseans, doubtlesly derived, and continued from the name of Jesus. So that the
Christians took many names to themselves for distinction, (Brethren, Disciples, faith-
full) And they had many names put upon them in scorne, (Nazarites, Galilæans, Jews,
Chrestians,) and yet they were never, never by Custome amongst themselves, never by
commandement from the Church, never in contempt from others, called Trinitarians,
the profession of the Trinity being their specifique forme, and distinctive Character;
why so? Beloved, the name of Christ involv’d all: not onely, because it is a name,
that hath a dignity in it, more then the rest; (for Christ is an anointed person, a King,
a Messiah, and so the profession of that Name, conferrs an Unction, a regall and a holy
Unction upon us) (for we are thereby a royall Priesthood) but because in the pro Y2 fession
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Serm. XXVIII.
fession of Christ, the whole Trinity is professed. How often doth the Sonne say, that
the Father sent him? And how often that the Father will, and that he will
send the Holy Ghost? This is life eternall, Iohn 17. 3. says he, to know thee, the onely
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent; And sent, with all power, in hea-
ven, and in earth. This must be professed, Father, and Sonne; And then, no man
can professe this; no man can call Jesus the Lord, but by the holy Ghost. So that,
as in the persecutions, in the primitive Church, the Martyrs which were hurried to
tumultuary executions, and could not be heard for noise, in excusing themselves of
Treason, and sedition, and crimes imputed to them, to make their cause odious, did
use in the sight of the people, (who might see a gesture, though they could not heare a
protestation) to signe themselves with the signe of the Crosse, to let them know, for
what profession they died, so that the signe of the Crosse, in that use thereof, in that
time, was an abridgement, and a Catechisme of the whole Christian Religion, so is
the professing of the name of Christ, the professing of the whole Trinity. As he that
confesses one God, is got beyond the meer naturall man; And he that confesses a
Sonne of God, beyond him: So is neither got to the full truth, till he confesse the
holy Ghost too. The foole sayes in his heart, there is no God. The foole, says David,
The emphaticall foole, in the highest degree of folly. But though he get beyond that
folly, he is a foole still, if he say there is no Christ; For Christ is the wisdome of the
Father: And a foole still, if he deny the holy Ghost: for who shall apply Christ to
him, but the holy Ghost? Etiam Christiani Nomen superficies est, is excellently said by
Tertullian, the name, and profession of a Christian, is but a superficiall outside, sprinck-
led upon my face in Baptisme, or upon mine outward profession, in actions: if I have
not in my heart, a sense of the holy Ghost, that he applies the mercies of the Father,
and the merits of the Sonne to my soule. As Saint Paul said, Whilest you are without
Christ, you are without God. It is an Atheisme, with Saint Paul, to be no Christian.
So whilest you are without the holy Ghost, you are without Christ. It is Antichristian,
to deny, or not to confesse the holy Ghost. For as Christ is the manifestation of the
Father, so the holy Ghost is the application of the Sonne. Therein onely are we
Christians, that in the profession of that name of Christ, we professe all the three Per-
sons: In Christ is the whole Trinity; because, as the Father sent him, so he sent the
holy Ghost. And that’s our specifique forme, that’s our distinctive Character, from
Jew, and Gentile, the Trinity. But then, An in textu. is this specifique forme, this distinctive Character, the notion of the Trini-
ty, conveied to us, exhibited, imprinted upon us, in our Creation, in this word, this
plurall word, in the mouth of our one God, Faciamus, Let us, us. It is here, and here
first. This is an intimation, and the first intimation, of the Trinity, from the mouth of
God, in all the Bible. It is true, that though the same faith, which is necessary to salva-
tion now, were always necessary, and so in the old Testament, they were bound to be-
leeve in Christ, as well, as in the new, and consequently in the whole Trinity; yet not
so explicitly, Iohn 17. 6. nor so particularly as now. Christ calling upon God, in the name of
Father, says; I have manifested thy name unto the men, thou gavest me out of the
world. They were men appropriated to God, men exempt out of the world; yet they
had not a cleer manifestation of Father, and Sonne, the doctrine of the Trinity, till
Christ manifested it to them. I have manifested thy name, thy name of Father. And
therefore the Jewish Rabbins say that the Septuagint, the first translators of the Bible,
did disguise some places of the Scriptures, in their translation, lest Ptolomee, for whom
they translated it, should be scandalized wth those places, & that this textwasone of those
places, which say they though it be otherwise in the Copies of the Septuagint, which
we have now, they translated Faciam, and not Faciamus, that God said here, I will
make, in the singular; and not, Let us make man, in the plurall, lest that plurall word,
might have misled King Ptolomee to thinke, that the Jews had a plurall Religion,
and worshipped divers Gods. So good an evidence doe they confesse this text to
be, for some kinde of plurality in the Godhead. Here then God notified the Trinity; and here first, Primo hîc. for though we accept an intima-
tion of the Trinity, in the first line of the Bible, where Moses joynes a plurall name,
Elohim, with a singular Verbe, Bara; and so in construction, it is, Creavit Dii, Gods
created heaven, and earth: yet, besides that, that is rather a mysterious collection, then
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then an evident conclusion of a plurality of Persons, though we read that in that first
verse, before this in the twenty sixth, yet Moses writ that, which is in the beginning of
this chapter, more then two thousand years after God spake this, that is in our text.
So long was Gods plurall, before Moses his plurall; Gods Faciamus, before Moses
Bara Elohim. So that in this text, beginnes our Catechisme. Here we have, and here
first the saving knowledge of the Trinity. For, Cui dixit. when God spake here, to whom could God speake but to God? Non cum re-
bus Creandis, non cum re nihili, says, Athanasius, speaking of Gods first speaking, when
he said, of the first creature, Let there be light. God spake not then to future things,
to things that were not. When God spake first, there was no creature at all, to speake
to. When God spake of the making of man, there were creatures. But were there
any creatures able to create, or able to assist him, in the creation of man? Who? An-
gels? Some had thought so in Saint Basils time; and to them Saint Basil says, Súntne
Illi? God says, let us make man to our Image, And could he say so to Angels?
Are Angels and God all one? Or is that that is like an Angell, therefore like God?
It was Sua Ratio, Suum verbum, Sua sapientia, says that Father, God spake to his own
word, and wisdome, to his own purpose, and goodnesse. And the Sonne is the word
and wisdome of God: and the holy Ghost is the goodnesse, and the purpose of God;
that is, the administration, the dispensation of his purposes. ‘Tis true, that when God
speakes this over againe in his Church, as he does every day, now, this minute then
God speakes it to Angels; to the Angels of the Church, to his Ministers; he says
Faciamus, Let us, us both together, you, and we make a man; join mine Ordinance
(your preaching) with my Spirit, (says God to us) and so make man. Preach the op-
pressor, and preach the wanton, and preach the calumniator into another nature. Make
the ravening Wolfe a Man, that licentious Goate a man, that insinuating Serpent a
man, by thy preaching. To day if you will heare his voice, heare us. For here he calls
upon us, to joine with him for the making of man. But for his first Faciamus, which is
in our text; it is excellently said, Rupertus. Dictum in senatu, & soliloquio; It was spoken in a
Senat, and yet in a solitarinesse; spoken in private, and yet publiquely spoken; spoken
where there were divers, and yet but one; one God, and three Persons. If there were no more intended in this plurall expression, Rex. us, but, (as some have con-
ceived) that God spake here in the person of a Prince, and Soveraigne Lord, and there-
fore spake as Princes doe, in the plurall, We command, and We forbid, yet Saint Gre-
gories caution would justly fall upon it, Reverenter pensandum est, it requires a reverend
consideration, if it be but so. For, God speakes so, like a King, in the plurall, but sel-
dome, but five times, (in my account) in all the Scriptures; and in all five, in cases of
important consequence. In this text first, where God creates man, whom he consti-
tutes his Viceroy in the World: here he speakes in his royall plurall. And then in the
next Chapter, ver. 18. where he extends mans terme in his Vicegerency to the end of the
world, in providing man, meanes of succession; Faciamus, Let us, us make him a
helper; There he speakes in his royall plurall. And then also in the third Chapter, 1. 22:. in
declaring the hainousnesse of mans fault, and arraigning him, and all us, in him, God
says, Sicut unus ex nobis, Man is become as one of us, not content to be our Viceroy,
but our selves; There’s his royall plurall too. And againe in that declaration of his
Justice, Gen. 11. 7. in the confusion of the builders of Babel, Descendamus, confundamus, Let us
doe it: And then lastly, in that great worke of mingling mercy with justice, which (if
we may so speake) is Gods master-peece, Esai. 6. 8. when he says, Quis ex nobis, who will goe
for us, and publish this? In these places, and these onely, (and not all these neither,
if we take it exactly according to the originall; for in the Second, the making of
Eve, though the Vulgat have it in the plurall, it is indeed but singular in the Hebrew)
God speakes as a King in his royall plurall still. And when it is but so, Reverenter pen-
sandum est, says that Father, it behoves us to hearken reverently to him, for Kings are
Images of God; such Images of God, as have eares, and can heare; and hands and
can strike. But I would aske no more premeditation at your hands, when you come
to speake to God in this place, then if you sued to speake with the King: no more fear
of God here, then if you went to the King, under the conscience of a guiltinesse to-
wards him, and a knowledge that he knew it. And that’s your case here; Sinners, and
manifest sinners. For even midnight is noone in the sight of God, and when your Y3 candles
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candles are put out, Psal. 19. 7. his Sunne shines still. Nec quid absconditum à calcre ejus, says
David, there is nothing hid from the heate thereof: not onely, no sinne, hid from the
light thereof, from the sight of God; but not from the heate therof, not from the wrath
& indignation of God. If God speak plurally onely in the Majesty of a soveraign Prince,
still Reverenter pensandum, that calls for reverence. What reverence? There are nati-
onall differences in outward worships, and reverences. Some worship Princes, and
Parents, and Masters, in one, some in another fashion. Children kneele to aske blessing
of Parents in England, but where else? Servants attend not with the same reverence
upon Masters, in other nations, as with us. Accesses to their Princes are not with the
same difficulty, nor the same solemnity in France, as in Turkey. But this rule goes
thorough all nations, that in that disposition, and posture, and action of the body which
in that place is esteemed most humble, and reverend, God is to be worshipped. Doe
so then here, God is your Father: aske blessing upon your knees; pray in that posture.
God is your King: worship him with that worship, which is highest in our use, and
estimation. We have no Grandees that stand covered to the King; where there are
such, though they stand covered in the Kings presence, they doe not speake to him, for
matters of Grace; they doe not sue to him: so ancient Canons make differences of
Persons in the presence of God; where, and how, these, and these shall dispose of
themselves in the Church, dignity, and age, and infirmity will induce differences. But
for prayer there is no difference, one humiliation is required of all; As when the King
comes in here; howsoever, they sate diversly before, all returne to one manner of
expressing their acknowledgement of his presence. So at the Oremus, Let us pray,
let us all fall down, and worship, and kneel before the Lord our maker. So he speakes in our text; not onely as the Lord our King, In Concilio. intimating his providence,
and administration; but as the Lord our maker, and then a maker so, as that he made
us in a councell, Faciamus, Let us; and that that he speakes, as in councell, is another
argument for reverence. For what interest, or freedome soever I have, by his favour,
with any Counseller of State: yet I should surely use another manner of behaviour to-
wards him, at the Councell Table, then at his owne Table. So does there belong
another manner of consideration to this plurality in God, to this meeting in Councell,
to this intimation of a Trinity, then to those other actions in which God is presented
to us, singly, as one God, for so he is presented to the naturall man, as well, as to us.
And here enters the necessity of this knowledge, Iohn 3. 3:. Oportet denuo nasci; without a se-
cond birth no salvation; And no second birth without Baptisme; no Baptisme, but
in the name of Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost. It was the entertainment of God him-
selfe, his delight, his contemplation, for those infinite millions of generations, when
he was without a world, without Creatures, to joy in one another, in the Trinity, as
Gregory Nazianz: (a Poet, as well as a Father, as most of the Fathers were) expresses
it: ille suæ splendorem cernere formæ, Gaudebat; It was the Fathers delight, to looke up-
on himselfe in the Sonne; Numenque suum triplicique parique Luce nitens, and to see
the whole Godhead, in a threefold, and an equall glory. It was Gods owne delight,
and it must be the delight of every Christian, upon particular occasions to carry his
thoughts upon the severall persons of the Trinity. If I have a bar of Iron, that bar
in that forme will not naile a doore; If a Sow of Lead, that Lead in that forme will
not stop a leake; If a wedge of Gold, that wedge will not buy my bread. The gene-
rall notion of a mighty God, may lesse fit my particular purposes. But I coine my gold
into currant money, when I apprehend God, in the severall notions of the Trinity.
That if I have been a prodigall Sonne, I have a Father in heaven, and can goe to him,
and say, Father I have sinned, and be received by him. That if I be a decayed Father,
and need the sustentation of mine own children; there is a Sonne in heaven, that will
doe more for me, then mine own, of what good meanes or what good nature so ever
they be, can or will doe. If I be dejected in spirit, there is a holy Spirit in heaven,
which shall beare witnesse to my spirit, that I am the child of God. And if the ghosts
of those sinners, whom I made sinners, haunt me after their deaths, in returning to
my memory, and reproaching to my conscience, the heavy judgements that I have
brought upon them: If after the death of mine own sinne, when my appetite is dead,
to some particular sinne, the memory and sinfull delight of passed sinnes, the ghosts
of those sinnes haunt me againe; yet there is a holy Ghost in heaven, that shall exorcise these,
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these, and shall overshadow me, the God of all Comfort and Consolation. God is the
God of the whole world, in the generall notion, as he is so, God; but he is my God,
most especially, and most applyably, as he receives me in the severall notions of Fa-
ther, Sonne, and holy Ghost. This is our East, 2 Part.
Occidens. here we see God, God in all the persons, consulting, concurring
to the making of us. But then my West presents it selfe, that is, an occasion to humble
me in the next words. Adam. He makes but Man; A man that is but Adam, but Earth. I
remember foure names, by which man is often called in the Scriptures: and of those
foure, three doe absolutely carry misery in their significations: Three to one against
any man, that he is miserable. One name of Man is Ish; and that they derive à Sonitu;
Man is but a voice, but a sound, but a noise, he begins the noise himselfe, when he
comes crying into the world, and when he goes out; perchance friends celebrate, per-
chance enemies calumniate him, with a diverse voice, a diverse noise. A melancholique
man, is but a groaning; a sportfull man, but a song; an active man, but a Trumpet;
a mighty man, but a thunderclap. Every man but Ish, but a found, but a noyse. A-
nother name is Enosh. Enosh is meer Calamity, misery, depression. It is indeed most
properly Oblivion. And so the word is most elegantly used by David, Quid est homo? Psal. 8. 4.
where the name of man, is Enosh: And so, that which we translate What is man, that
thou art mindefull of him; is indeed, What is forgetfulnesse, that thou shouldest re-
member it; That thou shouldest thinke of that man, whom all the world hath for-
gotten? First, man is but a voice, but a sound. But because fame, and honour may
come within that name of a sound, of a voice; therefore he is overtaken, with ano-
ther dampe: man is but oblivion: his fame, his name shall be forgotten. One name
man hath, that hath some taste of greatnesse, and power in it, Gheber. And yet, I
that am that man, Lam. 1. 3. says the Prophet, (for there that name of man Gheber is used) I am
the man, that hath seen affliction, by the rod of Gods wrath. Man, Ish, is so miserable,
as that he afflicts himselfe, cryes, and whines out his own time. And man, Enosh, so
miserable, as that others afflict him, and bury him, in ignominious oblivion; And man,
that is Gheber, the greatest, and powerfullest of men, is yet, but that man, that may
possibly, nay that may justly see affliction by the rod of Gods wrath, and from Gheber
be made Adam, which is the fourth name of man, indeed the first name of man, the
name in this text, and the name to which every man must refer himselfe, and call
himselfe by, Earth, and red Earth. Now God did not say of man, Adam. as of other creatures; Let the earth bring forth
hearbs, and fruits, and trees as upon the third day; nor let the earth bring forth cattell,
and wormes, as upon the sixth day, the same day that he made man; Non imperiali
verbo, sed familiari manu, says Tertullian, God calls not man out with an imperious
Command, but he leads him out, with a familiar, with his own hand. And it is not
Fiat homo, but Faciamus; not let there be, but let us make man. Man is but an earthen
vessell. ‘Tis true, but when we are upon that consideration, God is the Potter. If
God will be that, I am well content to be this. Let me be any thing, so that that I
am be from my God, I am as well content to be a sheep, as a Lion, so God will be my
Shepheard: and the Lord is my shepheard: To be a Cottage, as a Castle, so God
will be the builder; And the Lord builds, and watches the City, the house, this house
this City, mee, To be Rye, as Wheate, so God will be the husbandman; And the
Lord plants me: and waters, and weeds, and gives the encrease: and to be clothed in
leather, as well, as in silke, so God will be the Merchant: and he cloathed me in Adam,
and assures me of clothing, in clothing the Lillies of the field, and is fitting the robe of
Christs righteousness to me now, this minute. Adam is as good to me as Ghebar, a
clod of earth, as a hill of earth; so God be the Potter. God made man of earth, Nonster. not of ayre, not of fire. Man hath many offices, that ap-
pertaine to this world, and whilest he is here, must not withdraw himselfe, from those
offices of mutuall society, upon a pretence of zeale, or better serving God in a retired
life. A ship will no more come to the harbour without Ballast, then without Sailes;
a man will no more get to heaven, without discharging his duties to other men, then
without doing them to God himselfe. Luke 4. 4. Man liveth not by bread onely, says Christ;
But yet he liveth by bread too. Every man must doe the duties; every man must
beare the incumbrances of some calling. Pulvis
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Pulvis es: Thou art earth, he whom thou treadest upon is no less; and he that
treads upon thee is no more. Positively it is a low thing, to be but earth; and yet thy
low earth, is the quiet Center. There may be rest, acquiescence, content in the lowest
Condition. But comparatively earth is as high as the highest. Challenge him, that
magnifies himselfe above thee, to meet thee in Adam. There bid him, if he will have
more Nobility, more Greatness, then thou, take more originall sinne then thou hast.
If God have submitted thee, to as much sinne, and penalty of sinne, as him; he hath
afforded thee as much, and as noble earth as him. And if he will not try it in the root,
in your equality in Adam; yet, in another Test, another Furnace, in the grave he must.
There all dusts are equall. Except an Epitaph tell me, who lies there, I cannot tell by
the dust; nor by the Epitaph, know which is the dust it speakes of, if another have
been laid before, or after in the same grave. Nor can any Epitaph be confident in saying
here lies; but here was laid. For, so various, so vicissitudinary is all this world, as that even
the dust of the grave hath revolutions. As the motions of an upper Spheare, imprint a
motion in a lower Spheare, other then naturally it would have: So the changes of this
life worke after death. And, as envy supplants, and removes us alive; a shovell removes
us, and throwes us out of our grave, after death. No limbeque, no weights can tell
you, this is dust Royall, this Plebeian dust: no Commission, no Inquisition can say,
this is Catholique, this is Hereticall dust. All lie alike; and all shall rise alike: alike,
that is, at once, and upon one Command. The Saint cannot acclerate; The Repro-
bate cannot retard the Resurrection. And all that rise to the right hand, shall be equally
Kings: and all at the left, equally, what? The worst name we can call them by, or
affect them with, is Devill. And then they shall have bodies to be tormented in, which
Devills have not. Miserable, unexpressible, unimaginable. Miserable condition, where
the sufferer would be glad to be but a Devill; where it were some happinesse, and some
kinde of life, to be able to dye; and a great preferment, to be nothing. He made us all of earth, and all of red earth. Our earth was red, even when it was
in Gods hands: Terra rubea. a rednesse that amounts to a shamefastnesse, to a blushing at our own
infirmities, is imprinted in us, by Gods hand. For this rednesse, is but a Conscience, a
guiltinesse of needing a continuall supply, and succession of more, and more grace.
And we are all red, red so, even from the beginning, and in our best state. Adam had,
the Angells had thus much of this infirmity, that though they had a great measure of
grace, they needed more. The prodigall child grew poore enough, after he had re-
ceived his portion: and he may be wicked enough, that trusts upon former, or present
grace, and seeks not more. This rednesse, a blushing, that is, an acknowledgement, that
we could not subsist, with any measure of faith, except we pray for more faith; nor
of grace, except we seek more grace, we have from the hand of God: And another
rednesse from his hand too, the bloud of his Sonne, so that bloud was effused by Christ,
in the value of the ransome for All, and accepted by God, in the value thereof for All:
and this redness, is, in the nature thereof, as extensive, as the redness derived from
Adam is; Both reach to all. So we were red earth in the hands of God, as redness de-
notes our generall infirmities, and as redness denotes the bloud of his Sonne, our Sa-
viour, all have both. But that redness, which we have contracted from bloud shed by
our selves, the bloud of our own soules by sinne, was not upon us, when we were in
the hands of God. That redness is not his tincture, not his complexion. No decree
of his is writ in any such red inke. Our sinnes are our owne, and our destruction is from
ourselves. We are not as accessaries, and God as principall in this soule-murder.
God forbid, we are not as executioners of Gods sentence, and God the Malefactor, in
this soule-damnation. God forbid. Cain came not red in his brothers bloud, out of
Gods hands; nor David red with Vriahs bloud; nor Achitophel with his own; nor
Judas with Christs, or his owne. That that Pilat did illusorily, God can doe truely;
wash his hands from the bloud of any of these men. It were a weake Plea to say, I killed
not that man; but ‘tis true, I commanded one, who was under my command to kill
him. It is rather a prevarication, then a justification of God to say, God is not the
author of sinne in any man, but tis true, God makes that man sinne, that sinne. God
is Innocency; and the beames that flow from him are of the same nature, and colour.
Christ when he appeared in heaven, Apoc. 14. 14. was not red but white. His head and haires were
white, as white wooll, and as snow; not head onely, but haires too. He, and that that growes
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growes from him; he, and we, as we come from his hands are white too. His Angels
that provoke us to the Imitation of that pattern, Act. 1. 10. are so, in white. Two men, two
Angels stood by the Apostles in white apparell. The imitation is laid upon us by pre-
cept too: At all times let thy garments be white; Eccles. 9. 8. Those actions in which thou ap-
pearest to the world, innocent. It is true, that Christ is both. Cant. 5. 10. My beloved is white
and ruddy, says the Spouse. But the white was his owne: his rednesse is from us. That
which Zipporah said to her husband Moses in anger, the Church may say to Christ
in thankfulnesse, Exod 4. 25. Verè sponsus Sanguinum, thou art truly a bloudy husband to me;
Damim, sanguinum, of blouds, blouds in the plurall; for all our blouds are upon him.
This was a mercy to the Militant Church, that even the Triumphant Church won-
dred at it. Esai. 63. 1. They knew not Christ, when he came up to heaven in red. Who is this that
commeth in red garments? Wherefore is thy apparell red, like him that treadeth in
the winepresse? They knew he went down in white, in intire innocency: and they
wondred to see him returne in red. But he satisfies them; Calcavi, you thinke I have
troden the winepresse, and you mistake it not: I have troden the winepresse; and
Calcavi solus, I have troden it alone, all the redness, all the bloud of the whole world
is upon me. And as he adds Non vir de gentibus, of all people there was none with me,
with me so, as to have any part in the Merit; So, of all people there was none with-
out me; without me so, as to be excluded by me, without their own fault, from the
benefit of my merit. This redness he carried up to heaven: for, by the bloud of his
Crosse came peace, Colos. 1. 20. both to the things in earth, and the things in heaven. For that
peccability, that possibility of sinning, which is in the Nature of the Angels of heaven,
would breake out into sinne, but for that confirmation, which those Angels have recei-
ved in the bloud of Christ. This rednesse he carried to heaven; and this rednesse he hath
left upon earth, that all we miserable clods of earth, might be tempered with his bloud;
that in his bloud exhibited in his holy and blessed Sacrament, Apoc. 7. 13. our long robes might be
made white in the bloud of the Lambe: that though our sinnes be robes, habits of
sinne; though long robes, habits of long continuance in sinne: yet through that red-
nesse, which our sinnes have cast upon him, we might come to participate of that
whitenesse, that righteousnesse, which is his owne. We, that is, all we; for, as to take
us in, who are of low condition, and obscure station, a cloud is made white by his sitting
upon it, Apoc. 14. 14. He sate upon a white cloud, so to let the highest see, that they have no white-
nesse, Apoc. 20. 11. but from him, he makes the Throne white by sitting upon it. He sate upon a
great white Throne. It had not been great, if it had not been white. White is the
colour of dilatation; goodnesse onely enlarges the Throne. It had not been white, if
he had not sate upon it. That goodness onley, which consists in glorifying God, and God
in Christ, and Christ in the sincerity of his truth, is true whitenesse. God hath no red-
nesse in himselfe, no anger towards us, till he considers us as sinners. God casts no
rednesse upon us; inflicts no necessity, no constraint of sinning upon us. We have
dyed ourselves in sinnes, as red as Scarlet: we have drowned our selves in such a red
Sea. But as a garment, that were washed in the red Sea, would come out white, (so
wonderfull works hath God done at the red Sea, Psal. 105. 13. says David) so doth his whitenesse
worke through our red, Apoc. 2. 17. and makes this Adam, this red earth, Calculum candidum, that
white stone, that receives a new name, not Ish, not Enosh, not Gheber, no name
that tasts of misery or of vanity; but that name, renewed, and manifested, which was imprin-
ted upon us, in our elections, the Sonnes of God; the irremoveable, the undisinherita-
ble Sonnes of God. Be pleased to receive this note at parting, Macula
Alba.
Levit. 13. that there is Macula Alba, a spot, and yet
white, as well as a red spot: a whitenesse, that is an indication of a Leprosie, as well as
a rednesse. Whole-pelagianisme, to thinke nature alone sufficient; Halfe-pelagianisme,
to thinke grace once received to be sufficient; Super-pelagianisme, to thinke our actions
can bring God in debt to us, by merit, and supererogation, and Catarisme, imaginary
purity, in Canonizing our selves, as present Saints, and condemning all, that differ
from us, as reprobates. All these are white spots, and have the colour of goodnesse;
but are indications of leprosie. So is that that God threatens, Ioel. 1.7. Decorticatio ficus, &
albi rami, that the figtree shall be bark’d, and the boughes thereof left white: to be
left white without barke, was an indication of a speedy withering. Ostensa candescunt,
& arescunt, says Saint Gregory of that place, Greg. the bough that lies open without barke looks
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looks white, but perishes: the good works that are done openly to please men have
their reward, says Christ, that is, shall never have reward. To pretend to doe good,
and not meane it; To doe things, good in themselves, but not to good ends; to goe
towards good ends, but not by good ways; to make the deceiving of men, thine end;
or the praise of men, thine end: all this may have a whiteness, a colour of
good: but all this, is a barking of the bough, and an indication of a mischie-
vous leprosie. There is no good whiteness, but a reflection from Christ Jesus, in
an humble acknowledgement that wee have none of our own, and in a confi-
dent assurance, that in our worst estate we may be made partakers of his. We
are all red earth. In Adam we would not, since Adam we could not, avoid sinne, and
the Concomitants thereof, miseries; which we have called our West, our cloud, our
darknesse. But then we have a North that scatters these clouds, in the next word, Ad
imaginem; that we are made to another patterne, in another likenesse, then our own.
Faciamus hominem; so far are we gone, East, and West; which is halfe our Compasse,
and all this days voiage. For we are strooke upon the sand; and must stay another
Tyde, and another gale for our North, and South. Sermon XXIX.
Preached to the King, at the Court.
The second Sermon on Gen. 1. 26.
And God said, Let us make man, in our Image, after our likenesse. BYBy fair occasion from these words, we proposed to you the whole
Compasse of mans voyage, from his lanchinglaunching forth in this world,
to his Anchoring in the next; from his hoysing sayle here,
to his striking sayle there. In which Compasse we designed to you
his foure quarters; first, his East, where he must beginne, the fun-
damentall knowledge of the Trinity (for, that we found to be the
specification, and distinctive Character of a Christian) where,
though that be so, we shewed you also, why we were not called
Trinitarians, but Christians: and we shewed you, the advantage, that man hath, in
laying hold upon God, in these severall notions; that the Prodigall sonne hath an in-
dulgent Father; that the decayed Father hath an abundant Sonne; that the dejected
spirit hath a Spirit of comfort, to fly to in heaven. And, as we shewed you from
Saint Paul, that it was an Atheisme to be no Christian, (without God, says he, as
long as without Christ) so we lamented the slacknesse of Christians, that they did not
seriously, and particularly, consider the persons of the Trinity, and especially the holy
Ghost, in their particular actions. And then we came to that consideration, whether this
doctrine were established, or directly insinuated, in this plurall word of our text, Facia-
mus, Let us, us make man: and we found that doctrine, to be here, and here first of any
place in the Bible. And finding God to speake in the plurall, we accepted (for a time)
that interpretation, which some had made thereof; that God spake in the Person of a
Soveraigne Prince; and therefore (as they do) in the plurall, We. And thereby
having established reverence to Princes, we claim’d in Gods behalfe the same reverence
to him: That men would demeane themselves, here, when God is spoken to in prayer,
as reverently, as when they speake to the King. But after this, we found God to
speake here, not onely as our King; but as our maker; as God himselfe; and God in
Counsell, Faciamus: and we applied thereunto, the difference of our respect to a
Person of that honorable rank, when we came before him at the Counsell Table, and
when we came to him at his own Table: and thereby advanced the seriousnesse of
this consideration, God in the Trinity. And farther we sailed not, with that our
Eastern winde. Our West we considered in the next word, Hominem; that though
we were made by the whole Trinity, yet the whole Trinity made us but men, and men, in
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in this name of our text, Adam; and Adam is but earth, and that’s our West, our de-clination, our Sunset. We passed over the foure names, by which man is ordinarily
expressed in the Scriptures; and we found necessary misery in three of them; and
possible, nay likely misery in the fourth, in the best name. We insisted upon the name
of our text, Adam, earth; and had some use of these notes; First, that if I were but
earth, God was pleased to be the Potter; If I but a sheep, he a shepheard; If I but a
cottage, he a builder. So he worke upon me, let me be what he will. We noted that
God made us earth, not ayre, not fire: That man hath bodily, and worldly duties to
performe; and is not all Spirit in this life. Devotion, is his soule; but he hath a bo-
dy of discretion, and usefulnesse to invest in some calling. We noted too, that in being
earth, we are equall. We tryed that equality, first in the root, in Adam; There if
any man will be nobler earth then I, he must have more originall sinne then I: for that
was all Adams patrimony, all that he could give. And we tryed this equality in another
furnace, in the grave; where there is no meanes to distinguish Royall from Plebeian,
nor Catholique from Hereticall dust. And lastly we noted, that this our earth, was
red earth: and considered in what respect it was red, even in Gods hands, but found
that in the bloud-rednesse of sinne, God had no hand: but sinne, and destruction for
sinne, was wholly from our selves: which consideration, we ended with this, that there
was Macula alba, a white spot of leprosie, as well, as a red; and we found the over-
valuation of our own purity, and the uncharitable condemnation of all that differ from
us, to be that white spot. And so far we sayled, with that Western winde. And are
come to our third point in this our Compasse, our North. In this point, Aquilo. the North, we place our first comfort. The North is not always the com-
fortablest clime: nor is the North always a type of happines in the Scriptures. Many times
God threatens stormes from the North. But even in those Northern stormes, we
consider that action, that they scatter, they dissipate those clouds, which were gathered,
and so induce a serenity: Iob. 37. 12. And so, fair weather comes from the North. And that’s the
use which we have of the North in this place. The consideration of our West, our
low estate; that we are but earth, but red earth, dyed red by our selves: and that ima-
ginary white, which appeares so to us, is but a white of leprosie. This West enwraps
us in heavy clouds of murmuring, in this life; that we cannot live so freely as beasts
doe; and in clouds of desperation for the next life; that we cannot dye so absolutely
as beasts doe, we dye all our lives, and yet we live after our deaths. These are our
clouds; Prov. 25. 23. And then the North shakes these clouds. The North Winde driveth away
the raine, says Solomon. There is a North in our text, that drives all those teares from
our eyes. Cant. 4. 16.Christ calls upon the North, as well as the South, to blow upon his Garden,
and to diffuse the perfumes thereof. Adversity, as well as prosperity, opens the bounty
of God unto us: and oftentimes better. But that’s not the benefit of the North in
our present consideration. But this is it, that first our sunne sets in the West. The
Eastern dignity, which we received in our first Creation, as we were the worke of the
whole Trinity, falls under a Western cloud, that that Trinity made us but earth. And
then blowes our North, and scatters this cloud. That this earth hath a nobler forme,
then any other part or limbe of the world. For, we are made by a fairer pattern, by
a nobler Image, by a higher likenesse. Faciamus; Though we make but a man, Let us
make him, in our Image, after our likenesse. The variety which the holy Ghost uses here, Imago sim-
litudo. in the pen of Moses, hath given occasi-
on to divers, to raise divers observations, upon these words, which seem divers, Image and
likenesse; as also in the variety of the phrase. For it is thus conceived, and laid, in our Image
and then after our likenesse. I know it is a good rule, that Damascen gives, Parva, parva non
sunt, ex quibus magna proveniunt: Nothing is to be neglected as little, from which
great things may arise. If the consequence may be great, the thing must not be thought
little. No Jod in the Scripture shall perish; therefore no Jod is superfluous. If it
were superfluous, it might perish. Words, and lesse particles then words have busied
the whole Church. In the Councell of Ephesus, where Bishops in a great number
excommunicated Bishops in a greater, Bishop, against Bishop, and Patriarch, against
Patriarch; in which case, when both parties had made strong parties in Court, and the
Emperor forbare to declare himselfe, on either side for a time, he was told, that he re-
fused to assent to that, which six thousand Bishops had agreed in: the strife was but for a
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Serm. XXIX.
a word, whether the blessed Virgin might be called Deipara, the mother of God, for
Christipara, the mother of Christ, (which Christ all agree to be God) Nestorius, and
all his party agreed with Cyrill, that she might be. In the Councell of Chalcedon, the
difference was not so great, as for a word composed of syllables. It was but for a syllable,
whether Ex, or In. The Heretiques condemned then, confessed Christ, to be Ex dua-
bus naturis, to be composed of two natures, at first; but not to be in duabus naturis,
not to consist of two natures after: and for that In, they were thrust out. In the coun-
cell of Nice, it was not so much as a syllable made of letters. For it was but for one
letter; whether Homoousion, or Homousion, was the issue. Where the question hath
not been of divers words, nor syllables, nor letters, but onely of the place of words;
what tempestuous differences have risen? How much Sola fides and fides sola, changes
the case? Nay where there hath been no quarrell for precedency, for transposing of
words, or syllables, or letters; where there hath not been, so much as a letter in
question; how much doth an accent vary a sense? An interrogation, or no interrogation
will make it directly contrary. All Christian expositors read those words of Cain, My sin
is greater then can be pardoned, positively; and so they are evident words of despera-
tion. The Jews read them with an interrogation, Are my sinnes greater, then can be par-
doned? And so they are words of compunction, and repentance. The Prophet Mi-
cah says, that Bethlehem is a small place; the Evangelist Saint Matthew says no small
place. 5. 2. An interrogation in Micahs mouth reconciles it; Art thou a small place? a-
mounts to that, thou art not. Sounds, voices, words must not be neglected. For, 2. 6.
Christs forerunner John Baptist qualified himselfe no otherwise: He was but a voice.
And Christ himselfe is Verbum; the Word, is the name, even of the Sonne of God.
No doubt but Statesmen and magistrates finde often the danger of having suffered
small abuses to passe uncorrected. We that see State businesse but in the glasse of story,
and cannot be shut out of Chronicles, see there, upon what little objects, the eye, and
the jealousie of the State is oftentimes forced to bend it selfe. We know in whose times
in Rome a man might not weep; he might not sigh; he might not looke pale; he might
not be sicke; but it was informed against, as a discontent, as a murmuring against the
present government, and an inclination to change. And truly many times upon Da-
mascens true ground, though not always well applied, Parva non sunt parva, nothing
may be thought little, where the consequence may prove great. In our own Spheare,
in the Church, we are sure it is so. Great inconveniencies grew upon small tolerations.
Therefore in that businesse, which occasioned all that trouble, which we mentioned
before, in the Councell of Ephesus, when Saint Cyrill writ to the Clergy of his Dioces
about it; at first, he says præstiterat abstinere, it had been better, these questions had
not been raised. But says he, Si his nugis nos adoriantur, if they vex us with these im-
pertinencies these trifles; And yet these which were but trifles at first, came to occa-
sion Councells; and then to divide Councell, against Councell; and then to force
the Emperour to take away the power of both Councells, and govern in Councell,
by his Vicar generall, a secular Lord, sent from Court. And therefore did some of the
Ancients, (particularly Philastrius) cry down some opinions for Heresies, which were
not matters of faith, but of Philosophy; and even in Philosophy truly held by them,
who were condemned for heretiques, and mistaken by their Judges, that condemned
them. Little things were called in question, left great things should passe unquesti-
oned. And some of these upon Damascens true ground, (still true in the rule, but not
always in the application) Parva non sunt parva, nothing may be thought little, where
the consequence may be great. Descend we from those great Spheares, the State, and the
Church, into a lesser, that is, the Conscience of particular men, and consider the dan-
ger of exposing those vines to little Foxes; Cant. 2. 15. of leaving small sinnes unconsidered, un-
repented, uncorrected. In that glistring circle in the firmament, which we call the Ga-
laxy, the milky way, there is not one Star of any of the six great magnitudes, which
Astronomers proceed upon, belonging to that circle. It is a glorious circle, and pos-
sesses a great part of heaven: and yet is all of so little stars, as have no name, no know-
ledge taken of them. So certainly are there many Saints in heaven, that shine as stars;
and yet are not of those great magnitudes, to have been Patriarchs, or Prophets, or
Apostles, or Martyrs, or Doctors, or Virgins: but good and blessed soules, that
have religiously performed the duties of inferiour callings, and no more. And, as certainly
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certainly are there many soules tormented in hell, that never sinned sinne of any of the
great magnitudes, Idolatry, Adultery, Murder, or the like; but inconsiderately have
slid, and insensibly continued in the practise, and habite of lesser sinnes. But Parva non
sunt parva, nothing may be thought little, where the consequence may prove great.
When our Saviour said, that we shall give an account of every Idle word, Mat. 12. 36.in the day
of Judgement; what great hills of little sands will oppresse us then? And, if substan-
ces of sinne were removed, yet what circumstances of sinne would condemne us? If
idle words have this weight, there can be no word thought idle, in the Scriptures. And
therefore I blame not in any, I decline not in mine own practise, the making use of the
variety, and copiousnesse of the holy Ghost, who is ever abundant, and yet never su-
perfluous in expressing his purpose, in change of words. And so no doubt we might
doe now, in observing a difference between these words in our text, Image, and likenesse;
and between these two formes of expressing it, in our Image, and after our likenesse.
This might be done: but that that must be done, will possesse all our time; that is,
to declare, (taking the two words for this time to be but a farther illustration of one
another, Image, and likenesse, to our present purpose, to be all one) what this Image,
and this likenesse imparts; and how this North scatters our former cloud, what our
advantage is, that we are made to an Image, to a pattern; and our obligation to set a
pattern before us, in all our actions. God appointed Moses to make all that he made according to a pattern. God him-
selfe made all that he made according to a pattern. God had deposited, and laid up in
himselfe certain formes, patternes, Idea’s of every thing that he made. He made no-
thing of which he had not preconceived the forme, and predetermined in himselfe, I
will make it thus. And when he had made any thing, he saw it was good; good be-
cause it answered the pattern, the Image; good, because it was like to that. And there-
fore, though of other creatures, God pronounced they were good, because they were
presently like their pattern, that is, like that forme, which was in him for them, yet
of man, he forbore to say that he was good because his conformity to his pattern was
to appeare after in his subsequent actions. Now, as God made man after another
pattern, and therefore we have a dignity above all, that we had another manner of cre-
ation, then the rest: so have we a comfort above all, that we have another manner of
Administration then the rest. God exercises another manner of Providence upon man,
then upon other creatures. Mat. 10. 23. A Sparrow falls not without God, says Christ: yet no
doubt God works otherwise in the fall of eminent persons, then in the fall of Sparrows.
For yee are of more value then many Sparrows, says Christ there of every man; and
some men single, are of more value then many men. God does not thanke the Ant
for her industry, and good-husbandry in providing for her selfe. God does not
reward the Foxes, Iudg.15. for concurring with Sampson in his revenge. God does not fee the
Lion, which was the executioner upon the Prophet, 1 Reg. 13.23. which had disobeyed his com-
mandement: nor those two she-Beares, 2. Reg. 2. 25. which slew the petulant children, who had
calumniated and reproached Elisha. God does not fee them before, nor thanke them
after, not take knowledge of their service. But for those men, Exod. 32. 25. that served Gods exe-
cution upon the Idolaters of the Goden Calfe, it is pronounced in their behalfe, that
therein they consecrated themselves to God; and for that service God made that tribe,
the tribe of Levi his portion, Gen. 22. 16. his Clergy, his consecrated Tribe. So, Quia fecisti hoc,
says God to Abraham, by my selfe I have sworn; because thou hast done this thing,
and hast not withheld thy Sonne thine onely sonne: in blessing, I will blesse thee, and
in multiplying, I will multiply thee. So neither is God angry with the dog that
turnes to his vomit, 2 Pet. 2. 22. nor with the sow, that after her washing wallowes in the mire.
But of Man in that case he says; It is impossible for those who were once enlightned,
Heb. 6. 4. if they fall away, to renew them againe by repentance. The creatures live under his
law; but a law imposed thus, This they shall doe, this they must doe. Man lives un-
der another manner of law; This you shall doe; that is, this you should doe, this I
would have you doe: And fac hoc, doe this, and you shall live; disobey, and you shall
die. But yet, the choise is yours: Choose ye this day life, or death. So that this is
Gods administration in the Creature, that he hath imprinted in them an Instinct, and
so he hath something to preserve in them: In man his administration is this, that he
hath imprinted in him a faculty of will, and election; and so hath something to re-
Z ward
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Serm. XXIX.
ward in him. That instinct in the creature God leaves to the naturall working thereof
in it selfe: But the free will of man God visites, and assists with his grace to doe su-
pernaturall things. When the creature does an extraordinary action above the nature
thereof, (as, when Balaams Asse spake) the creature exercises no faculty, no will in it
selfe; but God forced it to that it did. When man does any thing conducing to su-
pernaturall ends; though the worke be Gods, the will of man is not meerly passive.
The will of man is but Gods agent; but still an agent it is: And an agent in another
manner, then the tongue of the beast. For, the will considered, as a will, (and grace
never destroyes nature, nor, though it make a dead will a live will, or an ill will a good
will, doth it make the will, no will) might refuse or omit that that it does. So that
because we are created by another pattern, we are governed by another law, and ano-
ther providence. Goe thou then the same way. If God wrought by a pattern, and writ by copy, and
proceeded by a precedent, doe thou so too. Never say, there is no Church with-
out error: therefore I will be bound by none; but frame a Church of mine owne, or
be a Church to my selfe. What greater injustice, then to propose no Image, no pattern
to thy selfe to imitate; and yet propose thy selfe for a pattern, for an Image to be a-
dored? Thou wilt have singular opinions, and singular ways differing from all other
men; and yet all that are not of thy opinion must be heretiques; and all reprobates,
that goe not thy wayes. Propose good patterns to thy selfe; and thereby become a
fit pattern for others. God, we see, was the first, that made Images; and he was the
first, that forbad them. He made them for imitation; he forbad them in danger of
adoration. Arnob. For, Qualis dementiæ est id colere, quod melius est? What a drowzinesse,
what a lazinesse, what a cowardlinesse of the soule is it, to worship that, which does but
represent a better thing then it selfe? Worship belongs to the best, know thou thy di-
stance, and thy period, how far to goe, and where to stop. Dishonor not God by an
Image in worshiping it; and yet benefit thy selfe by it, in following it. There is no
more danger out of a picture, then out of a history, if thou intend no more in either,
then example. Though thou have a West, a darke and a sad condition, that thou art but
earth, a man of infirmities, and ill counsailed in thy selfe: yet thou hast herein a North,
that scatters and dispells these clouds that God proposes to thee in his Scriptures, and
otherwise; Images, patterns, of good and holy men to goe by. But beyond this North
this assistance of good examples of men; thou hast a South, a Meridionall heighth, by
which thou seest thine Image, thy pattern, to be no copy; no other man, but the ori-
ginall it selfe, God himselfe: Faciamus ad nostram, Let us make man in our Image, after
our likenesse. Here we consider first, 4 Part.
Meridies.
Ubi Imago. where this Image is, and then what it does: first, in what
part of man God hath imprinted this his Image; And then what this Image confers,
and derives upon man; what it works in man. And, as when we seek God in his essence,
we are advised to proceed by negatives, God is not mortall, not passible: so when we
seek the Image of God in man, we beginne with a negative; This Image is not in his
body. Non in Cor-
pore. Tertullian declined to thinke it was; nay Tertullian inclined others to thinke
so. For he is the first, that is noted, to have been the author of that opinion, that God
had a body. Deus non est
Corpus. Yet Saint Augustine excuses Tertullian from heresie: because (says he)
Tertullian might meane, that it was so sure, that there is a God; and that that God
was a certaine, though not a finite Essence; that God was so far from being nothing,
as that he had rather a body. Because it was possible to give a good interpretation of
Tertullian, that charitable Father Saint AugastineAugustine, would excuse him of heresie. I
would Saint Augustines charity might prevaile with them, that pretend to be Augusti-
nianissimi, and to adore him so much in the Roman Church, not to cast the name of Here-
sie upon every probleme; nor the name of Heretique, upon every inquirer of Truth.
Saint Augustine would deliver Tertullian from heresie in a point concerning God, and
they will condemne us of heresie, in every point that may be drawne to concerne not
the Church, Chrysost. but the Court of Rome; not their doctrine, but their profit. Malo de Mi-
sericordia Deo rationem reddere, quàm de crudelitate, I shall better answer God for my
mildenesse, then for my severity. And, though anger towards a brother, or a Raca, or
a foole, will beare an action: yet he shall recover lesse against me at that bar, whom I
have called weake, or mislead, (as I must necessary call many in the Roman Church) then
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then he whom I have passionately and peremptorily called heretique. For, I dare call
an opinion heresie for the matter, a great while before I dare call the man that holds
it an heretique. For that consists much in the manner. It must be matter of faith, be-
fore the matter be heresie. But there must be pertinacy after convenient instruction,
before that man be an heretique. But how excusable so ever Tertullian be herein in
Saint Augustines charity: there was a whole sect of heretiques, one hundred years af-
ter Tertullian, the Audiani, who over literally taking those places of Scripture, where
God is said to have hands, and feet, and eyes, and eares, beleeved God to have a body
like ours; and accordingly interpreted this text; that in that Image, and that like-
nesse, a bodily likenesse, consisted this Image of God in man. And yet even these men,
these Audians, Epiphanius, who first takes knowledge of them, calls but Schismatiques,
not Heretiques: so loth is charity to say the worst of any. Yet we must remember them
of the Roman perswasion, that they come too neare giving God a body in their pictures
of God the Father. And they bring the body of God, that body which God the
Sonne hath assumed, the body of Christ too neare, in their Transubstantiation: not
too near our faith, (for so it cannot be brought too near; so, it is as really there as we are
there) too neare to our sense: not too neare in the Vbi; for so it is there: There, that is,
in that place to which the Sacrament extends it selfe. For the Sacrament extends as
well to heaven, from whence it fetches grace, as to the table, from whence it delivers
Bread and Wine: but too neare in modo. For it comes not thither that way. We
must necessarily complaine, that they make Religion too bodily a thing. Our Saviour
Christ corrected Mary Magdalens zeale, where she flew to him, Ioh. 20. 17. in a personall devotion;
and he said, Touch me not: for I am not yet ascended to my Father. Fix your medi-
tations upon Christ Jesus so, as he is now at the right hand of his Father in heaven, and
entangle not your selves so with controversies about his body, as to lose reall
charity, for imaginary zeale; nor enlarge your selves so far in the pictures and Images
of his body, as to worship them, more then him. As Damascen says of God, that he is
Super-principale principium, a beginning, before any beginning we can conceive; and
præ-æterna æternitas, an eternity infinitely elder then any eternity we can imagine: so he is
Super-spiritualis Spiritus, such a Super-spirit, as that the soule of man, and the substance
of Angels is but a body, compared to this Spirit. God hath no body, though Tertul-
lian disputed it; though the Audians preached it; though the Papists paint it. And
therefore this Image of God is not in the body of man, that way. Nor that way neither, Non Corpus
assumptum. which some others have assigned, that God, who hath no
body as God, yet in the creation did assume that forme, which man hath now, and so
made man in his Image, that is, in that forme, which he had then assumed. Some of
the Ancients thought so; and some other men of great estimation in the Roman Church
have thought so too; In particular, Oleaster, a great officer in the Inquisition of Spaine.
But great inquirers into other men, are easie neglecters of themselves. The Image of
God is not in mans body this way. Non ut ven-
turus Chri-
stus. Nor that third way, which others have imagined;
that is, that when God said, Let us make man after our likenesse, God had respect to
that forme, which in the fulnesse of time, his Sonne was to take upon him, upon earth.
Let us make him now, (says God at first) like that which I intend hereafter, my Son
shall be. For, though this were spoken before the fall of man, and so before any occa-
sion of decreeing the sending of Christ: yet in the Schoole a great part of great men
adhered to that opinion, that God from all eternity had a purpose that his Sonne
should become man in this world, though Adam had not fallen: Non ut Medicus, sed ut Do-
minus ad nobilitandum genus humanum, say they: though Christ had not come as a Re-
deemer, if man had not needed him by sin, but had kept his first state; yet as a Prince that
desired to heap honour upon him whom he loves, to doe man an honour, by his assu-
ming that nature, Christ, say they, should have come, and to that Image, that forme,
which he was to take then was man made in this text, say these imaginers. But alas,
how much better were wit, and learning bestowed to prove to the Gentiles; that a
Christ must come; (that they beleeve not) to prove to the Jews, that the Christ is
come; (that they beleeve not) to prove to our own Consciences, that the same Christ
may come again this minute to Judgment, (we live as though we beleeved not that) then
to have filled the world, and torne the Church, with frivolous disputations, whether
Christ should have come, if Adam had not fallen? Wo unto fomentors of frivolous Z2 disputations.
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Serm. XXIX.
disputations. None of these ways, not because God hath a body; not because God
assumed a body, not because it was intended, that Christ should be born, before it
was intended, that man should be made, is this Image of God in the body of man. Nor
hath it in any other relation, respect to the body, but as we say in the Schoole, Argui-
tivè, and Significativè that because God hath given man a body of a nobler forme,
then any other creature; we inferre, and argue, and conclude from thence, that God
is otherwise represented in man, then in any other creature. So far is this Image of
God in the body, that as you see some Pictures, to which the very tables are Jewells;
some. Watches, to which the very cases are Jewells, and therefore they have outward
cases too; and so the Picture, and the Watch is in that outward case, of what meaner
stuffe soever that be: so is this Image in this body as in an outward case; so, as that
you may not injure, nor enfeeble this body, neither by sinfull intemperance and licenti-
ousnesse, nor by inordinate fastings or other disciplines of imaginary merits, while the
body is alive; (for the Image of God is in it) nor to defraud thy body of decent bu-
riall, and due solemnities after death; for the Image of God is to returne to it. But
yet the body is but the out-case, and God lookes not for the gilding, or enamelling, or
painting of that: but requires the labour, and cost therein to be bestowed upon the
Tablet it selfe, in which this Image is immediately, that is the soule. And that’s truly
the Vbi, the place where this Image is: And there remaines onely now, the operation
thereof, how this Image of God in the soule of man works. The Sphear then of this intelligence, In anima. the Gallery for this Picture, the Arch for
this Statue, the Table, and frame and shrine for this Image of God, is properly im-
mediately the soule of man. Not immediately so, as that the soule of man is a part of
the Essence of God: For so essentially, Christ onely is the Image of God. Saint Augustine
at first thought so: Putabam te Deus, Corpus Lucidum, & me frustum de illo Corpore; I
tooke thee, ô God, (says that Father) to be a Globe of fire, and my soule a sparke of
that fire; thee to be a body of light, and my soule to be a beame of that light. But
Saint Augustine does not onely retract that in himselfe, but dispute against it, in the
Manichees. But this Image is in our soule, as our soule is the wax, and this Image the
seale. The Comparison is Saint Cyrills, and he addes well, that no seale but that, which
printed the wax at first, can fit that wax, and fill that impression after. No Image, but
the Image of God can fit our soule. Every other seale is too narrow, too shallow for
it. The magistrate is sealed with the Lion; The woolfe will not fit that seale: the
Magistrate hath a power in his hands, but not oppression. Princes are sealed with the
Crown; The Miter will not fit that seale. Powerfully, and gratiously they protect the
Church, and are supreame heads of the Church; But they minister not the Sacra-
ments of the Church. They give preferments; but they give not the capacity of
preferment. They give order who shall have; but they give not orders, by which they
are enabled to have, that have. Men of inferiour and laborious callings
in the world are sealed with the Crosse; a Rose, or a bunch of Grapes will not answer
that seale. Ease, and plenty in age, must not be looked for without Crosses and labour
and industry in youth. All men, Prince, and People; Clergy, and Magistrate, are
sealed with the Image of God, with the profession of a conformity to him: and
worldly seales will not answer that, nor fill up that seale. We should wonder to see a
Mother in the midst of many sweet Children passing her time in making babies and
puppets for her own delight. We should wonder to see a man, whose Chambers and
Galleries were full of curious master-peeces, thrust in a Village Fair to looke upon six-
penny pictures, and three farthing prints. We have all the Image of God at home,
and we all make babies, fancies of honour, in our ambitions. The master-peece is our
own, in our own bosome; and we thrust in countrey Fairs, that is, we endure the distem-
pers of any unseasonable weather, in night-journies, and watchings: we indure the op-
positions, and scornes, and triumphs of a rivall, and competitor, that seeks with us,
and shares with us: we indure the guiltinesse, and reproach of having deceived the
trust, which a confident friend reposes in us, and solicit his wife, or daughter: we en-
dure the decay of fortune, of body, of soule, of honour, to possesse lower Pictures;
pictures that are not originalls, not made by that hand of God, nature; but Artificiall
beauties. And for that body, we give a soule, and for that drugge, which might have
been bought, where they bought it, for a shilling, we give an estate. The Image of God
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God is more worth then all substances; and we give it, for colours, for dreames, for
shadowes. But the better to prevent the losse, Tota Trini-
tas in omni
facultate. let us consider the having of this Image: in what
respect, in what operation, this Image is in our soule. For, whether this Image, bee
in those faculties, which we have in Nature; or in those qualifications, which we may
have in Grace; or in those super-illustrations, which the blessed shall have in Glory;
hath exercised the contemplation of many. Properly this Image is in Nature; in the
naturall reason, and other faculties of the immortall Soule of man. For, thereupon
does Saint Bernard say, Imago Dei uri potest in Gehenna, non exuri: Till the soule be
burnt to ashes, to nothing, (which cannot be done no not in hell) the Image of God
cannot be burnt out of that soule. For it is radically, primarily, in the very soule it
selfe. And whether that soule be infused into the Elect, or into the Reprobate, that
Image is in that soule, and as far, as he hath a soule by nature, he hath the Image of
God by Nature in it. But then the seale is deeper cut, or harder pressed, or better pre-
served in some, then in others; and in some other considerations, then meerly naturall.
Therefore we may consider Man who was made here to the Image of God; and of
God, in three Persons, to have been made so, in Gods intendment, three ways: Man
had this Image in Nature, and does deface it; he hath it also in Grace here, and so
does refresh it; and he shall have it in Glory hereafter, and that shall fix it, establish
it. And in every of these three, in this Trinity in man, Nature, Grace, and Glory,
man hath not onely the Image of God, but the Image of all the Persons of the Trinity,
in every of the three capacities. He hath the Image of the Father, the Image of the
Sonne, the Image of the holy Ghost in Nature; and all these also in Grace; and all
in Glory too. How all these are in all, I cannot hope to handle particularly; not
though I were upon the first graine of our sand, upon the first dram of your patience,
upon the first flash of my strength. But a cleare repeating of these many branches, that
these things are thus, that all the Persons of the heavenly Trinity, are (in their Image)
in every branch of this humane Trinity, in man, may, at least must suffice. In Nature then, In natura
Deus. man, that is, the soule of man hath this Image, of God, of God
considered in his Unity, intirely, altogether, in this, that this soule is made of nothing,
proceeds of nothing. All other creatures are made of that pre-existent matter, which
God had made before, so were our bodies too; But our soules of nothing. Now, not
to be made at all, is to be God himselfe: Onely God himselfe was never made. But
to be made of nothing; to have no other parent but God, no other element but the
breath of God, no other instrument but the purpose of of God, this is to be the
Image of God. For this is nearest to God himselfe, who was never made at all, to be
made of nothing. And then man, (considered in nature) is otherwise the nearest re-
presentation of God too. For the steppes, which we consider are four; First, Esse,
Beeing; for some things have onely a beeing, and no life, as stones: Secondly, Vivere,
Living; for some things have life, and no sense; as Plants: and then, thirdly, Sentire
Sense; for some things have sense, and no understanding. Which understanding and
reason, man hath with his Beeing, and Life, and Sense; and so is in a nearer station to
God, then any other creature, and a livelier Image of him, who is the root of Beeing,
hen all they, because man onely hath all the declarations of Beeings. Nay if we con-
sider Gods eternity, the soule of man hath such an Image of that, as that though man
had a beginning, which the originall, the eternall God himselfe had not; yet man
shall no more have an end, then the originall, the eternall God himselfe shall have.
And this Image of eternity, this past Meridian, this after-noone eternity, that is, this
Perpetuity and after everlastingnesse is in man meerly as a Naturall man, without any
consideration of grace. For the Reprobate can no more die, that is, come to nothing,
then the Elect. It is but of the naturall man, that Theodoret says, a King built a City,
and erected his statue in the midst of the City; that is, God made man, and imprinted
his Image in his soule. How will this King take it, (says that Father) to have his
statue thrown down? Every man does so, if he doe not exalt his naturall faculties;
If he doe not hearken to the law written in his heart; if he doe not as much as Plato, or
as Socrates in the wayes of vertuous actions, he throwes down the Statue of this King;
he defaces the Image of God. How would this King take it (says he) if any other
Statue, especially the Statue of his enemy, should be set up in this place? Every man Z3 does
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does so too, that embraces false opinions in matter of doctrine, or false appearances of
happinesse in matter of conversation. For these a naturall man may avoid in many
cases, without that addition of grace, which is offered to us as Christians. That com-
parison of other creatures to man, 40. 14. which is intimated in Job, is intended but of the na-
turall man. There speaking of Behemoth, that is, of the greatest of Creatures, he says,
in our translation, that he is the chiefe of the ways of God: Saint Hierome hath it, Prin-
cipium; and others before him, Initium viarum Dei: That when God went that pro-
gresse over all the world, in the Creation thereof, he did but beginne, he did but set
out at Behemoth, at the best of all such Creatures; he, all they were but Initium via-
rum, the beginning of the wayes of God. But Finis viarum, the end of his journey,
and the Eve, the Vespers of his Sabbath was the making of man, even of the naturall
man. Behemoth, and the other creatures were Vestigia, (says the Schoole) in them
we may see, where God hath gone, for all beeing is from God, and so every thing that
hath a beeing hath filiationem vestigii a testimony of Gods having passed that way, and
called in there. But man hath filiationem Imaginis, an expression of his Image; and does
the office of an Image or Picture, to bring him, whom it represeẽts, the more lively to our
memory. Gods abridgement of the whole world was man. Reabridge man into his least
volume, in pura naturalia, as he is but meer man, & so he hath the Image of God in his soul. He hath it, Pater in
Intellectu. as God is considered in his Unity, (for as God is, so the soule of man
is, indivisibly, impartibly one, intire) and he hath it also, as God is notified to us in a
Trinity. For as there are three Persons in the Essence of God: so there are three facul-
ties in the Soule of man. The Attributes, and some kind of specification of the Persons
of the Trinity are, Power to the Father, Wisedome to the Sonne, and Goodnesse to
the holy Ghost. And the three faculties of the Soule have the Images of these three.
The Understanding is the Image of the Father, that is, Power. For no man can exer-
cise power, no man can governe well without understanding the natures and dispositi-
ons of them whom he governes. And therefore in this consists the power, which man
hath over the creature, that man understands the nature of every creature, For so
Adam did, when he named every creature according to the nature thereof. And by
this advantage of our understanding them, and comprehending them, we master them,
and so Obliviscuntur quod nata sunt, says Saint Ambrose; the Lion, the Beare, the Ele-
phant have forgot what they were borne to. Induuntur quod jubentur; they invest and
put on such a disposition, and such a nature, as we enjoine them, and appoint to them.
Serviunt ut famuli; (as that Father pursues it elegantly) and verberantur, ut timidi:
they waite upon us as servants; who, if they understood us as well, as we understand
them, might be our Masters: and they receive correction from us, as though they
were afraid of us; when, if they understood us, they would know, that we were not
able to stand in the teeth of the Lion, in the horne of the Bull, in the heels of the Horse.
And adjuvantur ut infirmi; they counterfeit a weakenesse, that they might be beholden
to us for help: and they are content to thanke us, if we afford them any rest, or any
food; who, if they understood us, as well, as we doe them, might teare our meate out
of our throates; nay teare out our throats for their meat. So then in this first naturall faculty of the soule, the Understanding, stands the Image
of the first Person, Filius in
Voluntate. the Father, Power: and in the second faculty which is the Will, is
the Image, the Attribute of the second Person the Sonne, which is Wisdome: for
wisdome is not so much in knowing, in understanding, as in electing, in choosing, in
assenting. No man needs goe out of himselfe, nor beyond his owne legend, and the
history of his owne actions for examples of that, that many times we know better, and
choose ill wayes. Wisdome is in choosing in Assenting. And then, Spiritus in
Memoria. in the third faculty
of the soule, the Memory, is the Image of the third person, the holy Ghost, that is,
Goodnesse. For to remember, to recollect our former understanding, and our former
assenting, so far as to doe them, to Crowne them with action, that’s true goodnesse.
The office, that Christ assignes to the holy Ghost, and the goodnesse, which he pro-
mises in his behalfe is this, Iob. 14. 20. that he shall bring former things to our remembrance. The
wiseman places all goodnesse in this faculty, the memory, properly nothing can fall in-
to the memory, but that which is past, and yet he says, Whatsoever thou takest in
hand, Eccles. 7. 36. remember the end, and thou shalt never doe amisse. The end cannot be yet
come, and yet we are bid to remember that. Visus per omnes sensus recurrit, says Saint
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Saint Augustine. As all senses are called sight, in the Scriptures, (for there is Gustate
Dominum, and Audite, and Palpate; Taste the Lord, and heare the Lord, and feele the
Lord, and still the Videte, is added, taste, and see the Lord) so all goodnesse is in re-
membring, all goodnesse, (which is the Image of the holy Ghost) is in bringing our
understanding and our assenting into action. Certainly beloved, if a man were like the
King but in countenance, and in proportion, he himselfe would thinke somewhat bet-
ter of himselfe, and others would be the lesse apt to put scornes, or injuries upon him,
then if he had a Vulgar, and course aspect. With those, who have the Image of the
Kings power, (the Magistrate) the Image of his Wisdome, (the Counsell) the Image
of his Goodnesse, (the Clergy) it should be so too. There is a respect due to the
Image of the King in all that have it. Now, in all these respects man, the meer natu-
rall man, hath the Image of the King of Kings. And therefore respect that Image in
thy selfe, and exalt thy naturall faculties. Æmulate those men, and be ashamed to be
outgone by those men, who had no light but nature. Make thine understanding, and
thy will, and thy memory (though but naturall faculties) serviceable to thy God; and
auxiliary and subsidiary for thy salvation. For, though they be not naturally instru-
ments of grace; yet naturally they are susceptible of grace, and have so much in their
nature, as that by grace they may be made instruments of grace: which no faculty in
any creature, but man, can be. And doe not thinke that because a naturall man cannot
doe all, therefore he hath nothing to doe for himselfe. This then is the Image of God in man, In Gratia. the first way, in nature; and most literally
this is the intention of the text. Man was this Image thus; and the roome furnished
with this Image was Paradise. But there is a better roome then that Paradise for the
second Image, (the Image of God in man by grace) that is, the Christian Church. For
though for the most part this text be understood De naturalibus, of our naturall facul-
ties: yet Origen, and not onely such Allegoricall Expositors, but Saint Basill, and Nyssen
and Ambrose, and others, who are literall enough, assigne this Image of God, to con-
sist in the gifts of Gods grace, exhibited to us here in the Church. A Christian then
in that second capacity, as a Christian, and not onely as a man, hath this Image of
God; of God first considered intirely. And those expressions of this impression, those
representations of this Image of God, in a Christian by grace, which the Apostles have
exhibited to us; that we are the sonnes of God; the seed of God; the off-spring of
God; and partakers of the divine nature, (which are high and glorious exaltations)
are enlarged, and exalted by Damascen to a farther height, Orat. de
Assumpt.
Mariæ. when he says; Sicut Deus
homo, ita ego Deus; As God is man, so I am God, says Damascen. I, taken in the
whole mankinde, (for, so Damascen takes it out of Nazianzen; and he says, Sicut
verbum caro, ita caro verbum, as God was made man, man may become God) but e-
specially I; I, as I am wrought upon by grace, in Christ Jesus. So a Christian is made
the Image of God intirely. To which expression Saint Cyrill also comes neare, when
he calls a Christian Deiformem hominem, man in the forme of God; which is a mysteri-
ous, and a blessed metamorphosis, and transfiguration: that, whereas it was the grea-
test trespasse, Esai. 14. 14. of the greatest trespasser in the world, the Devill, to say Similis ero Altis-
simo, I will be like the Highest: it would be as great a trespasse in me, not to be like the
Highest, not to conforme my selfe to God, by the use of his grace, in the Christian
Church. And whereas the humiliation of my Saviour is in all things to be imitated by
me: yet herein I am bound to depart, from his humiliation; that whereas he being in
the forme of God, tooke the forme of a servant; I being in the forme of a servant,
Phil. 2. 5. may, nay must take upon me the forme of God, in being Deiformis homo, a man
made in Christ, the Image of God. So have I the Image of God intirely, in his
unity, because I professe that faith, Ephe. 4. 5. which is but one faith; and under the seale of
the Baptisme, which is but one Baptisme. And then, as of this one God; so I have
also the Image of the severall persons of the Trinity, in this capacity, as I am a Chri-
stian, more then in my naturall faculties. The Attributes of the first Person, Pater. the Father, is Power, and none but a Christian
hath power over those great Tyrants of the world, Sinne, Satan, Death, and Hell. For
thus my Power accrues and growes unto me. First, Possum Judicare, 1 Cor. 6. 5. I have a Power
to Judge; a judiciary, a discretive power; a power to discerne between a naturall acci-
dent; and a Judgement of God, and will never call a Judgement, an accident; and between
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Serm. XXIX.
between an ordinary occasion of conversation and a tentation of Satan, Possum judicare,
and then Possum resistere, Ephe. 6. 13. which is another act of power. When I finde it to be a tenta-
tion, I am able to resist it: and Possum stare, (which is another) I am able, not onley
to withstand, Ibid. but to stand out this battell of tentations to the end; And then Possum
capere, Mat. 19. 12. that which Christ proposes for a tryall of his Disciples, Let him, that is able to
receive it, receive it, I shall have power to receive the gift of continency, against all
tentations of that kinde. Bring it to the highest act of power, that with which Christ
tryed his strongest Apostles, 20. 21. Possum bibere calicem, I shall be able to drinke of Christs
Cup; even to drinke his bloud, and be the more innocent for that, and to powre out
my bloud, Phil. 4. 13. and be the stronger for that. In Christo omnia possum, there’s the fulnesse of
Power, in Christ I can doe all things, I can want, or I can abound, I can live, or I can die.
And yet there is an extension of Power, 1 Iohn 39. beyond all this, in this Non possum peccare, be-
ing borne of God in Christ, I cannot sinne. This that seemes to have a name of impo-
tence, Non possum, I cannot, is the fullest omnipotence of all, I cannot sinne; not sinne
to death; not sinne with a desire to sinne; not sinne, with a delight in sinne; but that
tentation, that overthrowes another, I can resist, or that sinne, which being done, casts
another into desperation, I can repent. And so I have the Image of the first Person,
the Father, in Power. The Image of the second Person, Filius. whose Attribute is Wisdome, I have in this, that
Wisdome being the knowledge of this world, and the next, I embrace nothing in this
world, but as it leads me to the next. For, thus my wisdome, my knowledge growes. 2 Tim. 1. 12.
First, Scio cui credidi, I know whom I have beleeved in: Rom. 6. 9. I have not mislaid my foun-
dation; my foundation is Christ; and then Scio non moriturum; my foundation can-
not sinke, 8. 27. I know that Christ being raised from the dead, dies no more; againe Scio quod
desideret Spiritus, I know what my spirit, enlightnedenlightened by the Spirit of God, desires; I
II
am not transported with illusions, and singularities of private spirits. And as in the
Attribute of Power, we found an omnipotence in a Christian, so in this, there is an om-
niscience, 1 Cor. 8. 1. Scimus, quia omnem Scientiam habemus; there’s all together; we know that
we have all knowledge, for all Saint Pauls universall knowledge was but this, Jesum
Crucifixum, 2. 2. I determine not to know any thing, save Jesus Christ, and him Crucified;
and then, the way by which he would proceed, and take degrees in this Wisdome, was
Sultitia prædicandi, 1. 21. the way that God had ordained, when the world by Wisedome
knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that be-
leeve. These then are the steps of Christian Wisedome, my foundation is Christ, of
Christ I enquire no more, but fundamentall doctrines, him Crucified, and this I apply
to my selfe, by his ordinance of Preaching. And in this wisdome, I have the Image
of the second Person. And then, of the third also in this, that his Attribute beeing Goodnesse, I as a
true Christian, Spiritus
Sanctus. call nothing good, that conduces not to the glory of God in Christ
Jesus, nor any thing ill, that drawes me not from him. Thus I have an expresse Image
of his Goodnesse, Rom. 8. 28. that Omnia cooperantur in bonum, all things worke together for my
good, if I love God. I shall thanke my fever, blesse my poverty, praise my oppressor,
nay thanke, and blesse, and praise, even some sinne of mine, which by the consequences
of that sinne, which may be shame, or losse, or weaknesse, may bring me to a happy
sense of all my former sinnes; and shall finde it to have been a good fever, a good po-
verty, a good oppression, yea a good sinne. Vertit in bonum, says Joseph to his brethren,
you thought evill, Gen. 50. 20. but God meant it unto good; and I shall have the benefit of my
sinne, according to his transmutation, that is, though I meant ill, in that sinne, I shall
have the good, Amos 3. 6. that God meant in it. There is no evill in the City, but the Lord does
it; But, if the Lord doe it, it cannot be evill to me. I beleeve that I shall see Bona Dei,
the goodnesse of the Lord, Psal. 27. 13. in the land of the living, that’s in heaven; but David
speakes also of Signum in bonum, shew me a token of good, and God will shew me a
present token of future good, an inward infallibility, that this very calamity shall be be-
neficiall, and advantageous unto me. And so, as in Nature I have the Image of God,
in my whole soule, and of all the three Persons, in the three faculties thereof, the Un-
derstanding, the Will, and the Memory, so in Grace, in the Christian Church, I have
the same Images, of the Power of the Father, of the Wisedome of the Sonne, of the
Goodnesse of the holy Ghost, in my Christian profession: And all this we shall have in
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in a better place, then Paradise, where we considered it in nature, and a better place
then the Church, as it is Militant, where we considered it in grace, that is, in the
kingdome of heaven, where we consider this Image in glory; which is our last word. There we shall have this Image of God in perfection; for, if Origen could lodge In gloria
Deus.
such a conceit, that in heaven, at last, all things should ebbe backe into God, as all
things flowed from him, at first, and so there should be no other Essence but God, all
should be God, even the Devill himselfe, how much more may we conceive an unex-
pressible association, (that’s too far off) an assimilation, (that’s not neare enough) an
identification, (the Schoole would venture to say so) with God in that state of glory.
Where, as the Sunne by shining upon the Moone, makes the Moone a Planet, a Star,
as well, as it selfe, which otherwise would be but the thickest, and darkest part of that
Spheare, so those beames of Glory which shall issue from my God, and fall upon me,
shall make me, (otherwise a clod of earth, and worse, a darke Soule, a Spirit of darke-
nesse) an Angell of Light, a Star of Glory, a something, that I cannot name now, not
imagine now, nor to morrow, nor next yeare, but, even in that particular, I shall be
like God, that as he, that asked a day to give a definition of God, the next day asked a
week, and then a moneth, and then a yeare, so undeterminable would my imaginations
be, if I should goe about to thinke now, what I shall be there: I shall be so like God,
as that the Devill himselfe shall not know me from God, so far, as to finde any more
place, to fasten a tentation upon me, then upon God, nor to conceive any more hope
of my falling from that kingdome, then of Gods being driven out of it; for, though I
shal not be immortall as God, yet I shall be as immortall, as God. And there’s my Image
of God; of God considered altogether, and in his unity, in the state of Glory. I shall have also then; the Image of all the three Persons of the Trinity. Pater. Power is
the Fathers; and a greater Power, then he exercises here, I shall have there: here he
overcomes enemies; but yet here he hath enemies; there, there are none; here they
cannot prevaile, there they shall not be. So Wisedome is the Image of the Sonne; Filius.
And there I shall have better Wisdome, then spirituall Wisdome it selfe is here: for,
here our best Wisedome is, but to goe towards our end, there it is rest in
our end; here it is to seek to bee Glorified by God, there it is, that God
may be everlastingly glorified by mee. The Image of the holy Ghost is Good-
nesse, Spiritus
Sanctus. here our goodnesse is mixt with some ill; faith mixt with scruples and
good workes mixt with a love of praise, and hope of better, mixt with feare
of worse. There I shall have sincere goodnesse, goodnesse impermixt, intemerate, and
indeterminate goodnesse; so good a place, as no ill accident shall annoy it; so good
company, as no impertinent, no importune person shall disorder it; so full a good-
nesse, as no evill of sinne, no evill of punishment for former sinnes, can enter; so good
a God, as shall no more keep us in fear of his anger, nor in need of his mercy, but shall
fill us first, and establish us in that fulnesse in the same instant; and give us a satiety,
that we can with no more, and an infallibility, that we can lose none of that, and both
at once. Where, as the Cabalists expresse our nearenesse to God, in that state, in that
note, that the name of man, and the name of God, Adam, and Jehovah; in their nume-
rall letters, are alike, and equall, so I would have leave, to expresse that inexpressible
state, so far, as to say, that if there can be other world imagined besides this that is un-
der our Moone, and if there could be other Gods imagined of those worlds, besides
this God, to whose Image we are thus made, in Nature, in Grace, in Glory; I had ra-
ther be one of these Saints in this heaven, then of those Gods in those other worlds; I
shall be like the Angels in a glorified Soul, and the Angels shall not be like me in a glo-
rified body. The holy noblenesse, and the religious ambition, that I would imprint in
you, for attaining of this Glory, makes me dismiss you with this note, for the feare of
missing that Glory; that as we have taken just occasion, to magnifie the goodnesse of
God, towards us, in that he speakes plurally, Faciamus, Let us, All us do this, and so
powers out the blessings of the whole Trinity upon us, in this Image of himselfe, in eve-
ry Person of the three, and in all these three wayes, which we have considered: so when
the anger of God is justly kindled against us, God collects himselfe, summons himself
assembles himselfe, musters himselfe, and threatens plurally too: for, of those foure
places in Scripture, in which onely (as we noted before) God speakes of himselfe in a
Royall plurall, God speakes in anger, and in a preparation to destruction, in one of those
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To the Nobility.
Serm. XXX.
those foure, intirely; as intirely, he speakes of mercy, but in one of them, in this text;
here he says, meerly out of mercy, Faciamus, Let us, us, all us, make man, and in the
same plurality, Gen. 11. the same universality, he says after, Descendamus & confundamus, Let us,
us, all us, goe downe to them, and confound them, as meerly out of indignation, and
anger, as here out of mercy. And in the other two places where God speakes plurally,
he speakes not meerly in mercy, nor meerly in justice, in neither; but in both he min-
gles both. So that God carries himselfe so equally herein, as that no Soul, no Church,
no State, may any more promise it selfe patience in God, if it provoke him, then
suspect anger in God, if we conforme our selves to him. For, from them, that set
themselves against him, God shall withdraw his Image, in all the Persons, and all the
Attributes; the Father shall withdraw his Power, and we shall be enfeebled in our
forces, the Sonne his Wisdome, and we shall be infatuated in our counsailes, the holy
Ghost his Goodnesse, and we shall be corrupted in our manners, and corrupted in our
Religion, and be a prey to temporall, and spirituall enemies, and change the Image of
God into the Image of the Beast: and as God loves nothing more then the Image of
himselfe, in his Sonne, and then the Image of his Sonne Christ Jesus, in us, so he hates
nothing more, then the Image of Antichrist, in them, in whom he had imprinted his
Sonnes Image, that is, declinations towards Antichrist, or concurrencies with Anti-
christ in them, who were borne, and baptized, and catechised, and blessed in that pro-
fession of his truth. That God who hath hitherto delivered us from all cause, or
colour of jealousies, or suspitionssuspicions thereof, in them, whom he hath placed over us, to
conforme us to his Image, in a holy life, that sinnes continued, and multiplyed by us
against him, doe not so provoke him against us, that those two great helps, the assi-
duity of Preaching, and the personall, and exemplary piety and constancy in our
Princes, be not by our sinnes made unprofitable to us. For that’s the heighth of
Gods malediction upon a Nation, when the assiduity of preaching, and the example of
a Religious Prince, does them no good, but aggravates their fault. Sermon XXX.
Preached to the Countesse of Bedford, then at Harrington house.
January 7. 1620.
Job 13. 15.
Loe, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. THeThe name, by which God notified himselfe, to all the world, at first,
was, Exod. 3. 14.Qui sum, I am; this was his style, in the Commission, that he
gave to Moses to Pharaoh; say, that he whose name is, I am, hath sent
thee, for there, God would have it made known, that all Essence, all
Beeing, all things, that fall out, in any time, past, or present, or fu-
ture, had their dependence upon him, their derivation from him,
their subsistence in him. But then, when God contracts himselfe into
a narrower consideration, not to be considered as God, which implies the whole Trinity,
but as Christ, which is onely the second Person, and when he does not so much notifie
himselfe to the whole world, as to the Christian Church, then he contracts his name too,
from that spacious and extensive Qui sum, I am, which includes all time, to Alpha and
Omega, first and last, which are peeces of time, as we see, in severall places of the Reve-
lation, he styles himselfe: when God speakes to the whole world, his name is, Qui sum,
I am, that all the world may confesse, that all that is, is nothing, but with relation to
him; when he speakes to a Christian, his name is Alpha and Omega, first and last, that
a Christian may, in the very name of God, fixe his thoughts upon his beginning, and
upon his end, and ever remember, that as a few years since, in his Cradle, he had no
sense of that honour, those riches, those pleasures, which possesses his time now, so,
God knowes how few days hence, in his grave, he shall have no sense, no memory of them.
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them. Our whole life is but a parenthesis, our receiving of our soule, and delivering
it back againe, makes up the perfect sentence; Christ is Alpha and Omega, and our
Alpha and Omega is all we are to consider. Now, for all the letters in this Alphabet of our life, that is, for all the various accidents
in the course thereof, we cannot study a better booke, then the person of Iob. His first
letter, his Alpha, we know not, we know not his Birth; His last letter, his Omega, we
know not, we know not his Death: But all his other letters, His Children, and his riches,
we read over and over againe, How he had them, how he lost them, and how he re-
covered them. By which though it appeare that those temporall things doe also belong
to the care and provision of a godly man, yet it appears too, that neither his first care,
nor his last care appertaines to the things of this world, but that there is a Primùm quæ-
rite, something to be sought for before, The kingdome of God; And there is a Memorare
novissima, something to be thought on after, The Joyes of heaven; And then, Cætera
adjicientur, says Christ, All other cares are allowable by way of Accessary, but not
as principall. And therefore, though this History of Iob, may seeme to spend it selfe,
upon the relation of Iobs temporall passages, of his wealth, and poverty, of his sicknesse,
and recovery, yet, if we consider the Alpha and Omega of the booke it selfe, the first be-
ginning, and the later end thereof, we shall see in both places, a care of the Holy ghost,
to shew us first Iobs righteousnesse, and then his riches, first his Goodnesse, and then his
Goods; in both places, there is a Catechisme, a Confession of his faith before, and then an
Inventory, and Catalogue of his wealth; for, in the first place, it is sayd, He was an upright
and just man, and feared God, and eschewed evill, and then, his Children, and his substance
follow; And in the last place, it is said, That Iob was accepted by God, and that he prayed
for those friends, which had vext him, and then it is, that his former substance was doubled
unto him. This world then is but an Occasionall world, a world onely to be us’d; and that but
so, as though we us’d it not: The next world is the world to be enjoy’d, and that so, as
that we may joy in nothing by the way, but as it directs and conduces to that end; Nay,
though we have no Joy at al, though God deny us all conveniencies here, Etiamsi occide-
rit, though he end a weary life, with a painefull death, as there is no other hope, but in
him, so there needs no other, for that alone is both abundant, and infallible in it selfe. Now, as no History is more various, then Iobs fortune, so is no phrase, no style, more
ambiguous, then that in which Iobs history is written; very many words so expressed,
very many phrases so conceived, as that they admit a diverse, a contrary sense; for
such an ambiguity in a single word, there is an example in the beginning, in Iobs wife;
we know not (from the word it selfe) whether it be Benedicas, or maledicas, whether she
sayd Blesse God, and die or Curse God: And for such an ambiguity, in an intire sentence,
the words of this text are a pregnant, and evident example, for they may be directly,
and properly thus rendered out of the Hebrew, Behold he will kill me, I will not hope;
and this seemes to differ much from our reading, Behold, though he kill me, yet will I trust
in him. And therefore to make up that sense, which our translation hath, (which
is truely the true sense of the place) we must first make this paraphrase, Behold he will
kill me, I make account he will kill me, I looke not for life at his hands, his will be done
upon me for that; And then, the rest of the sentence (I will not hope) (as we read it in
the Hebrew,) must be supplyed, or rectified rather, with an Interrogation, which that
language wants, and the translators use to add it, where they see the sense require it: And
so reading it with an Interrogation, the Originall, and our translation will constitute one
and the same thing; It will be all one sense to say, with the Originall, Behold he will kill
me, (that is, let him kill me) yet shall not I hope in him? and to say with our translation, Be-
hold though he kill me, yet will I hope in him: And this sense of the words, both the Chaldee
paraphrase, and all translations (excepting onely the Septuagint) do unanimously establish. So then, the sense of the words being thus fixed, we shall not distract your understand-
ings, Divisio. or load your memories, with more then two parts: Those, for your ease, and to
make the better impression, we will call propositum, and præpositum; first, the purpose, the
resolution of a godly man, which is, to rely upon God; and then the consideration,
the inducement, the debatement of this beforehand, That no Danger can present it
selfe, which he had not thought of before, He hath carried his thoughts to the last period,
he hath stirred the potion to the last scruple of Rheuharb, and Wormewod, which is in it, he
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he hath digested the worst, he hath considered Death it selfe, and therefore his resoluti-on stands unshak’d, Etiamsi occiderit, Though he dy for it, yet he will trust in God. In the first then, 1 Part.The Resolution, the purpose it selfe, we shall consider, Quem,
and Quid; The Person, and the Affection: To whom Iob will beare so great, and so
reverent a respect; Quis. and then, what this respect is, I will trust in him. I would not stay
you, upon the first branch, upon the person, as upon a particular consideration (though
even that, The person upon whom, in all cases, we are to rely, be entertainement suf-
ficient for the meditation of our whole life) but that there arises an usefull observation,
out of that name, by which Iob delivers that person, to us, in this place: Iob says, though
He kill me, yet he will trust in him; but he tells us not in this verse, who this He is. And
though we know, by the frame, and context, that this is God, yet we must have recourse
to the third verse, to see, in what apprehension, and what notion, in what Character, and
what Contemplation, in what name, and what nature, what Attribute, and what Capacity,
Iob conceived and proposed God to himselfe, when he fix’d his resolution so intirely to
rely upon him; for, as God is a jealous God, I am sure I have given him occasion of jealousy,
and suspicion, Ezek. 16.I have multiplied my fornications, and yet am not satisfied, as the prophet
speakes: As God is a Consuming fire, I have made my selfe fuell for the fire, and I have
brought the fires of lust, and of ambition, to kindle that fire: As God visits the sinnes
of fathers upon Children, I know not what sinnes my fathers and grandfathers have
layd up in the treasure of Gods indignation: As God comes to my notion, in these
formes, Horrendum, it were a fearefull thing to flesh and bloud, to deliver ones selfe
over to him, as he is a jealous God, and a Consuming fire; But in that third verse, Iob sets
before him, that God, whom he conceives to be Shaddai, that is, Omnipotens, All-
mighty; I will speake to the Allmighty, and I desire to dispute with God. Now, if we propose
God to our selves, in that name, as he is Shaddai, we shall find that word in so many
significations in the scriptures, as that no misery or calamity, no prosperity or happinesse
can fall upon us, but we shall still see it (of what kinde so ever it be) descend from God,
in this acceptation, as God is Shaddai. For, first, this word signifies Dishoner, as the
Septuagint translate it in the Proverbs, 19. 26.He that Dishonoreth his parents, is a shamelesse
child; There’s this word; Shaddai is the name of God, 33. 1.and yet Shaddai signifies Dis-
honor. In the prophet Esay it signifies Depredation, a forcible and violent taking away of
our goods; væ prædanti, says God in that place, woe to thee that spoyledst, and wast not
spoyled; Shaddai is the name of God, and yet Shaddai is spoyle, and violence and depre-
dation. In the prophet Ieremy, the word is carried farther, there it signifies Destruction,
and an utter Devastation; Devastati sumus, says he, wo unto us, for we are Destroy’d; The
word is Shaddai, and is Destruction, though Shaddai be the name of God: yea, the word
reaches to a more spirituall affection, it extends to the understanding, and error in that,
and to the Conscience, and sinne in that; for so the Septuagint makes use of this word
in the Proverbs, Prov. 24. 15.
Psal. 91. To deceive, and to ly; and in one place of the Psalmes, they interpret
the word, of the Devil himselfe. So that, (recollecting all these heavy significations of
the word) Dishonor and Disreputation, force and Depredation, Ruine and Devastation,
Error and Illusion, the Devill and his Tentations, are presented to us, in the same word,
as the name and power of God is, that, when so ever any of these doe fall upon us,
in the same instant when we see and consider the name and quality of this calamity
that falls, we may see and consider the power and the purpose of God which
inflicts that Calamity; I cannot call the calamity by a name, but in that name,
I name God; I cannot feel an affliction, but in that very affliction I feel the
hand (and, if I will, the medicinall hand) of my God. If therefore our Honour and Re-
putation decay, all honor was a beame of him, and if he have sucked that beame into
himselfe, let us follow it home, let us labor to be honorable in him, glorified in him,
and our honor is not extinguished in this world, but growne too glorious for this
world to comprehend. If spoyle and Depredation come upon us, that we be cove-
red with wrath, and persecuted, slaine and not spared, That those that fed delicately
perish in the streets, and they that were brought up in scarlet embrace the Dunghill, and
that the hands of pitifull women have sodden their owne children, as the prophet
complains in the Lamentations; if there be such an irreparable Devastation upon us, as
that we be broken as an Earthern vessell, in the breaking whereof there remaines not a sheard
to fetch fire from the hearth, nor water from the pit, That our estate be ruined so, as that there
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yet still God and the calamity are together; God does not send it, but bring it, he is
there as soone as the calamity is there, and calling that calamity by his owne name, Shad-
dai, he would make that very calamity a candle to thee, by which thou mightst see
him; that, if thou wert not so puffed up before, as that thou forgotst to say, Dominus dedit,
It was the Lord that gave all, thou shouldst not be so dejected, so rebellious now, as
not to say Dominus tulit, It is the Lord that hath taken, and committed to some
better steward, those treasures of his, which he saw, thou dost employ to thine owne
danger. Yea, if those spirituall afflictions, which reach to the understanding, and are intimated
and involved in this word, Lam. 1. 19.in this name of God, doe fall upon us, That we call for our
lovers, and they deceive us (as we told you, the word did signifie deceit) that is, we come
to see how much we mistooke the matter, when we fell in love with wordly things,
(as certainely, once in our lives, though it be but upon our Death beds, we doe come to
discover that deceit) yea, when the deceit is so spirituall, as that it reaches not onely to the
understanding, but to the Conscience, that that have been deceived either with security
at one time, or with anxieties, and unnecessary scruples, and impertinent perplexities
at another; if this spirituall deceit have gone so high, as that wee came to thinke our
selves to be amongst them, Ier. 4. 10.of whom the prophet sayes, Ah Lord God, surely thou hast
deceived thy people, and Jerusalem, that we come to suspect, that God hath misled us in a
false religion all this while, and that there is a better then this, if we would looke to it;
if God to punish our negligence, Ier. 5. 31.
Hose. 9. 7.and surfet of his word, should suffer the prophet to
prophecy lyes, That the prophet should be a foole, and the spirituall man mad, (that is, as
Saint Hierom reads that place, Arreptitius, possessed, possessed with the spirit of ambiti-
on, and flattery, and temporizing, to preach to their appetites, who governe the times,
and not to his instructions, who sent them to preach) yea, where this word is carried
the highest of all, that this word, which is the name of God, is used for the Devill,
(as we noted before, Lam. 2. 2. out of the Psalmes) That Satan was let loose, and polluted the king-
dome, and the princes thereof, with false worships, yet to what height to ever, this violence,
or this deceit, or this tentation should come, God comes with it; and, with God, there
is strength and wisdome, He discerns our Distresses, and is able to succour us in them;
Iob 12. 16.And, (as it is added there) He that is deceived, and he that deceives are his; The de-
ceiver is his, because he catcheth the crafty in their owne nets, and the deceived are his,
that he may rectifie and unbeguile them. So then the children of God, are the Marble,
and the Ivory, upon which he workes; In them his purpose is, to re-engrave, and restore
his Image; and affliction, and the malignity of man, and the deceits of Heretiques, and the
tentations of the Devill him selfe, are but his instruments, his tools, to make his Image
more discernible, and more dnrabledurable in us. Iob will speake to God, hee will dispute with
God, he will trust in God, therefore, because he is Shaddai, because neither dishonor, nor
Devastation, of fortune, or understanding, or Conscience, by deceit of treacherous friends,
by backsliding of false teachers, by illusion of the Devill himselfe, can be presented him,
but the name and power of God accompanies that calamity, and he sees that they
came from God, and therefore he should be patient in them, and how impatient so ever
he be, he sees he must beare them, because they came from him. But Iob hath another hold too, another assurance, for his Confidence in God,
from this name Shaddai; It is not onely because all Calamity comes from him, and
therefore should be borne, or therefore must be borne; but all Restitution, all Reparati-
on of temporall, or spirituall detriment, is included in that name too, for Shaddai
is Omnipotens, Almighty, He can do all things; And the consolation is brought nearer
then so, in one place, it is Omnia faciens, That, not onely for the future he can, Iob. 8. 3. but for
the present, he does study, and he does accomplish my good; even then, when his hand is
upon me, in a calamity, his hand is under me, to raise me up againe; as he that flings
a ball to the ground, or to a wall, intends in that action, that that ball should returne
back, so even now, when God does throw me down, it is the way that he hath chosen
to returne me to himselfe. Since therefore this name Shaddai assured Iob, that all which
we call Good; and all which we call Evill, that is, prosperity, and adversity, proceed
from God; that God (who in the signification of this name) is able to shatter, and
scatter, to devastate and depopulate, not onely our estate, but our Conscience, in an in-
Aa stant,
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Serm. XXX.
stant, with the horror of his Judgements; and then is able to binde up, and consolidate
all this againe, with his temporall, and spirituall Comforts, since he can destroy in an instant
that Temple, which was so long in building, that is, overthrow that fortune, which
employed the industry of man, the favor of princes, and the ruine and supplantations
of other men, for many yeares, to the making thereof, and then can raise this ruin’d
Temple, this overthrowne man, in three dayes, or hours, or minutes, as it pleaseth him,
to measure his owne purposes since good and bad, peace and anguish, life and death pro-
ceed from him, who is Shaddai, the Almighty God, Iob had good reasons, to trust
in him, in that God, though hee, that God, should kill him; which Emphaticall, and
applyable significations of the name, hath occasion’d me (though it be obvious and pre-
sent to every apprehension, that God is the person, who in this text, is to be relied
upon) to insist upon this, as a particular part of branch; And so we passe to that, which
we proposed for a second branch, from the person, (God, and God in this notion, Shaddai,
Almighty) to the respect, which he promises, Trust, Though hee kill me, yet will I trust
in him. It is a higher degree of Reverence and Confidence, Quid.to trust in one, then to trust one.
we see it so expressed in the Articles of our Creed; Credimus in Deum, we beleeve in
God, and in Christ, and in the Holy Ghost; And then Credimus Ecclesiam Catholicam, we
beleeve the Catholique Church. We will beleeve a honest man, that he will doe as he
sayes, we beleeve God much more, that he will performe his promises; we will trust
God, that he will doe as he sayes; But then, Iob will trust in God, That though God
have not spoken to his soule as yet, though he have not interessed him in his promises,
and in his Covenant, (for Iob is not conceived to be within the Covenant made by God
to his people) yet he will trust in him, that in his due time, he will visit him, and will
apply him those mercies, and those means, which no man, that had interest in them,
can doubt, or distrust. And therefore Iob professes his trust in God, in that word, which
hath in the use thereof in Scriptures, ordinarily three acceptations; The word is Jakal,
and Jakal signifies Expectavit Deum, his eye, his expectation was upon nothing but
God; And then it signifies speravit, he Hoped for him, As he looked for nothing else,
so he doubted not of him; And then it is Moratus est, As he was sure of him, so he pre-
scribed him not a time, but humbly attended his leasure, and received his temporall,
or spirituall blessings thankefully, whensoever it should be his pleasure to afford them. First then, Expectavit.Expectavit, He trusted in him, that is, he trusted in nothing but him. For,
beloved, as we have in the Schooles, a short and a round way, to prove that the world
was made of nothing, which is, onely to aske that man, who will need deny the world
to be made of nothing, of what it was made; and, if he could find a preexistent mat-
ter, of which he thought the world was made, yet we must aske him againe, of what,
that preexistent matter was made, and so upwards stil, till at last it must necessarily come
to nothing: so we must aske that man, that will not be of Iobs mind, to trust in God,
in what he would trust; would he trust in his riches? who shall preserve them to him?
The Law? Then he trusts in the Law. But who shall preserve the Law? The King?
Then his trust is in him. And who shall preserve him? Almighty God; and therefore
his trust must be at last in him. Deut. 14.To what nation is their God come so near to them as the
Lord our God is come neare unto us? what nation hath laws, and ordinances, so righteous as
we have? Moses sayd this historically of the Iew, and prophetically of us; Tis true, we
are governed by a peaceable, and a just law; Moses his prophecy is fulfilled upon us,
and so is Esays too, 49. 23.Reges nutricii, Kings shall be thy nursing fathers; It is true to us,
The law is preserved to us, by a just, and a peacefull prince; but how often have the sinnes
of the people, and their unthankfulnesse especially, induc’d new laws, and new princes?
The prince, and the law, are the two most reverend, and most safe things, that man
can rely upon; but yet (in other nations at least) sacred, and secular story declares, that
for the iniquity of the people the law hath been perverted by princes, and for the sinne of
the people, the prince hath been subverted by God. Howsoever there may be some
collaterall, and transitory trust in by things, the radicall, the fundamentall trust, is onely
in God. Iob trusted in him, that is, in nothing but him: but then, speravit Speravit.he hoped for
something at his hands; none can give but God; but God will give to none that doe
not hope for it, and that doe not expresse their hope, by asking, by prayer; God scatters
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scatters not his blessings, as Princes doe money, in Donatives at Coronations or Tri-umphes, without respect upon whom they shall fall. God rained downe Manna and
Quailes, plentifully, abundantly; but he knew to what hand every bird, and every
graine belonged. To trust in nothing else, is but halfe way; it is but a stupid neglect-
ing of all; It is an ill affection to say, I look for nothing at the worlds hands, nor at
Gods neither. God onely hath all, and God hath made us capable of all his gifts;
and therefore we must neither hope for them, any where else, nor give over our hope
of them, from him, by intermitting our prayers, or our industry in a lawfull calling;
for we are bound to suck at those breasts which God puts out to us, and to draw at
those springs, which flow from him to us; and prayer, and industry, are these breasts,
and these springs; and whatsoever we have by them, we have from him. Expectavit,
Job trusted not in the meanes, as in the fountaine, but yet speravit, he doubted not,
but God, who is the fountaine, would, by those meanes, derive his blessings, tempo-
rall and spirituall, upon him. Hee Hoped; now Hope is onely, or principally of invisible things, for Hope that is
seen, is not hope, says the Apostle. Rom. 8. 24.And therefore, though we may hope for temporall
things, for health, wealth, strength, and liberty, and victory where Gods enemies op-
presse the Church, and for execution of laws, where Gods enemies undermine the
Church; (for, whatsoever we may pray for, we may hope for, and all those temporall
blessings are prayed for, by Christs appointment, in that petition, Give us this day
our daily bread) yet our Hope is principally directed upon the invisible part, and invi-
sible office of those visible and temporall things; which is, that by them, we may be
the better able to performe religious duties to God, and duties of assistance to the
world. When I expect a friend, I may go up to a window, and wish I might see a Coach;
or up to a Cliffe, and wish I might see a ship, but it is because I hope, that that friend
is in that Coach, or that ship: so I wish, and pray, and labour for temporall things,
because I hope that my soule shall be edified, and my salvation established, and God
glorified by my having them: And therefore every Christian hope being especially up-
on spirituall things, is properly, and purposely grounded, upon these stones; that it
be spes veniæ, a hope of pardon, for that which is past, and then spes gratiæ, a hope of
Grace, to establish me in that state with God, in which, his pardon hath placed mee,
and lastly spes gloriæ, a hope that this pardon, and this grace, shall lead me to that ever-
lasting glory, which shall admit no night, no eclipse, no cloud. First, for the first object of this hope, pardon, we are to consider sinne, in two a-
spects, Spes veniæ.two apprehensions; as sinne is an injury, a treason; yea a wound to God; And
then as sinne is a Calamity, a misery fallen inevitably upon man. Consider it the first way,
and there is no hope of pardon, Nectalem Deum tuum putes, qualis nec tu debes esse, is
excellently said by Saint Augustine: never imagine any other quality to be in Christ,
then such, as thou, as a Christian, art bound to have in thy selfe. And, if a Snake have
stung me, must I take up that Snake, and put it into my bosome? If so poore a snake,
so poore a worme as I, have stung my Maker, have crucified my Redeemer, shall he
therefore, therefore take me into his bosome, into his wounds, and save me, and glorifie
me? No, if I look upon sinne, in that line, in that angle, as it is a wound to God, I shall
come to that of Cain, Major iniquitas, my sinne is greater, then can be forgiven, and to
that of Judas, Peccavi tradens, I have sinned in betraying the innocent bloud, that is, in
Crucifying him againe, who was crucified for me, in betraying his righteous bloud, as
much, by my unworthy receiving, as Judas did, in an unjust delivering of it. But if I
look upon sinne, as sinne is now, the misery and calamity of man, the greater the mise-
ry appears, the more hope of pardon I have; Abyssus Abyssum, Psal. 42. 7. as David speakes, One
Depth calls upon another; Infinite sinnes call for infinite mercy; and where sinne did a-
bound, grace, and mercy shall much more. First David presents the greatnesse of his sinnes,
and then followes the Miserere mei, have mercy upon me, according to the greatnesse of thy
mercy. Is there any little mercy in God? Is not all his mercy infinite, that pardons a
sinne done against an infinite majesty? yes; but herein the greatnesse appeares to us,
that it delivers us from a great calamity. Quia infirmus, Because I am weake, (borne
weake, and subject to continuall infirmities) Quia ossa conturbata, Because my bones are
troubled, (my best repentances, and resolutions are shaked) Quia vexata anima, because
my soule is in anguish, when after such resolutions, and repentances; and vowes, I Aa2 relapse
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relapse into those sinnes, these miseries of his, were Davids inducements why God
should pardon him, because it is thus with me, have mercy upon me. And so God
himselfe seemes to have had a diverse, a two-fold apprehension of our sinnes, when he
says, Gen. 6. 5.that because all the imaginations of the thoughts of mans heart, were onely evill con-
tinually, therefore he would spare none, 8, 21.he would destroy all, and after he says, that because
the imaginations of the thoughts of mans heart, were evill from his youth, he would no
more smite all things living, as he had done; for sinne, he would destroy them, and yet
for sinne, he would spare them: when we examine our sinnes, and finde them to be
out of infirmity, and not out of rebellion, we may conclude Gods corrections, to be by
way of Medicin, and not of poyson, to be for our amendment, and not for our annihila-
tion, and in that case, there is spes veniæ, just hope of pardon. Another degree of hope is, spes gratiæ, Spes Gratiæ.
Rom. 5. 10.hope of subsequent grace; for, as Saint Paul
builds his argument, If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, by the death of
his Sonne, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life: in like manner, every
sinner may build his trust, and hope in God, He that hath pardoned us, the sinnes we have
done, will much more assist us with his grace, that we may be able to stand in that state with
him, to which he hath brought us. He that succoured us, when there was nothing in us,
but his enemies, will much more send new supplies, when the town is held for him, and
by his friends. And this hope of pardon, for that which is past, and of grace for the
present, Spes Gloriæ. continues to the hope of glory to come: of which glory we apprehend strong
and effectuall beames here, by conforming our selves, to that Gospell, which the A-
postle calls the glorious Gospell of the blessed God; and for the consummation of this 1 Tim. 1. 11.
glory, we doe with patience abide for it, Rom. 8. 25. says the Apostle: which is the last of those
three senses, in which we noted, this word, in which Job expresses his trust in God, to be
used in the Scriptures, Jakal, moratus est; he did trust in nothing else, he did trust in him,
and then, he staied his leasure. Jacob makes a solemne prayer to God, Moratus est. in Genesis, 32. O God of my Fathers, Abra-
ham, and Isaac, then he remembers God of his promise, (Thou saydst unto me returne,
and I will doe thee good) he tells him his danger, (I feare my brother Esau, will come and
smite me) he makes his petition, (Deliver me from the hand of my brother) And yet, for
all this, though he trusted in God, yet God infuses not that confidence into him, as to
goe on: He sent his present to his brother, but himselfe tarried there all night, says the
text. Yea, God was so far, from giving him present meanes of deliverance, that he
made him worse able to deliver himselfe, he wrastled with him, and lam’d him: but af-
ter all, in Gods appointed time, he and his brother were reconciled. If thou pray to
Almighty God, in temporall, in spirituall calamities, if God doe not presently enligh-
ten thine understanding in every controversie of Religion, in every scruple of Conscience,
if he doe not rectifie thine estate, when it is decayed, thy reputation, when thou art re-
proached, yea if he wrastle with thee, and lame thee, that is, bring all to a greater impo-
tency, and improbability of amendment then before, yet thou hast thy Rule from Job,
thou hast thy example from Jacob, that to trust in God, is not onely to trust in nothing
else, nor onely to hope particularly, for pardon, for grace, for glory from him, but it is
to stay his leasure, for the outward, and inward seales of all his mercies, and his benefits,
which he shall, in his time, bestow upon thee. The ambitious man must stay, till he,
whose office he expects, be dead: the Covetous man must stay, till the six moneths be run,
before his use come in. Though thou have a religious ambition, a holy covetousnesse
even at Gods graces, Psal. 119. 131. thou must stay his time. Os aperui, & attraxi, says David, I o-
pened my mouth, and panted, because I loved thy Commandements; He loved them, and
he longed for them, yet he had not presently a full satisfaction. Domine labia mea aperies,
says he also first it must be the Lord that must open our lippes, in all our petitions; It must
not be the anguish of the calamity onely, nor the desire of that which thou prayest for
onely, that must open thy lippes, but the Lord, that is, the glory of God: when the Lord
hath opened thy lips in a rectified prayer, Psal: 145. 16.then followes the Aperuit manus, the eyes of all
things waite upon him, & he gives them their meate in due season; he opens his hand, & filles
every living thing, at his good pleasure: Here’s plentifull opening, and filling, and filling e-
very thing, but still in due season, & that due season expressed, At his pleasure: for, as that
is the Nature of every thing, which God hath imprinted in it, Augustin.so that is the season of eve-
ry thing, which God hath appointed for it. Thou wouldest not pray for harvest at Christ-
mas;
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mas; seek not unseasonable comforts, out of Musique, or Comedies, or Conversation,
or Wine in thy distresses, but seek it at the hand of God, and stay his leasure, for else
thou doest not trust in him. We have now passed over all those branches, 2 Part.which constituted our first part, that
which we called Propositum, what is the purpose and resolution of a godly man, in Job:
that he would not scatter his thoughts in trusting upon Creatures, and yet he would not
suffer his thoughts to vanish and evaporate, he would rest them upon something, and
not leave all to fortune, he would rest upon God, and yet stay his time for the execution
of his gracious purposes. There remaines yet, that which we called præpositum, in which
we intended, the foundation, and ground of that purpose and resolution; which seems in
Job, to have been, a debatement in himselfe, a contemplation of all dangers, the worst
was death, and yet, Si occiderit, if I dye for it, and dye at his hands, Though he kill me, yes
will I trust in him. For when the children of God take that resolution, to suffer any af-
fliction, which God shall lay upon them, patiently, and cheerfully, it must not be a so-
daine, a rash, an undebated resolution, but they must consider why they undertake it, and
in whose strength, they shall be able to doe it: They must consider what they have done
for God, before they promise themselves the glory of suffering for him. When they
which enterprised the building of Babel, Gen. 11.did no more but say to one another, Come let us
make bricke, go to, let us build a towre, whose top may reach to heaven, how quickly they
were scattered over the earth? The way is, Luke 14. 28.if you minde to build, to sit downe and count
the cost; if you purpose to suffer for Christ, to look to your stock, your strength,
and from whence it comes. The King that intends a war, in that Gospell, takes coun-
saile, whether he be able with his tenne thousand to meet the enemy with twenty thousand.
We are too weake for our enemy; the world, the flesh, and the Devill, are mustered
against us; but yet, with our ten thousand, we may meet their twenty thousand, if we
have put on Christ, and be armed with him, and his holy patience, and constancy; but
from whom may we derive an assurance, that we shall have that armor, that patience,
that constancy? First, a Christian must purpose to Doe, and then in cases of necessity, to
suffer: And give me leave to make this short note by the way, no man shall suffer like a
Christian, that hath done nothing like a Christian: God shall thanke no man, for dying
for him, and his glory, that contributed nothing to his glory, in the actions of his life:
very hardly shall that man be a Martyr in a persecution, that did not what he could, to
keep off persecution. Thus then Job comes first, to the Si occiderit; If he should kill me; If Gods anger
should proceed so far, as so far, it may proceed. Let no man say in a sicknesse, or in any
temporall calamity, this is the worst; for a worse thing then that may fall: five and thirty
years sicknesse may fall upon thee; and, (as it is in that Gospell) a worse thing then that;
Distraction, and desperation may fall upon thee: let no Church, no State, in any distress
say, this is the worst, for onely God knowes, what is the worst, that God can doe to
us. Job does not deny here, but that this Si occiderit, if it come to a matter of life, it
were another manner of triall, then either the si irruerent Sabæi, if the Sabæans should
come, and drive his Cattell, and slay his servants; more, then the si ignis caderet; if the
fire of God should fall from heaven, and devoure all; more, then the si ventus concute-
ret, if the winde of the wildernesse, should shake downe his house, and kill and all his chil-
dren. The Devill in his malice saw, that if it came to matter of life, Iob was like e-
nough to be shaked in his faith; Skin for skin, and all that ever a man hath will he give
for his life. God foresaw that, in his gracious providence too; and therefore he took
that clause out of Satans Commission, and inserted his veruntamen animam ejus serva,
medle not with his life. The love of this life, which is naturall to us, and imprinted by
God in us, is not sinfull: Few and evill have the days of my pilgrimage been, says Iacob to
Pharaoh: though they had been evill, (which makes our days seem long) and though
he were no young man, when he said so, yet the days which he had past, he thought few,
and desired more. When Eliah was fled into the wildernesse, and that in passion, and
vehemence he said to God, Sufficit Domine, tolle animam meam, It is enough O Lord, now
take away my life, if he had been heartily, thoroughly weary of his life, he needed not to
have fled from Iesabel, for he fled but to save his life. The Apostle had a Cupio dissolvi, a
desire to be dissolved; but yet a love to his brethren corrected that desire, and made
him finde that it was far better for him to live. Our Saviour himselfe, when it came Aa3 to
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to the pinch, and to the agony, had a Transeat Calix, a naturall declining of death. The
naturall love of our naturall life is not ill: It is ill, in many cases, not to love this life:
to expose it to unnecessary dangers, is alwayes ill; and there are overtures to as great
sinnes, in hating this life, as in loving it; and therefore Jobs first consideration is, si oc-
cideret, if he should kill me, if I thought he would kill me, this were enough to put me
from trusting in any. But Jobs consideration went farther, then to the si occideret, Though he should kill me,
for it comes to an absolute assurance that God will kill him; for so it is in the O-
riginall, Ecce occidet, Behold, I see he will kill me; I have, I can have no hope of life,
at his hands. Tis all our cases; Adam might have liv’d, if he would, but I cannot. God
hath placed an Ecce, a marke of my death, upon every thing living, that I can set mine
eye upon; every thing is a remembrancer, every thing is a Judge upon me, and pro-
nounces, Heb. 9. 27.I must dye. The whole frame of the world is mortall, Heaven and Earth passe
away: and upon us all, there is an irrecoverable Decree past, statutum est, It is appoint-
ed to all men, that they shall once dye. But when? quickly; If thou looke up into the
aire, Job 7. 7.remember that thy life is but a winde; If thou see a cloud in the aire, aske St. James
his question, what is your life? and give St. James his answer, Iam. 4. 14. It is a vapour that appea-
reth and vanisheth away. If thou behold a Tree, then Job gives thee a comparison of thy
selfe; A Tree is an embleme of thy selfe; nay a Tree is the originall, thou art but the copy, Iob 14. 7.
thou art not so good as it: for, There is hope of a tree (as you reade there) if the
roote wax old, if the stock be dead, if it be cut down, yet by the sent of the waters, it
will bud, but man is sick, and dyeth, and where is he? he shall not wake againe, till hea-
ven be no more. Looke upon the water, and we are as that, and as that spilt upon the
ground: Looke to the earth, and we are not like that, but we are earth it self: At our
Tables we feed upon the dead, and in the Temple we tread upon the dead: and when
we meet in a Church, God hath made many echoes, many testimonies of our death,
in the walls, and in the windowes, and he onely knowes, whether he will not make an-
other testimony of our mortality, of the youngest amongst us, before we part, and
make the very place of our buriall, our deathbed. Jobs contemplation went so far; not
onely to a Si occideret, to a possibility that he might dye, but to an Ecce occidet, to an as-
surance that he must dye; I know there is an infalliblenesse in the Decree, an inevitable-
nesse in nature, an inexorablenesse in God, I must dye. And the word beares a third
interpretation beyond this; for si occiderit, is not onely, if he should kill me, as he may,
if he will, and it may be he will; nor onely, that I am sure he will kill me, I know I must
dye, but the word may very well be also, though he have killed me. So that Jobs reso-
lution that he will trust in God, is grounded upon all these considerations, That there
is exercise of our hope in God, before death, in the agony of death, and after death.
First, in our good dayes, and in the time of health, Memorare novissima, sayes the wise
man, we must remember our end, our death. But that we cannot forget, every thing
presents that to us; But his counsell there, is, in omnibus operibus, In all thine underta-
kings, in all thine actions, remember thine end; when thou art in any worldly work, for
advancing thy state, remember thy naturall death, but especially when thou art in a sin-
full worke, for satisfying thy lusts, remember thy spirituall death: Be afraid of this
death, Psal. 120. 5.and thou wilt never feare the other: Thou wilt rather sigh with David, My
soule hath too long dwelt with him that hateth peace: Thou wilt be glad when a bodily death
may deliver thee from all farther danger of a spirituall death: And thou wilt be asha-
med of that imputation, which is layd upon worldly men, by St. Cyprian, Ad nostros
navigamus, & ventos contrarios optamus, we pretend to be sayling homewards, and yet
we desire to have the winde against us; we are travelling to the heavenly Jerusalem, and
yet we are loath to come thither. Here then is the use of our hope before death, that
this life shall be a gallery into a better roome, and deliver us over to a better Country:
for, 1. Cor. 15. 19.if in this life onely we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable. Secondly, in the agony of death; when the Sessions are come, and that as a prisoner
may looke from that Tower, and see the Judge that must condemne him to morrow,
come in to night; so we lye upon our death-bed, and apprehend a present judgement to
be given upon us, when, if we will not pleade to the Indictment, if we will stand mute,
and have nothing to say to God, we are condemned already, condemned in our silence;
and if we do plead, we have no plea, but guilty; nothing to say, but to confesse all the In-
dictment
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To the Nobility.
dictment against our selves; when the flesh is too weake, as that it can performe no office,
and yet would faine stay here, when the soule is laden with more sins then she can bear,
and yet would faine contract more; in this agony, there is this use of our hope, that as
God shall then, when our bodily eares are deaf, whisper to our soules, and say, Memen-
to homo, Remember, consider man, that thou art but dust, and art now returning into dust,
so we, in our hearts, when our bodily tongues are speechlesse, may then say to God, as
it is in Job, 10.Memento quæso, Remember thou also, I beseech thee, O God, that it is thou
that hast made me as clay, and that it is thou that bringest me to that state againe; and there-
fore come thou, and looke to thine owne worke; come and let thy servant depart in
peace, in having seen his salvation. My hope before death is, that this life is the way; my
hope at death is, that my death shall be a doore into a better state. Lastly, the use of our hope, is after death, that God by his promise, hath made him-
self my debter, till he restore my body to me againe, in the resurrection: My body hath
sinned, and he hath not redeemed a sinner, he hath not saved a sinner, except he have
redeemed and saved my body, as well as my soule. To those soules that lye under the
Altar, and solicite God, for the resurrection, in the Revelation, God sayes, 6. 11.That they
should rest for a little season, untill their fellow-servants, and their brethren, that should be
killed, even as they were, were fulfilled. All that while, while that number is fulfilling, is
our hopes exercised after our death. And therefore the bodies of the Saints of God,
which have been Temples of the Holy Ghost, when the soule is gone out of them,
are not to be neglected, as a sheath that had lost the knife, as a shell that had spent the
kernell; but as the Godhead did not depart from the dead body of Christ Jesus, then
when that body lay dead in the grave, so the power of God, and the merit of Christ
Jesus, doth not depart from the body of man, but his blood lives in our ashes, and shall
in his appointed time, awaken this body againe, to an everlasting glory. Since therefore Job had, and we have this assurance before we dye, when we dye, af-
ter we are dead, it is upon good reason, that he did, and we do trust in God, though he
should kill us, when he doth kill us, after he hath killed us. Especially since it is Ille, He
who is spoken of before, Deut. 32. 39. he that kills, and gives life, he that wounds, and makes whole
againe. God executes by what way it pleases him; condemned persons cannot chuse
the manner of their death; whether God kill by sicknesse, by age, by the hand of the
law, by the malice of man, si ille, as long as we can see that it is he, he that is Shaddai,
Vastator, & Restaurator, the destroyer, and the repairer, howsoever he kill, yet he gives life
too, howsoever he wound, yet he heales too, howsoever he lock us into our graves now,
yet he hath the keys of hell, and death, and shall in his time, extend that voyce to us
all, Lazare veni foras, come forth of your putrefaction, to incorruptible glory. Amen. Sermon XXXI.
Preached at Hanworth, to my Lord of Carlile, and his company, being the Earles of Northumberland, and Buckingham, &c. Aug. 25. 1622.
Job 36. 25.
Every man may see it, man may behold it afar off. THeThe words are the words of Elihu; Elihu was one of Jobs friends,
and a meer naturall man: a man not captivated, not fettered, not
enthralled, in any particular forme of Religion, as the Jewes were;
a man not macerated with the feare of God; not infatuated with any
preconceptions, which Nurses, or Godfathers, or Parents, or Church,
or State had infused into him; not dejected, not suppled, not ma-
tured, not entendred, with crosses in this world, and so made apt to
receive any impressions, or follow any opinions of other men, a meer naturall man; and
in the meer use of meer naturall reason, this man sayes of God in his works, Every man
may see it, Man may behold it afar off. It is the word of a naturall man; and the holy Ghost
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Serm. XXXI.
Ghost having canonized it, sanctified it, by inserting it into the booke of God, it is the
word of God too. Saint Paul cites sometimes the words of secular Poets; and approves
them; and then the words of those Poets, become the word of God; Elihu speakes, a
naturall man, and God speakes, in canonizing his words; and therefore when we speake
to godly men, we are sure to be believed, for God sayes it; if we were to speake to natu-
rall men onely, we might be believed, for Elihu, a naturall man, and wise in his genera-
tion, sayes it, that for God in his works, Every man may see it, man may behold it afar off. Be pleased to admit, Divisio.and charge your memories with this distribution of the words;
Let the parts be but two, so you will be pleased to stoop, and gather, or at least to open
your hands to receive some more (I must not say flowers, for things of sweetnesse, and
of delight grow not in my ground) but simples rather, and medicinall herbs; of which
as there enter many into good cordials, so in this supreme cordiall, of bringing God
into the eyes of man, that every man may see it, men may behold it afar off, there must
necessarily arise many particulars to your consideration. I threaten you but with two
parts; no farther tediousnesse; but I aske roome for divers branches; I can promise
no more shortnesse. The first part is a discovery, a manifestation of God to man;
though that be undeniably true, Psal. 18. 11.Posuit tenebras latibulum, God hath made darknesse his
secret place, yet it is as true, which proceeds from the same mouth, and the same pen,
Amictus tanquam pallio, 104. 2.God covers himselfe with light as with a garment, he will be
seene through his works: As we shall stand naked to one another, and not be ashamed
of our scars, or morphews, in the sight of God, so God stands naked to the eyes of man,
and is not ashamed of that humiliation, Every man may see it, man may behold it afar
off. This proposition, this discovery, will be the first part; and the other will be a ta-
cite answer, to a likely objection, is not God far off, and can man see at that distance?
yes, he may. Man may behold that afar off. Every man may see it, man may behold it
afar off. God is the subject of both parts; God alone; one God. But in both parts there is
a Trinity too; three branches in each part; for in each, there is an object, something to
be apprehended; there is a meanes of apprehending it, it is to be seene; there is a per-
son enabled to see it, Every man may see it, man may behold it afar off. But these three
are not alike in each part; for in the first, that object is determined, limited; it is illud;
it; God in his works. In the second, there is no object limited, for it is not illud, but
there is more left to be seene; not onely God in his works, as here below, but God in his
glory above; Man may behold, but he does not offer to tell us what; there is an object,
but another object. In the second there is a difference too, in the meanes of apprehend-
ing: It is but Casah in the first, it is Nibbat in the second; in that, every man may see,
in the other, man may behold. And in the third, there is also a difference, the man, that
may see God, is Adam; Adam is a man, made of earth, the weakest man, even in nature
may see God; but the man that must behold afar off, is Enoch, and Enoch is homo æger,
a miserable man, a man that hath tasted affliction, and calamity, for that man lookes
after God in the next world, and as he feeles God with a rod in his hand here, so he be-
holds God with a crown in his hand there. And of those sticks of sweet wood, of those
drops of sweet gums, shall we make up this present sacrifice. In our first part, 1 Part.
Illud.
Optus. the manifestation of God to man, the first branch is the object, the
limited object, illud, Every man may see it; what is that? That which was proposed
in the verse immediately before, Remember that thou magnifie his worke which men be-
hold; First, it is a worke, and therefore it is made, it hath an author, a creator; and
then it is his worke, the worke of God, and therefore manifests him. It is a worke, a delibe-
rate, not a casuall matter, this frame, this world. It is a worke, it was begun, and made
up, Epipha. not an eternall matter, this frame, this world. Epiphanius sayes well, Omnis error à
cæcitate ad vanitatem; that’s the progresse of error; every error begins in blindnesse,
and ignorance, but proceeds, and ends, in absurdity, in frivolousnesse. If men had not
put out the light of nature, they might discerne a creation in the world, that that was
made, it is a worke; but when they do put out that light, and deny a creation, into
what frivolous opinions they scatter themselves; what contradictory things, men that
seeme constant, say; what childish, what ridiculous things, men that seeme grave, and
sober fathers in Philosophy, say of this world? when they have said all, this one thing
will destroy all, if the world be eternall, it is God; for whatsoever had no beginning, whatsoever
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To the Nobility.
whatsoever needed nothing to give it a beeing, whatsoever was always of it selfe, is God.
So that to build up their opinions in one part, they destroy it in another; and to over-
throw our Hall, they build up our Chappell; by denying that the world was made, they
imply, they confesse a God; for if it had no Creator, it is no Creature, it is God; so that
they lose more then they gaine, and they seek damnation, unthriftily, and perish prodi-
gally; they deny the Creation, left by the Creation, we should prove God, and their
very deniall of a Creation, their making of the world eternall, constitutes it to be God.
They deny any God, and then make a worse God. This world then is a work, Opus ejus. a limited, a determined, a circumscribed work; and it is
Opus ejus, his work, says Elihu there. But whose? Will you lay hold upon that? upon
that, that Elihu onely says, Remember his work, but names none? But two verses be-
fore, (with which this verse hath connexion) he does name God. But let the work be
whose it will, whosoever be this He, this He must be God, whosoever gave the first bee-
ing to Creatures, must be the Creator. If you will thinke, that Chance did it, and for-
tune, then fortune must be your God; and destiny must be your God, if you thinke desti-
ny did it; and therefore you were as good attribute it to the right God, for a God it must
have; if it be a work, it was made, if it be a Creature, there is a Creator; and if it be his
work, that He, must be God, and there are no more Gods, but one. Every man hath a
delight, and complacency in knowledge, and is ashamed of ignorance, even in booklearn-
ing: a man would have a Library pro supellectile; even for a part of furniture, Seneca. a man
would read for Ornament: His house is not well furnished, he is not well furnished, without
bookes. Many a man, who lets the Bible dust, and rust, because the Bible hath a kinde
of majesty and prerogative, and command over a man; it will not be jested withall,
it will not be disputed against; a man can very hardly devest the reverence, that apper-
taines to that book, and therefore he had rather deale with his fellowes, more humane
Authors, that will hear reason, and not binde his faith; many a man can let the Fathers
stand, because they write out of a pious credulity, and such anticipations, and precon-
ceptions, as the Bible hath submitted them under, and captivated them to; But if
thou let the Bible, and Fathers alone, and yet love bookes, what book (what kinde of
book) canst thou take into thy hand, that proves not this world to be Opus, a work,
made, and Opus ejus, his work made by him, by God? Dost thou love learning, as it is
expounded, Cicero. dilated, by Orators? The Father of Orators testifies, Nihil tam perspicuum,
there is nothing so evident, as that there is a soveraigne power, that made, and go-
vernes all. Dost thou love learning, as it is contracted, brought to a quintessence,
wrought to a spirit, by Philosophers? the eldest of all them in that whole book, Quod
Deus latens, simul & patens est, testifies all that, Trismeg. and nothing but that, that as there is
nothing so dark, so there is nothing so cleare, nothing so remote, nothing so neare us,
as God. Dost thou love learning, as it is sweetned and set to musique by Poets? the
King of the Poets testifies the same, Virgil.Mens agitat molem, & magno se corpore miscet; that
is, a great, an universall spirit, that moves, a generall soule, that inanimates, and agi-
tates every peece of this world. But Saint Paul is a more powerfull Orator, then Cice-
ro, and he says, The invisible things of God, are seen by things which are made; and
thereby man is made inexcuseable: Moses is an ancienter Philosopher, Rom. 1. 20. then Trismegistus;
and his picture of God, is the Creation of the world. David is a better Poet then
Virgil; and with David, Cœli enarrant, the heavens declare the glory of God; The power
of oratory, in the force of perswasion, the strength of conclusions, in the pressing of Phi-
losophy, the harmony of Poetry, in the sweetnesse of composition, never met in any man,
so fully as in the Prophet Esay, nor in the Prophet Esay more, then where he says, Le-
vate Oculos, Lift up your eyes, on high, and behold who hath created these things; behold 40. 20.
them, therefore, to know that they are created, and to know who is their creator. All
other authors we distinguish by tomes, by parts, by volumes; but who knowes the vo-
lumes of this Author; how many volumes of Spheares involve one another, how many
tomes of Gods Creatures there are? Hast thou not room, hast thou not money, hast
thou not understanding, hast thou not leasure, for great volumes, for the bookes of hea-
ven, (for the Mathematiques) nor for the books of Courts, (the Politiques) take but the
Georgiques, the consideration of the Earth, a farme, a garden, nay seven foot of earth,
a grave, and that will be book enough. Goe lower; every worme in the grave, lower,
every weed upon the grave, is an abridgement of all; nay lock up all doores and win-
dowes
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dowes see nothing but thy selfe; nay let thy selfe be locked up in a close prison, that
thou canst not see thy selfe, and doe but feel thy pulse; let thy pulse be intermitted, or
stupefied, that thou feel not that, & doe but thinke, and a worme, a weed, thy selfe, thy
pulse, thy thought, are all testimonies, that All, this All and all the parts thereof,
are opus, a work made, and opus ejus, his work, made by God. He that made a Clock or an
Organ, will be sure to ingrave his Me fecit, such a man made me; he that builds a faire
house, takes it ill, if a passenger will not aske, whose house is it; he that bred up his
Sonne to a capacity of noble employments, looks that the world should say, he
had a wise and an honourable Father; Can any man look upon the frame of this world,
and not say, there is a powerfull, upon the administration of this world, and not say,
there is a wise and a just hand over it? Thus is the object, ‘tis but Illud, the world; but
such a world, as may well justifie Saint Hieromes translation, who renders it Illum; not
onely that every man may see it, the work, the world; but may see him; God in that
work. That’s the object, Videre pos-
sunt. not onely the work, but the workman, God in the work; and the meanes
is, that man may see it; that is, by that spectacle, he may see God; what of God? how much
of God? Is it his essence? Durand. For that, the resolution of the School is sufficient; Nulla visio
naturalis in terris; no man can see God in this world, and live, but no man can see God
in the next world, and dye, there visio is beatitudo, sight is salvation. Yet, Nulla visio
corporalis in Cœlis: These bodily eyes, even then, when they are glorified, shall not see
the Essence of God: our mortal eyes do not see bodies here; they see no substance, they see
onely quantities, and dimensions; our glorified bodily eyes, shall see the glory shed out of God,
but the very essence of God, those glorified bodily eyes shall not see: but the eyes of our
soul, shall be so enlightned, as that they shal see God Sicuti est, even in his essence, which the
best illumined & most sanctified men are very far from in this life. Now the sight of God
in this text, is the knowledge of God, to see God, is but to know, that there is a God.
And can man as a naturall man, doe that? See God so, as to know that there is a God?
Can hee doe it? Nay can he chuse but doe it? The question hath divided the School;
those two great, Boverius fo. 14. and well known families of the School, whom we call, Thomists, and
Scotists: the first say, that this proposition, Deus est, is per se nota, evident in it selfe,
and the others deny that. But yet they differ, but thus far, that Thomas thinks that it is
so evident, that man cannot chuse but know it, though he resist it; The other thinks, in
it selfe, it is but so evident, as that a man may know it, if he imploy his naturall faculties,
without going any farther; Viderunt. thus much, indeed, thus little, they differ. Now the holy
Ghost is the God of Peace, and doth so far reconcile these two, in this text, as that first
in our reading, it is, That man may see God; and that Scotus does not deny; but in the
Originall, in the Hebrew, it is Casu, and Casu is, viderunt: not, every man may, but eve-
ry man hath seen God: Though it goe not absolutely, so far, as Thomas, every man
must, no man can chuse but see God, yet it goes so far further then Scotus, (who ends
in every man may) as that it says, every man hath seen God. So that our labour never
lies in this, to prove to any man, that he may see God, but onely to remember him that
he hath seen God: not to make him beleeve that there is a God, but to make him see,
that he does beleeve it. Quid habes, quod non accepisti? And hast thou received any
thing and not seen, not known him that gave it? Who hath infused comfort into thee, into
thy distresses? Thine own Morall constancy? Who infused that? Who hath imprin-
ted terrors in thee? A dampe in thine owne heart? Who imprinted it? Sweare to me
now that thou beleevest not in God, and before midnight, thou wilt tell God, that thou
dost; Miserable distemper! not to see God in the light, and see him in the darke: not to
see him at noon, and see him fearfully at midnight: not to see, where we all see him, in
the Congregation, and to see him with terror, in the Suburbs of despaire, in the solita-
ry chamber. Man may, Omnis homo. sayes Scotus, man must, he cannot chuse, sayes Thomas, man hath seen God,
sayes the holy Ghost. Man, that is, every man; and that’s our last branch in this first part.
The inexcusablenesse goes over man, Rom. 1. 20. over all men: Because they would not see invisi-
ble things in visible, they are inexcusable, all. Death passed upon all men, for all have
sinned. 5. 12. All sinners, all dead. Is Gods right hand shorter then his left? his mercy shrunk,
and his justice stretched? no certainly; certainly every man may see him. Man can-
not hide himselfe from God; God does not hide himselfe from man: not from any man.
275
Serm. XXXI.
To the Nobility.
man. Col-Adam, Omnis homo; even in that low name, that lowest acceptation of man,
as he is but derived from earth, as he is but earth, he may see God. We have divers
names for man in Hebrew, at least foure; This that makes him but earth, Adam, is the
meanest, and yet Col-Adam, Every man may see God. David cals us to the contempla-
tion of the heavens, 38. 31.Cœli enarrant, and Job to the contemplation of the firmament, of
the Pleiades, and Orion, and Arcturus, and the ordinances of heaven; but it is not onely
the Mathematician, that sees God, Domini terra, the earth is the Lords, and all that
dwell therein; all, Psal. 107. 23. in all corners of the earth, may see him. David tels us, They that go
down to the sea, in ships, they see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep: but it
is not onely the Mariner, Luk. 9. 62. the discoverer, that discovers God: but he that puts his
hand to the plough, and looks not back, may see God there. Let him be filius terræ, the
sonne of the earth, without noble extraction, without knowne place, of uncertaine
parents, (even Melchisedeck was so) Let him be filius percussionis, the sonne of afflicti-
on, a man that hath inward heavy sentences, and heavy executions of the law; Let him
be filius mortis, Deut. 25. 2. the sonne of death (as Saul said to Jonathan of David) a man designed
to dye; 1 Sam. 20. 31. nay let him be filius Belial, the sonne of iniquity, and of everlasting perditi-
on, there is no lownesse, no naturall, no spirituall dejection so low, but that that low Deut. 13. 13.
man may see God. Let him be filius terræ, the sonne of the earth, and of no body else,
let him be Dominus terræ, Lord of the earth, busied upon the earth, and nothing else,
let him be hospes terræ, a guest, a tenant, an inmate of the earth, halfe of him in the
earth, and the rest no where else, this poore man, this worldly man, this dying man,
may see God. To end this, you can place the spheare in no position, in no station, in
which the earth can eclipse the Sun; you can place this clod of earth, man, in no igno-
rance, in no melancholy, in no oppression, in no sinne, but that he may, but that he does
see God. The Marrigold opens to the Sunne, though it have no tongue to say so, the
Atheist does see God, though he have not grace to confesse it. We have past through our first part, 2 Part. and the three branches of that; The object, God
in his works, and the faculty that apprehends, seeing, that is knowing, and the person in-
dued with the faculty, every man, even Adam. In our second part, which is a tacite an-
swer to a likely objection, (Is not God in the highest heaven, afar off? yes; but man
may see afar off) we have the same three branches too, and yet not the same; the same
object, God, but in another manifestation, then in his worke, in glory; the same faculty,
seeing, but with other manner of eyes, glorified eyes; the same person, man, but
not man, as he is Adam, a meere naturall and earthly man, but man, as he is Enosh, who
by having tasted Gods corrections, or by having considered the miseries of this world,
is prepared for the joy and glory of the next. And in this part we will begin with the
person, man; Man may behold it afar off. How different are the wayes of God, Enosh. from the ways of man? the eyes of God from
the eyes of man? and the wayes, and eyes of a godly man, from the eyes, and wayes
of a man of this world? We looke still upon high persons, and after high places, and
from those heights, we thinke, we see far; but he that will see this object, must lye
low; it is best discerned in the dark, in a heavy, and a calamitous fortune. The natu-
rall way is upward; I can better know a man upon the top of a steeple, then if he were
halfe that depth in a well; but yet for higher objects, I can better see the stars of hea-
ven, in the bottome of a well, then if I stood upon the highest steeple upon earth. If I
twist a cable of infinite fadomes in length, if there be no ship to ride by it, nor anchor
to hold by it, what use is there of it? If Mannor thrust Mannor, and title flow into
title, and bags powre out into chests, if I have no anchor, (faith in Christ) if I have
not a ship to carry to a haven, (a soule to save) what’s my long cable to me? If I adde
number to number, a span, a mile long, if at the end of all that long line of numbers,
there be nothing that notes, pounds, or crownes, or shillings, what’s that long number,
but so many millions of millions of nothing? If my span of life become a mile of life,
my penny a pound, my pint a gallon, my acre a sheere; yet if there be nothing of the
next world at the end, so much peace of conscience, so much joy, so much glory, still
all is but nothing multiplied, and that is still nothing at all. ‘Tis the end that qualifies
all; and what kinde of man I shall be at my end, upon my death-bed, what trembling
hands, and what lost legs, what deafe eares, and what gummy eyes, I shall have then,
I know; and the nearer I come to that disposition, in my life, (the more mortified I am) the
276
To the Nobility.
Serm. XXXI.
the better I am disposed to see this object, future glory. God made the Sun, and Moon,
and Stars, glorious lights for man to see by; but mans infirmity requires spectacles;
and affliction does that office. Gods meaning was, that by the sun-shine of prospe-
rity, and by the beames of honour, and temporall blessings, a man should see farre
into him; but I know not how he is come to need spectacles; scarse any man sees much
in this matter, till affliction shew it him. God made the ballance even; riches may
show God, and poverty may show God; let the two Testaments, the old and the
new, be the ballance, and so they are even; the blessednesse of the old Testament runs
all upon temporall blessings, and worldly riches; Blessed in the city, and in the field;
blessed in the fruit of thy cattell, and of thy wombe; In the new Testament utterly other-
wise; Blessed are the poore, Blessed are they that mourne, Blessed are they that are persecuted,
and reviled; but the blessednesse of the old Testament, temporall blessings, are tempo-
rary, as the old Testament was; that’s expir’d. The blessednesse of the Gospell, is as
the Gospell, everlasting: and therfore the low way is the best way; adversity will be
the best way to see God by. I speake not of meere beggery, of having nothing; but
of having lesse then we had; the losse of some of that possession, or honour, or wealth,
or health, which we had, conduces more to this sight of God, then the additions of
any of these. Extreme want may put a man out of his way to God, as far as abundance
and superfluity; as we say in civill things, the midde men aise the Subsidy, not the great
men, nor the beggers; so the middle men see farthest into God, and serve him best; not
the abounding, Prov. 30. 8. not the wanting man. Solomon prayes against both; against riches, and
against poverty too; but yet not as though the danger were equall, if the words be
well considered; the danger of his poverty is, lest he steale, and take the Name of God
in vaine; that is, forsweare the theft; a great fault, two great faults; but these
two amount not to that one, which arises out of abundance, Lest I be full, and deny thee,
and say, Hierome. Who is the Lord? And that Proverb, that Solomon speaks of, Saint Hierome cals
not, paupertatem, but mendicitatem; and that is often indeed, the mother and nurse of
many enormous mischiefs. Bernard. Saint Bernard takes the word, poverty, in that place, but he
multiplies it, Paupertates ne dederis, Give me not, O Lord, a double poverty; poverty in
deed, and poverty in opinion; poverty, and a murmurning with my poverty; for that also
is the mother, Phil. 4. 12. and nurse of many enormous mischiefs. I know how to abound, and how
to want; It is the harder worke, ferre abundantiam; aboundance is a burden, want is Chrysost.
but a weaknesse; and it is a greater torment, to be pressed under a great weight, then
to lye bed-rid. To end this, the person in our Text is Enosh, man; but not every man,
as before, Adam; but that man upon whom Gods hand hath been in the losse of some-
thing, that he had before. As the body of man is mellowed in the grave, and made fit
for glory in the resurrection, so the minde of man by suffering is suppled; Adam is made
Enosh; and he may see. The person is the same, Intuebitur. and yet changed; man, but another kinde of man; The
means of apprehending is the same, and yet changed too, seeing, but another kinde of
seeing. This man, thus disposed, thus matured, thus mellowed, thus suppled, thus en-
tendred by Gods easie corrections, he whom God hath not left to himself, nor yet put
him beyond himself, not fulfilled all, but yet not frustrated all his desires neither, laid
his hand upon him, so as to keep him downe from swelling up against him, but yet so
too, as to keep him up, from sinking, or falling from him, that man, that Enosh may
see the hand of God, and take God by the hand, and bid him welcome, and finde a rich,
and a sweet advantage in that correction; it is a seeing of God, not as before, in his works
abroad, but in his working upon himself, at home. Such a man God strikes so, as that
when he strikes, he strikes fire, and lights him a candle, to see his presence by; we doe
not finde that Job came to his Dominus dedit, to his confession, The Lord giveth, till
he came to the Dominus abstulit; to the sense of Gods taking away, not to expresse his
sense of Gods blessings to him, till he felt his corrections upon him; and then they
came together, Dominus dedit, and abstulit, The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.
Darknesse is that, by which the holy Ghost himselfe hath chosen to expresse hell; hell is
darknesse; and the way to it, to hell, is Excæcation in this life, blindnesse in our spiritu-
all eyes. Eternall life hereafter is Visio Dei, the sight of God, and the way to that here,
is to see God here: and the eye-salve for that is, to be crossed in our desires in this world,
by the hand of God. When Christ presents things necessary for his service, he proposes them
277
Serm. XXXI.
To the Nobility. them thus; this is his Inventary; Gold against poverty, white clothes against naked-nesse, Apo 3. 18.and collyrium, eye-salve to see by. Now for the two first he bids us buy them;
buy-gold, buy clothes, that is, labour, endeavour to get them; he does not say, buy
the eye-salve, that is, affliction; no man is to thrust himselfe into unnecessary dangers,
or persecutions, and call his indiscretion Martyrdome; It is to be presumed, that eve-
ry man, how high or how abundant soever, hath eye salve enough, affliction and cros-
ses enough, if he do apply them: and therefore Christ does not say, buy them; hunt
after them, expose thy selfe to them; but he sayes onely, Anoynt thy eyes with them,
I will give thee the physick, (crosses and calamities here) do thou apply them accor-
ding to the nature of the medicine, and to the purpose of the physitian, and by them
thou shalt see God. Our translation carries this word no farther in this part of the Text, then the other
in the former; There it was, every man may see; here it is, man, that is, this man may
behold. But as we showed you, that the former was in the originall Casu, viderunt, every
man, (let him say what he will to the contrary) yet he hath seen God, so in this part,
the word in the originall, is Jabbit, and that is videbit, in the future, he shall see, This
sight of God is not in him, naturally, that we can be sure he hath seen him, but it is
reserved to the future; let him be thus wrought upon by Gods hand, and videbit, in the
future, he shall see. Now, you remember what designes the future; he shall see; is a note
of the future, and so is, he will see. This man, this Enosh, thus moulded, thus kneaded,
by the hand of God, he shall see God, he shall (in a manner) whether he will or no, a
holy, and a heavenly violence shall be offered him, it shall not be in the power of the
world, the flesh or the devill, to blind him, he shall see God; and then he will see God,
his will shall be inclined, and disposed to it, and every first beame of Gods grace, eve-
ry influence of the Spirit of God, shall open his eyes; God shall be so jealous of him, as
that he shall see God, he shall be so watchfull upon God, and his motions, as that he will
see him. And more then see him; for Iabbit, is Intuebitur, he will behold him, contemplate
God, ruminate, meditate upon God. Man sees best in the light, but meditates best in the
darke; for our sight of God, it is enough, that God gives the light of nature; to behold
him so, as to fixe upon him in meditation, God benights us, or eclipses us, or casts a
cloud of medicinall afflictions, and wholsome corrections upon us. Naturally we dwell
longer upon the consideration of God, when we see the Sun eclipsed, then when we see
it rise, we passe by that as an ordinary thing; and so in our afflictions we stand, and
looke upon God, and we behold him. A man may see God, and forget that ever he
saw him; Mat. 25. 44.When saw we thee hungry, or naked, or sick, or in prison, say those mercilesse
men; they forgot; but Christ remembers that they did see him, but not behold him, see
him, and looke off, see him so as aggravated their sin, more then if they had never seene
him. But that man, who through his owne red glasse, can see Christ, in that colour too,
through his own miseries, can see Christ Jesus in his blood, that through the calumnies
that have been put upon himselfe, can see the revilings that were multiplyed upon Christ,
that in his own imprisonment, can see Christ in the grave, and in his owne enlargement,
Christ in his resurrection, this man, this Enosh, beholds God, and he beholds him è lon-
ginquo, which is another step in this branch, he sees him afar off. Now this seeing afar off, E longinquo. is not a phrase of diminution, a circumstance of extenua-
tion, as though it were lesse, to see God afar off, and more to see him neerer. This far
off, is far from that; it is a power of seeing him so, as wheresoever I am, or wheresoe-
ver God is, I can see him at any distance. Being established in my foundation upon God,
being built up by faith, in that notion of God, in which he hath manifested himselfe
to me in his Sonne, being mounted, and raised by dwelling in his Church, being
made like unto him, in suffering, as he suffered, I can see round about me, even to
the Horizon, and beyond it, I can see both Hemispheres at once, God in this, and
God in the next world too. I can see him, in the Zenith, in the highest point, and see
how he works upon Pharaoh, on the Throne, and I can see him in the Nadir, in the
lowest dejection, and see how he workes upon Joseph in the prison; I can see him in the
East, see how mercifully he brought the Christian Religion amongst us, and see him in
the West, see how justly he might remove that againe, and leave us to our own inven-
tions; I can see him in the South, in a warme, and in the North, in a frosty fortune: Bb I can
278
To the Nobility.
Serm. XXXI.
I can see him in all angles, in all postures; Abraham saw God coming to him, as he fate
at the doore of his Tent; Ier. 18. 1. and though (as the Text sayes there) God stood by him, (yet
sayes the Text too) Abraham ran to meet God; I can see God in the visitation of his
Spirit come to me; and when he is so, he is already in me; but I must run out to meet
him; that is, labour to hold him there, and to advance that manifestation of him-
selfe in me. Abraham saw God comming; Moses saw God going, his glory passing by;
he saw posteriora, his hinder parts; so I can see God in the memory of his blessings Exod. 33. 23.
formerly conferred upon me; And Moses saw him too, in a burning bush, in thornes
and fire: And had I no other light, but the fire of a pile of faggots, in that light
I could see his light, I could see himselfe. Let me be the man of this Text, this
Enosh, Lam. 3. 1. to say with Jeremy, I am the man that hath seene affliction, by the rod of his
wrath, Let me have had this third concoction, that as I am Adam, a man of earth,
(wrought upon that wheele) and, as I am a Christian, a vessell in his house, a mem-
ber of his Church (wrought upon that wheele) so let me be vir dolorum, a man
of affliction, a vessell baked in that furnace, fitted by Gods proportion, and dosis of
his corrections, to make a right use of his corrections, and I can see God, E longin-
quo, afar off, I can see him writing downe my name in the booke of life, before I was
borne, and I can see him giving his Angels, The Angell of the great Counsell, Christ
Jesus himselfe, and his spirit, charge of my preservation, all the way, and of my trans-
migration upon my death-bed, and that is E longinquo, from before I was, to after I
shall be no more. There remaines a word more; Objection. ‘Tis scarce well said; for there remaines not a word
more. There is not another word, and yet there is another branch in the Text. This
man, (not every man, as before) this Enosh, (not every Adam as before) he sees not
onely as before, but he beholds afarre off; and so farre we are gone; but what be-
holds he afarre off? That the Text tels us not. Before there was an illud, Every man
may see that, aske what is that, and I can tell you, I have told you out of the cohe-
rence of the Text, It is Gods workes, manifesting himselfe even to the naturall man.
But this man, this Enosh, raised by his dejection, rectified by humiliation, may be-
hold, what? here is no illud, no such word as that, no object limited, and therefore
it is that which no eye hath seene, nor eare heard, nor heart of man conceived, it is God
in the glory, and assembly of his immortall Saints in heaven. How many times go
we to Comedies, to Masques, to places of great and noble resort, nay even to Church
onely to see the company? If I had no other errand to heaven, but the communi-
on of Saints, the fellowship of the faithfull, Lo see that flock of Lambs, Innocent,
unbaptized children, recompensed with the twice-baptized Martyrs, (baptized in wa-
ter, and baptized in their owne blood) and that middle sort, the children bapti-
zed in blood, and not in the water, that rescued Christ Jesus, by their death, un-
der Herod; to see the Prophets and the Evangelists, and not know one from the
other, by their writings, for they all write the same things (for prophecy is but
antidated Gospell, and Gospell but postdated prophecy;) to see holy Matrons saved by
the bearing, and bringing up of children, and holy Virgins, saved by restoring their
bodies in the integrity, that they received them, sit all upon one seate; to see
Princes, and Subjects crowned all with one crowne, and rich and poore inherit one
portion; to see this scene, this Court, this Church, this Catholique Church, not
onely Easterne and Westerne, but Militant and Triumphant Church, all in one roome
together, to see this Communion of Saints, this fellowship of the faithfull, is worth
all the paynes, that that sight costs us in this world. But then to see the head of this Church, the Sunne, that shed all these beames,
the God of glory face to face, to see him sicuti est, as he is, to know him, ut cog-
nitus, as I am knowne, what darke, and inglorious fortune would I not passe tho-
row, to come to that light, and that glory? How then hath God doubled his mer-
cies upon those persons to whom he hath afforded two great lights, a Sunne to
rule their day, honour and prosperity, and a Moone to rule their night, humiliation
and adversity, to whom he hath given both Types, in themselves, to see this fu-
ture glory by, that is, Titles and places of honour in this world, and specta-
cles in themselves to see this glory by afflictions, and crosses in this world. And
therefore since God gives both these no where so plentifully, as in Courts the place of
279
Serm. XXXII.
To the Nobility. of Honour, and the place of Crosses too, the place of rising and the place of falling too,
you, you especially, who by having your station there, in the Court it selfe, are in
the Court exemplified, and copied in your owne noble house, you that have seen
God characterized in his Types, in titles of greatnesse, you that have beheld God presented
in his spectacle of Crosses and afflictions, the daily bread of Courts, Blesse ye the Lord;
praise him, and magnifie him for ever, and declare the wondrous workes that he hath
done for the Sonnes of men; for certainly many woes, and invincible darknesse at-
tend those, to whom neither the hand of God in his works, nor the hand of God up-
on themselves, neither the greatnesse of this world, Ωnor the crosses of this world,
can manifest God; for what picture of God would they have, that will neither have him
in great, nor litle? Sermon XXXII.
Preached to the Earl of Exeter, and his company, in his Chappell at
Saint Johns; 13. Jun. 1624.
Apoc. 7. 9.
After this, I beheld, and loe, a great Multitude, which no man could number, of all nati-
ons, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the Throne, and before the Lambe,
clothed with white robes, and Palmes in their hands. WEWe shall have occasion by and by, to say something of the danger of
Curiosity, and something of the danger of the broad way, in which,
too many walk: we will not therefore fall into either of these faults,
at first, we will not be over curious, nor we will not stray, nor cast
our selves into that broad, and boundlesse way, by entring into
those various, and manifold senses, which Expositors have multi-
plyed, in the handling of this place, and this part of this book; but
we take the plainest way, and that in which, the best meet, and concur, that these words
are spoken of the Ioyes, and Glory, reserved for them, who overcome the fraud, and the
fury, the allurements, and the violences of Antichrist; in whom, in that name, and person of
Antichrist, we consider all supplanters, and all seducers, all opposers of the kingdome of
Christ, in us; for, as every man hath spontaneum dæmonem, (as S. Chrysostome speakes) a de-
vill of his own making, (which is, some customary, and habituall sin in him) so every man
hath spontaneū Antichristum, an Antichrist of his own making, some objections in the
weakness of his faith, some oppositions in the perverseness of his manners, against the
kingdom of Christ in himself; & as, if God would suspend the devill, or slumber the devill
a day, I am afraid we should be as ill that day, as if the devill were awake, and in action,
so if those disputed, & problematical Antichrists, Eastern & Western Antichrist, Antichrist
of Rome, and Antichrist of Constantinople, Turk and Pope, were removed out of the world,
we should not for all that be delivered of Antichrist, that is, of that opposition to the
kingdome of Christ, which is in our selvs. This part of the book of the Revelation, is lite-
rally, and primarily, the glorious victory of them, who, in the later end of the world, ha-
ving stood out the persecutions of the Antichrist, enter into the triumph of heaven: And
it extends it self to all, by way of fair accommodation, who after a battel with their own
Antichrists, and victory over their owne enemies, are also made partakers of those
triumphs, those joyes, those glories, of which S. Iohn, in this propheticall glasse, in
this perspective of visions, saw A great multitude, which no man could number, of all na-
tions &c. We are then upon the contemplation of the joyes of heaven, Divisio. which are everlasting, &
must we wring them into the discourse of an houre? of the glory of heaven which is in-
tire, and must we divide it into parts? we must; we will; we doe; into two parts; first, the
number, the great number of those that shall be saved; And then, the glorious quali-
ties, which shall be imprinted on them, who are saved: first, that salvation is a more
extensive thing, & more communicable, then sullen cloystrall, that have walled salvation Bb2 in
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in a monastery, or in an ermitage, take it to be; or then the over-valuers of their own pu-rity, and righteousnesse, which have determined salvation in themselves, take it to be; for,
It is a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations &c. And then, in the second
place, salvation is the possession of such endowments, as naturally invite all, to the prose-
cution of that, which is exposed and offered to all; that we all labour here, that we may
all stand hereafter, before the Throne, and before the Lambe, clothed in white robes &c.
In the first of these, we shall passe by these steps; first, we shall consider the sociablenesse,
the communicablenesse of God himself, who gives us the earth, and offers us heaven, and
desires to have his kingdome well peopled; he would have many, he would have all, he
would have every one of them have all. And then, the first word of the text, (After this)
will carry us to the consideration of that which was done before; which was, first, that
they which were of this number, were sealed, and then they which were so sealed before,
were a great number, one hundred forty four thousand; but they who were made partakers
of all this after, were innumerable, After this I beheld a great multitude, which no man
could number; And therefore we shall shut up that first part with this consideration, what
sense, what interpretation may belong unto those places, where Christ says, that the way
to heaven is narrow, and the gate straight: of these peeces we shall make up our first part;
And for the particulars belonging to the second, we shall fitliest open them, then, when
we come to the handling of them. Our first step then in this first part, 1 Part. is, the sociablenesse, the communicablenesse of God;
He loves holy meetings, he loves the communion of Saints, the houshold of the faithfull:
Deliciæ ejus, says Solomon, his delight is to be with the Sons of men, and that the Sons of
men should be with him: Religion is not a melancholy; the spirit of God is not a dampe;
the Church is not a grave: it is a fold, it is an Arke, it is a net, it is a city, it is a kingdome,
not onely a house, but a house that hath many mansions in it: still it is a plurall thing, con-
sisting of many: and very good grammarians amongst the Hebrews, have thought, and said,
that that name, by which God notifies himself to the world, in the very beginning of Ge-
nesis, which is Elohim, as it is a plurall word there, so it hath no singular: they say we cannot
name God, but plurally: so sociable, so communicable, so extensive, so derivative of him-
self, is God and so manifold are the beames, and the emanations that flow out from him.
It is a garden worthy of your walking in it: Come into it, Deus Unus. but by the gate of nature: The
naturall man had much to do, to conceive God: a God that should be but one God: and
therefore scattered his thoughts upon a multiplicity of Gods: and he found it, (as he
thought) reasonable, to think, that there should be a God of Justice, a God of Wisedome,
a God of Power, and so made the severall Attributes of God, severall Gods, and thought
that one God might have enough to do, with the matters of Justice, another with the
causes that belonged to power, and so also, with the courts of Wisedome: the naturall
man, as he cannot conceive a vacuity, that any thing should be empty, so he cannot con-
ceive that any one thing, though that be a God, should fill all things: and therefore strays
upon a pluralty of Gods, upon many Gods, though, in truth, (as Athanasius expresses it)
ex multitudine numinum, nullitas numinum, he that constitutes many Gods destroys all
God; for no God can be God, if he be not all-sufficient; yet naturally, (I mean in such na-
ture, as our nature is) a man does not easily conceive God to be alone, to be but one; he
thinks there should be company in the Godhead. Bring it farther then so. 3 Personæ. A man that lies in the dregs of obscured, and vitiated nature,
does not easily discern, unicum Deum, a God that should be alone, a God that should be
but one God. Reason rectified, (rectified by the word of God) can discern this, this one
God. But when by that means of the Scripture, he does apprehend Deum unicum, one God,
does he finde that God alone? are there not three Persons, though there be but one God? '
Tis true the Romās mis-took infinitely, in making 300 Iupiters; Varro mis-took infinitely,
in making, Deos terrestres, and Deos cœlestes, sub-lunary, and super-lunary, heavenly, and
earthly Gods, and Deus marinos, and fluviatiles, Sea Gods, and River Gods, salt, and fresh-
water Gods, and Deos mares, and fœminas, he Gods, and she Gods, and (that he might be sure
to take in all) Deos certos & incertos, Gods, which they were sure were Gods, & Gods wchwhich
might be Gods, for any thing they knew to the contrary. There is but one God; but yet
was that one God ever alone? There were more generations (infinitely infinite) before the
world was made, then there have been minutes, since it was made: all that while, there were
no creasures; but yet was God alone, any one minute of al this? was there not alwais a Father and
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and a Son, & a holy Ghost? And had not they, always an acquiescence in one another, an
exercise of Affection, (as we may so say) a love, a delight, and a complacency towards
one another? So, as that the Father could not be without the Son and the holy Ghost, so as
neither Sonne, nor holy Ghost could be without the Father, nor without one another;
God was from all eternity collected into one God, yet from all eternity he derived him-
selfe into three persons: God could not be so alone, but that there have been three per-
sons, as long as there hath been one God. Had God company enough of himselfe; Creatio. was he satisfied in the three Persons? We
see he proceeded further; he came to a Creation; And as soon as he had made light,
(which was his first Creature) he took a pleasure in it; he said it was good; he was
glad of it; glad of the Sea, glad of the Earth, glad of the Sunne, and Moone, and Starres,
and he said of every one, It is good; But when he had made All, peopled the whole
world, brought all creatures together, then he was very glad, and then he said, not one-
ly, that it was good, but that it was very good: God was so far from being alone, as that
he found not the fulnesse of being well, till all was made, till all Creatures met together,
in an Host, as Moses calls it, then the good was extended into very good.
Did God satisfie himselfe with this visible and discernible world; Angeli. with all on earth,
and all between that, and him? were those foure Monarchies, the foure Elements, and
all the subjects of those foure Monarchies, (if all the foure Elements have Creatures)
company enough for God? was that Heptarchie, the seven kingdomes of the seven
Planets, conversation enough for him? Let every Starre in the firmament, be (so some
take them to be) a severall world, was all this enough? we see, God drew persons nea-
rer to him, then Sunne, or Moon, or Starres, or any thing, which is visible, and discern-
ible to us, he created Angels; How many, how great? Arithmetique lacks numbers to
to expresse them, proportion lacks Dimensions to figure them; so far was God from
being alone. And yet God had not shed himselfe far enough; he had the Leviathan, Homines. the Whale
in the Sea, and Behemoth and the Elephant upon the land; and all these great heavenly
bodies in the way, and Angels in their infinite numbers, and manifold offices, in heaven;
But, because Angels, could not propagate, nor make more Angels, he enlarged his love,
in making man, that so he might enjoy all natures at once, and have the nature of An-
gels, and the nature of earthly Creatures, in one Person. God would not be without man,
nor he would not come single, not alone to the making of man; but it is Faciamas ho-
minem, Let us, us, make man; God, in his whole counsail, in his whole Colledge, in his
whole society, in the whole Trinity, makes man, in whom the whole nature of all the
world should meet. And still our large, and our Communicable God, Christus. affected this association so, as that
having three Persons in himselfe, and having Creatures of divers natures, and having col-
lected all natures in man, who consisted of a spirituall nature, as well as a bodily, he
would have one liker himselfe, then man was; And therefore he made Christ, God and
Man, in one person, Creature and Creator together; One greater then the Seraphim,
and yet lesse then a worme; Soveraigne to all nature, and yet subject to naturall infir-
mities; Lord of life, life, it selfe, and yet prisoner to Death; Before, and beyond all
measures of Time, & Born at so many moneths, yet Circumcised at so many days, Crucified
at so many years, Rose againe at so many Houres; How sure did God make himselfe of
a companion in Christ, who united himselfe, in his godhead, so inseparably to him, as
that that godhead left not that body, then when it lay dead in the grave, but staid with
it then, as closely, as when he wrought his greatest miracles. Beyond all this, Ecclesia. God having thus maried soule and body in one man; and man and
God, in one Christ, he maries this Christ to the Church. Now, consider this Church
in the Type and figure of the Church, the Arke; in the Arke there were more of every
sort of cleane Creatures reserved, Gen. 7. 2. then of the uncleane; seven of those, for two of these:
why should we feare, but that in the Church, there are more reserved for salvation then
for destruction? Act. 2. And into that room (which was not a Type of the Church, but the
very Church it selfe) in which they all met upon whitsunday, the holy Ghost came so as
that they were enabled, by the gift of tongues, to convay, and propagate, and derive
God, (as they did) to every nation under heaven: so much does God delight in man, so
much does God desire to unite and associate man unto him; and then, what shall dis Bb3 appoint
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appoint or frustrate Gods desires and intentions so farre, as that they should come to
him, but singly, one by one, whom he cals, and wooes, and drawes by thousands, and by
whole Congregations? Be pleased to carry your considerations, Quàm citò. upon another testimony of Gods love to
the society of man, which is, his dispatch in making this match, his speed in gathering
and establishing this Church; for, forwardnesse is the best argument of love, and dila-
tory interruptions by the way, argue no great desire to the end; disguises before, are
shrewd prophecies of jealousies after: But God made hast to the consummation of this
Marriage, 1. 6. between Christ and the Church. Such words as those to the Colossians, (and
such words, that is, words to such purpose, there are divers) The Gospell is come unto you,
as it is into all the world; 13. And againe; It bringeth forth fruit, as it doth in you also; And
so likewise, The Gospell which is preached to every creature which is under heaven; such
words, I say, a very great part of the Antients have taken so literally, as thereupon to
conclude, That in the life of the Apostles themselves, the Gospell was preached, and the
Church established over all the world. Now will you consider also, who did this, what persons? cunning and crafty persons
are not the best instruments in great businesses, Quæ Instru-
menta. if those businesses be good, as well as
great. Here God imployed such persons, as would not have perswaded a man, that
grasse was green, that blood was red, if it had been denyed unto them: Persons that
could not have bound up your understanding, with a Syllogisme, nor have entendred, or
mollified it with a verse: Persons that had nothing but that which God himselfe calls
the foolishnesse of preaching, to bring Philosophers that argued, Heretiques that wrangled,
Lucians, and Julians, men that whet their tongues, and men that whet their swords
against God, to God. Unbend not this bowe, Quæ Doctri-
na. blacken not these holy thoughts, till you have considered, as
well, as how soone, and by what persons, so to what Doctrine, God brought them. Wee
aske but St. Augustins question, Quis tantam multitudinem, ad legem, carni & sanguini
contrariam, induceret, nisi Deus? Who but God himselfe, would have drawn the world to
a Religion so contrary to flesh and blood? Take but one piece of the Christian Religion,
but one article of our faith, in the same Fathers mouth; Res incredibilis resurrectio;
That this body should be eaten by fishes in the sea, and then those fishes eaten by other
men, or that one man should be eaten by another man, and so become both one man, and
then that for all this assimilation, and union, there should arise two men, at the resurre-
ction, Res incredibilis, sayes he, this resurrection is an incredible thing, Sed magis in-
credibile, totum mundum credidisse rem tam incredibilem, That all the world should so soone
believe a thing so incredible, is more incredible, then the thing it selfe. That any should
believe any, is strange, but more that all such believe all, that appertains to Christianity.
The Valentinians, and the Marcionites, pestilent Heretiques, grew to a great number, Sed
vix duo vel tres, de iisdem, eadem docebant, says Irenæus, scarce any two or three amongst
them, were of one opinion. The Acatians, the Eunomians, and the Macedonians, omnes
Arium parentem agnoscunt, sayes the same Father, they all call themselves Arians,
but they had as many opinions, not onely as names, but as persons. And that one Sect
of Mahomet, Irenæus. was quickly divided, and sub-divided into 70 sects. But so God loved
the world, the society and company of good soules, ut quasi una Domus Mundus, the
whole world was as one well governed house; similiter credunt quasi una anima, all be-
leeved the same things, as though they had all but one soule; Constanter prædicabant, quasi
unum os, At the same houre there was a Sermon at Jerusalem, and a Sermon at Rome,
and both so like, for fundamentall things, as if they had been preached out of one mouth. And as this Doctrine, Durat ad-
huc. so incredible in reason, was thus soone, and by these persons,
thus uniformely preached over all the world, so shall it, as it doth, continue to the
worlds end; which is another argument of Gods love to our company, and of his
loathnesse to lose us. All Heresies, and the very names of the Heretiques, are so utter-
ly perished in the world, as that, if their memories were not preserved in those Fathers
which have written against them, we could finde their names no where. Irenæus, about
one hundred and eighty yeers after Christ, may reckon about twenty heresies: Tertullian,
twenty or thirty yeares after him, perchance twenty seven; and Epiphanius, some a hun-
dred and fifty after him, sixty; and fifty yeare after that, St. Augustine some ninety; yet
after all these, (and but a very few yeares, after Augustine) Theodoret sayes, that in his time
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To the Nobility. time, there was no one man alive, that held any of those heresies: That all those he-resies should rot, being upheld by the sword, and that onely the Christian Religion
should grow up, being mowed down by the sword, That one graine of Corne should
be cast away, and many eares grow out of that, (as Leo makes the comparison) That
one man should be executed, because he was a Christian, and all that saw him execu-
ted, and the Executioner himself, should thereupon become Christians, (a case that fell
out more then once, in the primitive Church) That as the flood threw down the Courts
of Princes, and lifted up the Arke of God, so the effusion of Christian blood, should
destroy heresies, and advance Christianity it self; this is argument abundantly enough,
that God had a love to man, and a desire to draw man to his society, and in great num-
bers to bring them to salvation. I will not dismisse you from this consideration, Reformatio. till you have brought it thus much
nearer, as to remember a later testimony of Gods love to our company, in the refor-
mation of Religion; A miracle scarce lesse, then the first propagation thereof, in the
primitive Church. In how few yeares, did God make the number of learned Writers,
the number of persons of all qualities, the number of Kings, in whose Dominions the
reformed Religion was exercised, equall to the number of them, who adhered to the
Roman Church? And yet, Tu ipse. thou must not depart from this contemplation, till thou have made thy
self an argument of all this; till thou have concluded out of this, that God hath made
love to thy soule, thy weake soule, thy sick, and foule, and sinfull soule, That he hath
written to thee, in all his Scriptures, sent Ambassage to thee, in all his preachers, present-
ed thee, in all his temporall, and spirituall blessings, That he hath come to thee, even
in actions of uncle annesse, in actions of unfaithfulnesse towards men, in actions of distrust-
fulnesse towards God, and hath checked thy conscience, and delivered thee from some
sins, even then when thou wast ready to commit them, as all the rest, (That that
God, who is but one in himselfe, is yet three persons, That those three, who were all-
sufficient to themselves, would yet make more, make Angels, make man, make a Christ,
make him a Spouse, a Church, and first propagate that, by so weake men, in so hard a do-
ctrine, and in so short a space, over all the world, and then reforme that Church againe,
so soone, to such a heighth) as these, I say, are to all the world, so be thou thy self, and
Gods exceeding goodnesse to thee, an argument, That that God who hath shewed him-
self so loath to lose thee, is certainly loath to lose any other soule; but as he communi-
cates himself to us all here, so he would have us all partake of his joy, and glory here-
after; he that fils his Militant Church thus, would not have his Triumphant Church
empty. So far we consider the accessiblenesse, Sigillati. the communicablenesse, the conversation of
our good, and gracious God to us, in the generall. There is a more speciall manner in-
timated, even in the first word of our Text, After this; After what? After he had
seene the servants of God sealed; sealed: This seale seales the contract betweene God
and Man: And then consider how generall this seale is: First, God sealed us, in im-
printing his Image in our soules, and in the powers thereof, at our creation; and so,
every man hath this seale, and he hath it, as soone as he hath a soule: The wax, the
matter, is in his conception; the seale, the forme, is in his quickning, in his inanimation;
as, in Adam, the waxe was that red earth, which he was made of, the seale was that
soule, that breath of life, which God breathed into him. Where the Organs of the bo-
dy are so indisposed, as that this soule cannot exercise her faculties, in that man, (as in
naturall Idiots, or otherwise) there, there is a curtaine drawn over this Image, but yet
there this Image is, the Image of God, is in the most naturall Idiot, as well as in the wi-
sest of men: worldly men draw other pictures over this picture, other images over this
image: The wanton man may paint beauty, the ambitious may paint honour, the covetous
wealth, and so deface this image, but yet there this image is, and even in hell it selfe it
will be, in him that goes down into hell: uri potest in gehenna, non exuri, sayes St. Ber-
nard, The image of God may burne in hell, but as long as the soule remaines, that
image remaines there too; And then, thou who wouldest not burne their picture, that
loved thee, wilt thou betray the picture of the Maker, thy Saviour, thy Sanctifier, to
the torments of hell? Amongst the manifold and perpetuall interpretations of that
article, He descended into hell, this is a new one, that thou sentest him to hell in thy soule:
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soule: Christ had his Consummatum est, from the Jewes; he was able to say at last, All
is finished, concerning them; shall he never have a Consummatum est from thee; never
be at an end with thee? Never, if his Image must burne eternally in thy soule, when
thou art dead, for everlasting generations. Thus then we were sealed; In Christo. all sealed; all had his image in our creation, in the facul-
ties of our soules: But then we were all sealed againe, sealed in our very flesh, our mor-
tall flesh, when the image of the invisible God, Christ Jesus, the onely Sonne of God,
tooke our nature: for, as the Tyrant wished, that all mankinde were but one body,
that he might behead all mankinde at a blow, so God tooke into his mercie, all man-
kinde in one person: As intirely, as all mankinde was in Adam, all mankinde was in
Christ; and as the seale of the Serpent is in all, by originall sinne, so the seale of God,
Christ Jesus, is on us all, by his assuming our nature. Christ Jesus tooke our souls, and
our bodies, our whole nature; and as no Leper, no person, how infectiously soever he
be diseased in his body, can say, surely Christ never tooke this body, this Leprosie, this
pestilence, this rottennesse, so no Leprous soule must say, Christ never tooke this
pride, this adultery, this murder upon himself; he sealed us all in soule and body, when
he tooke both, and though both dye, the soule in sin daily, the body, in sicknesse, per-
chance this day, yet he shall afford a resurrection to both, to the soule here, to the body
hereafter, for his seale is upon both. These two seales then hath God set upon us all, In Baptisme. his Image in our soules, at our ma-
king, his Image, that is his Sonne, upon our bodies and soules, in his incarnation; And
both these seales he hath set upon us, then when neither we our selves, nor any body
else knew of it: He sets another seale upon us, when, though we know not of it, yet the
world, the congregation does, in the Sacrament of Baptisme, when the seale of
his Crosse, is a testimony, not that Christ was borne, (as the former seale was) but that
also he dyed for us; there we receive that seale upon the forehead, that we should con-
forme our selves to him, who is so sealed to us. And after all these seales, he offers us
another, Cant. 8. 6. and another seale, Set me as a seale upon thy heart, and as a seale upon thine arme,
says Christ to all us, in the person of the spouse; in the Heart, by a constant faith, in
the Arme, by a declaratory works; for then are we sealed, and delivered, and witnessed; that's
our full evidence, then have we made sure our salvation, when the works of a holy life,
doe daily refresh the contract made with God there, at our Baptisme, and testifie to the
Church, that we doe carefully remember, what the Church promised in our behalfe, at
that time: for, otherwise beloved, without this seale upon the arme, that is, a stedfast
proceeding in the works of a holy life, we may have received many of the other seales,
and yet deface them all. Eph. 4. 30. Grieve not the holy Ghost, whereby you are sealed, unto the day
of Redemption, says the Apostle: they were sealed, and yet might resist the Spirit, and
grieve the Spirit, and quench the Spirit, if by a continuall watchfulnesse over their par-
ticular actions, they did not refresh those seales (formerly received in their Creation, in
Christs incarnation, in their Baptisme, and in their beginnings of faith) to themselves, and
plead them to the Church, and to the world, by such a declaration of a holy life. But
these seales being so many, and so universall, that argues still, that which we especially
seek to establish, that is, the Accessiblenesse, the communicablenesse, the sociablenesse,
the affection, (shall I say) the Ambition, that God hath, to have us all. Now how is this extensivenesse declared here, Ante. in our text? It is declared in the great
number of those who were sealed, both before, and after; to the consideration of both
which, we are invited, by this phrase, which beginnes the text, After this: for, before
that John saw this, there were one hundred forty foure thousand sealed; Is that then,
(that one hundred forty foure thousand) intended for a small number? If it had been so,
it would rather have been said, of such a Tribe but twelve thousand, and but twelve
thousand of such a Tribe; but God as expressing a joy, that there were so many, repeats
his number of twelve thousand, twelve times over, of Juda twelve thousand, of Levi
twelve thousand, and twelve thousand of every Tribe. So that then, we may justly take
this number of twelve and twelve thousand, for an indefinite, and uncertain number; and
as Saint Augustine does, wheresoever he finds that number of twelve, (as the
twelve Thrones, where the Saints shall judge the world, and divers such) we may take
that number of twelve, and twelve, pro universitate salvandorum, that that number
signifies, all those who shall be saved. If we should take the number to be a certaine and
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To the Nobility. and exact number, so many, and no more, yet this number hath relation to the Jews
onely; And of the Jews, it is true, that there is so long a time of their exclusion, so
few of them doe come in, since Christ came into the world, as that we may, with Saint
Augustine, 22. 17. interpret that place of Genesis, where Abrahams seed is compared both to
the Starres of heaven, and to the dust of the earth, that the Stars of heaven signifie those
that shall be saved in heaven, and the dust of the earth, those that perish; and the dust
of the earth may be more then the Stars of heaven; though (by the way) there are an
infinite number of Stars more then we can distinguish, and so, by Gods grace, there
may be an infinite number of soules saved, more then those, of whose salvation, we dis-
cerne the ways, and the meanes. Let us embrace the way which God hath given us,
which is, the knowledge of his Sonne, Christ Jesus: what other way God may take
with others, how he wrought upon Iob, and Naaman, and such others as were not in the
Covenant, let us not inquire too curiously, determine too peremptorily, pronounce too
uncharitably: God be blessed, for his declaring his good-wil towards us, & his will be done
his way upon others. Truly, even those places, which are ordinarily understood of the pau-
city of the Jews, that shall be saved, will receive a charitable interpretation, and extension.
God says, 3. 17. in Ieremy, I will take you, one out of a City, & two out of a family; yet he says, he wil
do this therefore, because he is married to them; so that this seems to be an act of his love;
And therefore, I had rather take it, that God would take a particular care of them, one
by one, 27. 12. then that he would take in but one and one: As it is in that place of Esay, In
that day ye shall be gathered one by one, o yee children of Israel; that is, in the day of Christ,
of his comming to and toward Judgement; Howsoever they come in but thinly yet, by
the way, Rom. 11. 1. yet the Apostle pleads in their behalfe thus, Hath God cast away his people?
God forbid. At this present, 5. says he, there is a Remnant; then when they had newly cru-
cified Christ, God had a care of them. God hath given them the spirit of slumber, 8. says he
also; it is but a slumber, not a death, not a dead sleep. Have they stumbled that they
should fall? Fall utterly? God forbid. But says he, as concerning the Gospell, they are
enemies, for your sakes; (that is, that room might be made for you the Gentiles) but, as
touching election, they are beloved for their Fathers sakes; that is, they have interest
by an ancient title, which God will never disannull. And therefore a great part, of the
ancient, and later men too, doe interpret divers passages of Saint Paul, of a generall sal-
vation of the Jews, that all shall be effectually wrought upon, to salvation, before the
second comming of Christ. I end this, concerning the Jews, with this note, that in all
these Tribes, which yeelded to this sealing, twelve thousand a peece, the Tribe of Dan is left
out, it is not said, that any were sealed of the Tribe of Dan; many have enquired the
reason, and satisfied themselves over easily with this, that because Antichrist was to
come of that Tribe, that Tribe is forsaken. It is true, that very many of the Fathers,
Irenæus, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory, (and more then these) have thought so, that
Antichrist must be of that Tribe; but yet for all that profession, which they make in
the Roman Church, Tostat. of adhering to the Fathers, one amongst them, says, Incertum, be the
Fathers as clear, and as unanimous as they will in it, it is a very uncertain, a very disputa-
ble thing; and another says, fabulosum est, be the Fathers as earnest, as they will, it is
but a poeticall and a fabulous thing, Oleast. that Antichrist must come of the Tribe of Dan.
But he that hath most of the markes of Antichrist upon him, of any person in the world
now, is thus far of the Tribe of Dan; Dan signifies Iudgement; And he will needs be
the Judge of all faith, and of all actions too; and so severe a Judge, as to give an irre-
vocable Judgement of Damnation, upon all that agree not with them, in all points.
Certainly this Tribe of Dan, that is, of such uncharitable Judges of all other men, that
will afford no salvation to any but themselves, are in the greatest danger to be left out,
at this generall seale; nothing hinders our own salvation more, then to deny salvation,
to all but our selves. This then which was done before, Christiani. though it concerne but the Jews, was in a great
number, and was a great argument, of Gods sociable application of himselfe to man,
but that which was after, was more, A great multitude, which no man could number, of all
nations &c. Gods mercy was not confined, nor determined upon the Iews; Other sheep
have I, which are not of this fold, says Christ, them also I must bring in: I must; it is ex-
pressed, not onely as an act of his good will, but of that eternall decree, to which, he
had, at the making thereof, submitted himself: I must bring them; who are they? Many
286
To the Nobility.
Serm. XXXII.
Many shall come from the east, Mat. 8. 11. and from the west, and shall sit downe with Abraham, Isacc,
and Iacob, in the kingdom of heaven; from the Eastern Church, and from the Western
Church too, from the Greek Church, and from the Latine too, and, (by Gods grace)
from them that pray not in Latine too, from every Church, (so it be truly, and funda-
mentally a Church) Many shall come; How many? a multitude that no man can number:
For, 23. 12 the new Ierusalem, in the Revelation, (which is heaven) hath twelve gates, three to
every corner of the world; so that no place can be a stranger, or lacke accesse to it:
Nay, it hath (says that Text) twelve foundations, Other foundation can no man lay, then
that which is layd, Christ Iesus: But that first foundation-stone being kept, though it be
not hewed, nor layd alike in every place, though Christ be not preached, nor presen-
ted in the same manner, for outward Ceremonies, or for problematicall opinions, yet
the foundation may remaine one, though it be, in such a sort, varied; and men may
come in at any of the twelve gates, and rest upon any of the twelve foundations, for
they are all gates, and foundations of one and the same Ierusalem; and they that enter,
are a multitude that no man can number. If then there be this sociable, Via angusta. this applyable nature in God, this large and open en-
trance for man, why does Christ call it a straite gate, and a narrow way? Not that it
is strait in it self, Mat. 7. 13. but that we think it so, and, indeed, we make it so. Christ is the gate,
and every wound of his admits the whole world. The Church is the gate; And in om-
nem terram, Psal. 119. 96. says David, she hath opened her mouth, and her voice is gone over all the
world. His word is the gate; And, thy Commandement is exceeding broad, says David
too; His word and his light reaches to all cases, and all distresses. Lata porta Diabo-
lus; saith Saint Chrysostome, The Devill is a broad gate; but he tells us how he came
to be so, Mon magnitudine potestatis extensus, sed superbiæ licentia dilatatus; not that
God put such a power into his hands, at first, as that we might not have resisted him,
but that he hath usurp'd upon us, and we have given way to his usurpations: so, says
that Father, Angusta porta Christus, Christ is a narrow gate, but he tels us also wherein,
and in what respect, Non parvitate potestatis exiguus, sed humilitatis ratione collectus;
Christ is not a narrow gate, so as that the greatest man may not come in, but called
narrow, because he fits himselfe to the least child, to the simplest soule, that will come
in: not so strait, as that all may not enter, but so strait as that there can come in but
one at once, for he that will not forsake Father and Mother, and wife, and children for him,
cannot enter in. Therefore we call the Devils way broad, because men walke in that,
with all their equipage, all their sumpters, all their state, all their sinnes; and therefore
we call Christs way strait, because a man must strippe himselfe of all inordinate affec-
tions, of all desires of ill getting, and of all possessions that are ill gotten. In a word,
it is not strait to a mans selfe, but if a man will carry his sinfull company, his sinfull af-
fections with him, and his sinfull possessions, it is strait, for then he hath made himselfe
a Camel, and to a Camel Heaven gate is as a needles eye: But it is better comming into hea-
ven with one eye, then into hell with two; Better comming into heaven without Master, Mat. 18. 9.
or Mistresse, Esac. 60. 11. then into hell for over-humouring of either. There, The gates are not shut
all day; says the Prophet, and, there is no night there; And here, if we shut the doore,
yet Christ stands at the doore and knocks; Apoc. 3. Be but content to open thy doore, be but con-
tent to let him open it, and he will enter, and be but thou content to enter into his, con-
tent to be led in by his preaching, content to be drawn in by his benefits, content to be
forced in by his corrections, and he will open his: since thy God would have dyed for
thee, if there had been no man born but thou, never imagine, that he who lets in multi-
tudes, which no man can number, of all Nations, &c. would ever shut out thee, but labour
to enter there; August. ubi non intrat inimicus, ubi non exit amicus, where never any that hates
thee, shall get to thee, nor any that loves thee, part from thee. We have but ended our first part, 2 Part. The assurance which we have from Gods man-
ner of proceeding, that Religion is not a sullen, but a cheerfull Philosophy, and salvation
not cast into a corner, but displayed as the Sunne, over all. That which we called at
first, our second part, must not be a Part, admit it for a Conclusion; It is that, and be-
yond that; It is beyond our Conclusion, for it is our everlasting endowment in heaven:
and if I had kept minutes enough for it, who should have given me words for it? I will
but paraphrase the words of the Text, and so leave you in that, which, I hope, is your
gallery to heaven, your own meditations: The words are, You shall stand before the Throne,
287
Serm. XXXII.
To the Nobility. Throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white Robes, and palms in their hands.
First, Stabunt. stabitis, you shall stand; which is not, that you shall not sit, for the Saints shall sit &
judg the world; & they shall sit at the right hand of God; It is not, that you shall not sit, nor
that you shall not lie, for you shall lye in Abraham bosom: But yet you shal stand, that is,
you shall stand sure, you shall never fall, you shall stand, but yet you shall but stand, that is,
remaine in a continuall disposition and readinesse to serve God, and to minister to him.
And therefore account no abundance, no height, no birth, no place here, to exempt
you from standing and labouring in the service of God, since even your glorious state
in heaven is but a station, but a standing in readinesse to doe his will, and not a posture
of idlenesse: you shall stand, that is, stand sure, but you shall but stand, that is, still be
bound to the service of God. Stabitis ante Thronum; Ante Thronum. you shall stand, and stand before the Throne; Here in the mi-
litant Church, you stand, but you stand in the porch, there, in the triumphant, you shall
stand in Sancto sanctorum, in the Quire, and the Altar. Here you stand, but you stand
upon Ice, perchance in high and therefore in slippery places; And at the judgement
you shall stand, but stand at the barre; But when you stand before the Throne, you stand,
(as it is also added in this place) before the Lamb: Ante Agnum. who having not opened his mouth,
to save his owne fleece, when he was in the shearers hand, nor to save his own life,
when he was in the slaughterers hand, will much lesse open his mouth to any repentant
sinners condemnation, or upbrayd you with your former crucifyings of him, in this
world, after he hath nailed those sinnes to that crosse, to which those sinnes nayled
him. You shall stand amicti stolis, Stolis. (for so it follows) covered with Robes, that is, covered
all over: not with Adams fragmentary raggs of fig-leafes, nor with the halfe-garments
of Davids servants: Though you have often offered God halfe-confessions, and halfe-
repentances, yet if you come at last, to stand before the Lambe, his fleece covers all;
hee shall not cover the sinnes of your youth, and leave the sinnes of your age o-
pen to his justice, nor cover your sinfull actions, and leave your sinfull words and
thoughts open to justice, nor cover your own personall sinnes, and leave the sinnes of
your Fathers before you, or the sinnes of others, whose sins your tentations produced
and begot, open to justice; but as he hath enwrapped the whole world in one garment,
the firmament, & so cloathed that part of the earth, which is under our feet, as gloriously
as this, which we live, and build upon: so those sinnes which we have hidden from the
world, and from our own consciences, and utterly forgotten, either his grace shall
enable us, to recollect, and to repent in particular, or (we having used that holy dili-
gence, to examine our consciences so) he shall wrap up even those sinnes, which we
have forgot, and cover all, with that garment of his own righteousnesse, which leaves
no foulnesse, no nakednesse open. You shall be covered with Robes, Albis. All over; and with white Robes; That as the
Angels wondred at Christ coming into heaven, Esa. 93. 2. in his Ascension, Wherefore art thou red
in thine Apparell, and thy garments like him that treadeth the wine fat? They wondred
how innocence it selfe should become red, so shall those Angels wonder at thy com-
ing thither, and say, Wherefore art thou white in thine apparell? they shall wonder how
sinne it selfe shall be clothed in innocence. And in thy hand shall be a palm, which is the last of the endowments specifyed here.
After the waters of bitternesse, Palma. they came to seventy (to innumerable) palmes; even the
bitter waters were sweetned, with another wood cast in: The wood of the Crosse of
Christ Jesus, Exod. 15. 23. refreshes all teares, and sweetnes all bitternesse, even in this life: but after
these bitter waters, which God shall wipe from all our eies, we come, to the seventy, to the
seventy thousand palms; infinite seales, infinite testimonies, infinite extensions, infi-
nite durations of infinite glory: Go in, beloved, and raise your own contemplations,
to a height worthy of this glory; and chide me for so lame an expressing of so perfect
a state, and when the abundant spirit of God hath given you some measure, of con-
ceiving that glory here, Almighty God give you, and me, and all, a reall expressing
of it, by making us actuall possessors of that Kingdome, which his Sonne, our Savi-
our Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible
blood. Amen. SER.
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To the Nobility.
Serm. XXXIII.
Sermon XXXIII.
Preached at Denmark house, some few days before the body of King James,
was removed from thence, to his burial, Apr. 26. 1625.
Cant. 3. 11.
Goe forth ye Daughters of Sion, and behold King Solomon, with the Crown, wherewith his
mother crowned him, in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladnesse of his
heart. INIn the Creation of man, in that one word, Faciamus, let Vs make man,
God gave such an intimation of the Trinity, as that we may well enlarge,
and spread, and paraphrase that one word, so farre, as to heare therein,
a councell of all the three Persons, agreeing in this gracious designe upon
Man, faciamus, let us make him; make him, and mend him, and make him
sure: I, the Father, will make him by my power; if he should fall, Thou the Sonne
shalt repayr him, re-edify him, redeem him; if he should distrust, that this Redempti-
on belonged not to him, Thou, the Holy Ghost, shalt apply to his particular soule, and
conscience, this mercy of mine, and this merit of the Sonnes; and so let us make him. In our
Text there is an intimation of another Trinity. The words are spoken but by one, but
the persons in the text, Divisio. are Three; For first, The speaker, the Director of all, is the Church,
the spouse of Christ, she says, Goe forth ye daughters of Sion; And then the persons that
are called up, are, as you see, The Daughters of Sion, the obedient children of the
Church, that hearken to her voice: And then lastly, the persons upon whom they are
directed, is Solomon crowned, That is, Christ invested with the royall dignity of be-
ing Head of the Church; And in this, especially, is this applyable to the occasion of our
present meeting (All our meetings now, are, to confesse, to the glory of God, and the
rectifying of our own consciences, and manners, the uncertainty of the prosperity, and
the assurednesse of the adversity of this world) That this Crown of Solomons in the text,
will appear to be Christs crown of Thornes, his Humiliation, his Passion; and so these
words will dismisse us in this blessed consolation, That then we are nearest to our crown
of Glory, when we are in tribulation in this world, and then enter into full possession of
it, when we come to our dissolution and transmigration out of this world: And these
three persons, The Church, that calls, The children that hearken, and Christ in his
Humiliation, to whom they are sent, will be the three parts, in which we shall deter-
mine this Exercise. First then, 1 Part. the person that directs us, is The Church; no man hath seen God, and lives;
but no man lives till he have heard God; Ecclesia. for God spake to him, in his Baptisme, and
called him by his name, then. Now, as it were a contempt in the Kings house, for any
servant to refuse any thing, except he might heare the King in person command it,
when the King hath already so established the government of his house, as that his
commandements are to be signifyed by his great Officers: so neither are we to look,
that God should speak to us mouth to mouth, spirit to spirit, by Inspiration, by Reve-
lation, for it is a large mercy, that he hath constituted an Office, and established a
Church, in which we should heare him. When Christ was baptized by John, it is
sayd by all those three Evangelists, that report that story, in particular circumstan-
ces, that there was a voice heard from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased: and it is not added in any of those three Evangelists, that that voice ad-
ded, Hear him: for, after that Declaration, that he, who was visibly and personally
come amongst them, was the Sonne of God, there was no reason to doubt of mens wil-
lingnesse to hear him, who went forth in person, to preach unto them, in this world;
As long as he was to stay with them, it was not likely that they should need provoca-
tion, to hear him, therefore that was not added at his Baptisme, and entrance into his
personall ministery: But when Christ came to his Transfiguration, which was a mani festation
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Serm. XXXIII.
To the Nobility. festation of his glory, in the next world, and an intimation of the approaching of the
time of his going away, to the possession of that glory, out of this world, there that
voyce from heaven sayes, Mat. 17. 5. This is my beloved Sonne, in whom I am well pleased, heare
him: When he was gone out of this world, men needed a more particular solicitation
to heare him; for how, and where, and in whom should they heare him, when he was gone?
In the Church, for the same testimony that God gave of Christ, to authorize and justifie
his preaching, hath Christ given of the Church, to justifie her power: The holy Ghost fell
upon Christ, at his Baptisme, and the holy Ghost fell upon the Apostles, (who were the re-
presentative Church) at Whitsontide: The holy Ghost tarried upon Christ then, and the
holy Ghost shall tarry with the Church, us{que} ad consummationem, till the end of the world.
And therefore, as we have that institution from Christ, Dic Ecclesiæ, when men are re-
fractary and perverse, to complaine to the Church, so have they who are complained
of to the Church, that institution from Christ also, Audi Ecclesiam, Hearken to the
voyce of God, in the Church; and they have from him that commination, If you diso-
bey them, you disobey God; in what fetters soever they binde you, you shall rise bound
in those fetters; and, as he who is excommunicated in one Diocese, should not be recei-
ved in another; so let no man presume of a better state, in the Triumphant Church,
then he holds in the Militant, or hope for communion there, that despises excommunica-
tion here. That which the Scripture says, God sayes, (says St. Augustine) for the Scrip-
ture is his word; and that which the Church says, the Scriptures say, for she is their word,
they speak in her; they authorize her, and she explicates them; The Spirit of God in-
animates the Scriptures, and makes them his Scriptures, the Church actuates the Scrip-
tures, and makes them our Scriptures: Nihil salubrius, says the same Father, There is
not so wholsome a thing; no soule can live in so good an aire, and in so good a diet,
Quà m ut Rationem præcedat authoritas, Then still to submit a mans owne particular rea-
son, to the authority of the Church expressed in the Scriptures: For, certainly it is very
truly (as it is very usefully) said by Calvin, Semper nimia morositas, est ambitiosa, A fro-
wardnesse, and an aptnesse to quarrell at the proceedings of the Church, and to be de-
livered from the obligations, and constitutions of the Church, is ever accompanied
with an ambitious pride, that they might enjoy a licentious liberty; It is not because
the Church doth truly take too much power, but because they would be under none; it
is an ambition, to have all government in their own hands, and to be absolute Emperors
of themselves, that makes them refractary: But, if they will pretend to believe in God,
they must believe in God so, as God hath manifested himself to them, they must believe
in Christ; so if they will pretend to heare Christ, they must heare him there, where he hath
promised to speake, they must heare him in the Church. The first reason then in this Trinity, 2 Part. the person that directs, is the Church; the Trum-
pet in which God sounds his Iudgements, and the Organ, in which he delivers his mercy;
And then the persons of the second place, the persons to whom the Church speakes here,
are Filiæ Sion, The daughters of Sion, her owne daughters. We are not called, Filii Ec-
clesiæ, sonnes of the Church: The name of sonnes may imply more virility, more man-
hood, more sense of our owne strength, then becomes them, who professe an obedi-
ence to the Church: Therefore, as by a name, importing more facility, more supple-
nesse, more application, more tractablenesse, she calls her children, Daughters. But then,
being a mother, and having the dignity of a Parent upon her, she does not proceed sup-
plicatorily, she does not pray them, nor intreat them, she does not say, I would you
would go forth, and I would you would looke out, but it is Egredimini, & videte, impera-
tively, authoritatively, Do it, you must do it: So that she showes, what, in important
and necessary cases, the power of the Church is, though her ordinary proceedings,
by us, and our Ministery, be, To pray you, in Christs stead, to be reconciled to God. In
your baptisme, your soules became daughters of the Church; and they must continue
so, as long as they continue in you; you cannot devest your allegiance to the Church,
though you would; no more then you can to the State, to whom you cannot say, I
will be no subject. A father may dis-inherit his son, upon reasons, but even that dis-inhe-
rited childe cannot renounce his father. That Church which conceived thee, in the Cove-
nant of God, made to Christians, and their seed, and brought thee forth in baptisme, and
brought thee up in catechizing, and preaching, may yet, for thy misdemeanor to God in
her; separate thee, à Mensa & Toro, from bed and board; from that sanctuary of the Cc soule
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To the Nobility.
Serm. XXXIII.
soule, the Communion Table, and from that Sanctuary of the body, Christian buriall,
and even that Christian buriall gives a man a good rise, a good helpe, a good advantage,
even at the last resurrection, to be laid down in expectation of the Resurrection, in holy
ground, and in a place accustomed to Gods presence, and to have been found worthy
of that Communion of Saints, in the very body, is some earnest, and some kinde of
first-fruits, of the joyfull resurrection, which we attend: God can call our dead bodies
from the sea, and from the fire, and from the ayre, for every element is his; but con-
secrated ground is our element. And therefore you daughters of Sion, holy and religious
souls, (for to them onely this indulgent mother speaks here) hearken ever to her voice;
quarrell not your mothers honor, nor her discretion: Despise not her person, nor her ap-
parell; Doe not say, she is not the same woman, she was heretofore, nor that she is not so well
dressed, as she was then; Dispute not her Doctrine, Despise not her Discipline; that as you
sucked her breasts in your Baptism, & in the other Sacrament, when you entred, and whilst
you stayd in this life, so you may lie in her bosome, when you goe out of it. Hear her; & a
good part of that, which you are to hear from her, is envolv'd & inwrapped in that wchwhich
we have propos'd to you, for our third part, Goe forth, & behold Solomon, &c. Here are two duties enjoyn'd; at least two steps, 3 Part. two degrees; Egredimini, Go forth, and
then, Videte, Behold, contemplate; And, after the duty, or wrap'd in the duty, we have the
Object, which we are to look upon, & in that, divers things to be considered; as we shall
see in their order. Egredimini. First, when we are bid to Go forth, it is not to go so far, as out of that
Church, in which God hath given us our station; for, as Moses says, That the word of
God is not beyond Sea; so the Church of God, is not so beyond Sea, as that we must needs
seek it there, either in a painted Church, on one side, or in a naked Church, on another;
a Church in a Dropsie, overflowne with Ceremonies, or a Church in a Consumption, for
want of such Ceremonies, as the primitive Church found usefull, and beneficiall for
the advancing of the glory of God, and the devotion of the Congregation. That which
Christ says to the Church it selfe, the Church says to every soule in the Church: Goe
thy way forth, Cant. 1. 8. by the footsteps of the flocke; Associate thy selfe to the true shepheard, and
true sheep of Christ Jesus, and stray not towards Idolatrous Chappels, nor towards schis-
maticall Conventicles, but goe by the footsteps of the flock; there must be footsteps, some
must have gone that way before, take heed of Opinions, that begin in thy selfe; and the
whole flock must have gone that way, take heed of opinions vented by a few new men,
which have not had the establishment of a Church. And truly the best way to discerne
footsteps, is Daniels way, Daniels way was to straw ashes, and so their footsteps that
had been there, were easily discerned: Walke in thine own ashes, in the meditation of
thine own death, or in the ashes of Gods Saints, who are dead before thee, in the contem-
plation of their example, and thou wilt see some footsteps of the flock, some impressi-
ons, some directions, how they went, and how thou art to follow, to the heaven-
ly Jerusalem. In conversing evermore, with them which tread upon Carpets, or upon
Marbles, thou shalt see no footsteps, Carpets and Marbles receive no impressions; A-
mongst them that tread in ashes, in the ways of holy sorrow, and religious humiliation,
thou shalt have the way best marked out unto thee. Goe forth, that is, goe farther then
thy selfe, out of thy selfe; at least out of the love of thy self, for that is but a short, a gid-
dy, a vertiginous walk how little a thing is the greatest man? If thou have many rooms
in thy selfe, many capacities to contemplate thy selfe in, if thou walke over the con-
sideration of thy selfe, as thou hast such a title of Honour, such an Office of Command,
such an Inheritance, such a pedegree, such a posterity, such an Allyance, if this be not a
short walke, yet it is a round walke, a giddy, a vertiginous proceeding. Get beyond
thine own circle; consider thy selfe at thine end, at thy death, and then Egredere,
Goe further then that, Go forth and see what thou shalt be after thy death. Still that which we are to look upon, Videte. is especially our selves, but it is our selves, enlarg'd
& extended into the next world; for till we see, what we shall be then, we are but short-
sighted. Wouldst thou say, thou knew'st a man, because thou hadst seen him in his Cradle?
no more canst thou be said, to have known thy self, because thou knowest the titles, and
additions, which thou hast received in this world; for all those things wch we have here, are
but swadling clouts, & all our motions, & preferments, from place, to place, are but the rock-
ing of a cradle. The first thing that Christ says to his spouse in the Canticles, is, If thou
know not thy selfe, 1. 8. (for so all the Ancients read it, and so the Originall beares it) If
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Serm. XXXIII.
To the Nobility. If thou know not thy selfe, O thou fairest of women; she might know, that she was the
fairest of women, and yet not know her selfe; Thou mayst know, that thou art the
happyest of men, in this world, and yet not know thy self. All this life is but a Preface,
or but an Index and Repertory to the book of life; There, at that book beginnes thy
study; To grow perfect in that book, to be dayly conversant in that book, to find
what be the marks of them, whose names are written in that book, and to finde those
marks, ingenuously, and in a rectified conscience, in thy selfe, To finde that no mur-
muring at Gods corrections, no disappointing of thy hopes, no interrupting of thy
expectations, no frustrating of thy possibilities in the way, no impatience in sicknesse,
and in the agony of death, can deface those marks, this is to goe forth, and see thy self,
beyond thy self, to see what thou shalt be in the next world. Now, we cannot see our
own face, without a glasse: and therefore in the old Temple, Exod. 38. 8. In, or about that laver
of brasse, where the water, for the uses of the Church was reserved, Moses appointed
looking-glasses to be placed; that so, at the entring into the Temple, men might see
themselves, and make use of that water, if they had contracted any foulnesse, in any
part about them. Here, at your coming hither now, you have two glasses, wherein you
may see your selves from head to foot; One in the Text, your Head, Christ Jesus,
represented unto you, in the name and person of Solomon, Behold King Solomon crow-
ned, &c. And another, under your feet, in the dissolution of this great Monarch, our
Royall Master, now layd lower by death then any of us, his Subjects and servants. First then, behold your selves in that first glasse, Behold King Solomon; Solomon the
sonne of David, Solomon. but not the Son of Bathsheba, but of a better mother, the most bles-
sed Virgin Mary. For, Solomon, in this text, is not a proper Name, but an Appellative;
a significative word: Solomon is pacificus, the Peacemaker, and our peace is made in,
and by Christ Jesus: and he is that Solomon, whom we are called upon to see here.
Now, as Saint Paul says, that he would know nothing but Christ, (that's his first a-
bridgement) and then he would know nothing of Christ, but him crucifyed, (and that's
the re-abridgement) so we seek no other glasse, to see our selves in, but Christ, nor
any other thing in this glasse, but his Humiliation. What need we? Even that, his
lowest humiliation, his death, is expressed here, in three words of exaltation, It is a
Crown, it is a Mariage, it is the gladnesse of heart: Behold King SalomonSolomon crowned, &c. The Crown, which we are called to see him crowned with, his mother put upon him;
The Crown which his Father gave him, Corona. was that glory, wherewith he was glorifyed,
with the Father, from all eternity, in his divine nature: And the Crown wherewith
his Father crowned his Humane nature, was the glory given to that, in his Ascension.
His Mother could give him no such Crown: she her selfe had no Crown, but that, which
he gave her. The Crown that she gave him, was that substance, that he received from
her, our flesh, our nature, our humanity; and this, Athanasius, and this, Saint Ambrose,
calls the Crown, wherewith his Mother crowned him, in this text, his infirm, his hu-
mane nature. Or, the Crown wherewith his Mother crowned him, was that Crown, to
which, that infirme nature which he tooke from her, submitted him, which was his pas-
sion, his Crown of thornes; for so Tertullian, and divers others take this Crown of his,
from her, to be his Crown of thorns: Woe to the Crown of pride, whose beauty is a fading
flower, says the Prophet; Esa. 28. 1. But blessed be this Crown of Humiliation, whose flower
cannot fade. Then was there truly a Rose amongst Thorns, when through his Crown
of Thorns, you might see his title, Jesus Nazarenus: for, in that very name Nazare-
nus, is involved the signification of a flower; the very word signifies a flower. Esay's
flower in the Crown of pride fades, and is removed; This flower in the Crown of
Thornes fades not, nor could be removed; for, for all the importunity of the Jews,
Pilate would not suffer that title to be removed, or to be changed; still Nazarenus re-
mained, and still a rose amongst thorns. You know the curse of the earth, Thorns and
thistles shall it bring forth unto thee; It did so to our Solomon here, it brought forth
thornes to Christ, Gen. 3. 18. and he made a Crown of those thorns, not onely for himself, but for
us too, Omnes aculei mortis, in Dominici Corporis tolerantia, Obtusi sunt, All the thorns
of life and death, Tertul are broken, or blunted upon the head of our Solomon, and now, even
our thorns, make up our Crown, our tribulation in life, our dissolution in death, con-
duce to our glory: Behold him crowned with his Mothers Crown, for even that brought
him to his Fathers Crown, his humiliation to exaltation, his passion to glory.
Cc2 Behold,
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Serm. XXXIII. Behold your Solomon, your Saviour again, Desponsatio. and you shall see another beam of Comfort,
in your tribulations from his; for even this Humiliation of his, is called his Espousals,
his marriage, Behold him crowned in the day of his Espousals. His Spouse is the Church,
His marriage is the uniting of himselfe to this Spouse, in his becomming Head of the
Church. The great City, the heavenly Jerusalem, is called The Bride, and The Lambs
wife, 21. 19. in the Revelation: And he is the Head of this body, the Bridegroom of this
Bride, the Head of this Church, as he is The first-borne of the Dead; Death, that
dissolves all ours, made up this marriage. His Death is his Marriage, and upon his
Death flowed out from his side, those two Elements of the Church, water and bloud;
The Sacraments of Baptisme, and of the Communion of himself. Behold then this So-
lomon crowned and married; both words of Exaltation, and Exultation, and both
by Death; and trust him for working the same effects upon thee; That thou (though
by Death) shalt be crowned with a Crown of Glory, and married to him, in whose right
and merit thou shalt have that Crown. And Behold him once again, Lætitia. and you shall see not a beam, but a stream of comfort;
for this day, which is the day of his death, he calls here The day of the gladnesse of
his heart. Behold him crowned in the day of the gladnesse of his heart.. The ful-
nesse, the compasse, the two Hemispheres of Heaven, are often designed to us,
in these two names, Joy and Glory: If the Crosse of Christ, the Death of Christ,
present us both these, Heb. 2. 9. how neare doth it bring, how fully doth it deliver Heaven it self
to us in this life? And then we heare the Apostle say, We see Jesus, for the suffering of
Death, crowned with Honour and Glory: There is half Heaven got by Death, Glory. And
then, 12, 2. for the joy that was set before him, he indured the Crosse; There is the other half,
Joy; 1 Pet. 4. 16. All Heaven purchased by Death. And therefore, if any man suffer as a Christi-
an, let him not be ashamed, saith the Apostle; but let him glorifie God, In isto Nomine,
as the vulgate read it; In that behalfe, as we translate it. But, In isto Nomine, saith S.
August: Let us glorifie God, in that Name; Non solum in nomine Christiani, sed Chri-
ani patientis, not onely because he is a Christian in his Baptisme, but a Christian in a
second Baptisme, a Baptisme of bloud; not onely as he hath received Christ, in accepting
his Institution, but because he hath conformed himself to Christ, in fulfilling his suffer-
ings. And therefore, though we admit naturall and humane sorrow, in the calamities
which overtake us, and surround us in this life: (for as all glasses will gather drops and
tears from externall causes, Matth. 26. 38.
Luc. 22. 44.
Jam. 1. 2. so this very glasse which we looke upon now, our Solomon
in the Text, our Saviour, had those sadnesses of heart toward his Passion, and Agonies in
his passion) yet count it all Joy when you fall into tentations, saith the Apostle: All Joy,
that is, both the interest, and the principall, hath the earnest and the bargain; for if you
can conceive joy in your tribulations in this world, how shall that joy be multiplied
unto you, when no tribulation shall be mingled with it? There is not a better evidence,
nor a more binding earnest of everlasting Joy in the next world, then to find Joy of
heart in the tribulations of this; fixe thy self therefore upon this first glasse, this Solo-
mon, thy Saviour, Behold King Solomon crownd, &c. and by conforming thy self to his
holy sadnesse, and humiliation, thou shalt also become like him, in his Joy, and Glory.
But then the hand of God, Rex. hath not set up, but laid down another Glasse, wherein thou
maist see thy self; a glasse that reflects thy self, and nothing but thy selfe. Christ,
who was the other glasse, is like thee in every thing, but not absolutely, for sinne is ex-
cepted; but in this glasse presented now (The Body of our Royall, but dead Master and So-
veraigne) we cannot, we doe not except sinne. Not onely the greatest man is sub-
ject to naturall infirmities, (Christ himself was so) but the holiest man is subject to
Originall and Actuall sinne, as thou art, and so a fit glasse for thee, to see thy self in.
Jeat showes a man his face, as well as Crystall; nay, a Crystall glasse will not show
a man his face, except it be steeled, except it be darkned on the backside: Christ as he
was a pure Crystall glasse, as he was God, had not been a glasse for us, to have seen
our selves in, except he had been steeled, darkened with our humane nature; Neither was he
ever so throughly darkened, as that he could present us wholly to our selves, because he
had no sinne, without seeing of which we do not see our selves. Those therefore that
are like thee in all things, subject to humane infirmities, subject to sinnes, and yet are
translated, and translated by Death, to everlasting Joy, and Glory, are nearest and clearest
glasses for thee, to see thy self in; and such is this glasse, which God hath proposed to there,
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To the Nobility. thee, in this house. And therefore, change the word of the Text, in a letter or two
from Egredimini, to Ingredimini; never go forth to see, but Go in and see a Solomon
crowned with his mothers crown, &c. And when you shall find that hand that had signed
to one of you a Patent for Title, to another for Pension, to another for Pardon, to ano-
ther for Dispensation, Dead: That hand that settled Possessions by his Seale, in the
Keeper, and rectified Honours by the sword, in his Marshall, and distributed relief to the
Poore, in his Almoner, and Health to the Diseased, by his immediate Touch, Dead: That
Hand that ballanced his own three Kingdomes so equally, as that none of them com-
plained of one another, nor of him, and carried the Keyes of all the Christian world,
and locked up, and let out Armies in their due season, Dead; how poore, how faint,
how pale, how momentany, how transitory, how empty, how frivolous, how Dead
things, must you necessarily thinke Titles, and Possessions, and Favours, and all, when
you see that Hand, which was the hand of Destinie, of Christian Destinie, of the Al-
mighty God, lie dead? It was not so hard a hand when we touched it last, nor so cold a
hand when we kissed it last: That hand which was wont to wipe all teares from all our
eyes, doth now but presse and squeaze us as so many spunges, filled one with one, ano-
ther with another cause of teares. Teares that can have no other banke to bound
them, but the declared and manifested will of God: For, till our teares flow to that
heighth, that they might be called a murmuring against the declared will of God, it is
against our Allegiance, it is Disloyaltie, to give our teares any stop, any termina-
tion, any measure. It was a great part of Annaes prayse, Luc. 2. 37. That she departed not from
the Temple, day nor night; visit Gods Temple often in the day, meet him in his owne
House, and depart not from his Temples, (The dead bodies of his Saints are his Tem-
ples still) even at midnight; at midnight remember them, who resolve into dust, and
make them thy glasses to see thy self in. Looke now especially upon him whom
God hath presented to thee now, and with as much cheerfulnesse as ever thou heardst
him say, Remember my Favours, or remember my Commandements; heare him say now
with the wise man, Ecclus. 38. 22. Remember my Iudgement, for thine also shall be so; yesterday for me,
and to day for thee; He doth not say to morrow, but to Day, for thee. Looke upon him
as a beame of that Sunne, as an abridgement of that Solomon in the Text; for every
Christian truely reconciled to God, and signed with his hand in the Absolution, and
sealed with his bloud in the Sacrament, (and this was his case) is a beame, and an a-
bridgement of Christ himselfe. Behold him therefore Crowned with the Crown that his
Mother gives him: His Mother, The Earth. In antient times, when they used to re-
ward Souldiers with particular kinds of Crowns, there was a great dignity in Corona
graminea, in a Crown of Grasse: That denoted a Conquest, or a Defence of that
land. He that hath but Coronam Gramineam, a turfe of grasse in a Church yard, hath a
Crown from his Mother, and even in that buriall taketh seisure of the Resurrection, as
by a turfe of grasse men give seisure of land. He is crowned in the day of his Marriage;
for though it be a day of Divorce of us from him, and of Divorce of his body from
his soul, yet neither of these Divorces breake the Marriage: His soule is married to
him that made it, and his body and soul shall meet again, and all we, both then in that
Glory where we shall acknowledge, that there is no way to this Marriage, but this
Divorce, nor to Life, but by Death. And lastly, he is Crowned in the day of the glad-
nesse of his heart: He leaveth that heart, which was accustomed to the halfe joyes of
the earth, in the earth; and he hath enlarged his heart to a greater capacity of Joy,
and Glory, and God hath filled it according to that new capacity. And therefore, to
end all with the Apostles words, 1 Thess. 4. 13. I would not have you to be ignorant, Brethren, concern-
ing them, which are asleepe, that ye sorrow not, as others that have no hope; for if ye
beleeve that Jesus died, and rose again, even so, them also, which sleepe in him, will
God bring with him. But when you have performed this Ingredimini, that you have
gone in, and mourned upon him, and performed the Egredimini, you have gone
forth, and laid his Sacred body, in Consecrated Dust, and come then to another E-
gredimini, to a going forth in many severall wayes: some to the service of
their new Master, and some to the enjoying of their Fortunes conferred by their
old; some to the raising of new Hopes, some to the burying of old, and all;
some to new, and busie endeavours in Court, some to contented retirings in
the Countrey; let none of us, goe so farre from him, or from one another, Cc3 in
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To the Nobility.
Serm. XXXIV. in any of our wayes, but that all we that have served him, may meet once a day, the
first time we see the Sunne, in the eares of almighty God, with humble and hearty pray-
er, that he will be pleased to hasten that day, in which it shall be an addition, even to
the joy of that place, as perfect as it is, and as infinite as it is, to see that face againe,
and to see those eyes open there, which we have seen closed here. Amen. Sermon XXXIIII.
Luke 3323.24
Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. THeThe word of God is either the co-eternall and co-essentiall Sonne,
our Saviour, which tooke flesh (Verbum Caro factum est) or it is
the spirit of his mouth, by which we live, and not by bread onely.
And so, in a large acceptation, every truth is the word of God;
for truth is uniforme, and irrepugnant, and indivisible, as God
Omne verum est omni vero consentiens. More strictly the word of
God, is that which God hath uttered, either in writing, as twice
in the Tables to Moses; or by ministery of Angels, or Prophets, in words; or by the
unborne, in action, as in John Baptists exultation within his mother; or by new-borne,
from the mouths of babes and sucklings; or by things unreasonable, as in Balaams
Asse; or insensible, as in the whole booke of such creatures, The heavens declare the
glory of God, &c. But nothing is more properly the word of God to us, then that which
God himself speakes in those Organs and Instruments, which himself hath assumed
for his chiefest worke, our redemption. For in creation God spoke, but in redemption
he did; and more, he suffered. And of that kinde are these words. God in his cho-
sen man-hood saith, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. These words shall be fitliest considered, like a goodly palace, if we rest a little, as
in an outward Court, upon consideration of prayer in generall; and then draw neare
the view of the Palace, in a second Court, considering this speciall prayer in gene-
rall, as the face of the whole palace. Thirdly, we will passe thorow the chiefest rooms
of the palace it self; and then insist upon foure steps: 1. Of whom he begs, (Father)
2. What he asks, (forgive them.) 3. That he prays upon reason, (for.) 4. What the rea-
son is, (they know not.) And lastly, as into the backside of all, we will cast the objecti-
ons: as why onely Luke remembers this prayer: and why this prayer, (as it seemes by
the punishment continuing upon the Jews to this day) was not obtained at Gods hands. So therefore prayer is our first entry, Of Prayer. for when it is said, Ask and it shall be given, it
is also said, Knock and it shall be opened, showing that by prayer our entrance is. And
not the entry onely, but the whole house: My house is the house of prayer. Of all the
conduits and conveyances of Gods graces to us, none hath been so little subject to ca-
villations, as this of prayer. The Sacraments have fallen into the hands of flatterers
and robbers. Some have attributed too much to them, some detracted. Some have
painted them, some have withdrawn their naturall complexion. It hath been disputed,
whether they be, how many they be, what they be, and what they do. The preaching
of the word hath been made a servant of ambitions, and a shop of many mens new-
fangled wares. Almost every meanes between God and man, suffers some adultera-
tings and disguises: But prayer least: And it hath most wayes and addresses. It may
be mentall, for we may thinke prayers. It may be vocall, for we may speake prayers.
It may be actuall, for we do prayers. For deeds have voyce; the vices of Sodome did
cry, and the Almes of Toby. And if it were proper for St. John, in the first of the Re-
velations to turne back to see a voyce, it is more likely God will looke down, to heare
a worke. So then to do the office of your vocation sincerely, is to pray. How much
the favourites of Princes, and great personages labour, that they may be thought to have
305
Serm. XXXIV.
To the Nobility. have been in private conference with the Prince. And though they be forced to wait
upon his purposes, and talk of what he will, how fain they would be thought to have
solicited their own, or their Dependants businesse. With the Prince of Princes, this e-
very man may doe truly; and the sooner, the more begger he is: for no man is heard
here, but in formâ pauperis. Here we may talk long, welcomely, of our own affaires, and be sure to speed. You
cannot whisper so low alone in your Chamber, but he heares you, nor sing so lowd in
the Congregation, but he distinguishes you. He grudges not to be chidden and dispu-
ted with, by Job. The Arrows of the Almighty are in me, and the venim thereof hath
drunk up my spirit. Is my strength, the strength of stones, or is my flesh of brasse, &c. Not
to be directed and counselled by Jonas: who was angry and sayd; Did not I say, when
I was in my Country, thou wouldest deale thus? And when the Lord sayd, Doest thou
well to be angry? He replyed, I doe well to be angry to the death. Nor almost to be threat-
ned and neglected by Moses: Doe this, or blot my name out of thy book. It is an Honour
to be able to say to servants, Doe this: But to say to God, Domine fac hoc, and prevail,
is more; And yet more easie. God is replenishingly every where: but most contra-
ctedly, and workingly in the Temple. Since then every rectified man, is the temple of
the Holy Ghost, when he prays; it is the Holy Ghost it selfe that prays; and what can
be denyed, where the Asker gives? He plays with us, as children, shewes us pleasing
things, that we might cry for them, and have them. Before we call, he answers, and
when we speak, he heares: so Esay 65. 24. Physicians observe some symptomes so vi-
olent, that they must neglect the disease for a time, and labour to cure the accident;
as burning fevers, in Dysenteries. So in the sinfull consumption of the soule, a stupi-
dity and indisposition to prayer, must first be cured. For, Ye lust, and have not, because
ye aske not, Jam. 4. 2. The adulterous Mother of the three great brothers, Gratian,
Lombard, and Comestor, being warned by her Confessour, to be sorry for her fact, sayd,
she could not, because her fault had so much profited the Church. At least, sayd he,
be sorry that thou canst not be sorry. So whosoever thou be, that canst not readily
pray, at least pray, that thou mayst pray. For, as in bodily, so in spirituall diseases, it is
a desperate state, to be speechlesse. It were unmannerlinesse to hold you longer in the Entry. One turne in the inner
Court, Of this Pray-
er. of this speciall prayer in generall, and so enter the Palace. This is not a
prayer for his own ease, as that in his Agony seemes. It hath none of those infirmities,
which curious schismatikes finde in that. No suspicion of ignorance, as there, (If it be
possible.) No tergiversation nor abandoning the noble worke which he had begunne,
as there, (Let this cup passe.) It is not an exemplar, or forme, for us to imitate precisely,
(otherwise then in the Doctrine) as that Prayer, Mat. 6. which we call the Lords Pray-
er, not because he sayd it, for he could never say, forgive us our trespasses, but because
he commanded us to say it. For though by Matthew, which saith, After this manner pray,
we seem not bound to the words, yet Luke sayth, When you pray, say, Our Father which
art, &c. But this is a prayer of God, to God. Not as the Talmudists Jews faine God
to pray to himselfe, Sit voluntas mea, ut misericordia mea superet iram meam; But as
when forain merchandise is mis-ported, the Prince may permit, or inhibit his Subjects to
buy it, or not to buy it. Our blessed Saviour arriving in this world fraited with salvation,
a thing wch this world never had power to have without him, except in that short time,
between mans Creation and fall, he by this prayer begs, that even to these despisers of it,
it may be communicable, and that their ignorance of the value of it, may not deprive
them of it. Teaching that by example here, which he gave in precept before, Mat. 5. 44.
Pray for them which persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is
in heaven. Therefore, Father. doing so now, he might well say, Father, forgive them, which
is the first room in this glorious Palace. And in this contemplation, my unworthy
soule, thou art presently in the presence. No passing of guards, nor ushers. No exami-
nation of thy degree or habit. The Prince is not asleep, nor private, nor weary of giving,
nor refers to others. He puts thee not to prevaile by Angels nor Archangels. But lest
any thing might hinder thee, from coming into his presence, his presence comes into
thee. And lest Majesty should dazell thee, thou art to speake but to thy Father. Of
which word, Abba, the root is, To will; from which root, the fruit also must be wil-
lingnesse, and propensenesse to grant. God is the Father of Christ, by that mysticall and
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To the Nobility.
Serm. XXXIV. and eternall unexpressible generation, which never began nor ended. Of which incom-prehensible mystery, Moses and the ancient Prophets spake so little, and so indirectly,
that till the dawning of the day of Christ, after Esdras time, those places seem not to
be intended of the Trinity. Nay, a good while after Christ, they were but tenderly
applyed to that sense. And at this day, the most of the writers in the reformed Chur-
ches, considering that we need not such farre fetcht, and such forced helps, and with-
all, weighing how well the Jews of these times are provided with other expositions of
those places, are very sparing in using them, but content themselves modestly herein,
with the testimonies of the New Testament. Truly, this mystery is rather the object
of faith then reason; and it is enough that we believe Christ to have ever been the Son
of God, by such generation, and our selves his sonnes by adoption. So that God is
Father to all; but yet so, that though Christ say, John 10. My Father is greater then all,
he addes, I and my Father are all one, to shew his eternall interest: and John 20. Hee
seemes to put a difference, I goe to my Father, and your Father, my God, and your God.
The Roman stories have, that when Claudius saw it conduce to his ends, to get the tri-
buneship, of which he was incapable, because a Patrician, he suffered himself to be a-
dopted. But against this Adoption, two exceptions were found; one, that he was a-
dopted by a man of lower ranke, a Plebeian; which was unnaturall; and by a younger
man then himselfe, which took away the presentation of a Father. But our Adoption
is regular. For first, we are made the sonnes of the Most High, and of the ancient of
daies, there was no one word, by which he could so nobly have maintained his Digni-
ty, kept his station, justified his cause, and withall expressed his humility and charity,
s this, Father. They crucifyed him, for saying himself to be the Sonne of God. And
in the midst of torment, he both professes the same still, and lets them see, that they
have no other way of forgivenesse, but that he is the Sonne of that Father. For no man
cometh to the Father but by the Son. And at this voice (Father) O most blessed Saviour, Forgive them. thy Father, which is so fully
thine, that for thy sake, he is ours too, which is so wholly thine, that he is thy selfe,
which is all mercy, yet will not spare thee, all justice, yet will not destroy us. And that
glorious Army of Angels, which hitherto by their own integrity maintained their first
and pure condition, and by this worke of thine, now neare the Consummatum est, attend
a confirmation, and infallibility of ever remaining so; And that faithfull company of
departed Saints, to whom thy merit must open a more inward and familiar room in
thy Fathers Kingdome, stand all attentive, to heare what thou wilt aske of this Fa-
ther. And what shall they hear? what doest thou aske? Forgive them, forgive them?
Must murderers be forgiven? Must the offended aske it? And must a Father grant it?
And must he be solicited, and remembred by the name of Father to doe it? Was not
thy passion enough, but thou must have compassion? And is thy mercy so violent, that
thou wilt have a fellow-feeling of their imminent afflictions, before they have any feel-
ing? The Angels might expect a present employment for their destruction: the Saints
might be out of feare, that they should be assumed or mingled in their fellowship. But
thou wilt have them pardoned. And yet doest not out of thine own fulnesse pardon
them, as thou didst the theef upon the Crosse, because he did already confesse thee;
but thou tellest them, that they may be forgiven, but at thy request, and if they ac-
knowledge their Advocate to be the Son of God. Father, forgive them. I that cannot
revenge thy quarrell, cannot forgive them. I that could not be saved, but by their of-
fence, cannot forgive them. And must a Father, Almighty, and well pleased in thee,
forgive them? Thou art more charitable towards them, then by thy direction wee
may be to our selvs. We must pray for our selvs limitedly, forgive us, as we forgive. But
thou wilt have their forgivenes illimited and unconditioned. Thou seemest not so much
as to presume a repentance; which is so essentiall, and necessary in all transgressions, as
where by mans fault the actions of God are diverted from his appointed ends, God
himself is content to repent the doing of them. As he repented first the making of
man, and then the making of a King. But God will have them within the armes of
his generall pardon. And we are all delivered from our Debts; for God hath given his
word, his co-essentiall word, for us all. And though, (as in other prodigall debts, the
Interest exceed the Principall) our Actuall sinnes exceed Originall, yet God by giving
his word for us, hath acquitted all. but
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Serm. XXXIV.
To the Nobility.
But the Affections of our Saviour are not inordinate, nor irregular. He hath a For,
For. for his Prayer: Forgive them, for, &c. And where he hath not this For, as in his Praier
in his agony, he quickly interrupts the violence of his request, with a But, Father, let
this cup passe; but not my will: In that form of Prayer which himself taught us, he hath
appointed a for, on Gods part, which is ever the same unchangeable: For thine is the
Kingdome; Therefore supplications belong to thee: The power, Thou openest thy hand
and fillest every living thing: The Glory, for thy Name is glorified in thy grants. But
because on our part, the occasions are variable, he hath left our for, to our religious
discretion. For, when it is said, James 4. You lust and have not, because you aske not; it
followeth presently, You aske and misse, because you aske amisse. It is not a fit for, for
every private man, to aske much means, for he would doe much good. I must not
pray, Lord put into my hands the strength of Christian Kings, for out of my zeale, I
will imploy thy benefits to thine advantage, thy Souldiers against thine enemies, and
be a bank against that Deluge, wherewith thine enemy the Turk threatens to overflow
thy people. I must not pray, Lord fill my heart with knowledge and understanding,
for I would compose the Schismes in thy Church, and reduce thy garment to the first
continuall and seemlesse integrity; and redresse the deafnesses and oppressions of Jud-
ges, and Officers. But he gave us a convenient scantling for our fors, who prayed,
Give me enough, for I may else despair, give me not too much, for so I may presume.
Of Schoolmen, some affirm Prayer to be an act of our will; for we would have that
which we aske. Others, of our understanding; for by it we ascend to God, and better
our knowledge, which is the proper aliment and food of our understanding; so, that
is a perplexed case. But all agree, that it is an act of our Reason, and therefore must be
reasonable. For onely reasonable things can pray; for the beasts and Ravens, Psalme
147. 9. are not said to pray for food, but to cry. Two things are required to make a
Prayer. 1. Pius affectus, which was not in the Devills request, Matth. 8. 31. Let us
goe into the Swine; nor Job 1. 2. Stretch out thy hand, and touch all he hath; and, stretch
out thy hand, and touch his bones; and therefore these were not Prayers. And it must
be Rerum decentium: for our government in that point, this may inform us. Things
absolutely good, as Remission of sinnes, we may absolutely beg: and, to escape things
absolutely ill, as sinne. But mean and indifferent things, qualified by the circumstances,
we must aske conditionally and referringly to the givers will. For 2 Cor. 8. when
Paul begged stimulum Carnis to be taken from him, it was not granted, but he had this
answer, My grace is sufficient for thee. Let us now (not in curiosity, but for instruction) consider the reason: They know
not. They know
not what they doe. First, if Ignorance excuse: And then, if they were ignorant. Hast thou, O God, filled all thy Scriptures, both of thy Recorders and Notaries, Ignorance.
which have penned the History of thy love, to thy People; and of thy Secretaries the
Prophets, admitted to the foreknowledge of thy purposes, and instructed in thy Cabi-
net; hast thou filled these with prayses and perswasions of wisedome and knowledge,
and must these persecutors be pardoned for their ignorance? Hast thou bid Esay to
say, 27. 11. It is a people of no understanding, therefore he that made them, shall not have
compassion of them. And Hosea 4. 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: and
now dost thou say, Forgive them because they know not? Shall ignorance, which is of-
ten the cause of sinne, often a sinne it self, often the punishment of sinne, and ever an
infirmity and disease contracted by the first great sinne, advantage them? Who can
understand his faults, saith the man according to thy heart, Psalme 19. 12. Lord cleanse
me from my secret faults: He durst not make his ignorance the reason of his prayer, but
prayed against ignorance. But thy Mercy is as the Sea: both before it was the Sea, for
it overspreads the whole world; and since it was called into limits: for it is not the lesse
infinite for that. And as by the Sea, the most remote and distant Nations enjoy one
another, by traffique and commerce, East and West becoming neighbours: so by
mercy, the most different things are united and reconciled; Sinners have Heaven;
Traytors are in the Princes bosome; and ignorant persons are in the spring of wisdome,
being forgiven, not onely though they be ignorant, but because they are ignorant. But
all ignorance is not excusable; nor any lesse excusable, then not to know, what igno-
rance is not to be excused. Therefore, there is an ignorance which they call Nescien-
tiam, a not knowing of things not appertaining to us. This we had had, though Adam had
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had stood; and the Angels have it, for they know not the latter day, and therefore
for this, we are not chargeable. They call the other privation, which if it proceed
meerly from our owne sluggishnesse, in not searching the meanes made for our instructi-
on, is ever inexcusable. If from God, who for his owne just ends hath cast clouds over
those lights which should guide us, it is often excusable. For 1 Tim. 1. 13. Paul saith,
I was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and an oppressor, but I was received to mercy, for I did
it ignorantly, through unbelief. So, though we are all bound to believe, and therefore
faults done by unbeliefe cannot escape the name and nature of sinne, yet since beliefe
is the immediate gift of God, faults done by unbeliefe, without malicious concurren-
ces and circumstances, obtaine mercy and pardon from that abundant fountaine of
grace, Christ Jesus. And therefore it was a just reason, Forgive them, for they know not.
If they knew not, which is evident, both by this speech from truth it self, and by 2 Cor.
2. 8. Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; and Acts 3. 17.
I know that through ignorance ye did it. And though after so many powerfull miracles,
this ignorance were vincible, God having revealed enough to convert them, yet there
seemes to be enough on their parts, to make it a perplexed case, and to excuse, though
not a malitious persecuting, yet a not consenting to his Doctrine. For they had a Law,
Whosoever shall make himself the sonne of God, let him dye: And they spoke out of their
Lawes, when they said, We have no other King but Cæsar. There were therefore some
among them reasonably, and zealously ignorant. And for those, the Sonne ever-wel-
come, and well-heard, begged of his Father, ever accessible, and exorable, a pardon ever
ready and naturall. We have now passed through all those roomes which we unlockt and opened at first.
And now may that point, Why this prayer is remembred onely by one Evangelist,
and why by Luke, be modestly inquired: For we are all admitted and welcommed in-
to the acquaintance of the Scriptures, upon such conditions as travellers are into other
Countries: if we come as praisers and admirers of their Commodities and Govern-
ment, not as spies into the mysteries of their State, nor searchers, nor calumniators
of their weaknesses. For though the Scriptures, like a strong rectified State, be not en-
dangered by such a curious malice of any, yet he which brings that, deserves no admit-
tance. When those great Commissioners which are called the Septuagint, sent from
Hierusalem, to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greeke, had perfected their work,
it was, and is an argument of Divine assistance, that writing severally, they differed not.
The same may prove even to weake and faithlesse men, that the holy Ghost super-in-
tended the foure Evangelists, because they differ not; as they which have written their
harmonies, make it evident: But to us, faith teacheth the other way. And we conclude
not, because they agree, the holy Ghost directed; for heathen Writers and Malefactors
in examinations do so; but because the holy Ghost directed, we know they agree, and
differ not. For as an honest man, ever of the same thoughts, differs not from himself,
though he do not ever say the same things, if he say not contraries; so the foure E-
vangelists observe the uniformity and samenesse of their guide, though all did not say
all the same things, since none contradicts any. And as, when my soule, which enables
all my limbs to their functions, disposes my legs to go, my whole body is truly said to
go, because none stayes behinde; so when the holy Spirit, which had made himself as
a common soule to their foure soules, directed one of them to say any thing, all are well
understood to have said it. And therefore when to that place in Matth. 27. 8. where
that Evangelist cites the Prophet Jeremy, for words spoken by Zachary, many medi-
cines are applyed by the Fathers; as, That many copies have no name, That Jeremy
might be binominous, and have both names, a thing frequent in the Bible, That it
might be the error of a transcriber, That there was extant an Apocryph booke of Iere-
my, in which these words were, and sometimes things of such books were vouched, as
Jannes and Jambres by Paul; St. Augustine insists upon, and teaches rather this, That
it is more wonderfull, that all the Prophets spake by one Spirit, and so agreed, then if
any one of them had spoken all those things; And therefore he adds, Singula sunt om-
nium, & omnia sunt singulorum, All say what any of them say; And in this sense most
congruously is that of St. Hierome applyable, that the foure Evangelists are Quadriga
Divina, That as the foure Chariot wheeles, though they looke to the foure corners of
the world, yet they move to one end and one way, so the Evangelists have both one
scope, and one way. Yet
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To the Nobility.
Yet not so precisely, but that they differ in words: For as their generall intention,
common to them all begat that consent, so a private reason peculiar to each of them,
for the writing of their Histories at that time, made those diversities which seem to be
for Matthew, after he had preached to the Jewes, and was to be transplanted into ano-
ther vineyard, the Gentiles, left them written in their owne tongue, for permanency,
which he had preached transitorily by word. Mark, when the Gospell fructified in the
West, and the Church enlarged her self, and grew a great body, and therefore required
more food out of Peters Dictates, and by his approbation published his Evangile. Not
an Epitome of Matthewes, as Saint Jerome (I know why) imagines, but a just and in-
tire History of our blessed Saviour. And as Matthewes reason was to supply a want in
the Eastern Church, Markes in the Western; so on the other side Lukes was to cut off
an excesse and superfluitie: for then many had undertaken this Story, and dangerously
inserted and mingled uncertainties and obnoxious improbabilities: and he was more cu-
rious and more particular then the rest, both because he was more learned, and because
he was so individuall a companion of the most learned Saint Paul, and did so much
write Pauls words, that Eusebius thereupon mistaketh the words 2 Tim. 2. 1. Christ
is raised according to my Gospell, to prove that Paul was author of this Gospell attribu-
ted to Luke. John the Minion of Christ upon earth, and survivor of the Apostles,
(whose books rather seem fallen from Heaven, and writ with the hand which ingraved
the stone Tables, then a mans work) because the heresies of Ebion and Cerinthus were
rooted, who upon this true ground, then evident audand fresh, that Christ had spoke ma-
ny things which none of the other three Evangelists had Recorded, uttered many things
as his, which he never spoke: John I say, more diligently then the rest handleth his
Divinity, and his Sermons, things specially brought into question by them. So there-
fore all writ one thing, yet all have some things particular. And Luke most, for he
writ last of three, and largeliest for himselfe, 1 Act. 1. saith, I have made the former
Treatise of all that Jesus began to doe and teach, untill the Day that he was taken up; which
speech, lest the words in the last of John, If all were written which Jesus did, the world
could not contain the Bookes, should condemne, Ambrose and Chrysostome interpret well
out of the words themselves, Scripsit de omnibus, non omnia, He writ of all, but not
ll: for it must have the same limitation, which Paul giveth his words, who saith, Acts
20. in one verse, I have kept nothing back, but have shewed you all the counsell of God;
and in another, I kept back nothing that was profitable. It is another peculiar singularity
of Lukes, that he addresseth his History to one man, Theophilus. For it is but weakely
surmised, that he chose that name, for all lovers of God, because the interpretation of
the word suffereth it, since he addeth most noble Theophilus. But the work doth not
the lesse belong to the whole Church, for that, no more then his Masters Epistles doe
though they be directed to particulars. It is also a singularitie in him to write upon that reason, because divers have writ-
ten. In humane knowledge, to abridge or suck, and then suppresse other Authors, is not
ever honest nor profitable: We see after that vast enterprise of Justinian, who distilled
all the Law into one vessell, and made one Booke of 2000.2000, suppressing all the rest, Al-
ciate wisheth he had let them alone, and thinketh the Doctors of our times, would bet-
ter have drawn usefull things from those volumes, then his Trebonian and Dorothee did.
And Aristotle after, by the immense liberality of Alexander, he had ingrossed all
Authors, is said to have defaced all, that he might be in stead of all: And therefore,
since they cannot rise against him, he imputes to them errours which they held not:
vouches onely such objections from them, as he is able to answer; and propounds all
good things in his own name, which he ought to them. But in this History of Lukes,
it is otherwise: He had no authority to suppresse them, nor doth he reprehend or ca-
lumniate them, but writes the truth simply, and leaves it to outweare falshood: and
so it hath: Moses rod hath devoured the Conjurers rods, and Lukes Story still retains
the majestie of the maker, and theirs are not. Other singularities in Luke, of form or matter, I omit, and end with one like this in
our Text. As in the apprehending of our blessed Saviour, all the Evangelists record,
that Peter cut off Malchus eare, but onely Luke remembers the healing of it again: (I
think) because that act of curing, was most present and obvious to his consideration,
who was a Physician: so he was therefore most apt, to remember this Prayer of Christ, which
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Serm. XXXIV. which is the Physick and Balsamum of our Soule, and must be applied to us all, (for
we doe all Crucifie him, and we know not what we do) And therefore Saint Hierome
gave a right Character of him, in his Epistle to Paulinus, Fuit Medicus, & pariter om-
nia verba illius, Animæ languentis sunt Medicinæ, As he was a Physitian, so all his
words are Physick for a languishing soule. Now let us dispatch the last consideration, of the effect of this Prayer. Did Christ
intend the forgivenesse of the Jewes, whose utter ruine God (that is, himselfe) had fore-
decreed? And which he foresaw, and bewaild even then hanging upon the Crosse?
For those Divines which reverently forbeare to interpret the words Lord, Lord, why
hast thou forsaken me? of a suffering hell in his soule, or of a departing of the Father from
him; (for Joh. 16. it is, I am not alone, for the Father is with me) offer no exposition
of those words more convenient, then that the foresight of the Jewes imminent calami-
ties, expressed and drew those words from him: In their Afflictions, were all kindes, and
all degrees of Miserie. So that as one writer of the Roman Story saith elegantly, He
that considereth the Acts of Rome, considereth not the Acts of one People, but of Mankinde:
I may truly of the Jewes Afflictions, he that knoweth them, is ignorant of nothing that
this world can threaten. For to that which the present authority of the Romanes in-
flicted upon them, our Schools have added upon their posterities; that they are slaves
to Christians, and their goods subject to spoile, if the Lawes of the Princes where
they live, did not out of indulgency defend them. Did he then aske, and was not
heard? God forbid. A man is heard, when that is given which his will desired; and our
will is ever understood to be a will rectified, and concurrent with God. This is Voluntas,
a discoursed and examined will. That which is upon the first sight of the object, is Vel-
leit as, a willingnesse, which we resist not, onely because we thought not of it. And such
a willingnesse had Christ, when suddenly he wished that the cup might passe: but quick-
ly conformed his will to his Fathers. But in this Prayer his will was present, therefore
fulfilled. Briefly then, in this Prayer he commended not all the Jewes, for he knew the
chief to sin knowingly, and so out of the reach of his reason, (for they know not.) Nor
any, except they repented after: for it is not ignorance, but repentance, which deriveth
to us the benefit of Gods pardon. For he that sinnes of Ignorance, may be pardoned if
he repent; but he that sinnes against his Conscience, and is thereby impenitible, cannot
be pardoned. And this is all, which I will say of these words, Father forgive them, for
they know not what they do. O eternall God, look down from thy Throne to thy footstoole: from thy blessed Company
of Angels and Saints, to us, by our own faults made more wretched and contemptible, then
the wormes which shall eat us, or the dust which we were, and shall be. O Lord, under the
weight of thy Justice we cannot stand. Nor had any other title to thy mercie, but the Name
of Father, and that we have forfeited. That name of Sonnes of God, thou gavest to us, all
at once in Adam; and he gave it away from us all by his sinne. And thou hast given it
again to every one of us, in our regeneration by Baptisme, and we have lost it again by our
transgressions. And yet thou was not weary of being mercifull, but diddest choose one of us,
to be a fit and worthy ransome for us all; and by the death of thy Christ, our Jesus, gavest
us again the title and priviledge of thy Sonnes; but with conditions, which though easie, we
have broke, and with a yoke, which though light, and sweet, we have cast off. How shall we
then dare to call thee Father? Or to beg that thou wilt make one triall more of us? These
hearts are accustomed to rebellions, and hopelesse. But, O God, create in us new hearts, hearts
capable of the love and feare, due to a Father. And then we shall dare to say, Father, and
to say, Father forgive us. Forgive us O Father, and all which are engaged, and accoun-
table to thee for us: forgive our Parents, and those which undertooke for us in Baptisme.
Forgive the civill Magistrate, and the Minister. Forgive them their negligences, and us
our stubbornnesses. And give us the grace that we may ever sincerely say, both this Prayer of
Example and Counsell, Forgive our enemies, and that other of Precept, Our Father which
art in Heaven, &c. SER.
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Serm. XXXV.
To the Nobility.
Sermon XXXV.
Preached February 21.
1611.
MatthevvMatthew 21. 44.
Whosoever shall fall on this stone, shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it
will grinde him to powder. ALmightyAlmighty God made us for his glory, and his glory is not
the glory of a Tyrant, to destroy us, but his glory is in our
happinesse. He put us in a faire way towards that happi-
nesse in nature, in our creation, that way would have brought
us to heaven, but then we fell, and (if we consider our selves
onely) irrecoverably. He put us after into another way, over
thorny hedges and ploughed Lands, through the difficulties
and incumbrances of all the Ceremoniall Law; there was no
way to heaven then, but that; after that, he brought us a crosse way, by the
Crosse of Jesus Christ, and the application of his Gospell, and that is our way
now. If we compare the way of nature, and our way, we went out of the way at
the Townes end, as soone as we were in it, we were out of it. Adam dyed as
soone as he lived, and fell as soone as he was set on foote; If we compare the
way of the Law, and ours, the Jewes and the Christians, their Synagogue was
but as Gods farme, our Church is as his dwelling house; to them locavit vineam, Verse 33.
he let out his Vine to husbandmen, and then peregrè profectus, he went into a
farre Countrey, he promised a Messias, but deferred his coming a long time;
but to us Dabitur Regnum, a Kingdome is given; the Vineyard is changed into a
Kingdome, here is a good improvement, and the Lease into an absolute deed of
gift, here is a good inlargement of the Terme. He gives, therefore he will not
take away againe. He gives a Kingdome, therefore there is a fulnesse and all-suf-
ficiency in the gift; and he does not go into any farre Countrey, but stayes with
us, to governe us, usque ad consummationem, till the end of the world; here there-
fore God takes all into his owne hands, and he comes to dwell upon us himself,
to which purpose he ploughs up our hearts, and he builds upon us; Vos Dei a-
gricultura, & Dei ædificium, Ye are Gods husbandry, and Gods building: Now of 1. Cor. 3. 9.
this, this husbandry God speaks familiarly and parabolicaly many times in Scriptures:
of this building particularly and principally in this place, where having intima-
ted unto us the severall benefits we have received from Christ Jesus in that ap-
pellation, as he is a stone; he tells us also our dangers in mis-behaving our selves
towards it, Whosoever shall fall on this &c. Christ then is a stone, and we may run into two dangers: first, we may fall up-
on this stone, and then this stone may fall upon us; but yet we have a great deale
of comfort presented to us, in that Christ is presented to us as a stone, for there
we shall finde him, first, to be the foundation stone, nothing can stand which is not
built upon Christ; Secondly, to be Lapis Angularis, a corner stone, that unites
things most dis-united; and then to be Lapis Jacob, the stone that Jacob slept
upon; fourthly, to be Lapis Davidis, the stone that David slew Goliah withall;
And lastly, to be Lapis Petra, such a stone as is a Rock, and such a Rock
as no Waters nor Stormes can remove or shake, these are benefits: Christ Dd Jesus
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Serm. XXXIV.
Jesus is a stone, no firmnesse but in him; a fundamentall stone, no building but
on him; a corner stone, no piecing nor reconciliation, but in him; and Jacobs stone,
no rest, no tranquillity, but in him; and Davids stone, no anger, no revenge, but
in him; and a rocky stone, no defence against troubles and tribulations, but in him;
And upon this stone we fall and are broken, and this stone may fall on us, and grinde
us to powder. Lapis. First in the metaphor, that Christ is called a stone, the firmnesse is expressed:
Forasmuch as he loved his owne which were in the world, In finem dilexit eos,
Ioh. 13. sayes St. John, He loved them to the end; and not to any particular end, for any use
of Cyrill. his owne, but to their end; Qui erant in mundo, sayes Cyrill, ad distinctionem An-
gelorum, he loved them in the world, and not Angels; he loved not onely them
who were in a confirmed estate of mutuall loving him too, but even them who
were themselves conceived in sinne, and then conceived all their purposes in sinne
too, them who could have no cleansing but in his blood, and when they were clean-
sed Iob 29. in his blood, their owne clothes would defile them againe, them who by nature
are not able to love him at all, and when by grace they are brought to love him, can
expresse their love no other way, but to be glad that he was betrayed, and scourged,
and scorned, and nayled, and crucified; and to be glad, that if all this were not
already done, it might be done yet, to long, and wish, that if Christ were not cruci-
fied, he might be crucified now, (which is a strange manner of expressing love) those
men he loved, and loved unto the end; Men and not Angels; and then men, Ad di-
stinctionem mortuorum, sayes Chrysostome, not onely the Patriarchs, who were depar-
ted out of the world, who had loved him so well, as to take his word for their sal-
vation, and had lived and dyed in the faithfull contemplation of a future promise,
which they never saw performed; but those who were partakers of the performance
of all those promises, those into the midst of whom he came in person, those upon
whom he wrought with his piercing Doctrine, and his powerfull miracles, those
who for all this loved not him, he loved: Et in finem, he loved them to the end: It
is much that he should love them in fine, at their end, that he should looke graci-
ously on them at last, that when their sunne sets, their eyes faint, his sunne of grace
should arise, and his East be brought to their West, that then in the shadow of death,
the Lord of life should quicken and inanimate their hearts: that when their last bell
tolls, and calls them to their first Judgement, (and first and last Judgement to this
purpose is all one) the passing bell, and Angels trump sound all but one note, Surgite
qui dormitis in pulvere, Arise ye that sleepe in the dust, which is the voyce of the An-
gels, and Surgite qui vigilatis in plumis, Arise ye that cannot sleepe in feathers, for
the pangs of death, which is the voyce of the bell, is but one voyce; for God at the
generall Judgement, shall never reverse any particular Judgement, formerly given;
that God should then come to the beds side, ad sibilandum populum suum, as the Pro-
phet Ezekiel speaks, to hisse softly for his childe, to speake comfortably in his eare,
to whisper gently to his departing soule, and to drowne and overcome with this soft
Musick of his, all the danger of the Angels Trumpets, all the horror of the ringing
Bell, all the cryes, and vociferations of a distressed, and distracted, and scattering fa-
mily, yea all the accusations of his owne conscience, and all the triumphant accla-
mations of the Devill himselfe; that God should love a man thus in fine, at his end,
and returne to him then, though he had suffered him to go astray from him before,
it is a great testimony of an unspeakable love: but his love is not onely in fine, at the
end, but in finem, to the end, all the way to the end. He leaves them not uncalled at
first, he leaves them not unaccompanied in the way, he leaves them not unrecompen-
sed at the last, that God who is Almighty, Alpha and Omega, first and last, that
God is also love it selfe, and therefore this love is Alpha and Omega, first and last too;
Matth. 14.14. Consider Christs proceeding with Peter in the ship, in the storme; first he suffered him
to be in some danger, but then he visites him with that strong assurance, Noli timere,
Be not afraid, it is I, any testimony of his presence rectifies all. This puts Peter into
that spirituall knowledge and confidence, Jube me venire, Lord bid me come to thee;
he hath a desire to be with Christ, but yet stayes his bidding; he puts not himselfe
into an unnecessary danger, without a commandment; Christ bids him, and Peter
comes, but yet, though Christ were in his sight, and even in the actuall exercise of
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Serm. XXXV.
To the Nobility. of his love to him, yet as soone as he saw a gust, a storme, timuit, he was afraid, and
Christ letteth him feare, and letteth him sinke, and letteth him crie; But he directeth
his feare, and his crie to the right end, Domine salvum me fac, Lord save me, and there-
upon he stretcheth out his hand and saved him: God doth not raise his children to
honour, and great estates, and then leave them, and expose them to be subjects, and
exercises of the malice of others, nor he doth not make them mightie, and then leave
them, ut glorietur in malo qui potens est, that he should thinke it a glory to be able to do
harm. He doth not impoverish and dishonour his children, and then leave them;
leave them unsensible of that Doctrine, that patience is as great a blessing as aboun-
dance: God giveth not his children health, and then leaveth them to a boldnesse in
surfetting; nor beauty, and leave them to a confidence of opening themselves to all
sollicitations; nor valour, and then leaveth them to a spirit of quarrelsomnesse: God
maketh no patterns of his works, no modells of his houses, he maketh whole pieces, he
maketh perfect houses, he putteth his children into good wayes, and he directeth and
protecteth them in those wayes: For this is the constancy and the perseverance of the
love of Christ Jesus, as he is called in this Text a stone. To come to the particular
benefits; the first is that he is lapis fundamentalis, a foundation stone; for other foun-
dation Fundamen-
talis.can no man lay then that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Now where Saint
Augustine saith, (as he doth in two or three places) that this place of Saint Pauls to the
1 Cor. 3. Corinthians, is one of these places of which Saint Peter saith Quædam difficilia,
There are some things in Saint Paul hard to be understood: Saint Augustines mean-
ing is, that the difficulty is in the next words, how any man should build hay or stub-
ble upon so good a foundation as Christ, how any man that pretendeth to live in
Christ, should live ill, for in the other there can be no difficulty, how Christ Jesus to
a Christian, should be the onely foundation: And therefore to place salvation or
damnation in such an absolute Decree of God, as should have no relation to the fall
of man, or reparation in a Redeemer; this is to remove this stone out of the foun-
dation, for a Christian may be well content to beginne at Christ: If any man there-
fore have laid any other foundation to his Faith, or any other foundation to his Acti-
ons, possession of great places, alliance in great Families, strong parties in Courts,
obligation upon dependants, acclamations of people; if he have laid any other foun-
dations for pleasure, and contentment, care of health, and complexion, appliable-
nesse in conversation, delightfulnesse in discourses, cheerefulnesse in disportings, in-
terchanging of secrets, and such other small wares of Courts and Cities as these are:
whosoever hath laid such foundations as these, must proceed as that Generall did,
who when he received a besieged Towne to mercy, upon condition that in signe of
subjection they should suffer him to take off one row of stones from their walls, he
tooke away the lowest row, the foundation, and so ruined and demolished the whole
walls of the Citie: So must he that hath these false foundations, (that is, these ha-
bits) divest the habite, roote out the lowest stone, that is, the generall, and ra-
dicall inclination to these disorders: For he shall never be able to watch and resist e-
very particular temptation, if he trust onely to his Morall Constancy; No, nor if
he place Christ for the roofe to cover all his sinnes, when he hath done them; his
mercy worketh by way of pardon after, not by way of Non obstante, and priviledge to
doe a sinne before hand; but before hand we must have the foundation in our eye;
when we undertake any particular Action, in the beginning, we must looke how that
will suite with the foundation, with Christ; for there is his first place, to be Lapis
fundamentalis. And then, after we have considered him, first, in the foundation (as we are all Chri-
stians) Angularis.he growes to be Lapis Angularis, the Corner stone, to unite those Christians,
which seem to be of divers ways, divers aspects, divers professions together; as wee
consider him in the foundation, there he is the root of faith, As we consider him in the
Corner, there hee is the root of charity, In Esay hee is both together, A sure foun-
dation Esay 28. and a Corner stone, as he was in the place of Esay, Lapis probatus, I will
lay in Sion a tryed stone, and in the Psalm, Lapis reprobatus, a stone that the buil-
ders 118. refused, In this consideration, he is Lapis approbatus, a stone approved by all
sides, that unites all things together: Consider first, what divers things he unites
in his own person; That he should be the sonne of a woman, and yet no sonne of man, Dd2 That
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To the Nobility.
Serm. XXXV. That the sonne of a woman should be the sonne of God, that mans sinfull nature, and
innocency should meet together, a man that should not sinne, that Gods nature
and mortality should meet together, a God that must die; Briefly, that he should
doe and suffer so many things impossible as man, impossible as God. Thus hee was
a Corner stone, that brought together natures, naturally incompatible. Thus he was
Lapis Angularis, a Corner stone in his Person, Consider him in his Offices, as
a Redeemer, as a Mediatour, and so, hee hath united God to man; yea, rebel-
lious man to jealous God: Hee is such a Corner stone, as hath united heaven,
and earth, Jerusalem and Babylon together. Thus in his Person, and thus in his Offices, Consider him inhisin his pow-
er, and hee is such a Corner stone, as that hee is the God of Peace, and
Love, and Union, and Concord. Such a Corner stone as is able to unite,
and reconcile (as it did in Abrahams house) a Wife, and a Concubine in one
bed, a covetous Father, and a wastfull Sonne in one family, a severe Magi-
strate, and a licentious people in one City, an absolute Prince, and a jealous
People in one Kingdome, Law, and Conscience in one Government, Scripture,
and tradition in one Church. If we would but make Christ Jesus and his peace,
the life and soule of all our actions, and all our purposes; if we would mingle that
sweetnesse and supplenesse which he loves, and which he is, in all our undertakings;
if in all controversies, booke controversies, and sword controversies, we would fit
them to him, and see how neere they would meet in him, that is, how neere
we might come to be friends, and yet both sides be good Christians; then wee
placed this stone in his second right place, who as hee is a Corner stone re-
conciling God and man in his owne Person, and a Corner stone in recon-
ciling God and mankinde in his Office, so hee desires to bee a Corner stone in
reconciling man and man, and setling peace among our selves, not for world-
ly ends, but for this respect, that wee might all meet in him to love one another,
not because wee made a stronger party by that love, not because wee made a
sweeter conversation by that love, but because wee met closer in the bosome of
Christ Jesus; where wee must at last either rest altogether eternally, or bee alto-
gether eternally throwne out, or bee eternally separated and divorced from one
another. Lapis acob. Having then received Christ for the foundation stone, (wee beleeve aright) and
for the Corner stone (we interpret charitably the opinions, and actions of other
men) The next is, that hee bee Lapis Jacob, a stone of rest and security to our
selves. When Jacob was in his journey, hee tooke a stone, and that stone was
Gen. 28. his pillow, upon that hee slept all night, &c. resting upon that stone, hee
saw the Ladder that reached from heaven to earth; it is much to have this e-
gresse and regresse to God, to have a sense of being gone from him, and a de-
sire and meanes of returning to him; when wee doe fall into particular sinnes, it
is well if wee can take hold of the first step of this Ladder, with that hand of
Psal. 47. 20. David, Domine respice in Testamentum, O Lord, consider thy Covenant, if wee can
remember God of his Covenant, to his people, and to their seed, it is well; it is more,
if wee can clamber a step higher on this ladder to a Domine labia mea aperies, if we
come to open our lips in a true confession of our wretched condition and of those
sinnes by which we have forfeited our interest in that Covenant, it is more; and more
Esay 16. 9. then that too, if we come to that inebriabo me lacrymis, if we overflow and make our
selves drunke with teares, in a true sense, and sorrow for those sinnes, still it is more;
And more then all this, if we can expostulate with God in an Vsque quo Domine, How
Psal. 13. 2. long, O Lord, shall I take counsell in my self, having wearinesse in my heart? These steps,
these gradations towards God, do well; warre is a degree of peace, as it is the way of
peace; and these colluctations and wrestlings with God, bring a man to peace with
him; But then is a man upon this stone of Jacob, when in a faire, and even, and con-
stant religious course of life, he enters into his sheets every night, as though his neigh-
bours next day were to shrowd and wind him in those sheets; he shuts up his eyes eve-
ry night, as though his Executors had closed them; and lies downe every night, not as
though his man were to call him up next morning, or to the next dayes sport, or busi-
nesse, but as though the Angels were to call him to the resurrection; And this is he
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To the Nobility. our third benefit, as Christ is a stone, we have security and peace of conscience in
him. The next is, That he is Lapis David, the stone with which David slew Goliah, and Lapis David.
with which we may overcome all our enemies; Sicut baculus crucis, ita lapis Christi
habuit typum; Davids sling was a type of the Crosse, and the stone was a type of Christ, August.
we will chuse to insist upon spirituall enemies, sinnes; And this is that stone that ena-
bles the weakest man to overthrow the strongest sinne, if he proceed as David did:
David sayes to 1 Sam.14. 15. Goliah, Thou comest to me with a speare and a shield, but I come to thee in
the name of the God of the hosts of Israel, whom thou hast railed upon,) if thou watch the
approach of any sinne, any giant sinne that transports thee most; if thou apprehend it
to rayle against the Lord of Hosts, (that is, that there is a loud and active blasphemy
against God, in every sinne) if thou discerne it to come with a sword, or a speare, (that
is, perswasions of advancement if thou do it, or threatnings of dishonour, if thou do
it not,) if it come with a shield, (that is, with promises to cover and palliate it, though
thou do it,) If then this David, Gregory. (thy attempted soule) can put his hand into his bag (as
David did) (for quid cor hominis nisi sacculus Dei? a mans heart is that bag in which God
layes up all good directions) if he can but take into his consideration his Jesus, his
Christ, and sling one of his works, his words, his commandments, his merits, This
Goliah, this Giant sinne, will fall to the ground, and then, as it is said of David, that
he slew him when he had no sword in his hand, and yet in the next verse, that he tooke
his sword and slew him with that: so even by the consideration of what my Lord hath
done for me, I shall give that sinne the first deaths wound, and then I shall kill him
with his owne sword, that is, his owne abomination, his owne foulenesse shall make
me detest him. If I dare but looke my sinne in the face, if I dare tell him, I come in
the name of the Lord, if I consider my sinne, I shall triumph over it, Et dabit certanti
August. victoriam qui dedit certandi audaciam, That God that gave me courage to fight, will
give me strength to overcome. The last benefit which we consider in Christ, as he is a stone, is, That he is Petra, a Lapis, Petra.
Rock; The Rock gave water to the Israelites in the wildernesse; and he gave them Num. 20.
honey out of the stone, and oyle out of the hard Rock: Now when Saint Paul sayes, Deut. 32. 13.
That our Fathers dranke of the same Rock as we, he adds that the same Rock was 1 Cor. 10
Christ; So that all Temporall, and all Spirituall blessings to us, and to the Fathers,
were all conferred upon us in Christ; but we consider not now any miraculous produ-
ction from the Rock, but that which is naturall to the Rock; that it is a firme defence
to us in all tempests, in all afflictions, in all tribulations; and therefore, Laudate Domi-
num habitatores petræ, sayes the Prophet, You that are inhabitants of this Rock, you
that dwell in Christ, and Christ in you, you that dwell in this Rock, Esay 42. 11. Prayse ye the Lord,
blesse him, and magnifie him for ever. If a sonne should aske bread of his father, will he
give him a stone, was Christs question? Yes, O blessed Father, we aske no other an-
swer to our petition, no better satisfaction to our necessity, then when we say, Da nobis
panem, Give us this day our daily bread, that thou give us this Stone, this Rock, thy self
in thy Church, for our direction, thy self in the Sacrament, for our refection; what
hardnesse soever we finde there, what corrections soever we receive there, all shall be
easie of digestion, and good nourishment to us; Thy holy spirit of patience shall com-
mand, That these stones be made bread; And we shall finde more juice, more marrow in
these stones, in these afflictions, then worldly men shall do in the softnesse of their oyle,
in the sweetnesse of their honey, in the cheerefulnesse of their wine; for as Christ is
our foundation, we beleeve in him, and as he is our corner-stone, we are at peace with
the world in him; as he is Jacobs stone, giving us peace in our selves, and Davids stone,
giving us victory over our enemies, so he is a Rock of stone, (no affliction, no tribulati-
on shal shake us.) And so we have passed through all the benefits proposed to be consider-
ed in this first part, As Christ is a stone. It is some degree of thankfulnesse, 2 Part. to stand long in the contemplation of the bene-
fit which we have received, and therefore we have insisted thus long upon the first
part. But it is a degree of spirituall wisdome too, to make haste to the consideration
of our dangers, and therefore we come now to them, Wee may fall upon this stone,
and be broken. This stone may fall upon us, and grinde us to powder, and in the first
of these, we may consider, Quid cadere, what the falling upon this stone is: and se-
Dd3 condly,
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To the Nobility.
Serm. XXXV.condly, Quid frangi, what it is to broken upon it: and then thirdly, the latitude
of this unusquisque, that whosoever fals so, is so broken; first then, because Christ
loves us to the end, therefore will we never put him to it, never trouble him till then;
Wisd. 16. 24. as the wiseman sayd of Manna, that it had abundance of all pleasure in it, and was meat
for all tasts, that is, (as Expositors interpret it) that Manna tasted to every one, like
that which every one liked best: so this stone Christ Jesus, hath abundance of all qua-
lities of stone in it, and is all the way such a stone to every man, as he desires it should
be. Unto you that beleeve saith, Saint Peter, it is a precious stone, but unto the disobedi-
ent, a stone to stumble at: for if a man walke in a gallery, where windowes, and tables,
and statues, are all of marble, yet if he walke in the darke, or blindfold, or carelesly,
he may breake his face as dangerously against that rich stone, as if it were but brick;
So though a man walke in the true Church of God, in that Jerusalem which is descri-
bed in the Revelation, the foundation, the gates, the walls, all precious stone, yet if a
man bring a mis-belief, a mis-conceipt, that all this religion is but a part of civill go-
vernment and order; if a man be scandalized, at that humility, that patience, that po-
verty, that lowlinesse of spirit which the Christian Religion inclines us unto; if he will
say, Si Rex Israel, If Christ will be King, let him come downe from the Crosse, and
then we will beleeve in him, let him deliver his Church from all crosses, first, of do-
ctrine, and then of persecution, and then we will beleeve him to be King; if we will
say, Nolumus hunc regnare, we will admit Christ, but we will not admit him to reign o-
ver us, to be King; if he will be content with a Consulship, with a Collegueship, that
he & the world may joyn in the government, that we may give the week to the world,
and the Sabbath to him, that we may give the day of the Sabbath to him and the night
to our licentiousnesse, that of the day we may give the forenoon to him, and the after-
noon to our pleasures, if this will serve Christ, we are content to admit him, but Nolu-
mus regnare, we will none of that absolute power, that whether we eat or drink, or what-
soever we doe, we must be troubled to thinke on him, and respect his glory in every
thing. If he will say, Præcepit Angelis, God hath given us in charge to his Angels,
and therefore we need not to look to our own ways, He hath locked us up safely, and
lodged us softly under an eternall election, and therefore we are sure of salvation, if he
will walke thus blindely, violently, wilfully, negligently in the true Church, though he
walke amongst the Saphires, and Pearls, and Chrysolytes, which are mentioned there,
that is, in the outward communion and fellowship of Gods Saints, yet he may bruise
and break, and batter himselfe, as much against these stones, as against the stone
Gods of the heathen, or the stone Idols of the Papists; for first, the place of this fal-
ling upon this stone, is the true Church; Qui jacet in terra, he that is already upon the
ground, in no Church, can fall no lower, till he fall to hell; but he whom God hath
brought into his true Church, if he come to a confident security, that he is safe enough
in these outward acts of Religion, he falls, though it be upon this stone, he erreth,
though in the true Church. This is the place then, the true Church; the
falling it selfe (as farre as will fall into our time of consideration now) is a
falling into some particular sinne, but not such as quenches our faith; wee fall so, as
Hierome. we may rise againe. Saint Hierome expresseth it so, Qui cadit, & tamen credit, he that
falls, but yet beleeves, that fals and hath a sense of his fall, reservatur per pænitenti-
am ad salutem, that man is reserved by Gods purpose, to come by repentance, to sal-
vation; for this man that fals there, fals not so desperately, as that he feeles nothing be-
tween hell and him, nothing to stop at, nothing to check him by the way, Cadit super,
he falls upon some thing; nor he falls not upon flowers, to wallow and tumble in his
sinne, nor upon feathers, to rest and sleep in his sinne, nor into a cooling river, to disport,
and refresh, and strengthen himself in his sinne; but he falls upon a stone, where he
may receive a bruise, a pain upon his fall, a remorse of that sinne he is fallen into: And
in this fall, our infirmitie appears three wayes: The first is Impingere in lapidem, To
stumble, for though he be upon the right stone in the true Religion, and have light
Esa. 50. 10. enough, yet Impingimus meredie, as the Prophet saith, even at noon we stumble; we
have much more light, by Christ being come, then the Jewes had, but we are sorry we
have it: when Christ hath said to us for our better understanding of the Law, He that
looketh and lusteth hath committed Adultery, He that coveteth hath stollen, He that is an-
gry hath murdered, we stumble at this, and we are scandalized with it; and we thinke that
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Serm. XXXV.
To the Nobility. that other Religions are gentler, and that Christ hath dealt hardly with us, and we
had rather Christ had not said so, we had rather he had left us to our libertie and dis-
cretion, to looke, and court, and to give a way to our passions, as we should finde it
most conduce to our ease, and to our ends. And this is Impingere, to stumble, not to
goe on in an equall and even pace, not to doe the will of God cheerefully. And a se-
cond degree is calcitrare, to kick, to spurre at this stone; that is, to bring some par-
ticular sinne, and some particular Law into comparison: To debate thus, if I doe
not this now, I shall never have such a time; if I slip this, I shall never have the like
opportunitie; if I will be a foole now, I shall be a begger all my life: and for the
Law of God that is against it, there is but a little evill for a great deale of good; and
there is a great deale of time to recover and repent that little evill. Now to remove
a stone which was a landmarke, and to hide and cover that stone, was all one fault in
the Law; to hide the will of God from our owne Consciences with excuses and exte-
nuatious, this is, calcitrare, as much as we can to spurn the stone, the landmarke out of
the way; but the fulnesse and accomplishment of this is in the third word of the Text,
Cadere, to fall; he falls as a piece of money falls into a river; we heare it fall, and we
see it sink, and by and by we see it deeper, and at last we see it not at all: So no man
falleth at first into any sinne, but he heares his own fall. There is a tendernesse in eve-
ry Conscience at the beginning, at the entrance into a sinne, and he discerneth a while
the degrees of sinking too: but at last he is out of his owne sight, till he meete this
stone; (this stone is Christ) that is, till he meete some hard reprehension, some
hard passage of a Sermon, some hard judgement in a Prophet, some crosse in the
World, some thing from the mouth, or some thing from the hand of God, that breaks
him: He falls upon the stone and is broken. So that to be broken upon this stone, Frangi. is to come to this sense, that though our in-
tegrity be lost, that we be no more whole and intire vessells, yet there are meanes of
piecing us again: Though we be not vessells of Innocency, (for who is so?) (and for
that enter not into judgement with thy servants O Lord) yet we may be vessells of
repentance acceptable to God, and usefull to his service; for when any thing falls up-
on a stone, the harme that it suffereth, is not alwayes (or not onely) according to
the proportion of the hardnesse of that which it fell upon, but according to the heighth
that it falleth from, and according to that violence that it is throwne with: If their
fall who fall by sinnes of infirmitie, should referre onely to the stone they fall upon,
(the Majestie of God being wounded and violated in every sinne) every sinner
would be broken to pieces, and ground to powder: But if they fall not from too far
a distance, if they have lived within any nearnesse, any consideration of God, if they
have not fallen with violence, taken heart and force in the way, grown perfect in the
practise of their sinne, if they fall upon this stone, that is, sinne, and yet stoppe at
Christ, after the sinne, this stone shall breake them; that is, breake their force, and
confidence, breake their presumption, and security, but yet it shall leave enough
in them, for the Holy Ghost to unite to his Service; yea, even the sinne it self, co-
operabitur in bonum, as the Apostle saith, the very fall it selfe shall be an occasion of Rom. 8. 28.
his rising: And therefore though Saint Augustine seeme to venture farre, it is not
too farre, when he saith, Audeo dicere, it is boldly said, and yet I must say it, utile est ut
caderem in aliquod manifestum peccatum; A sinner falleth to his advantage, that fal-
leth into some such sinne, as by being manifested to the World, manifesteth his
owne sinnefull state, to his owne sinnefull Conscience too: It is well for
that man that falleth so, as that he may thereby looke the better to his footing ever
after; Dicit Domino Susceptor meus es tu, sayes St. Bernard, That man hath a new Title to Bernard.
God, a new name for God; all creatures (as St. Bernard inlarges this meditation) can
say, Creator meus es tu, Lord thou art my Creator; all living creatures can say, Pastor
meus es tu, Thou art my shepheard, Thou givest me meat in due season; all men can
say, Redemptor meus es tu, thou art my Redeemer; but onely he which is fallen, and
fallen upon this stone, can say, Susceptor meus es tu, only he which hath been overcome
by a temptation, and is restored, can say, Lord thou hast supported me, thou hast
recollected my shivers, and reunited me; onely to him hath this stone expressed, both
abilities of stone; first to breake him with a sense of his sin, and then to give him peace
and rest upon it. Now
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To the Nobility.
Serm. XXXV.
Quicunque.Now there is in this part this circumstance, Quicunque cadit, whosoever falleth;
where the quicunque is unusquisque, whosoever falls, that is, whosoever he be, he falls;
Esay 14.12. Quomodo de cœlo cecidisti Lucifer? says the Prophet, the Prophet wonders how Lu-
cifer could fall, having nothing to tempt him (for so many of the Antiens interpret
that place of the fall of the Angels, and when the Angels fell, there were no other
creatures made,) but Quid est homo aut filius hominis? since the Father of man, A-
dam, could not, how shall the sonnes of him, that inherit his weaknesse, and con-
tract more, and contribute their temptations to one another, hope to stand? Adam
fell, and he fell à longè, farre off, for he could see no stone to fall upon, for when he
fell, there was no such Messias, no such meanes of reparation proposed, nor pro-
mised when he fell, as now to us; The blessed Virgin, and the forerunner of Christ,
John Baptist, fell too, but they fell propè, neerer hand, they fell but a little way, for
they had this stone (Christ Jesus) in a personall presence, and their faith was al-
waies awake in them; but yet he, and she, and they all fell into some sinne. Qui-
cunque cadit is unusquisque cadit, whosoever falls, is, whosoever he be, he falls, and who-
soever falls, (as we said before) is broken; If he fall upon something, and fall not to
an infinite depth; If he fall not upon a soft place, to a delight in sinne, but upon a
stone, and this stone, (no harder, sharper, ruggedder then this, not into a diffidence, or
distrust in Gods mercy) he that falls so, and is broken so, that comes to a remorsefull,
to a broken, and a contrite heart, he is broken to his advantage, left to a possibility,
yea brought to a neerenesse of being pieced againe, by the Word, by the Sacraments,
and other medicinall institutions of Christ in his Church. 3 Part.We must end onely with touching upon the third part, upon whom this stone falls, it
will grinde him to powder; where we shall onely tell you first, Quid conteri, what this
grinding is; and then, Quid cadere, what the falling of this stone is; And briefly this
grinding to powder, is to be brought to that desperate and irrecoverable estate in sinne,
as that no medicinall correction from God, no breaking, no bowing, no melting, no
moulding can bring him to any good fashion; when God can worke no cure, do no
good upon us by breaking us; not by breaking us in our health, for we will attribute
that to weaknesse of stomach, to surfeit, to indigestion; not by breaking us in our
states, for we will impute that to falshood in servants, to oppression of great adver-
saries, to iniquity of Judges; not by breaking us in our honour, for we will accuse for
that, factions, and practises, and supplantation in Court; when God cannot breake us
with his corrections, but that we will attribute them to some naturall, to some acci-
dentall causes, and never thinke of Gods judgements, which are the true cause of
these afflictions; when God cannot breake us by breaking our backs, by laying on hea-
vy loads of calamities upon us, nor by breaking our hearts, by putting us into a sad,
and heavy, and fruitlesse sorrow and melancholy for these worldly losses, then he
comes to breake us by breaking our necks, by casting us into the bottomlesse pit,
and falling upon us there, in this wrath and indignation, Comminuam eos in pulverem,
Psal. 15.42. sayth he, I will beate them as small as dust before the winde, and tread them as flat as clay
in the streets, the breaking thereof shall be like the breaking of a Potters vessell, which
Esay 30.14. is broken without any pity. (No pity from God, no mercy, neither shall any man
pity them, no compassion, no sorrow:) And in the breaking thereof, saith the Pro-
phet, there is not found a sheard to take fire at the hearth, nor to take water at the pit:
that is, they shall be incapable of any beam of grace in themselves from heaven, or any
spark of zeale in themselves, (not a sheard to fetch fire at the hearth) and incapable of
any drop of Christs blood from heaven, or of any teare of contrition in themselves,
Ierem. 19. 11. not a sheard to fetch water at the pit, I will breake them as a Potters vessell, quod non po-
test instaurari, says God in Jeremy, There shall be no possible meanes (of those means
which God hath ordained in his Church) to recompact them againe, no voice of Gods
word to draw them, no threatnings of Gods judgements shall drive them, no cen-
sures of Gods Church shall fit them, no Sacrament shall cement and glue them to
Christs body againe; In temporall blessings, he shall be unthankfull, in temporall af-
flictions, he shall be obdurate: And these two shall serve, as the upper and nether stone
of a mill, to grinde this reprobate sinner to powder. Cadere. Lastly, this is to be done, by Christs falling upon him, and what is that? I know
some Expositors take this to be but the falling of Gods judgements upon him in this world;
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Serm. XXXV.
To the Nobility. world; But in this world there is no grinding to powder, all Gods judgements here, (for
any thing that we can know) have the nature of Physick in them, & may, & are wont to
cure; & no man is here so absolutely broken in pieces, but that he may be re-united: we
chuse therefore to follow the Ancients in this, That the falling of this stone upon this Re-
probate, is Christs last & irrecoverable falling upon him, in his last judgment; that when
hee shall wish that the Hills might fall and cover him, this stone shall fall, & grinde him
to powder; He shall be broken, and be no more found, says the Prophet, yea, he shall be bro-
ken and no more sought: No man shall consider him what he is now, nor remember him Dan. 11. 18.
what he was before: For, that stone, which in Daniel, was cut out without hands Dan. 2.
(which was a figure of Christ, who came without ordinary generation) when that great
Image was to be overthrown, broke not an arme or a leg, but brake the whole Image
in peeces, and it wrought not onely upon the weak parts, but it brake all, the clay, the
iron, the brasse, the silver, the gold; so when this stone fals thus, when Christ comes
to judgement, he shall not onely condemn him for his clay, his earthly and covetous
sinnes, nor for his iron, his revengefull oppressing, and rusty sinnes, nor for his brasse, his
shining, and glittering sinnes, which he hath filed and polished, but he shall fall upon
his silver and gold, his religious and precious sinnes, his hypocriticall hearing of Ser-
mons, his singular observing of Sabbaths, his Pharisaicall giving of almes, and as well
his subtill counterfeiting of Religion, as his Atheisticall opposing of religion, this stone,
Christ himselfe, shall fall upon him, and a showre of other stones shall oppresse him too.
Sicut pluit laqueos, says David, As God rained springs and snares upon them in this
Psal. 11. 6. world (abundance of temporall blessings to be occasions of sinne unto them:) So pluet
grandinem, he shall raine such haile-stones upon them, as shall grinde them to powder;
there shall fall upon him the naturall Law, which was written in his heart, and did
rebuke him, then when he prepared for a sinne; there shall fall upon him the written
Law, which cryed out from the mouthes of the Prophets in these places, to avert him
from sinne; there shall fall upon him those sinnes which he hath done, and those sins
which he hath not done, if nothing but want of means & opportunity hindred him from
doing them; there shall fall upon him those sinnes which he hath done after anothers
dehortation, and those, which others have done after his provocation; there the stones
of Nineveh shall fall upon him, and of as many Cities as have repented with lesse pro-
portions of mercy and grace, then God afforded him; there the rubbage of Sodom
and Gomorrah shall fall upon him, and as many Cities as in their ruine might have been
examples to him. All these stones shall fall upon him, and to add weight to all these,
Christ Jesus himselfe shall fall upon his conscience, with unanswerable questions, and Rev. 2. 11.
grinde his soule to powder. But hee that overcometh, shall not bee hurt by the second
death, he that feeles his own fall upon this stone, shall never feel this stone fall upon
him, he that comes to a remorse, early, and earnestly after a sinne, and seeks by ordi-
nary meanes, his reconcileation to God in his Church, is in the best state that man
can be in now; for howsoever we cannot say that repentance is as happy an estate as
Innocency, yet certainly every particular man feels more comfort and spirituall joy,
after a true repentance for a sin, then he had in that degree of Innocence which he had
before he committed that sinne; and therefore in this case also we may safely repeat
those words of Augustine, Audeo dicere, I dare be bold to say, that many a man hath
been the better for some sin. Almighty God, who gives that civill wisdome, to make use of other mens infirmities,
give us also this heavenly wisdome, to make use of our own particular sins, that thereby our
own wretched conditions in our selves, and our meanes of reparation in Jesus Christ, may be
the more manifested unto us; To whom with the blessed Spirit, &c. SER.
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Serm. XXXVI.
Sermon XXXVI.
Preached at Saint Pauls upon Christmasse day, 1621.
John 1. 8.
He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witnesse of that Light. ITIt is an injury common to all the Evangelists, (as Irenæus notes)
that all their Gospels were severally refused by one Sect of Here-
ticks or other. But it was proper to Saint John alone, to be refu-
sed by a Sect, that admitted all the other three Evangelists,
(as Epiphanius remembers) and refused onely Saint John. These
were the Alogiani, a limme and branch of the Arians, who being
unable to looke upon the glorious Splendour, the divine Glory,
attributed by Saint John to this Logos, (which gave them their name of Alogiani) this
Word, this Christ, not comprehending this Mystery, That this Word was so with God,
as that it was God; they tooke a round way, and often practised, to condemne all that
they did not understand, and therefore refuse the whole Gospell. Indeed his whole Gospell
is comprehended in the beginning thereof. In this first Chapter is contracted all that
which is extensively spred, and dilated through the whole Booke. For here is first, the
Foundation of all, the Divinitie of Christ, to the 15. verse. Secondly, the Execution of
all, the Offices of Christ, to the 35. verse. And then the Effect, the Working, the Appli-
cation of all, that is, who were to Preach all this, to the ends of the world, the calling of
his Apostles, to the end of the Chapter: for the first, Christs Divinity, there is enough
expressed in the very first verse alone: for, there is his Eternitie, intimated in that word,
In principio, in the beginning. The first booke of the Bible, Genesis, and the last booke,
(that is, that which was last written) this Gospell, begin both with this word, In the be-
ginning. But the last beginning was the first, if Moses beginning doe onely denote the
Creation, which was not 6000. yeares since, and Saint Johns, the Eternity of Christ,
which no Millions, multiplied by Millions, can calculate. And then, as his Eternitie, so
his distinction of Persons, is also specified in this 1. verse, when the Word, (that is, Christ)
is said to have been apud Deum, with God. For, therefore, (saith Saint Basil) did the
Holy Ghost rather choose to say apud Deum, then in Deo, with God, then in God, ne aufe-
rendæ Hypostaseos occasionem daret, lest he should give any occasion of denying the same
Nature, in divers Persons; for it doth more clearly notifie a distinction of Persons, to
say, he was with him, then to say, he was in him; for the severall Attributes of God,
(Mercy and Justice, and the rest) are in God, and yet they are not distinct Persons. Last-
ly, there is also expressed in this 1. verse Christs Equality with God, in that it is said, &
Verbum erat Deus, and this Word was God. As it was in the beginning, and therefore E-
ternall, and as it was with God, and therefore a distinct Person, so it was God, and there-
forre equall to the Father; which phrase doth so vexe and anguish the Arians, that be-
ing disfurnished of all other escapes, they corrupted the place, onely with a false inter-
punction, and broke of the words, where they admitted no such pause; for, they read it
thus, Verbum erat apud Deum; (so far, well) Et Deus erat. There they made their
point; and then followed in another sentence: Verbum hoc erat in principio, &c. The first part then of this Chapter, (and indeed of the whole Gospell) is in that 1.
verse the manifestation of his Divine Nature, in his Eternitie, in the distinction of Per-
sons, in the equalitie with the Father. The second part of the Chapter layeth downe
the Office of Christ, his Propheticall, his Priestly, his Royall Office. For the first, the Of-
fice of a Prophet consisting in three severall exercises, to manifest things past, to fore-
tell things to come, and to expound thingthings present, Christ declared himself to be a Pro-
phet in all these three: for, for the first, he was not onely a Verball, but an Actuall ma-
nifester of former Prophecies, for all the former Prophecies were accomplished in his
Person, and inhisin his deeds, and words, in his actions and Passion. For the second, his fore telling
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Serm. XXXVI.
On Christmas day.telling of future things, he foretold the state of the Church, to the end of the world. And
for the third (declaring of present things) He told the Samaritan woman, Iohn 4. 19. so exquisite-
ly, all her own History, that she gave presently that attestation, Sir, I see that thou art
a Prophet: so his Propheticall Office, is plainly laid down. For his second Office, his
Priesthood, that is expressed in the 36. verse, Behold the Lambe of God; for, in this, he was
our Priest, that he was our Sacrifice; he was our Priest, in that he offered himselfe for
our sinnes. Lastly, his Royall Office was the most naturall to him of all the rest. The Of-
fice of a Prophet was Naturall to none; none was born a Prophet. Those who are cal-
led the children of the Prophets, and the sonnes of the Prophets, are but the Prophets Disci-
ples. Though the Office of Priesthood, by being annexed to one Tribe, may (in some
sense) be called Naturall, yet in Christ it could not be so, for he was not of that Tribe
of Levi: so that he had no interest in the legall Priesthood, but was a Priest according to
the Order of Melchisedec. But his Title to be King, was naturall, by descent, he was of
the bloud Royall, and the nearest in succession; so that he, and onely he, had, De Jure, all
the three unctions upon him. David had two; he was both a Prophet, and a King; he
had those two capacities; Melchisedec had two too; he was both a King and a Priest;
he had two: Onely Christ had all three, both a Prophet, and Priest, and King. In the third part of the Chapter, which is the calling of foure of his Apostles, we may
observe that the first was called, was not Peter, but Andrew; that there might be
laid at first some interruption, some stop to their zealous fury, who will still force, and
heap up every action which any way concerns Saint Peter, to the building up of his
imaginary primacy, which primacy, they cared not though Peter wanted, if they could
convey that primacy to his Successor, by any other Title; for which Successours sake it
is, and not for Saint Peters own, that they are so over diligent in advancing his prero-
gative. But, it was not Peter, that was called, but Andrew. In Andrews present and
earnest application of himself to Christ, we may note, (and onely so) divers particu-
lars, fit for use and imitation. In his first question, Master, where dwellest thou? there is
not onely, (as Cyrill observes) a reverent ascribing to him a power of instructing in that
compellation, Master, but a desire to have more time afforded to hearken to his in-
structions, Where dwellest thou, that I may dwell with thee? And as soon as ever he had
taken in some good portion of knowledge himselfe, he conceives presently a desire to
communicate his happinesse with others; and he seeks his brother Peter, and tells him,
Invenimus Messiam, we have found the Messias; which is, (as Saint Chrysostome notes)
vox quærentis: In this, that he rejoyces in the finding of him, he testifies that he had
sought him, and that he had continued in the expectation of a Messias before. Invenit
Messiam, he had found the Messias; but, saith the Text, Duxit ad Jesum, he brought
his brother the glorious newes of having found a King, the King of the Jewes, but he
led him to Jesus, to a Saviour; that so, all kinds of happinesse, temporall and spirituall,
might be intimated in this discovery of a King, and of a Saviour; What may not his ser-
vants hope for at his hands, who is both those, a King and a Saviour, and hath worldly
preferments, and the Glory of Heaven in his power? Now, though the words of this Text, (He was not that light, but was sent to beare
witnesse of that light) are placed in the first part of the Chapter, that which concernes
Christs Divine nature, yet they belong, and they have a respect to all three; To his
Divine nature, to his Offices, and to his Calling of his Apostles: For, first, light denotes
his Divine nature; secondly, the testimony that is given of him by John Bap-
tist, (of whom the words of our Text are spoken) declares him to be the Messias, and
Messias, (which signifies anointed) involves all his Offices, for his three Offices, are his
three vocations; and thirdly, the Application of this testimony, given by John Bap-
tist here, by the Apostles and their Successors after, intimates or brings to our memory
this their first vocation, in this Chapter. So that the Gospel of Saint Iohn containes
all Divinity, this Chapter all the Gospell, and this Text all the Chapter. Therefore
it is too large to goe through at this time; at this time we shall insist upon such bran-
ches as arise out of that consideration, what, and who this light is, (for, we shall finde
it to be both a personall light, (it is some body) and, otherwise too, a reall light, (it is
some thing) therefore we inquire, what, this light is, (what thing) and who this light
is, (what person) which John Baptist is denied to be. Hereafter we shall consider, the
Testimony which is given of this light; in which part in due time, we shall handle, The
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Serm. XXXVI. the person of the witnesse John Baptist, in whom we shall finde many considerable, and
extraordinary circumstances: and then, his Citation, and calling to this testimony; and
thirdly, the testimony it selfe that he gave: and lastly, why any testimony was requisite to
so evident a thing as light. But the first part, who, and what this light is, belongs most
properly to this day, and will fill that portion of the day, which is afforded us for this
exercise. Proceed we therefore to that, John Baptist was not that light, who was,
what was? Though most expositors, 1 Part. as well ancient, as modern agree with one generall, and
unanime consent, Quis lux. that light in this verse is intended and meant of Christ, Christ is this
light, yet in some precedent and subsequent passages in this Chapter, I see other sen-
ses have been admitted of this word, light, then perchance those places will beare; cer-
tainly other then those places need: particularly, in the fourth verse (In it was life, and
that life was the light of men) there they understand life, to be nothing but this natu-
rall life which we breath, and light to be onely that naturall life, naturall reason, which
distinguishes us men, from other creatures. Now, it is true that they may have a pre-
tence for some ground of this interpretation in antiquity it selfe, for, so says Saint Cyrill,
Filius Dei Creativè illuminat, Christ doth enlighten us, in creating us. And so some
others of the Fathers, and some of the Schooles, understand by that light naturall Reason,
and that life, conservation in life. But this interpretation seemes to me subject to both
these dangers, that it goes so farre, and yet reaches not home. So far, in wresting in
divers senses into a word, which needs but one, and is of it selfe cleare enough, that is
light, and yet reaches not home, for it reaches not to the essentiall light, which is Christ
Jesus, nor to the supernaturall light, which is Faith and Grace, which seemes to have
been the Evangelists principall scope, to declare the comming of Christ, (who is the
essentiall light) and his purpose in comming, to raise and establish a Church, by Faith
and Grace, which is the supernaturall light: For, as the holy Ghost himselfe interprets
life to be meant of Christ, 1 Ioh. 5. 12. (He that hath the Sonne hath life) so we may justly doe of
light too, he that sees the Sonne, the Sonne of God hath light. For, light is never, (to my
remembrance) found in any place of the Scripture, where it must necessarily signifie
the light of nature, naturall reason; but wheresoever it is transferred from the naturall
to a figurative sense, it takes a higher signification then that; either it signifies Essentiall
light, Christ Jesus, (which answers our first question, Quis lux, who is this light, it is
Christ, personally) or it signifies the supernaturall light of Faith and Grace, (which an-
swers our second question, Quid lux, what is this light, for it is the working of Christ,
by his Spirit, in his Church, in the infusion of Faith and Grace, for beliefe, and manners)
And therefore though it be ever lawfull, and often times very usefull, for the raising and
exaltation of our devotion, and to present the plenty, and abundance of the holy Ghost
in the Scriptures, who satisfies us as with marrow, and with fatnesse, to induce the di-
verse senses that the Scriptures doe admit, yet this may not be admitted, if there may
be danger thereby, to neglect or weaken the literall sense it selfe. For there is no neces-
sity of that spirituall wantonnesse of finding more then necessary senses; for, the more
lights there are, the more shadows are also cast by those many lights. And, as it is true
in religious duties, so is it in interpretation of matters of Religion, Necessarium & Satis
convertuntur; when you have done that you ought to doe in your calling, you have
done enough; there are no such Evangelicall counsailes, as should raise workes of super-
erogation, more then you are bound to doe, so when you have the necessary sense, that is
the meaning of the holy Ghost in that place, you have senses enow, and not till then,
though you have never so many, and never so delightfull. Light therefore, Illa lux. is in all this Chapter fitliest understood of Christ; who is noted
here, with that distinctive article, Illa lux, that light. For, non sic dicitur lux, sicut lapis;
Christ is not so called Light, Augustin. as he is called a Rock, or a Cornerstone; not by a
metaphore, but truly, and properly. It is true that the Apostles are said to be
light, and that with an article, the light; but yet with a limitation and re-
striction, Mat. 5. the light of the world, that is, set up to convey light to the world. It is true
that John Baptist himselfe was called light, and with large additions, Lucerna ardens,
a burning, Ioh. 5. and a shining lampe, to denote both his owne burning zeale, and the communi-
cating of this his light to others. It is true, Ephe. 5. that all the faithfull are said to be light in
the Lord; but all this is but to signifie that they had been in darknesse before; they had
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Serm. XXXVI.
On Christmas day. had been beclouded, but were now illustrated; they were light, but light by re-flexion, by illustration of a greater light. And as in the first creation, vesper &
mane dies unus, The evening and the morning made the day, evening before morning,
darknesse before light, so in our regeneration, when wee are made new Creatures, the
Spirit of God findes us in naturall darknesse, and by him we are made light in the Lord.
But Christ himselfe, and hee onely, is Illa lux, vera lux; that light, the true light.
Not so opposed to those other lights, as though the Apostles, or John Baptist, or
the faithfull, who are called lights, were false lights; but that they were weake
lights. But Christ was fons lucis, the fountaine of all their light; light so, as
no body else was so; so, as that hee was nothing but light. Now, neither the
Apostles, nor John Baptist, nor the Elect, no nor the virgin Mary (though wee
should allow all that the Roman Church aske in her behalfe) for the Roman
Church is not yet come to that searednesse, that obduratenesse, that impudency,
as to pronounce that the virgin Mary was without originall sinne, (though they
have done many shrewd acts towards it, to the prejudice of the contrary opinion)
yet none of these were so light, as they were nothing but light. Moses himselfe
who received and delivered the law, was not so; and to intimate so much, there
was an illustration, and irradiation upon his face, but not so of all his body.
Nay, Christ Jesus himselfe, who fulfilled the law, as man, was not so; which he
also intimated in the greatest degree of glorification which he accepted upon earth,
which was his transfiguration, for, though it be said in that, That the fashion of his
Countenance was changed, and his garment was white, and glistered, Luke 9. 27. yet, lineamenta
Petro agnoscibilia servavit, Tertull. hee kept that former proportion of body, that Peter
could know him by it. So that this was not a glorifying of the body, and making
it thorough light; but hee suffered his Divine nature to appeare and shine thorough
his flesh, and not to swallow, or annihilate that flesh. All other men, by occasion
of this flesh, have darke clouds, yea nights, yea long and frozen winter nights of
sinne, and of the works of darknesse. Christ was incapable of any such nights, or any
such clouds, any approaches towards sinne; but yet Christ admitted some shadowes,
some such degrees of humane infirmity, as by them, he was willing to show, that the
nature of man, in the best perfection thereof, is not vera lux, tota lux, true
light, all light, which he declared in that Si possible, and that Transeat calix, If it
bee possible, let this cup passe; words, Mat. 26. 39. to which himselfe was pleased to allow so
much of a retractation, and a correction, Veruntamen, yet Father, whatsoever the
sadnesse of my soule have made mee say, yet, not my will but thine be done; not mine,
but thine; so that they were not altogether, all one; humane infirmity made some
difference. So that no one man, not Christ, (considered but so as man) was tota
lux, all light, no cloud. No not mankinde, consider it collectively, can bee light so,
as that there shall bee no darknesse. It was not so, when all mankind was in one person, in
Adam. It is said sometimes in School, that no man can keep the commandements, yet
man, collectively, may keep them. They intend no more herein, but that some one man
may abstaine from doing any act against worshipping of Images, another from stealing,
another from adultery, and others from others. But if it were possible to compose a man
of such elements, as that the principallest vertues, and eminencies of all other men, should
enter into his composition, and if there could bee found a man, as perfect in all particu-
lar vertues, as Moses was in meeknesse, Numb. 12. (who was a meeke man, above all the
men that were upon the earth) yet this man would not bee vera lux, tota lux,
true light, all light. Moses was not so meeke, but that hee slew the Egyptian,
nor so meek, but that hee disputed and expostulated with God many times, passio-
nately. Every man is so far from beeing tota lux, all light, as that he hath still within
him, a darke vapor of orginall sinne, and the cloud of humane flesh without him. Nay not onely no man, (for so we may consider him in the whole course of his
life) but no one act, of the most perfect, and religious man in the world, though
that act employ but halfe a minute in the doing thereof, can bee vera lux, true
light, all light, so perfect light, as that it may serve another, or thy selfe, for a lant-
horne to his, or thy feet, or a light to his, or thy steps, so that hee or thou may thinke
it enough to doe so still. For, another man may doe so good works, as it may justly work
to thy shame, and confusion, and to the aggravating of thy condemnation, that thou livest Ee not
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Serm. XXXVI. not as well as hee, yet, it would not perchance serve thy turne, to live but so well;
for, to whom God gives more, of him he requires more. No man hath veram lucem,
true light, thorough light; no man hath meridiem, Augem, that high point
that casts no shadow, because, besides originall sinne, that ever smoakes up, and
creates a soote in the soule, and besides naturall infirmities, which become sinnes,
when wee consider Grace, no man does carry his good actions to that heighth
as, by that grace, which God affords him, hee might doe. Slacker men have
a declination even in their mornings; a West even in their East; coolings, and
faintnesses and after-noones, as soon as they have any dawnings, any breake of
day, any inchoation of any spirituall action or purpose. Others have some farther
growth, and increasing, and are more diligent in the observation of spirituall duties;
but yet they have not their meridiem, their Augem, their noon, their south point, no
such heighth, as that they might not have a higher, by that grace which they
have received. In the best degree of our best actions, particularly in this service,
which wee doe to God at this houre, if we brought with us hither a religious pur-
pose to sanctifie this festivall, if wee answer to the callings of his most blessed Spirit,
whilest wee are here, if wee carry away a detestation of our sinnes, and a holy pur-
pose of amendment of life, this is a good degree of proficiency, and God bee bles-
sed, if any of us all arrive to that degree; but yet, this is not vera lux, true light,
all light; for, who amongst us can avoid the testimony of his conscience, that since
he begun this present service to God, his thoughts have not strayed upon pleasures and
vanities or profit, and leapt the walls of this Church, yea, perchance within the
walls of this flesh, which should bee the Temple of the holy Ghost? Besides, to be-
come vera lux, tota lux, true light, thorough light, requires perseverance to the
end. So that till our naturall light goe out, wee cannot say that wee have this
light; for, as the darknesse of hell fire is, so this light of this heavenly fire, must bee
everlasting. If ever it go cleane out, it was never throughly kindled, but kindled
to our farther damnation; it was never vera lux, true light, for, as one office of
the law is, but to show sinne, so all the light of grace may end in this, to show me my
desperate estate, from the abuse of grace. In all Philosophy there is not so darke a thing
as light; As the sunne, which is fons lucis naturalis, the beginning of naturall light,
is the most evident thing to bee seen, and yet the hardest to be looked upon, so is
naturall light to our reason and understanding. Nothing clearer, for it is clearnesse it
selfe, nothing darker, it is enwrapped in so many scruples. Nothing nearer, for
it is round about us, nothing more remote, for wee know neither entrance, nor
limits of it. Nothing more easie, for a child discerns it, nothing more hard, for no
man understands it. It is apprehensible by sense, and not comprehensible by reason.
If wee winke, wee cannot chuse but see it, if we stare, wee know it never the better.
No man is yet got so neare to the knowledge of the qualities of light, as to know
whether light it selfe be a quality, or a substance. If then this naturall light be so darke
to our naturall reason, if wee shall offer to pierce so far, into the light of this text, the
Essentiall light Christ Jesus, (in his nature, or but in his offices) or the supernatu-
rall light of faith and grace, (how far faith may be had, and yet lost, and how far the
freewill of man may concur and cooperate with grace, and yet still remaine nothing in
it selfe) if wee search farther into these points, then the Scripture hath opened us a
way, how shall wee hope to unentangle, or extricate our selves? They had a pre-
cious composition for lamps, amongst the ancients, reserved especially for Tombes,
which kept light for many hundreds of yeares; we have had in our age experience, in
some casuall openings of ancient vaults, of finding such lights, as were kindled, (as
appeared by theirinscriptionstheir inscriptions) fifteen or sixteen hundred years before; but, as soon as that
light comes to our light, it vanishes. So this eternall, and this supernaturall light, Christ
and faith, enlightens, warmes, purges, and does all the profitable offices of fire, and
light, if we keep it in the right spheare, in the proper place, (that is, if wee con-
sist in points necessary to salvation, and revealed in the Scripture) but when wee
bring this light to the common light of reason, to our inferences, and conse-
quencies, it may be in danger to vanish it selfe, and perchance extinguish our reason too;
we may search so far, and reason so long of faith and grace, as that we may lose not
onely them, but even our reason too, and sooner become mad then good. Not that we are bound
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Serm. XXXVI.
On Christmas day. bound to believe any thing against reason, that is, to believe, we know not why. It
is but a slacke opinion, it is not Beliefe, that is not grounded upon reason. He
that should come to a Heathen man, a meere naturall man, uncatechized, uninstruct-
ed in the rudiments of the Christian Religion, and should at first, without any prepa-
ration, present him first with this necessitie; Thou shalt burn in fire and brimstone eter-
nally, except thou believe a Trinitie of Persons, in an unitie of one God, Except thou
believe the Incarnation of the second Person of the Trinitie, the Sonne of God, Ex-
cept thou believe that a Virgine had a Sonne, and the same Sonne that God had, and
that God was Man too, and being the immortall God, yet died, he should be so farre
from working any spirituall cure upon this poore soule, as that he should rather bring
Christian Mysteries into scorne, then him to a beliefe. For, that man, if you pro-
ceed so, Believe all, or you burne in Hell, would finde an easie, an obvious way to e-
scape all; that is, first not to believe Hell it selfe, and then nothing could binde him to
believe the rest. The reason therefore of Man, must first be satisfied; but the way of such satis-
faction must be this, to make him see, That this World, a frame of so much har-
mony, so much concinnitie and conveniencie, and such a correspondence, and sub-
ordination in the parts thereof, must necessarily have had a workeman, for nothing
can make it selfe: That no such workeman would deliver over a frame, and worke,
of so much Majestie, to be governed by Fortune, casually, but would still retain the
Administration thereof in his owne hands: That if he doe so, if he made the World,
and sustaine it still by his watchfull Providence, there belongeth a worship and ser-
vice to him, for doing so: That therefore he hath certainly revealed to man,
what kinde of worship, and service, shall be acceptable to him: That this ma-
nifestation of his Will, must be permanent, it must be written, there must
be a Scripture, which is his Word and his Will: And that therefore, from that
Scripture, from that Word of God, all Articles of our Beliefe are to bee
drawne. If then his Reason confessing all this, aske farther proofe, how he shall know that
these Scriptures accepted by the Christian Church, are the true Scriptures, let him
bring any other Booke which pretendeth to be the Word of God, into compari-
son with these; It is true, we have not a Demonstration; not such an Evidence as that
one and two, are three, to prove these to be Scriptures of God; God hath not pro-
ceeded in that manner, to drive our Reason into a pound, and to force it by a per-
emptory necessitie to accept these for Scriptures, for then, here had been no ex-
ercise of our Will, and our assent, if we could not have resisted. But yet these
Scriptures have so orderly, so sweet, and so powerfull a working upon the reason, and
the understanding, as if any third man, who were utterly discharged of all precon-
ceptions and anticipations in matter of Religion, one who were altogether neutrall, dis-
interessed, unconcerned in either party, nothing towards a Turke, and as little to-
ward a Christian, should heare a Christian pleade for his Bible, and a Turke for his
Alcoran, and should weigh the evidence of both; the Majesty of the Style, the
punctuall accomplishment of the Prophecies, the harmony and concurrence of the
foure Evangelists, the consent and unanimity of the Christian Church ever since,
and many other such reasons, he would be drawne to such an Historicall, such a
Grammaticall, such a Logicall beliefe of our Bible, as to preferre it before any o-
ther, that could be pretended to be the Word of God. He would believe it, and
he would know why he did so. For let no man thinke that God hath given him so
much ease here, as to save him by believing he knoweth not what, or why. Know-
ledge cannot save us, but we cannot be saved without Knowledge; Faith is not
on this side Knowledge, but beyond it; we must necessarily come to Know-
ledge first, though we must not stay at it, when we are come thither. For, a rege-
nerate Christian, being now a new Creature, hath also a new facultie of Rea-
son: and so believeth the Mysteries of Religion, out of another Reason,
then as a meere naturall Man, he believed naturall and morall things. He be-
lieveth them for their own sake, by Faith though he take Knowledge of them
before, by that common Reason, and by those humane Arguments, which worke
upon other men, in naturall or morall things. Divers men may walke by the Ee2 Sea
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Serm. XXXVI.
Sea side, and the same beames of the Sunne giving light to them all, one gathe-reth by the benefit of that light pebles, or speckled shells, for curious vanitie,
and another gathers precious Pearle, or medicinall Ambar, by the same light. So the
common light of reason illumins us all; but one imployes this light upon the search-
ing of impertinent vanities, another by a better use of the same light, finds out the My-
steries of Religion; and when he hath found them, loves them, not for the lights sake,
but for the naturall and true worth of the thing it self. Some men by the benefit of
this light of Reason, have found out things profitable and usefull to the whole world;
As in particular, Printing, by which the learning of the whole world is communica-
cable to one another, and our minds and our inventions, our wits and compositions
may trade and have commerce together, and we may participate of one anothers un-
derstandings, as well as of our Clothes, and Wines, and Oyles, and other Merchan-
dize: So by the benefit of this light of reason, they have found out Artillery, by
which warres come to quicker ends then heretofore, and the great expence of bloud
is avoyded: for the numbers of men slain now, since the invention of Artillery, are
much lesse then before, when the sword was the executioner. Others, by the bene-
fit of this light have searched and found the secret corners of gaine, and profit, where-
soever they lie. They have found wherein the weakenesse of another man consisteth,
and made their profit of that, by circumventing him in a bargain: They have found
his riotous, and wastefull inclination, and they have fed and fomented that disorder,
and kept open that leake, to their advantage, and the others ruine. They have
found where was the easiest, and most accessible way, to sollicite the Chastitie of a
woman, whether Discourse, Musicke, or Presents, and according to that discovery,
they have pursued hers, and their own eternall destruction. By the benefit of this
light, men see through the darkest, and most impervious places, that are, that is,
Courts of Princes, and the greatest Officers in Courts; and can submit themselves to
second, and to advance the humours of men in great place, and so make their profit of
the weakenesses which they have discovered in these great men. All the wayes, both
of Wisdome, and of Craft lie open to this light, this light of naturall reason: But when
they have gone all these wayes by the benefit of this light, they have got no further,
then to have walked by a tempestuous Sea, and to have gathered pebles, and speckled
cockle shells. Their light seems to be great out of the same reason, that a Torch in
a misty night, seemeth greater then in a clear, because it hath kindled and inflamed
much thicke and grosse Ayre round about it. So the light and wisedome of worldly
men, seemeth great, because he hath kindled an admiration, or an applause in Aiery
flatterers, not because it is so in deed. But, if thou canst take this light of reason that is in thee, this poore snuffe, that is
almost out in thee, thy faint and dimme knowledge of God, that riseth out of this
light of nature, if thou canst in those embers, those cold ashes, finde out one small
coale, and wilt take the paines to kneell downe, and blow that coale with thy devout
Prayers, and light thee a little candle, (a desire to read that Booke, which they call the
Scriptures, and the Gospell, and the Word of God;) If with that little candle thou
canst creep humbly into low and poore places, if thou canst finde thy Saviour in a
Manger, and in his swathing clouts, in his humiliation, and blesse God for that begin-
ning, if thou canst finde him flying into Egypt, and finde in thy selfe a disposition to
accompany him in a persecution, in a banishment, if not a bodily banishment, a locall
banishment, yet a reall, a spirituall banishment, a banishment from those sinnes, and
that sinnefull conversation, which thou hast loved more then thy Parents, or Coun-
trey, or thine owne body, which perchance thou hast consumed, and destroyed with
that sinne; if thou canst finde him contenting and containing himselfe at home in his
fathers house, and not breaking out, no not about the worke of our salvation, till
the due time was come, when it was to be done. And if according to that example,
thou canst contain thy selfe in that station and vocation in which God hath planted
thee, and not, through a hasty and precipitate zeale, breake out to an imaginary,
and intempestive, and unseasonable Reformation, either in Civill or Ecclesiasticall bu-
sinesse, which belong not to thee; if with this little poore light, these first degrees
of Knowledge and Faith, thou canst follow him into the Garden, and gather up
some of the droppes of his precious Bloud and sweat, which he shed for thy soule, if
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Serm. XXXVI.
On Christmas day. if thou canst follow him to Jerusalem, and pick up some of those teares, which he
shed upon that City, and upon thy soule; if thou canst follow him to the place of his
scourging, and to his crucifying, and provide thee some of that balme, which must
cure thy soule; if after all this, thou canst turne this little light inward, and canst there-
by discerne where thy diseases, and thy wounds, and thy corruptions are, and canst
apply those teares, and blood and balme to them, (all this is, That if thou attend the
light of naturall reason, and cherish that, and exalt that, so that that bring thee to a love
of the Scriptures, and that love to a beleefe of the truth thereof, and that historicall
faith to a faith of application, of appropriation, that as all those things were certainly
done, so they were certainly done for thee) thou shalt never envy the lustre and glory
of the great lights of worldly men, which are great by the infirmity of others, or by
their own opinion, great because others think them great, or because they think them-
selves so, but thou shalt finde, that howsoever they magnifie their lights, their wit,
their learning, Habak 1. their industry, their fortune, their favour, and sacrifice to their owne nets,
yet thou shalt see, that thou by thy small light hast gathered Pearle and Amber, and
they by their great lights nothing but shels and pebles; they have determined the
light of nature, upon the booke of nature, this world, and thou hast carried the light
of nature higher, thy naturall reason, and even humane arguments, have brought thee
to reade the Scriptures, and to that love, God hath set to the seale of faith. Their
light shall set at noone; even in their heighth, some heavy crosse shall cast a damp up-
on their soule, and cut off all their succours, and devest them of all comforts, and
thy light shall grow up, from a faire hope, to a modest assurance and infallibility, that
that light shall never go out, nor the works of darknesse, nor the Prince of darknesse ever
prevaile upon thee, but as thy light of reason is exalted by faith here, so thy light of
faith shall be exalted into the light of glory, and fruition in the Kingdome of heaven.
Before the sunne was made, there was a light which did that office of distinguishing
night and day; but when the sunne was created, that did all the offices of the former
light, and more. Reason is that first, and primogeniall light, and goes no farther in a
naturall man; but in a man regenerate by faith, that light does all that reason did, and
more; and all his Morall, and Civill, and Domestique, and indifferent actions, (though
they be never done without Reason) yet their principall scope, and marke is the glory of
God, and though they seeme but Morall, or Civill, or domestique, yet they have a dee-
per tincture, a heavenly nature, a relation to God, in them. The light in our Text then, is essentially and personally Christ himself, from him
flowes the supernaturall light of faith and grace, here also intended; and because this
light of faith, and grace flowing from that fountaine of light Christ Jesus, works up-
on the light of nature, and reason, it may conduce to the raising of your devotions, if
we do (without any long insisting upon the severall parts thereof) present to you some
of those many and divers lights, which are in this world, and admit an application to
this light in our Text, the essentiall light, Christ Jesus; and the supernaturall light, faith
and grace. Of these lights we shall consider some few couples; and the first payre, Lux Essen-
tiæ, Lux Essen-
tiæ. and Lux Gloriæ, the light of the Essence of God, and the light of the glory of his
Saints. And though the first of these, be that essentiall light, by which we shall see
God face to face, as he is, and the effluence and emanation of beams, from the face of
God, which make that place Heaven, of which light it is said, That God who onely hath
Immortality, 1 Tim. 6. 16. dwels in luce inaccessibili, in the light that none can attaine to, yet by the
light of faith, and grace in sanctification, we may come to such a participation of that
light of Essence, or such a reflection of it in this world, that it shall be true of us, which
was said of those Ephesians, 5. 8. You were once darknesse, but now are light in the Lord; he
does not say enlightned, Phil. 3. 20. nor lightsome, but light it self, light essentially, for our conver-
sation is in heaven; Ezek. 16. 10. And as God sayes of Jerusalem, and his blessings here in this world,
Calceavit Ianthino, I have shod thee, with Badgers skinne, (some translate it) (which
the Antients take for some precious stuffe) that is, I have enabled thee to tread upon
all the most estimable things of this world, (for as the Church it self is presented, so
every true member of the Church is endowed, Apo. 12. 1. Luna sub pedibus, the Moone, and all
under the Moone is under our feet, we tread upon this world, even when we are trod-
den upon in it) so the precious promises of Christ, 2 Pet. 1. 4. make us partakers of the Divine Na-
Ee3 ture,
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Serm. XXXVI.
ture, and the light of faith, 1 Cor. 6. 17. makes us the same Spirit with the Lord; And this is our par-ticipation of the light of essence, in this life. The next is the light of glory. This is that Glorification Lux Gloriæ. which we shall have at the last day, of which glory, we con-
sider a great part to be in that Denudation, that manifestation of all to all; as, in this
world, a great part of our inglorious servitude is in those disguises, and palliations,
those colours, and pretences of publique good, with which men of power and authority
apparell their oppressions of the poore; In this are we the more miserable, that we
cannot see their ends, that there is none of this denudation, this laying open of our
selves to one another, which shall accompany that state of glory, where we shall see
one anothers bodies, and soules, actions and thoughts. And therefore, as if this place
were now that Tribunall of Christ Jesus, and this that day of Judgement, and denu-
dation, we must be here, as we shall be there, content to stand naked before him; con-
tent that there be a discovery, a revealing, a manifestation of all our sinnes, wrought
upon us, at least to our owne consciences, though not to the congregation; If we will
have glory, we must have this denudation. We must not be glad, when our sins scape the
Preacher. We must not say, (as though there were a comfort in that) though he have
hit such a mans Adultery, and anothers Ambition, and anothers extortion, yet, for all
his diligence, he hath missed my sinne; for, if thou wouldest faine have it mist, thou
wouldest faine hold it still. And then, why camest thou hither? What camest thou
for to Church, or to the Sacrament? Why doest thou delude God, with this comple-
mentall visit, to come to his house, if thou bring not with thee, a disposition to his ho-
nour, and his service? Camest thou onely to try whether God knew thy sinne, and
could tell thee of it, by the Preacher? Alas, he knowes it infallibly; And, if he take
no knowledge of his knowing it, to thy conscience, by the words of the Preacher, thy
state is the more desperate. God sends us to preach forgivenesse of sinnes; where wee
finde no sinne, we have no Commission to execute; How shall we finde your sinnes?
In the old sacrifices of the law, the Priest did not fetch the sacrifice from the herd, but
he received it from him that brought it, and so sacrificed it for him. Doe thou there-
fore prevent the Preacher; Accuse thyselfe before he accuse thee; offer up thy sinne
thy selfe; Bring it to the top of thy memory, and thy conscience, that he finding it
there, may sacrifice it for thee; Tune the instrument, and it is the fitter for his hand.
Remember thou thine own sins, first and then every word that fals from the preachers
lipsshalllips shall be a drop of the dew of heaven, a dram of the balme of Gilead, a portion of the
bloud of thy Saviour, to wash away that sinne, so presented by thee to be so sacrificed
by him; for, if thou onely of all the congregation finde that the preacher hath not
touched thee, nor hit thy sinnes, know then, that thou wast not in his Commission for
the Remission of sinnes, and be afraid, that thy conscience is either gangrend, and unsen-
sible of all incisions, and cauterizations, that can be made by denouncing the Judge-
ments of God, (which is as far as the preacher can goe) or that thy whole constitution,
thy complexion, thy composition is sinne; the preacher cannot hit thy particular
sinne, because thy whole life, and the whole body of thy actions is one continuall sin.
As long as a man is alive, if there appeare any offence in his breath, the physician will
assigne it to some one corrupt place, his lungs, or teeth, or stomach, and thereupon apply
convenient remedy thereunto. But if he be dead, and putrefied, no man askes
from whence that ill aire and offence comes, because it proceeds from thy whole carcasse. So,
as long as there is in you a sense of your sinnes, as long as we can touch the offended
and wounded part, and be felt by you, you are not desperate, though you be fro-
ward, and impatient of our increpations. But when you feele nothing, whatsoever wee
say, your soule is in an Hectique fever, where the distemper is not in any one humor,
but in the whole substance; nay, your soule it selfe is become a carcasse. This then is
our first couple of these lights, by our Conversation in heaven here, (that is, a watch-
fulnesse, that we fall not into sinne) we have lucem essentiæ, possession and fruition
of heaven, and of the light of Gods presence; and then, if we doe, by infirmity, fall in-
to sinne, yet, by this denudation of our soules, this manifestation of our sinnes to God
by confession, and to that purpose, a gladnesse when we heare our sinnes spoken of by
the preacher, we have lumen gloriæ, an inchoation of our glorified estate; and then, an
other couple of these lights, which we propose to be considered, is lumen fidei, and
lumen naturæ, the light of faith, and the light of nature. Of
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Serm. XXXVI.
On Christmas day.
Of these two lights, Lux fidei. Faith and Grace, first, and then Nature and Reason, we said some-thing before, but never too much, be cause contentious spirits have cast such clouds
upon both these lights, that some have said, Nature doth all alone, and others, that Na-
ture hath nothing to do at all, but all is Grace: we decline wranglings, that tend not to
edification, we say onely to our present purpose, (which is the operation of these seve-
rall couples of lights) that by this light of Faith, to him which hath it, all that is in-
volved in Prophecies, is clear, and evident, as in a History already done; and all that is
wrapped up in promises, is his own already in performance. That man needs not goe so
high, Gen. 3. 15. for his assurance of a Messias and Redeemer, as to the first promise made to him in
Adam, 12. 3. nor for the limitation of the stock and race from whence this Messias should come:
so far as to the renewing of this promise in Abraham: nor for the description of this
Messias who he should be, Esay 7. 14. and of whom he should be born, as to Esaias; nor to Micheas,
for the place; Mich. 5. 2. nor for the time when he should accomplish all this, so far as to Daniel;
no, Dan. 9. 24. nor so far, as to the Evangelists themselves, for the History and the evidence, that
all this that was to be done in his behalf by the Messias, was done 1600. yeares since.
But he hath a whole Bible, and an abundant Library in his own heart, and there by this
light of Faith, (which is not onely a knowing, but an applying, an appropriating of all
to thy benefit) he hath a better knowledge then all this, then either Propheticall, or E-
vangelicall; for though both these be irrefragable, and infallible proofs of a Messias,
(the Propheticall, that he should, the Evangelicall, that he is come) yet both these
might but concern others: this light of Faith brings him home to thee. How sure so ever
I be, that the world shall never perish by water, yet I may be drowned; and how sure so
ever that the Lamb of God hath taken away the sinnes of the world, I may perish,
without I have this applicatory Faith. And as he needs not looke back to Esay, nor A-
braham, nor Adam, for the Messias, so neither needs he to looke forward. He needs not
stay in expectation of the Angels Trumpets, to awaken the dead; he is not put to his
usquequo Domine, How long, Lord, wilt thou defer our restitution? but he hath already
died the death of the righteous; which is, to die to sinne; He hath already had his buri-
all, by being buried with Christ in Baptisme, he hath had his Resurrection from sinne, his
Ascension to holy purposes of amendment of life, and his Iudgement, that is, peace of
Conscience, sealed unto him, and so by this light of applying Faith, he hath already ap-
prehended an eternall possession of Gods eternall Kingdome. And the other light in this
second couple is Lux naturæ, the light of Nature. This, Lux Natnu-
ræ. though a fainter light, directs us to the other, Nature to Faith: and as by the
quantitie in the light of the Moone, we know the position and distance of the Sunne, how
far, or how neare the Sunne is to her, so by the working of the light of Nature in us,
we may discern, (by the measure and virtue and heat of that) how near to the other
greater light, the light of Faith, we stand. If we finde our naturall faculties rectified, so
as that that free will which we have in Morall and Civill actions, be bent upon the ex-
ternall duties of Religion, (as every naturall man may, out of the use of that free will,
come to Church, heare the Word preached, and believe it to be true) we may be sure, the o-
ther greater light is about us. If we be cold in them, in actuating, in exalting, in using
our naturall faculties so farre, we shall be deprived of all light; we shall not see the In-
visible God, Rom. 1. 20. in visible things, which Saint Paul makes so inexcusable, so unpardonable
a thing, we shall not see the hand of God in all our worldly crosses, nor the seal of God
in all our worldly blessings; we shall not see the face of God in his House, his presence
here in the Church, nor the mind of God in his Gospell, that his gracious purposes up-
on mankinde, extend so particularly, or reach so far, as to include us. I shall heare in
the Scripture his Vinite omnes, come all, and yet I shall thinke that his eye was not up-
on me, that his eye did not becken me and I shall heare the Deus vult omnes salves, that
God would save all, and yet I shall finde some perverse reason in my selfe, why it is not
likely that God will save me. I am commanded scrutari Scripturas, to search the scrip-
tures; now, that is not to be able to repeat any history of the Bible without booke, it
is not to ruffle a Bible, and upon any word to turne to the Chapter, and to the verse;
but this is exquisit a scrutatio, the true searching of the Scriptures, to finde all the hi-
stories to be examples to me, all the prophecies to induce a Saviour for me, all the Gospell
to apply Christ Jesus to me. Turne over all the folds, and plaits of thine owne heart,
and finde there the infirmities, and waverings of thine owne faith, and an ability to say, Lord,
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On Christmas day.
Serm. XXXVI.
Lord, I beleeve, help mine unbeleefe, and then, though thou have no Bible in thy hand,
or though thou stand in a dark corner, nay though thou canst not reade a letter, thou
hast searched that Scripture, thou hast turned to Marke 9. ver. 24 Turne thine eare to
God, and heare him turning to thee, and saying to thy soule, I will marry thee to my selfe
for ever; and thou hast searched that Scripture, and turned to Hos. 2. ver. 19. Turne
to thine owne history, thine owne life, and if thou canst reade there, that thou hast en-
deavoured to turne thine ignorance into knowledge, and thy knowledge into Practice, if
thou finde thy selfe to be an example of that rule of Christs, If you know these things,
blessed are you, if you do them, then thou hast searched that Scripture, and turned to
Jo. 13. ver. 14. This is Scrutari Scripturas, to search the Scriptures, not as though thou
wouldest make a concordance, but an application; as thou wouldest search a wardrobe,
not to make an Inventory of it, but to finde in it something fit for thy wearing. John
Baptist was not the light, he was not Christ, but he bore witnesse of him. The light of
faith, in the highest exaltation that can be had, in the Elect, here, is not that very
beatificall vision, which we shall have in heaven, but it beares witnesse of that light. The
light of nature, in the highest exaltation is not faith, but it beares witnesse of it. The
lights of faith, and of nature, are subordinate Iohn Baptists: faith beares me witnesse,
that I have Christ, and the light of nature, that is, the exalting of my naturall faculties
towards religious uses, beares me witnesse that I have faith. Onely that man, whose
conscience testifies to himself, and whose actions testifie to the world, that he does what
he can, can beleeve himself, or be beleeved by others, that he hath the true light of faith. And therefore, 1 Thes. 5. 19. as the Apostle saith, Quench not the Spirit, I say too, Quench not the
light of Nature, suffer not that light to goe out; study your naturall faculties; husband
and improve them, and love the outward acts of Religion, though an Hypocrite, and
though a naturall man may doe them. Certainly he that loves not the Militant
Church, hath but a faint faith in his interest in the Triumphant. He that cares not though
the materiall Church fall, I am afraid is falling from the spirituall. For, can a man be
sure to have his money, or his plate, if his house be burnt? or to preserve his faith, if
the outward exercises of Religion faile? He that undervalues outward things, in the
religious service of God, though he begin at ceremoniall and rituall things, will come
quickly to call Sacraments but outward things, and Sermons, and publique prayers, but
outward things, in contempt. As some Platonique Philosophers, did so over-refine Re-
ligion, and devotion, as to say, that nothing but the first thoughts and ebullitions of a
devout heart, were fit to serve God in. If it came to any outward action of the body,
kneeling, or lifting up of hands, if it came to be but invested in our words, and so made
a Prayer, nay if it passed but a revolving, a turning in our inward thoughts, and there-
by were mingled with our affections, though pious affections, yet, say they, it is not pure
enough for a service to God; nothing but the first motions of the heart is for him. Be-
loved, outward things apparell God; and since God was content to take a body, let not
us leave him naked, nor ragged; but, as you will bestow not onely some cost, but some
thoughts, some study, how you will clothe your children, and how you will clothe your
servants, so bestow both cost and thoughts, thinke seriously, execute cheerfully in out-
ward declarations, that which becomes the dignity of him, who evacuated himselfe for
you. The zeale of his house needs not eat you up, no nor eat you out of house and home;
God asks not that at your hands. But, if you eat one dish the lesse at your feasts for his
house sake, if you spare somewhat for his reliefe, and his glory, you will not be the lea-
ner, nor the weaker, for that abstinence. John Baptist bore witnesse of the light, out-
ward things beare witnesse of your faith, the exalting of our naturall faculties beare
witnesse of the supernaturall. We do not compare the master and the servant, and yet
we thank that servant that brings us to his master. We make a great difference between
the treasure in the chest, and the key that opens it, yet we are glad to have that key in
our hands. The bell that cals me to Church, does not catechise me, nor preach to me,
yet I observe the sound of that bell, because it brings me to him that does those offices
to me. The light of nature is far from being enough; but, as a candle may kindle a
torch, so into the faculties of nature, well imployed, God infuses faith. And this is
our second couple of lights, the subordination of the light of nature, and the light of
faith. And a third payre of lights of attestation, that beare witnesse to the light of our
Text, is Lux æternorum Corporum, that light which the Sunne and Moone, and those glori-
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On Christmas day.
glorious bodies give from heaven, and lux incensionum, that light, which those things,
that are naturally combustible, and apt to take fire, doe give upon earth; both
these beare witnesse of this light, Lux æterno-
rum corporū. that is, admit an application to it. For, in the first of
these, the glorious lights of heaven, we must take nothing for stars, that are not stars; nor
make Astrological and fixed conclusions out of meteors, that are but transitory; they may
be Comets, and blazing starres, and so portend much mischiefe, but they are none of
those æterna corpora, they are not fixed stars, not stars of heaven. So is it also in the
Christian Church, (which is the proper spheare in which the light of our text, That light
the essentiall light Christ Jesus moves by that supernaturall light of faith and grace,
which is truly the Intelligence of that spheare, the Christian Church) As in the heavens
the stars were created at once, with one Fiat, and then being so made, stars doe not be-
get new stars, so the Christian doctrine necessary to salvation, was delivered at once, that
is, intirely in one spheare, in the body of the Scriptures. And then, as stars doe not be-
get stars, Articles of faith doe not beget Articles of faith; so, as that the Councell of
Trent should be brought to bed of a new Creed, not conceived before by the holy Ghost
in the Scriptures, and, (which is a monstrous birth) the child greater then the Father,
as soon as it is borne, the new Creed of the Councell of Trent to containe more Articles,
then the old Creed of the Apostles did. Saint Jude writing of the common salvation (as
he calls it) (for, verse 3. Saint Jude, it seems, knew no such particular salvation, as that it was
impossible for any man to have, salvation is common salvation) exhorts them to contend
earnestly for that faith, which was once delivered unto the Saints. Semel, once; that is;
at once, semel, simul, once altogether. For this is also Tertullians Tertull. note; that the rule of
faith is, that it be una, immobilis, irreformabilis; it must not be deformed, it cannot be
Reformed; it must not be mard, it cannot be mended; whatsoever needs mending,
and reformation, cannot be the rule of faith, says Tertullian. Other foundation can no man
lay then Christ; 1 Cor. 3. 11. not onely no better, but no other; what other things soever are added by
men, enter not into the nature and condition of a foundation. The additions, and tra-
ditions, and superedifications of the Roman Church, they are not lux æternorum cor-
porum, they are not fixed bodies, they are not stars to direct us; they may be meteors,
and so exercise our discourse, and Argumentation, they may raise controversies; And
they may be Comets, and so exercise our feares, and our jealousies, they may raise rebelli-
ons and Treasons, but they are fixed and glorious bodies of heaven, they are not
stars. Their non-communions, (for, communions where there are no communicants, are
no communions) when they admit no bread at all, no wine at all, all is transubstanti-
ated, are no communions; their semi-communions, when they admit the bread to be
given, but not the wine; their sesqui-communions, Bread and Wine to the taste, and to
all other trialls of bread and wine, and yet that bread and wine, the very body, and the
very bloud of Christ; their quotidian miracles, which destroy and contradict even the
nature of the miracle, to make miracles ordinary, and fixed, constant and certain; (for,
as that is not a miracle which nature does, so that's not a miracle which man can doe
certainly, constantly, infallibly every day, and every day, every Priest can miraculous-
ly change bread into the body of Christ, and besides they have certaine fixed shops,
and Marts of miracles, in one place a shop of miracles for barrennesse, in another, a shop
for the tooth-ache) To contract this, their occasionall Divinity, doctrines to serve pre-
sent occasions, that in eighty eight, an Hereticall Prince must necessarily be excommu-
nicated, and an Hereticall Prince excommunicated must necessarily be deposed, but at
another time it may be otherwise, and conveniencies, and dispensations may be admitted,
these, and such as these, traditionall, occasionall, Almanack Divinity, they may bee
Comets, they may be Meteors, they may raine bloud, and raine fire, and raine hailestones,
hailstones as big as Talents, (as it is in the Revelation) milstones, to grinde the world
by their oppressions, but they are not lux æternorum corporum, the light of the stars and
other heavenly bodies, for, they were made at once, and diminish not, encrease not.
Fundamentall articles of faith, are always the same. And that's our application of this
lux æternorum corporum, the light of those heavenly bodies, to the light of our Text,
Christ working in the Church. Now, Lux incen-
sionum. for the consideration of the other light in this third couple, which is lux in-
censionum, the light of things, which take, and give light here upon earth, if we reduce
it to application and practise, and contract it to one Instance, it will appeare that the devotion
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Serm. XXXVI.
devotion and zeale of him, that is best affected, is, for the most part, in the disposition
of a torch, or a knife, ordained to take fire, and to give light. If it have never been light-
ned, it does not easily take light, but it must be bruised, and beaten first; if it have been
lighted and put out, though it cannot take fire of it self, yet it does easily conceive fire,
if it be presented within any convenient distance. Such also is the soule of man towards
the fires of the zeale of Gods glory, and compassion of others misery. If there be any
that never tooke this fire, that was never affected with either of these, the glory of God,
the miseries of other men, can I hope to kindle him? It must be Gods worke to bruise
and beat him, Hierom. with his rod of affliction, before he will take fire. Paulus revelatione com-
pulsus ad fidem, St. Paul was compelled to believe; not the light which he saw, but
the power which he felt wrought upon him; not because that light shined from heaven,
but because it strooke him to the earth. August. Agnoscimus Christum in Paulo prius cogentem, de-
inde docentem; Christ begun not upon St. Paul, with a catechisme, but with a rod. If
therefore here be any in Pauls case, that were never kindled before, Almighty God pro-
ceed the same way with them, and come so neare to a friendship towards them, as to be
at enmity with them; to be so mercifull to them, as to seeme unmercifull; to be so
well pleased, as to seeme angry; that so by inflicting his medicinall afflictions, he may
give them comfort by discomfort, and life by death, and make them seeke his face,
by turning his face from them; and not to suffer them to continue in a stupid inconside-
ration, and lamentable senslesnesse of their miserable condition, but bruise and breake
them with his rod, that they may take fire. But for you, who have taken this fire be-
fore, that have been enlightned in both Sacraments, and in the preaching of the word;
in the meanes, and in some measure of practise of holinesse heretofore, if in not supply-
ing oyle to your Lamps, which God by his ordinance had kindled in you, you have let
this light go out by negligence or inconsideration, or that storms of worldly calamities
have blowne it out, do but now at this instant call to minde, what sin of yesterday, or
t'other day, or long ago, begun, and practised, and prevailed upon you, or what future
sinne, what purpose of doing a sinne to night, or to morrow, possesses you; do but
thinke seriously what sinne, or what crosse hath blown out that light, that grace, which
was formerly in you, before that sinne, or that crosse invaded you, and turne your soul,
which hath been enlightned before, towards this fire which Gods Spirit blowes this mi-
nute, and you will conceive new fire, new zeale, new compassion. As this Lux incen-
sionum, kindles easily, when it hath been kindled before, so the soule accustomed to the
presence of God in holy meditations, though it fall asleep in some darke corner, in some
sinne of infirmity, a while, yet, upon every holy occasion, it takes fire againe, and the
meanest Preacher in the Church, shall worke more upon him, then the foure Doctors
of the Church should be able to do, upon a person who had never been enlightned be-
fore, that is, never accustomed to the presence of God in his private meditations, or
in his outward acts of Religion. And this is our third couple of lights, that beares wit-
nesse, that is, admit an application to the light of our Text; and then the fourth and
last couple, which we consider, is Lux Depuratarum Mixtionum, the light and lustre of
precious stones, and then Lux Repercussionum, the light of Repercussion, and Reflexion,
when one body, though it have no light in it self, casts light upon other bodies. In the application of the first of these lights, Lux Depu-
ratarum
Mixtionum. Depuratarum Mixtionum, precious stones,
we shall onely apply their making and their value. Precious stones are first drops of the
dew of heaven, and then refined by the sunne of heaven. When by long lying they have
exhal'd, and evaporated, and breathed out all their grosse matter, and received another
concoction from the sunne, then they become precious in the eye, and estimation of
men: so those actions of ours, that shall be precious or acceptable in the eye of God,
must at first have been conceived from heaven, from the word of God, and then receive
another concoction, by a holy deliberation, before we bring those actions to execution, lest
we may have mistaken the roote thereof. Actions precious, or acceptable in Gods eye,
must be holy purposes in their beginning, and then done in season; the Dove must lay
the egge, and hatch the bird; the holy Ghost must infuse the purpose, and sit upon it, and
overshadow it, and mature and ripen it, if it shall be precious in Gods eye. The refor-
mation of abuses in State or Church, is a holy purpose, there is that drop of the dew of
heaven in it; but if it be unseasonably attempted, and have not a farther concoction,
then the first motions of our owne zeale, it becomes ineffectuall. Stones precious in the estima-
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Serm. XXXVI.
On Christmas day.
estimation of men, begin with the dew of Heaven, and proceed with the sunne of Hea-ven; Actions precious in the acceptation of God, are purposes conceived by his Spi-
rit, and executed in his time to his Glory, not conceived out of Ambition, nor executed
out of sedition. And this is the application of this Lux depuratarum mixtionum, of pre-
cious stones, out of their making, we proposed another out of their valuation; which
is this, That whereas a Pearle or Diamond of such a bignesse, of so many Carats, is so
much worth, one that is twice as big, is ten times as much worth. So, though God
vouchsafe to value every good work thou dost, yet as they grow greater he shall mul-
tiply his estimation of them infinitely, When he hath prized at a high rate, the cha-
stitie and continency of thy youth, if thou adde to this, a moderation in thy middle age,
from Ambition, and in thy latter age from covetousnesse and indevotion, there shall be
no price in Gods treasure (not the last drop of the blood of his Sonne) too deare for
thee, no roome, no state in his Kingdome (not a Jointenancie with his onely Sonne)
too glorious for thee. This is one light in this Couple; The lustre of precious stones:
the other the last is Lux Repercussionum, The light of Repercussion, of Reflexion. This is, Lux Reper-
cussionum. when Gods light cast upon us, reflecteth upon other men too, from us; when
God doth not onely accept our works for our selves, but imployes those works of ours
upon other men. And here is a true, and a Divine Supererogation; which the Devill, (as
he doth all Gods Actions, which fall into his compasse) did mischievously counter-
feit in the Romane Church, when he induced their Doctrine of Supererogation, that a
man might do so much more then he was bound to do for God, as that that superplusage
might save whom he would; and that if he did not direct them in his intention, upon
any particular person, the Bishop of Rome, was generall Administrator to all men, and
might bestow them where he would. But here is a true supererogation; not from
Man, or his Merit, but from God; when our good works shall not onely profit us, that
do them, but others that see them done; and when we by this light of Repercussion, of
Reflexion, shall be made specula divinæ gloriæ, quæ accipiunt & reddunt, such looking
glasses as receive Gods face upon our selves, Tertull. and cast it upon others by a holy life, and ex-
emplary conversation. To end all, Conclusio. we have no warmth in our selves; it is true, but Christ came even in the
winter: we have no light in our selves; it is true, but he came even in the night. And
now, I appeall to your own Consciences, and I aske you all, (not as a Judge, but as an
Assistant to your Consciences, and Amicus Curiæ,) whether any man have made a good
use of this light, as he might have done. Is there any man that in the compassing of
his sinne, hath not met this light by the way, Thou shouldest not do this? Any man, that
hath not onely as Balaam did, Numb. 22. 22. met this light as an Angell, (that is, met Heavenly inspi-
rations to avert him,) but that hath not heard as Balaam did, his own Asse; that is, those
reasons that use to carry him, or those very worldly respects that use to carry him, di-
spute against that sinne, and tell him, not onely that there is more soule and more hea-
ven, and more salvation, but more body, and more health, more honour, and more re-
putation, more cost, and more money, more labour, and more danger spent upon such a
sinne, then would have carried him the right way? They that sleep, Recapitula-
tio. sleep in the night, and they that are drunke, are drunke in the night. But
to you the Day starre, the Sunne of Righteousnesse, the Sonne of God is risen this day.
The day is but a little longer now, 1 Thes. 5. 7. then at shortest; but a little it is. Be a little better
now, then when you came, and mend a little at every coming, and in lesse then seaven
yeares apprentissage, which your occupations cost you, you shall learn, not the Mysteries
of your twelve Companies, but the Mysteries of the twelve Tribes, of the twelve Apostles,
of their twelve Articles, whatsoever belongeth to the promise, to the performance,
to the Imitation of Christ Jesus. He, who is Lux una, light and light alone, and Lux
tota, light and all light, shall also, by that light, which he sheddeth from him-
selfe upon all his, the light of Grace, give you all these Attestations, all these wit-
nesses of that his light; he shall give you Lucem essentiæ, (really, and essentially
to be incorporated into him, Essentæ. to be made partakers of the Divine Nature, and
the same Spirit with the Lord, by a Conversation in Heaven, here) and lucem
gloriæ, (a gladnesse to give him glory in a denudation of your souls, and your
sinnes, Gloriæ. by humble confession to him, and a gladnesse to receive a denudation and ma-
nifestation of your selves to your selves, by his messenger, in his medicinall and musicall in-
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On Midsommer day.
Serm. XXXVII.
increpations, and a gladnesse to receive an inchoation of future glory, in the remission
of those sinnes.) He shall give you lucem fidei, Fidei. ) (faithfull and unremovable possession of
future things, in the present, and make your hereafter, now, in the fruition of God.)
And Lucem naturæ (a love of the outward beauty of his house, Naturæ. and outward testimonies
of this love, in inclining your naturall faculties to religious duties.) He shall give you
Lucem æternorum Corporum, Æternorum
Corporum. (a love to walk in the light of the stars of heaven, that ne-
ver change, a love so perfect in the fundamentall articles of Religion, without imperti-
nent additions.) And Lucem incensionum, Incensionum. )(an aptnesse to take holy fire, by what hand,
or tongue, or pen soever it be presented unto you, according to Gods Ordinance,
though that light have formerly been suffered to go out in you.) He shall give you Lu-
cem depuratarum Mixtionum, Depurata-
rum Mixti-
onum. (the lustre of precious stones, made of the dew of hea-
ven, and by the heat of heaven, that is, actions intended at first, and produced at last,
for his glory; and every day multiply their value, in the sight of God, because thou
shalt every day grow up from grace to grace.) And Lucem Repercussionum, Repercussio-
num. (he shall
make you able to reflect and cast this light upon others, to his glory, and their esta-
blishment.) Lighten our darknesse, we beseech thee, O Lord, with all these lights; that in thy light
we may see light; that in this Essentiall light, which is Christ, and in this Supernaturall
light, which is grace, we may see all these, and all other beames of light, which may bring
utus to thee, and him, and that blessed Spirit which proceeds from both. Amen. Sermon XXXVII.
Preached at St. Pauls on Midsommer day. 1622.
John 1. 8.
He was not that light, but was sent to beare witnesse of that light. OFOf him, who was this light, which John Baptist is here denyed to
be, I spoke out of these words, and out of this place, the first time
that I ascended to it, upon the great Epiphany, (as the first Church
used to call it) the manifestation of Christ Jesus in the flesh, Christ-
mas day; I reserved the rest of the Text, which concernes John
Baptist himself, and his office, for this day, in which the Church
celebrates his memory, who, though he were not that light, was sent
to beare witnesse of that light. We shall make our parts but two, Testem, and Testimonium, the person, and the Of-
fice; first, who the witnesse is, and then what he witnesses. In the first, we shall consider
first, the dignity, the fitnesse of the person, implyed in the first word of this part of our
Text, but; he was not that light; that is true, but yet he was something towards it;
he was nothing considered with Christ, but he was much considered with any other man.
And then we shall see his title to his office, Missus est, as he was fit in himself, so he was
sent by him that had power to give Commission; and from these two, in which we
shall determine our first part, the consideration of his person, we shall descend to the
other, his office; and therein stop but upon two steps neither; first, why any testimony
was required to so cleare a thing as light, and such a light, that light; and then, what
kinde of testimony John Baptist did give to that light. So have you the designe, and
frame of our building, and the severall partitions, the roomes; passe we now to a more
particular survey, and furnishing of them. The first branch of the first part, is the Idoneus, 1 Part.
Idoneus. that he was fit to be a witnesse. If
we should insist upon the nobility of his race, his father and mother, (his father a Priest,
and his mother also descended of Aaron) (and, as all Nations have some notes and
marks of nobility, Philo Jud. (Merchandize, or Arms, or Letters) amongst the Jewes Priesthood
was that, the Priesthood enobled men) in all well policed States, cæteris paribus, if
they were not otherwise defective, they have ever thought it fittest to imploy persons of
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Serm. XXXVII.
On Midsommer day. of good families, and of noble extraction, as well because, in likelihood they had
had the best education, from their parents, and the best knowledge of things that
concerne the publique, by having had their conversation with the best, and most
intelligent persons; as also, because they have for the most part, more to lose
then inferiour persons have, and therefore are likelier to be carefull and vigilant in
their imployment; And againe, because they draw a better respect from those to
whom they are imployed, (which is of great importance in such negotiations, to
send persons acceptable to them to whom they are sent) and yet, do not lye so
open to the tentations and corruptions of their Ministers, as men of needy for-
tunes, and obscure extractions do. This fitnesse John Baptist had, he was of a good family and extraction. It
addes to him, that as he had a noble, he had a miraculous birth; for, to be born
of a Virgin, is but a degree more, then to be borne of a barren woman. A birth,
which onely of all others the Church celebrates; for, though we finde the dayes of
the Martyrs still called, Natalitia Martyrum, their birth-dayes, yet that is always
intended of the dayes of their death; onely in John Baptist it is intended literally
of his naturall birth; for, his spirituall birth, his Martyrdome, is remembred by
another name, Decollatio Joannis, John Baptists beheading. If we should enlarge
all concerning him, as infinitely, as infinite Authors have done, or contract all
as summarily, Luk. 7. 28. as Christ hath done, (Amongst those that are borne of women, there
is not a greater Prophet then John the Baptist) yet we should finde that Saint Au-
gustine had done all this before, August. Non est quod illi adjiciat homo, cui Deus contulit
totum, What man can adde more, where God said all, and he hath said of John
Baptist, Spiritu Saucto replebitur, He shall be filled with the holy Ghost. Two things especially make a man a competent witnesse: First, that he have
in himselfe a knowledge of the thing that he testifies; else he is an incompetent
witnesse: And then, that he have a good estimation in others, that he be reputed
an honest man; else he is an unprofitable witnesse. If he be ignorant, he sayes
truth, but by chance; if he be dishonest, and say truth, it is but upon designe,
and not for the truths sake; for, if those circumstances did not leade him, he would
not say truth. John Baptist had both, knowledge and estimation. He knew, Scientia. per scientiam infusam, by infused knowledge; as he was a Prophet; for
so Christ testifies that he was. But all Prophets knew not all things; therefore he was
more then a Prophet, Matth. 11.9. which is also testified by Christ, in his behalfe. More then any for-
mer Prophet. Hierom. And yet, the Prophet Esaiah was (even in his Prophecy) an Evangelist,
his Prophecy of Christ was so cleer, so particular, as that it was rather Gospell, and Hi-
story, then Prophecy. John Baptist was more then that; for, he did not onely declare a
present Christ, (in that, Esay may seem to come neer him) but he was Propheta Prophe-
tatus, A Prophet that was prophesied of; even Esay himself bore witnesse of this wit-
nesse; Esay 40. 3. (A voyce cried in the wildernesse, Prepare the way of the Lord.) And the Prophet
Malachi bore witnesse of this witnesse too, Mal. 3. 1. (Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall
prepare the way before me.) So he hath the testimony of the first and last of the Prophets;
and of him too, who was the first and the last, the cause and the effect, the moving and
fulfilling of all prophecy, of Christ himself, Matth. 11. 10. (This is he, of whom it is written,) and so he
cites those words of Malachi concerning Iohn Baptist. Iohn Baptist then had this com-
petency, by knowledge infused by God, declared in former Prophecies, he knew the
matter, which he was to testifie. Which is so essentiall, so substantiall a circumstance in
matter of testimony, in what way soever we will be witnesses to God, as that no man is
a competent witnesse for God, not in his preaching, not in his living, not in his dying,
(though he be a witnesse in the highest sense, that is, a Martyr) if he do not know, upon
what ground, he sayes, or does, or suffers that, which he suffers, and does, and sayes.
Howsoever he pretend the honour of God in his testimony, yet, if the thing be materi-
ally false, (false in it self, though true in his opinion) or formally false, (true in it self, but
not known to be so, to him that testifies it) both ways he is an incompetent witnesse.
And this takes away the honour of having been witnesses for Christ, and the consolation
and style of Martyrs, both from them, who, upon such evidence, as can give no assurance
(that is, traditions of men) have grounded their faith in God, and from them, who take their
light in corners, and conventicles, and not from the City set upon the top of a hill, the Ff Church
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On Midsommer day.
Serm. XXXVII. Church of God. Those Roman Priests who have given their lives, those Separatists which
have taken a voluntary banishment, are not competent witnesses for the glory of God;
for a witnesse must know; and qui testatur de scientia, testetur de modo scientiæ, sayes
the Law, He that will prove any thing by his knowledge, must prove how he came by
that knowledge; The Papist hath not the knowledge of his Doctrine from any
Scripture, the Separatist hath not the knowledge of his Discipline from any precedent,
any example in the primitive Church. How farre then is that wretched and sinfull man, from giving any testimony
or glory to Christ in his life, who never comes to the knowledge, and conside-
ration, why he was sent into this life? who is so farre from doing his errand, that
he knowes not what his errand was; not whether he received any errand or no. But,
as though that God, who for infinite millions of ages, delighted himself in himself,
and was sufficient in himself, and yet at last did bestow six dayes labour for the cre-
ation, and provision of man, as though that God, who when man was sowr'd in the
lumpe, poysoned in the fountaine, withered in the roote, in the loins of Adam,
would then ingage his Sonne, his beloved Sonne, his onely Sonne, to be man, by a
temporary life, and to be no man, by a violent and a shamefull death, as though that
God, who when he was pleased to come to a creation, might have left out thee,
amongst privations, amongst nothings, or might have shut thee up, in the close prison,
of a bare being, and no more, (as he hath done earth and stones) or, if he would have
given thee life, might have left thee a Toad, or, if he would have given thee a hu-
mane soule, might have left thee a heathen, without any knowledge of God, or, if
he had afforded thee a Religion, might have left thee a Jew, or, though he had made
thee a Christian, might have left thee a Papist; as though that God that hath done
so much more, in breeding thee in his true Church, had done all this for nothing, thou
passest thorough this world, like a flash, like a lightning, whose beginning or end no
body knowes, like an Ignis fatuus in the aire, which does not onely not give light
for any use, but not so much as portend or signifie any thing; and thou passest
out of the world, as thy hand passes out of a basin of water, which may bee
somewhat the fouler for thy washing in it, but retaines no other impression of thy
having been there; and so does the world for thy life in it. When God placed
Adam in the world, he bad him fill it, and subdue it, and rule it; and when he
placed him in paradise, he bad him dresse, and keepe paradise; and when he sent
his children into the over-flowing Land of promise, he bad them fight, and destroy
the Idolaters; to every body some task, some errand for his glory; And thou
comest from him, into this world, as though he had said nothing unto thee, but
Go and do as you see cause, Go, and do as you see other men do. Thou knowest not, that is, considerest not, what thou wast sent to doe,
what thou shouldest have done, but thou knowest much lesse, what thou hast
done. The light of nature hath taught thee to hide thy sinnes from other men,
and thou hast been so diligent in that, as that thou hast hid them from thy self,
and canst not finde them in thine owne conscience, if at any time the Spirit of
God would burne them up, or the blood of Christ Jesus wash them out; thou
canst not finde them out so, as that a Sermon or Sacrament can work upon them.
Perchance thou canst tell, when was the first time, or where was the first place,
that thou didst commit such or such a sinne; but as a man can remember when
he began to spell, but not when he began to reade perfectly, when he began to
joyne his letters, but not when he began to write perfectly, so thou remembrest
when thou wentest timorously and bashfully about sinne, at first, and now per-
chance art ashamed of that shamefastnesse, and sorry thou beganst no sooner.
Poore bankrupt! that hast sinned out thy soule so profusely, so lavishly, that thou
darest not cast up thine accounts, thou darest not aske thy selfe whether thou
have any soule left; how farre art thou, from giving any testimony to Christ,
that darest not testifie to thy selfe, nor heare thy conscience take knowledge of thy
transgressions, but haddest rather sleepe out thy daies, or drinke out thy daies,
then leave one minute for compunction to lay hold on; and doest not sinne al-
waies for the love of that sinne, but for feare of a holy sorrow, if thou should-
est not fill up thy time, with that sinne. God cannot be mocked, saith the Apostle, nor
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Serm. XXXVII.
On Midsommer day. nor God cannot be blinded. He seeth all the way, and at thy last gaspe, he will make
thee see too, through the multiplying Glasse, the Spectacle of Desperation. Canst
thou hope that that God, that seeth this darke Earth through all the vaults and
arches of the severall spheares of Heaven, that seeth thy body through all thy
stone walls, and seeth thy soul through that which is darker then all those, thy cor-
rupt flesh, canst thou hope that that God can be blinded with drawing a curtain between
thy sinne and him? when he is all eye, canst thou hope to put out that eye, with put-
ting out a candle? when he hath planted legions of Angels about thee, canst thou hope
that thou hast taken away all Intelligence, if thou have corrupted, or silenced, or sent
away a servant? O bestow as much labour, as thou hast done, to finde corners for sin
to finde out those sinnes, in those corners where thou hast hid them. As Princes give
pardons by their own hands, but send Judges to execute Justice, come to him for mer-
cy in the acknowledgement of thy sinnes, and stay not till his Justice come to thee, when
he makes inquisition for blood; and doe not think, that if thou feel now at this present
a little tendernesse in thy heart, a little melting in thy bowels, a little dew in thine eyes,
that if thou beest come to know, that thou art a sinner, thou dost therefore presently
know thy sinnes. Thou wouldst have so much tendernes, so much compassion, if thou
knewest that he that sits next thee, were in this danger of Gods heavy indignation;
thou wouldst commiserate thy neighbours wretched condition so much. But proceed
with thy self further, bring this dawning and breake of day to a full light, and this little
sparke to a perfect acknowledgement of thy sinnes. Go home, with this spark of Gods
Spirit in you, and there looke upon your Rentalls, and know your oppressions, and ex-
torsions; looke upon your shop-bookes, and know your deceits and falsifications;
looke upon your ward-robes, and know your excesses; looke upon your childrens
faces, and know your fornications. Till then, till you come to this scrutiny, this sur-
vey, this sifting of the Conscience, if we should cry peace, peace, yet there were no
peace. The Oratour said, Imposuimus populo, & Oratores visi sumus; we have cousened
the people, and they say we are excellent Oratours, powerfull, well spoken men. We
might flatter you, and you would say, we were sweet, and smooth, and comfortable
Preachers, and we might perish together. But if you study your selves, reade your
own History, if you get to the knowledge of your errand hither, and the ill discharge
of those duties here, the sorrow and compunction which will grow from thence, is a
faire degree of Martyrdome, (for as Saint Hierome Hierom. saith of Chastitie, Habet pudicitia ser-
vata, Martyrium suum, Chastity preserved is a continuall Martyrdome, so a true re-
morse, if that Chastity have not been preserved, and likewise a true remorse for every
sinne, is a fair degree of Martyrdome) for, Martyr is Testis, the very name of Martyr
signifieth a Witnesse; and this Martyrdome, this true remorse and sorrow, and com-
punction for your sinnes, becomes a witnesse to your selves of your reconciliation to
God in the merits of Christ Jesus. But we may carry this branch no further, that
John Baptist being a competent witnesse therefore, because he understood the matter
hee testified, before wee can bee competent witnesses to our owne Consciences,
of our Reconciliation to God, wee must understand, (and therefore search in{???}
to our particular sinnes) not onely that wee are sinners, but sinners in such and
such kindes, such times, such places, such persons; for that Soule, that is con-
tent to rest in generalls, would but deceive it selfe. John Baptists other qua-
lification was, That as hee knew the matter about which hee was sent, so hee
had, (and justly) a good estimation amongst them, to whom hee was im-
ployed. If I have a prejudice against a Man, Integritas. and suspect his honestie, I shall not bee
much moved with his Testimony. The Devill testified for Christ; but, if
there were no other Testimony but his, I should demurre upon the Gospell,
I should not die for that Faith. John Baptist was a credible person amongst
them. How was this credit acquired? It seemeth John Baptist did no Mira-
cles; Whether hee did or no, is not a cleare Case; for that which is said,
(John Baptist did no miracles) is not said by the Evangelist himselfe; Saint
John doeth not say, Iohn 10. 41. that John Baptist did no miracles; but those that resor-
ted to him at that place, said that (He doth no miracles) for they had seene
none. If he did none, Aquin. that reason may be good enough, ne æqualis Christo putaretur, Ff2 it
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Serm. XXXVII. it was forborne in him, that he might appeare to be inferiour to Christ. And, if he
did none, yet there were miracles done by him. The reformation of manners, and bring-
ing men to repentance, is a miracle. It is a lesse miracle to raise a man from a sick bed,
then to hold a man from a wanton bed, a litentious bed; lesse to overcome and quench
his fever, then to quench his lust. Joseph that refused his mistris was a greater miracle
then Lazarus raised from the dead. Of these resurrections, we have divers examples,
Josephs case, (I thinke) is singular. There were miracles done so, by John Baptist preach-
ing to others; and there were miracies done upon himself; & early; for, his springing in his
mothers womb, August. was a miracle; and a miracle done for others: Significatio rei à majoribus
cognoscende, non à minori cognitæ; The child catechized his elders, in that which him-
selfe understood not; that is, the presence of his Saviour, in the virgin then present,
Divinitus in infante, non humanitus ab infante, says the same Father; it was not a joy, and
exultation in the child, but an institution, an instruction to the rest. But miracle or no
miracle is not our issue; witnesses for Christ, require not wonder, but beliefe; we pre-
tend not miracles, but propose Gods ordinary meanes, we look not for Admiration,
but Assent. And therefore forbeare your acclamations and expectations of won-
derfull good preachers, and admirable good Sermons. It was enough for John Bap-
tist that even they confessed, that all that he said was true. Content thy selfe
with truths evident truths, fundamentall truths, let matter of wonder and admiration
alone. He was a witnesse competent to them for his truth, Austeritas. and integrity, and he was so also
for the outward holinesse of his life; which, for the present, we consider onely in the
strict and austere manner of living, that he embraced. For, certainly, he that uses no
fasting, no discipline, no mortification, exposes himselfe to many dangers in himselfe,
and to a cheape and vulgar estimation amongst others. Caro mea jumentum meum, says
S. Augustine, August. my body is the horse I ride; iter ago in Jerusalem, my businesse lies at
Jerusalem; thither I should ride; De via conatur excutere, my horse over pampered casts
me upon the way, or carries me out of the way; non cohibebo jejunio, says he; must not that
be my way, to bring him to a gentler riding, & more command, by lessening his propor-
tions of provender? 1 Cor. 9. 27. S. Augustine meanes the same that S. Paul preached, I beat down my
body, says he, and bring it in subjection; And, (as Paulinus reades that place) Lividum
reddo, I make my body blacke and blue; white and red were not Saint Pauls colours. Saint
Paul was at this time departed, (in outward profession) from the sect of the Pharisees,
and from their ostentations of doing their disciplines in the sight and for the praise of
man; but yet, being become a Christian he left not his austerity; And it is possible
for us, to leave the leaven of the Papist, the opinion of merit, and supererogation, and
doing more then we are bound to doe in the ways of godlinesse, and yet nourish our
soules, with that wholesome bread of taming our bodies. Saint Paul had his Disciplines,
his mortifications; he tells us so, but he does not tell us what they were; lest per-
chance a reverence to his person, and example, might binde mis-devout men, to doe
punctually as Saint Paul did. The same Rule cannot serve all; but the same Reason
may. The institution of friars under a certain Rule, that all of them, just at this time,
shall doe just thus, cannot be a rule of Iustice; but the generall doctrine, that
every body needs at some times, some helpes, some meanes, is certainly true. Shall
the riotous, the voluptuous man stay till this something bee a surfet or a fever? ’Tis
true, this surfet and this fever, will subdue the body, but then thou doest it not. Shall
a lascivious wanton stay, till a consumption or such contagious diseases as shall make
him unsociable, and so, unable to exercise his sinne, subdue his body? These can doe
it, Ambrose. but this is Perimere, non subjugare, not a subduing of the body alone, but a destroying
of body and soule together. Moderate disciplines subdue the body, as under the go-
vernment of a King, a father of his people, that governs them by a law. But when
the body comes to bee subdued, by paines, and anguish, and loathsome diseases,
this becomes a tyranny, a conquest; and he that comes in by conquest, imposes what
lawes hee will; so that these subduings of the body brought in by sinne, may
worke in us, an obduration; we shall feel them, but not discerne the hand of God
in them; or, if his hand, yet not his hand to that purpose, to relieve us, but to seale
our condemnation to us. Beloved, because our Adversaries of the Romane heresie, have erro-
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On Midsommer day.
erroneously made a pattern for their Eremiticall and Monasticall life in John Baptist,
and coloured their idlenesse, by his example; some of the Reformation have bent a lit-
tle too far the other way, and denied, that there was any such austerity in the life of St.
John, as is ordinarily conceived: They say that his conversation in the Desert, may
well be understood to have been but a withdrawing of himself from publique and ci-
vill businesses, home to his fathers house; for, his father dwelt in that Desert, and Luc. 1. 40.
thither went Mary to salute Elizabeth. And Joab had his house in this Desert; 1 Reg. 2. 23. and in
this Desert are reckoned five or fixe good Townes; Ios. 15. 61. so that indeed it was no such sa-
vage solitude as they fancie. But yet, for a Sonne of such Parents, an onely Sonne,
a Sonne so miraculously afforded them, to passe on with that apparell, and that diet, is
certainly remarkable, and an evidence of an extraordinary austerity, and an argument of
an extraordinary sanctity. Especially to the Jewes it was so; amongst them this austerity of life, and abstain-
ing from those things which other men imbraced, procured ordinarily a great estima-
tion; We know that amongst them, Ioseph. the Essæi a severe Sect, had a high reverence:
They did not marry, they did not eate flesh, they did not ease themselves by servants,
but did all their own work, they used no proprietie, they possessed nothing, called no-
thing their own; Vicatim habitant, & urbes fugiunt, Philo. Iud. they forsake all great Townes,
and dwell in Villages; And yet, flying the world, they drew the world so much after
them, Plini. as that it is noted with wonder, per sæeculorum Milia gens æterna, in qua nemo na-
scitur; that there was an eternall Nation, that had lasted many Generations, and yet
never any borne amongst them; I am fœcunda illis aliorum vitæ pœnitentia, for, every
man that was crossed or wearied in his owne course of life, applied himselfe to their
Sect and manner of living, as the onely way to Heaven. And Josephus writing
his owne life and forwardnesse, and pregnancy, (perchance a little too favourably or
gloriously in his owne behalfe, to be throughly beleeved; for he saith, that when he
was but fourteen yeares old, the greatest Doctours of the Law, came to him to learne
penitiorem sensum juris, the secretest Mysteries of the Law; and their Law, was Di-
vinity) thought himselfe unperfect till he had spent some time, in the strictnesse of all
the three Sects of the Jewes; and after he had done all that, he spent three yeares
more, with one Bannus an Ermit, who lived in the wildernesse, upon herbs and roots,
John Baptists austerity of life made him a competent and credible witnesse to them, who
had such austeritie in estimation. And truely, hee that will any way bee a witnesse for Christ, that is, glo-
rifie him, hee must endevour, even by this outward holinesse of life, to bee ac-
ceptable to good men. Vox Populi, vox Dei, the generall voyce is seldome false;
so also Oculi populi, Oculi Dei, In this case God looketh upon man, as man doth; Singuli
decipi & decipere possunt, One man may deceive another, & be deceived by another; Ne-
mo omnes, neminem omnes fefellerunt, no man ever deceived all the world, nor did all the
world ever joyn to deceive one man. The generall opinion, the generall voyce, is for the
most part, good evidence, with, or against a man. Every one of us is ashamed of the
prayse and attestation of one, whom all the world besides, taketh to be dishonest; so,
will Christ be ashamed of that witnesse, that seeketh not the good opinion of good
men. When I see a Jesuit solicite the chastity of a daughter of the house, where he
is harboured, and after knowledge taken by the Parents, upon her complaint, ex-
cuse it with saying, that he did it but to trie her, and to be the better assured of her re-
ligious constancy; when I see a Jesuit conceale and foment a powder Treason, and say
he had it but in Confession, and then see these men to proclaim themselves to be Mar-
tyrs, witnesses for Christ in the highest degree; I say still, the Devill may be a wit-
nesse, but I ground not my Faith upon that Testimony: A competent witnesse must
be an honest man. This competency John Baptist had, the good opinion of good men;
And then, he had the seale of all, Missus est, he had his Commission, He was sent to
bear witness of that Light. Though this word Missus est, Missus. He was sent, be not literally in the Text here, yet it
is necessarily implyed, and therefore providently supplyed by the Translatours in this
verse, and before in the sixt verse, it is literally expressed, There was a man sent from God,
whose name was John. The Law saith, concerning witnesses, Qui se ingerunt & offerunt, Ff3 suspecti
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Serm. XXXVII.
suspecti habentur, those that offer their testimony before they be cited, are suspicious
witnesses. Therefore they must have a Mission, a sending. For, by Saint Pauls rule,
How can they preach except they be sent? Rom. 10. 15 Preach they may; but how? with what suc-
cesse, what effect, what blessing? So that the good successe of John Bapstists preach-
ing, Luc. 3. 7. (For, the multitudes, The people came to him; and not light people carried about
with every winde of rumour and noise, Matt. 3. 7. and noveltie, but Pharises, and Sadduces, men of
learning, of sadnesse and gravity; and not onely Scholars affected with subtilties, but,
Publicans too Luc. 3. 12. men intent upon the world; and other men, whose very profession sub-
mits them to many occasions of departing from the strict rules, which regularly binde
other men, and therefore may be in some things, (which tast of injustice) more excu-
sable then other men; 14. The souldiers likewise came to him, and said, What shall we doe?)
This his working upon all sorts of men, the blessing that accompanied his labours, was
a subsequent argument of his Mission, that he was sent by God. God himself argues
against them, that were not sent, so, They were not sent, for they have done no good. I have
not sent those Prophets, Ier. 23. 21. saith the Lord, yet they ran, I have not spoken to them, and yet they
prophecied; but, if they had stood in my counsell, then they should have turned the people
from their evill wayes, and from the wickednesse of their inventions. This note God
layes up them, to whom he affords this vocation of his internall Spirit, that though o-
thers which come without any calling, may gather men in corners, and itin Conventicles,
and work upon their affections and passions, to singularity, to schisme, to sedition: and
though others which come with an outward, and ordinary calling onely, may advance
their own Fortunes, and increate their estimation, and draw their Auditory to an out-
ward reverence of their Persons, and to a delight in hearing them rather then other men,
yet, those onely who have a true inward Calling from the Spirit, shall turn the peo-
ple from their evill wayes, and from the wickednesse of their inventions. To such mens
planting and watering God gives an increase; when as others which come to declame,
and not to preach, and to vent their own gifts, or the purposes of great men for their
gifts, have onely a proportionable reward, winde for winde, Acclamation for Declama-
tion, popular praise for popular eloquence: for, if they doe not truly beleeve themselves,
why should they looke that others should believe them? Qui loquitur ad cor, loquatur
ex corde; he that will speake to the heart of another, must finde that that he saith in his
own heart first. Whether the Mission of the Church of Rome of Priests and Jesuites hither, be suffici-
ent to satisfie their consciences who are so sent, and sent (in intendment of the Law)
to inevitable losse of life here, hath been laboriously enough debated, and safely enough
concluded, that such a Mission cannot satisfie a rectified conscience. What are they
sent for? Baroni To defend the Immunities of the Church: that is, to take away the inherent
right of the Crown, the supremacy of the King: What seconds them? what assures
them? Alvarez. That which is their generall Tenent, that into what place so ever the Pope may
send Priests, Azor. he may send Armies for the security of those Priests; and (as another ex-
presses it) in all Cases, Maynardus. where the Pope may injoyne any thing, he may lawfully proceed
by way of Warre against any that hinder the execution thereof. That these Missions
from the Bishop of Rome are unlawfull, vide Pseudo-
Mart. f. 154. is safely enough concluded, A priori, in the very
nature of the commandement and Mission. For, it is to a place, in which he that sends
hath no power, for it is into the Dominions of another absolute King; and it is of Per-
sons; in whom he hath no interest, for they are the subjects of another Prince; and my
neighbours setting his mark upon my sheep, doth not make my sheep his. Now, be-
loved, if that which they cannot make lawfull A priori, in the Nature of the thing, you
will make lawfull in their behalf, A posteriori, in the effect and working thereof; that is,
if when these men are thus sent hither, you will run after them to their Masses, though
you pretend it be but to meet company, and to see who comes, and to hear a Church-Co-
medy; if, though you abstain your self, you will lend them a wife, or a childe, or a ser-
vant to be present there, A posteriori, by this effect, by this their working upon you, you
justifie their unjust Mission, and make them thinke their sending and coming lawfull.
So also, (to return to our former consideration) If you depart not from your evill wayes,
and from the wickednesse of your own inventions: If for all our preaching you proceed in
your sinnes, you will make us afraid, that our Mission, our Calling is not warrantable,
for thereby you take away that consolation, which is one seale of our Mission, when we
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Serm. XXXVII.
On Midsommer day. we see a good effect of our preaching in your lives. It lyes much in you, to convince
them, and to establish us, by that way, which is Gods own way of arguing, á posteriori,
by the effect, by our working upon you. If you say God is God, we are sent; if you say
Baal is God, you justifie their sending. Missus est, John Baptist was sent, it appeared by
the effect of his preaching; but it appeares too, by a divers and manifold citation,
which he had received, upon some of which, there may be good use to insist a little. First, 1 Citation. he was cited, called, before he was at all; and called againe before he was borne;
called a third time, out of the desert, into the world; and called lastly out of this world
into the next; and by all these callings, these citations, these missions, he was a com-
petent witnesse. His first citation was before he was any thing, before his conception.
Out of the dead embers of Zacharies aged loins, and Elizabeths double obstacle, age
and barrennesse, when it was almost as great a worke as a creation, to produce a childe
out of the corners, and inwardest bowels of all possibility, and with so many degrees
of improbability, as that Zachary, who is said to have been just before God, Luke 1. 6. and to have
walked in all his commandments without reproofe, and had, without doubt, often conside-
red the like promise of such a childe, made and performed to Abraham, was yet incre-
dulous of it, and asked, how he should know it. Out of this nothing, or nothing natu-
rally disposed to be such a thing, a childe, did God excite, and cite this Jo. Baptist to
beare witnesse of this light, and so made the sonne of him, who, for his incredulity, was
strooke with dumbnesse, all voyce. And, beloved, such a citation as this, when thou wast
meerly nothing, hast thou had too, to beare witnesse of this light, that is, to do some-
thing for the glory of God. When thy free will is as impotent and as dead as Zacha-
ries loins, when thou art under Elizabeths double obstacle of age and barrennesse, (bar-
rennesse in good works, age in ill) then when thou thinkest not of God, then when thou
art walking for ayre, or sitting at a feast, or slumbring in a bed, God opens these doors,
he rings a bell, he showes thee an example in the concourse of people hither, and here,
he sets up a man, to present the prayer of the Congregation to him, and to deliver his
messages to them; and whether curiosity, or custome, or company, or a loathnesse to in-
curre the penalties of Lawes, or the censures and observations of neighbours, bring thee
hither, though thou hadst nothing to do with God, in comming hither, God hath some-
thing to do with thee, now thou art here, even this is a citation, a calling, by being
personally here at these exercises of Religion, thou art some kinde of witnesse of this
light. For, in how many places of the world hath Christ yet never opened such doors
for his ordinary service, in all these 1600. yeers? And in how many places hath he shut
up these doors, of his true worship, within these three or foure yeers? Quod citaris huc,
That thou art brought hither, within distance of his voyce, within reach of his food,
intra sphæram Activitatis, within the spheare and latitude of his ordinary working, that
is, into his house, into his Church, this is a citation, a calling, answerable to John Bap-
tists first calling, from his fathers dead loins, and his mothers barren wombe; and his
second citation was before he was borne, in his mothers wombe. When Mary came to visit Elizabeth, 2 Citation. the childe sprang in her belly, as soone as Maries
voice sounded in her eares. Luke 1. 41. And though naturally, upon excesse of joy in the mother,
the childe may spring in her; yet the Evangelist meanes to tell an extraordinary and
supernaturall thing; and whether it were an anticipation of reason in the childe, (some
of the Fathers think so, though St. Augustine do not, that the childe understood what
he did) or that this were a fulfilling of that prophecy, Verse 15. That he should be filled with the
holy Ghost from his mothers wombe, all agree that this was an exciting of him to this at-
testation of his Saviours presence, August. whether he had any sense of it, or no. Exultatio
significat, sayes St. Augustine, This springing declared, that his mother, whose fore-
runner that childe should be, was come. Origen. And so both Origen, and St. Cyrill, refer that
commendation, which our Saviour gives him, Cyrill. Inter natos Mulierum, Among those that
were born of women, there was not a greater Prophet; that is, none that prophecyed be-
fore he was borne, but he. And such a citation, beloved, thou mayest have, in this
place, and at this time. A man may upon the hearing of something that strikes him,
that affects him, feel this springing, this exultation, this melting, and colliquation of
the inwardest bowels of his soule; a new affection, a new passion, beyond the joy or-
dinarily conceived upon earthly happinesses; which, though no naturall Philosopher can
call it by a name, no Anatomist assigne the place where it lyes, yet I doubt not, through Christ
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On Midsommer day.
Serm. XXXVII. Christ Jesus, but that many of you who are here now, feele it, and understand it this
minute. Citaris huc, thou wast cited to come hither, whether by a collaterall, and ob-
lique, and occasionall motion, or otherwise, hither God hath brought thee, and Ci-
taris hîc, here thou art cited to come neerer to him. Now both these citations were
before John Baptist was borne; both these affections, to come to this place, and to be
affected with a delight here, may be before thy regeneration, which is thy spirituall
birth; a man is not borne, not borne againe, because he is at Church, nor because he
likes the Sermon, John Baptist had, and thou must have a third citation; which was in
him, from the desert into the publique, into the world, from contemplation to practice. This was that mission, that citation, 3 Citation.
Luke 3. 2. which most properly belongs to this Text,
when the word came to the voyce, (The word of God came to John in the wildernesse, and
he came into all the Countrey preaching the Baptisme of repentance.) To that we must
come, to practise. For, in this respect, an Vniversity is but a wildernesse, though we
gather our learning there, our private meditation is but a wildernesse, though we con-
template God there, nay our being here, is but a wildernesse, though we serve God here,
if our service end so, if we do not proceed to action, and glorifie God in the publique.
And therefore Citaris huc, thou art cited hither, here thou must be, and Citaris hîc,
thou art cited here, to lay hold upon that grace which God offers in his Ordinance;
and Citaris hinc, thou art cited from hence, to embrace a calling in the world. He that
undertakes no course, no vocation, he is no part, no member, no limbe of the body of
this world; no eye, to give light to others; no eare to receive profit by others. If he
think it enough to be excrementall nayles, to scratch and gripe others by his lazy usury,
and extortion, or excrementall hayre, made onely for ornament, or delight of others,
by his wit, or mirth, or delightfull conversation, these men have not yet felt this third
citation, by which they are called to glorifie God, and so to witnesse for him, in such
publique actions, as Gods cause for the present requires, and comports with their
calling. And then John Baptist had a fourth cirationcitation 4 Citation. to bear witnesse for Christ, by laying
down his life for the Truth; and this was that that made him a witnesse, in the highest
sense, a Martyr. God hath not served this citation upon us, nor doth he threaten us,
with any approches towards it, in the feare of persecution for religion. But remember
that Iohn Baptists Martyrdome, was not for the fundamentall rock, the body of the Chri-
stian religion, but for a morall truth, for matter of manners. A man may be bound to
suffer much, for a lesse matter then the utter overthrow, of the whole frame and body
of religion. But leaving this consideration, for what causes a man is bound to lay
downe his life, consider we now, but this, that a man lays downe his life for Christ, and
beares witnesse of him, even in death, when he prefers Christ before this world, when
he desires to be dissolved, and be with him, and obeyes cheerefully that citation, by the
hand of death, whensoever it comes; and that citation must certainly be served upon
you all; whether this night in your beds, or this houre, at the doore, no man knowes.
You who were cited hither, to heare, and cited here, to consider, and cited hence, to
worke in a calling in the world, must be cited from thence too, from the face to the bo-
some of the earth, from treading upon other mens, to a lying downe in your owne
graves. And yet that is not your last citation, there is fifth. In the grave, John Baptist does, and we must attend a fifth citation, 5 Citation. from the grave
to a Judgement. The first citation hither to Church, was served by Example of other
men, you saw them come, and came. The second citation, here, in the Church, was
served by the Preacher, you heard him and beleeved. The third, from hence, is served
by the Law, and by the Magistrate, they binde you to embrace a profession, and a cal-
ling, and you do so. The fourth, which is from thence, from this, to the next world,
is served by nature in death, he touches you, and you sinke. This fifth to Judgement
shall be by an Angell, 1 Thess. 4. 16. by an Archangell, by the Lord himself, The Lord himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voyce of the Archangell, and with the Trump
of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise. This citation is not served by a bell, that tolls
to bring you hither; not by a man that speaks to instruct you here; not by a law, that
compells you to live orderly in the world; not by a bell, that rings out to lay thee in
thy grave; but by the great shout of the Lord descending from heaven, with the voyce of
the Archangel, 2 Chro. 9. 27. and with the Trump of God, to raise the dead in Christ. It is not the Ape-
rire
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Serm. XXXVIII.
On Midsommer day.
perire fores, That the Levites have charge to open these doores every day to you, that
you may come in, (that is your first citation, Psal. 51.15. hither) it is not the Domine labia mea ape-
ries, That God opens our mouth, the mouth of the Preacher, to worke upon you,
(that is your second citation, here,) it is not that aperuimus saccos, Gen. 43. 21. The opening of your
sack of Corne, and finding that, and your money too, that is, your trading in this
world, in a calling, Num. 16. 30. (that is your third citation from hence) nor it is not the Aperuit ter-
ra os suum, That the earth opens her mouth, and swallowes all in the grave, (that is
your fourth citation from thence,) it is none of these Apertions, these openings; but it
is the Aperta monumenta, Mat. 27. 52. The grave it self shall be open againe; and Aperti cœli, The
heavens shall be open, Act. 7. 56. and I shall see the Sonne of man, the Sonne of God, and not
see him at that distance, that Stephen saw him there, but see him, and sit down with
him. I shall rise from the dead, from the darke station, from the prostration, from
the prosternation of death, and never misse the sunne, which shall then be put out, for
I shall see the Sonne of God, the Sunne of glory, and shine my self, as that sunne
shines. I shall rise from the grave, and never misse this City, which shall be no where,
for I shall see the City of God, the new Jerusalem. I shall looke up, and never won-
der when it will be day, Apoc. 10. 6. for, the Angell will tell me that time shall be no more, and I shall
see, and see cheerefully that last day, the day of judgement, which shall have no night,
never end, Dan. 7. 9. and be united to the Antient of dayes, to God himselfe, who had no mor-
ning, never began. There I shall beare witnesse for Christ, in ascribing the salvation of
the whole world, to him that sits upon the Throne, and to the Lamb, and Christ shall bear
witnesse for me, in ascribing his righteousnesse unto me, and in delivering me into his
Fathers hands, with the same tendernesse, as he delivered up his owne soule, and in
making me, who am a greater sinner, then they who crucified him on earth for me, as
innocent, and as righteous as his glorious selfe, in the Kingdome of heaven. And these
occasions of advancing your devotion, and edification, from these two branches of
this part, first, the fitnesse of John Baptist to be sent, and then his actuall sending, by
so divers callings, and citations in him, appliable, as you have seene, to us. More will
be ministred, in due time, out of the last part, and the two branches of that; first, why
this light required any witnesse, and then, what witnesse John Baptist gave to this light.
But those, because they leade us not to the celebration of any particular Festivall, (as
these two former parts have done, to Christmas and Midsommer) I may have leave to
present to you at any other time. At this time let us onely beg of God a blessing upon
this that hath been said &c. Sermon XXXVIII.
Preached at Saint Pauls 13. Octob. 1622.
John 1. 8.
He was not that light, but was sent to beare witnesse of that light. THisThis is the third time that I have entertained you (in a businesse of
this nature, intended for Gods service, and your edification, I must
not say, troubled you) with this Text. I begun it at Christmas, and
in that darke time of the yeer told you who, and what was this light
which Iohn Baptist is denied to be. I pursued it at Midsommer, and
upon his owne day, insisted upon the person of Iohn Baptist, who,
though he were not this light, was sent to beare witnesse of this light.
And the third consideration, which (as I told you then) was not tied nor affected to any
particular Festivall, you shall (by Gods grace) have now, the office of Iohn Baptist, his
testimony; and in that, these two parts; first, a problematicall part, why so evident a thing
as light, Divisio. and such a light, that light, required testimony of man: and then a dogmaticall
part, what testimony this man gives of this light. And in the first of these we shall make these
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these two steps, first, why any testimony at all, then why, after so many others, this
of Iohn. First then God made light first, ut innotescerent omnia, that man might glorifie God
in seeing the creature, and him in it; 1 Part.
Cur testis.
Ambrose. for, frustra fecisset, (says the same Father) it had
been to no purpose to have a world, and no light. But though light discover and ma-
nifest every thing else to us, and it selfe too, if all be well disposed, yet, in the fifth verse
of this chapter, there is reason enough given, why this light in our text, requires testi-
mony; that is, the light shines in darknesse, and the darknesse comprehends it not; and
therefore, Propter non intelligentes, propter incredulos, propter infirmos, Sol lucernas quæ-
rit; August. for their sakes that are weak in their understanding, and not enlightned in that fa-
culty, the Gentiles; for their sakes who are weake in their faith, that come, and heare, Propter non
intelligentes.
and receive light, but beleeve not; for their sakes that are perverse in their manners, and
course of life, that heare, and beleeve, but practise not, sol lucernas quærit, this light re-
quires testimony. There may be light then and we not know it, because we are asleep;
and asleep so, Mat. 9. 24. as Iairus daughter was, of whom Christ says, the maid is not dead
but asleep. The maide was absolutely dead; but because he meant forthwith to raise her,
he calls it a sleep. The Gentiles, in their ignorance, are dead; we, in our corrupt nature,
dead, as dead as they, we cannot heare the voice, we cannot see the light; without Gods
subsequent grace, the Christian can no more proceed, then the Gentile can beginne with-
out his preventing grace. But, because, amongst us, he hath established the Gospell,
and in the ministery and dispensation thereof, ordinary meanes for the conveyance of
his farther grace, we noware but asleep and may wake. A sodain light brought into a room
doth awaken some men; but yet a noise does it better, and a shaking, and a pinching.
The exalting of naturall faculties, and good morall life, inward inspirations, and private
meditations, conferences, reading, and the life, doe awaken some; but the testimony of
the messenger of God, the preacher, crying according to Gods ordinance, shaking the
soule, troubling the conscience, and pinching the bowells, by denouncing of Gods
Judgements, these beare witnesse of the light, when otherwise men would sleep it out;
and so propter non intelligentes, for those that lye in the suddes of nature, and cannot, or
of negligence, and will not come to heare, sol lucernas, this light requires testi-
mony. These testimonies, Propter in-
credulos. Gods ordinances, may have wakened a man, yet he may winke,
and covet darknesse, and grow weary of instruction, and angry at increpation; And,
as the eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, Iob 24. 15. so, the eare of this fastidious and impa-
tient man, longeth for the end of the Sermon, or the end of that point in the Sermon,
which is a thorne to his conscience; But as, if a man wink in a cleare day, he shall for
all that discerne light thorough his eylids, but not light enough to keep him from
stumbling: so the most perverse man that is, either in faith or manners, that winkes a-
gainst the light of nature, or light of the law, or light of grace exhibited in the Chri-
stian Church, the most determined Atheist that is, discernes through all his stubborn-
nesse, though not light enough to rectifie him, to save him, yet enough to condemne
him, though not enough to enable him, to reade his owne name in the book of life, yet
so much, as makes him afraid to read his own story by, and to make up his owne Audit
and account with God. And doth not this light to this man need testimony, That
as he does see, it is a light, so he might see, that there is warmth and nourishment in this
light, and so, as well see the way to God by that light, as to see by it, that there is a
God; and, this he may, if he doe not sleep nor winke; that is, not forbeare comming
hither, nor resist the grace of God, always offred here, when he is here. Propter incre-
dulos, for their sakes, who though they doe heare, heare not to beleeve, sol lucernas, this
light requires testimony; and it does so too, propter infirmos, for their sakes, who though
they doe heare, and beleeue, yet doe not Practise. If he neither sleep, Propter in-
firmos. nor wink, neither forbeare, nor resist, yet how often may you sur-
prise and deprehend a man, whom you thinke directly to look upon such an object, yet
if you aske him the quality or colour of it, he will tell you, he saw it not? That man
sees as little with staring, as the other with winking. His eye hath seen, but it hath re-
turned nothing to the common sense. We may pore upon books, stare upon preachers, yet
if we reflect nothing, nothing upon our conversation, we shall still remaine under the
increpation and malediction of Saint Paul, Act. 28. 26. out of Esay, Seeing yee shall see, and shall not perceive;
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perceive; seeing and hearing shall but aggravate our condemnation, and it shall be easi-
er at the day of Judgement, for the deaf and the blinde that never saw Sacrament, never
heard Sermon, then for us, who have frequented both, propter infirmos, for their sakes,
whose strength though it serve to bring them hither, and to beleeve here, doth not
serve them to proceed to practise, sol lucernas, this light requires testimony. Yet, if we be neither dead, nor asleep, nor winke, nor looke negligently, but doe come
to some degrees of holinesse in practise for a time, Propter Re-
lapsos. yet if at any time, we put our
selves in such a position and distance from this light, as that we suffer dark thick bo-
dies to interpose, and eclipse it, that is, sadnesse and dejection of spirit, for worldly losses;
nay, if we admit inordinate sadnesse for sinne it selfe, to eclipse this light of comfort
from us, or if we suffer such other lights, as by the corrupt estimation of the world,
have a greater splendour to come in; (As the light of Knowledge and Learning, the
light of Honour and Glory, of popular Applause and Acclamation) so that this light which
we speake of, (the light of former Grace) be darkned by the accesse of other lights,
worldly lights, then also you shall finde that you need more and more Testimony of
this light. God is light in the Creature, in nature; yet the naturall Man stumbles and
falls, and lies in that ignorance, Christ bears witnesse of this light, in establishing a Chri-
shianChri-
stian Church; yet many Christians fall into Idolatry and Superstition, and lie and die in
it. The Holy Ghost hath born further witnesse of this light, and, (if we may take so
low a Metaphore in so high a Mystery) hath snuffed this candle, mended this light, in
the Reformation of Religion; and yet there is a damp, or a cloud of uncharitablenesse, of
neglecting, of defaming one another; we deprave even the fiery, Act. 2. 3. the cloven tongues of the
Holy Ghost: Our tongues are fiery onely to the consuming of another, and they are clo-
ven, onely in speaking things contrary to one another. So that still there need more wit-
nesses, more testimonies of this light. God the Father is Pater Luminum the Father of
all Lights; God the Sonne, is Lumen de lumine, Light of light, of the Father; God the
Holy Ghost is Lumen de luminibus, Light of lights, proceeding both from the Father,
and the Sonne; and this light the Holy Ghost kindles more lights in the Church, and
drops a coale from the Altar upon every lamp, he lets fall beams of his Spirit upon e-
very man, that comes in the name of God, into this place; and he sends you one man
to day, which beareth witnesse of this light ad ignaros, that bends his preaching to
the convincing of the naturall man, the ignorant soul, and works upon him. And ano-
ther another day, that bears witnesse ad incredulos, that fixeth the promises of the Go-
spell, and the merits of Christ Jesus, upon that startling and timorous soul, upon that
jealous and suspicious soul, that cannot beleeve that those promises, or those merits ap-
pertain to him, and so bends all the power of his Sermon to the binding up of such bro-
ken hearts, and faint beleevers. He sendeth another to bear witnesse ad infirmos, to them
who though they have shaked off their sicknesse, yet are too weake, to walke, to them,
who though they doe beleeve, are intercepted by tentations from preaching, and his
Sermon reduces them from their ill manners, who thinke it enough to come, to hear,
to beleeve. And then he sendeth another ad Relapsos, to bear witnesse of this light to
them who have relapsed into former sinnes, that the merits of Christ are inexhausti-
ble, and the mercies of God in him indefatigable: As God cannot be deceived with a
false repentance, so he cannot resist a true, nor be weary of multiplying his mercies in
that case. And therefore thinke not that thou hast heard witnesses enow of this light,
Sermons enow, if thou have heard all the points preached upon, which concerne thy
salvation. But because new Clouds of Ignorance, of Incredulitie, of Infirmitie, of Relap-
sing, rise every day and call this light in question, and may make thee doubt whether
thou have it or no, every day, (that is, as often as thou canst) heare more and more wit-
nesses of this light; and bless that God, who for thy sake, would submit himselfe to
these Testimonia ab homine, these Testimonies from men, and being all light himselfe,
and having so many other Testimonies, would yet require the Testimony of Man, of
Iohn; which is our other branch of this first part. Christ, A seipso. (who is still the light of our Text, That light, the essentiall light) had testimony
enough without Iohn. First, he bore witness of himselfe. And though he say of himself,
(If I beare witnesse of my self, my witnesse is not true) yet that he might say either out of a
legall and proverbiall opinion of theirs, Ioh. 5. 31. that ordinarily they thought, That a witness
testifying for himself, was not to be beleeved, whatsoever he said; Or, as Man, (which
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Serm. XXXVIII.(which they then took him to be) he might speake it of himselfe out of his own opi-nion, that, in Iudicature it is a good rule, that a man should not be beleeved in his own
case. But, after this, and after he had done enough to make them see, that he was more
then man, 8. 13. by multiplying of miracles, then he said, though I beare witnesse of my selfe, my
witnesse is true. So the onely infallibility and unreproachable evidence of our election,
is in the inward word of God, when his Spirit beares witnesse with our Spirit, that we are the
Sonnes of God; for, if the Spirit, (the Spirit of truth) say he is in us, he is in us. But yet
the Spirit of God is content to submit himselfe to an ordinary triall, to be tried by God
and the Countrey; he allowes us to doubt, and to be afraid of our regeneration, except
we have the testimony of sanctification. Christ bound them not to his own testimony,
till it had the seale of workes, of miracles; nor must we build upon any testimony in our
selves, till other men, that see our life, testifie for us to the world. He had also the testimony of his Father, A Patre. (the Father himselfe which hath sent me,
beareth witnesse of me.) But where should they see the Father, or heare the Father speak? Iohn. 5. 37.
14. 8.
That was all which Philip asked at his hands, (Lord show us the Father, and it sufficeth
us.) He had the testimony of an Angel, Ab Angelo. who came to the shepheards so, as no where in
all the Scriptures, there is such an Apparition expressed, (the Angel of the Lord came up-
on them, Luke 2. 8. and the glory of the Lord shone round about them) but where might a man talke
with this Angel, and know more of him? As Saint Augustine says of Moses, Scripsit &
abiit, he hath written a little of the Creation, and he is gone; Si hîc esset, tenerem &
rogarem, if Moses were here, says he, I would hold him fast, till I had got him to give
me an exposition of that which he writ. For, beloved, we must have such witnesses, as
we may consult farther with. A stella. I can see no more by an Angel, then by lightning. A
star testified of him, at his birth. But what was that star? was it any of those stars that
remaine yet? Gregory Nissen thinkes it was, and that it onely then changed the naturall
course, and motion for that service. But almost all the other Fathers thinke, that it was
a light but then created, and that it had onely the forme of a star, and no more; and some
few, that it was the holy Ghost in that forme. And, if it were one of the fixed stars, and
remaine yet, yet it is not now in that office, it testifies nothing of Christ now. The wise
men of the East testified of him, A Magis. too; But what were they, or who, or how many, or from
whence, were they; for, all these circumstances have put Antiquity it selfe into more
distractions, A Simeone. and more earnest disputations, then circumstances should doe. Simeon
testified of him, Luke 2. 25. who had a revelation from the holy Ghost, that he should not see death,
till he had seen Christ. Ab Anna. And so did the Prophetess Anna, who served God, with fasting and
prayer, Ambrose. day and night. Omnis sexus & ætas, both sexes, and all ages testified of him;
and he gives examples of all, as it was easie for him to doe. Now after all these testi-
monies, from himselfe, from the Father, from the Angel, from the star, from the wise
men, from Simeon, from Anna, from all, what needed the testimony of Iohn? All those
witnesses had been thirty years before Iohn was cited for a witnesse, to come from the
wildernesse and preach. And in thirty years, by reason of his obscure and retired life, in his
father Iosephs house, all those personall testimonies of Christ might be forgotten; and,
for the most part, those witnesses onely testified that he was borne, that he was come
into the world, but for all their testimony, he might have been gone out of the world
long. Before this, he might have perished in the generall flood, in that flood of inno-
cent blood, in which Herod drowned all the young children of that Countrey. When
therefore Christ came forth to preach, when he came to call Apostles, when he came to
settle a Church, to establish meanes for our ordinary salvation, (by which he is the
light of our text, the Essentiall light shining out in his Church, by the supernaturall light
of faith and grace) then he admitted, then he required Testimonium ab homine, testi-
mony from man. And so, for our conformity to him, in using and applying those
meanes, which convay this light to us, in the Church, we must doe so too; we must
have the seale of faith, and of the Spirit, but this must be in the testimony of men; still
there must be that done by us, which must make men testifie for us. Every Christian is a state, a common-wealth to himselfe, and in him, the Scripture
Scripturas
esse. is his law, and the conscience is his Iudge. And though the Scripture be inspired from
God, and the conscience be illumined and rectified by the holy Ghost immediately, yet,
both the Scriptures and the Conscience admit humane arguments. First, the Scriptures
doe, in all these three respects; first that there are certaine Scriptures, that are the revealed
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revealed will of God. Secondly, that these books which we call Canonicall, are those
Scriptures. And lastly, that this and this is the true sense and meaning of such and such
a place of Scripture. First, that there is a manifestation of the will of God in certain
Scriptures, if we who have not power to infuse Faith into men, (for that is the work of
the Holy Ghost onely) but must deal upon the reason of men, and satisfie that, if we
might not proceed, per testimonia ab homine, by humane Arguments, and argue, and in-
fer thus, That if God will save man for worshipping him, and damne him for not wor-
shipping him, so as he will be worshipped, certainly God hath revealed to man, how he
will be worshipped, and that in some visible, in some permanent manner in writing, and
that that writing is Scripture, if we had not these testimonies, these necessary consequen-
ces derived even from the naturall reason of man to convince men, how should we con-
vince them, since our way is not to create Faith, but to satisfie reason? And therefore
let us rest in this testimony of men, that all Christian men, nay Iewes and Turkes too,
have ever beleeved, that there are certain Scriptures, which are the revealed will of
God, and that God hath manifested to us, in those Scriptures, all that he requires at
our hands for Faith or Manners. Now, which are those Scriptures? As for the whole body intirely together, Hos eos li-
bros esse. so for the particular limbs and members of
this body, the severall books of the Bible, we must accept testimonium ab homine, humane
Arguments, and the testimony of men. At first, the Jewes were the Depositaries of
Gods Oracles; and therefore the first Christians were to aske the Jewes, which books
were those Scriptures. Since the Church of God is the Master of those Rolls, no doubt
but the Church hath Testimonium à Deo, The Spirit of God to direct her, in declaring
what Books make up the Scripture; but yet even the Church, which is to deal upon
men, proceedeth also per testimonium ab homine, by humane Arguments, such as may
work upon the reason of man, in declaring the Scriptures of God. For the New Testa-
ment, there is no question made of any Book, but in Conventicles of Anabaptists; and for
the Old, it is testimony enough that we receive all that the Jews received. This is but the
testimony of man, but such as prevails upon every man. It is somewhat boldly said, (not
to permit to our selves any severer, or more bitter animadversion upon him) by a great
man in the RomamRoman Church, that perchance the book of Enoch, which S. Iude cites in
his Epistle, Melchilanus. was not an Apocryphal book, but Canonicall Scripture in the time of the Iews.
As though the holy Ghost were a time-server, and would sometimes issue some things,
for present satisfaction, which he would not avow nor stand to after; as though the holy
Ghost had but a Lease for certain years, a determinable estate in the Scriptures, which
might expire, and he be put from his evidence; that that book might become none of
his, which was his before. We therefore, in receiving these books for Canonicall, which
we do, and in post-posing the Apochryphall, into an inferior place, have testimonium ab
homine, testimony from the People of God, who were, and are the most competent,
and unreproachable witnesses herein: and we have Testimonium ab inimice, testimony
from our adversary himself, Idem ex Aquin. Perniciosius est Ecclesiæ librum recipere pro sacro, qui non est,
quàm sacrum rejicere, It is a more pernicious danger to the Church, to admit a book for
Canonicall, which is not so, then to reject one that is so. And therefore, ne turberis novitie,
Cajetan. (saith another great Author of theirs) Let no young student in Divinity be troubled, si
alicubi repererit, libros istos supputari inter Canonicos, if he finde at any time, any of these
books reckned amongst the Canonical, nam ad Hiero.limam, verba Doctorum & Concilio
rum reducenda, for saith he, Hieroms file must passe over the Doctors, and over the Coun-
cels too, and they must be understood, and interpreted according to S. Hier. now this is
but testimonium ab homine, S. Hier. testimony, that prevailed upon Cajetan, and it was but
testimonium ab homine, the testimony of the Iews, that prevailed upon S. Hierom himself. It is so for the whole body, Sensus loco-
rum. The bible; it is so for all the limbs of this body, every
particular book of the Bible; and it is so, for the soul of this body, the true sense of every
place, of veryevery book thereof; for, for that, (the sense of the place) we must have testimo-
nium ab homine, the testimony, that is, the interpretation of other men. Thou must
not rest upon thy self, nor upon any private man. Iohn was a witnesse that had wit-
nesses, the Prophets had prophesied of Iohn Baptist. The men from whom we are to re-
ceive testimony of the sense of the Scriptures, must be men that have witnesses, that is, a
visible and outward calling in the Church of God. That no sense be ever admitted, that
derogateth from God, that makes him a false, or an impotent, or a cruell God, That Gg every
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every contradiction, and departing from the Analogy of Faith, doth derogate from
God, and divers such grounds, and such inferences, as every man confesses, and ac-
knowledges to be naturally and necessarily consequent, these are Testimonia ab homine,
Testimonies that passe like currant money, from man to man, obvious to every man,
suspicious to none. Thus it is in the generall; but then, when it is deduced to a more
particular triall, (what is the sense of such or such a place) when Christ saith, Scrutamini
Scripturas, Iohn 5. 39. search the Scriptures, non mittit ad simplicem lectionem, sed ad scrutationem
exquisitam, It is not a bare reading, but a diligent searching, that is enjoyned us. Now
they that will search, must have a warrant to search; they upon whom thou must rely
for the sense of the Scriptures, must be sent of God by his Church. Thou art robbed
of all, devested of all, if the Scriptures be taken from thee; Thou hast no where to
search; blesse God therefore, that hath kept thee in possession of that sacred Treasure,
the Scriptures; and then, if any part of that treasure ly out of thy reach, or ly in the
dark, so as that thou understandest not the place, search, that is, apply thy self to them
that have warrant to search, and thou shalt lack no light necessary for thee. Either thou
shalt understand that place, or the not understanding of it shall not be imputed to
thee, nor thy salvation hindred by that Ignorance. It is but to a woman that Saint Hierome saith, Hierom. Ama Scripturas, & amabit te Sapien-
tia, Love the Scriptures, and Wisdome will love thee: The weaknesse of her Sex
must not avert her from reading the Scriptures. It is instruction for a Childe, and for
a Girle, Idem. that the same Father giveth, Septem annorum discat memoriter Psalterium, As
soone as she is seaven yeares old, let her learn all the Psalmes without book; the tender-
nesse of her age, must not avert her from the Scriptures. It is to the whole Congrega-
tion, consisting of all sorts and sexes, that Saint Chrysostome saith, Chrysost. Hortor, & hortari non
desinam, I alwayes doe, and alwayes will exhort you, ut cum domi fueritis, assiduæ le-
ctioni Scripturarum vacetis, that at home, in your owne houses, you accustome your
selves to a dayly reading of the Scriptures. And after, to such men as found, or for-
ced excuses for reading them, he saith with compassion, and indignation too, O homo,
non est tuum Scripturas evolvere, quia innumeris curis distraheris? Busie man, belong-
eth it not to thee to study the Scriptures, because thou art oppressed with worldly bu-
sinesse? Imò magis tuum est, saith he, therefore thou hadst the more need to study the
Scriptures; Illi non tam egent, &c. They that are not disquieted, nor disordered in
their passions, with the cares of this world, doe not so much need that supply from
the Scriptures, Corn. Agrip. as you that are, doe. It is an Authour that lived in the obedience of the
Romane Church, that saith, the Councell of Nice did decree, That every man should
have the Bible in his house. Escalante. But another Authour in that Church saith now, Consi-
lium Chrysostomi Ecclesiæ nunc non arridet; The Church doth not now like Chryso-
stomes counsell, for this generall reading of the Scriptures, Quia etsi ille locutus ad ple-
bem, plebs tunc non erat hæretica; Though Saint Chrysostome spoke that to the people,
the people in his time were not an Hereticall people: And are the people in the Ro-
man Church now an Hereticall people? If not, why may not they pursue Saint Chry-
stomes counsel, and reade the Scriptures? Because they are dark? It is true, in some places
they are dark; August. purposely left so by the Holy Ghost, ne semel lectas fastidiremus, lest we
should think we had done when we had read them once; so saith S. Gregory too, Gregor. In plain
places, fami occurrit, he presents meat for every stomach; In hard and dark places, fasti-
dia detergit, Hierom. he sharpens the appetite: Margarita est, & undique perforari potest; the Scri-
pture is a Pearl, and might be bored through every where. Not every where by thy self;
there may be many places, which thou of thy self canst not understand; not every where
by any other man; no not by them, who have warrant to search, Commission from God,
by their calling, to interpret the Scriptures, not every where by the whole Church, God
hath reserved the understanding of some places of Scripture, till the time come for the fulfil-
ling of those Prophecies; as many places of the Old Testament were not understood, till
Christ came, in whom they were fulfilled. If therefore thou wilt needs know, whether,
when Saint Paul took his information of the behaviour of the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 1. 11. from those
of Chloe, whether this Chloe, were a woman, or a place, the Fathers cannot satisfie
thee, the latter Writers cannot satisfie thee, there is not Testimonium ab homine, no
such humane Arguments as can determine thee, or give thee an Acquittance; the greatest
pillars whom God hath raised in his Church, cannot give a satisfaction to thy curiosity. But
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But if the Doctrine of the place will satisfie thee, (which Doctrine is, that S. Paul did not
give credit to light rumors against the Corinthians, nor to clandestine whisperers, but
tells them who accused them, and yet, as well as he loved them, he did not stop his
eares against competent witnesses, (for he tells them, they stood accused, and by
whom) then thou maist bore this pearle thorough, and make it fit for thy use, and
wearing, in knowing so much of Saint Pauls purpose therein, as concerns thy edifi-
cation, though thou never know, Tertull. whether Chloe were a Woman, or a Place. Tantum ve-
ritati obstrepit adulter sensus; quam corruptor stylus; a false interpretation may doe thee as
much harme, as a false translation, a false Commentary, as a false copy; And therefore,
forbearing to make any interpretation at all, upon dark places of Scripture, (especially
those, whose understanding depends upon the future fulfilling of prophecies) in places that
are clear, & evident thou maist be thine own interpreter; In places that are more obscure,
goe to those men, whom God hath set over thee, and either they shall give thee
that sense of the place, which shall satisfie thee, by having the sense thereof, or that
must satisfie you, that there is enough for your salvation, though that remaine un-
interpreted. And let this Testimonium ab homine, this testimony of man establish
thee for the Scripture, that there is a Scripture, a certaine book, that is the word;
and the revealed will of God; That these books which we receive for Canonicall,
make up that book; And then, that this and this is the true sense of every place,
which the holy Ghost hath opened to the present understanding of his Church. We said before, Conscientia. that a Christian being a Common-wealth to himselfe, the Scrip-
ture was his law, (and for that law, that Scripture, he was to have Testimonium ab
homine, the testimony of man) And then, his Conscience is his Iudge, and for that
he is to have the same testimony too. Thou must not rest upon the testimony and sug-
gestions of thine owne conscience; Hierom. Nec illud de trivio paratum habere, thou must not
rest in that vulgar saying, sufficit mihi &c. As long as mine owne Conscience stands
right, I care not what all the world say. Thou must care what the world says, and
study to have the approbation and testimony of good men. Every man is enough
defamed in the generall depravation of our whole nature: Adam hath cast an infamy
upon us all: And when a man is defamed, it is not enough that he purge himselfe by
oath, but he must have compurgators too: other men must sweare, that they beleeve
he sweares a truth. Thine owne conscience is not enough, but thou must fatisfiesatisfie the
world, and have Testimonium ab homine, good men must thinke thee good. A con-
science that admits no search from others, is cauterizata, burnt with a hot Iron; not
cured, but seared; not at peace, but stupefied. And when in the verse immediately be-
fore our text, it is said, That Iohn came to beare witnesse of that light, it is added, that
through him, (that is, through that man, through Iohn, not through it, through
that light) that through him all men beleeve. For though it be efficiently the operati-
on of the light it selfe, (that is, Christ himselfe) that all men beleeve yet the holy Ghost
directs us to that that is nearest us, to this testimony of man, that instrumentally, mi-
nisterially works this beliefe in men. If then for thy faith, thou must have testimonium
ab homine, the testimony of men, and maist not beleeve as no man but thy selfe beleeves,
much more for thy manners, and conversation. Thinke it not enough to satisfie thy self,
but satisfie good men; nay weake men; nay malicious men: till it come so far, as that for
the desire of satisfying man, thou leave God unsatisfied, endeavour to satisfie all. God
must waigh down all; thy selfe and others; but as long as thy selfe onely art in one
balance, and other men in the other, let this preponderate; let the opinion of other men,
waigh downe thine owne opinion of thy selfe. 'Tis true, (but many men flatter them-
selves too far, with this truth) that it is a sin, to do any thing in Conscientiâ dubiâ, when
a man doubts whether he may doe it, or no, and in Conscientiâ scrupulosâ, when the
conscience hath received any single scruple, or suspicion to the contrary, and so too in
conscientiâ opinante, in a conscience that hath conceived, but an opinion, (which is
far from a debated, and deliberate determination) yea in conscientiâ errante, though the
conscience be in an error, yet it is sin to do aright against the conscience; but then, as it is
a sin, to do against the conscience labouring under any of these infirmities, so is it a grea-
ter sin, not to labour to recover the conscience, and devest it of those scruples, by their
advise, whom God hath indued with knowledg, and power, for that purpose. For, (as it
is in civill Iudicature) God refers causes to them, and according to their reports, Gods Gg2 ordi-
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ordinary way is to decree the cause, to loose where they loose, to binde where they binde.
Their imperfections, or their corruptions God knowes how to punish in them; but
thou shalt have the recompense of thy humility and thy obedience to his ordinance,
in hearkning to them, whom he hath set over thee, for the rectifying of thy conscience.
Neither is this to erect a parochiall papacy, to make every minister a Pope in his own pa-
rish, or to re-enthrall you to a necessity of communicating all your sinnes, or all your
doubtfull actions to him; God forbid. God of his goodnesse hath delivered us, from
that bondage, and butchery of the conscience, which our Fathers suffered from Rome,
and Anathema, 1 Cor. 16. 22. and Anathema Maran-atha, cursed be he till the Lord comes, and cur-
sed when the Lord comes, that should go about to bring us in a relapse, in an eddy, in a
whirlepoole, into that disconsolate estate, or into any of the pestilent errors of that
Church. But since you think it no diminution to you, to consult with a Physician for
the state of your body, or with a Lawyer for your Lands, since you are not borne, nor
grown good Physicians, and good Lawyers, why should you think your selves born, or
grown so good Divines, that you need no counsell, in doubtfull cases, from other men?
And therefore, as for the Law that governs us, that is, the Scripture, we go the way that
Christ did, to receive the testimony of man, both for the body, that Scriptures there are,
and for the limbs of that body, that these books make up those Scriptures, and for the
soule of this body, that this is the sense of the holy Ghost in that place; so, for our Iudge,
which is the conscience, let that be directed before hand, by their advise whom God hath
set over us, and setled, and quieted in us, by their testimony, who are the witnesses of
our conversation. And so we have done with our Problematicall part; we have asked
and answered both these questions, Why this light requires any testimony, (and that is
because exhalations, and damps, and vapours arise, first from our ignorance, then from
our incredulity, after from our negligence in practising, and lastly, from our slipperinesse
in relapsing, and therefore we need more and more attestations, and remembrances of
this light) and the other question, Why after so many other testimonies, (from himself,
from his Father, from the Angell, from the Star, from the Magi, from Simeon, from
Anna, from many, many, very many more) he required this testimony of Iohn; and
that is, because all those other witnesses had testified long before, and because God in all
matters belonging to Religion here, or to salvation hereafter, refers us to man, but to
man sent, and ordained by God, for our direction, that we may do well; and to the te-
stimony of good men, that we have done well. And so we passe to our dogmaticall part,
what his testimony was; what Iohn Baptist and his successors in preaching, and prepa-
ring the ways of Christ, are sent to do; he was sent to beare witnesse of that light. Princes which send Ambassadors, 2 Part. use to give them a Commission, containing the ge-
nerall scope of the businesse committed to them, and then Instructions, for the fittest
way to bring that businesse to effect. And upon due contemplation of both these, (his
Commission, and his Instructions) arises the use of the Ambassadors judgement and dis-
cretion, in making his Commission, and his Instructions, (which do not always agree in
all points, but are often various, and perplext) serve most advantagiously towards the
ends of his negotiation. Iohn Baptist had both; therefore they minister three conside-
rations unto us; first, his Commission, what that was; and then his Instructions, what
they were; and lastly, the execution, how he proceeded therein. His Commission was drawn up, Commissio. and written in Esay, and recorded and entred into
Gods Rolls by the Evangelists. Esa. 40. 3. It was, To prepare the way of the Lord, to make streight
his paths, Mark 1. 2. that therefore every valley should be exalted, every mountaine made low; and
all this he was to cry out, to make them inexcusable, who contemne the outward
Ministery, and relie upon private inspirations. This Commission lasts during
Gods pleasure; and Gods pleasure is, that it should last to the end of the world;
Therefore are we also joyned in Commission with Iohn, and we cry out still to you
to all those purposes. First, that you prepare the way of the Lord. Præparate
viam. But when we bid you do so, we do not
meane, that this preparing or pre-disposing of your selves, is in your selves, that you can
prevent Gods preventing grace, or mellow, or supple, or fit your selves for the entrance
of that grace, by any naturall faculty in your selves. When we speak of a co-operation, a
joint working with the grace of God, or of a post-operation, an after working upon the vir-
tue of a former grace, this co-operation, & this post-operation must be mollified with a good inter-concur-
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concurrent cause with that grace. So there is a good sense of co-operation, and post-opera-tion, but præoperation, that we should work, before God work upon us, can admit no good
interpretation. I could as soon beleeve that I had a being before God was, as that I
had a will to good, before God moved it. But then, God having made his way in-
to you, by his preventing grace, prepare that way, not your way, but his way, (sayes
our Commission) that is, that way that he hath made in you, prepare that by forbea-
ring and avoiding to cast new hinderances in that way. In sadnesse and dejections of
spirit, seek not your comfort in drinke, in musique, in comedies, in conversation; for,
this is but a preparing a way of your owne. To prepare the Lords way, is to look, and
consider, what way the Lord hath taken, in the like cases, in the like distresses with
other servants of his, and to prepare that way in thy self, and to assure thy selfe, that
God hath but practised upon others, that he might be perfect when he comes to thee,
and that he intends to thee, in these thy tribulations, all that he hath promised to all,
all that he hath already performed to any one. Prepare his way; apply that way, in
which he hath gone to others, to thy self. And then, Rectas facite
semitas Dei.
Tertull. by our Commission we cry out to you, to make streight his paths. In which
we do not require, that you should absolutely rectifie all the deformities and crooked-
nesses, which that Tortuositas Serpentis, the winding of the old Serpent hath brought
you to; for, now the streame of our corrupt nature, is accustomed to that crooked
channell, and we cannot divert that, we cannot come to an absolute directnesse, and
streightnesse, and profession in this life; and, in this place, the holy Ghost speaks but of a
way, a path; not of our rest in the end, but of our labour in the way. Our Commissi-
on then is not to those sinlesse men, that think they have nothing for God to forgive;
But, when we bid you make streight his paths, (as before we directed you, to take know-
ledge what his wayes towards others had been) so here we intend, that you should ob-
serve, which is the Lords path into you, by what way he comes oftnest into you, who
are his Temple, and do not lock that doore, do not pervert, do not crosse, do not de-
face that path. The ordinary way, even of the holy Ghost, for the conveying of faith,
and supernaturall graces, is (as the way of worldly knowledge is) by the senses: where
his way is by the eare, by hearing his word preached; do not thou crosse that way of his,
by an inordinate delight, in hearing the eloquence of the preacher; for, so thou hea-
rest the man, and not God, and goest thy way, and not his. God hath divers wayes into
divers men; into some he comes at noone, in the sunshine of prosperity; to some in
the dark and heavy clouds of adversity. Some he affects with the musick of the Church,
some with some particular Collect or Prayer; some with some passage in a Sermon,
which takes no hold of him, that stands next him. Watch the way of the Spirit of
God, into thee; that way which he makes his path, in which he comes oftnest to thee,
and by which thou findest thy self most affected, and best disposed towards him, and
pervert not that path, foule not that way. Make streight his paths, that is, keepe them
streight; and when thou observest, which is his path in thee, (by what means especially
he workes upon thee) meet him in that path, embrace him in those meanes, and al-
wayes bring a facile, a fusil, a ductile, a tractable soule, to the offers of his grace,
in his way. Our Commission reaches to the exalting of your valleys, Omnis Vallis
exaltetur. Let every valley be exalted;
In which, we bid you not to raise your selves in this world, to such a spirituall heighth, as
to have no regard to this world, to your bodies, to your fortunes, to your families. Man
is not all soule, but a body too; and, as God hath married them together in thee, so
hath he commanded them mutuall duties towards one another; and God allowes us
large uses of temporall blessings, and of recreations too. To exalt valleyes, is not to
draw up flesh, to the heighth of spirit; that cannot be, that should not be done. But it
is to draw you so much towards it, as to consider (and consider with an application)
that the very Law, which was but the schoolmaster to the Gospell, was given upon a
mountaine; Exo. 24. 29. That Moses could not so much as see the Land of promise, till he was brought
up into a mountaine; Deut. 32. 43. That the inchoation of Christ glory, which was his transfigurati-
on, was upon a mountaine; That his conversation with God in prayer; That his returne Matth. 17. 2
14. 23.
to his eternall Kingdom by his ascension, was so too, from a mountaine; even his exina-
nition, his evacuation, his lowest humiliation, his crucifying was upon a mountaine; and Acts 1. 10.
he calls, Iohn 12. 32: even that humiliation, an exaltation, Si exaltatus, If I be exalted, lifted up, sayes Gg3 Christ,
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Christ signifying what death he should die. Now, if our depressions, our afflictions be
exaltations, (so they were to Christ, so they are to every good Christian) how far
doth God allow us, an exalting of our vallies, in a considering with a spirituall bold-
nesse, the heighth and dignity of mankind, and to what glory God hath created us.
Certainly man may avoid as many sinnes, by this exalting his vallies, this considering
the heighth and dignity of his nature, as by the humblest meditations in the world.
For, 20. 8. Greg. upon those words of Iob, Manus tuæ fecerunt me, Saint Gregory says, Misericordiæ
judicis, dignitatem suæ conditionis opponit; Iob presents the dignity of his creation, by
the hand of God, as an inducement why God should regard him; It is not his valley,
but his mountaines, that he brings into Gods sight; not that dust which God took in-
to his hands, when he made him, but that person which the hands of God had made of
that dust. Man is an abridgement of all the world; and as some Abridgements are
greater, then some other authors, so is one man of more dignity, then all the earth.
And therefore exalt thy vallies, raise thy selfe above the pleasures that this earth can
promise. And above the sorrowes, it can threaten too. A painter can hardly diminish
or contract an Elephant into so little a forme, but that that Elephant, when it is at the
least, will still be greater then an Ant at the life, and the greatest. Sinne hath dimi-
nished man shrowdly, and brought him into a narrower compasse; but yet, his naturall
immortality, (his soule cannot dye) and his spirituall possibility, even to the last gaspe,
of spending that immortality in the kingdome of glory, and living for ever with God,
(for otherwise, our immortality were the heaviest part of our curse) exalt this valley,
this clod of earth, to a noble heighth. How ill husbands then of this dignity are we
by sinne, to forfeit it by submitting our selves to inferior things? either to gold, then
which every worme, (because a worme hath life, and gold hath none) is in nature,
more estimable, and more precious; Or, to that which is lesse then gold, to Beauty;
for there went neither labour, nor study, nor cost to the making of that; (the Father
cannot diet himselfe so, nor the mother so, as to be sure of a faire child) but it is a thing
that hapned by chance, wheresoever it is; and, as there are Diamonds of divers waters,
so men enthrall themselves in one clime to a black, in another to a white beauty. To
that which is lesse then gold or Beauty, voice, opinion, fame, honour, we sell our selves.
And though the good opinion of good men, by good ways, be worth our study, yet po-
pular applause, and the voice of inconsiderate men, is too cheape a price to set our selves
at. And yet, it is hardly got too; for as a ship that lies in harbour within land, some-
times needs most of the points of the Compasse, to bring her forth: so if a man sur-
render himselfe wholly to the opinion of other men, and have not his Criterium, his
touchstone within him, he will need both North and South, all the points of the Com-
passe, the breath of all men; because, as there are contrary Elements in every body,
so there are contrary factions in every place, and when one side cries him up, the other
will depresse him, and he shall, (if not shipwrack) lie still. But yet we doe forfeit our
dignity, for that which is lesse then all, then Gold, then Beauty, then Honour; for sinne;
sinne which is but a privation, (as darknesse is but a privation) and privations are no-
thing. And therefore exalt every valley, consider the dignity of man in his nature, and
then, in the Sonne of God his assuming that nature, which gave it a new dignity, and
this will beget in thee a Pride that God loves, a valuing of thy selfe above all the ten-
tations of this world. But yet exalt this valley temperately, Omnis mons
humiliabitur consider and esteem this dignity modestly,
for our Commission goes farther, not onely to the exalting of every valley, but, Om-
nis mons humiliabitur, every mountain must be made low: which is not to bring our moun-
tainous, and swelling affections, and passions, to that flatnesse, as that we become stupid,
and insensible. Mortification is not to kill nature, but to kill sinne. Bring therefore
your Ambition to that bent, to covet a place in the kingdome of heaven, bring your
anger, to flow into zeale, bring your love to enamour you of that face, which is fairer
then the children of men, that face, on which the Angels desire to look, Christ Je-
sus, and you have brought your mountains to that lownesse, which is intended, and re-
quired here. Now, In Deserto. this Commission, Iohn Baptist was, and we are, to publish in deserto, in the
Desert, in the wildernesse; that is, as Saint Hierome notes, not in Ierusalem, in a tu-
multuary place, a place of distraction, but in the Desert, a place of solitude, and retired nesse,
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callings in the world, but onely informes us, that every man is to have a Desert in him-
self, a retiring into himself, sometimes of emptying himself of worldly businesses, and
that he spend some houres in such solitudes, and lay aside, (as one would lay aside a
garment) the Lawyer, the Physician, the Merchant, or whatsoever his profession be, and
say, Domine hîc sum, Lord, I am here, I, he whom thou madest, and such as thou madest
him, not such as the world hath made me, Hîc sum, I am here, not where the affairs of
the world scatter me, but here, in this retirednesse, Lord, I am here, command what thou
wilt; in this retirednesse, in this solitude, (but is not a Court, is not an Army, is not a
Fair a solitude, in respect of this association, when God and a good soul are met?) but
in this home solitude, in this home Desert, are we commanded to publish this Commis-
sion, as the fittest time to make impressions of all the parts thereof, Prepare the way of
the Lord, make streight his paths, exalt your vallies, and bring down your mountains. And
this was Iohn Baptists Commission, What to do; And then he had Instructions with
his Commission, how to doe it; which is another consideration. His Commission was long before in Esay, Instructions. so he was Legatus natus, born an Ambas-
sadour; his Instructions were delivered to him by God immediately, when The Word of
God came unto John, Luc. 3. 2. in the wildernesse. Princes oftentimes vary their Instructions from
their Commissions, and to perplex their Ambassadours. God proceeded with Iohn
Baptist, and doth with us directly. Our Commission is to conform you to him, our
Instructions are to doe that, that way, By preaching the Baptisme of Repentance, for the
remission of sinnes. It is, in a word, by the Word and Sacraments. First, he sends us not
as Spies, to lie, and learn, nor to learn and lie; but to deale apertly, manifestly, to pub-
lish, to preach; which as it forbids forcible and violent pressing the Conscience by se-
cular or Ecclesiasticall authority, so it forbids clandestin and whispering Conventicles; It
is a Preaching, a working by instructing and informing the understanding; it is a Preaching
a publique avowing of Gods Ordinance, in a right Calling. He gives us not our In-
structions to offer Peace and reconciliation to all, and yet he not mean it to all; He
bids us preach unto all; he bids all hearers repent, and he allowes us to set to his seales
of reconciliation, to all that come as penitents. He knowes who will, and who will not
repent, we doe not; but both he knowes, and so doe we, that all may, so far as that, if
they doe not, they finde enough in themselves to condemne themselves, and to discharge
God and us. Our Instructions are to preach, that is our way, and to preach Repen-
tance; there begin you in your own bosoms: He that seeks upwards to a River, is sure
to finde the head; but he that upon every bubling spring, will think to finde a River,
by that may erre many wayes. If thou repent truely, thou art sure to come up to Gods
Decree for thy salvation; but if thou begin above at the Decree, and say, I am saved,
therefore I shall repent, thou mayest misse both. Repent, and you shall have the Seals;
the Seals are the Sacraments; Iohns was Baptisme; but to what? He baptized to the
amendment of life. This then is the chain; we preach, you repent; then we give you the
Seals, the Sacraments, and you plead them, that is, declare them in a holy life; for, till
that (Sanctification) come, Preaching, and Repentance, atdand Seals, are ineffectuall. A
good life inanimates all. And so, having done with his Commission, what he was to do,
and his Instructions, how he was to do it, we passe to our last branch, in this last part,
The execution of his Commission, and Instructions, what, and how he did it, what
Testimony he gave of this light. First, he testified, se non esse, Se non esse. that he was not this light, this Christ, this Messias. And
secondly, Christum esse, that this light, this Christ, this Messias was come into the
world, there was no longer expectation: And lastly, hunc esse, that this particular per-
son whom he designed and specified in the Ecce Agnus, behold the Lambe of God, was
this Light, this Christ, this Messias. He was not, One was, Christ was; In these three
consists his Testimony. First, Ioh. 1. 20. he testified that himself was not the Messias, he confessed
and denied not, and said plainly, I am not the Christ. Therefore, lest I. Baptist might be
overvalued, August. and their devotions fixed and determined in him, S. AugstineAugustine enlarges this
consideration, Erat Mons illustratus, non ipse Sol; Iohn Baptist was a hill, and a hill glo-
riously illustrated by the Sun, but he was not that Sun; Mirare, mirare, sed tanquam
montem; Iohn Baptist deserves a respect, and a regard; but regard him, and respect him
but as an hill, which though high, is but the same earth; and mons int enebristenebris est, nisi luce
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luce vestiatur, A hill hath no more light in it self, then the valley, till the light invest
it; Si montem esse lucem putas, in monte naufragium facies; If you take the hill, because
it shines, to be the light it self, you shipwrack upon the top of a hill. If we rest in the
person, or in the gifts of any man, to what heighth soever this hill be raised in opinion,
or in the Church, still we mistake; Iohn Baptist, men of the greatest endowments, and
goodnesse too, are but instruments, they are not the workman himself. And therefore
as they are most inexcusable, that put an infallibility in the breast of one man, (our ad-
versaries of Rome) so do they transgresse too farre that way, that runne, and pant, and
thrust after strange preachers, and leave their owne Church deserted, and their owne
Pastour discouraged; for some one family, by the greatnesse thereof, or by the estima-
tion thereof, may induce both those inconveniences. Truly, though it may seeme bold-
ly said, it may be said safely, that we were better heare some weaknesses from our owne
Pastour, then some excellencies from another; go farther, some mistakings from our
own, then some truths from another; for, all truths are not necessary; nor all mista-
kings pernicious; but obedience to order is necessary, and all disorder pernicious. Now
what a way had Iohn Baptist open to him, if he had been popularly disposed. Amongst
a people, that at that time expected their Messias, (for, all the Prophecies preceding
his comming were then fulfilled) and such a Messias as should be a Temporall King, and
had invested an opinion, that he, Iohn Baptist, was that Christ, what rebellions, what
earth-quakes, what inundations of people might he have drawne after him, if he would
have countenanced and cherished their error to his advantage? They would have lacked
no Scriptures, to authorize their actions. They would have found particular places of
the Prophets, to have justified any act of theirs, in advancing their Messias, then expe-
cted. Therein he is our patterne; not to preach our selves, but Christ Iesus; not to
preach for admiration, but for edification; not to preach to advance civill ends, with-
out spirituall ends; to promote all the way the peace of all Christian Kingdomes, but
to refer all principally to the Kingdome of peace, and the King of peace, the God of
heaven. He confessed, and denied not, and said plainly, I am not the Christ; That was
his Testimony; we confesse, and deny not, and say plainly, That our own parts, our
owne passions, the purpose of great persons, the purpose of any State, is not Christ;
we preach Christ Iesus, and him crucified; and whosoever preaches any other Gospell,
or any other thing for Gospell, let him be accursed. I am not the man, Esse Natum.
Iohn 1. 26. sayes Iohn Baptist, for, that man is God too; but yet that man,
that God, that Messias consisting of both, is come, though I be not he. There is one
amongst you, whom you know not, whose shooe-latchet I am not worthy to loose. In which, he
says all this; There is one among you; you need seek no farther; all the promises, and
Prophecies, (the Semen mulieris, That the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents
head; the appropriation to Abraham, In semine tuo, In thy seed shall all Nations be blessed:
the fixation upon David, Donec Shiloh, till Shiloh come; Esay's Virgo concipiet, Behold a
Virgin shall conceive; Micah's & tu Bethlem, that Bethlem should be the place, Daniels
seventy Hebdomades, that that should be the time,) all promises, all prophecies, all com-
putations are at an end, the Messias is come. Is he come, Hunc esse. and amongst you, and do you not know him? what will make you know
him? You beleeve you need a Messias; you cannot restore your selfe. You beleeve
this Messias must come at a certaine time, specified by certaine marks; were all these
marks upon any other? or lacks there any of these in him? Do you thus magnifie me,
and neglect a person, whose shooe-latchet I am not worthy to loose. Iohn Baptist was a Pro-
phet, more then a Prophet, The greatest of the sonnes of women: Who could be so much
greater then he, and not the Messias? we must necessarily enwrap all these three in one
another, and into one another they do easily and naturally fall: He testifies that he was
not the man, (he preaches not himself) he testifies that that man is come; (future expe-
ctations are frivolous) and he testifies, that the characters and marks of the expected
Messias, can fall upon none but this man, and therefore he delivers him over to them
with that confidence, Ecce Agnus Dei, Behold the Lambe of God, there you may see him;
and this is his Testimony. These three, Conclusio. we, we to whom Iohn Baptists Commission is continued, testifie too.
First, we tell you, what is not Christ; austerity of life, and outward sanctity is not hee;
Iohn Baptist had them abundantly, but yet permitted not, that they should have that opinion
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opinion of him. But yet, much lesse is chambring and wantonnesse, and persevering in
sinne, that Christ, or the way to him. We tell you, stetit in medio, he hath been amongst
you, you have heard him preached in your ears; yea yee have heard him knock at your
hearts, and for all that, we tell you that you have not known him. Which, though it be
the discomfortablest thing in the world, (not to have known Christ in those approches)
yet we tell it you somewhat to your comfort, and to your excuse, 1 Cor. 2. 8. for, had you knowne
it, you would not have crucified the Lord of glory, Act. 17. 30. as we doe all, by our daily sinnes. And
though God have winked at these times of ignorance, (pretermitted your former in-
considerations) now, Luke 19. 42. he commandeth all men every where to repent. And therefore,
that thou maist know, even thou, (as Christ iterates it) at least in this thy day, the
things which belong to thy Peace, we tell you who he is, and where he is; Ecce agnus
Dei, Behold the lambe of God, Here, here in this his ordinance he supplicates you, when
the Minister, 2 Cor. 5. 20. how meane soever, prays you, in his stead, be yee reconciled to God. Here he
proclaims, and cries to you, Venite omnes, come all that are weary and heavy laden. Here
he bleeds in the Sacrament, here he takes away the sinnes of the world, in deriving a
jurisdiction upon us, to binde and loose upon earth, that which he will binde and loose
in heaven. This we testifie to you; Doe you but receive this testimony. Till you hear
that voice of consummation in heaven, Venite benedicti, come yee blessed, you shall never
heare a more comfortable Gospell then this, which was preached by Christ himselfe,
the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to preach the Gospell to the poore, to heale the broken hear-
ted, to preach deliverancdeliverance to the captives, and the acceptable yeare of the Lord: Luke 4. 16.
Esay 61. 1. for, this was
not a deliverance from their brick-making in Egypt, nor from their scornes and contempts
in Babylon, but a deliverance from that unexpressible, that unconceivable bondage of
sinne, August. and death, not by the hand of a Moses, but a Messias, Optat dare qui præcipit petere,
he that commands us to aske, would faine give: Cupit largiri, qui desiderat postulari,
he that desires us to pray to him, hath that ready, and a readinesse to give that, that he
bids us pray for. If the King give a generall pardon, will any man be so suspiciously tre-
cherous in his own behalfe, as to say, for all this large extent of his mercy, he meant
not me, and therefore I will sue out no pardon? If the King cast a donative, at his Co-
ronation, will any man lie still and say, he meant none of that money to me? Luke 14. When the
master of the feast sent his servants for guests, had it become those poor, and maimed,
and halt, and blind, to have stood and disputed with the steward, and said, Surely sir, you
mistooke your Master, your Master did not meane us? Why should any man thinke
that God meanes not him? When he offers grace, and salvation to all, why not to
him? Should God exclude him as a man? Why, God made him good, and, as a man
and his creature, August. he is good still. But, non Deus Esau hominem odit, sed odit Esau peccato-
rem? God did not hate Esau, as he was a man, but as he was a sinner. Should he ex-
clude him as a sinner? Mar. 2. 17. Why then he should receive none, for we are all so; and he
came for none but such, but sinners. August. Perfectiorum est nihil in peccatore odiisse præter
peccata, To hate nothing in a sinner, but his sinne, is a great degree of perfection;
God is that perfection; he hates nothing in thee but thy sinne; and that sinne he
hath taken upon himself, and sees it not in thee. Should he exclude thee because thou
art impenitent, Chrysoft. because thou hast not repented? Doe it now. Peccasti, pœnitere, Hast
thou sinned? repent. Millies peccasti? millies pœnitere? Hast thou multiplied thy sinnes
by thousands? multiply thy penitent teares so too. Should he exclude thee, because
thou art impenitible, thou canst not repent; how knowest thou thou canst not repent?
Doest thou try, doest thonthou endevour, doest thou strive? why, this, this holy contention
of thine is repentance. Discredit not Gods evidence; he offers thee Testimonium ab
homine, the testimony of man, of the man of God, the Minister, that the promises of the
Gospell belong to thee. Judge not against that evidence; confesse that there is no other
name given under heaven, Act. 4. 12. to be saved, but the name of Iesus, and that that is. And then,
when thou hast thus admitted his witnesses to thee, that his preaching hath wrought up-
on thee, be thou his witnesse to others, by thy exemplar life, and holy conversation. In
this chapter, in the calling of the Apostles some such thing is intimated, when of those
two Disciples, which, upon Iohns testimony, followed Christ, one is named, (Andrew)
and the other is not named. No doubt, verse 40. but the other is also written in the book of life,
and long since enjoyes the blessed fruit of that his forwardnesse. But in the testimony
of the Gospell, written for posterity, onely Andrew is named, who sought out his bro- ther
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brother Simon, and drew him in, and so propagated the Church, and spread the Glory
of God. They who testifie their faith by works, give us the better comfort, and poste-
rity the better example. It will be but Christs first question at the last day, What hast
thou done for me? If we can answer that, he will aske, What hast thou suffered for me? and
if we can answer that, he will aske at last, Whom hast thou won to me, what soul hast thou
added to my Kingdome? Our thoughts, our words, our doings, our sufferings, if they
bring but our selves to Heaven, they are not Witnesses; our example brings others; and
that is the purpose, and the end of all we have said, Iohn Baptist was a witnesse to us,
we are so to you, be you so to one another. Sermon XXXIX.
Preached at Saint Pauls.
Philip. 3. 2.
Beware of the Concision. THisThis is one of those places of Scripture, which afford an argument
for that, which I finde often occasion to say, That there are not
so eloquent books in the world, as the Scriptures. For there is not
onely that non refugit, which Calvin speaketh of in this place,
(Non refugit in Organis suis Spiritus Sanctus leporem & facetias,
The Holy Ghost in his Instruments, (in those whose tongues or
pens he makes use of) doth not forbid, nor decline elegant and
cheerfull, and delightfull expression; but as God gave his Children a bread of Manna,
that tasted to every man like that that he liked best, so hath God given us Scriptures,
in which the plain and simple man may heare God speaking to him in his own plain and
familiar language, and men of larger capacity, and more curiosity, may heare God in
that Musique that they love best, in a curious, in an harmonious style, unparalleled by
any. For, that also Calvin adds in that place, that there is no secular Authour, Qui
jucundis vocum allusionibus, & figuris magis abundat, which doth more abound with
perswasive figures of Rhetorique, nor with musicall cadences and allusions, and assimi-
lations, and conformity, and correspondency of words to one another, then some of
the Secretaries of the Holy Ghost, some of the authours of some books of the Bible doe.
Of this Rule, this Text is an example. These Philippians, amongst whom Saint Paul
had planted the Gospell in all sincerity, and impermixt, had admitted certain new men,
that preached Traditionall, and Additionall Doctrines, the Law with the Gospell, Moses
with Christ, Circumcision with Baptisme. To these new Convertites, these new Do-
ctors inculcated often that charm, You are the Circumcision, you are they whom God
hath sealed to himself by the Seale of Circumcision; They whom God hath distinguished
from all Nations, by the marke of Circumcision; They in whom God hath imprinted,
(and that in so high a way, as by a Sacrament) an internall Circumcision, in an externall;
and will you breake this Seale of Circumcision? will you deface this marke of Cir-
cumcision? will you depart from this Sacrament of Circumcision? you are the Cir-
cumcision. Now Saint Paul meets with these men upon their haunt; and even in the
sound of that word which they so often pressed; he sayes they presse upon you Cir-
cumcision, but beware of Concision, of tearing the Church of God, of Schismes,
and separations from the Church of God, of aspersions and imputations upon the
Church of God, Verse 3. either by imaginary superfluities, or imaginary defectivenesse,
in that Church: for, saith the Apostle, We are the Circumcision, we who wor-
ship God in the Spirit, and rejoyce in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh. If therefore they will set up another Circumcision beyond this Circumcision, if
they will continue a significative, a relative, a preparative figure, after the substance,
the body, Christ Jesus is manifested to us, a legall Circumcision in the flesh, after the
spirituall Circumcision in the heart is established by the Gospell, their end is not Cir cumcision,
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cumcision but Concision: they pretend Reformation, but they intend Destruction, a tea-ring, a renting, a wounding the body, and frame, and peace of the Church, and by all
means, and in all cases Videte Concisionem, Beware of Concision. First then, Divisio. we shall from these words consider, the lothnesse of God to lose
us. For, first, he leaves us not without a Law, he bids and he forbids, and then he does
not surprise us with obsolete laws, he leaves not his laws without proclamations, he re-
freshes to our memories, and represents to us our duties, with such commonefactions
as these in our Text, Videte, Cavete, this and this I have commanded you, Videte, see
that ye do it, this and this will hinder you, Cavete, beware ye do it not, Beware of
Concision. And this, thus derived, and digested into these three branches: first, Gods lothnesse
to lose us; and then his way of drawing us to him, by manifestation of his will in a law;
and lastly his way of holding us with him, by making that law effectuall upon us, by these
his frequent commonefactions, Videte, Cavete, looke to it, beware of it, this will be
our first part. And then our second will be the thing it self that falls under this inhibi-
tion, and caution, which is Concision, that is, a tearing, a renting, a shredding in peeces
that which should be intire. In which second part, we shall also have, (as we had in the
former) three branches; for, we shall consider, first, Concisionem corporis, the shredding
of the body of Christ into fragments, by unnecessary wrangling in Doctrinall points; and
then, Concisionem vestis, the shredding of the garment of Christ into rags, by un-
necessary wrangling in matter of Discipline, and ceremoniall points; and lastly, Conci-
sionem spiritus, (which will follow upon the former two) the concision of thine owne
spirit, and heart, and minde, and soule, and conscience, into perplexities, and into sandy,
and incoherent doubts, and scruples, and jealousies, and suspitions of Gods purpose upon
thee, so as that thou shalt not be able to recollect thy self, nor reconsolidate thy self,
upon any assurance, and peace with God, which is onely to be had in Christ, and by
his Church. Videte Concisionem, beware of tearing the body, the Doctrine; beware of
tearing the Garment, the Discipline; beware of tearing thine owne spirit, and conscience,
from her adhæsion, her agglutination, her cleaving to God, in a holy tranquillity, and
acquiescence in his promise, and mercy, in the merits of his Sonne, applyed by the holy
Ghost, in the Ministry of the Church. For our first consideration, 1 Part.
Vult omnes. of Gods lothnesse to lose us, this is argument enough,
That we are here now, now at the participation of that grace, which God alwayes of-
fers to al such Congregations as these, gathered in his name. For, I pray God there stand
any one amongst us here now, that hath not done something since yesterday, that made
him unworthy of being here to day; and who, if he had been left under the damp, and
mist of yesterdayes sinne, without the light of new grace, would never have found way
hither of himself. If God be weary of me, and would faine be rid of me, he needs not
repent that he wrapped me up in the Covenant, and derived me of Christian parents,
(though he gave me a great help in that) nor repent that he bred me in a true Church,
(though he afforded me a great assistance in that) nor repent that he hath brought me
hither now, to the participation of his Ordinances, (though thereby also I have a great
advantage) for, if God be weary of me, and would be rid of me, he may finde enough
in me now, and here, to let me perish. A present levity in me that speake, a present
formality in you that heare, a present Hypocrisie spread over us all, would justifie God,
if now, Luke 18. 8. and here, he should forsake us. When our blessed Saviour sayes, When the Son
of man comes, shall he finde faith upon earth? we need not limit that question so, if he
come to a Westminster, to an Exchange, to an Army, to a Court, shall he finde faith
there? but if he come to a Church, if he come hither, shall he finde faith here? If (as
Christ speaks in another sense, That Judgement should begin at his owne house,) the great
and generall judgement should begin now at this his house, and that the first that should
be taken up in the clouds, to meet the Lord Jesus, should be we, that are met now in
this his house, would we be glad of that acceleration, or would we thank him for that
haste? Men of little faith, Iob 1. 6. I feare we would not. There was a day, when the Sonnes
of God presented themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also amongst them;
one Satan amongst many Sonnes of God. Blessed Lord, is not our case far otherwise?
do not we, (we, who, as we are but we, are all the Sonnes of Satan) present our selves
before thee, and yet, thou Lord art amongst us? Is not the spirit of slumber and wea-
rinesse
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rinesse upon one, and the spirit of detraction, and mis-interpretation upon another; upon
one the spirit of impenitence for former sinnes, and the spirit of recidivation into old, or
of facility and opennesse to admit tentations into new upon another? We, as we are
but we, are all the Sonnes of Satan, and thou Lord, the onely Sonne of God, onely a-
mongst us. If thou Lord wert weary of me, and wouldest be rid of me, (may many a
soule here say) Lord thou knowest, and I know many a midnight, when thou mightest
have been rid of me, Ier. 27. 28. if thou hadst left me to my selfe then. But vigilavit Doninus, the
Lord vouchsafed to watch over me, Prov. 8. 31. and deliciæ ejus, the delight of the Lord was to be
with me; And what is there in me, but his mercy? but then, what is there in his mer-
cy, that that may not reach to all, as well as to me? The Lord is loth to lose any, the
Lord would not the death of any; not of any sinner; much lesse if he do not see him,
nor consider him so; the Lord would not lose him, though a sinner, much lesse make
him a sinner, that he might be lost: Vult omnes, the Lord would have all men come unto
him, and be saved, which was our first consideration, and we have done with that, and
our second is, The way by which he leads us to him, that he declares and manifests his
will unto us, in a Law, he bids, and he forbids. The laborers in the Vine-yard took it ill at the Stewards hand, Lex.
Mat. 20. 22. and at his Masters
too, that those which came late to the labour, were made equall with them, who had
borne the heate, and the burden of the day. But if the Steward, or the Master had ne-
ver meant, or actually never had given any thing at all, to them that had borne the
heate and the burden of the day, there had been much more cause of complaint, be-
cause there had passed a contract between them. So hath there passed a contract between
God, and us, Beleeve, and thou shalt live, Do this and thou shalt live. And in this espe-
cially hath God expressed his love to us, and his lothenesse to lose us, that he hath
passed such a contract with us, and manifested to us a way, to come to him. We say,
every day, in his owne prayer, Fiat voluntas tua, thy will be done; that is, done by us, as
well as done upon us. But this petition presumes another; the Fiat suposes a Patefiat
voluntas, if it must be done, it must be known. If man were put into this world, & under
an obligation of doing the will of God, upon damnation, and had no meanes to know
that will which he was bound to doe, of all creatures he were the most miserable. That
which we read, Psal. 144. 3. Lord what is man that thou takest knowledge of him? the Vulgat edition;
and the Fathers following the Septuagint, read thus, Quia innotuisti ei, Lord what is
man that he should have any knowledge of thee, that thou shouldest make thy selfe
known to him? This is the heighth of the mercy of God, this innotescence, this mani-
festation of himselfe to us. Now what is this innotescence, this manifestation of God
to us? It is, say our old Expositors, the law. That's that, which is so often called the
face of God, and the light of his Countenance; August. for, facies Dei est, qua nobis innotescit,
that's Gods face, by which God is known to us, and that's his law, the declaration of
his will to me, and my way to him. When Christ reproaches those hard-hearted men,
that had not fed him, Mat. 25. 44. when he was hungry, nor clothed him, when he was naked, and
that they say, Lord when did we see thee naked, or see thee hungry? (inconsiderate men,
or men loth to give, the penurious and narrow soule, shall not see an occasion of chari-
ty, when it is presented, which is a heavy blindnesse, and obcæcation, not to see occa-
sions of doing good) yet those men doe not say, when did we see thee at all, as though
they had never seen him? The blindest man that is, hath the face of God so turned
towards him, as that he may be seen by him; even the naturall man hath so; for, there-
fore does the Apostle make him inexcusable, Rom. 1. 12. if in the visible worke, he doe not see the
invisible God. But all sight of God, is by the benefit of a law; the naturall man sees
him by a law written in his heart, the Iew, by a law given by Moses, the Christian, in a
clearer glasse, for, his law is the Gospell. But there is more mercy, that is, more manifesta-
tion in this text, then all this. For, besides the naturall mans seeing God, in a law, in the
faculties of his owne nature, (which we consider to be the work of the whole Trinity, in
that Faciamus hominē, Let us make man in our own Image, let us shine out in him, so as that
he may be a glasse, in which he may see us, in himselfe) and besides the Jews seeing of
God in the law written in the stone tables, (which we consider to be the worke of the
Father) And besides the Christians seeing of God, in the law written in bloud, (in which
we consider especially the Sonne) there is in this text an operation, a manifestation of
God, proper to the holy Ghost, and wrought by his holy suggestions and inspirations, That
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That God does not onely speake to us, but call upon us; not onely give us a Law, but
Proclamations upon that law, that he refreshes to our memories, generall duties, by such
particular warnings, and excitations, and commonefactions, as in this text, Videte,
Beware, which is the last branch of this part, though it be the first word of our text, Vide-
te, Videte. Beware. Nothing exalts Gods goodnesse towards us, more then this, that he multiplies the
meanes of his mercy to us, so, as that no man can say, once I remember I might
have been saved, once God called unto mee, once hee opened mee a doore, a passage
into heaven, but I neglected that, went not in then, and God never came more.
No doubt, God hath come often to that doore since, and knocked, and staid at
that doore; And if I knew who it were that said this, I should not doubt to make
that suspitious soule see, Psal. 62. 11. that God is at that doore now. God hath spoken once, and
twice have I heard him; for the foundation of all. God hath spoken but once, in
his Scriptures. Therefore doth Saint Jude call that fidem semel traditam, Verse 3. the faith
once delivered to the Saints; once, that is, at once; not at once so, all at one time,
or in one mans age; the Scriptures were not delivered so; for, God spoke by
the mouth of the Prophets, that have been, since the world beganne; But, at once, that
is, by one way, by writing, by Scriptures; so, as that after that was done, after
God had declared his whole will, in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Gospell,
there was no more to bee added. God hath spoken once, in his Scriptures, and wee
have heard him twice, at home, in our owne readings, and againe and againe here, in
his Ordinances. This is the heighth of Gods goodnesse, that he gives us his Law,
and a Comment upon that Law, Proclamations, declarations upon that Law. For,
without these subsequent helpes, even the law it selfe might be mistaken; as you
see it was, Mat. 5. when Christ was put to rectifie them, with his Audiistis, and Audiistis,
this you have heard, and this hath been told you, Ego autem dico, but this I say, ab
initio, from the beginning it was not so, the foundations were not thus laid, and upon
the foundations laid by God in the Scriptures, and not upon the superedifications of
men, in traditionall additions, must wee build. In stormes and tempests at sea men
come sometimes to cut down Galleries, and teare up Cabins, and cast them over-
board to ease the ship, and sometimes to hew downe the Mast it selfe, though with-
out that Mast the ship can make no way; but no soule weather can make them
teare out the keele of the ship, upon which the ship is built. In cases of necessi-
ty, the Church may forbeare her Galleries, and Cabinets, meanes of ease and con-
veniency; yea, and her Mast too, meanes of her growth, and propagation, and enlar-
ging of her selfe, and be content to hull it out, and consist in her present, or a worse
state, during the storme. But to the keele of the ship, to the fundamentall articles of Re-
ligion, may no violence, in any case, be offered. God multiplies his mercies to us, Psal. 19. 2. in his divers ways of speaking to us. Cæli
enarrant, says David, The heavens declare the glory of God; and not onely by showing,
but by saying; there is a language in the heavens; for it is enarrant, a verball decla-
ration; and, as it followes literally, Day unto day uttereth speech. This is the true har-
mony of the Spheares, which every man may heare. Though he understand no
tongue but his owne, he may heare God in the motions of the same, in the seasons of
the yeare, in the vicissitudes and revolutions of Church, and State, in the voice of
Thunder, and lightnings, and other declarations of his power. This is Gods English
to thee, and his French, and his Latine, and Greek, and Hebrew to others. God
once confounded languages; that conspiring men might not understand one another,
but never so, as that all men might not understand him. When the holy Ghost fell
upon the Apostles, they spoke so, as that all men understood them, in their owne
tongues. When the holy Ghost fell upon the waters, in the Creation, God spoke
so, in his language of Workes, as that all men may understand them. For, in this lan-
guage, the language of workes, the Eye is the eare, seeing is hearing. How often does the
holy Ghost call upon us, in the Scriptures, Ecce, quia os Domini locutum, Behold, the mouth
of the Lord hath spoken it? he calls us to behold, (which is the office of the eye) and that
that we are to behold, is the voice of God, belonging to the eare; seeing is hearing, in Gods
first language, the language of works. But then God translates himself, in particular works;
nationally, he speaks in particular judgments, or deliverances to one nation; &, domestically, Hh he
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he speaks that language to a particular family; & so personally too; he speaks to every parti-cular soul. God will speak unto me, in that voice, and in that way, which I am most de-
lighted with, & hearken most to. If I be covetous, God wil tel me that heaven is a pearle, a
treasure. If cheerfull and affected with mirth, that heaven is all Joy. If ambitious,
and hungry of preferment, that it is all Glory. If sociable, and conversable, that it is a com-
munion of Saints. God will make a Fever speake to me, and tell me his minde, that there
is no health but in him, God will make the disfavour, and frowns of him I depend upon,
speake to me, and tell me his minde, that there is no safe dependence, no assurance but
in him; God will make a storme at Sea, or a fire by land, speake to me, and tell mee
his minde, that there is no perpetuity, no possession but in him; nay, God will make
my sinne speake to me, and tell me his minde; even my sinne shall be a Sermon, and
a Catechisme to me; God shall suffer mee me to fall into some such sinne, as that
by some circumstances in the sinne, or consequences from the sinne, I shall be drawn
to hearken unto him; and whether I heare Hosannaes, acclamations, and commendati-
ons, or Crucifiges, exclamations and condemnations from the world, I shall still finde the
voice and tongue of God, though in the mouth of the Devill, and his instruments.
God is a declaratory God. The whole yeare, is, to his Saints, a continuall Epiphany,
one day of manifestation. In every minute that strikes upon the Bell, is a syllable, nay
a syllogisme from God. And, and in my last Bell, God shall speake too; that Bell,
when it tolls, shall tell me I am going, and when it rings out, shall tell you I am gone
into the hands of that God, who is the God of the living and not of the dead, for,
they dye not that depart in him. Dives pressed Abraham to send a preacher from the
dead, Luke 16. 27. to his brethren. This was to put God to a new language, when he had spoken
sufficiently by Moses, and the Prophets. And yet, even in this language, the tongue of
the dead, hath God spoken too. Saint Hierome says, that that Prophet Jonas, Proœmium
in Jonam.
1 Reg. 17. who
was sent to Niniveh, was the same man, whom, beeing then a child, and dead in his
mothers house, the widow of Zarepta's house, Elias the Prophet raised to life againe;
and so, God spoke to Niniveh in that language, in the tongue of the dead. But be that
but Problematicall, wrapped up in a Traditionall, and Historicall faith, this is Dog-
maticall, and irrefragable, that God hath spoken to the whole world in the tongue of
the dead, in his Sonne Christ Jesus, the Lord of life, and yet the first borne of the
dead. God is lothe to lose us, at worst, and therefore, did not, surely, reject us, before
we were ill, (And that was our first) God hath drawn us to him, by manifesting his
will, and our way in a law, and therefore, will not judge us at last, by any thing ne-
ver revealed to us, (And that was our second) God holds us to him by these remem-
brances, these common manifestations in our text, Videte, Cavete, and therefore let
no man that does not heare God speaking to him, in this present voice, despaire
that hee shall never heare him, but hearken still, and in one language or other,
perchance a sicknesse, perchance a sinne, hee shall heare him, for these are se-
verall Dialects in Gods language, severall instruments in Gods Consort;
And this is our third consideration, and the end of this first part, the Prohi-
bition, the Commonefaction, Videte, Cavete; And wee passe to our second ge-
nerall part, and the three branches of that, that that falls under this Prohibition, Videte
Concisionem, Beware the Concision. Saint Paul embraces here, 2. Part.
Concision. that elegancy of language familiar to the holy Ghost,
They pretend Circumcision, they intend Concision; there is a certaine elegant and holy
delicacy, a certaine holy juvenility in Saint Pauls choosing these words of this mu-
sicall cadence and agnomination, Circumcision, and Concision; But then this delicacy,
and juvenility presents matter of gravity and soundnesse. Language must waite upon
matter, and words upon things. In this case, (which indeed makes it a strange
case) the matter is the forme; The matter, that is, the doctrine that we preach,
is the forme, that is, the Soule, the Essence; the language and words wee preach
in, is but the Body, but the existence. Therefore, Saint Paul, who would
not allow Legall figures, not Typicall figures, not Sacramentall figures, not
Circumcision it selfe, after the body, Christ Jesus, was once exhibited,
does not certainely allow Rhetoricall figures, nor Poeticall figures, in the
preaching, or hearing of Christ preached, so, as that that should bee the princi-
pall leader of hearer, or speaker. But this Saint Paul authoriseth in his owne practise,
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practise, and the holy Ghost in him, That in elegant language, he incorporates,
and invests sound and important Doctrine; for, though he choose words of musi-
call sound, Circumcision and Concision, yet it is a matter of weighty consideration
that he intends in this Concision. Saint Chrysostome, and Saint Hierome both agree
in this interpretation, That whereas Circumcision is an orderly, a usefull, a medi-
cinall, a beneficiall pruning and paring off, that which is superfluous, Conciditur quod
temere, & inutiliter decerpitur, Concision is a hasty and a rash plucking up, or cut-
ting downe, and an unprofitable tearing, and renting into shreds and fragments, such,
as the Prophet speaks of, Ier. 19. 11. The breaking of a Potters vessell, that cannot be made up again.
Concision is, at best, Solutio Continui, The severing of that, which should be kept
intire. In the State, the aliening of the head from the body, or of the body from the
head, is Concision; and videte, it is a fearefull thing to be guilty of that. In the Church,
(which Church is not a Monarchy, otherwise then as she is united in her head, Christ
Jesus) to constitute a Monarchy, an universall head of the Church, to the dis-in-
herison, and to the tearing of the Crownes of Princes, who are heads of the Chur-
ches in their Dominions, this is Concision; and videte, it is a fearefull thing to
be guilty of that, to advance a forein Prelate. In the family, where God hath made
man and wife, one, to divide with others, is Concision; and videte, it is a fearefull thing
to be guilty of that. Generally, the tearing of that in peeces, which God intended
should be kept intire, is this Concision, and falls under this Commonefaction, which
implies an increpation, videte, beware. But because thus, Concision would receive a
concision into infinite branches, we determined this consideration, at first, into
these three; first, Concisio Corporis, the concision of the body, dis-union in Doctri-
nall things; and Concisio vestis, the Concision of the garment, dis-union in Cere-
moniall things; and then Concisio Spiritus, the Concision of the Spirit, dis-union,
irresolution, unsetlednesse, diffidence, and distrust in thine owne minde and con-
science. First, for this Concision of the body, Concisio
Corporis. of the body of Divinity, in Doctrinall
things, since still Concision is Solutio continui, the breaking of that which should be
intire, consider we first, what this Continuum, this that should be kept intire, is;
and it is, sayes the Apostle, Jesus himself. Omnis spiritus qui solvit Jesum, (so the
Antients reade that place) Every spirit which dissolveth Iesus, I Iohn 4. 3. that breakes Jesus
in peeces, that makes Religion serve turnes, that admits so much Gospell as may
promove and advance present businesses, every such spirit is not of God. Not to pro-
fesse the whole Gospell, Totum Jesum, not to beleeve all the Articles of faith, this
is Solutio continui, a breaking of that which should be intire; and this is truly conci-
sion. Now with concision in this kinde, our greatest adversaries, they of the Romane
heresie, and mis-perswasion, do not charge us. They do not charge us that we deny
any article of any antient Creed: nor may they deny, that there is not enough for sal-
vation in those antient Creeds. This is Continuitas universalis, a continuity, an in-
tirenesse that goes through the whole Church; a skin that covers the whole body;
the whole Church is bound to beleeve all the articles of faith. But then, there is
Continuitas particularis, Continuitas modi, a continuity, a harmony, an intirenesse, that
does not go through the whole Church; the whole Church does not alwaies agree
in the manner of explication of all the articles of faith; but this may be a skin that
covers some particular limbe of the body, and not another; one Church may expound
an article thus, and some other some other way, as, in particular, the Lutheran Church
expounds the article of Christs descent into hell, one way, and the Calvinist another.
Now, in cases, where neither exposition destroyes the article, in the substance there-
of, it is Concision, that is, Solutio continui, a breaking of that which should be kept
intire, for any man to breake the peace of that Church, in which he hath received
his baptisme, and hath his station, by advancing the exposition of any other Church,
in that. And as this is Concision, Solutio continui, a breaking of that which is intire,
to break the peace of the Church, where we were baptized, by teaching otherwise then
that Church teaches, in these things De modo, of the manner of expounding such or
such articles of faith, so is there another dangerous Concision too. For, to inoculate a fo-
rein bud, or to engraffe a forein bough, is concision, as well as the cutting off an arme
from the tree; to inoculate, cleaves the rinde, the bark; and to engraffe, cleaves the tree: Hh2 it
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it severs that which should be entire. So, when a particular Church, in a holy, and dis-creet modesty, hath abstained from declaring her self in the exposition of some parti-
cular Articles, or of some Doctrines, by faire consequence deducible from those Ar-
ticles, and contented her self with those generall things which are necessary to salvation,
(As the Church of England hath, in the Article of Christs descent into Hell) it is Con-
cision, it is solution Continui, a breaking of that which should be intire, to inoculate a new
sense, or engraffe a new exposition, which howsoever it may be true in it selfe, it can-
not be truly said, to be the sense of that Church; not perchance because that Church was
not of that mind, but because that Church finding the thing it self to be no fundamen-
tall thing, thought it unnecessary to descend to particular declarations, when as in such
declarations she must have departed from some other Church of the Reformation, that
thought otherwise, and in keeping her self within those generall termes that were necessa-
ry, and sufficient, with a good conscience she conserved peace and unity with all. David,
in the person of every member of the Church, submits himself to that increpation, Let
my right hand forget her cunning, and let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I pre-
fer not Ierusalem before my chiefest joy. Psal. 137. 6. Our chiefest joy, is, for the most part, our own
opinions, especially when they concur with other learned and good men too. But then, Je-
rusalem is our love of the peace of the Church; and in such things as do not violate
foundations, let us prefer Jerusalem before our chiefest Joy, love of peace before our
own opinions, though concurrent with others. For, this is that, that hath misled many
men, that the common opinion in the Church is necessarily the opinion of the Church.
It is not so; not so in the Romane Church :: There the cōmon opinion is, That the blessed
Virgin Mary was conceived without originall sin: But cannot be said to be the opinion of
that Church; nor may it be safely concluded in any Church :: Most Writers in the
Church have declared themselves this way, therefore the Church hath declared her
self, for the declarations of the Church are done publiquely, & orderly, and at once. And
when a Church hath declared her self so, in all things necessary and sufficient, let us possess
our souls in peace, and not say that that Church hath, or presse that that Church would
proceed to further declarations in lesse necessary particulars. When we are sure we have
beleeved & practised, all that the Church hath recōmended to us, in these generals, then,
and not till then, let us call for more declarations; but in the mean time prefer Jerusalem
before our chiefest joy, love of peace by a generall forbearance on all sides, rather then
victory by wrangling, and uncharitablenesse. And let our right hand forget her cunning,
(let us never set pen to paper to write) Let our tongue cleave to the roofe of our mouth,
(let us never open our mouth to speake of those things) in which Silence was an
Act of Discretion, and Charity before, but now is also an Act of Obedience, and of
Allegiance and Loyaltie. But that which David said to the Lord, (Psalme 65. 1.)
Let us also accommodate to the Lords anointed, Tibi laus silentium, our best sacrifice
to both, is to be silent in those things. So then, this is Concisio corporis, that Con-
cision of the body, which you are to beware in Doctrinall things, first, non solvere Jesum,
not to dissolve, not to break Jesus in pieces, not to depart, in any respect, with any funda-
mentall Article of faith, for that is a skin that covers the whole body, an obligation that
lies upon the whole Church, and then for that particular Church, in which you have your
station, first, to conform your self to all that, in which she had evidently declared herself,
and then not to impute to her, not to call such articles hers, as she never avowd. And our
next consideration is Concisio vestis, the tearing of the garment, matter of discipline, and
government. To a Circumcision of the garment, Concisio Ve-
stis. that is, to a paring, and taking away such Ceremonies,
as were superstitious, or superfluous, of an ill use, or of no use, our Church came in the be-
ginning of the Reformation. To a Circūcision we came; but those Churches that came to a
Concision of the garment, to an absolute taking away of all ceremonies, neither provided so
safely for the Church it self in the substance thereof, nor for the exaltation of Devotion in
the Church. Divide the law of the Jews into 2 halfs, and the Ceremoniall will be the greater;
we cannot cal the Morall law, the Iews law; that was ours as wel as theirs, peculiar to none;
but of that law wch is peculiar to the Jews, judicial & Ceremonial, the Ceremonial is far the
greater part. So great a care had God, of those thing, which though they be not of the
revenue of Religion, yet are of the subsidy of Religion, and, though they be not the soule
of the Church, yet are they those Spirits that unite soule and body together. Hanun did
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did but shave the beards of Davids servants, 2 Sam. 10. he did not cut off their heads; He did
not cut their clothes so, as that he stripped them naked. Yet, for that that he did, (says
that story) he stanke in Davids sight, (which is a phrase of high indignation in that
language) and so much, as that it cost him forty thousand of his horsemen in one bat-
tell. And therefore as this Apostle enters this Caveat in another place, If yee bite one
another, cavete, take heed yee be not consumed of one another, so cavete, Gal. 5. 15. take heed of this
concision of the garment, lest if the garment be torne off, the body wither, and perish.
A shadow is nothing, yet, if the rising or falling Sunne shine out, and there be no sha-
dow, I will pronounce there is no body in that place neither. Ceremonies are nothing;
but where there are no Ceremonies, order, and uniformity, and obedience, and at last,
(and quickely) Religion it selfe will vanish. And therefore videte concisionem, beware
of tearing the body, or of tearing the garment, which will induce the other, and both
will induce the third, concisionem spiritus, the tearing of thine owne spirit, from that
rest which it should receive in God; for, when thou hast lost thy hold of all those han-
dles which God reaches out to thee, in the Ministery of his Church, and that thou hast
no means to apply the promises of God in Christ to thy soule, which are onely appli-
ed by Gods Ordinances in his Church, when anything falls upon thee, that overcomes
thy morall constancy (which morall constancy, God knowes, is soon spent, if we have lost
our recourse to God) thou wilt soon sinke into an irrecoverable desperation, which is the
fearfullest concision of all; and videte, beware of this concision. When God hath made himselfe one body with me, Concisio Spi-
ritus. by his assuming this nature, and
made me one spirit with himselfe, and that by so high a way, as making me partaker of
the divine nature, 1 Cor. 6. 17. so that now, in Christ Jesus, he and I are one, this were solutio Jesus,
a tearing in peeces, 2 Pet. 2. 4. a dissolving of Jesus, in the worst kinde that could be imagined, if I
should teare my selfe from Jesus, or by any jealousie or suspicion of his mercy, or any
horror in my own sinnes, come to thinke my selfe to be none of his, none of him.
Who ever comes into a Church to denounce an excommunication against himselfe?
And shall any sad soule come hither, to gather arguments, from our preaching, to ex-
communicate it selfe, Numb. 16. 30. or to pronounce an impossibility upon her owne salvation? God
did a new thing, Says Moses, a strange thing, a thing never done before, when the earth
opened her mouth (and Dathan, and Abiram went downe quicke into the pit. Wilt thou
doe a stranger thing then that? To teare open the jawes of Earth, and Hell, and cast
thy self actually and really into it, out of mis-imagination, that God hath cast thee into
it before? Wilt thou force God to second thy irreligious melancholy, and to condemne
thee at last, because thou hadst precondemned thy selfe, and renounced his mercy?
Wilt thou say with Cain, My sinne is greater then can be pardoned? This is Concisio po-
testatis, a cutting off the Power of God, and Treason against the Father, whose Attri-
bute is Power. Wilt thou say, God never meant to save me? this is Concisio Sapientiæ, a
cutting off the wisdome of God, to thinke, that God intended himselfe glory in a king-
dome, and would not have that kingdome peopled, and this is Treason against the Son
whose Attribute is wisdoms? Wilt thou say, I shall never finde comfort in Praying, in
Preaching, in Receiving? This is Concisio consolationis, the cutting off consolation, and
treason against the holy Ghost, whose office is comfort. No man violates the Power of the
Father, the Wisedome of the Sonne, the Goodnesse of the holy Ghost, so much as he, who
thinkes himselfe out of their reach, or the latitude of their working. Rachel wept for
her children, Mat. 2. 18. and would not be comforted; but why? Because they were not. If her
children had been but gone for a time from her, or but sicke with her, Rachel would
have been comforted; but, they were not. Is that thy case? Is not thy soule, a soule still?
It may have gone from thee, in sins of inconsideration; it may be sicke within thee, in
sins of habit and custome; but is not thy soul, a soul still? And hath God made any species
larger then himself? is there more soul, then there is God, more sin then mercy? Truly
Origen was more excusable, more pardonable, if he did beleeve, that the Devill might
possibly be saved, then that man, that beleeves that himself must necessarily be damned.
And therefore, videte concisionem, beware of cutting off thy spirit from this spirit of com-
fort, take heed of shreading Gods generall promises, into so narrow propositions, as that
they will not reach home to thee, cover thee, invest thee; beware of such distinctiōs, & such
subdivisiōs, as may make the way to heaven too narrow for thee, or thegate of heaven too
strait for thee. 'Tis true, one drop of my Saviours bloud would save me, if I had but that; Hh3 one
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one teare from my Saviours eye, if I had but that; but he hath none that hath not all; A
drop, a teare, would wash away an Adultery, a murder, but lesse then the whole sea of
both, will not wash away a wanton looke, an angry word. God would have all, and
gives all to all. And for Gods sake, let God be as good as he will; as mercifull,
and as large, as liberall, and as generall as he will. Christ came to save sinners; thou
are sure thou art one of them; At what time soever a sinner repents, he shall be heard;
be sure to be one of them too. Beleeve that God in Christ proposes conditions to thee;
endevour the performing, repent the not performing of those conditions, and be that
the issue between God and thy soule; And lest thou end in this concision, the conci-
sion of the Spirit, beware of the other two concisions, of the body, and of the garment,
by which onely, all heavenly succors are appliable to thee. Sermon XL.
Preached at Saint Pauls.
2 Cor. 5. 20.
We pray yee in Christs stead, Be ye reconciled to God. INIn bestowing of Benefits, there are some Circumstances, that vitiate and
deprave the nature of the benefit (as when a man gives onely in contem-
plation of Retribution, for then he is not Dator, but Mercator, this is
not a giving, but a Merchandising, a permutation, or when he is Cymi-
nibilis Dator, (as our Canons speake) one that gives Mint and Cumin,
so small things, and in so small proportions, as onely keeps him alive
that receives, and so Ipsum quod dat, perit, & vitam producit ad miseriam, that that is
given is lost, and he that receives it, is but continued in misery, and so the benefit, hath
almost the nature of an injury, because but for that poore benefit, hee might
have got out of this life. And then there are circumstances, that doe absolutely anni-
hilate a benefit, amongst which, one is, if the giver take so expresse, so direct, so publique
knowledge of the wants of the receiver, as that he shall be more ashamed by it, then
refreshed with it; for in many courses of life, it does more deject a man, in his own
heart, and in the opinion of others too, and more retard him in any preferment, to be
known to be poore, then to be so indeed; And he that gives so, does not onely make
him that receives, his Debtor, but his Prisoner, for he takes away his liberty of applying
himselfe to others, who might be more beneficiall to him, then he that captivated, and
ensnared him, with that small benefit. And therefore many times in the Scripture, the
phrase is such in doing a curtesie, as though the receiver had done it, in accepting it; so
when Jacob made a present to his brother Esau, I beseech thee, Gen. 33. says he, to take my blessing
that I may finde favour in thy sight; so he compelled him to take it. So when Christ
recommends here to his people, the great, and inestimable benefit in our text, Reconci-
liation to God, he delivers that benefit of all those accidents, or circumstances, that
might vitiate it; and amongst those, of this, that we should not be confounded with
the notice taken of our poverty, and indigence; for he proceeds with man, as though
man might be of some use to him, and with whom it were fit for him to hold good cor-
respondence, he sends to him by Ambassadors, (as it is in the words immediately be-
fore the text) and by those Ambassadors he prays him, that he would accept the bene-
fit of Reconciliation. To us, who are his Creatures, and therefore might be turned and
wound by his generall providence, without employment of any particular messengers,
he sends particular messengers; to us that are his enemies, and fitter to receive denunci-
ations of a war, by a Herald, then a Message, by Ambassadors, he sends Ambassadors; to
us, who are indeed Rebells, and not enemies, and therefore rather to be reduced and
reclaimed by Executioners, then by Commissioners, he sends Commissioners, not to ar-
ticle, not to capitulate, but to pray, and to intreat, and not to intreat us to accept Gods
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Gods reconciliation to us, but, as though God needed us, to intreat us to be reconci-led to him; We pray you in Christs stead, be ye reconciled to God. In these words, Divisio. our parts will be three: Our Office towards you; yours towards us;
and the Negotiation it self, Reconciliation to God. In each of these three, there is a re-
derivation into three branches: for, in the two first (besides the matter) there are two
kinds of persons, we and you, The Priest and the People (we pray you.) And in the last
there are two kinds of persons too, you and God; Be ye reconciled to God. But because
all these kinds of persons, God, and we, and you, fall frequently into our consideration,
there is the lesse necessity laid upon us to handle them, as distinct branches, other-
wise then as they fall into the Negotiation it self. Therefore we shall determine our
selves in these three: First, our office towards you, and our stipulation and contract
with you, We pray you; we come not as Lords or Commanders over you, but in hum-
ble, in submissive manner, We pray you. And then your respect to us, because in what
manner soever we come, we come in Christs stead, and though dimly, yet represent him.
And lastly, the blessed effect of this our humility to you, and this your respect to us,
Reconciliation to God. Humility in us, because we are sent to the poorest soul; respect
in you, because we are sent to represent the highest King, work in you this reconcilia-
tion to God, and it is a Text well handled; practice makes any Sermon a good Ser-
mon. First, 1. Part. then, for our office towards you, because you may be apt to say, You take too
much upon you, you sonnes of Levi; We the sonnes of Levi, open unto you our Com-
mission, and we pursue but that we professe, that we are sent but to pray, but to intreat
you; and we accompany it with an outward declaration, we stand bare, and you sit co-
vered. When greater power seems to be given us, of treading upon Dragons and Scor-
pions, of binding and loosing, of casting out Devills, and the like, we confesse these are
powers over sinnes, over Devills that doe, or endevour to possesse you, not over you,
for to you we are sent to pray and intreat you. Ier. 1. 10. Though God sent Jeremy with that
large Commission, Behold this day, I have set thee over the Nations, and over the King-
domes, to pluck up, and to rout out, to destroy and to throw down; and though ma-
ny of the Prophets had their Commissions drawn by that precedent, we claime
not that, we distinguish between the extraordinary Commission of the Prophet, and
the ordinary Commission of the Priest, we admit a great difference between them,
and are farre from taking upon us, all that the Prophet might have done; which is
an errour, of which the Church of Rome, and some other over-zealous Congrega-
tions have been equally guilty, and equally opposed Monarchy and Soveraignty,
by assuming to themselves, in an ordinary power, whatsoever God, upon extraor-
dinary occasions, was pleased to give for the present, to his extraordinary Instruments
the Prophets; our Commission is to pray, and to intreat you. Though upon
those words, Ascendunt salvatores in Montem Sion, there shall arise Saviours in
Mount Sion, Obad. 1. 21. in the Church of God, Saint Hierom saith, That as Christ being the light
of the world, called his Apostles the light of the world too; so, Ipse Salvator Apostolos
voluit esse Salvatores, The Saviour of the world communicates to us the name of Sa-
viours of the world too, yet howsoever instrumentally and ministerially that glorious
name of Saviour may be afforded to us, though to a high hill, though to that Mount
Sion, we are led by a low way, by the example of our blessed Saviour himself; and
since there was an Oportuit pati, laid upon him, there may well be an Oportet bsecrare laid
upon us; since his way was to be dumb, ours may well be to utter no other voyce but
Prayers; since he bled, we may well sweat in his service, for the salvation of your
souls. If therefore our selves, who are sent, be under contempt, or under persecution,
if the sword of the Tongue, or the sword of the Tyrant be drawn against us, against all
these, Arma nostra, preces & fletus, we defend with no other shield, we return with no
other sword, Ambros. but Tears and Prayers, and blessing of them that curse us. Yea, if he that
sent us suffer in us, if we see you denounce a warre against him, nay, triumph over him,
and provoke him to anger, and because he showes no anger, conclude our of his pa-
tience, an impotency, that because he doth not, he cannot, when you scourge him, and
scoffe him, and spit in his face, and crucifie him, and practise every day all the Jews did
to him once, as though that were your pattern, and your businesse were to exceed your
pattern, and crucifie your Saviour worse then they did, by tearing & mangling his body, now
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now glorified, by your blasphemous oaths, and execrable imprecations, when we see
all this, Arma nostra preces & fletus, we can defend our selves, nor him, no other way,
we present to you our tears, and our prayers, his tears, and his prayers that sent us, and
if you will not be reduced with these, our Commission is at an end. I bring not a Star-
chamber with me up into the Pulpit, to punish a forgery, if you counterfeit a zeale in
coming hither now; nor an Exchequer, to punish usurious contracts, though made in the
Church; nor a high Commission, to punish incontinencies, if they be promoted by wan-
ton interchange of looks, in this place. Onely by my prayers, which he hath promised
to accompany and prosper in his service, I can diffuse his overshadowing Spirit over all
the corners of this Congregation, and pray that Publican, that stands below afar off, and
dares not lift up his eyes to heaven, to receive a chearfull confidence, that his sinnes are
forgiven him; and pray that Pharisee, that stands above, and onely thanks God, that
he is not like other men, to believe himselfe to be, if not a rebellious, yet an unprofitable
servant. I can onely tell them, that neither of them is in the right way of reconciliation
to God, Aug. Nec qui impugnant gratiam, nec qui superbè; gratias agunt, neither he who by a
diffidence hinders the working of Gods grace, nor he that thanks God in such a fashion,
as though all that he had received, were not of meer mercy, but between a debt and a be-
nefit, and that he had either merited before, or paid God after, in pious works, for all,
and for more then he hath received at Gods hand. Scarce any where hath the Holy Ghost taken a word of larger signification, then here;
for, as though it were hard, even to him, to expresse the humility which we are to use,
rather then lose any soul for which Christ hath dyed, he hath taught us this obsecrati-
on, this praying, this intreating in our Text, in a word, by which the Septuagint, the first
Translators into Greek, expresse divers affections, and all within the compasse of this
Obsecramus, We pray you. Some of them we shall present to you. Those Translators use that word for Napal. Napal is Ruere, Postrare, to throw down,
to deject our selves, to admit any undervalue, any exinanition, any evacuation of our
selves, so we may advance this great work. I fell down before the Lord, says Moses of him-
self; and Abraham fell upon his face, says Moses of him, and in no sense is this word
oftner used, by them, then in this humiliation. But yet, as it signifies to need the favour
of another, so does it also to be favourable, and mercifull to another; for so also, the
same Translators use this word for Chanan, which is to oblige and binde a man by bene-
fits, or to have compassion upon him; Job 19. 21. Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends,
for the hand of God hath touched me; there is our word repeated. So that, whether we
professe to you, that as Physicians must consider excrements, so we must consider sin,
the leprosie, the pestilence, the ordure of the soule, there is our dejection of our selves,
or make you see your poverty and indigence, and that that can be no way supplied, but
by those means, which God conveys by us, both ways we are within our word, Obse-
cramus, we pray you, we intreat you. They use this word also for Calah, and Calah is Dolere, to grieve within our selves, for
the affliction of another; But it signifies also vulnerare, to wound, and afflict another;
for so it is said in this word, 1 Sam. 31. 3. Saul was sore wounded. So that, whether we expresse our
grief, in the behalf of Christ, that you will not be reconciled to God, or whether we
wound your consciences, with a sense of your sins, and his judgements, we are still what
in the word of our Commission, Obsecramus, we pray, we intreat. To contract this consideration, they use this word for Cruciare, to vex, and for Pla-
care too, Mic. 6. 3. to appease, to restore to rest and quiet. Therefore will I make thee sick in smiting
thee; Zech. 7. 12. there it is vexation; And then, They sent unto the House of the Lord, Placare Domi-
num, to appease the Lord, as we translate it, and well, To pray. And therefore, if from
our words proceed any vexation to your consciences, you must not say, Transeat calix,
let that Cup passe, no more of that matter, for it is the physick that must first stirre the
humour, before it can purge it; And if our words apply to your consciences, the sove-
rain balm of the merits of your Saviour, and that thereupon your troubled consciences
finde some rest, be not too soon secure, but proceed in your good beginnings, and con-
tinue in hearing, as we shall continue in all these manners of praying and intreating, which
fall into the word of our Text, Obsecramus, by being beholden to you for your applica-
tion, or making you beholden to us, for our ministration, which was the first use of the
word, of grieving for you, or grieving you for your sins, which was the second, of trou-
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bling your consciences, and then of setling them again, in a calm reposednesse, which was
the third signification of the word in their Translation. Yet does the Holy Ghost carry our office, (I speak of the manner of the execution of
our office, for, for the office it self, nothing can be more glorious, then the ministration
of the Gospel, Acts 2. 15. into lower terms then these. He suffered his Apostles to be thought to
be drunk; They were full of the Holy Ghost, and they were thought full of new wine.
A dramme of zeal more then ordinary, against a Patron, or against a great Parishioner,
makes us presently scandalous Ministers. Truly, beloved, we confesse, one sign of drun-
kennesse is, not to remember what we said. If we doe not in our practise, remember
what we preached, and live as we teach, we are dead all the week, and we are drunk up-
on the Sunday. But Hannah praid, 1 Sam. 1. 15. and was thought drunk, and this grieved her heart;
so must it us, when you ascribe our zeale to the glory of God, and the good of your
souls, to any inordinate passion, or sinister purpose in us. And yet hath the Holy Ghost laid us lower then this. To be drunk is an alienation of
the minde, but it is but a short one; but S. Paul was under the imputation of madnesse.
Nay, Mar. 3. 21. our blessed Saviour himself did some such act of vehement zeal, as that his very
friends thought him mad. S. Paul, because his madnesse was imputed to a false cause, to
a pride in his much learning, disavowed his madnesse, I am not mad, O noble Festus. But
when the cause was justifiable, 2 Cor. 5. 13.
Theophil. he thought his madnesse justifiable too; If we be besides
our selves, it is for God; and so long well enough. Insaniebat amatoriam insaniam Pau-
lus, S. Paul was mad for love; S. Paul did, and we doe take into our contemplation,
the beauty of a Christian soul; Through the ragged apparell of the afflictions of this
life; through the scarres, and wounds, and palenesse, and morphews of sin, and corrup-
tion, we can look upon the soul it self, and there see that incorruptible beauty, that white
and red, which the innocency and the blood of Christ hath given it, and we are mad for
love of this soul, and ready to doe any act of danger, in the ways of persecution, any act
of diminution of our selves in the ways of humiliation, to stand at her doore, and pray, and
begge, that she would be reconciled to God. And yet does the Holy Ghost lay us lower then this too. Mad men have some fla-
shes, some twilights, 1 Cor. 4. 10. some returns of sense and reason, but the foole hath none; And, we
are fools for Christ, says the Apostle; And not onely we, the persons, but the ministra-
tion it self, Mat. 5. the function it self is foolishnesse; It pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching
to save them that beleeve. Anger will bear an action, and Racah will bear an action, but
to say Foole, was the heaviest imputation; and we are fooles for Christ, and pretend no-
thing to work by, but the foolishnesse of preaching. Lower then this, we cannot be cast,
and higher then this we offer not to climbe; Obsecramus, we have no other Commissi-
on but to pray, and to intreat, and that we doe, in his words, in his tears, in his blood,
and in his bowels who sent us, we pray you in Christs stead, which is that that constitutes
our second Part, with what respect you should receive us. In mittendariis servanda dignitas mittentis. 2. Part. To diminish the honour of his Master, is
not an humility, but a prevarication in any Ambassadour; and that is our quality, ex-
pressed in this verse. God is the Lord of Hosts, and he is the Prince of peace; He needs
neither the Armies of Princes, nor the wisdome of Councell Tables, to come to his
ends. He is the Proprietary and owner of all the treasures in the world; Amos 3.
Hag. 2. Ye have taken
my silver and my gold; and, The silver is mine, and the gold is mine. All that you call
yours, all that you can call yours, is his; your selves are but the furniture of his house,
and your great hearts are but little boxes in his cabinet, and he can fill them with deje-
ction, and sadnesse, when he will. And does any Prince govern at home, by an Ambas-
sadour? he sends Pursuivants, and Serjeants; he sends not Ambassadours; God does,
and we are they; and we look to be received by you, but as we perform those two laws
which binde Ambassadours, First, Rei suæ ne quis legatus esto, Let no man be received as
an Ambassadour, that hath that title, onely to negotiate for himself, and doe his own
businesse in that Country; And then, Nemini credatur sine principale mandato, Let no
man be received for an Ambassadour; without his Letters of Credence, and his Masters
Commission. To these two we submit our selves. First, we are not Rei nostræ legati, Rei nostræ.
1 Cor. 9. 16. we come not to doe our own businesse; what bu-
sinesse of ours is it, what is it to us, that you be reconciled to God? Væ mihi si non,
Necessity is laid upon me, and woe unto me, if I preach not the Gospel; but if I doe, I have nothing
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nothing to glory in; nay, I may be a reprobate my self. I can claim no more at Gods
hand, for this service, then the Sun can, for shining upon the earth, or the earth for pro-
ducing flowers, and fruits; and therefore we are not Rei nostræ legati, Ambassadours
in our own behalfs, and to doe our own businesse. Indeed where men are sent out, to vent and utter the ware and merchandises of the
Church and Court of Rome, to proclaime, and advance the value, and efficacy of uncer-
tain reliques, and superstitious charms, and incantations, when they are sent to sell parti-
cular sinnes at a certain price, and to take so much for an incest, so much for a murder,
when they are sent with many summs of Indulgencies at once, as they are now to the
Indies, and were heretofore to us, when these Indulgencies are accompanied with this
Doctrine, that if the Indulgence require a certain peece of money to be given for it, (as
for the most part they doe) if all the spirituall parts of the Indulgence be performed by
the poore sinner, yet if he give not that money, though he be not worth that money,
though that Merchant of those Indulgencies, doe out of his charity give him one of
those Indulgencies, yet all this doth that man no good, in these cases, they are indeed
Rei suæ Legati, Ambassadours to serve their own turns, and do their owne businesse.
When that Bishop sends out his Legatos à latere, Ambassadours from his own chair and
bosome into forain Nations, to exhaust their treasures, to alien their Subjects, to in-
fect their Religion; these are Rei suæ Legati, Ambassadours that have businesses depen-
ding in those places, and therefore come upon their own errand. Nor can that Church
excuse it self, (though it use to do so) upon the mis-behaviour of those officers) when
they are imployed; for, Bern. they are imployed to that purpose: And, Tibi imputæ quic-
quid pateris ab eo, qui sine te, nihil potest facere: Since he might mend the fault, it is his
fault, that it is done; he cannot excuse himself, if they be guilty, and with his privity:
for, as the same devout man saith, to Eugenius, then Pope, Ne te dixeris sanum dolen-
tem latera; If thy sides ake, (if thy Legats à latere, be corrupt) call not thy self well,
nec bonum malis innitentem, nor call thy self good, if thou rely upon the counsell of
those that are ill; They, those Legats à latere, are, (as they use to expresse it) incorpo-
rated in the Pope, and therefore they are Rei sui Legati, Ambassadours that ly to doe
their own businesse. But when we seek to raise no other warre in you, but to arme the
spirit against the flesh, when we present to you no other holy water, but the teares of
Christ Jesus, no other reliques, but the commemoration of his Passion in the Sacrament,
no other Indulgencies, and acquittances, but the application of his Merits to your
souls, when we offer all this without silver, and without gold, when we offer you that
Seal which he hath committed to us, in Absolution, without extortion or fees, wherein
are we Rei nostræ Legati, Ambassadours in our own behalfs, or advancers of our owne
ends? And as we are not so, Sine Man-
dato. so neither are we in the second danger, to come sine Principali
Mandato, without Commission from our Master. Christ himselfe would not come of
himselfe, Iohn 12. 49. but acknowledged and testified his Mission, The Father which sent me, he gave
me commandment, what I should say, and what I should speake. Those whom he imployed
produced their Commissions, Gal. 1. 12. Neither received I it of man, neither was I taught it, but by
the revelation of Jesus Christ. How should they preach except they be sent? is a question
which Saint Paul intended for a conclusive question, that none could answer, till in the
Romane Church they excepted Cardinals, Quibus sine literis creditur, propter persona-
rum solennitatem, who for the dignity inherent in their persons, must be received, though
they have no Commission. When our adversaries do so violently, so impetuously cry out, that we have no
Church, no Sacrament, no Priesthood, because none are sent, that is, none have a right
calling, for Internall calling, who are called by the Spirit of God, they can be no Judges,
and for Externall calling, we admit them for Judges, and are content to be tried by their
own Canons, and their own evidences, for our Mission and vocation, or sending and
our calling to the Ministery. If they require a necessity of lawfull Ministers to the con-
stitution of a Church, we require it with as much earnestnesse as they; Ecclesia non est
quæ now habet sacerdotem, we professe with Saint Hierome, It is no Church that hath no
Priest. If they require, that this spirituall power be received from them, who have the
same power in themselves, we professe it too, Nemo dat quod non habet, no man can con-
fer other power upon another, then he hath himself. If they require Imposition of hands, in
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in conferring Orders, we joyn hands with them. If they will have it a Sacrament; men
may be content to let us be as liberall of that name of Sacrament, as Calvin is; and he
says of it, Institut. l. 4. c. 14. ŧ 20. Non invitus patior vocari Sacramentum, it a inter ordi-
naria Sacramenta non numero, I am not loth, it should be called a Sacrament, so it be not
made an ordinary, that is, a generall Sacrament; and how ill hath this been taken at
some of our mens hands, to speak of more such Sacraments, when indeed they have
learnt this manner of speech, and difference of Sacraments, not onely from the ancient
Fathers, but from Calvin himself, who always spoke with a holy warinesse, and discre-
tion. Whatsoever their own authors, their own Schools, their own Canons doe require
to be essentially and necessarily requisite in this Mission in this function, we, for our
parts, and as much as concerns our Church of England, admit it too, and professe to
have it. And whatsoever they can say for their Church, that from their first Conversi-
on, they have had an orderly derivation of power from one to another, we can as justly
and truly say of our Church, that ever since her first being of such a Church, to this day,
she hath conserved the same order, and ever hath had, and hath now, those Ambassa-
dours sent, with the same Commission, and by the same means, that they pretend to
have in their Church. And being herein convinced, by the evidence of undeniable Re-
cord, which have been therefore shewed to some of their Priests, not being able to deny
that such a Succession and Ordination, we have had, from the hands of such as were
made Bishops according to their Canons, now they pursue their common beaten way,
That as in our Doctrine, they confesse we affirm no Heresie, but that we deny some
Truths, so in our Ordination, and sending, and Calling, when they cannot deny, but that
from such a person, who is, by their own Canons, able to confer Orders, we, in taking our
Orders, (after their own manner) receive the Holy Ghost, and the power of binding and
loosing, yet, say they, we receive not the full power of Priests, for, we receive onely a
power in Corpus mysticum, upon the mysticall body of Christ, that is, the persons that
constitute the visible Church, but we should receive it in Corpus verum, a power upon
the very naturall body, a power of Consecration, by way of Transubstantiation.
They may be pleased to pardon, this, rather Modesty, then Defect, in us, who, so
we may work fruitfully, and effectually upon the mysticall body of Christ, can be
content that his reall, and true body work upon us. Not that we have no interest
to work upon the reall body of Christ, since he hath made us Dispensers even of that,
to the faithfull, in the Sacrament; but for such a power, as exceeds the Holy Ghost, who
in the incarnation of Christ, when he overshadowed the blessed Virgin, did but make
man of the woman, who was one part disposed by nature thereunto, whereas these men
make man, and God too of bread, naturally wholly indisposed to any such change, for
this power we confesse it is not in our Commission; and their Commission, and ours
was all one; and the Commission is manifest in the Gospel; and, since they can charge
us with no rasures, no expunctions, we must charge them with interlinings, and additions,
to the first Commission. But for that power, which is to work upon you, to whom we
are sent, we are defective in nothing, which they call necessary thereunto. This I speak of this Church, in which God hath planted us, That God hath affor-
ded us all that might serve, even for the stopping of the Adversaries mouth, and to con-
found them in their own way: which I speak, onely to excite us to a thankfulnesse to
God, for his abundant grace in affording us so much, and not to disparage, or draw in
question any other of our neighbour Churches, who, perchance, cannot derive, as we can,
their power, and their Mission, by the ways required, and practised in the Romane
Church, nor have had from the beginning a continuance of Consecration by Bishops, and
such other concurrences, as those Canons require, and as our Church hath enjoyed. They,
no doubt, can justly plead for themselves, that Ecclesiasticall positive Laws admit dis-
pensation in cases of necessity; They may justly challenge a Dispensation, but we need
none; They did what was lawfull in a case of necessity, but Almighty God preserved
us from this necessity. As men therefore, Bern. Qui nec jussi renuunt, nec non jussi
affectant, which neither neglect Gods calling, when we have it, nor counterfeit it,
when wee have it not, Qui quod verecundè excusant, obstinatiùs non recusant,
who though wee confesse our selves altogether unworthy, have yet the seales of
God, and his Church upon us, Nec rei nostræ legati, not to promove our own ends,
but your reconciliation to God, Nec sine principali mandate, not without a direct and
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and published Commission, in the Gospell, we come to you in Christs stead, and so
should be received by you. As for our Mission, that being in the quality of Ambassa-
dours, we submitted our selves to those two obligations, which we noted to lie upon
Ambassadours, Receptio. so here in our Reception, we shall propose to you two things, that are,
for the most part, practised by Princes, in the reception of Ambassadours. One is, that
before they give audience, they endevour, by some confident servant of theirs, to dis-
cern and understand the inclination of the Ambassadour, and the generall scope, and
purpose of his negotiation, and of the behavior that he purposeth to use in delivering his
Message; left for want of thus much light, the Prince might either be unprepared in
what manner to expresse himselfe, or be surprised with some such message, as might
not well comport with his honour to heare. But in these Ambassages from God to
man, no man is made so equall to God, as that he may refuse to give Audience, except
he know before hand that the message be agreeable to his minde. Onely he that will
be more then man, that Man of sinne, who esteemeth himselfe to be joyned in Com-
mission with God, onely he hath a particular Officer to know before hand, what mes-
sage Gods Ambassadours bringeth, and to peruse all Sermons to be preached be-
fore him, and to expunge, correct, alter, all such things as may be disagreeable to
him. It cannot therefore become you to come to these Audiences upon conditions;
to informe your selves from others first, what kinde of messages, such or such an Am-
bassadour useth to deliver; whether he preach Mercy or Judgement; that if he preach
against Vsury, you will heare Court-sermons, where there is less occasion to mention
it; If hee preach against Incontinency, you will goe; whither? Is there any place
that doth not extort from us, reprehensions, exclamations against that sinne?
But if you beleeve us to come in Christs stead, what ever our message be, you must
hear us. Doe that, and for the second thing that Princes practise in the Reception of Am-
bassadours, which is, to referre Ambassadours to their Councell, we are well con-
tent to admit from you. Whosoever is of your nearest Councell, and whose opi-
nion you best trust in, we are content to submit it to. Let naturall reason, let affe-
ctions, let the profits or the pleasures of the world be the Councell Table, and can they
tell you, that you are able to maintaine a warre against God, and subsist so, without
being reconciled to him? Deceive not your selves, no man hath so much pleasure in
this life, as he that is at peace with God. What an Organe hath that man tuned, how hath he brought all things in the world
to a Consort, and what a blessed Anthem doth he sing to that Organe, that is at
peace with God? His Rye-bread is Manna, and his Beefe is Quailes, his day-labours
are thrustings at the narrow gate into Heaven, and his night watchings are extasies
and evocations of his soule into the presence and communion of Saints, his sweat is
Pearls, and his bloud is Rubies, it is at peace with God. No man that is at suite in
himselfe, no man that carrieth a Westminster in his bosome, and is Plaintiffe and De-
fendant too, no man that serveth himself with Process out of his owne Conscience,
for every nights pleasure that he taketh, in the morning, and for every dayes pound
that he getteth, in the evening, hath any of the pleasure, or profit, that may be had in
this life; nor any that is not at peace with God. That peace we bring you; how will you
receive us? That vehemence of zeale which the Apostle found, we hope not for; you received me
as an Angell of God, even as Christ Jesus. And, Gal. 4. 14 if it had been possible, you would have
plucked out your owne eyes, and have given them to me. Consider the zeale of any Church
to their Pastor, it will come short of the Pastor to the Church. All that Saint Paul
saith of the Galatians towards him, is farre short of that which he said to the Romanes,
That he could wish himselfe separated from Christ, for his brethren; or that of Moses, that
he would be blotted out of the Booke of Life, rather then his charge should. When we
consider the manner of hearing Sermons, in the Primitive Church, though we doe not
wish that manner to be renewed, yet we cannot deny, but that though it were accom-
panied with many inconveniences, it testified a vehement devotion, and sense of that
that was said, by the preacher, in the hearer; for, all that had been formerly used in The-
aters, Acclamations and Plaudites, was brought into the Church, and not onely the vul-
gar people, but learned hearers were as loud, and as profuse in those declarations, those vocall
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vocall acclamations, and those plaudites in the passages, and transitions, in Sermons, as
ever they had been at the Stage, or other recitations of their Poets, or Orators. S. Hierom
charges Vigilantius, that howsoever he differed from him in opinion after, yet when he
had heard him preach of the Resurrection before, he had received that Doctrine with
Acclamation and Plaudites. And as Saint Hierome saith of himselfe, that he was thus
applauded in his Preaching; he saith it also of him whom he called his Master, Gre-
gory Nazianzen, a grave and yet a facetious man, of him he telleth us this Story. That
he having intreated Nazianzen, to tell him the meaning of that place, Luc. 6. 1. What that second
Sabbath after the first was? he played with me, he jested at me, saith he, Eleganter lusit,
and he bad me be at Church next time he preached, and he would preach upon that
Text, Et toto acclamante populo, cogeris invitus scire quod nescis, and when you see all
the Congregation applaued me, and cry out that they are satisfied, you will make your
self beleeve you understand the place, as they doe, though you doe not; Et si solus ta-
cueris, solus ab omnibus stultitiæ condemnaberis, And if you doe not joyne with the Con-
gregation in those Plaudites, the whole Congregation will thinke you the onely igno-
rant person in the Congregation; for, as we may see in Saint Augustin, the manner was,
that when the people were satisfied in any point which the Preacher handled, they would
almost tell him so, by an acclamation, and give him leave to passe to another point; for,
so saith that Father, Vidi in voce intelligentes, plures video in silentio requirentes, I heare
many, to whom, by this acclamation, I see, enough hath been said, but I see more that
are silent, and therefore, for their sakes, I will say more of it. Saint Augustine accepted
these acclamations more willingly, at least more patiently, then some of the Fathers be-
fore had done; Audistis, laudastis; Deo gratias; you have heard that hath been
said, and you have approved it with your praise; God be thanked for both; Et laudes
vestræ folia sunt arborum, sed fructus quæro; Though I looke for fruit from you, yet
even these acclamations are Leafes, and Leafes are Evidences that the tree is alive.
Saint Chrysostome was more impatient of them, yet could never overcome them. To
him, they came a little closer; for it was ordinary, that when he began to speake, the
people would cry out, Audiamus tertiumdecimum Apostolum; Let us hearken to the
thirteenth Apostle. And he saith, Si placet, hanc nunc legem firmabimus, I pray let
us now establish this for a Law, between you and mee, Hom. 30.
in Act. Ne quis auditor plaudat, quam-
diu nos loquimur; That whilest I am speaking, I may heare no Plaudite; yet he saith
in a Sermon preached after this, Animo cogitavi Legem ponere, I have often pur-
posed to establish such a Law, Vt decore, & cum silentio audiatis, Hom. 31. that you would be
pleased to heare with silence, but he could never prevail. Sidonius Apollinaris, (a Bishop himselfe, but whether then or no, I know not)
saith of another Bishop, that hearing even prædicationes repentinas, his extempo-
rall Sermons raucus plausor audivi, I poured my selfe out in loud acclamations, till
I was hoarse: And, to contract this consideration, wee see evidently, that this fa-
shion continued in the Church, even to Saint Bernards time. Neither is it left yet
in some places, beyond the Seas, where the people doe yet answer the Preacher, it
his questions be applyable to them, and may induce an answer, with these vocall ac-
clamations, Sir, we will, Sir, we will not. And truely wee come too neare re-indu-
cing this vain glorious fashion, in those often periodicall murmurings, and noises,
which you make, when the Preacher concludeth any point; for those impertinent
Interjections swallow up one quarter of his houre, and many that were not within di-
stance of hearing the Sermon, will give a censure upon it, according to the frequen-
cie, or paucitie of these acclamations. These fashions then, howsoever, in those times they might be testimonies of Zeale,
yet because they occasioned vain glory, and many times, faction, (as those Fathers have
noted) we desire not, willingly we admit not. We come in Christs stead; Christ at his
comming met Hosann' as and Crucifige's; A Preacher may be aplauded in his Pulpit,
and crucified in his Barne: but there is a worse crucifying then that, a piercing of our
hearts, Because we are as a very lovely song, of one that hath a pleasant voyce, and can play
well on an Instrument, and you heare our words, and doe them not. Having therefore said
thus much to you, Ezech. 33. 32. first of our manner of proceeding with you, Obsecramus, of all those
waies of humiliation, which we insisted upon, and ingaged our selves in, we pray, & intreat
you, and the respect which should come from you, because we come in Christs stead, Ii it
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if, Act. 8. as the Eunuch said to Philip, Here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? so
you say to us, we acknowledge that you do your duties, and we do receive you in Christs
stead; what is it that you would have us doe? it is but this, We pray you in Christs stead
be ye reconciled to God; which is our third, and last part, and that to which all that we
have said of a good Pastor and a good people; (which is the blessedest union of this
world) bendeth, and driveth, what, and how blessed a thing it is to be reconciled to
God. Reconciliation is a redintegration, a renewing of a former friendship, that hath been
interrupted and broken. So that this implyeth a present enmity, 3 Part. and hostility with God;
and then a former friendship with God, and also a possibility of returning to that for-
mer friendship; stop a little upon each of these, and we have done. Amongst naturall Creatures, because howsoever they differ in bignesse, yet they
have some proportion to one another, Inimicus. we consider that some very little creatures, con-
temptible in themselves, are yet called enemies to great creatures, as the Mouse is to
the Elephant.(For the greatest Creature is not Infinite, nor the least is not Nothing.)
But shall man, betweene whom and nothing, there went but a word, Let us make
Man, That Nothing, which is infinitely lesse then a Mathematicall point, then
an imaginary Atome, shall this Man, this yesterdayes Nothing, this to mor-
ow worse then Nothing, be capable of that honour, that dishonour able honour,
that confounding honour, to be the enemy of God, of God who is not onely a mul-
tipled Elephant, millions of Elephants multiplied into one, but a multiplied World,
a multiplied All, All that can be conceived by us, infinite many times over; Nay,
(if we may dare to say so,) a multiplyed God, a God that hath the Millions of the
Heathens gods in himselfe alone, shall this man be an enemy to this God? Man can-
not be allowed so high a sinne, as enmity with God. The Devill himselfe is but a
slave to God, and shall Man be called his enemy? It is true, if we consider the infinite
disproportion between them, he cannot; but to many sad purposes, and in many
heavy applications Man is an enemy to God. Job could goe no higher in expressing
his misery, 13. 24.
33. 10. Why hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy? and againe, Be-
hold, he findeth occassions against me, and counteth me for his enemy. So man is an ene-
my to God; And then to adhere to an enemy, is to become an enemy; for Man to
adhere to Man, to ascribe any thing to the power of his naturall faculties, to thinke of
any beame of clearnesse in his own understanding, or any line of rectitude in in his owne
will, this is to accumulate and multiply enmities against God, and to assemble and mu-
ster up more, and more man, to fight against God. A Reconciliation is required, Amici. therefore there is an enmitie; but it is but a reconcilia-
tion, therefore was a friendship; There was a time when God and Man were
friends, God did not hate man from all Eternitie, God forbid. And this friendship
God meant not to breake; God had no purpose to fall out with man, for then hee
could never have admitted him to a friendship. August. Net hominem amicum quisquam potest
fidelitter amare, cui se noverit futurum inimicum: No man can love another as a friend
this yeare, and meane to bee his enemy next. Gods foreknowledge that man and he
should fall out, was not a foreknowledge of any thing that he meant to doe to that
purpose, but onely that Man himselfe would become incapable of the continuation of
this friendship. Man might have persisted in that blessed amitie; and, since if he had
done so, the cause of his persisting had beene his owne will, I speak of the next and im-
mediate Cause, Polanus syn-
tag. To. 1.
fol. 784. (As the cause why the Angels that did persist, did persist, was Bona ip-
sorum Angelorum voluntas; the good use of their own free-will) much more was the
cause of their defection and breaking this friendship(in their owne will; God therefore,
having made man, that is Mankinde, in a state of love, and friendship, God having not
by any purpose of his done any thing toward the violation of this friendship, in man,
in any man, God continueth his everlasting goodnesse towards man, towards mankinde
still, in inviting him to accept the means of Reconciliation, and a returne to the same
state of friendship, which hee had at first, by our Ministery. Be ye reconciled unto God. You see what you had, and how you lost it. If it might not bee recovered,
God would not call you to it. Reconcilia-
mini. It was piously declared in a late Synod, That in
the offer of this Reconciliation, God meanes, as the Minister meanes; and I am sure
I meane it, Chrysost. and desire it to you all; so does God. Nec Deus est qui inimicitias ge-
rit,
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rit, sed vos, M. C. 6. 3. it is not God, but you, that oppose this Reconciliation; O my people what
have I done unto thee, or wherein have I grieved thee, testifie against me; testifie if I did
any thing towards inducing an enmity, ot doe any thing towards hindring this Recon-
ciliation; which reconciliation is, to be restored to as good an estate in the love of God,
as you had in Adam, and our estate is not as good, if it be not as generall, if the merit
of Christ be not as large, as the sinne of Adam; and if it be not as possible for you to
be saved by him, as it is impossible for you to be saved without him. It is therefore but praying you in Christs stead, that you be reconciled to God. And,
if you consider what God is, The Lord of hosts, and therefore hath meanes to destroy
you, or what he is not, He is not man that he can repent, and therefore it belongs to
you, to repent first, If you consider what the Lord doth, He that dwells in the heavens
doth laugh them to scorne, and hath them in derision, or what he doth not, He doth
not justifie the wicked balance, Mic. 6. 11. nor the bag of deceitfull waights, If you consider
what the Lord would doe, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy
children together, as the Hen gathereth her Chickens, and yee would not, or what he would
not doe, As I live, sayeth the Lord, I desire not the death of the wicked, if yee consider all
this, any of this, Ezek. 33. 11. dare you, or can you if you durst, or would you if you could, stand out
in an irreconciliable war against God? Especially if you consider, that that is more to
you, then what God is, and does, and would doe, and can doe, for you or against
you, that is, what he hath done already; that he who was the party offended, hath not
onely descended so low, as to be reconciled first, and to pay so deare for that, as the
bloud of his owne, and onely Sonne, but knowing thy necessity better then thy selfe,
he hath reconciled thee to him, though thou knewest it not; God was in Christ, re-
conciling the world unto himselfe, as it is in the former verse; there the worke is done,
thy reconciliation is wrought; God is no longer angry so, as to withhold from thee
the meanes; for, there it followes, Hee hath committed to us the word of Reconciliation;
That wee might tell you the instrument of Reconciliation is drawn between God and
you, Binius. To. 1.
fo. 320. and, as it is written in the history of the Councell of Nice, that two Bishops
who died before the establishing of the Canons, did yet subscribe and set their
names to those Canons, which to that purpose were left upon their graves
all night, so though you were dead in your sinne and enemies to God, and Chil-
dren of wrath, (as all by nature are) when this Reconciliation was wrought, yet
the Spirit of God may give you this strength, to dip your pennes in the bloud
of the Lambe, and so subscribe your names, by acceptation of this offer of Recon-
ciliation. Doe but that, subscribe, accept, and then, Cætera omnia, all the
rest that concernes your holy history, your Justification and Sanctification, nonne
scripta sunt, are they not written in the bookes of the Chronicles of the Kings
of Israel, says the Holy Ghost, in another case; Are they not written in
the books of the Chronicles of the God of Israel? Shalt thou not finde an ete-
rnall Decree, and a Book of life in thy behalfe, if thou looke for it by this light,
and reach to it with this Hand, the acceptation of this Reconciliation? They
are written in those reverend and sacred Records, and Rolls, and Parchments,
even the skinne and flesh of our Blessed Saviour; written in those his stripes,
and those his wounds, with that bloud, that can admit no Index expurgato-
rius, no expunction, no satisfaction; But the life of his death lies in thy accep-
tation, and though he be come to his, thou art not come to thy Consummatum est, till
that be done. Doe that, Mat. 22. and then thou hast put on thy wedding garment. A man might
get into that feast, without his wedding garment; so a man may get into the
Church, to bee a visible part of a Christian Congregation, without this acceptation
of reconciliation, that is the particular apprehension, and application of Christ; but hee
is still subject to a remove, and to that question of confusion, Quomodo in-
rasti, How came you in? That man in the Gospell could have answered to
that question, directly, I came in by the invitation, and conduct of thy servants, I was cal-
led in, I was led in; So they that come hither without this wedding garment, they
may answer to Christs Quomodo intrasti, How camest thou in? I came in by faithfull
parents, to whom, and their seed thou hast sealed a Covenant; I was admitted by thy
Servants and Ministers in Baptisme, and have been led along by them, by comming to Ii2 hear
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hear them preach thy word, and doing the other externall offices of a Christian. But
there is more in this question; Quomodo intrasti, is not onely how didst thou come in,
but how durst thou come in? If thou camest to my feast, without any purpose
to eate, and so to discredit, to accuse either my meat, or the dressing of it, to quar-
rell at the Doctrine, or at the Discipline of my Church, Quomodo intrasti, How didst
thou, how durst thou come in? If thou camest with a purpose to poison my meat,
that it might infect others, with a determination to goe forward in thy sinne, what-
soever the Preacher say, and so to encourage others by thy example, Quomodo
intrasti, How durst thou come in? If thou camest in with thine own provision in
thy pocket, and didst not relie upon mine, and think that thou canst be saved with-
out Sermons, or Sacraments, Quomodo intrasti, How durst thou come in? Him that
came in there, without this Wedding garment, the Master of the Feast cals Friend;
but scornfully, Friend how camest thou in? But he cast him out. God may call us
Friends, that is, admit, and allow us the estimation and credit of being of his Church,
but at one time or other, hee shall minister that Interrogatory, Friend, how came you in?
and for want of that Wedding garment, and for want of wearing it in the sight of
men, (for it is not said that that man had no such Wedding garment at home, in his
Wardrobe, but that hee had none on) for want of Sanctification in a holy life, God
shall deliver us over to the execution of our own consciences, and eternall condem-
nation. But be ye reconciled to God, embrace this reconciliation in making your use of those
means, and this reconciliation shall work thus, it shall restore you to that state, that A-
dam had in Paradise. What would a soule oppressed with the sense of sin give, that she
were in that state of Innocency, that she had in Baptisme? Be reconciled to God, and
you have that, and an elder Innocency then that, the Innocency of Paradise. Go home,
and if you finde an over-burden of children, negligence in servants, crosses in your tra-
dings, narrownesse, penury in your estate, yet this penurious, and this encumbred house
shall be your Paradise. Go forth, into the Country, and if you finde unseasonablenesse
in the weather, rots in your sheep, murrains in your cattell, worms in your corn, back-
wardnesse in your rents, oppression in your Landlord, yet this field of thorns and bram-
bles shall be your Paradise. Lock thy selfe up in thy selfe, in thine own bosome, and
though thou finde every roome covered with the Soot of former sins, and shaked with
that Devill whose name is Legion, some such sin as many sins depend upon, and are in-
duced by, yet this prison, this rack, this hell in thine own conscience shall be thy Para-
dise. And as in Paradise Adam at first needed no Saviour, so when by this reconciliation,
in apprehending thy Saviour, thou art restored to this Paradise, thou shalt need no sub-
Saviour, no joint-Saviour, but Cætera adjicientur, no other Angel, but the Angel of the
greas Councell, no other Saint, but the Holy One of Israel, he who hath wrought this
reconciliation for thee, and brought it to thee, shall establish it in thee; For, if when we
were enemies, Rom. 5. 10. we were reconciled to God, by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled,
shall we be saved by his life. This is the summe and the end of all, That when God sends
humble and laborious Pastors, to souple and appliable Congregations; That we pray,
and you receive us in Christs stead, we shall not onely finde rest in God, but, (as it is said
of Noahs sacrifice) God shall finde the savour of rest in us; God shall finde a Sabbath to
himself in us, and rest from his jealousies, and anger towards us, and we shall have a
Sabbatary life here in the rest and peace of conscience, and a life of one everlasting Sab-
bath hereafter, where to our Rest there shall be added Joy, and to our Joy Glory, and
this Rest, and Joy, and Glory superinvested with that which crownes them all, Eternity. SER.
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375
Sermon XLI.
Preached at Saint Pauls Crosse. 6 May. 1627. Hosea 3. 4.
For, the Children of Israel shall abide many dayes, without a King, and without a Prince,
and without a Sacrifice, and without an Image, and without an Ephod, and without Te-
raphim. SOmeSome Cosmographers have said, That there is no land so placed in the
world, but that from that land, a man may see other land. I dispute it not,
I defend it not; I accept it, and I apply it; there is scarce any mer-
cy expressed in the Scriptures, but that from that mercy you may
see another mercy. Christ sets up a candle now here, onely to ligh-
ten that one roome, but as he is lumen de lumine, light of light, so he
would have more lights lighted at every light of his, and make e-
very former mercy an argument, an earnest, a conveyance of more. Between land and
land you may see seas, and seas enraged with tempests; but still, say they, some other
land too. Between mercy, and mercy, you may finde Comminations, and Judge-
ments, but still more mercy. For this discovery let this text be our Mappe. First
we see land, we see mercy in that gracious compellation, Children, (the Children of
Israel) Then we see sea, then comes a Commination, a Judgement that shall last some
time, (many days shall the Children of Israel suffer) But there they may see land too, a-
nother mercy, even this time of Judgement shall be a day, they shall not be benighted,
not left in darkenesse in their Judgements; (many dayes, all the while, it shall
bee day) Then the text opens into a deep Ocean, a spreading Sea, (They shall bee
without a King, and without a Prince, and without a Sacrifice, and without an Image,
and without an Ephod, and without Teraphim.) But even from this Sea, this vast
Sea, this Sea of devastation, wee see land; for, in the next verse followes another
mercy, (The Children of Israel shall returne, and shall seeke the Lord their God, and
David their King, and shall feare the Lord, and his goodnesse in the later dayes.) And
beyond this land, there is no more Sea; beyond this mercy, no more Judgement, for
with this mercy the Chapter ends. Consider our text then, as a whole Globe, as an intire Spheare, and then our two
Hemispheares of this Globe, Divisio:Divisio. our two parts of this text, will bee, First, that no per-
versnesse of ours, no rebellion, no disobedience puts God beyond his mercy, nor
extinguishes his love; still hee calls Israel, rebellious Israel his Children; nay his
owne anger, his owne Judgements, then, when hee is in the exercise thereof, in the
execution thereof, puts him not beyond his mercy, extinguishes not his love; hee
hides not his face from them then, hee leaves them not then, in the darke, hee ac-
companies their calamity with a light, hee makes that time, though cloudy, though
overcast, yet a day unto them; (the Children of Israel shall abide many days in this case.)
But then, as no disobedience removes God from himself, (for he is love, and mercy)
so no interest of ours in God, doth so priviledge us, but that hee will execute
his Judgements upon his Children too, even the Children of Israel shall fall into
these Calamities. And from this first part, wee shall passe to the second;
from these generall considerations, (That no punishments should make us desperate, Ii3 That
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that no favours should make us secure) we shall passe to the particular commination,
and judgements upon the children of Israel in this text, without King, without
Prince &c. In our first part, 1 Part. we stop first, upon this declaration of his mercy, in this fatherly
appellation, Filii. Children, (the children of Israel) He does not call them children of Israel,
as though hee disavowed them, and put them off to another Father; but
therefore, because they are the Children of Israel, they are his Children,
for, Hose. 2. 9. hee had maried Israel; and maried her to himselfe for ever. Many of
us are Fathers; and, from God, here may learne tendernesse towards chil-
dren. All of us are children of some parents, and therefore should hearken after the
name of Father, Tertull. which is nomen pietatis & potestatis, a name that argues their power
over us, and our piety towards them; and so, concernes many of us, in a double capaci-
ty, (as we are children, and parents too) but all of us in one capacity, as we are chil-
dren derived from other parents. God is the Father of man, otherwise then he is of
other creatures. He is the Father of all Creatures; so Philo calls all Creatures soro-
res suas, his sisters; but then, all those sisters of man, all those daughters of God are
not alike maried. God hath placed his Creatures in divers rankes, and in divers condi-
tions; neither must any man thinke, that he hath not done the duty of a Father, if he
have not placed all his Sonnes, or not matched all his daughters, in a condition equall
to himselfe, or not equall to one another. God hath placed creatures in the heavens,
and creatures in the earth, and creatures in the sea, and yet, all these creatures are his
children, and when he looked upon them all, in their divers stations, he saw, omnia
valde bora, that all was very well; And that Father that imploies one Sonne in learning,
another to husbandry, another to Merchandise, pursues Gods example, in disposing
his children, (his creatures) diversly, and all well. Such creatures as the Raine, (though
it may seem but an imperfect, and ignoble creature, fallen from the wombe of a cloud)
have God for their Father; Iob 38. 28. (God is the Father of the Raine.) And such creatures as
light, Iames 1. 17. have but God for their Father. God is Pater luminum, the Father of lights. Whe-
ther we take lights there to be the Angels, created with the light, (some take it so) or
to be the severall lights set up in the heavens, Sun, and Moon and Stars, (some take
it so) or to be the light of Grace in infusion by the Spirit, or the light of the Church,
in manifestation, by the word, (for, all these acceptations have convenient Authors,
and worthy to be followed) God is the Father of lights, of all lights; but so he is of
raine, Eph. 1. 17. and clouds too. And God is the Father of glory; (as Saint Paul styles him) of
all glory; 2 Cor. 4. 17. whether of those beames of glory which he sheds upon us here, in the bles-
sings, and preferments of this life, or that waight of glory which he reserves for us, in
the life to come. From that inglorious drop of raine, that falls into the dust, and rises
no more, to those glorious Saints who shall rise from the dust, and fall no more, but, as
they arise at once to the fulnesse of Essentiall joy, so arise daily in accidentiall joyes,
all are the children of God, and all alike of kin to us. And therefore let us not mea-
sure our avowing, or our countenancing of our kindred, by their measure of honour, or
place, or riches in the world, but let us looke how fast they grow in the root, that is,
in the same worship of the same God, who is ours, and their Father too. He is nearest
of kin to me, that is of the same religion with me; as they are creatures, they are of
kin to me by the Father, but, as they are of the same Church, and religion, by Father
and mother too. Philo calls all creatures his sisters, but all men are his brothers. God is the Father of
man in a stronger and more peculiar, and more masculine sense, then of other Creatures.
Filius particeps & con-dominus cum patre: as the law calls the Sonne, the partner of
the Father, and fellow-Lord, joint-Lord with the Father, of all the possession that is to
descend, so God hath made man his partner, and fellow-Lord of all his other creatures
in Moses his Dominamini, when he gives man a power to rule over them, and in Davids
Omnia subjecisti, Gen. 1. 28. when he imprints there, a naturall disposition in the creature to the obe-
dience of man. So high, so very high a filiation, hath God given man, as that, having Psal. 8. 7.
another Sonne, by another filiation, a higher filiation then this, by an eternall generation,
yet he was content, that that Sonne should become this Sonne, that the Sonne of God
should become the Sonne of Man. God is the Father of all; Israel. of man otherwise then of all the rest; but then, of the children of
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of Israel, Deut. 32. 6. otherwise then of all other men. For he bought them; and, is not he thy Fa-
ther that hath bought thee? says God by Moses. Not to speake of that purchase,
which he made by the death of his Sonne, (for that belongs to all the world) he bought
the Jews in particular, at such a price, such silver, and such gold, such temporall, and
such spirituall benefits, such a Land, and such a Church, such a Law, and such a Religion,
as, certainly, he might have had all the world at that price. If God would have
manifested himselfe, poured out himselfe to the Nations, as hee did to the Jews,
all the world would have swarmed to his obedience, and herded in his pale. God
was their father; Chrysoft. and, as S. Chrysostome, (that he might be sure to draw in all de-
grees of tender affection) cals him, Their Mother too. For, Matris nutrire, Patris eru-
dire; It was a Mothers part to give them suck, and to feed them with temporall blessings;
It was a Fathers part to instruct them, and to feed them with spirituall things; and God
did both abundantly. Therefore doth God submit himself to the comparison of a Mo-
ther in the Prophet Esay, Esay 49. 15. Can a woman forget her sucking child? But then, he stays not
in that inferiour, in that infirmer sex, but returns to a stronger love, then that of a Mo-
ther, (yes, (says he) she may forget, yet will not I forget thee.) And therefore, when David
says, Psal. 103. 1. Blesse the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; David expresses that, which
we translate in a generall word, Benefits, in this word, Gamal, which signifies Ablactati-
ones; forget not that God nursed thee as a Mother, and then, Ablactavit, we and thee,
and provided thee stronger food, out of the care of a father. In one word, all creatures
are Gods children; man is his sonne; but then, Israel is his first-born son; for that is
the addition, Exod. 4. 22. which God gives Israel by Moses to Pharaoh, (Say unto Pharaoh, Israel is
my son, even my first-born.) Why God adopted Israel into this filiation, into this pri-
mogeniture, before all the people of the world, we can assign no reason, but his love only.
But why he did not before this Text, dis-inherit this adopted son, is a higher degree,
and exercise of his love, then the Adoption it self, if we consider, (which is a usefull
consideration) their manifold provocations to such an exhæ redation, and what God suf-
fered at their hands. The ordinary causes of Exhæredation, Exhæredatio. for which, a man might dis-inherit his son, are
assigned and numbred in the law, to be fourteen. But divers of them grow out of one
root, (Vndutifulnesse, Inofficiousnesse towards the father) and as, by that reason, they
may be extended to more, so they may be contracted to fewer, to two. These two, In-
gratitude, and Irreligion. Vnthankfulnesse, and Idolatry were ever just causes of Exhære-
dation, of Dis-inheriting. And with these two, did the Jews more provoke Almighty
God, then any children, any father. Stop we a little our Consideration upon each of
these. He is not always ungratefull, Ingratitudo. that does not recompense a benefit, but he onely that
would not, though he could make, and though the Benefactor needed a recompense.
When Furnius, upon whom Augustus had multiplied benefits, told him, that in one
thing he had damnified him, in one thing he had undone him, Effecisti at viverem &
morerer ingratus, You have done so much for me, (says he) that I must live, and die un-
thankfull, that is, without shewing my thankfulnesse by equivalent recompenses: This
which he cals unthankfulnesse, was thankfulnesse enough. There are men, (says the Mo-
rall man) Qui quo plus debent, magis odêrunt, Senec. that hate those men most, who have laid
most obligations upon them. Leve æs alienum debitorem facit, grave inimicum; for a
little debt he will be content to look towards me, but when it is great, more then he can
pay, or as much as he thinks he can get from me, then he would be glad to be rid of me.
Acknowledgement is a good degree of thankfulnesse. But, ingratitude at the highest, (and
the Jews ingratitude was at the highest) involves even a concealing, and a denying of be-
nefits, and even a hating, Bern. and injuring of Benefactors. And so, Res peremptoria ingrati-
tudo, says Bernard significantly, Ingratitude is a peremptory sin; it does Perimere, that
is, destroy, not onely all vertues, but it destroys, that is, overflows all other particular
Vices; no vice can get a name, where ingratitude is; it swallows all, devours all, be-
comes all; Ingratum dicas, omnia dixisti, If you have called a man unthankfull, you have
called him by all the ill names that are: for this complicated, this manifold, this pre-
gnant vice, Ingratitude, the holy language, the Hebrew, lacks a word. The nearest root
that they can draw Ingratitude into, is Caphar, and Caphar is but Tegere, to hide, to con-
ceal a benefit; but to deny a benefit, or to hate or injure a Benefactor, they have not a word.
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word. And therefore, as S. Hierome found not the word in the Hebrew, so in all Saint
Hieromes translation of the Old Testament, (or in that which is reputed his, the vulgat
Edition) you have not that Latine word, Ingratus; Curious sinners, subtile self-dam-
ners; they could not name Ingratitude, and in all the steps of Ingratitude, they excee-
ded all men, all Nations. From the Ingratitude of murmuring, upon which, God lays that
woe, Isa. 55. 10. (Woe unto him that says to his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast
thou brought forth? A dogge murmures not that he is not a Lion, nor a blinde-worm
without eyes, that he is not a Basilisk to kill with his eyes; Dust murmures not that it
is not Amber, nor a Dunghill that it is not a Mine, nor an Angel that he is not of the Se-
raphim; and every man would be something else then God hath made him,) from this
murmuring for that which he hath not, to another degree of Ingratitude, The appro-
priation of that which he hath, Bern. to himself, Vti Datis tanquam Innatis, (as S. Bernard
speaks in his musick) To attribute to our selves that which we have received from God,
to think our selves as strong in Nature as in Grace, and as safe in our own free-will, as in
the love of God; as God says of Jerusalem, Ezek. 16. (That he had given her her beauty, and then
she plaid the harlot, as if it had been her own) by these steps of Ingratitude to the high-
est of all which is, rather then to confesse her self beholden to God, to change her
God, and so to slide from Ingratitude to Idolatry, Jerusalem came, and over-went all
the Nations upon the earth. Their Ingratitude induced Idolatry in an instant. Idololatria. As soon as they came to that un-
gratefull murmuring, (As for Moses we cannot tell what is become of him) Exod. 32. 1. they came pre-
sently to say to Aaron, (Vp and make us Gods that may goe before us) which is an impoten-
cy, a leprosie, that derives it self farre, spreads farre, that as soon as our sins induce any
worldly crosse, any calamity upon us, we come to think of another Church, another Re-
ligion, and conclude, That that cannot be a good Church, in which we have lived in.
Now, against this impious levity, of facility in changing our Religion, God seemes to
expresse the greatest indignation, Deut. 32. 17. when he says, They sacrificed unto gods whom they knew
not, to new gods. Men, amongst us, that have been baptized, and catechized in the truth,
and in the knowledge thereof, fall into ignorant falshood, and embrace a Religion which
they understand not, nor can understand, because it lies in the breast of one man, and is
therefore subject to alterations. They sacrifice to gods whom they know not, (says God)
and those gods new gods too; The more suspicious, for their newnesse; and, (as it is ad-
ded there) unto gods whom their fathers feared not. Men, that fall from us, (whose fa-
thers were of that Religion) put themselves into more bondage and slavery to the Court
of Rome now, then their fathers did to the Church of Rome then; They sacrifice to gods,
whom they know not, and whom their fathers feared not, so much as they doe. But,
they have corrupted themselves; Ver. 5. (as God charges them farther) They are fallen from
us, whom no example of their fathers led that way; fathers have left their former su-
perstition, which they were born and bred in, and the sonnes, which were born, and bred
in the truth, have embraced those superstitions; Their spot is not the spot of children, (so
it follows in the same place) a weaknesse that might have that excuse, that they procee-
ded out of a reverentiall respect to their fathers, and followed their example; (for their
fathers have stood, and they are fallen. (Their spot is not the spot of children.) And, because
Kings are pictures of God, when they trun upon new gods, they turn to new pictures
of God too, and with a forein Religion, invest a forein Allegiance. Did not I deliver
you from the Egyptians, Iud. 10. 11. says God, and from the Ammonites. and from the Amorites, and
PhilistimsPhilistines? from a succession of enemies, at times, and from a league of enemies at
once, Yet you have forsaken me, and served other gods, says God there; And there-
fore, (to that resolution God comes) Therefore, I will deliver you no more. And yet,
how often did God deliver them after this? Ingratitude, Idolatry, are just causes of
Exhæredation; Israel abounded in both these, and yet, after all these, in this Text, he
cals them Children, The Children of Israel, and therefore his children. God is kinde even to the unthankfull, Dies. saith christ himself, and himself calls Jerusa-
lem, Luc. 6. 35. The holy City, even when she was def iled with many and manifold uncleannesses, be-
cause she had been holy, Mat. 4. 5. and had the outward help of holinesse remaining in her still.
Christ doth not disavow, not disinherit those children which gave most just cause of ex-
heredation; much lesse doth he justify, by his example, finall and totall disinheriting of
children, occasioned by single and small faults in the children, and grounded in the Pa-
rents,
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At Saint Pauls Crosse.rents, upon sudden, and passionate, and intemperate, and imaginary vowes, They have
vowed to doe it, therefore they will doe it; for, so they put a pretext of Religion upon
their impiety, and make God accessary to that which he dislikes, and upon colour of a
vow, doe that which is far from a service to God, as the performance of every lawfull,
and discreet vow is. God calls them his Children, (which is one) and then, though as a
Father he correct them, yet he shewes them his face, in that correction, (which is ano-
ther beam of his mercy) He calls their calamity, their affliction, Not a night, but a day,
(many dayes shall the children of Israel suffer this.) We finde these two words often joyned together in the Scriptures, Dies visitationis,
The day of visitation; though as it is a visitation, it be a sad, a dark contemplation, yet
as it is a day, it hath alwayes a cheerfulnesse in it. If it were called a night, I might be
afraid, that this night, They (I am not told who) would fetch away my soul; but, Luc. 12. 20. being a
day, I have assurance, that the Sunne, the Sunne of Righteousnesse will arise to me. At
the light of thine Arrowes, they went forward, saith the Prophet Habakkuk. Though
they be Arrowes, 3. 11. yet they are Torches too, though they burn, yet they give light too;
though God shoot his Arrowes at me, even by them, I shall have light enough to see
that it is God that shoots. As there is a heavy commination in that of Amos, (I will cause
the Sunne to goe down at noone, and I will darken the earth, in clear day) so is there a gra-
cious promise, 8. 9. and a constant practise in God, That he will (as he hath done) com-
mand light of darknesse, and inable thee to see a clear day, by his presence, in the darkest
night of tribulation. For, truly, such a sense, (I think) belongs to those words in Hosea,
That when God had said, The dayes of visitation are come, the dayes of recompence are
come, 9. 12. God adds that, as an aggravating of the calamitie; yea, woe also to them, when I
depart from them; as though the oppression of the affliction, the peremptorinesse of the
affliction, were not in the affliction it self, hut in Gods departing from them, when he af-
flicted them; they should be visited, but see no day in their visitations, afflicted from
God, but see no light from him, receive no consolation in him. In this place we take
it, (for the exaltation of your devotion) as a particular beam of his mercy) That though
the Children of Israel were afflicted many dayes, yet still he affords them the name of
Children, and still their darke and cloudy dayes were accompanied with the light, and
presence of God, still they felt the Hand of God under them, the Face of God upon
them, the Heart of God towards them. Those then, Non secure. which have this filiation, God doth not easily disinherit; because they
were his Children, after unnaturall disobediencies, he avowes them, and continues that
name to them. But yet, this must not imprint a security, a presumption; for, even the
children here, are submitted to heavie and dangerous calamities; when Christ himselfe
saith, The children of the kingdome shall be cast into utter darknesse, who can promise him-
selfe a perpetuall, Matt. 8. 12. or unconditioned station? we have in the Scriptures two especiall Types
of the Church, Paradise, and the Arke. But, in that Type, the Arke, we are principally
instructed, what the Church in generall shall doe, and in that in Paradise, what particular
men in the Church should do. For, we doe not reade, that in the Arke Noah, or his
company, did waigh any anchor, hoyst any saile, ship any oare, steare any rudder; but, the
Arke, by the providence of God, who onely was Pilot, rode safe upon the face of the
waters. The Church it selfe, (figured by the Arke) cannot shipwrack; though men sleep,
though the Devill wake, Matt. 16. 18. The gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church. But in the
other Type of the Church, where every man is instructed in his particular duty therein,
Paradise, Adam himself was commanded to dresse Paradise, and to keep Paradise. And
when he did not that which he was injoyned to doe in that place, Gen. 2. 15. he forfeited his interest
in it, and his benefit by it. Though we be born and bred in Gods house, as Children
Baptized, and Catechized in the true Church, if we slacken our holy industry in making
sure our salvation, we, though Children of the Kingdome, may becast out, and all our for-
mer helps, and our proceedings by the benefit of those helps, shall but aggravate our
condemnation. Alpha and Omega make up the Name of Christ; and, between Alpha
and Omega, are all the letters of the Alphabet included. A Christian is made up of Al-
pha and Omega, and all between. He must begin well, (imbrace the true Church) and live
well according to the profession of that true Church, and die well, according to that for-
mer holy life, and practise. Truth in the beginning, Zeale all the way, and Constancie in
the end make up a Christian. Otherwise for all this filiation, children may be disinherit-
ted,
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ted, or submitted to such calamities as these which are interminated upon the children
of Israel, which constitute our second part, They shall be without a King, and without a
Prince, and without a Sacrifice, and without an Ephod, and without a Teraphim. Disobedient children are not cast off; 2 Part. but yet disobedience is not left uncorrected.
Be mercifull, Non exhæ-
redantur,
Corrigun-
tur tamen. but mercifull so, as your Father in Heaven is mercifull; Be not so merci-
full upon any private respect, as to be thereby cruell to the publique. And be Just;
but, just, as your Father in Heaven is just; Hate not the vice of a man so, as thereby to
hate the man himself. God hath promised to be an enemy to our enemies, an adversary to
our adversaries; but, God is no irreconciliable enemy, no implacable, no inexorable Exod. 23. 22.
Adversary. For, Psalm. 139. 22. that hatred which David calls Odium perfectum, (I have hated them
with a perfect hatred) is not onely a vehement hatred, but (as Saint Hilary calls it) Odi-
um religiosum, a hatred that may consist with religion: That I hate not another man,
for his religion, so as that I lose all religion in my self, by such a hating of him. And
Saint Augustine calls it Odium Charitativum, a hate that may consist with Charitie; that
I hate no man for his peremptory uncharitablenesse towards my religion, so as to lose
mine own Charity; for, I am come to one point of his religion, if I come to be as un-
charitable as he. God and Kings are at a near distance, All gods; Magistrates, and
inferiour persons are at a near distance, all dust. As God proceeds with a King, with Je-
hosaphat, 2 Chro. 19. 2. in that temper, that moderation, (Shouldst thou help the ungodly, and love them
that hate the Lord?) So men with men, Magistrates with inferiour men, learned men
with ignorant men, should proceed with Saint Pauls moderation, 2 Thes. 3. 14. If any man obey not
(but be refractary, unconformable) note that man (saith the Apostle) and have no com-
pany with him, but yet count him not as an enemy. The union of the two Natures in Christ,
give us a faire example, that Divinity and Humanity may consist together. No Religion
induces Inhumanity; no Piety, no Zeal destroyes nature; and since there is a time to
hate, and a time to love, Eccles. 8. 3. then is love most seasonable, when other civill contracts, civill
alliances, civill concurrences, have soupled and intenerated the dispositions of persons,
or nations, formerly farther asunder, to a better possibility, to a fairer probability, to a
nearer propinquity of hearkning to one another, Ephes. 2. 16. That Christ might reconcile both unto
God, in one body, by the Crosse, having slain the enmity thereby. Civill Offices may worke
upon religions too; and where that may follow, (That our mildnesse in civill things,
may prevail upon their obduration in religion) there is the time to love. But in cases,
where civill peace and religious foundations are both shaked, that the State and the
Church, as they are both in one bottome, so they are chased by one Pirate, I hate not with
a perfect hatred, not perfect towards God, except I declare, and urge, and presse home,
the truth of God, against their errours in my Ministery, nor perfect towards man, ex-
cept I advance, in my place, the execution of those Lawes against their practises, with-
out which, they are inabled, nay incouraged, nay perswaded, nay intreated to goe for-
ward in those practises. God himself proceeds against his own children so farre, (and
dearer then those children were to God, can no friends be to us, no allies to any Prince)
That they should be without King, without Prince, without Sacrifice, without Image, without
Ephod, without Teraphim; that is, without Temporall, without Ecclesiasticall Govern-
ment. First, then, we presume, we presuppose, (and that necessarily) every peece of this
part of our Text, Comminatio. to fall under the Commination; they were threatned with the losse of
every particular, and therefore they were the worse for every particular losse. Not the
worse onely because they thought themselves the worse, because they had fixed their
love and their delight upon these things, but because they were really the better for ha-
ving them, it was really a curse, a Commination, that they should lose them; as well that
they should lose their Ephod, and their Image, and their Teraphim, as that they should
lose their Sacrifices. But first,(though that other fall also within the Commination, that
they should be without a setled form of Religion, without Sacrifice, and Ephod, and the
rest) the first thing that the Commination falls upon, is, That they should be without a
Civill form of government, without King, and without Prince. For, though our Religion
prepare us to our Bene esse, our well-being, our everlasting happinesse, yet it is the State,
the civill and peaceable government, which preserves our very Esse, our very Being; and
there cannot be a Bene esse, without an Esse, a well and a happy Being, except there be
first a Being established. It is the State, the Law, that constitutes Families and Cities, and
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and Propriety, and Magistracy, and Jurisdiction. The State, the Law preserves and di-stinguishes, not onely the Meum & Tuum, the Possessions of men, but the Me & Te, the
very persons of men; The Law tels me, not onely whose land I must call every Acre,
but whose son I must call every man. Therefore God made the Body before the Soule;
Therefore there is in man a vegetative, and a sensitive soule, before an immortall, and
reasonable soule enter. Therefore also, in this place, God proposes first the Civil State,
the temporall Government, (what it is, to have a King and a Prince) before he proposes
the happinesse of a Church, and a Religion; not but that our Religion conduces to the
greater happinesse, but that our Religion cannot be conserved, except the Civil State,
and temporall Government be conserved too. The first thing then that the Commination fals upon, Sine Rege. is the losse of their Temporall
State. But the Commination doth not fall so fully upon the exclusion of all formes of
Government, as upon the exclusion of Monarchy; It does not so expresly threaten an
Anarchy, that they should have no Government, no Governours; It is not sine Regi-
mine, but sine Rege, If they had any, they should not have the best, They should be with-
out a King. Now, if with S. Hierome, and others that accompany him in that interpre-
tation, Hierome. we take the Prophecy of this Text, to be fulfilled in that Dispersion which hath
continued upon the Jews, ever since the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews have been
so far from having had any King, as that they have not had a Constable of their owne,
in any part of the world; no interest at all, in any part of the Magistracy and Jurisdi-
ction of the world, Gen. 4. 12. any where, but they are a whole Nation of Cains, fugitives, and va-
gabonds. But howsoever it be, the heat, and the vehemency of this Commination fals
upon this particular, sine Rege, they shall be without a King. It was long before God
afforded the Jews a King; and he did not easily doe it, then when he did it. Not, that
he intended not that form of Government for them, but because they would extort it
from him, before his time, and because they asked it onely in that respect, That they
might be like their neighbours, to whom God would not have had them too like: And
also, because God, to keep their thankfulnesse still awake, would reserve, and keep back
some better thing, then he had given them yet, to give them at last. For, so he says, (as
the Coronation of all his benefits to Israel, of which there is a glorious Inventary in that
Chapter) Thou didst prosper into a Kingdome; Till the Crown of glory be presented, Ezek. 16. 13. in
the comming of the Messias, thou canst not be happier. Those therefore that allow
but a conditionall Soveraignty in a Kingdome, an arbitrary, a temporary Soveraignty,
that may be transferred at the pleasure of another, they oppose the Nolumus hoc, we
would not have, we would not live under this form of Government, not under a tem-
porall Monarchy, Nolumus hoc. Those that determine Allegiance, and civil obedience
onely by their own religion, and think themselves bound to obey none, that is of ano-
ther perswasion, they oppose the Nolumus hunc, We will not have this man to reign over us;
and so, make their relations, and fix their dependencies upon forein hopes, Nolumus
hunc. Those that fix a super-Soveraignty in the people, or in a Presbytery, they oppose
the Nolumus sic, we would not have things carried thus; They pretend to know the
happinesse of living under that form, A Kingdome, and to acknowledge the person of
the King, but they would be governed every man according to his own minde. And
all these, the Nolumus hoc, (they that desire not the continuance of that form, of a King-
dome in an Independency, but would have a dependency upon a forein power;) And
the Nolumus hunc, (they that are disaffected to the person of him that governs for the
present;) And the Nolumus sic, (they that will prescribe to the King, ends, and ways to
those ends:) all these assist this malediction, this commination, which God intermi-
nates here, as the greatest calamity, sine Rege, They shall be without a King; for this
is to Canton out a Monarchy, to Ravell out a Kingdome, to Crumble out a King. There is another branch in this Part, which is of Temporall calamities, Sine Principe. That they
shall be sine Principe, Without a King, and without a Prince. The word in the originall
is Sar; and take it, as it sounds most literally in our Translation, The Prince is the Kings
Son; so, this very word is used in Esay; Sar Salom; The Son of God, Isa. 9. 9. is called the Prince
of Peace. And so, the commination upon the Jews is thus farre aggravated, That they
shall be without a Prince, that is, without a certain heire; and Successor; which uncertain-
ty, (more then any thing else) slackens the industry of all men at home, and sharpens the
malice of all men abroad; fears at home, and hopes abroad, discompose and disorder all,
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all, where they are sine Principe, without a certain heire. But the word enlarges it selfe
farther; for, Sar signifies a Judge; when Moses rebuked a Malefactor, he replies to Mo-
ses, Who made thee a Judge? Exod. 2. 13. And in many, very many places, Sar signifies a Comman-
der in the Warres. So that where the Justice of the State, or the Military power of the
State faile, (and they faile, where the men who doe, or should execute those places,
will not, or dare not doe, what appertains to their places) there this Commination fals,
They are without a Prince, that is, without future assurance, without present power, or
Justice. But we passe to the spirituall Commination; Damna spi-
ritualia. that is, They shall be without Sacrifice,
without Ephod, without Image, without Teraphim. It is not that their understanding shall
be taken away, no, nor that the tendernesse of their conscience, or their zeale shall be ta-
ken away; It is not that they shall come to any impiety, or ill opinion of God; They
may have religious, and well-disposed hearts, and yet be under a curse, if they have not
a Church, an outward Discipline established amongst them. It is not enough for a man
to beleeve aright, but he must apply himself to some Church, to some outward form of
worshipping God; It is not enough for a Church, to hold no error in doctrine, but it
must have outward assistances for the devotion of her children, and outward decency for
the glory of her God. Both these kindes are intended in the particulars of this Text,
Sacrifice and Ephod, Image and Teraphim. First, Sine Sacrifi-
cio. it is a part of the curse, to be without Sacrifice. Now, if according to S. Hie-
romes interpretation, this Text be a Prophecy upon the Jews, after Christs time, and
that the Malediction consist in this, That they shall not embrace the Christian Religion,
nor the Christian Church entertain them; if the Prophet drive to this, They shall bee
without Sacrifices, because they shall not be of the Christian Church, certainly the
Christian Church is not to be without Sacrifice. It is a miserable impotency, to be afraid
of words; That from a former holy and just detestation of reall errors, we should
come to an uncharitable detestation of persons, and to a contentious detestation of
words. We dare not name Merit, nor Penance, nor Sacrifice, nor Altar, because they
have been abused. How should we be disappointed, and disfurnished of many words
in our ordinary conversation, if we should be bound from all words, which blasphe-
mous men have prophaned, or uncleane men have defiled with their ill use of those
words? There is Merit, there is Penance, there is Sacrifice, there are Altars, in that
sense, in which those blessed men, who used those words first, at first used them. The
Communion Table is an Altar; and in the Sacrament there is a Sacrifice. Not onely a
Sacrifice of Thanksgiving, common to all the Congregation, but a Sacrifice peculiar
to the Priest, though for the People. There he offers up to God the Father, (that is, to the
remembrance, to the contemplation of God the Father) the whole body of the merits of
Christ Jesus, and begges of him, that in contemplation of that Sacrifice so offered, of
that Body of his merits, he would vouchsafe to return, and to apply those merits to
that Congregation. A Sacrifice, as farre from their blasphemous over-boldnesse, who
constitute a propitiatory Sacrifice, in the Church of Rome, as from their over-tendernesse,
who startle at the name of Sacrifice. We doe not, (as at Rome) first invest the power
of God, and make our selves able to make a Christ, and then invest the malice of the
Jews, and kill that Christ, whom we have made; for, Sacrifice, Immolation, (taken so
properly, and literally as they take it) is a killing; But the whole body of Christs
actions and passions, we sacrifice, wee represent, wee offer to God. Calvin alone,
hath said enough, Non possumus, except we be assisted with outward things, wee cannot
fixe our selves upon God. Therefore is it part of the malediction here, that they shall
be sine Sacrificio, without Sacrifice; so is it also in inferiour helps, sine Ephod, they shall
be without an Ephod. The Ephod amongst the Jews, Sine Ephod. was a garment, which did not onely distinguish times,
(for it was worne onely in time of divine Service) but, even in time of divine Service,
it distinguished persons too. For, Exod. 26. 6. we have a Pontificall Ephod, peculiar onely to the high
Priest; And we have a Leviticall Ephod, 1 Sam. 2. 18. belonging to all the Levites; (Samuel mi-
nistred before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linnen Ephod.) And wee have a
common Ephod, which, any man, that assisted in the service of God might weare; That
linnen Ephod, 2 Sam. 6. 14. which David put on, in that Procession, when he daunced before the Ark.
But all these Ephods were bound under certain Laws, to be worn by such men, and at such
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such times. Christs garment was not divided; nay, the Soldiers were not divided about
it, but agreed in one way; And shall wee, (the Body of Christ) bee divided about
the garment, that is, vary in the garment, by denying a conformity to that Decency
which is prescribed? When Christ devested, or supprest the Majesty of his outward
appearance, Ioh. 20. 15. at his Resurrection, Mary Magdalen took him but for a Gardiner. Eccle-
siasticall persons in secular habits, lose their respect. Though the very habit bee but a
Ceremony, yet the distinction of habits is rooted in nature, and in morality; And when
the particular habit is enjoyned by lawfull Authority, obedience is rooted in nature,
and in morality too. In a Watch, the string moves nothing, but yet, it conserves the
regularity of the motion of all. Rituall, and Ceremoniall things move not God, but
they exalt that Devotion, and they conserve that Order, which does move him.
Therefore is it also made a part of the Commination, that they shall be sine Ephod, with-
out these outward Rituall, and Ceremoniall solemnities of a Church; first, without Sa-
crifices, which are more substantiall and essentiall parts of Religion, (as wee consider
Religion to be the outward worship of God, and then, without Ephod, without those other
assistances, which, though they be not of Gods Revenue, yet they are of his Subsidies,
and though they be not the soule, yet are the breath of Religion. And so also is it of things
of a more inferiour nature then Sacrifice or Ephod, that is of Image and Teraphim, which
is our next, and last Consideration. Both these words, Imago, Te-
raphim. (that which is translated, and called Image, and that which is
not translated, but kept in the originall word, Teraphim) have sometimes a good,
sometimes a bad sense in the Scriptures. In the first, Image, there is no difficulty;
good and bad significations of that word, are obvious every where. And for the
other, Gen. 31. 19. though when Rachel stole her fathers Teraphim, (Images) though when the King
of Babylon consulted with Teraphim, (Images) Ezek. 21. 21. the word Teraphim have an ill sense,
yet, 1 Sam. 19. 13. when Michal, Davids wife, put an Image into his bed, to elude the fury of Saul,
there the word hath no ill sense. Accept the words in an Idolatrous sense, yet, be-
cause they fall under the commination, and that God threatens it, as a part of their
calamity, that they should bee without their Idols, it hath beene, not inconveniently,
argued from this place, that even a Religion mixt with some Idolatry, and superstiti-
on, is better then none, as in Civill Government a Tyranny is better then an Anar-
chy. And therefore we must not bring the same indisposition, the same disaffection to-
wards a person mis-led, and soured with some leaven of Idolatry, as towards a person
possest with Atheisme. And yet, how ordinarily wee see, zealous men start, and affe-
cted, and troubled at the presence of a Papist, and never moved, never forbeare the
society and conversation of an Atheist: Which is an argument too evident, that wee
consider our selves more then God, and that peace which the Papist endangers, more
then the Atheist, (which is, the peace of the State, and a quiet enjoying our ease) above
the glory of God, which the Atheist wounds, and violates more then the Papist; The
Papist withdraws some of the glory of God, in ascribing it to the Saints, to them-
selves, and their own merits, but the Atheist leaves no God to be glorified. And this
use we have of these words, Images, and Teraphim, if they should have an ill sense in this
place, and signifie Idols. But Saint Hierome, and others with him, take these words, in a good sense; to bee
the Cherubim, and Palmes, and such other representations, as God himselfe had ordai-
ned in their Temple; and that the Commination falls upon this, That in some cases,
it may bee some want, to bee without some Pictures in the Church. So farre as they
may conduce to a reverend adoring of the place, so farre as they may conduce to a
familiar instructing of unlettered people, it may be a losse to lack them. For, so much
Calvin, out of his religious wisdome, Institut. 1. 11. 7. is content to acknowledge, Fateor, ut res se ha-
bet hodiè, &c. I confesse, as the case stands now, (says hee) (speaking of the beginning
of the Reformation) there are many that could not bee without those Bookes, (as hee
calls those Pictures) because then they had no other way of Instruction; but, that that
might bee supplied, if those things which were delivered in picture, to their eyes, were
delivered in Sermons to their eares. And this is true, that where there is a frequent
preaching, there is no necessity of pictures; but will not every man adde this, That
if the true use of Pictures bee preached unto them, there is no danger of an abuse;
and so, as Remembrancers of that which hath been taught in the Pulpit, they Kk may
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may be retained; And that was one office of the Holy Ghost himselfe, That he should
bring to their remembrance those things, which had been formerly taught them. And
since, by being taught the right use of these pictures, in our preaching, no man amongst
us, is any more enclined, or endangered to worship a picture in a Wall or Window of
the Church, then if he saw it in a Gallery, were it onely for a reverent adorning of the
place, they may bee retained here, as they are in the greatest part of the Reformed
Church, 10 Eliz. 1559. and in all that, that is properly Protestant. And though the Injunctions of our
Church, declare the sense of those times, concerning Images, yet they are wisely and
godly conceived; for the second is, That they shall not extoll Images, (which is not, that
they shall not set them up) but, (as it followeth) They shall declare the abuse thereof. And
when in the 23 Injunction, it is said, That they shall utterly extinct, and destroy, (amongst
other things) pictures, yet it is limited to such things, and such pictures, as are monuments
of feigned miracles; and that Injuction reaches as well to pictures in private houses, as
in Churches, and forbids nothing in the Church, that might be retained in the house.
For those pernicious Errors, which the Romane Church hath multiplied in this point, not
onely to make Images of men, which never were, but to make those Images of men,
very men, to make their Images speak, and move, and weep, and bleed; to make Images
of God who was never seen, and to make those Images of God, very gods; to make their
Images doe daily miracles; to transferre the honour due to God, to the Image, and
then to encumber themselves with such ridiculous riddles, and scornfull distinctions,
as they doe, for justifying unjustifiable, unexcusable, uncolourable enormities, Væ Ido-
lolatris, woe to such advancers of Images, as would throw down Christ, rather then his
Image: But Væ Iconeclastis too, woe to such peremptory abhorrers of Pictures, and to
such uncharitable condemners of all those who admit any use of them, as had rather
throw down a Church, then let a Picture stand. Laying hold upon S. Hieromes expo-
sition, that fals within the Væ, the Commination of this Text, to be without those Sa-
crifices, those Ephods, those Images, as they are outward helps of devotion. And,
laying hold, not upon S. Hierome, but upon Christ himselfe, who is the God of love,
and peace, and unity, yet fals under a heavy, and insupportable Væ, to violate the peace
of the Church, for things which concern it not fundamentally. Problematicall things
are our silver, but fundamentall, our gold; problematicall out sweat, but fundamentall
our blood. If our Adversaries would be bought in, with our silver, with our sweat,
we should not be difficult in meeting them halfe way, in things, in their nature, indiffe-
rent. But if we must pay our Gold, our Blood, our fundamentall points of Religion, for
their friendship, A Fortune, a Liberty, a Wife, a Childe, a Father, a Friend, a Master,
a Neighbour, a Benefactor, a Kingdome, a Church, a World, is not worth a dramme
of this Gold, a drop of this Blood. Neither will that man, who is truly rooted in this
foundation, redeeme an Empoverishing, an Emprisoning, a Dis-inheriting, a Confining,
an Excommunicating, a Deposing, with a dramme of this Gold, with a drop of this
Blood, the fundamentall Articles of our Religion. Blessed be that God, who, as he is
without change or colour of change, hath kept us without change, or colour of change,
in all our foundations; And he in his time bring our Adversaries to such a moderation
as becomes them, who doe truly desire, that the Church may bee truly Catholique, one
stock, in one fold, under one Shepherd, though not all of one colour, of one practise in all
outward and disciplinarian points. Amen. SER.
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Sermon XLII.
A Sermon Preached in Saint Pauls in the Evening,
November 23. 1628.
Prov. 14. 31.
He that oppresseth the poore, reprocheth his Maker, but he that honoureth him, hath mercy
on the poore. Part of the first Lesson, for that Evening Prayer. THeseThese are such words, as if we were to consider the words onely, might
make a Grammar Lecture, and a Logick Lecture, and a Rhetorick
and Ethick, a Philosophy Lecture too; And of these foure Elements
might a better Sermon then you are like to heare now, be well
made. Indeed they are words of a large, of an extensive compre-
hension. And because all the words of the Word of God, are, in a
great measure, so, that invites me to stop a little, as upon a short
first part before the rest, or as upon a long entrie into the rest, to consider, not onely the
powerfulnesse of the matter, but the sweetnesse and elegancy of the words of the Word of
God in generall, before I descend to the particular words of this Text, He that oppres-
seth the poore, &c. We may justly accommodate those words of Moses, Deut. 3. 24. to God the Father, What God is
there in Heaven, or in Earth, that can doe according to thy workes? And those words of
Jeremie, to God the Sonne, Behold, and see, if there be any sorrow, like unto my sorrow;
And those to the Holy Ghost which are in Lam. 1. 12. Esay, Loquimini, ad Cor, speake to the heart,
speake comfortably to my People, And those of Saint John too, Apoc. 4. 1. 10. 3. A voyce of Thunder, and
after, A voyce of seaven Thunders talking with me: for, who can doe, like the Father,
who can suffer like the Sonne, who can speake like the Holy Ghost? Eloquia Domini,
eloquia casta, Psal. 12. 6. saith David, The words of the Lord are chaste words, sincere, pure words,
no drosse, no profanenesse, no such allay mingled with them; for, as it followeth there,
They are as silver tried and purified seaven times in the fire. They are as that silver,
that is so tried, and they are as that fire that trieth it. It is Castum, a Pure Word in it
self, and then it is powerfull upon the Hearer too; Ignitum Eloquium tuum vehementer,
saith he, Psal. 119. 140. Thy word hath the vehement operation of fire; and therefore, thy servant
loveth it well, as it followeth there; Therefore, because it pierces; But therefore espe-
cially, because it carrieth a sweetnesse with it. For, the sting of the Serpent pierces, and
the toothe of the Viper pierces, but they carry venenosam salivam, a venimous and mis-
chievous liquour with them. 103. But Dulcia faucibus super Mel, Thy words are sweeter to
my mouth, then Hony; Prov. 16. 24. then Hony it selfe. For, verba composita, saith Solomon, chosen
words, studied, premeditated words, pleasing words, (so we translate it) are as a Hony-
combe. Now, in the Hony combe, the Hony is collected and gathered, and dispensed,
and distributed from the Hony-combe, And of this Hony-combe is wax, wax apt for
sealing, derived too. The distribution of this Hony to the Congregation, The sealing
of this Hony to the Conscience, is in the outward Ordinance of God, and in the labour of
the Minister, and his conscionable fitting of himselfe for so great a service. But the
Hony-Combe is not the Hony, The gifts of the man, is not the Holy Ghost. Jacob laid
this blessing upon his sonne Naphtali, Dabit Eloquia pulchritudinis; Gen. 49. 21. That he should be
a well-spoken, and a perswasive man. For, of a defect in this kinde, Moses complained,
and so did Esay, and Jeremie did so too, when they were to be imployed in Gods service,
Moses that he was of uncircumcised; Esay that he was of unclean lips, and Jeremie that Kk2 he
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he was a Childe, and could not speak; and therefore this was a Blessing upon Naph-tali, that hee should bee a well-spoken, and a perswasive man. For so, Moses, after
God had farther inabled him, Deut. 32. 1. saith, Give eare, O yee Heavens, and I will speake;
Heare O Earth, the words of my mouth, My mouth, saith Moses; The Minister of God, that
cometh with convenient gifts, and due preparation, may speak such things, as Earth,
and Heaven it selfe may be content to heare. For, Ephes. 3. 10. when Saint Paul saith, That to the
Principalities, and Powers in Heavenly places, the manifold wisdome of God, is made
known by the Church, that is, by the Ministery, and Service of the Church, and by that
which is done here, wee may congruously and piously beleeve, that even those Prin-
cipalities and Powers in Heavenly places, The Angels of Heaven doe heare our Sermons,
and hearken how the glory of God is communicated, and accepted, and propagated
through the Congregation; and as they rejoyce at the conversion of a Sinner, so re-
joyce also at the means of their Conversion, the powerfull, and the congruous preach-
ing of the Word of God. And therefore, let no man, though an Angell of the Church,
though an Archangell of the Church, Heb. 13. 2. Bishop or Archbishop, refuse to heare a man of ime-
riour place, or inferiour parts to himself; neither let any man be discouraged by the few-
nesse or meannesse of his Hearers: For, as the Apostle saith, with relation to Abra-
ham, Entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares, so, preach
to all, and that seat that thou thinkest empty, may have Angels in it: To them is the
manifold Wisedome of God made knowne by the Church, and Angels are here;
here, for the augmentation of their owne Joy, in their fresh knowledge of the propaga-
tion of the Kingdome of God, in this Congregation, and they are here, for their Ac-
cusation that are not here, but frivolously and causelessely absent, or negligently, ab-
sently present, if they be here. Therefore Moses might say, Give eare O yee Heavens,
though it bee but I, that speake; And hee might add, as he doth there, My Doctrine
shall droppe as the rain, and my speech shall distll as the dew. And why? Because I will
publish the Name of the Lord, saith Moses there; because I will deliver the Messages
of my God to his People. What though you doe, must this be ascribed unto you? no, Moses claimeth not
that; for when hee had said, Give eare, O yee Heavens, (let no man thinke himselfe
too high, or too wise to heare me) and called it his Doctrine, and his speech, be-
cause he published the Name of the Lord, yet he transferreth all upon God himselfe,
He establisheth their attentions with that Ascribe yee Greatnesse unto our God. It be-
commeth me to make my selfe as acceptable a messenger as I can, and to infuse the
Word of God into you, as powerfully as I can, but all that I can doe, is but a small
matter, the greatnesse of the worke lieth in your Application, and that must proceed
from the Word of God it selfe, quickned by his Spirit, and therefore Ascribe all Great-
nesse unto our God, for that is the Hony, whatsoever, or whosoever be the Hony-
combe. Truely, when I reade a Sermon of Chrysostome, or of Chrysologus, or of Am-
brose, Men, who carry in the very signification of their Names, and in their Histories,
the attributes of Hony mouthed, and Golden-mouthed Men, I finde my selfe oftentimes,
more affected, with the very Citation, and Application of some sentence of Scripture,
in the middest or end of one of their Sermons, then with any witty, or forcible pas-
sage of their owne. And that is it, which Saint Hierome doth especially magnifie in
Saint Paul. After he had said, Quotiescunque lego, non verba mihi videor, sed tonitrua
audire, wheresoever I open Saint Pauls Epistles, it is not a word or a sentence, but a
clappe of Thunder, that flieth out; he addeth moreover, Legatis, doe but use your selves
to the reading of Saint Pauls Epistles, Videbitis, in testimoniis quæ sumit, ex veteri Te-
stamento, quàm Artifex sit, quàm prudens, you will easily see how artificially, how dex-
terously, how cunningly, and how discreetly he makes his use of those places which he
citeth out of the Old Testament; Videntur verba Innocentis, & rusticani; you would
take them saith hee, sometimes for words of some plain Country-man, (as some of
the Prophets were no other;) But before Saint Paul have done with those words,
Fulmina sunt, & capiunt omne quod tangunt, hee maketh you see, that they are
flashes of lightning, and that they possesse, and melt, affect and dissolve every soul
they touch. And hence it is, Beloved, that I return so often at home in my private Me-
ditations, that I present so often to Gods People in these Exercises, this Considera-
tion, That there are not so exquisite, so elegant Bookes in the World, as the Scriptures; neither
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neither is any one place a more pregnant example thereof, for the purity and ele-gancy, for the force and power, for the largenesse and extention of the words, then
these which the Holy Ghost hath taken in this Text, Hee that oppresseth the poore,
reproaches his Master, &c. And so we passe from this first Consideration, The power
and Elegancy of the whole word of God, in generall, to the same consideration in these
particular words. The Matter, Divisio. which in the generall is but this, That the poor must bee relieved, being
a Doctrine obvious to all; The Manner wil rather be our object, at this time: How
the Holy Ghost, by Solomons hand, hath enwrapped this Doctrine, in these words,
How the Omission of this Duty is aggravated, how the performance thereof is celebrated
in this Text, and in the force and elegancies thereof. Mans perversenesse hath chan-
ged Gods method; God made man good, but in a possibility of being ill; Now, God
findes man ill, but in a possibility of being good. When man was good, and enabled
to continue so, God began with him, with affirmative Commandements; Commande-
ments that implied liberty and Soveraignty; such as that, Subjicite & Dominamini,
Subdue the Creature, and rule over the Creature; and he comes not till after, to Ne-
gative, to Prohibitive Commandments, Commandments that imply infirmity, and ser-
vility; such as this, Of this Tree thou shalt not eate, upon thy life; this life, and the next,
thou shalt not. But now, because God findes man ill, and prone to bee worse, God
is faine to change his method, and to begin, and stop him at first with negative, and
prohibitive Commandments. So he does in the thirty fourth Psalm, ver. 14. (which
is also again repeated) first, 1 Pet. 3. 10. Depart from evill, and then, Doe good. For man brings
with him something into the world now, to forget, and to unlearn, before he can take
out any new lesson: Man is so farre from being good of himselfe, as that he must for-
get himselfe, devest himselfe, forsake himselfe, before he can be capable of any good.
And such is the method of our Text; Because God sees a naturall declination in man,
to abuse his power, to the oppression of inferiours, hee begins with that Prohibition,
Oppresse not the poore; And then when he hath brought them to that moderation, and
that temper, then he carries them farther towards perfection, to an honouring of God
in shewing mercy to the poor. In which method, so disposed into two parts, the fault first, and then the duty, we
shall proceed by these steps; First, in the first, we shall consider the fault it self, Op-
pression; which, in generall, is an unjust damnifying of others. And secondly, the
specification of the Persons, the Poore; for others, our Superiours, we may unjustly
damnifie too; but that is a fault of another nature; I should rather call it envy, or
emulation, or ambition, or supplantation, then oppression; and therefore that second
branch will fairly admit a little disquisition, a short comparison of those two kindes
of sinnes, Whether emulation of superiours, or oppression of inferiours, bee in the nature,
and roote thereof, the greater sinne. In which latter sinne, which is properly the sinne
of our Text, that is, oppression of the poore, we shall see, (in a third branch) the iniquity,
and hainousnesse thereof aggravated in this, that it is said to bee a Reproach, a
Contumely; and Contumely, and Reproach, against whomsoever it bee bent; hath
always a venemous, and a mischievous Nature. But much more here, where it is
bent against God himselfe; and against God in that supreme, and primary notion, as
a Creator, as a Maker, He reproaches the Maker; But then whose Maker? If I should
say I cannot tell, the words themselves, and the construction thereof, in the vari-
ety of the Hebrew Grammars, would justifie mine ignorance, for they will not ad-
mit it to bee easily determined, whether it bee Factorem ejus, or Factorem suum,
whether he that oppresses the poore, be said to reproach his Maker that is made poore,
or his own Maker: And therefore we shall make our use of both; for both meet to
aggravate the fault; If I oppresse the poore, I reproach him that made that poore man,
and made that man poore, and I reproach him that made me. And in these circumstan-
ces, The fault, Oppression; the specification of the Persons, the Poore; the Probleme,
the Comparison of the two sinnes; the Aggravation, as it is a Reproach, a reproach
against God, and God as a Creator, as his Creator, as my Creator, wee shall deter-
mine that first part. And when in our order thus proposed, wee shall come
to our second Part, which is the recommendation, and celebration of the Du-
ty it selfe, To honour God, by shewing mercy to the poore, wee shall first consider Kk3 the
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the persons, the poore; and then the act, to shew mercy to the poore; and lastly the effect,
and benefit thereof; for, as the omission of the duty was aggravated with that, that it
was a reproaching of God, the performance thereof is exalted by this, That it is an ho-
nouring of God. After all which we shall conclude all, with the consideration of that
which is indeed the poorest of all, the sickest, and sorest, and saddest, the feeblest and
faintest, the wretchedest, and miserablest thing in the world, your owne souls; and lead
you to see, how you do reproach God in oppressing, how you might honour God in
shewing mercy to those poore souls of yours. And this will be the compasse, in which I
shall lead your devotions for this houre; this will be the circle, which from this center,
reliefe of the poore, (which is the summe, and resultance of the Text) and by these poles,
the hainousnesse of the fault, the happinesse of the duty, I shall designe unto you. We proposed at first, to consider our two parts, 1 Part. the fault, and the duty, in the ele-
gancy of the words chosen by the holy Ghost here, according to their origination, and
extraction, in the nature of the words, and their latitude and extension, in their use, in
other places of Scripture. That we shall do; and in that way, our first word is oppres-
sion; Gnashak in the Originall; and Gnashak, as it does oftentimes signifie vim, violence,
and force, so does it often signifie dolum, deceit and fraud also: so that violence and de-
ceit concurre in this oppression. And more then they. For Solomon does not depart
from that which he meanes, Prov. 17. 5. when he sayes here, He that oppresses the poore, reproaches
his Maker, when he sayes in another place, He that macks the poore, reproaches his Ma-
ker. So that now these three, violence, and deceit, and scorne are the elements, the in-
gredients that make up this oppression. There is not a more brutish thing then vio-
lence; amongst beasts all goes by force. There is not a more devillish thing then de-
ceit; the Serpent destroyed us all by that. But man hath raised a degree of oppression,
beyond beasts, and their violence, and beyond the devill, and his falshood, that is, scorn.
For, though the devill oppresse man, and hate man, he does not scorne man; he findes
man a considerable enemy. For when he hath throwne a man into the world, oppressed
with originall sinne, that man is not therefore his; the Sacrament of Baptisme frustrates
him of that Title. When he hath oppressed him in the world, by actuall and habituall
sinnes, that man is not therefore his, for a worthy receiving of the body and blood of
Christ Jesus frustrates him of that Title. And how weake soever man be in himselfe,
yet, in Christo omnia possumus, There is one man (and in that one man are all men, that
is, all mankinde, enwrapped) who lye open to the Serpent onely in his heele, and the
Serpent to him, in his head; and in him, Omnia possumus, in Christ, the weakest man can
do any thing. The Devill could oppresse Job with violence; fire, and sword, and ruine
upon his goods, and cattell, and servants, and children, and himself too. The Devill
could oppresse him with deceit, corrupt the wife of his bosome, to tempt him to despe-
ration; but he never came to scorne Job; for he saw Job did not serve God for nought;
Job had good wages, and God had hedged him, enclosed him, for himself. Scorne is an
affection, that implies such a heighth above another, as cannot be justified in any but
God himself. Man can oppresse by deceit; The Kings of the earth take counsell together;
they study how to circumvent; Psal. 2. 2. and man can oppresse with violence; there they breake
bands asunder, and cast away cords; they will be bound by no lawes. But then, it is
onely God, who there laughs them to scorne, and hath them in derision. Now here, the
oppressor practises the beasts part, he comes to violence, and the Devils part, he comes
to deceit, and he usurps upon Gods part, he comes to that heighth, as to think he may
scorn and contemne. And whom? for that is our next consideration; he oppresseth
the poore, he treads down the poore; him that was dust before, he treads into dirt, ma-
cerated with his own sweat, his own tears, his own blood. He oppresses him with de-
ceit; the credulous and confident wretch, who, because he is harmlesse in himself, is
fearelesse of others, he betrayes, he circumvents. And he oppresses with scorne; him
whom poverty hath made the subject of pity and of prayers, he makes the anvile of
scorne and of jeasts. For, so far, our first word, Gnashak, carries his signification and our
meditation, he oppresses by violence, by deceit, by scorne, brutishly, devillishly, and more,
(which is the qualification of the fault, and was our first consideration) and all this upon
the poore, (which is the specification of the persons, and is our second.) You see who this oppressor is, and how you may know him; you have his markes; Pauper.
Violence, deceit, scorne. But who is this poor man, and how shall you know him? How shall
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shall you know, whether he that askes be truly poor or no? Truly, beloved, there is
scarce any one thing, in which our ignorance is more excusable then in this, To know
whether he to whom we give, be truly poor, or no: In no case is our inconsideration more
pardonable, then in this. God will never examine me very strictly, why I was no
stricter in examining that mans condition to whom I gave mine almes. If I give to one
that is poor in my sight, I shall finde that almes upon Gods score, amongst them, who
were poor in Gods sight: And my mistaking the man, shall never make God mistake my
meaning. Where I finde undeniable, unresistible evidence to the contrary, when I see a
man able in his limbes live in continuall idlenesse, when I see a man poore in his meanes,
and oppressed with his charge, spend in continuall drunkennesse, in this case, I were the
oppressor of the poor, Apoc. 22. 19. if I should give to that man, for this were to give the childrens
bread to dogs. And that is not a name too bad for them; for, foris Canes, they are
dogs that are without, that is, without the Church: And how few of these, who make
beggery an occupation from their infancy, were ever within Church, how few of them
ever Christned, or ever maried? Foris Canes, they are dogs, that are without; and the
Childrens bread must not be given to Dogs. But to pursue our first intention, and so to
finde out these poor in the origination of the words chosen by the holy Ghost here, we
have in this text two words for the poor. One is Ebion; and Ebion is a begger. It was
the name given to one of those first heretiques who occasioned the writing of St. Johns
Gospell; he was called Ebion. So that it may well be imagined, that those first Here-
tiques were Mendicants: Men that professed begging, and lived upon the labours, and
sweat of other men. For the Ebionit is a begger; not onely he that needs, but he that
declares his need, that askes, that craves, that begs: for, the root of Ebion is Ahab;
which is not onely to desire, but to declare that desire, to aske, to crave, to beg. Now,
this poor man must be relieved. The charity that God required in Israel, was, Deut. 15.4.
22. 16. that no
man should be put to this necessity, but provided for otherwise; There shall be no begger
amongst you; for, there is our very word, no Ebionite; that is, no poor man shall be put
to beg. But yet in the Prophet Jeremy, that man is well spoken of, that did good even
to the Ebionit, to the begger; he that is brought to a necessity of asking, must be re-
lieved. Not that we are not bound to give, till another aske, or never to open our
hand, till another open his mouth; for, as Saint John did, in the beginning of the Re-
velation, a man may see a sound, see a voice. A sad aspect, a pale look, a hollow cheek, a
bloudlesse lip, a sonke eye, a trembling hand, speake so lowd, as that if I will not heare
them from him, God will heare them against me. In many cases, and with many per-
sons, it is a greater anguish to aske, then to want; and easier to starve, then to beg;
therefore I must hearken after another voice, and with another organ; I must hearken
with mine eye. Many times I may see need speake, when the needy man says nothing,
and his case may cry aloud, when he is silent. Therefore I must lay mine eare to the
ground, and hearken after them that lie in the dust, and enquire after the distresses of
such men; for this is an imitation of Gods preventing grace, that grace, then which we
can conceive no higher thing in God himselfe, (that God should be found of them, that
seek him not) if I relieve that man, that was ashamed to tell me he wanted. The Ebionit
the begger, but not he onely, must be relieved: for our word, in this part of the text,
is not Ebion, but a word derived from Dalal; and Dalal, in this word, signifies Exhau-
stum, attenuatum, a man whose former estate is exhausted, and gone, or whose present
labours doe not prosper, but that God, for ends best known to himselfe, exercises him
with continuall poverty; the word signifies also a man enfeebled, and decrepit with age;
and more then that, Esay 38. 11. the word signifies sicknesse too: for this very word we have in Heze-
kiahs mouth, The Lord will cut me off with sicknesse. So that now you have the specifi-
cation of the person, who is the poor man, that is most properly the object of your
charity, he whose former estate is wasted, and not by his vices, but by the hand of God,
He whose present industry does not prosper, He who is overtaken with Age, and so the
lesse able to repaire his wants, and in his age, afflicted with sicknesse, and so the lesse able
to indure his wants. And this poor man, this labouring man, this decayed man, this
aged man, this sickly man, this oppressor in our text pursues; and pursues with violence,
with deceit, with scorne. And so have you the qualification of the fault, (which was our
first) and the specification of the persons, which was our second consideration. But before we depart from this branch, Problema. I remember, I asked leave at first, onely to share
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stirre this consideration, onely to propound this Probleme, onely to aske this question,
whether Envy, and Emulation, and supplantation of Superiors, or this oppression, and con-
culcation of Inferiours in this kinde, were in the nature, and root thereof, the greater sinne;
and surely the sentence, and the Judgement will be against this oppressor of the poor.
For, Envy, conceived against a man in place, hath evermore some emulation of those
gifts, which enable a man for that place. Whosoever labours to supplant another, that
he may succeed, will in some measure endevour to be fit for that succession. So that,
though it be but a squint-eye, and not a direct look, yet some eye, some aspect, the en-
vious man hath upon vertue. Besides, he that envies a higher person, he does not practise
(as the Poet says) sine talione; He deales with a man that can be at full even with him,
and can deale as ill with him. But he that oppresses the poor, digs in a dunghill for
wormes; And he departs from that posture, which God, in nature gave him, that is,
erect, to look upward; for his eye is always down, upon them, that lie in the dust, under
his feet. Certainly, he that seares up himselfe, and makes himselfe insensible of the
cries, and curses of the poor here in this world, does but prepare himselfe for the how-
lings, & gnashings of teeth, in the world to come. It is the Serpents taste, the Serpents diet,
Dust shalt thou eate all the days of thy life; and he feeds but on dust, that oppresses the poor.
And as there is evidently, more inhumanity, more violation of nature, in this oppression,
then in emulation, so may there well seem to be more impiety, and more violation of
God himselfe, by that word, which the holy Ghost chooses in the next place, which is
Reproach, He that oppresses the poor, reproaches his Maker. This word, Reproach. which we translate to Reproach, Theodotion translates to Blaspheme:
And blasphemy is an odious thing, even towards men. For, men may be blasphemed.
The servant of God, Act. 6. 11. Moses, is blasphemed, as well as God: And Goliah blasphemed
the Israel of God, as well as the God of Israel; and, for the most part, where we read 1 Chron. 20.
Reviling, the word is Blaspheming. Our word here, (that we may still pursue our first
way, a reverent consideration of the elegancy of the Scriptures, in the origination of the
words) is Charak; and this word Job uses, as it is used in our text, for reproach, My
heart shall not reproach me, so long as I live. 27. 6. And this, this reproaching of the heart, is,
in many cases, a Blaspheming, and a strange one, a self-blaspheming. When I have had,
by the goodnesse of Gods Spirit, a true sense of my sinnes, a true remorse, and repen-
tance of those sinnes, true Absolution from those sinnes, true seales of reconciliation after
those sinnes, true diligence, and preclusion of occasions of relapsing into those sinnes,
still to suspect my state in Gods favour, and my full redintegration with him, still to
deny my selfe that peace, which his Spirit, by these meanes, offers me, still to call my
repentance imperfect, and the Sacramentall seales ineffectuall, still to accuse my selfe of
sinnes, thus devested, thus repented, this is to reproach, this is to to blaspheme mine owne
soule. If I will say with Job, My heart shall reproach me of nothing, this is not, that I will
accuse my selfe of no sinne, or say, the elect of God cannot sinne, no, nor that God sees
not the sinnes of the elect, nor that God is not affected, or angry with those sinnes, and
those sinners, as long as they remaine unrepented, but after I have accused my selfe of
those sinnes, and brought them into Judgement, by way of Confession, and received my
pardon under seale, in the Sacrament, and pleaded that pardon, to the Church, by a sub-
sequent amendment of life, then I reproach my selfe of nothing, for this were a self-blas-
pheming, and a reproaching of mine owne soule. Now, the word of our text, in the
root thereof, Charak, is manifestare; prostituere; It is to publish the fault, or to prosti-
tute the fame of any man, extrajudicially, not in a right forme of Judgement, and a-
mongst those men, who are not to be his Judges. So to fill itching eares with rumours,
and whisperings, so to minister matter and fuell to fiery tongues, so to lay imputations,
and aspersions upon men, though that which we say, of those men, be true, is a libelling,
is a calumny, is a blaspheming and a reproach, in the word of this text: for it is mani-
festare, prostituere, to publish a mans faults, and to prostitute a mans fame, there, where
his faults can receive no remedy, if they be true, nor his fame Reparation, if they be false.
It is properly, to speake ill of a man, and not before a competent Judge. And in such a
sense, a man may reproach God himselfe. But is there then a Judge between God and man? Shall not the Judge of all the earth Deus.
doe right? is Abrahams question; Gen. 18. 25. but there, that Judge of all the earth, is God himself.
But is there a Judge of heaven too? A Judge between God and man, for Gods pro-
ceeding
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ceeding there? There is. The Scripture is a Judge, by which God himself will be tryed.
As the Law is our Judge, and the Judge does but declare what is Law, so the Scripture
is our Judge, and God proceeds with us according to those promises and Judgements,
which he hath laid down in the Scripture. Esay 5. 3. When God says in Esay, Judge betweene
me and my Vineyard, certainly, God means that there is something extant, some con-
tract, some covenant, something that hath the nature of a Law, some visible, some le-
gible thing, to judge by. And Christ tels us what that is; Search the Scriptures. says
hee; for, by them wee must bee tryed for our lives. So then, if I come to thinke that
God will call me in question for my life, for my eternall life, by any way that hath not
the Nature of a Law, (And, by the way, it is of the Nature and Essence of a Law, be-
fore it come to bind, that it be published) if I think that God will condemn me, by any
unrevealed will, any reserved purpose in himself, this is to reproach God, in the word of
this Text, for it is prostituere, to prostitute, to exhibit God, otherwise then he hath exhi-
bited himselfe, and to charge God with a proceeding upon secret and unrevealed purposes,
and not rest in his Scriptures. God will try us at last, God himself will be tryed all the
way by his Scriptures; And to charge God with the damnation of men, otherwise then
by his Tantummodo Crede, I have commanded thee to beleeve, and thou hast not done
that, And by his Fac hoc & vives, I have commanded thee, to live well, and thou hast
not done that, which are conditions evidently laid downe in the Scriptures, and not
grounded upon any secret purpose, is a reproaching of God, in the word of this Text. This, Factorem. this Oppressor of the poor is said to doe here; He reproaches the Maker; God,
in that notion, as he is the Creator. Now this is the clearest notion, and fastest appre-
hension, and first handle that God puts out to man, to lay hold upon him by, as hee is
The Creator. For though God did elect mee, before hee did actually create mee, yet
God did not mean to elect mee, before hee meant to create mee; when his purpose was
upon me, to elect me, surely his purpose had passed upon me, to create mee; for when
he elected me, I was I. So that this is our first notion of God towards us, as he is The
Creator. The School will receive a pregnant child from his parents, and work upon
him; The Vniversity will receive a grounded Scholar from the School, and work upon
him; The State, or the Church, will receive a qualified person from the University, and
worke by him. But still the State, and the Church, and the University, and the first
School it self, had something to work upon; But God, in the Creation, had nothing
at all: He called us when we were not, as though we had been. Now, here in this
world, we make our selves; that is, we make one another: Kings make Judges, and
Judges make Officers: Bishops make Parsons, and Parsons make Curats: But when wee
consider our Creation, It is he that hath made us, and not we our selves; we did not onely
not doe any thing, but we could not doe so much as wish any thing to be done, towards
our Creation, till wee were created. In the Application of that great worke, The Re-
demption of mankinde, that is, in the conversion of a sinner, and the first act of that
conversion, though the grace of God work all, yet there is a faculty in man, a will in
man, which is in no creature but man, for that grace of God to worke upon; But in
the Creation there was nothing at all. I honour my Physician, upon the reasons that
the Wise man assignes; Ecclus. 38. 7. because he assists my health, and my well-beeing; But I honour
not my Physician with the same honour as my Father, who gave me my very Beeing.
I honour my God in all those notions, in which he hath vouchsafed to manifest himselfe
to me; Every particular blessing of his is a Remembrancer; but my Creation is a ho-
ly wonder, and a mysterious amazement. And therefore, as David, the Father, wraps
up all stubborn ignorance of God, in that, The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God;
so Solomon, the Son, Eccles. 12. 1. wraps up all knowledge of God in that, Remember thy Creator; still
contemplate God in that notion, as he made thee of nothing, for, upon that, all his o-
ther additions depend. And when thou comest to any post-Creations, any after-ma-
kings in this world, to be made rich, made wise, made great, Praise thou the Lord, blesse
him, and magnifie him for ever, for those Additions, and blesse him for having made
thee capable of those Additions, by something conferred upon thee before, That he gave
thee a patrimony from thy parents, and thine industry working upon that, made thee
rich; That he raised thee to Riches, and the Eye of the State looking upon that, made
thee Honourable; But still return to thy first making, thy Creation, as thou wast made
of nothing, nothing; so low, as that not sin it self, not sin against the holy Ghost him-
selfe
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selfe can cast thee so low again; nothing can make thee nothing; nothing that thou
canst doe here, nothing that thou canst suffer hereafter, can reduce thee to nothing. And
in this notion, this supreme, and Majesticall notion, does this oppressor of the poor re-
proach God; He reproaches the Maker. But then, whose Maker? for that is also a-
nother branch, another Disquisition. Here we accept willingly, Ejus. and entertain usefully their doubt, that will not resolve, whe-
ther our Gnoshehu in the Text, be Factorē Ejus, or Factorē Suum; whether this oppressor
of the poor be said here to reproach his Maker, that is made poor, or his own Maker.
Let them enjoy their doubt; Be it either; Be it both. First, let it be the poor Mans Maker,
And then, does this oppressor consider, that it is God that hath made that poor man, or
that hath made that man poor, and will he oppresse him then? If a man of those times,
had heard a song of Nero's making, & had been told that it was his, (as that Emperour
delighted in compositions of that kind) he would not, he durst not have said, that it was a
harsh, an untunable song. If a man saw a Clock or a Picture of his Princes making, (as some
Princes have delighted themselves with such manufactures) hee would not, he durst not
say, it was a disorderly Clock, or a disproportioned picture. Wise Fathers have foo-
lish children, and beautifull, deformed; yet we doe not oppresse, nor despise those chil-
dren, if we loved their parents; nor will we any poor man, if we truly love that God,
that made him poor; And, if his poverty be not of Gods making, but of the Devils,
induced by his riot and wastfulnesse, howsoever the poverty may be the Devils, still the
Man is of Gods making. Probris afficit factorem ejus, Suum. He reproaches Him that made that man poore, and
Probris afficit factorem suum, Hee reproaches that God who made him rich, his owne
Maker. Now, doth he consider, that the Devill hath super-induced a half-lycantro-
py upon him, The Devill hath made him half a wolfe, so much a wolfe as that he
would tear all that fall into his power, And half a spider, so much a spider, as that hee
would entangle all that come near him, And half a Viper, so much a Viper, as that he
would envenome all that any way provoke him. Does hee consider that the Devill
hath made him half a wolfe, halfe a spider, half a viper, and doth hee not consider that
that God that is his Maker, could have made him a whole Wolfe, a whole Spider, a
whole Viper, and left him in that rank of ignoble, and contemptible, and mischievous
creatures? Does he not consider, that that God that made him richer then others, can
make him a prey to others, & raise up enemies, that shall bring him to confusion, though
he had no other crimes, Therefore, because he is so rich? God can make his very riches
the occasion of his ruine here, and the occasion of his everlasting ruine hereafter, by ma-
king those riches snares and occasions of sin. God who hath made him, could have left
him unmade; or made him what he would; and he reproaches God, as though God could
have done nothing lesse for him, then he hath done, nor could not undone him now. But,
before we depart from this branch, consider we wherein this offender, this oppressor, sins
so very hainously, as to deserve so high an increpation, as to be said to Reproach, and to
Reproach God, and God in that supream Notion, A Maker, His Maker, and his own Maker.
If his fault be but neglecting or oppressing a poor man, why should it deserve all this?
In all these respects. First, In Orphanis. The poor are immediately in Gods protection. Rich and poore are in Gods ad-
ministration, in his government, in his providence; But the poor are immediately in his
protection. Tibi derelictus est pauper, Ps. 10. 14. says David, The poor commits himself unto thee.
They are Orphans, Wards, delivered over to his tuition, to his protection. Princes have
a care of all their Allies, but a more especiall care of those that are in their protection.
And the poor are such; And therefore God more sensible in their behalfe. And so, hee
that oppresses the poor, Reproaches God, God in his Orphans. Again, In Imagine. rich and poor are Images, Pictures of God; but, (as Clement of Alexandria says
wittily and strongly) The poor is Nuda Imago, a naked picture of God, a picture without
any drapery, any clothes about it. And it is much a harder thing, & there is much more
art showed in making a naked picture, then in all the rich attire that can be put upon it.
And howsoever the rich man, that is invested in Power, and Greatnesse, may be a better
picture of God, of God considered in himself, who is all Greatnes, all Power, yet, of God
considered in Christ, (which is the contemplation that concerns us most) the poor man is
the better picture, and most resembles Christ who liv'd in continual poverty. And so, he that
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that oppresses the poor, reproaches God, God in his Orphans, God in his Picture.
Saint Augustine carries this consideration farther, In Corpore. then that the poore is more im-mediately Gods Orphan, and more perfectly his picture, That he is more properly a
member of himself, of his body. For, contemplating that head, which was not so
much crowned as hedged with thorns, that head, of which, he whose it was, sayes, The
Sonne of man hath not where to lay his head, Matth. 8. 19. Saint Augustine sayes, Ecce caput Pauperum,
Behold that head, to which, the poore make up the body, Ob eam tantùm causam vene-
rabiles, sayes that Father, Therefore venerable, therefore honourable, because they are
members sutable to that head. And so, all that place, where the Apostle sayes, That
upon those members of the body, which we think to be lesse honourable, we bestow most honour,
1 Cor. 12. 23. that Father applies to the poore, that therefore most respect and honour should be gi-
ven to them, because the poore are more sutable members to their head Christ Jesus,
then the rich are. And so also, he that oppresses the poore reproaches God, God in
his Orphans, God in his Image, God in the Members of his owne body. Saint Chrysostome carries this consideration farther then this of Saint Augustine.
That whereas every creature hath filiationem vestigii, In Hæredibus. that because God hath imparted
a being, an essence, from himselfe, who is the roote, and the fountaine of all essence,
and all being, therefore every creature hath a filiation from God, and is the Sonne of
God so, as we read in Job, God is the father of the raine; and whereas every man hath
filiationem imaginis, as well Pagan as Christian, hath the Image of God imprinted in
his soule, and so hath a filiation from God, and is the Sonne of God, as he is made in
his likenesse; and whereas every Christian hath filiationem Pacti, by being taken into the
Covenant made by God, with the Elect, and with their seed, he hath a filiation from
God, and is the Sonne of God, as he is incorporated into his Sonne Christ Jesus, by
the Seals of the Christian Church; besides these filiations, of being in all creatures, of
the Image in all men, of the Covenant in all Christians, The poore, sayes that Father,
are not onely filii, but Hæredes, and Primogeniti, Sonnes and eldest Sonnes, Sonnes,
and Sonnes and Heires. And to that purpose he makes use of those words in St. James,
2. 5. Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poore of this world, rich in faith, and
Heirs of that Kingdome? Heirs, Mat. 5. 3. for, Ipsorum est, sayes Christ himself, Theirs is the King-
dome of heaven; And upon those words of Christ, Saint Chrysostome comments thus,
Divites ejus regnitantum habent, quantum à pauperibus, eleemosynis coemerunt, The rich
have no more of that Kingdome of heaven, then they have purchased of the poore,
by their almes, and other erogations to pious uses. And so he that oppresses the poore
reproaches God, God in his Orphans, God in his Image, God in the Members of his own
Body, God in his Sonnes, and Heires of his Kingdome. But then Christ himself carries his consideration, In Seipso. beyond all these resemblances,
and conformities, not to a proximity onely, but to an identity, The poore are He. Mat. 25. 40.In as
much as you did it unto these, you did it unto me; and, In as much as you did it not unto
these, you did it not unto me. And after his ascension, and establishing in glory, still he
avowed them, not onely to be his, but to be He, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
The poore are He, He is the poore. And so, he that oppresseth the poore, reproaches
God, God in his Orphans, God in his Image, God in the Members of his owne Body,
God in the Heirs of his Kingdome, God in himself, in his own person. And so we have
done with all those peeces, which constitute our first part, the hainousnesse of the fault,
in the elegancy of the words chosen by the holy Ghost, in which you have seen, The
fault it self, Oppression, and the qualification thereof, by the marks, Violence, Deceit, and
Scorne. And then the specification of the persons, The poore, as he is the Ebionite, the
very vocall begger, and as the word is Dalal, a decayed, an aged, a sickly man; And in
that branch, you have also had that Probleme, Whether æmulation of higher, or op-
pression of lower, be the greater sinne: And then, the aggravation of this sinne, in
those weights, That it is a reproach, a reproach of God, of God as The Maker, as His
Maker whom he oppresses, and as his own Maker; And lastly, in what respects especi-
ally this increpation is laid upon him. And farther we have no occasion to carry that
first part, the fault. In passing from that first part, the fault, to the duty, and the celebration thereof, 2 Part. in
those words of choice elegancy, He that hath mercy on the poore, honours God, though
we be to looke upon the persons, the poore, and the act, shewing mercy to the poore, and
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and the benefit, honouring of God, yet, of the persons, (who are still the same poore,
poore, made poore by God, rather then by themselves) more needs not be said, then hath
been said already. And of the act, showing of mercy to the poore, onely thus much more
needs be said, that the word, in which, the holy Ghost expresses this act here, is the ve-
ry same word, Exod. 33. 19. in which, he expresses the free mercy of God himself, Miserebor cujus mi-
serebor, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show
mercy. So that God hath made the charitable man partaker with himself, in his own grea-
test attribute, his power of showing mercy. And then, left any man should thinke, that he
had no interest in this great dignity, that God had given him no meanes to partake of
this attribute of God, this power of shewing mercy to the poor, because he had left him
poor too, and given him nothing to give, the same word, which the holy Ghost uses in
this text, 1 Reg. 8. and in Exodus, for mercy, which is Canan, he uses in other places, particularly
in the dedication of the Temple, for prayer. So that he, who being destitute of other
meanes to relieve the poore, prayes for the poore, is thereby made partaker of this great
attribute of Gods, this power of showing mercy. He hath showed mercy to the poore,
if, having nothing to give, he have given mild and confortable words, and have prayed
to his abundant, and inexhaustible God, to relieve that poor man, whom he hath not
made him able to relieve. So then, Honorat Deum. no more being needfull to be said, of the persons, the poor, nor of the Act,
showing of mercy to the poor, there remaines no more in this last part, but according
to our way, all the way, to consider the origination and latitude of this last word, Ca-
had, this honouring of God. The word does properly signifie Augere, ampliare, To en-
large God, to amplifie, to dilate God; to make infinite God, shall I dare to say, more
God? certainely, God to more, then he was before. O who can expresse this abundant,
this superabundant largenesse of Gods goodnesse to man, that there is a power put into
mans hands, to enlarge God, to dilate, to propagate, to amplifie God himselfe! I will
multiply this people, Ier. 30. 19. says God, and they shall not be few, I will glorifie them, and they shall
not be small; there's the word of our text. God enables me to glorifie him, to amplifie
him, to encrease him, by my mercy, my almes. For this is not onely that encrease, that
Saint Hierom intends, that he that hath pity on the poor, Fœneratur Domino, he lends
upon use to the Lord, Prov. 19. 17. for, this, though it be an encrease, is but an encrease to himselfe; but
he that showes mercy to the poore, encreases God, says our text, dilates, enlarges God.
How? Heb. 10. 5. Corpus aptasti mihi; when Christ comes into the world, (says Saint Paul) he says
to his Father, Thou hast prepared and fitted a body for me. That was his naturall body,
that body which he assumed in the bowels of the blessed Virgin. They that pretend to
enlarge this body by multiplication, by making millions of these bodies in the Sacra-
ments, by the way of Transubstantiation, they doe not honour this body, whose honour
is to sit in the same dimensions, and circumscriptions, at the right hand of God. But
then, as at his comming into this world, God had fitted him a body, so in the world, he
had fitted himselfe another body, a Mysticall body, a Church purchased with his bloud.
Now this body, this Mysticall body I feed, I enlarge, I dilate, and amplifie, by my
mercy, Ezek. 16. 1. and my charity. For, as God says to Jerusalem, Thou wast in thy bloud, thou wast
not salted, nor swadled, no eye pityed thee, but thou wast cast out into the open field, and I loved
thee, I washed thee, I apparelled and adorned thee, & prosperata es in regnum, I never gave
thee over, till I saw thee an established kingdome: so may all those Saints of God say to
God himselfe, to the Sonne of God invested in this body, this mysticall body, the
Church, thou was cast out into the open field, all the world persecuted thee, and then
we gave thee suck with our bloud, we clothed thee with our bodies, we built thee houses
and adorned and endowed those houses to thine honour, & prosperatus es in regnum, we
never gave over spending, and doing, and suffering for thy glory, till thou hadst an esta-
blished kingdome, over all the earth. And so thou, thy body, thy mysticall body, the
Church, is honoured, that is, amplified, dilated, enlarged, by our mercy. Magnificat
Anima mea Dominum, was the exultation of the blessed Virgin; My soule doth magnifie
the Lord. When the meditations of my heart, digested into writing, or preaching, or
any other declaration of Gods glory, carry, or advance the knowledge of God, in o-
ther men, then My soule doth magnifie the Lord, enlarge, dilate, amplifie God. But when
I relieve any poor wretch, of the houshold of the faithfull, with mine almes, then my
mercy magnifies the Lord, occasions him that receives, to magnifie the Lord by this thanks-
giving
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giving, and them that see it to magnifie the Lord by their imitation, in the like works
of mercy. And so far, doe these two elegant words chosen here by the holy Ghost,
carry our meditation: in the first, Canan, God makes the charitable man partaker of his
own highest power, mercy; and in the other Cabad, God enables us, by this mercy, to ho-
nour him so far, as to dilate, to enlarge, to amplifie him, that is that body, which he
in his Sonne, hath invested by purchase, his Church. We have done; Conclusio. If you will but claspe up all this in your owne bosomes, if you will
but lay it to your owne hearts, you may goe. A poorer thing is not in the world, nor
a sicker, (which you may remember to have been one signification of this word poore)
then thine own soule. And therefore the Chalde paraphrase renders this text thus, He that
oppresses the poore reproaches his owne soule; for, his owne soule is as poore, as any whom
he can oppresse. To a begger, that needs, and askes but bodily things, thou wilt say,
Alasse poore soule; and wilt thou never say Alasse poore soule to thy self, that needest spiritu-
all things? If thy affections, thy pleasures, thy delights, beg of thee, and importune thee
so farre, to bestow upon them, say unto them, I have those that are nearer me then you,
Wife and Children, and I must not empoverish them, to give unto you, I must not
sterve my family, to feed my pleasures. But if this Wife and Children begge, and im-
portune so farre, say unto them too, I have one that is nearer me, then all you, a soule;
and I must not endanger that, to satisfie you; I must not provide Joyntures, and Portions
with the damnifying, with the damning of mine owne soule. It is a miserable Alchimy
and extracting of spirits, that stills away the spirit, the soule it selfe; and a poore Phi-
losophers Stone, that is made with the coales of Hell-fire; a lamentable purchase, when
the soule is payed for the land. And therefore show mercy to this soule. Doe not op-
presse this soule; not by Violence, which was the first signification of this word Oppressi-
on: Doe not violate, doe not smother, not strangle, not suffocate the good motions of
Gods Spirit in thee; for, it is but a wofull victory, to triumphe over thine owne con-
science, and but a servile greatnesse to be able to silence that. Oppresse not thy soule
by Fraud, which was the second signification of this word Oppression. Defraud not thy
soul of the benefit of Gods Ordinances; frequent these exercises; come hither; And be not
here like Gideons fleece, dry when all about it was wet; parched in a remorselesnesse when
all the Congregation about thee is melted into holy tears; Be not as Gideons fleece dry,
when all else is wet, nor as that fleece, wet when all about it was dry: Be not jealous of
God, stand not here as a person unconcerned, disinteressed; as though those gracious
promises, which God is pleased to shed down upon the whole Congregation, from
this place, appertained not to thee, but that all those Judgements denounced here, over
which, they that stand by thee, are able, by a faithfull and cheerfull laying hold of
Gods offers, though they stand guilty of the same sinnes that thou doest, to lift up their
heads, must still necessarily overflow and surround thee. Oppresse not that soule, by vi-
olence, by Fraud, nor by Scorne, which was the other signification of this word Op-
pression. Hoc nos perdit, Chrysost. quod divina quoque eloquia in facetias, in dicteria vertamus.
Damnation is a serious thing, and this aggravates it, that we slight and make jests at
that which should save us, the Scriptures, and the Ordinances of God. For by this
oppression of thy poore soule, by this Violence, this Fraud, this Scorne, thou
wilt come to Reproach thy Maker, to impute that losse of thy soule, which
thou hast incurred by often breach of Lawes evidently manifested to thee; to
his secret purpose, and un-revealed will; then which, thou canst not put a grea-
ter Reproach, a greater Contumely, a greater Blasphemy upon God. For,
God cannot bee God, if hee bee not innocent, nor innocent if hee draw bloud
of mee, for his owne Act. But if thou show mercy to this soule, mercy in
that signification of the word, as it denotes an actuall performance of those
things that are necessary for the making sure of thy salvation, or, if thou canst
not yet attaine to those degrees of Sanctification, mercy in that signification of
the word, as the word denotes hearty and earnest Prayer, that thou couldest,
Lord I beleeve, Lord help mine unbeliefe, Lord I stand yet, yet Lord raise mee
when I fall, Honorabis Deum, thou shalt honour God, in the sense of
the word in this Text, thou shalt enlarge God, amplifie, dilate God, that
is, the Body of God, the Church, both here, and hereafter. For, thou
shalt adde a figure to the number of his Saints, and there shall bee a Saint the Ll more
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more for thee; Thou shalt adde a Theme of Joy, to the Exultation of the Angels;
They shall have one occasion of rejoycing the more from thee: Thou shalt adde a
pause, a stop to that Vsquequo of the Martyrs, under the Altar, who solicite God for the
Resurrection, for, Thou shalt adde a step to the Resurrection it selfe, by having brought
it so much nearer, as to have done thy part for the filling up of the number of the
Saints, upon which fulnesse the Resurrection shall follow. And thou shalt adde a
Voyce, to that Old, and ever-new Song, that Catholique Hymne, in which, both
Churches, Apoc. 5. 13. Militant and Triumphant, shall joyne, Blessing, Honour, Glory, and Power,
bee unto him, that sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lambe, for ever, and ever.
Amen. Sermon XLIII.
A Sermon upon the fift of Novemb. 1622. being the Anniversary celebration
of our Deliverance from the Powder Treason.
Intended for Pauls Crosse, but by reason of the weather, Preached in
the Church.
Lament. 4. 20
The breath of our nostrils, the Anointed of the Lord, was taken
in their pits. The Prayer before the Sermon. O LORDLord open thou my lips, and my mouth shall shew
forth thy praise; for thou, O Lord, didst make haste
to help us, Thou, O Lord, didst make speed to save us.
Thou that sittest in heaven, didst not onely looke down, to see
what was done upon the Earth, but what was done in the Earth;
and when the bowels of the Earth, were, with a key of fire,
ready to open and swallow us, the bowels of thy compassion, were, with a key of
love, opened to succour us; This is the day, and these are the houres, wherein
that should have been acted: In this our Day, and in these houres, We praise
thee, O God, we acknowledge thee, to bee the Lord; All our Earth doth
worship thee; The holy Church throughout all this Land, doth know-
ledge thee, with commemorations of that great mercy, now in these houres. Now,
in these houres, it is thus commemorated, in the Kings House, where the Head
and Members praise thee; Thus, in that place, where it should have been perpetra-
ted, where the Reverend Judges of the Land doe now praise thee; Thus, in the
Universities where the tender youth of this Land, is brought up to praise thee, in a
detestation of their Doctrines, that plotted this; Thus it is commemorated in many seve-
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severall Societies, in many severall Parishes, and thus, here, in this Mother
Church, in this great Congregation of thy Children, where, all, of all sorts, from
the Lievtenant of thy Lievtenant, to the meanest sonne of thy sonne, in this
Assembly, come with hearts, and lippes, full of thankesgiving: Thou Lord,
openest their lippes, that their mouth may shew forth thy prayse, for,
Thou, O Lord, diddest make haste to helpe them, Thou diddest
make speede to save them. Accept, O Lord, this Sacrifice, to which thy
Spirit giveth fire; This of Praise, for thy great Mercies already afforded to
us, and this of Prayer, for the continuance, and enlargement of them, upon the
Catholick Church, by them, who pretend themselves the onely sonnes there-
of; dishonoured this Day; upon these Churches of England, Scotland, and Ire-
land, shaked and threatned dangerously this Day; upon thy servant, our Sove-
raigne, for his Defence of the true Faith, designed to ruine this day; up-
on the Prince, and others derived from the same roote, some but Infants,
some not yet Infants, enwrapped in dust, and annihilation, this day; upon
all the deliberations of the Counsell, That in all their Consultations, they
may have before their eyes, the Record and Registers of this Day; upon all
the Clergie, That all their Preaching, and their Governement, may preclude,
in their severall Jurisdictions, all re-entrances of that Religion, which, by
the Confession of the Actours themselves, was the onely ground of the Trea-
son of this day; upon the whole Nobilitie, and Commons, all involved
in one Common Destruction, this Day; upon both our Universities, which
though they lacke no Arguments out of thy Word, against the Enemies of
thy Truth, shall never leave out this Argument out of thy Works, The
Historie of this Day; And upon all those, who are any wayes afflicted, That
our afflictions bee not multiplyed upon us, by seeing them multiplyed amongst
us, who would have diminished thee, and annihilated us, this Day; And
lastly, upon this Auditory assembled here, That till they turne to ashes in the
Grave, they may remember, that thou tookest them, as fire-brands out of
the fire, this Day. Heare us, O Lord, and hearken to us, Receive our Prayers, and re-
turne them with Effect, for his sake, in whose Name and words, wee make
them: Our Father which art, & c. The SERMON. OFOf the Authour of this Booke, I thinke there was never doubt made; but yet,
that is scarce safely done, which the Councell of Trent doth, in that Canon,
which numbers the Books of Canonicall Scriptures, to leave out this Book
of Lamentations. For, though I make no doubt, but that they had a pur-
pose to comprehend, and involve it, in the name of Jeremy, yet that was not enough; Ll2 for
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for so they might have comprehended and involved, Genesis, and Deuteronomie, and all
between those two, in one name of Moses; and so they might have comprehended,
and involved, the Apocalypse, and some Epistles in the name of John, and have left
out the Book it selfe in the number. Castro. But one of their own Jesuits, though some,
(whom in that Canon they seeme to follow) make this Booke of Lamentations, but
an Appendix to the Prophecy of Jeremy, determines, for all that Canon, that it is
a distinct Book. Indeed, if it were not, the first Chapter would have been called,
the 53 of Ieremy, and not the first of the Lamentations. But that which gives
most assurednesse, is, That in divers Hebrew Bibles, it is placed otherwise, then
wee place it, and not presently, and immediately after the Prophecy of Iere-
my, but discontinued from him, though hee were never doubted to be the Author
thereof. The Booke is certainly the Prophet Jeremies, and certainly a distinct booke, But whe-
ther the Book be a history, or a Prophecy, whether Jeremy lament that which hee had
seen, or that which he foresees, calamities past, or future calamities, things done, or
things to be done, is a question which hath exercised, and busied divers Expositors. But,
as we say of the Parable of Dives, and Lazarus, that it is a Historicall parable, and a Para-
bolicall history, some such persons there were, and some such things were really done,
but some other things were figuratively, symbolically, parabolically added: So wee say
of Jeremies Lamentation, It is a Propheticall history, and a Historicall prophecy; Some of
the sad occasions of these Lamentations were past, when he writ, and some were to come
after: for, we may not despise the testimony of the Chalde Paraphrasts, who were the
first that illustrated the Bible, in that Nation, nor of S. Hierome, who was much con-
versant with the Bible, and with that Nation, nor of Josephus, who had justly so much
estimation in that Nation, nor of those later Rabbins, who were the learnedest of that
Nation; who are all of opinion, that Jeremy writ these Lamentations, after hee saw
some declinations in that State, in the death of Josiah, and so the Book is Historicall, but
when he onely foresaw their transportation into Babylon, before that calamity fell upon
them, and so it is Propheticall. Or, if we take the exposition of the others, That the
whole Booke was written after their transportation into Babylon, and to be, in all parts,
Historicall, yet it is Propheticall still; for the Prophet laments a greater Desolation
then that, in the utter ruine, and devastation of the City, and Nation, which was to fall
upon them, after the death of Christ Jesus. Neither is any peece of this Booke, the
lesse fit to be our Text, this day, because it is both Historicall, and Propheticall, for,
they, from whom, God, in his mercy, gave us a Deliverance, this day, are our Histo-
ricall Enemies, audand our Propheticall Enemies; historically wee know, they have at-
tempted our ruine heretofore, and prophetically wee may bee sure, they will doe so
againe, whensoever any new occasion provokes them, or sufficient power enables
them. The Text then is as the Booke presented to Ezekiel; Divisio. In it are written Lamentations,
and Mournings, Ezek. 2. 20.and Woe; and all they are written within, and without, says the Text
there; within, as they concern the Jews, without, as they are appliable to us: And they
concern the Jews, Historically (attempts upon that State Jeremy had certainly seen,)
and they concern them prophetically, for farther attempts Jeremy did certainly fore-
see. They are appliable to us both ways too: Historically, because wee have seen,
what they would have done, And Prophetically, because wee foresee what they would
doe. So that here is but a difference of the Computation; here is stilo veteri,
and stilo nove; here is the Jews Calendar, and the Papists Calendar; In the Jews
Calendar, one Babylon, wrought upon the people of God, and in the Papists Ca-
lendar, another Babylon: Stilo veteri, in the Jews Calendar, 700 yeare before
Christ came, there were pits made, and the breath of their nostrils, The anointed
of the Lord, was taken in their pits: Stilo nove, in the Papists Calendar, 1600
yeare after Christ came in all fulnesse, in all clearnesse, There were pits made
againe, and The breath of our nostrils, The anointed of the Lord, was almost taken
in those pits. It is then Jeremies, and it is a distinct Book; It concernes the Jews, and it concerns
us too; And it concernes us both, both wages, Historically, and Prophetically.
But whether Jeremy lament here the death of a good King, of Josiah, (for so Saint
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Saint Hierome, and many of the Ancients, and many of the Jewes themselves take it,
and thinke that those words in the Chronicles, have relation to these Lamentations, 2. 35. 25. And
Jeremy lamented for Josiah, and all the people speake of him, in their Lamentations,) Or
whether he lament the transportation and the misery of an ill King, of Zedekiah, (as is
more ordinarily, and more probably held by the Expositours) we argue not, we di-
spute nownot; we imbrace that which arises from both, That both good Kings, and bad
Kings, Josiah, and Zedekiah, are the anointed of the Lord, and the breath of the no-
strills, that is, The life of the people; and therefore both to be lamented, when they fall
into dangers, and consequently both to be preserved by all means, by Prayer from them
who are private persons, by counsell from them, who have that great honour and that
great charge, to be near them in that kinde, and by support and supply, from all, of all
sorts, from falling into such dangers. These considerations will, I thinke, have the better impression in you, if we proceed
in the handling of them thus: First, the main cause of the Lamentation was the Ruine,
or the dangerous declination of the Kingdome of that great and glorious State,
The Kingdome; But then they did not seditiously sever the King, and the Kingdome,
as though the Kingdome could doe well, and the King ill, That safe, and he in danger,
for they see cause to lament, because misery was fallen upon the Person of the King; per-
chance upon Josiah, a good, a religious King; perchance but upon Zedekiah, a worse
King; yet which soever it be, they acknowledge him to be Vnctus Domini, The anoin-
ted of the Lord, and to be Spiritus narium, The breath of their nostrills: When this per-
son therefore, was fallen into the pits of the Enemy, the Subject laments; but this la-
menting because he was fallen, implies a deliverance, a restitution, he was fallen, but he
did not ly there: so the Text, which is as yet but of Lamentation, will grow an houre
hence to be of Congratulation; and then we shall see, That whosoever, in rectified affe-
ctions, hath lamented a danger, and then congratulated a deliverance, he will provide
against a relapse, a falling again into that or any other danger, by all means of sustain-
ing the Kingdome and the King, in safety and in honour. Our first step then in this Royall progresse, 1. Regnum. is, That the cause of this Lamentation,
was, the declination, the diminution of the Kingdome. If the Center of the world should
be moved but one inch out of the place, it cannot be reckoned, how many miles, this
Island, or any building in it, would be thrown out of their places; A declination in the
Kingdome of the Jewes, in the body of the Kingdome, in the soul of the State, in the
form of Government, was such an Earth-quake, as could leave nothing standing. Of all
things that are, there was an Idea in God; there was a modell, a platform, an examplar
of every thing, which God produced and created in Time, in the mind and purpose of
God before: Of all things God had and Idea, a preconception; but of Monarchy, of
Kingdome, God, who is but one, is the Idea; God himselfe, in his Unity, is the Modell,
He is the Type of Monarchy. He made but one World; for, this, and the next, are
not two Worlds; This is but the Morning, and that the everlasting Noon, of one and the same
Day, which shall have no Night: They are not two Houses; This is the Gallery, and that
the Bed-chamber of one, and the same Palace, which shall feel no ruine. He made this
one World, but one Eye, The Sunne; The Moone is not another Eye, but a Glasse; up-
on which, the Sunne reflects. He made this one World, but one Eare, The Church;
He tells not us, that he heares by a left Eare, by Saints, but by that right Eare, the
Church he doth. There is One God, One Faith, One Baptisme, and these lead us to the
love of one Soveraign, of Monarchy, of Kingdome. In that Name, God hath con-
vayed to us the state of Grace, and the state of Glory too; and he hath promised both, in
injoining that Petition, Adveniat Regnum, Thy Kingdome come, Thy Kingdome of Grace
here, Thy Kingdome of Glory hereafter. All forms of Government have one and the
same Soul, that is, Soveraignty; That resides somewhere in every form; and this So-
veraignty is in them all, from one and the same Root, from the Lord of Lords, from God
himself, for all Power is of God: But yet this form of a Monarchy, of a Kingdome, is a
more lively, and a more masculin Organe, and Instrument of this Soul of Soveraign-
tie, then the other forms are: Wee are sure Women have Soules as well as Men,
but yet it is not so expressed, that God breathed a Soule into Woman, as hee did
into Man; All formes of Government have this Soule, but yet God infuseth it
more manifestly, and more effectually, in that forme, in a Kingdome: All Ll3 places
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Serm. XLIII.places are alike neare to Heaven, yet Christ would take a Hill, for his Ascen-sion; All governments may justly represent God to mee, who is the God of Or-
der, and fountaine of all government, but yet I am more eased, and more accustomed
to the contemplation of Heaven, in that notion, as Heaven is a kingdome, by having been
borne, and bred in a Monarchy: God is a Type of that, and that is a Type of
Heaven. This form then, Judæis pro-
missa. in nature the noblest, in use the profitablest of all others; God al-
ways intended to his best-beloved people, God always meant that the Jews should have
a King, though he prepared them in other forms before; As hee meant them peace at
last, though he exercised them in Warre, and meant them the land of promise, though he
led them through the Wildernesse; so he meant them a King, though he prepared them
by Judges. God intended it in himselfe, and he declared it to them, 400 yeares before
he have them a King, Deut. 17. 14. he instructed them, what kinde of King they should set over them,
when they came to that kinde of government: And long before that he made a pro-
mise, Gen. 49. 10. by Jacob to Judah of a Kingdome, and that the Scepter should not depart from him,
till Siloh came. And when God came neare the time, in which he intended to them
that government, in the time of Samuel, who was the immediate predecessor to their
first King, Saul, God made way for a Monarchy; for Samuel had a much more absolute
authority, in that State, then any of the Judges had; Samuel judged them, and in their
petition for a King, 1 Sam. 8. 5. they ask but that, Make us a King to judge us; Samuel was little lesse
then a King; and Sauls reign, and his, are reckoned both in one number, and made as
the reign of one man; Acts 13. 21. when it is said in the Acts, that Saul reigned 40 yeares, Samuels
time is included in that number, for all the yeares, from the death of Eli, to the begin-
ning of David, are but 40 years. God meant them a Kingdome in himselfe, promised
them a kingdome in Judah, made Laws for their kingdome in Deuteronomy, made way
for the kingdome in Samuel, and why then was God displeased with their petition for a
Kingdome? It was a greater fault in them, then it could have been in any other people, to ask a
King; not that it was not the most desirable form of government, but that God go-
verned them, so immediately, so presentially himselfe, as that it was an ingratefull in-
temperance in them, to turn upon any other meanes; God had ever performed that
which he promised them, in that which comprehended all, Ye shall be a peculiar treasure
unto me, Exod. 19. 5. above all people; And therefore Josephus hath expressed it well; All other people
are under the forme of Democratie, or Aristocratie, or such other formes, composed
of men; Sed noster Legislator, Theocratiam instituit, The Jews were onely under a Theo-
cratie, an immediate government of God, he judged them himselfe, and hee himselfe
fought their battels: And therefore God says to Samuel, They have not rejected thee,
Thou wast not King, But they have rejected mee, I was. To bee weary of God, is
it enough to call it a levity? But if they did onely compare forme with forme, and
not God himselfe with any forme, if they did onely thinke Monarchy best, and be-
leeve that God intended a Monarchy to them, yet yet to limit God his time, and to make
God performe his promise before his day, was a fault, and inexcusable. Daniel saw,
that the Messiah should come within seventy weekes: Daniel did not say, Lord, let it
bee within fifty weekes, or let it bee this weeke: The Martyrs under the Altar, cry
Vsqueque Domine, How long Lord, but then, they leave it there, Even as long as plea-
seth thee: Their petition should have been, Adveniat regnum tuum, Let us have that
Kingdome, which because thou knowest it is good for us, thou hast promised to
us; But yet Fiat voluntas tua, Let us have it then, when thy Wisdome sees it
best for us: 1 Sam. 12. 12. You said to mee (says Samuel, by way of Reproofe and Increpation)
You said, Nay but a King shall reigne over us; Now, that was not their fault; but
that which followes, The unseasonablesse and inconsideration of their clamorous
Petition, You said a King shall reigne over us, when the Lord your God, was your King;
They would not trust Gods meanes, there was their first fault: And then,
though they desired a thing good in it selfe, and a good intended to them,
yet they fixed God his time, and they would not stay his leisure; And either
of these, To aske other things then God would give, or at other times, then
God would give them, is displeasing to him: Use his meanes, and stay his
leisure. But
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But yet, Dabat. though God were displeased with them, he executed his own purpose;
he was angry with their manner of asking a King, but yet he gave them a King: How-
soever God be displeased with them, who prevaricate in his cause, who should sustaine
it, and doe not, Gods cause shall be sustained, though they doe it not. We may distin-
guish the period of the Jewish State well enough, thus, that they had Infantiam, or pue-
ritiam, their infancy, their minority, in Adam, and the first Patriarchs till the flood:
that they had Adolescentiam, A growing time, from Noah, through the other Patriarchs,
till Moses: and that they had Juventutem, a youth and strength from Moses, through
the Judges, to Saul: but then they had Virilitatem, virilem, ætatem, their established vi-
gor, under their Kings; and after them, they fell in senectutem, into a wretched and mi-
serable decay of old age, and decrepitnesse: their kingdome was their best State; and
so much, Ezek. 16. 3. God in the Prophet, intimates pregnantly, when refreshing to their memories,
in a particular Inventory, and Catalogue, all his former benefits to them, how he clo-
thed Jerusalem, how he fed, her; how he adorned her, he summed up all, in this one, &
profecisti in regnum, I have advanced thee, to be a kingdome: there was the Tropique, there
was the Solstice, farther then that, in this world, we know not how God could goe; a
kingdome was really the best State upon Earth, and Symbolically, the best figure, and
Type of Heaven. And therefore, when the Prophet Jeremy, historically beheld the de-
clination of this kingdome, in the death of Josiah, and prophetically foresaw the ruines
thereof, in the transportition of Zedekiah, or, if he had seen that historically too, yet
prophetically he foresaw the utter devastation, and depopulation, and extermination,
which scattered that nation, soon after Christ, to this day, (and God and no man knows,
for how long,) when they, who were a kingdome, are now no where a village, and
they who had such Kings, have now no where a Constable of their owne, histori-
cally, prophetically, Jeremy had just cause of lamentation for the danger of that king-
dome. We had so also, for this our kingdome, this day; God hath given us a kingdome, not
as other kingdomes, made up of divers Cities, but of divers kingdomes, and all those
kingdomes were destined to desolation, in one minute. It was not onely the destructi-
on of the persons present, but of the kingdom for to submit the kingdome to the govern-
ment of a forein Prelate, was to destroy the Monarchy, to annihilate the Supremacy, to
ruine the very forme of a kingdome; a kingdome under another head, besides the King,
is not a kingdome, as ours is. The oath that the Emperour takes to the Pope, is by their
authours called Juramentum fidelitatis, an oath of Allegiance; and if they had brought
our Kings, to take an oath of Allegiance so, this were no kingdome. Pope Nicolas the se-
cond, went about to create two kingdomes, that of Tuscan, and that of Lombardy; his
successors have gone about to destroy more; for to make it depend upon him, were to
destroy our kingdome. That they have attempted historically; and as long as these
Axiomes, and Aphorismes remaine in their Authors, that one shall say, that De jurse
by right all Christian kingdomes doe hold of the Pope, and De facto, are forfeited to
the Hope, and another shall say, that Christendome would be better governed if the
Pope would take the forfeiture, and so bring all these Royall farmes, into his owne de-
mesne, we see also, their propheticall desire, their propheticall intention, against this
kingdome, what they would doe: In their Actions we have their history, in their Axioms
we have their prophecy. Jeremy lamented the desolation of the kingdome, Regnum in
Rege. but that, expressed in the death, and
destruction of the King. Hee did not divide the King and the kingdome, as if the king-
dome could do well, and the King in distresse: Omnipotentia Dei, Asylum hæreti-
corum; it is well said, by more then one of the ancients, that the Omnipotence
of God, is the Sanctuary of Heretiques: when they would establish any heresie,
they flye to Gods Almightinesse. God can doe all, therefore he can doe this. So,
in the Roman Church, they establish their heresie of Transubstantiation; And so,
their deliverance of soules not from Purgatory onely, but from Hell it selfe.
They think to stop all mouths with that, God can do it, no man dares deny that; when
as, if that were granted, (which, in such things, as naturally imply contradiction in them-
selves, or contradiction to Gods word, cannot be granted, for God cannot do that,
God cannot lye,) yet though God can do it, concludes not that God will do it, or hath
done it: Omnipotentia Dei Asylum hæreticorum, The omnipotency of God, is the San-
ctuary
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ctuary of Heretiques, and so, Salus Regni, is Asylum proditorum, Greater Treasons, and
Seditions, and Rebellions have never been set on foote, then upon colour, and pre-
tence, of a care of the State, and of the good of the Kingdome. Every where, the
King is Sponsus Regni, the husband of the Kingdome; and to make love to the Kings
wife, and undervalue him, must necessarily make any King jealous: The King is Ani-
ma Regni, The soule of the Kingdome; and to provide for the health of the body,
with the detriment of the soule, is perverse physick: The King is Caput Regni, The
head of the Kingdome; and to cure a Member, by cutting off the head, is ill surgery:
Man and wife, soule and body, head and members, God hath joyned, and those whom
God hath joyned, let no man sever. Salus Regni, Asylum Proditorum, To pretend to up-
hold the Kingdome, and overthrow the King, hath ever been the tentation before, and
the excuse after, in the greatest Treasons. In that action of the Jews, which we insisted
upon before, 1. Sam. 8. in their pressing for a King, The Elders of Israel were gathered together, and
so far they were in their way, for this was no popular, no seditious Assembly of light
and turbulent men, but The Elders; And then, they came to Samuel, And so farre they
were in their right way too, for they held no counsels apart, but came to the right place,
for redresse of grievances, to their then highest Governour, to Samuel: When
they were thus lawfully met, they forbeare not to lay open unto him, the injustice of his
greatest Officers, though it concerned the very Sonnes of Samuel; and thus farre they
kept within their convenient limits; But when they would presse Samuel to a new way
of remedy, to an inconvenient way, to a present way, to their own way, and referre
nothing to him, what care soever they pretended of the good of the State, it is evident,
that they had no good opinion of Samuel himself, and even that displeased God, That
they were ill affected to that person, whom he had set over them. To sever the King,
and the Kingdome, and pretend the weale of the one, without the other, is to shake
and discompose Gods building. Historically this was the Jewes case, when Jeremy lamented here, if he lamented the
declination of the State, in the death of the King Josiah, And if he lamented the trans-
portation of Zedekiah, and that that crosse were not yet come upon them; Or if he la-
mented the future devastation of that Nation, occasioned by the death of the King of
Kings Christ Jesus, when he came into the world, this was their case prophetically: Ei-
ther way, historically, or prophetically, Jeremy looks upon the Kingdome, but yet
through that glasse, through the King. The duty of the Day, and the order of the Text, invites us to an application of this
branch too. Our adversaries did not come to say to themselves, Nolumus Regnum hoc,
we will not have this Kingdome stand, Luke 14. 14. the materiall Kingdome, the plenty of the Land,
they would have been content to have, but the formall Kingdome, that is, This forme of
Government, by a Soveraigne King, that depends upon none but God, they would not
have. So that they came implicitely to Nolumus Regnum hoc, we will not have this King-
dome governed thus, and they came explicitely to a Nolumus Regem hunc (as the Jewes
were resolved of Christ) We will not have this King to governe at all. Non hunc? Will
you not have him? you were at your Nolumus hanc long before; Her, whom God had
set over you, before him, you would not have. Your, not Anniversary, but Hebdoma-
dary Treasons, cast upon her a necessity of drawing blood often, and so your Nolumus
hanc, your desire that she were gone, might have some kinde of ground, or colour:
But for your Nolumus hunc, for this King who had made no Inquisition for blood, who
had forborne your very pecuniary penalties, who had (as himself witnesses of himself)
made you partakers with his Subjects of his own Religion, in matters of grace, and in
reall benefits, Psal. 2. 1. and in Titles of Honour, Quare fremuerant, Why did these men rage, and
imagine a vaine thing? What they did historically, we know; They made that house,
which is the hive of the Kingdome, from whence all her honey comes; that house where
Justice her self is conceived, in their preparing of Laws, and inanimated, and quickned
and borne by the Royall Assent, there given; they made that whole house one Murdring
peece, and charged that peece with Peers, with People, with Princes, with the King, and
meant to discharge it upward at the face of heaven, to shoot God at the face of God,
Him, of whom God hath said, Dii estis, You are Gods, at the face of God, that had
said so, as though they would have reproached the God of heaven, and not have been
beholden to him for such a King, but shoot him up to him, and bid him take his King againe,
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again, with a nolumus hunc regnare, we will not have this King to reign over us. This
was our case Historically, and what it is Prophetically, as long as that remains to bee
their doctrine, which he, against whom that attempt was principally made, found by
their examination; to be their doctrine, That they, and no Sect in the world, but they,
did make Treason an article of Religion, That their Religion bound them to those at-
tempts, so long they are never at an end; Till they dis-avow those Doctrines, that con-
duce to that, prophetically they wish, prophetically they hope for better successe in as ill
attempts. It is then the kingdome that Jeremy laments; but his nearest object is the King; Hee
laments him. First, let it be, (as with S. Hierome, many of the Ancients, and with them,
many of the later Rabbins will have it) for Josiah, for a good King, in whose death, the
honour, and the strength of the kingdome took that deadly wound, to become tributa-
ry to a forain Prince: for, to this lamentation they refer those words of the Prophet,
which describe a great sorrow, Zech. 12. 11. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as
the mourning of Hadadrimmon, in the valley of Megiddon; which was the place, where
Josiah was slain; There shall be such a lamentation (says the Prophet, in this interpreta-
tion) as was for the death of Josiah. This then was for him; for a good King. Where-
in have we his goodnesse expressed? 2 Reg. 22. 2. Abundantly. Hee did that which was right in
Gods sight; (And whose Eye need he fear, that is right in the Eye of God?) But how
long did he so? To the end; for, Nero, who had his Quinquennium, and was a good Em-
perour for his first five years, was one of the worst of all: Hee that is ill all the way, is
but a Tyran, Hee that is good at first, and after ill, an Angels face, and a Serpents taile
make him a Monster; Josiah began well, and persevered so, He turned not aside to the
right hand, nor to the left. That is, (if we apply it to the Josiah of our times) neither to
the fugitive, that leaves our Church, and goes to the Roman, nor to the Separatist, that
leaves our Church, and goes to none. In the eighteenth year of his reign, Josiah under-
took the reparation of Gods house; If we apply this to the Josiah of our times, I think, in
that year of his reign, he visited this Church, and these wals, and meditated, and perswa-
ded the reparation thereof. 23. 25. In one word, Like unto Josiah, there was no King before,
nor after. And therefore there was just cause of lamentation for this King, for Josiah;
historically for the very loss of his person, prophetically for the misery of the State, after
his death. Our errand is to day, to apply all these branches to the day; Those men who inten-
ded us, this cause of lamentation this day, in the destruction of our Josiah, spared him
not, because he was so, because he was a Josiah, because he was good; no, not because he
was good to them, his benefits to them, had not mollified them, towards him: for that is
not their way; Both the French Henries were their own, and good to them; but did that
rescue either of them, from the knife? And was not that Emperour, whom they poiso-
ned in the Sacrament, their own, and good to them? and yet was that, any Antidote a-
gainst their poison? To so reprobate a sense hath God given them over herein, as that,
though in their Books, they ly heaviest upon Princes of our Religion, yet truly they
have destroyed more of their own, then of ours. Thus it is Historically in their pro-
ceedings past: And Prophetically it can be but thus, since no King is good, in their sense,
if he agree not to all points of Doctrine with them: And when that is done, not good
yet, except he agree in all points of Jurisdiction too; and that, no King can doe, that
will not be their Farmer of his Kingdome. Their Authours have disputed Auferibilita-
tem Papæ, whether the Church of God might not be without a Pope, they have made a
problematicall, a disputable matter, and some of their Authours have diverted towards
an affirmation of it; but Aufleribilitas potestatis, to imagine a King without Kingly So-
veraignty, never came into probleme, into disputation. We all lamented, and bitterly,
and justly, the losse of our Deborah, though then we saw a Josiah succeeding: but if they
had removed our Josiah, and his Royall children, and so, this form of government, where,
or who, or what had been an object of Consolation to us? The cause of lamentation in the losse of a good King, Rex malus. is certainly great, and so it was,
if Ieremy lamented Iosiah; but if it were but for Zedekiah, an ill King, (as the greater part
of Expositors take it) yet the lamentation you see, is the same. How ill a King was Ze-
dekiah? 2 Reg. 24. 19. As ill, as Iosiah was good, that's his measure. He did evill in the sight of the
Lord, according to all that Iehoiakim had done; Here is his sinne, sinne by precedent; and what
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what had Jehoiakim done? 2 Reg. 25. ult. He had done evill in the sight of the Lord, according to all
that his Fathers had done. It is a great, and a dangerous wickednesse, which is done up-
on pretext of Antiquity; The Religion of our Fathers, the Church of our Fathers, the
Worship of our Fathers, is a pretext that colours a great deale of Superstition. He
did evill, as his Fathers; there was his comparative evill: And his positive evill, (I meane,
his particular sinne) was, 2. Chr. 36. 12.
Ver. 13. That he humbled not himself to Gods Prophets, to Jeremy speak-
ing from the mouth of the Lord; there was irreligiousnesse; And then, He broke the
Oath which he had sworne by God, there was perfidiousnesse, faithlesnsse; And lastly, He
stiffned his neck, and hardned his heart, from turning to the Lord of Israel, there was im-
penitiblenesse: Thus evill was Zedekiah, irreligious to God, treacherous to man,
impenitible to himself, and yet the State, and men truly religious in the State, the Pro-
phet lamented him; not his spirituall defections, by sinne; for, they did not make them-
selves Judges of that; but they lamented the calamities of the Kingdome, in the losse
even of an evill King. That man must have a large comprehension, that shall adventure to say of any King,
He is an ill King; he must know his Office well, and his actions well, and the actions of
other Princes too, who have correspondence with him, before he can say so. When
Christ sayes, Mat. 5. 37. Let your communication be yea, yea, and nay, nay, for whatsoever is more then
this, (that is, when it comes to swearing) that cometh of evill, Saint Augustine does not
understand that, of the evill disposition of that man that sweares, but of them, who will
not beleeve him, without wearing; Many times a Prince departs from the exact rule
of his duty, not out of his own indisposition to truth, and clearnesse, but to countermine
underminers. Vers. 26. That which David sayes in the eighteenth Psalme, David speaks, not of
man, but of God himself; Cum perverso pervertêris, With the froward, thou wilt show thy
self froward; God, who is of no froward nature, may be made froward; with crafty
neighbours, a Prince will be crafty, and perchance false with the false. Alas, (to looke
into no other profession but our owne) how often do we excuse Dispensations, and plu-
ralities, and non-residencies, with an Omnes faciunt, I do, but as other men of my pro-
fession, do? Allow a King but that, That he does but as other Kings do, Nay, but this,
He does but as other Kings put him to a necessity to do, and you will not hastily call a King
an ill King. When God gives his people for old shoes, and sells them for nothing, and, at
the same time, gives his and their enemies abundance, when God commands Abraham,
to sacrifice his own and onely Sonne, and his enemies have Children at their pleasure,
as David speaks, To give your selves the liberty of humane affection, you would think
God an ill God; but yet, for all this, his children are to him, a Royall Priesthood, and a
holy Nation; and all their tears are in his bottles, and registred in his booke, for all this.
When Princes pretermit in some things, the present benefit of their Subjects, and con-
fer favours upon others give your selves the liberty to judge of Princes actions, with the
affections of private men, and you may think a King an ill King: But yet, we are to him,
as David sayes, 2 Sam. 19. 12. His brethren, his bone, his flesh, and so reputed by him. God himselfe
cannot stand upright in a naturall mans interpretation, nor any King in a private mans.
But then, how soone our adversaries come to call Kings, ill Kings, we see historically,
when they boast of having deposed Kings, Quia minus utiles, Because some other hath
seemed to them, fitter for the Government; and we see it prophetically, by their allow-
ing those Indictments, and Attainders of Kings, which stand in their books De Syndi-
catu, That that King which neglects the duties of his place (and they must prescribe the
duty, and judge the negligence too) That King that exercises his Prerogative, without
just cause (and they must prescribe the Prerogative, and judge the cause,) That that
King that vexes his Subjects, That that King that gives himselfe to intemperate hunting
(for in that very particular they instance) that in such cases, (and they multiply these
cases infinitely) Kings are in their mercy, and subject to their censures, and corrections.
We proceed not so, in censuring the actions of Kings; we say, with St. Cyrill, Impium
est dicere Regi, Iniquèagis; It is an impious thing, (in him, who is onely a private man,
and hath no other obligations upon him) to say to the King, or of the King, He governs
not as a King is bound to do: we remit the judgement of those their actions, which are se-
cret to God; and when they are evident, and bad, yet we must endevour to preserve
their persons; for there is a danger in the losse, and a lamentation due to the losse, even
of Zedekiah, for even such are uniti Domini, The anoynted of the Lord, and the breath of
our nostrils. First,
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First, (as it lies in our Text) The King is spiritus narium, Spiritus Narium. the breath of our uostrillsnostrills.
First, Spiritus, is a name, most peculiarly belonging to that blessed Person of the glo-
rious Trinity, whose Office it is to convay, to insinuate, to apply to us the Mercies of
the Father, and the Merits of the Sonne: He is called by this Name, by the word of
this Text, Ruach, even in the beginning of the Creation, God had created Heaven and
Earth, and then The Spirit of God, sufflabat, saith Pagnins translation, (and so saith the
Chalde Paraphrase too) it breathed upon the waters, and so induced, or deduced particular
formes. So God hath made us, a little World of our own, This Iland; He hath given
us Heaven and Earth, The truth of his Gospel, which is our earnest of Heaven, and
the abundance of the Earth, a fruitfull Land; but then he, who is the Spirit of the Lord,
he who is the breath of our nostrills, Incubat aquis, (as it is said there in the Creation)
he moves upon the waters, by his royall and warlike Navy at Sea, (in which he hath
expressed a speciall and particular care) And by the breath and influence of his provi-
dence throughout the Land, he preserves, he applies, he makes usefull those blessings
unto us. If this breath, that is, this power, be at any time sourd in the passage, and contract an
il savor by the pipes that convay it, so, as that his good intentions are ill executed by
inferiour Ministers, this must not be imputed to him; That breath that comes from the
East, the bed and the garden of spices, when it is breathed out there, is a persume, but
by passing over the beds of Serpents and putrefied Lakes, it may be a breath of poyson
in the West: Princes purpose some things for ease to the people, (and as such, they
are sometimes presented to them) and if they prove grievances, they tooke their pu-
trefaction in the way, that is, their corruption, from corrupt executors of good and
wholesome intentions; The thing was good in the roote, and the ill cannot be removed
in an instant. But then, Spiritus
sermo. we carry not this word Ruach, Spirit, so high; though since God hath said
that Kings are Gods, the Attribute of the Holy Ghost and his Office, which is, to ap-
ply to man the goodnesse of God, belongs to Kings also; for, God gives, but they ap-
ply all blessings to us. But here, we take the word literally, as it is in the Text; Ruach,
spirit, is the Breath that we breathe, the Life that we live; The King is that Breath, that
Life, and therefore that belongs to him. First our Breath, that is, sermo, our speech be-
longs to him; Be faithfull unto him, and speake good of his Name, is commanded by Da-
vid of God. To Gods Anointed, we are not faithfull, if we doe not speake good of
his Name. First, there is an internall, speech in the heart, and God lookes to that; The
foole hath said in his heart, there is no God; though he say it but in his heart, yet he is a
foole: for, as wise as a Politician would thinke him, for saying it in his heart, and com-
ming no further, yet even that is an overt act with God, for God seeth the heart. It is
the foole that saith in his heart, there is no God, and it is the foole that saith in his heart,
I would there were no King. That enormous, that infamous Tragedy of the Levites
ConcubinsConcubin, and her murder, of which it is said there, Iud. 19. 30. There was no such thing seen, nor
done before, (and many things are done, which are never seen) with that emphaticall ad-
dition, Consider of it, advise, and say your minde, hath this addition too, In those dayes
there was no King in Israel; If there had beene any King, but a Zedekiah, it could not
have been so: Eccles. 10. 20. Curse not the King, not in thy thoughts: for, they are sinnes that tread
upon the heels of one another, and that induce one another, to conceive ill of Gods
Lievtenant, and of God himselfe; for so the Prophet joyneth them, They shall fret
themselves, Esay 8. 21. and curse their King, and their God: He that beginneth with the one, will
proceed to the other. Thus then he is our Breath; our Breath is his; our speech must be contained, not ex-
pressed in his dishonour; not in misinterpretations of his Actions; jealousies have often
made women ill; incredulitie, suspiciousnesse, jealousie in the Subject, hath wrought ill
effects upon Princes, otherwise not ill. We must not speake ill; but our duty is not ac-
complished in that abstinence, we must speake well: And in those things, which will not
admit a good interpretation, we must be apt to remove the perversenesse and obliquity
of the act from him, who is the first mover to those who are inferiour instruments. In
these divers opinions which are ventilated in the Schoole, how God concurreth to the
working of second and subordinate causes, that opinion is I think, the most antient, that
denies that God workes in the second cause, but hath onely communicated to it, a power of
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of working, and rest himselfe. This is not true; God does work in every Organ, and
in every particular action; but yet though he doe work in all, yet hee is no cause of
the obliquity, of the perversenesse of any action. Now, earthly Princes are not equall
to God; They doe not so much as work in particular actions of instruments; many
times, they communicate power to others, and rest wholly themselves; and then, the
power is from them, but the perversenesse of the action is not. God does work in
ill actions, and yet is not guilty, but Princes doe not so much as worke therein,
and so may bee excusable; at least, for any cooperation in the evill of the action,
though not for countenancing, and authorising an evill instrument; but that is ano-
ther case. They are our breath then; Our breath is theirs, in good interpretations of their acti-
ons; 1 Tim. 2. 1. and it is theirs especially, in our prayers to Almighty God, for them. The
Apostle exhorts us to pray; for whom? first, for all men in generall; but in the first
particular, that hee descends to, for Kings. And both Theodoret, and Theophylact,
make that the onely reason, why the Apostle did not name Kings first, Vt non videa-
tur adulari, lest hee should seeme to flatter Kings: Whether mankinde it selfe, or
Kings, by whom mankinde is happy here, be to be preferred in prayer, you see both
Theodoret, and Theophylact, make it a probleme. And those prayers, there enjoyned,
were for Infidel Kings, and for persecuting Kings; for even such Kings, were the breath
of their nostrils; their breath, their speech, their prayers were due to them. But
then, beloved, a man may convey a Satir into a Prayer; a man may make a prayer a
Libell; If the intention of the prayer be not so much, to incline God to give those gra-
ces to the King, as to tell the world, that the King wants those graces, it is a Libell.
We say sometimes in scorn to a man, God help you, and God send you wit; and therein,
though it have the sound of a prayer, wee call him foole. So wee have seen of late,
some in obscure Conventicles, institute certain prayers, That God would keep the King,
and the Prince in the true Religion; The prayer is always good, always usefull; but
when that prayer is accompanied with circumstances, as though the King and the Prince
were declining from that Religion, then even the prayer it selfe is libellous, and sedi-
tious; Saint Paul, in that former place, apparels a Subjects prayer well, when hee
sayes, Let prayers bee given with thanks; Let our prayers bee for continuance of
the blessings, which wee have, and let our acknowledgement of present blessings,
bee an inducement for future: pray, and praise together; pray thankfully, pray not
suspiciously: for, beloved in the bowels of Christ Jesus, before whose face I stand
now, and before whose face, I shall not be able to stand amongst the righteous, at the
last day, if I lie now, and make this Pulpit my Shop, to vent sophisticate Wares,
In the presence of you, a holy part, I hope, of the Militant Church, of which I
am, In the presence of the whole Triumphant Church, of which, by him, by
whom I am that I am, I hope to bee, In the presence of the Head of the whole
Church, 1. Cor. 7. 44. who is All in all, I, ( and I thinke I have the Spirit of God,) (I am sure, I
have not resisted it in this point) I, (and I may bee allowed to know something
in Civill affaires) (I am sure I have not been stupefied in this point) doe deliver that,
which upon the truth of a Morall man, and a Christian man, and a Church man,
beleeve to be true, That hee, who is the Breath of our nostrils, is in his heart, as
farre from submitting us to that Idolatry, and superstition, which did hereto-
fore oppresse us, as his immediate Predecessor, whose memory is justly preci-
ous to you, was: Their wayes may bee divers, and yet their end the same, that is,
The glory of God; And to a higher Comparison, then to her, I know not how to
carry it. As then the Breath of our nostrils, our breath, is his, that is, our speech, first, in con-
taining it, not to speak in his diminution; then in uttering it amongst men; to interpret
fairly, and loially, his proceedings; and then in uttering it to God, in such prayers for
the continuing thereof, as imply a thankfull acknowledgement of the present blessings,
spirituall and temporall, which we enjoy now by him; So farre, Breath is speech; but
Breath is life too, and so our life is his. How willingly his Subjects would give their
lives for him, I make no doubt, but hee doubts not. This is argument enough for
their propensenesse and readinesse, to give their lives, for his honour, or for the posses-
sions of his children; That though not contra voluntatem, not against his will, yet Præ-
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Præter voluntatem, without any Declaration of his will, or pleasure, by any Com-mand, they have been as ready voluntarily, as if a Presse had commanded them. But
these ways, which his wisdome hath chosen for the procuring of peace, have kept
off much occasion of triall, of that, how willingly his Subjects would have given their
lives for him. Yet, their lives are his, who is the breath of their nostrils: And there-
fore, though they doe not leave them for him, let them lead them for him; though
they bee not called to die for him, let them live so, as that may bee for him; to live
peaceably, to live honestly, to live industriously, is to live for him; for, the sinnes of
the people endanger the Prince, as much as his owne. When that shall bee re-
quired at your hand, then die for him; In the meane time, live for him; live so,
as your living doe not kindle Gods anger against him, and that is a good Confes-
sion, and acknowledgement, That hee is the breath of your nostrils, That your life
is his. As then the breath of our nostrils, Anima. is expressed by this word in this Text, Ruach,
spiritus, speech, and life, so it is his. When the breath of life was first breathed into Gen. 2. 7.
man, there is called by another word, Neshamah, and that is the soule, the immor-
tall soule: And is the King the breath of that life? Is hee the soule of his Subjects
so, as that their soules are his; so, as that they must sinne towards men, in doing
unjust actions, or sinne towards God, in forsaking, and dishonouring him, if the King
will have them? If I had the honour to aske this question, in his royall presence, I
know he would bee the first man, that would say No, No; your souls are not mine,
so. And, as hee is a most perfect Text-man, in the Booke of God, (and by the
way, I should not easily feare his being a Papist, that is a good Text-man) I know hee
would cite Daniel, saying, Though our God doe not deliver us, yet know, O King, that we
will not worship thy Gods; Act. 5. 29. And I know hee would cite S. Peter, We ought to obey God, ra-
ther then men; And he would cite Christ himself, Feare not them, (for the soule) that
cannot hurt the soule. He claimes not your souls so: It is Ruach here, it is not Ne-
shamah; your life is his, your soule is not his, in that sense. But yet, beloved, these
two words are promiscuously used in the Scriptures; Ruach is often the soule; Ne-
shamah; is often the temporall life; And thus farre, the one, as well as the other, is the
Kings, That hee must answer for your soules; so they are his; for hee is not a King of
bodies, but a King of men, bodies and soules; nor a King of men onely, but of Chri-
stian men; so your Religion, so your soules are his; his, that is, appertaining to his
care, and his account. And therefore, though you owe no obedience to any power
under heaven, so as to decline you from the true God, or the true worship of that
God, and the fundamentall things thereof, yet in those things, which are, in their
nature but circumstantiall, and may therefore, according to times, and places,
and persons, admit alterations, in those things, though they bee things apper-
taining to Religion, submit your selves to his directions; for here, the two words
meet, Ruach, and Neshamah, your lives are his, and your souls are his too; His end be-
ing to advance Gods truth, he is to be trusted much, in matters of indifferent nature, by
the way. He is the word of our Text, Spiritus, as Spiritus is the Holy Ghost, so farre, by ac-
commodation, as that he is Gods instrument to convey blessings upon us; and as spi-
ritus is our breath, or speech, and as it is our life, and as it is our soule too, so farre, as that
in those temporall things which concern spirituall, (as Times of meeting, and much of
the manner of proceeding when we are met) we are to receive directions from him: So
he is the breath of our nostrils, our speech, our lives, our soules, in that limited sense,
are his. But then, did those subjects of his (And I charge none but his subjects, with this plot,
for, I judge not them who are without) from whom God deliverd us this day, did they
think so of him, That he was the breath of our nostrils? If the breath be soure, if it
bee tainted and corrupt, (as they would needs thinke, in this case) is it good Physick
for an ill breath, to cut off the head, or to suffocate it, to smother, to strangle, to
murder that man? Hee is the breath of their nostrils; They owe him their speech,
their thanks, Iob 30. 1. their prayers, and how have these children of fooles made him their
song, and their by-word? How have these Drunkards, (men drunke with the
Babylonian Cup) made Libels against him? Act. 17. 18. How have those Seminatores verborum, Mm word-
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word-scatterers, defamed him, even with contrary defamations. Heretofore, that he
persecuted their Religion, when he did not; now, that he hath left his own Religion.
He is their breath, they owe him their tongues, and how foully do they speak; and they
owe him their lives, and how prodigally do they give away their lives to others, that
they might take away His? He is their breath, (as breath is the soule) that is, Accomp-
tant for their soules, and how have they raised themselves out of his Audit, and with-
drawne themselves from his Allegiance? This they have done historically, and to say
prophetically, what they would do, first, their Extenuation of this fact, when they call
it an enterprise of a few unfortunate Gentlemen. And then their Exaltation of this fact,
when they make the principall person in it, a Martyr, this is prophecy enough, that since
they are not ashamed of the Originall, they will not be afraid to copy it often, and pur-
sue the same practises, to the same end. Let it be Josiah then, Vnctus Do-
mini. let it be Zedekiah, he was the Breath, the life of his Subjects,
(and that was the first attribute) and he was The Anoynted of the Lord, which is the
other. Vnction it self alwayes separated that which was anoynted from prophane,
and secular use; unction was a religious distinction. It had that signification in pra-
ctise, before any Law was given for it; when Jacob had had that vision upon the
stone, Gen. 28. 18. which made him see, that that place was the house of God, and the gate of
heaven, then he tooke up that stone which he had stept upon, and set it up for
a pillar, and anoynted it. This was the practise in nature; and then the precept in
the Law, was, as for the Altar it self, so for many other things. belonging to the ser-
vice of God in the Temple, Exod 29. 36. Thou shalt anoynt them, to sanctifie them. Thus it was
for things; and then, if we consider persons, we see the dignity that anoynting gave;
for it was given but to three sorts of persons, to Kings, to priests, and to Prophets:
Kings, and Priests had it, to testifie their ordinary, and permanent, and indelible ju-
risdiction, their power is laid on in Oyle; And Prophets had it, because they were ex-
traordinarily raised to denounce, and to execute Gods Judgements, upon persons
that were anoynted, upon Priests, and upon Kings too, in those cases, for which,
they were then particularly imployed. Thus then it is, anoynted things could not be
touched, but by anoynted persons, and then anoynted persons could not be touched,
but by persons anoynted; The Priest not directed, but by the King; The King, as King,
not corrected, but by the prophet: And this was the State, that they lamented so
compassionately, That their King, thus anoynted, thus exempted, was taken prisoner,
saw his Sonnes slaine in his presence, and then had his owne eyes pulled out, was
bound in chains, and carried to Babell. And lesse then this, in himself, and in his Sonne, and in all, was not intended this day,
against our, not Zedekiah, but Josiah: for death (speaking in nature) hath all particular
miseries in it. An anoynted King (and many Kings anoynted there are not) and he that
is anoynted præ Consortibus suis, above his fellow Kings, ( for, I think, no other King of
his Religion, is anoynted) The anoynted of the Lord, who in this Text hath both those
great names, Meshiach Jehovah, Christus Domini, as though he had been but the Bram-
ble anoynted for King of the Trees, Iudg. 9. 8. and so made the fitter fuell for their fire, as though
(as Davids lamentation is for Saul) He had not been anoynted with Oyle, 2 Sam. 1. 21. This eye
of God, he by whom God looks upon us, This hand of God, he by whom God
protects us, This foote of God, he by whom, in his due time, (and Vsquequo Domi-
ne, How long, O Lord, before that time come?) God shall tread downe, his
owne, and our enemies, was swallowed and devoured by them, in their confidence
of their owne plot, and their infallible assurance of his perishing. So it was hi-
storically; And how it stands prophetically, that is, What such as they were,
would do for the future; as long as they write, (not in Libels clandestinely and
subreptitiously stollen out, Coquæus. fo. 18. but avowed by publique Authority) That our Priests are
no Priests, but the Priests of Baal, for so they write, That the conspiracy of this day,
being against him, fol. 39. who oppressed Religion, was as just, as that against Cæsar, who
did but oppresse the State, fol. 43. And that they write, That those who were the actors
herein, are therefore saved, because at their execution, they submitted all to the
Romane Church, fol. 78. and were content, if the Church condemned it, then to repent
the Fact, for so they write also, That the Religion of our present King, is no bet-
ter, then the Religion of Jeroboam, fol. 65. or of Numa Pompilius, for so they write too, That
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that the last Queene, though an Heretique, yet because she was Anointed, did cure that
disease, The Kings evill, but because, in scorne thereof, the King refused to be anoin-
ted at his Coronation, therefore hee cannot cure that disease, and so non dicendus unctus
Domini, he is not to be called the Anointed of the Lord, says that Author, (for all
these are the words of one man, and one, who had no other provocation to say all this
but onely the Kings Apology for the oath of Allegiance) by retaining in their avowed
books, and by relying upon such Authors, and Authorities as these, which remaine for
their future instruction, we see their dispositions for the future, and judge of them pro-
phetically, as well as historically. Now the misery which is here lamented, Captus. the declination of the kingdome, in
the person of the King, is thus expressed, He was taken in their pits; taken, and taken in
pits, and taken in their pits, are so many staires, so many descents, so many gradations
(rather degradations) in this calamity. Let it bee Josiah, let it bee Zedekiah; They
were taken; taken, and never returned; Let it bee our Josiah, and will it hold in that
application? Was hee taken? Hee was plotted for, but was hee Taken? When hee
himselfe takes publique knowledge, that both at home and abroad, those of the Ro-
mane persuasion, assured themselves, of some especiall worke, for the advancement of
their cause, at that time, when they had taken that assurance, hee was so taken, taken
in that their assurance, infallibly taken in their opinion; so, as this kingdome was taken
in their opinion, who thought their Navy invincible; so this King was taken in their
assurance, who thought this plot infallible. Hee was taken, Fovea. and in fovea, in a pit, says the Text; If our first translation would
serve, the sorrow were the lesse, for there it is, he was taken in their net; now, a man
that flattereth, spreadeth a net, and a Prince that discerns not a flatterer, from a Coun-
sellor, is taken in a net; but that's not so desperate, as in a pit: In Josiahs case, it
was a pit, a Grave; in Zedekiahs case, it was a pit, a prison: in our Josiahs case, it was
fully, as it is in the Text, not in fovea, but in foveis, Foveis. plurally, in their pits, in their di-
vers pits; death in the mine where they beganne, death in the Cellar where they pur-
sued their mischiefe. And then it was in foveis Illorum, Illorum. in their pits, says the Text; but the Text does
not tell us, in whose; in the verse before, it is said, our persecutors did this, and
this, then it followes, Hee was taken in their pits; In the persecutors pits cer-
tainely; but yet, 2 Chron. 35. 23. who are they? If it were Josiah that was taken, the persecu-
tor was Necho, King of Egypt, for from his army, Josiah received his deaths wound:
If it were Zedekiah, the persecutor was Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, for hee car-
ried Zedekiah into captivity. Certainly the holy Ghost knew well enough, and
could have spoken plaine, whose these pits were, but it pleased him to forbeare names.
Certainly our Josiah knowes well enough, whose, those pits, which were digged for
him, were; but, according to his naturall sweetnesse, to decline the drawing of more
bloud, then necessarily hee must, or the laying of imputations and aspersions upon
more, then necessarily hee must, hee hath forborne names. The holy Ghost knowes
better then all the expositors, in all our Libraries, who digged those pits, our Josiah
knowes, better then all wee, who come but to celebrate, and solemnize the deliverance,
whose hands, and whose counsails were in the digging of these pits too. Hee was taken,
says our Text: fuit, hee Was. Fix that in Josiah, who was taken, and never taken back:
fix it in Zedekiah, who was taken, and never taken back; they both perished; in both
them, there is just cause, of perpetuall, and permanent lamentation, and no roome
left, for the exercise of any other affection. But transfer it to our Josiah, and then,
Hee was taken, is, Hee was but taken; God did not suffer his holy one to see Correction,
nor God did not suffer his Anointed, to perish in this taking; And so the lamentation
is become (as wee said at first) a Congratulation, so our Væ is an Euge, our excla-
mation turned to acclamation; and so our De profundis, is a Gloria in excelsis,
The pit, the vault is become a hill, from whence we may behold the power of our
great God; this Sepher kinoth, the book of Lamentations, is become Sepher tehillim,
the book of Psalmes, and thanksgivings; And Davids Bonus es omnibus, Lord thou art
good to all, is come to Moses non taliter, Lord thou hast not done so well, with any nation, as
with us; for when we might have fear'd a dereliquisti, that God had forsaken us, we had S.
August appropinquavi & nesciebam, we came nearer & nearer to God, and knew it not, we Mm2 knew
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Serm. XLIII.
knew not our danger, and therefore knew not his speciall Protection. It was one parti-cular degree of his mercy, to proceed so: As it is an ease to a man, not to heare of
his friends sicknesse, till he heare it, by hearing of his recovery, so God did not shake
us, with the knowledge of the danger, till he established us, with the deliverance:
And by making his servant, and our Soveraigne, the blessed means of that discove-
ry, and that deliverance, he hath directed us, in all apprehensions of dangers, to re-
ly upon that Wisdome, in civill affaires, affaires of State, and upon that Zeale, in cau-
ses of Religion, which he hath imprinted in that soule. Historically, God hath done
great things for us, by him; Prophetically, God hath great things to doe for us, and
all the Christian world, and will make him, his Instrument to doe them. Now, Auxilia. we reserved at first, for the last gaspe, and for the knot to tie up all, this
Consideration: That he that was truely affected in the sad sense of such a danger, and
the pious sense of such a deliverance, would also use all means in his power, to secure
the future, that that Kingdome, in that King, might alwayes bee safe, from the like
dangers. No doubt, our Josiah doth that, in that which appertaineth unto him;
and all, that is, The care of all, appertaineth unto him. If God had made him his
Rod, to scourge others with Warres and Armies, we might be affraid, that when
God had done his worke by him, he would cast the rod in the fire, God doth not al-
wayes blesse those Instruments, who love blood, though they pretend his Glory. But
since God hath made him his Dove, to flie over the world, with the Olive branch, with
indevours of Peace, in all places, as the Dove did, so he shall ever bring his Olive
branch to the Arke, that is, endevour onely such peace, as may advance the Church
of God, and establish peace of Conscience in himself. That care, Ne peccemus. on his part, shall preserve him: And for his preservation, and ours in
him, these things are to be done on our part: First, let us returne to God, so, as God
may looke upon us, clothed in the righteousnesscrighteousnesse of Christ; who will not be put on,
as a fair gowne, to cover course clothes; but first put off your sinnes, and then put on
him; sinnes of the Time, sinnes of your Age, sinnes of your Sex, sinnes of your Com-
plexion, sinnes of your Profession; put off all; for your Time, your Age, your Sex, your
Complexion, your Profession, shall not be damned; but you, you your selves shall Doe
not thinke that your Sundayes zeale once a weeke, can burn our all your extortions, and
oppressions, and usury, and butchery, and simony, and chambering and wantonnesse
practised from Monday to Saterday. Doe not thinke it to bee so with the Spiritu-
all man, as with the Naturall: In a Naturall body, a great proportion of Choler
will rectifie a cold, or old, or flegmatique man, he is the better, for having so much
choler; but a vehement zeale on Sunday, doth not rectifie the sixe dayes sinner: To
cry out then, I am sterved for want of an afternoon Sermon, and to fast all the weeke
long, so as never to taste how sweet the Lord is, in thy cleansing thy heart, and with-
drawing thy hand from sinne, this is no good diet; Not onely upon your Allegiance to
God, but upon your Allegiance to the King, be good: No Prince can have a better guard,
then Subjects truly religious. Quantus murus patriæ est vir justus, is S. Ambrose his holy
exclamation, What a wall to a City, what a Sea, what a Navy to an Iland, is a holy man?
The sins of former times, 2 Reg. 23. 26. the sins and provocations of Manasseh, lay heavy upon Josiah,
as well as God loved him. The sins of our daies, our sins, may open any Prince to Gods
anger. This is the first way of preserving our Josiah, to turn away the wrath of God, by
our abstinence from future sinnes, after our repentance of former. A second is, Honor. to uphold his honour and estimation with other men; especially amongst
strangers that live with us, who for the most part, value Princes so, as they finde their sub-
jects to value them. Ambassadors have ever been sacred persons, and partakers of great
priviledges. A Prince, that lives as ours, in the eye of many Ambassadors, is not as the
children of Israel, in the midst of Canaanites, and Jebusites, and Ammonites, who all
watched the destruction of Israel; but he is in the midst of Tutelar Angels, Nationall An-
gels, who study (by Gods grace, & as it becomes us to hope) the peace and welfare of the
Christian State. But then all strangers in the land, are not noble, and candid, and ingenu-
ous Ambassadors; & even Ambassadors themselves may be misled to an undervalue of the
Prince, by rumours, and by disloyal, and by negligent speaches, from the Subject; we
have not yet felt Solomons whippes; but our whinings and repinings, and discontents
may bring us to Rehoboams Scorpions. 1 Reg. 12. 11. This way hath a part, in the Kings safetie, and
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and in our safety, to hold in our selves, and to convay to strangers, a good estimation
of that happy government, which is truly good in it self. And then a third, Subsidia. and very important way towards his preservation, is, a cheerful
disposition, to supply, and to support, and to assist him, with such things as are necessary
for his outward dignity. When God himselfe was the immediate King of the Israe-
lites, and governed them, by himself, he took it ill, that they would depart from him,
who needed nothing of theirs, for there could be no other King, but must necessarily be
supplyed by them: And yet, consider, Beloved, what God, who needed nothing, took:
The sacrifices of the Jews, 2 Chron. 35. were such, as would have kept divers Royall houses: Take
a bill of them, but in one Passeover, that Iosiah kept, and compare that and other the
like, with the smalness of the land, that they possessed, and you will see, that that they
gave, was a very great proportion. Now, it is the service of God, to contribute to the
King as well as to the Priest: He that gives to a Prophet, shall have a Prophets reward;
he that gives to the King, shall have a Kings reward, a Crown: in those cases, where to
give to your King, is to give to God, that is, where the peace of the State, and the glory of
God in his Gospel depends much, upon the sustentation of the estimation, and outward
honour and splendour of the King: preserve him so, and he shall the lesse be subject to
these dangers, of such falling into their pits. But lastly, Religio. and especially, let us preserve him, by preserving God amongst us, in the
true, and sincere profession of our Religion. Let not a mis-grounded, and disloyall
imagination of coolness in him, 1 Iohn 4. 3. cool you, in your own families. Omnis spiritus, qui
solvit Iesum, says the Apostle, in the Vulgat, every spirit that dissolves Jesus, that em-
braces not Iesus intirely, All Iesus, and All his, All his Truth, and all that suffer for that
Truth, is not of God. Doe not say, I will hold as much of Jesus, as shall be necessary,
so much as shall distinguish me from a Turk, or a Iew, but if I may be the better, for
parting with some of the rest, why should I not? Doe not say, I will hold All, my
self, but let my wife, or my son, or one of my sons, goe the other way, as though Pro-
testant, and Papist were two severall callings; and, as you would make one son a Law-
yer, another a Merchant, you will make one son a Papist, another a Protestant. Ex-
cuse not your own levity, with so high a dishonor to the Prince; when have you heard,
that ever he thanked any man, for becoming a Papist? Leave his dores to himselfe;
The dores into his kingdome, The Ports, and the dores in his kingdome, The prisons;
Let him open and shut his dores, as God shall put into his minde: look thou seriously
to thine own dores, to thine own family, and keep all right there. A Thief that is let
out of New-gate is not therefore let into thy house; A Priest that is let out of prison,
is not therefore let into thy house neither: still it may be felony, to harbour him, though
there were mercy in letting him out. Cities are built of families, and so are ChuchesChurches
too; Every man keeps his owne family, and then every Pastor shall keep his flock,
and so the Church shall be free from schisme, and the State from sedition, and our Jo-
siah preserved, Prophetically for ever, as he was Historically this day, from them, in
whose pits, the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken. Amen. Sermon XLIV.
Preached at St. Pauls Crosse, Novemb. 22. 1629.
Mat. 11. 6.
And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. THeseThese are words spoken by our Blessed Saviour, to two Disciples, sent by
John Baptist, then a prisoner, to inform themselves of some particulars
concerning Christ. Christ, who read Hearts, better then we doe faces,
and heard Thoughts clearer then we doe words, saw in the thoughts, and
hearts of these men, a certain perversenesse, an obliquity, an irregularity to-
wards him, a jealousie and suspicion of him, and according to that indisposition of Mm3 theirs
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theirs he speaks to them, and tels them, This, and This onely is true Blessednesse, not to
be scandalized in me, not to be offended in me; I see you are; but, as you love Blessednesse,
(and there is no other object of true love, but Blessednesse) establish your selves in mee,
maintain in your selves a submission, and an acquiescence to me, in my Gospel, suspect
not me, be not jealous of me, nor presse farther upon me, then I open and declare my
self unto you, for, Blessed is he, whosoever is not scandalized, not offended in me. The words have in them an Injunction, Divisio. and a Remuneration; A Precept, and a Pro-
mise; The Way, and the End of a Christian. The Injunction, The Precept, The way
is, As you love blessedness, be not offended in me, Be satisfied with mee, and mine Or-
dinances; It is an Acquiescence in the Gospel of Christ Jesus: And the Remuneration,
the Promise, the End, is Blessedness; That, which, in it self, hath no end, That, in re-
spect of which, all other things are to no end, Blessedness, everlasting Blessedness, Bles-
sed is he, whosoever is not scandalized, not offended in me. In the first, Christ gives them
first, if not an Increpation, yet an Intimation of our facility in falling into the Passive
scandall, the mis-interpreting of the words or actions of other men, which is that which
our Saviour intends, by being offended in another; And Blessed are they, in generall, who
are not apt to fall into this Passive scandall, not subject to this facility of mis-interpre-
ting other men. In a second branch in this first part, Christ appropriates this to him-
self, Blessed is he, whosoever is not scandalized, not offended in me; In which branch,
we shall see, that the generall scandall, and offence that the world took at Christ, and
his Gospel, was, that he induced a Religion that opposed the Honours, and the Plea-
sures, and the Profit of this world: And these three being the Triangle within our cir-
cle, the three corners, into which Satan, that compasses the world, leads us, (all is
Honour, or Pleasure, or Profit) because the Christian Religion seemed to the world to
withdraw mens affections from these, the world was scandalized, offended in Christ.
But then, in a third consideration, wee shall see, that Christ discerned in these two per-
sons, these Disciples of John, a Passive scandall of another kinde; Not that Christs
Gospel, and the Religion that he induced, was too low, too base, too contemptible, as
the world thought, but that it was not low enough, not humble enough, and therefore
Iohns Disciples would doe more then Christs Disciples, and bind themselves to a grea-
ter strictness and austerity of life, then Christ in his Gospel required. In which third
branch, wee shall take knowledge of some Disciples of Iohns Disciples, in the world yet;
and, (as for the most part it fals out in Sectaries) of divers kinds and ways; for, wee shall
finde some, who in an over-valuation of their owne purity, condemne, and contemne
other men, as unpardonable Reprobates; And these are scandalized, and offended in
Christ, that is, not satisfied with his Gospel, in that they will not see, that it is as well
a part of the Gospel of Christ, to rely upon his Mercy, if I have departed from that
purity, which his Gospel enjoyned mee, as it is, to have endevoured to have pre-
served that purity; And a part of his Gospel, as well to assist with my prayers, and
my counsell, and with all mildenessß, that poore soul that hath strayed from that puri-
ty, as it is to love the Communion of those Saints, that have in a better measure pre-
served it; Not to beleeve the Mercy of God in Christ, after a sinne, to be a part of the
Gospel, as well as the Grace of God for prevention before, not to give favourable
constructions, and conceive charitable hopes of him, who is falne into some sinne,
which I may have escaped, this is to bee scandalized, to bee offended in Christ, not to
bee satisfied with his Gospel; And this is one Sect of the off-spring of Iohns Disciples.
And the other is this, that other men thinking the Gospel of Christ to be too large a
Gospel, a Religion of too much liberty, will needs undertake to doe more, then Christ,
or his Disciples practised, or his Gospel prescribed: for, this is to be offended in Christ,
not to beleeve the meanes of salvation ordained by him, to bee sufficient for that end,
which they were ordained to, that is, salvation. And then, after all this, in a fourth
branch we shall see, the way, which our Saviour takes to reclaime them, and to de-
vest them of this Passive scandall, which hindred their Blessednesse, which was, to
call them to the contemplation of his good works, and of good works in the highest
kind, his Miracles; for in the verse immediately before the text, (which verse induces the
Text) hee sayes to them, you see the blinde receive their sight, the lame goe, the lea-
pers are cleansed, the deafe heare, the dead are raised to life. Christ does not pro-
pose, at least, hee does not put all, upon that externall purity, and austerity of life,
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life, in which, these Disciples of John pretended to exceed all others, but upon doing
good to others; the blinde see, the deaf heare, the lame walk. Which miracles, and great
works of his, our blessed Saviour summes up with that, which therefore seemes
the greatest of all, Pauperes Evangelizantur, The poore have the Gospell preached un-
to them. Beloved, the greatest good that we, (we to whom the dispensation of
the word of reconciliation is committed) can do, is, to preach the Gospell to the
poore, to assist the poore, to apply our selves by all wayes, to them, whether they
be poore in estate, and fortune, or poore in understanding and capacity, or poore
in their accounts and dis-estimation of themselves, poore and dejected in spirit.
And all these considerations, which, as you see, are many, and important, (first our ge-
nerall easinesse to fall into the passive scandall, to be offended in others, to mis-interpret
others; And then the generall passive scandall and offence that the world took at Christ,
That he induced a Religion incapable of the honours, or the pleasures, or profits of
this world; And thirdly, the particular passive scandall that dis-affected these Disciples
of John towards Christ, which was, That his Gospell enjoyned not enough, and there-
fore they would do more, in which kinde, we finde two sects in the world yet, the off-
spring, and Disciples of those Disciples; And then lastly, the way that Christ tooke to
reclaime and satisfie them, which was, by good works, and the best works that they that
did them, could do, (for in himself it was by doing miracles, for the good of others)
and preferring in his good and great works, the assisting of the poor) All these conside-
rations, I say, will fall into our first part, As you love blessednesse, be not scandalized,
be not offended in me, which is the injunction, the precept, the way. And, when in our
due order, we shall come to our second part, The remuneration, the promise, the end,
Blessednesse, everlasting blessednesse, I may be glad, that the time will give me some co-
lour, some excuse of saying little of that, as I can foresee already, by this distribution,
that we shall be forced to thrust that part into a narrow conclusion. For, if I had Me-
thusalems yeers, and his yeers multiplyed by the minutes of his yeers, (which were a
faire terme) if I could speak till the Angels Trumpets blew, and you had the patience
of Martyrs, and could be content to heare me, till you heard the Surgite Mortui, till you
were called to meet the Lord Jesus in the clouds, all that time would not make up one
minute, all those words would not make up one syllable, towards this Eternity, the pe-
riod of this blessednesse. Reserving our selves therefore for that, to those few minutes
which may be left, or borrowed, when we come to the handling thereof, pursue we first,
those considerations which fall more naturally into our comprehension, the severall
branches of our first part; As you love blessednesse, Be not scandalized, be not offen-
ded in me. First then our Saviours answer to these Disciples of John, 1. Part. gives us occasion to consi-
der our inclination, Scandalum
Passivum. our propensenesse to the paßive scandall, to be offended in others, to
mis-interpret the words and actions of others, and to lament that our infirmity, or per-
versenesse, in the words of our Saviour, MatMat. 18. 7. Væ Mundo à scandalis, Wo to the world by reason
of scandals, of offences: For, that is both a Væ Dolentis, The voyce of our Saviour la-
menting that perversenesse of ours, and Væ Minantis, his voyce threatning punishments
for that perversenesse. For, Parum distat scandalizare, & scandalizari, sayes St. Hie-
rome excellently; It is almost all one to be scandalized by another, as to scandalize ano-
ther; almost as great a sin, to be shaked in our constancy, in our selves, or in our charity
towards others, as to offer a scandall to others. For, this Væ, this intermination of wo
from our Saviour, Mat. 24. 32. is bent upon us, from three batteries; for, it is Væ quia Illusiones for-
tes, wo, because scandals are so strong in their nature, as that they shall seduce, if it be
possible, the Elect; And then, Væ quia infirmi vos, Woe because you are so weak in your
nature, as that, Mat. 13. 21. though you receive the word, and receive it with joy, yet Temporales
estis, you may be but Time servers for all that, for, as soon as persecution comes, ilico,
continuò, scandalizamini, Instantly, presently, you are scandalized, offended; But espe-
cially Væ quia Prævaricatores, Woe be unto you, not because the scandals are so strong,
not because you are so weake, but because you prevaricate against your own souls,
because you betray your selves, and make your selves weaker than you are, you
open your selves too easily to a scandall, you assist a scandall, create a scandall,
by your aptnesse to mis-interpret other mens proceedings. Great peace have they
that love thy Law, Psal. 119. 165. sayes David: Wherein consists this great peace? In this, Non
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Non est illis scandalum, nothing scandalises, nothing offends them, nothing puts them
off from their Kings, their Constancy in themselves, their Charity towards others. And
therefore upon that prayer of David, Liberet te Deus ab Homine malo, The Lord deliver
thee from the evill man, Saint Augustin retires himselfe into himselfe, he sends every man
home into himselfe, and says, Liberet te Deus à te, ne sis tibi homo malus, the Lord de-
liver thee from thy selfe, that thou be not that evill man to thy selfe; God blesse me
from my selfe, that I lead not my selfe into tentation, by a wilfull misinterpreting of o-
ther men, especially my superiours; that I cast not aspersions or imputations upon the
Church, or the State, by my mistakings. And thus much being said of this generall fac-
ility of falling into the Passive scandall, and being offended in others, (which is a great
interruption of blessednesse, for Blessed is he, and he onely, that is not so scandalised, of-
fended so) passe we now to the second branch of this first part, our Saviours, appropri-
ating of this more particularly to himselfe, Blessed is he, whosoever is not scandalised, not
offended in me. Christ Crucified, In me. that is, the Gospell of Christ, is said by the Apostle, to be scanda-
lum Judæis, a scandal, a stumbling block to the Jews, 1 Cor. 1. 23. but Græcis stultitia, to the Grecians,
to the Gentiles, meer foolishness. So that one scandall & offence that was taken at Christ,
& his Gospel, was by the wisemen, the learned, the Philosophers of the world; they thoght
that Christ induced a religion improbable to Reason, a silly and a foolish religion. But
these learned men, these Philosophers, were sooner convinced & satisfied, then others.
For, when we have considered Justin Martyr, and Minutius Felix, and Arnobius, and Ori-
gen, and Lactantius, and some things of Theodoret, & perchance one or two more, we have
done with those Fathers, 1 Cor. 1. 20. that did any thing against the Gentiles, and their Philosophers,
and may soon come to that question of the Apostle, Vbi sapiens, where is the wiseman,
where is the Philosopher, where is the disputer of the world? Indeed, al that the Fathers writ
against thē, would not amount to so much, as may be found at one mart, of papists against
Protestants, or of Protestants, Lutherans and Calvinists, against one another. The rea-
son is, Reason will be satisfied, Passion will not. And therefore, when it came to that
issue between the Christian and the Naturall man, which Religion was most comfortable
to Reason, it soon resolved into these two, whether it were more conformable to Reason
to beleeve One God, as the Christian does, or many, as the Gentiles; and then, being
brought to the beliefe of one God, whether it were more conformable to reason, to be-
leeve three Persons in that one God, as we, or but one, as they doe. Now, for the first
of these, the Multiplicity of Gods, it involved so many, so evident, so ridiculous absur-
dities, as not onely those few Fathers soon disputed them, but some of themselves, such
as Lucian, soon laughed them, out of it; and so reason prevailed soon for the unity of
the Godhead, that there is but one God, and that question was not long in sus-
pence, nor agitation. And for the other, three persons in this one God, the Trinity,
though we cannot so immediately prove that by Reason, nor so intirely, altogether, yet,
by these steppes we can: first, that there is nothing in the doctrine of the Trinity against
Reason; the doctrine of the Trinity implies no contradiction; It may be so; and then,
that it is so, if we have the word of God, for it, Reason it selfe will conclude, that we
have Reason on our side; And that we have the word of God for it, we proceed thus,
that for this Book, which we call the Bible, which book delivers us the Doctrine of
the Trinity, we have far better reasons, and stronger arguments to satisfie any naturall
man, that this book is the word of God, then the Turke, or any professors of any other Re-
ligion have, that those books which they pretend to be so, are so. So that positively for
the first, that there is but one God, & Comparatively for the other, that there are three per-
sons, Reason it selfe, (if we were bound to submit all Religion to Reason) may receive a
satisfaction, a calme, and peaceable acquiescence. And so, the scandall that the Philo-
sophers took, was, with no great difficulty, overcome. But then the scandals that world-
ly and carnall men tooke, lasted longer. They were offended in Christ, that he indu-
ced an inglorious, a contemptible Religion, a Religion that opposed the Honours of this
world; and a sooty, and Melancholique Religion, a Religion that opposed the Pleasures,
and delights of this world; and a sordid, and beggerly Religion, a Religion that op-
posed the Gaine, and the Profit of this world. But were this enough to condemne
the Christian Religion, if it did oppose worldly honour, or pleasure, or profit? Or does
our Religion doe that? Be pleased to stop a little upon both these Problems; whether that
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that were enough to their ends, if it were so, and then, whether there be any such thing
in our Religion; and begin wee with their first offence at Christ, The point of
Honour. The Apostle speaks of an Eternall weight of Glory; Honor. Glory, A weight of Glory, An eter-
nall weight of Glory; 2 Cor. 1. 17. But where? In heaven, not in this world. The Honours of this
world, are farre from being weights, or fraights, or ballast to carry us steady; they are
but light froths, but leaven, but fermentation, that puffes and swells us up. And they
are as farre from being eternall; for, in every family, we know, in which father, or grand-
father the Honour began, and wee know not how soon, or how ignominiously it may
end; but such ends of worldly Honours, we see every day. When a Lord meets a man
that honours him, makes him curtesie, and curses him withall, what hath his Lordship
got by that Honour? when popular acclamations cast him into insolent actions, and
into the net of the Law, where is the ease, the benefit, the consolation of his Honour?
But especially, if worldly Honour must be had upon those conditions here, as shall hin-
der my eternall weight of Glory hereafter, I should honour any dishonour, glorifie any
inglorious state, embrace any Dunghill, call any poverty Treasure, rather then bring
the Honours of this world into the Balance, into competition, into comparison with that
eternall weight of Glory in heaven. So that if the Christian Religion did oppose world-
ly Honour, it were not to be opposed for that: But it is farre from that; for, as no Re-
ligion imprints more honour, more reverence, more subjection in the hearts of men, to-
wards their Superiours of all sorts, Naturall, or Civill, or Ecclesiasticall, Parents, or Magi-
strates, or Prelates, then the Christian Religion does (for, we binde even the conscience it
self) so never was there any form of Religion upon the face of the earth, in which per-
sons were capable of greater Titles, and styles of dignity, then in the Christian Church.
Never any Moscovite, any Turk, received such titles, as the world hath, and does give to
the Bishop of Rome; so great, as that some of the greatest later Emperours, have had an
ambition of that dignity, and endevoured to have been elected Popes too, being Empe-
rors. If Religion opposed Honour, that should not diminish it; but it does not that, nor
Pleasure neither, which was another thing, in which, the world was offended in Christ. As when we compared the Honour of this world, Voluptas. with the Glory of Heaven, we
found it nothing, so should we doe the Pleasures of this world, if we compared them
with the Joys of heaven. And therefore if my religion did enwrap me in a continuall
cloud, damp me in a continuall vapour, smoke me in a continuall sourenesse, and joy-
lesnesse in this life, yet I have an abundant recompense in that Reversion, which the
Lord, Ps. 36. 28. the righteous Judge hath laid up for me, That I shall drink è torrente voluptatis,
of the Rivers of his pleasures; pleasures, His pleasures, Rivers, ever-flowing, overflowing
Rivers of his pleasures. So that if my Religion denied me pleasure here, I would not
deny my Religion, nor be displeased with my Religion for that; But it does not that;
for what Christian is denied a care of his health, or of a good habitude of body, or the
use of those things, which may give a chearfulnesse to his heart, or a chearfulnesse to his
countenance? What Christian is denied such Garments, or such Ornaments, as his own
rank, and condition, in particular requires, or as the Nationall and generall custome of
his times hath induced and authorised? What Christian is denied Conversation, or Re-
creation, or honest Relaxation of Body or Spirit? Excesse of these pleasures, as well in
the Heathen, as in the Christian, fals under Solomons Vanity, and Vexation of spirit. But
with the right use of these pleasures, the Christian hath that, which none but hee,
hath, Psal. 4. 8. That the Lord puts gladnesse into my heart, That the Lord enables me to lay mee
downe in peace, and sleepe, That the Lord assures mee that he will keep mee in safety.
If Religion excluded worldly pleasure, that were no cause of scandall or offence; but
it does not that; no nor Profit neither, which is a third consideration. What is a man profited, Lucrum. says our Saviour, (he saw all the world was carried upon pro-
fit, and he goes along with them, that way) What is a man profited, Mat. 16. 26. if he gain the whole
world, and lose his own soule? If a man have an answer to that question, that question
of Confusion, Luc. 12. 10. and Consternation, that Christ asks, Cujus erunt, foole this night they
shall fetch away thy soule, and then, Cujus erunt, whose shall all those things be, that thou
hast provided? if a man can answer, Hæredis erunt, They shall be mine heires, mine heire
shall have them; Besides that, though thy bell toll first, his may ring out first; though
thou beest old, and crasie, and sickly, Though they doe fetch away thy soule this night, they may
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may fetch away his before thine, thine heir may die before thee, and there's that ass-urance disappointed; If thine heir doe enjoy all this, will all that distill one drop of cold
water upon thy tongue in hell? And so is he, (sayes Christ, in the conclusion of that
parable) that layeth up riches for himself, and is not rich towards God. So that if Rich-
es might not consist with Religion, it would not hurt our cause; but they may, they doe.
Godlineß hath the promise of this life, 1 Tim. 4. 8. and of the next; of both, but of this first. The
seed of the righteous, Ps. 112. 3. shall be mighty upon earth, and wealth and riches shall be in his house.
Many places of Scripture tell us that the wicked may be rich, and that they are rich; but
in no place does God promise that they shall be rich. So says Davids sonne, Solomon,
too, Prov. 14. 24. The Crown of the wise is their riches; we all know what men Solomon means by wise
men; Godly men, Religious men; And their Crown is Riches. Beloved, there is an in-
ward Ioy, there is an outward dignity and reverence, that accompanies Riches, and the
Godly, the righteous man is not incapable of these; Nay, they belong rather to him,
then to the ungodly: Prov. 19. 10. Non decent stultum divitiæ, (as the Vulgat reades that place)
Riches doe not become a fool. But because, for all that, though Riches doe not become
a fool, yet fools doe become rich; our Translations read that place thus: joy, pleasure, de-
light, is not seemly for a fool; Though the fool, the ungodly man, may bee rich, yet a
right joy, a holy delight in riches, belongs onely to the wise, to the righteous. The
Patriarchs in the Old Testament, many examples in the New, are testimonies to us of
the compatibility of riches, and righteousnesse; that they may, that they have often
met in one person. For, is fraud, and circumvention so sure a way, of attaining Gods
blessings, as industry, and conscientiousnesse is? Or is God so likely to concurre with
the fraudulent, the deceitfull man, as with the laborious, and religious? Was not A-
nanias, with his disguises, more suddenly destroyed, then Iob, and more irrecoverably?
And cannot a Star-chamber, or an Exchequer, leave an ungodly man as poor, as a storm
at sea, in a ship-wracke, or a fire at land, in a lightning, can doe the godly? Murmure
not, be not scandalized, nor offended in him, if God, for reasons reserved to himselfe,
keep thee in poverty; but know, that God hath exposed the riches of this world, as well,
rather to the godly, then the wicked. And so have you the second branch of this first
part, The scandals which, for the most part, were taken at Christ, and his Gospel, by the
Philosophers, that it was a Religion contrary to Reason, by worldly, and carnall men,
that it was a Religion contrary to the honours, to the pleasures, to the profits of this
world; which, if it were so, were no impeachment to it, but it is not: And so wee are
come to the third branch, The particular paßive scandall, which our Saviour depre-
hended in these two Disciples of Iohn, diverse from the rest. That, Discipuli
Joannis. which mis-affected them towards Christ, was not that he induced a Religion
too low, too sordid, too humble, but not low enough, not humble enough; and therefore
they would out-bid Christ, and undertake more, then his Disciples practised, or him-
selfe prescribed. Their Master, John Baptist, discerned this distemper in them, then
when they said to him, Ioh. 3. 26.
30. Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, baptizes as fast as
thou, and all the world comes to him. John Baptist deals plainly with them, and he tels
them, that they must not be offended in that, for so it must be, He must increase, and I
must decrease. This troubled them; and because it did so, John sends them personally
to Christ, to receive farther satisfaction. When they come at first to him, they say,
Sir, Mat. 9. 14. we fast, and, even the Pharisees fast, why doe not you, and your Disciples fast too?
And then our blessed Saviour enlarges himselfe to them, in that point of fasting, and
they goe home satisfied. Now they returne againe, and they continue their wonder,
that Christ should continue his greatnesse, and his estimation in the world, they excee-
ding him so far in this outward austority of life, which was so specious, and so winning
a thing amongst the Jews. Ambr. But duo Discipuli fortaße duo populi, These two Disciples
of Iohn may have their Disciples in the world to this day; And therefore forbearing
their persons, we shall consider their off-spring; Those men, who in an over-valuation
of their own purity, despise others, as men whom nothing can save; & those men, who in an
over-valuation of their own merits, think to save themselves and others too, by their
supererogations. Begin we with the first, Cathari. The over-pure despisers of others; Men that will abridge,
and contract the large mercies of God in Christ, and elude, and frustrate, in a great part,
the generall promises of God. Men that are loth, that God should speak so loud, as to
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to say, He would have all men saved, And loth that Christ should spread his armes, or
shed his bloud in such a compasse, as might fall upon all. Men that think no sinne can
hurt them, because they are elect, and that every sin makes every other man a Repro-
bate. But with the Lord there is Copiosa redemptio, Ps. 130. 7. plentifull redemption, and an over-
flowing cup of mercy. Aquæ quæ non mentiuntur, As the holy Ghost sayes more then
once, more then many times, in the Prophets, Waters that will not lye, that will not
dry, Iames 3. 17. not deceive, not disappoint any man. The wisdome that is from above, is first
pure, & then peaceable. Purity, Sincerity, Integrity, Holinesse, is a skirt of Christs gar-
ment; It is the very livery that he puts upon us; wee cannot serve him without it, (we
must serve him in holineß and purenesse) we cannot see him without it, without holinesse
no man shall see God. But then to be pure, and not peaceable, to determine this purity
in our selves, and condemne others, this is but an imaginary, but an illusory purity
Not to have relieved that poor wretch, that lay wounded, and weltring in his bloud
in the way to Iericho, Luc. 10. 30. was the uncharitablenesse of the Levite, and the Priest, in that
parable. But that parable presents no man so uncharitable, as would have hindred the
Samaritan, from pouring his Oyle, and his Wine into the wounds of that distressed wretch.
To hinder the bloud of Christ Jesus, not to suffer that bloud to flow as far, as it will,
to deny the mercy of God in Christ, to any sinner, whatsoever, upon any pretence,
whatsoever, this is to be offended in Christ, to be scandalized with his Gospel; for,
that's his own precept, Have salt in your selves, (bee it, purity, the best preservative
of the soul) And then, Mar. 9. 50. Have peace with one another, Deny no man the benefit of Christ;
Blesse thou the Lord, praise him, and magnifie him, for that which hoe hath done for
thee, and beleeve, that he means as well to others, as to thee. And these are one Sect
of the Disciples of Johns Disciples, That think there are men, whom Christ cannot save,
And the other is of men that think they can save other men. Ignatius, Papistæ. who is so ancient, as that wee have letters from him to S. Iohn, and from
him to the Blessed Virgin, and if the copies be true) from her to him, as ancient as hee
is, says, Monet quisquam antiquorum, One of the Ancients hath given us this caution,
Vt nemo bonus dicatur qui malum bono permiscuerit, That we call no man good, that is
good to ill ends, nor beleeve any man to speak truth, that speaks truth at some times,
to make his future lies the more credible. And much this way does the Romane Church
proceed with us, in this behalf. They magnifie sanctification, and holinesse of life well;
well doe they propose many good means, for the advancement, and exaltation there-
of; fasting, and prayer, and almes, and other Medicinall Disciplines, and Mortifications.
But all this to a wrong end; Not to make them the more acceptable to God, but to
make God the more beholden to them; To merit, and over-merit; To satisfie, and
super-satisfie the justice of God for their own, and for others sins. Now, God will
be served with all our power; But, say they, wee may serve God, with more then all our
power. How? Because I may have more power, more grace, more help, to day, then
I had yesterday? But does not the same Commandement, of serving God, with all my
power, lye upon mee, to day, as did yesterday? If yesterday, when I had lesse pow-
er, lesse grace, lesse help, all was but Duty and service that could be done, is it the lesse
a service and a duty now, because God hath enlarged my capacity with more grace,
and more helps then before? Doe I owe God the lesse, because hee hath given me
more? All that my Saviour hath taught me, in this, to pray for, is but this, Dimitte
debita, Lord forgive mee the not-endevouring to keep thy Commandements: But for
not doing more then thy Commandements, I ask no forgiveness, by any prayer, or
precept recommended to mee by him. Ad Evangelii impletionem conscendat nostra
religio, nec transcendats sayes the learnedest Nun, and the best Matriarch, and Mother
of that Church, I think, that ever writ, Heloyssa; I pray God, our Order may get so
far, as the Gospel enjoyns, and not press beyond that; Nec quid amplius, quàm ut
Christianæ simus, appetamus, That wee desire to bee no more, then good Christians.
And farther wee extend not this third consideration, The particular passive scandall,
which Christ found in these Disciples of Iohn, and which wee have noted in their pro-
geny, and off-spring but goe on to the fourth, The way that Christ took to devest them
thereof, by calling them to the contemplation of his works, Consider what you have
seen done, The blinde see, The lame goe, The deafe hear, and then you will not endanger
your blessednesse, by being offended in me. The
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The evidence that Christ produces, Opera. and presses, is good works; for, if a man offer
me the roote of a tree to taste, I cannot say this is such a Pear, or Apple, or Plum; but
if I see the fruit, I can. If a man pretend Faith to me, I must say to him, with Saint James,
Can his Faith save him? 2. 14. such a Faith, as that the Apostle declares himself to mean, A
dead Faith, 17. as all Faith is that is inoperative, and workes not. But if I see his workes, I
proceed the right way in Judicature, I judge secundum allegata & probata, according to
my evidence: And if any man will say, those workes may be hypocriticall, I may say of
any witnesse, He may be perjured; but as long as I have no particular cause to think so,
it is good evidence to me, Hilar. as to hear that mans Oath, so to see this mans workes. Cum
in Cælis sedentem in Crucem agere non poßum, Though I cannot crucifie Christ, being
now set at the right hand of his Father in Heaven, yet there is Odium impietatis, saith
that Father, A crucifying by ungodlinesse; An ungodly life in them that professe Christ,
is a daily crucifying of Christ. Therefore here Christ refers to good works; And there
is more in this then so: It is not onely good works, but good works in the highest pro-
portion, The best works, that he that doth them, can doe: Therefore, in his own case he
appeals to Miracles. For if fasting were all, or wearing of Camells haire, all, or to have
done some good to some men, by Baptizing them, were all, these Disciples and their
Master might have had as much to plead as Christ. Therefore he calls them to the
consideration of works of a higher nature, of Miracles; for, God never subscribes nor
testifies a forged Deed; God never seals a falshood with a Miracle. Therefore, when
the Jewes say of Christ, Ioh. 10. 20. He hath a Devill, and is mad, why heare ye him? some of the o-
ther Jewes said, These are not the words of one that hath a Devil: But though by that it
appear, that some evidence, some argument may be raised in a mans behalfe, from his
words, from that he saith, from his Preaching, yet Christs friends who spoke in his fa-
vour, doe not rest in that, That those are not the words of one that hath a Devill, but
proceed to that, Can the Devill open the eyes of the blinde? He doth more then the De-
vill can doe; They appeal to his works, to his good workes, to his great works, to his
Miracles. But doth he put us to doe miracles? no; Though, in truth those sumptuous
and magnificent buildings, and endowments, which some have given for the sustentati-
on of the poore, are almost Miracles, half Miracles, in respect of those penurious pro-
portions, that Myut and Cumin, and those half-ounces of broken bread, which some as
rich as they, have dropped, and crumbled out; Truely, he that doth as much as he can,
is almost a Miracle; And when Christ appeals to his Miracles he calls us therein, to the
best works we can doe. God will be loved with the whole heart, and God will have
that love declared with our whole substance. I must not thinke I have done enough, if
I have built an Almes-house; As long as I am able to doe more, I have done nothing.
This Christ intimates in producing his greatest works, Miracles; which Miracles he
closeth up with that, as with the greatest, Pauperes evangelizantur, The poore have the
Gospell preached unto them. In this our Blessed Saviour doth not onely give an instruction to Johns Disciples, Paupores. but
therein also derives and conveyes a precept upon us, upon us, who as we have received
mercy, 1 Pet. 2. 5. have received the Ministery, and indeed, upon all you, whom he hath made Regale
Sacerdotium, A royall Priesthood, and Reges & Sacerdotes, Kings and Priests unto your
God, Apoc. 5. 10. and bound you therby, as well as us to preach the Gospell to the poore, you, by
an exemplar life, and a Catechizing conversation, as well as us, by our words and medi-
tations. Now beloved, there are Poore, that are literally poore, poore in estate and
fortune; and poore, that are naturally poore, poore in capacity, and understanding; and
poore, that are spiritually poore, dejected in spirit, and insensible of the comforts, which
the Holy Ghost offers unto them; and to all these poore, are we all bound to preach the
Gospell. First then for them which are literally poore, poore in estate, how much doe they
want of this means of salvation, Preaching, which the rich have? They cannot maintain
Chaplains in their houses; They cannot forbear the necessary labours of their calling,
to hear extraordinary Sermons; They cannot have seats in Churches, whensoever they
come; They must stay, they must stand, they must thrust, they must overcome that diffi-
culty, which Saint Augustine makes an impossibility, that is, for any man to receive be-
nefit by that Sermon, that he hears with pain: They must take pains to hear. To these
poore therefore, the Lord and his Spirit hath sent me to preach the Gospell; That Go-
spell, The Lord knoweth thy povertie, but thou art rich; Rev. 2. 9. That Gospell, Be content with such
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such things as thou hast, Heb. 13. 5. for the Lord hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee;
And that Gospell, God hath chosen the poore of this world, rich in faith, heires of that
Kingdome, which he hath promised to them that love him; Iames 2. 5. And this is the Gospell of
those poore, literally poore, poore in estate. To those that are naturally poore, poore in
understanding, the Lord and his Spirit hath sent me to preach the Gospell too; That Go-
spell, Iames 1. 5. If any man lacke wisedome, let him aske it of God; Solomon himselfe had none, till
he asked it there. Apoc. 5. 4 And that Gospell where John wept bitterly, because there was a
Booke presented, but no man could open it, It were a sad consideration, if now, when the
Booke of God, the Scripture is afforded to us, we could not open that Booke, not un-
derstand those Scriptures. But there is the Gospell of those poore; That Lambe,
which is spoken of there, That Lambe, which in the same place is called a Lion too,
That Lambe-Lion hath opened the Booke for us. The humility of the Lambe ga-
thereth the strength of the Lion; come humbly to the reading and hearing of the Scri-
ptures, and thou shalt have strength of understanding. The Scriptures were not writ-
ten for a few, nor are to be reserved for a few; All they that were present at this Lamb-
Lions opening of the Book, that is, All they that come with modesty and humility, to
the search of the Scriptures, All they, (and they are no small number, for there they
are said to be ten thousand times ten thousand, verse 11. and thousands of thousands) All they say
there, We are all made Kings and Priests unto our God. Begin a Lambe, and thou will be-
come a Lion; Reade the Scriptures modestly, humbly, and thou shalt understand them
strongly, Homil. 2. in
Gen. & 3. in
2 Thess. powerfully; for hence is it that Saint Chrysostome, more then once, and Saint
Gregory after him, meet in that expression, That the Scriptures are a Sea, in which a
Lambe may wade, and an Elephant may swimme. And this is the Gospell of those
poore, poore in understanding. To those that are spiritually poore, wrung in their souls,
stung in their Consciences, fretted, galled, exulcerated viscerally, even in the bowells
of their Spirit, insensible, inapprehensive of the mercies of God in Christ, the Lord
and his Spirit hath sent me to preach the Gospell also, Matt. 5. That Gospell, Blessed are the
poore in Spirit, for theirs it the Kingdome of Heaven; and to recollect, and redintegrate
that broken and scattered heart, by enabling him to expostulate, and chide his owne
soule, with those words of comfort, which the Holy Ghost offereth him, once, and
again, and again, Why art thou cast downe, O my soule, and why art thou disquieted in
me? Hope thou in God; Psal 42. 5. 11. and, yet praise him for the light of his countenance. Words of
inexpresible comfort, yet praise him for the light of his countenance; Though thou Psal. 43. 5.
sit in darknesse, and in the shadow of death, yet praise him for the light of his Counte-
nance. Whatsoever thy darknesse be, put not out that candle, The light of his Counte-
nance. Maintain that light, discerne that light, and whatsoever thy darknesse seemed,
it shall prove to be but an over shadowing of the Holy Ghost. And so beloved, if you have
sufficiently considered, first, our generall easinesse of falling into the Passive scandall,
of being offended in others, by misinterpreting their proceedings, and then the gene-
rall scandals which the world tooke at Christ, and his Gospell, The Philosophers,
that it was an ignorant religion, (where you saw, That the learneder the adversary is,
the sooner he is satisfied) And the worldly and carnall man, that it was a dishonoura-
ble, an unpleasurable, an unprofitable Religion, (where you saw, that it were no Di-
minution to our Religion, if it were all that, but it is none of it) If you have also con-
sidered the particular passive scandall that Christ deprehended in those two Disciples
of John, That they would doe more then Christ practised or prescribed, (where you
saw also the distemper of those, that are derived from them, both those that thinke there
are some sinners whom Christ cannot save, and those who thinke there are no sinners
whom they cannot save, by their Supererogations) And considered lastly, the way that
Christ tooke, to devest these men of this offence, and passive scandall, which was to
call them to the consideration of good workes, and of the best workes, which he that doth
them, can doe, (where you have also seen, that Christ makes that our best work, To
preach the Gospell to the poore, both because the poore are destitute of other comforts,
and because their very poverty hath soupled them, and mellowed them, and macerated,
and matured, and disposed them, by corrections to instructions) If you have received
all this, you have received all that we proposed for the first part the injunction, the pre-
cept, the way, Be not sandalized, be not offended in me. And now, that which I suspected at
first, is faln upon me, that is to thrust our other part into a narrow conclusioō, though it be Nn blessednesse
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blessednesse it selfe, everlasting blessednesse; so we must; so we shall; blessed is he, (there's
the remuneration, the promise, the end) whosoever is not offended in me. Blessed. The Heathen, 2. Part,
Blessed. who saw by the light of nature, that they could have no Beeing, if
there were no God, (for it is from one of themselves, that Saint Paul says, in him we
live, Act. 17. 28. and move, and have our Beeing, and Genus ejus sumus, we are the off-spring of God)
saw also by the same light of nature, that they could have no well-being, if there were no
Blessednesse. And therefore, as the Heathen multiplied Gods to themselves, so did they
also multiply blessednesse. They brought their Jupiters to three hundred, says Varro;
And from the same author, from Varro, does Saint Augustin collect almost three
hundred severall opinions of Blessednesse. But, In multitudine nullitas, says Tertullian ex-
cellently; as where there are many Gods, there is no God, so where there are many
blessednesses imagined, there is no blessednesse possessed. Not but that, as the Sunne
which moves onely in his owne Spheare in heaven, does yet cast downe beames and in-
fluences into this world, so that blessednesse which is truly, onely in heaven, does also
cast downe beames and influences hither, and gild, and enamell, yea inanimate the
blessings of God here, with the true name, the true nature of blessednesse. Psal. 144. 15. For, though
the vulgat edition doe read that place, thus, Beatum dixerant populum, the world thought
that people blessed that were so, that is, Temporally blessed, as though that were but
an imaginary, and not a true blessednesse; and howsoever it have seemed good to our
Translators, to insert into that verse a discretive particle, a particle of difference, Yea,
(Blessed are the people that are so,) that is, Temporally blessed, Yea, blessed are the people
whose God is the Lord, yet in truth, in the Originall, there is no such discretive particle,
no word of difference, no yea, in the text, but both the clauses of that verse are carried
in one and the same tenor, Blessed are the people that are so, Blessed are the people whose
God is the Lord; that is, that people whom the Lord hath blessed so, with Temporall
blessings, is bound to beleeve those temporall blessings, to be seales and evidences to
them that the Lord is their God. So then there is a Viatory, a preparatory, an initia-
tory, an inchoative blessednesse in this life. What is that? All agree in this definition,
that blessednesse is that in quo quiescit animus, in which the minde, the heart, the desire
of man hath settled, and rested, in which it found a Centricall reposednesse, an acqui-
escence, a contentment. Not that which might satisfie any particular man; for, so
the object would be infinitely various; but that, beyond which no man could propose
any thing; August. And is there such ablessednesse in this life? There is. Fecisti nos Domine
ad te, & inquietum est Cor nostrum, donec quiescat in te; Lord thou hast made us for
thy selfe, and our heart cannot rest, till it get to thee. But can we come to God here?
We cannot. Where's then our viatory, our preparatory, our initiatory, our inchoative
blessednesse? Beloved, though we cannot come to God here, here God comes to us;
Here, in the prayers of the Congregation God comes to us; here, in his Ordinance of
Preaching, God delivers himselfe to us; here in the administration of his Sacraments,
he seals, ratifies, confirmes all unto us; And to rest in these his seals and means of re-
conciliation to him, this is not to be scandalised, not to be offended in him; and, not to be
offended in him, not to suspect him or these meanes which he hath ordained, this is our
viatory, our preparatory, our initiatory and inchoative Blessednesse, beyond which, no-
thing can be proposed in this life. And therefore, as the Needle of a Sea-compasse,
though it shake long, yet will rest at last, and though it do not look directly, exactly to
the North Pole, but have some variation, yet, for all that variation, will rest, so, though
thy heart have some variations, some deviations, some aberrations from that direct
point, upon which it should be bent, which is an absolute conformity of thy will to the
will of God, yet, though thou lack something of that, afford thy soule rest: settle thy
soule in such an infallibility, as this present condition can admit, and beleeve, that God
receives glory as well in thy Repentance, as in thine Innocence, and that the mercy of
God in Christ, is as good a pillow to rest thy soule upon after a sinne, as the grace of
God in Christ is a shield, and protection for thy soule, before. In a word, this is our
viatory, our preparatory, our initiatory, and inchoative blessedness, beyond which there
can bee no blessedness proposed here, first to receive a satisfaction, an acquiescence,
that there are certaine and constant meanes ordained by Christ, for our reconciliation
to God in him, in all cases, in which a Christian soule can bee distressed, that such
a treasure there is deposited by him, in the Church, And then, the testimony of
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of a rectified Conscience, that thou hast sincerely applied those generall helpes
to thy particular soule. Come so farre, and then, as the Suburbs touch the Ci-
ty, and the Porch the Church, and deliver thee into it, so shall this Viatory, this pre-
paratory, this initiatory and inchoative blessednesse deliver thee over to the ever-
lasting blessednesse of the Kingdome of heaven. Of which everlasting blessednesse,
I would ask leave, not so much of you; (yet of you too, for with you, I would
not be over-bold) but I would aske leave of the Angels of heaven, leave of the ho-
ly Ghost himself, to venture to say a little, of this everlasting blessednesse: The
tongues of Angels cannot, the tongues of the holy Ghost, the Authors of the books
of Scripture have not told us, what this blessednesse is; And what then shall we say,
but this? Blessednesse it self, In Cælis. is God himselfe; our blessednesse is our possession; our union
with God. In what consists this? A great limbe of the Schoole with their Tho-
mas, place this blessednesse, this union with God, In visione, in this, That in heaven
I shall see God, see God essentially, God face to face, God as he is. We do not see
one another so, in this world; In this world we see but outsides; In heaven I shall see
God, and God essentially. But then another great branch of the Schoole, with their
Scotus, place this blessednesse, this union with God, in Amore, in this, that in heaven,
I shall love God. August. Now love presumes knowledge; for, Amari nisi nota non possunt,
we can love nothing, but that which we do, or think we do understand. There, in hea-
ven, I shall know God, so, as that I shall be admitted, not onely to an Adoration of God,
to an admiration of God, to a prosternation, and reverence before God, but to an affe-
ction, to an office, of more familiarity towards God, of more equality with God, I
shall love God. But even love it selfe, as noble a passion as it is, is but a paine,
except we enjoy that we love; and therefore another branch of the Schoole, with
their Aureolus, place this blessednesse, this union of our souls with God, in Gaudio, in
our joy, that is, in our enjoying of God. In this world we enjoy nothing; enjoying
presumes perpetuity; and here, all things are fluid, transitory: There I shall enjoy, and
possesse for ever, God himself. But yet, every one of these, to see God, or to love
God, or to enjoy God, have seemed to some too narrow to comprehend this blessed-
nesse, beyond which, nothing can be proposed; and therefore another limbe of the
Schoole, with their Bonaventure, place this blessednesse in all these together. And truly,
if any of those did exclude any of these, so, as that I might see God, and not love
him, or love God, and not enjoy him, it could not well be called blessednesse; but he
that hath any one of these, hath every one, all: And therefore the greatest part con-
curre, and safely, In visione, That vision is beatification, to see God, as he is, is that
blessednesse. There then, in heaven, I shall have continuitatem Intuendi; It is not onely vision, but
Intuition, not onely a seeing, but a beholding, a contemplating of God, and that in
Continuitate, I shall have an un-interrupted, an un-intermitted, an un-discontinued sight
of God, I shall looke, and never looke off; not looke, and looke againe, as here, but
looke, and looke still, for that is, Continuitas intuendi. There my soule shall have In-
concussam quietem; we need owe Plato nothing; but we may thank Plato for this expres-
sion, if he meant so much by this Inconcussa quies, That in heaven my soule shall sleep,
not onely without trouble, and startling, but without rocking, without any other help,
then that peace, which is in it selfe; My soule shall be thoroughly awake, and tho-
roughly asleep too; still busie, active, diligent, and yet still at rest. But the Apo-
stle will exceed the Philosopher, St. Paul will exceed Plato, as he does when he sayes,
I shall be unus spiritus cum Deo, 1 Cor. 6. 17. I shall be still but the servant of my God, and yet I
shall be the same spirit with that God. When? Dies quem tanquam supremum refor-
midas, æterni natalis est, sayes the Morall mans Oracle, Seneca. Our last day is our
first day, our Saturday is our Sunday, our Eve is our Holyday, our sun-setting is
our morning, the day of our death, is the first day of our eternall life. The
next day after that, which is the day of judgement, Veniet dies, quæ me mihi re-
velabit, comes that day that shall show me to my selfe; here I never saw my selfe,
but in disguises: There, Then, I shall see my selfe, and see God too. Totam lu-
cem, & Totus lux aspiciam; I shall see the whole light; Here I see some parts of
the ayre enlightned by the Sunne, but I do not see the whole light of the Sunne; Nn2 There
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There I shal see God intirely, all God, totam lucem, and totus lux, I my self shal be al light
to see that light by. Here, I have one faculty enlightned, and another left in darknesse:
mine uuderstandingunderstanding sometimes cleared, my will, at the same time perverted. There,
I shall be all light, no shadow upon me; my soule invested in the light of joy, and my
body in the light of glory. How glorious is God, as he looks down upon us, through
the Sunne? How glorious in that glasse of his? How glorious is God, as he looks
out amongst us through the King? How glorious in that Image of his? How glori-
ous is God, as he calls up our eyes to him, in the beauty, and splendor, and service of
the Church? How glorious in that spouse of his? But how glorious shall I conceive
this light to be, cum suo loco viderim, when I shall see it, in his owne place. In that
Spheare, which though a Spheare, is a Center too; In that place, which, though a
place, is all, and every where. I shall see it, in the face of that God, who is all face,
all manifestation, August. all Innotescence to me, (for, facies Dei est, qua Deus nobis innotescit,
that's Gods face to us, by which God manifests himselfe to us) I shall see this light
in his face, who is all face, and yet all hand, all application, and communication, and
delivery of all himselfe to all his Saints. This is Beatitudo in Auge, blessednesse in the
Meridionall height, blessednesse in the South point, in a perpetuall Sommer solstice,
beyond which nothing can be proposed, to see God so, Then, There. And yet the
farmers of heaven and hell, the merchants of soules, the Romane Church, make this
blessednesse, but an under degree, but a kinde of apprentiship; after they have beati-
fied, declared a man to be blessed in the fruition of God in heaven, if that man, in
that inferiour state doe good service to that Church, that they see much profit will
rise, by the devotion, and concurrence of men, to the worship; of that person, then they
will proceed to a Canonization; and so, he that in his Novitiat, and years of probation
was but blessed Ignatius, and blessed Xavier, is lately become Saint Xavier, aud Saint
Ignatius. And so they pervert the right order, and method, which is first to come to
Sanctification, and then to Beatification, first to holinesse, and then to blessednesse.
And in this method, our blessed God bee pleased to proceed with us, by the operation
of his holy Spirit, to bring us to Sanctification here, and by the merits and intercession
of his glorious Sonne, to Beatification hereafter. That so not being offended in him,
but resting in those meanes and seales, of reconciliation, which thou hast instituted in
thy Church, wee may have life, and life more abundantly, life of grace here, and life
of glory there, in that kingdome, which thy Sonne, our Saviour Christ Jesus hath
purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible bloud. Amen. Sermon XLV.
Preached at Saint Dunstans Aprill 11. 1624.
The first sermon in that Church, as Vicar thereof.
Deut. 25. 5.
If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no Childe, the Wife of the dead
shall not mary without, unto a stranger: her husbands brother shall goe in unto her, and
take her to him to wife, and performe the duty of an husbands brother unto her. FRomFrom the beginning God intimated a detestation, a dislike of
singularity; of beeing Alone. The first time that God him-
selfe is named in the Bible, in the first verse of Genesis,
hee is named plurally, Creavit Dii, Gods, Gods in the plu-
rall, Created Heaven and Earth. God, which is but one,
would not appeare, nor bee presented so alone, but that hee
would also manifest more persons. As the Creator was not Singular, so neither were
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were the creatures; First, he created heaven and earth; both together; which were to
be the generall parents, and out of which were to bee produced all other creatures;
and then, he made all those other creatures plurally too; Male, and female created hee
them; And when he came to make him, for whose sake (next to his own glory) he made
the whole world, Adam, he left not Adam alone, but joyned an Eve to him; Now, when
they were maried, we know, but wee know not when they were divorced; we heare
when Eve was made, but not when shee dyed; The husbands death is recorded at last,
the wives is not at all. So much detestation hath God himselfe, and so little me-
mory would hee have kept of any singularity, of being alone. The union of Christ
to the whole Church is not expressed by any metaphore, by any figure, so oft in the
Scripture, as by this of Mariage: and there is in that union with Christ to the whole
Church, neither husband, nor wife can ever die; Christ is immortall as hee is
himselfe, and immortall, as hee is the head of the Church, the Husband of that wife:
for that wife, the Church is immortall too; for as a Prince is the same Prince, when
he fights a battaile, and when hee triumphs after the victory: so the militant, and
the triumphant Church is the same Church. There can bee no widower, There
can bee no Dowager, in that case; Hee cannot, shee cannot die. But then this Me-
taphore, this spirituall Mariage, holds not onely betweene Christ and the whole
Church, in which case there can be no Widow, but in the union between Christs
particular Ministers, and particular Churches; and there, in that case, the husband of
that wife may die; The present Minister may die, and so that Church be a Widow;
And in that case, and for provision of such Widows, wee consider the accom-
modation of this Law. If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and
have no childe, the wife of the dead shall not mary without, unto a stranger,
&c. This law was but a permissive law; rather a dispensation, then a law: as the per-
mitting of usury to bee taken of strangers, and the permitting of divorces in so
many cases, were. At most it was but a Iudiciall law, and therefore layes no ob-
ligation, upon any other nation, then them, to whom it was given, the Iews. And
therefore wee enquire not the reasons of that law, (the reasons were determined in
that people) wee examine not the conveniences of the law; (the conveniences were
determined in those times) wee lay hold onely upon the Typique signification, and
appliablenesse of the law, as that secular Mariage there spoken of, may be appliable
to this spirituall Mariage, the Mariage of the Minister to the Church: If brethren
dwell together, &c. From these words then, wee shall make our approaches, and application, Divisio. to
the present occasion, by these steps; First, there is a mariage, in the case. The
taking, and leaving of a Church, is not an indifferent, an arbitrary thing; It is
a Mariage, and Mariage implies, Honour: It is an honourable estate, and that
implies charge, it is a burdensome state; There is Honos, and Onus, Honour,
and labour, in Mariage; You must bee content to afford the honour, wee must
bee content to endure the labour. And so in that point, as our Incumbencie
upon a Church, is our Mariage to that Church, wee shall as farre, as the oc-
casion admits, see what mariage includes, and what it excludes; what it re-
quires, what it forbids. It is a mariage, and a mariage after the death of a-
nother: If one dye, sayes the Text; Howsoever the Romane Church in the ex-
ercise of their Tyranny, have forbidden Church-men to mary, then when they
have orders, and forbidden orders to bee given to any, who have formerly
beene maried, if they maried Widowes, God is pleased here, to afford us,
some intimation, some adumbration, a Typicall and exemplar knowledge of
the lawfulnesse of such mariages, hee maries after the death of a former hus-
band; and then farther, a brother maries the wife of his deceased brother;
Now into the reasons of the law, literally given, and literally accepted, wee
looke not; It is enough, that God hath a care of the preservation of names
and families and inheritances in those distinctions, and in those Tribes;
where hee layd them then; but for the accommodation of the law to
our present application, it must bee a brother, a spirituall brother, a professor of the same
faith, that succeeds in this mariage, in this possession, and this government of that wi-
Nn3 dow
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dow Church. It must be a brother, and Frater cohabitans, says our Text, a brother
that dwelt together, with the former husband; he must be of the same houshold of the
faithfull, as well as professe the same faith; he must dwell in the house of God, not sepa-
rate himselfe, or encourage others to doe so, for matter of Ceremonies, and discipline;
Idolaters must not, Separatists must not be admitted to these mariages, to these widow
Churches. And then it is a surrendring to a brother dead without children: In this
spirituall procreation of children, we all dye without children of our own; Though by
our labours, when God blesses them, you become children, yet you are Gods children,
not ours; we nurse you by his word, but his Spirit begets you by the same word; we
must not challenge to us, that which God onely can doe. And then being thus maried
to this widow, taking the charge of this Church, he must, says our text, performe the
duty of a husbands brother. He must, it is a personall service, not to be done always by
Proxy, and Delegates; He must; and he must performe; not begin well, and not persist,
commence and not consummate, but performe the worke, and performe the worke, as it
is a duty; It is a meer mercy in God, to send us to you, but it is a duty in us, to doe that
which we are sent for, by his Word, and his Sacraments, to establish you in his holy obe-
dience, and his rich, and honourable service. And then our duty consists in both these,
that we behave our selves, as your husband, which implies a power, an authority; but a
power and authority rooted in love, and exercised with love; and then that we doe all as
brothers to the former husband, that as one intentation of this law was, that inheritances, and
temporall proprieties might be preserved, so our care might be through predecessor, and
successor, and all, that all rights might be preserved to all men, that nothing not due, or
due onely in rigor, be extorted from the people, nothing that is in truth, or in equity
due, be with-held from the Minister; but that the true right of people, and Pastor, and
Patron be preserved, to the preservation of love, and peace, and good opinion of one
another. First then, that which we take upon us, is a Mariage. Matrimo-
nium. Amongst the Jews, it was almost
an ignominious, an infamous thing, to die unmaried, at least to die without children, being
maried. Amongst the Gentiles it was so too; all well governed States ever enlarged them-
selves, in giving places of command and profit, to maried men. Indeed such men are most
properly said to keep this world in reparations, that provide a succession of children;
and for the next world, though all that are borne into this world, doe not enter into
the number of Gods Saints, in heaven, yet the Saints of heaven can be made out of
no other materialls, but men borne into this world. Every stone in the quarry is not
sure to be imployed in the building of the church, but the Church must be built out of
those stones; and therefore they keep this world, they keep heaven it selfe in reparati-
on, that mary in the feare of God, and in the same feare bring up the children of such a
mariage. But I presse not this too literally, nor over perswasively, that every man is
bound to Mary; God is no accepter of persons, nor of conditions. But being to use these
words in their figurative application, I say, every man is bound to marry himselfe to a
profession, to a calling: God hath brought him from being nothing, by creating him,
but he resolves himselfe into nothing againe, if he take no calling upon him. In our
Baptisme we make our contract with God, that we will believe all those Articles there
recited; there's our contract with him; and then, pursuing this contract, in the other
Sacrament, when we take his body and his blood, we are maried to him. So at the same
time, at our Baptisme, we make a contract in the presence of God, and his congregation
with the world; that we wil forsake the covetous desires of the world, that is, the covetous
proprieting of all things to our selves, the covetous living onely for our selves, there's
our contract with the world, that we will mutually assist, and serve our brethren in the
world; and then, when we take particular callings, by which we are enabled to perform
that former contract, then we are maried to the world; so every man is duly contracted
to the world, in Baptisme, and lawfully maried to the world in accepting a profession.
And so this service of ours to the Church is our mariage. Now in a Matrimoniall state, Onus. there is Onus and Honos, a burden to be born, an Honour
to be received. The burden of the sinnes of the whole world, was a burden onely for
Christs shoulders; but the sinnes of this Parish, will ly upon my shoulders, if I be silent, or
if I be indulgent, and denounce not Gods Judgement upon those sinnes. It will be a
burden to us, if we doe not, and God knowes it is a burden to us, when we do denounce those
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those Judgements. Esay felt, and groned under this burden, when he cried Onus Baby-lonis, Onus Moab, and Onus Damasci, O the burden of Babylon, and the burden of Da-
mscus, and so the other Prophets grone often under this burden, in contemplation of
other places: It burdened, it troubled, it grieved the holy Prophets of God, that they
must denounce Gods judgements, though upon Gods enemies. We reade of a com-
passionate Generall, that looking upon his great Army, from a hill, fell into a bitter weep-
ing, upon this consideration, that in fiftie or sixtie years hence, there will not be a man
of these that fight now, alive upon the earth. What Sea could furnish mine eyes with
teares enough, to poure out, if I should think, that of all this Congregation, which
lookes me in the face now, I should not meet one, at the Resurrection, at the right hand
of God! And for so much as concerns me, it is all one, if none of you be saved, as if
none of you be saved by my help, my means, my assistance, my preaching. If I put you
upon miraculous wayes, to be saved without hearing, or upon extraordinary wayes to
be saved by hearing others, this shall aggravate my condemnation, though you be sa-
ved: How much more heavy must my burden be, if by my negligence both I and you
perish too? So then this calling, this marriage, is a burden every way. When at any
midnight I heare a bell toll from this steeple, must not I say to my selfe, what have I
done at any time for the instructing or rectifying of that mans Conscience, who lieth
there now ready to deliver up his own account, and my account to Almighty God? If
he be not able to make a good account, he and I are in danger, because I have not en-
abled him; and though he be for himself able, that delivers not me, if I have been no
instrument for the doing of it. Many, many burdens lie upon this calling, upon this
marriage; but our recompense is, that marriage is as well an honourable as a painefull
calling. Honos. If I be a Father, where is mine Honour, saith God: If you can answer God, Why, you
have it in your Prophets, They have it, that satisfieth him, that dischargeth you. Malac. 1. 6.For, he
that receiveth them, receiveth him: But if Christ, who repeats that complaint, in every
one of the foure Evangelists, finde it repeated in every one of his ProphessProphets too, in every
one of us, That a Prophet hath no honour in his own Countrie, that a Pastor is least respe-
cted of his own stock, you have not your Quietus est, for the honour due to God; God
never discharges the honour due to him, if it be not paid into their hands, whom he sen-
deth for it, to them upon whom he hath directed it. Would the King believe that man, to
honour him, that violateth his Image, or that calumniateth his Ambassadour? Every
man is the Image of God; every Creature is the Ambassadour of God; The Heavens,
(and as well as the Heavens, the Earth) declare the glory of God; but the Civill Magi-
strate, and the Spirituall Paster, who have married the two Daughters of God, The State
and theChurch, are the Images and Ambassadours of God, in a higher and more peculiar
sense, and for that marriage are to be honoured. And then Honour implieth that, by
which Honour subsisteth, maintenance; and they which withdraw that injuriously, or
with-hold that contentiously, dishonour God, in the dishonour of his servants, and so
make this marriage, this calling onely burdensome and not honourable. So then the interest of your particular Minister, and the particular Church, being such
as between Man and Wife, a marriage, we consider the uses of marriage in Gods first
intention, and apply them to this marriage. Gods first intentions in marriage were
two. In adjutorium, for mutuall helpers, and in prolem, for procreation, and education
of Children. For both these are we made Husbands of Churches; in prolem, to assist
in the regeneration of Children, for the inheritance of Heaven; and in adjutorium, to be
helpers to one another. And therefore if the husband, the Pastor, put the wife, his flock
in a Circumcision, to pare themselves to the quick, to take from their necessary means
to sustain their families, to satisfie him; the wife will say as Zipporah said to Moses, Spon-
sus sanguinum, a bloudy husband art thou, that exactest and extortest more then is due,
In that case the Husband is no helper. But if we be alwayes ready to help your chil-
dren over the threshold, (as Saint Augustine calls Baptisme, Limen Ecclesiæ) alwayes
ready to Baptize the Children; if we be alwayes ready to help you in all your spirituall
diseases, to that Cordiall, that Balsamum, the body and bloud of Christ Jesus; If we be al-
wayes ready to help you in all your bodily distresses, ready even at your last gasp to open
your eyes then, when your best friends are ready to close them; ready to deliver your
souls into the hands of God, when all the rest about you are ready to receive into their hands,
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hands, that which you leave behinde you, and then ready to lay up the garments of
your soules, your bodies, in the wardrobe the grave, till you call for them, and put them
on again, in the resurrection, then are we truely helpers, true husbands; and then if the
Wife will say, as Jobs wife to the husband, Curse God and die, be sorry, that thou hast
taken this Profession upon thee, and live in penury, and die in povertie. In a word, if he
presse too much, if she withdraw too much, this frustrates Gods purpose in making that
a marriage; they are not mutuall helpers to one another. These were Gods two principall
intentions in marriage, in adjutorium, in prolem. But then mans fall induced a third, in
remedium, That for a remedy against burning, and to avoid fornication, every man
should have his own wife, every woman her own husband. And so in remedium, for a
remedy against spirituall fornication, of running after other men in other places, out of
disaffection to their own Pastor, or over affecting another, God hath given every wife,
her own husband, Every Church her own Pastor. And to all these purposes, our fun-
ction is a marriage. It is a marriage, Defuncti. it deserves the honour, it undertakes the burden of that state; and
then it is a marriage of a widow, of a Church left in widow-hood by the death of her former
husband. In the Law literally God forbad the High Priest to marry a widdow. Levit. 21. 13.21. 14. The Ro-
mane Church continues that literally, and more; they extend it; that which was in
figure, enjoined to the High Priest onely, they in fact extend to all Priests; no man
that ever married a widow, may be a priest, though she be dead, when he desires orders.
There is no question but there is a more exemplary sanctity required in the Priest, then
in other persons, and more in those, who are in high places in the Church, then in those
of inferiour Jurisdictions, and the name and title of Virginity, hath ever been exhibited
as an Embleme, as a Type of especiall Sanctity. And as such the Apostle uses it when
he saith, That he would present the Church of Corinth, as a chaste Virgine to Christ; 2 Cor. 11. 2. That is,
as chaste as a Virgin, though married, for so he saith in the words immediately before,
That he had espoused them to a husband: As marriage is an honourable state, though in
poverty, so is the bed undefiled with strange lust, a chaste bed even in marriage. And in
the accommodation of the Figure to the present occasion, our marriage to severall
Churches, If we might marry no widowes, (no Churches, which had been wives to for-
mer husbands) we should finde few Virgins, that is, Churches newly erected for us. BntBut
when the wife of a former husband is left a widow, Nubat in Domino, saith the Apo-
stle, In Gods name let her marry. 1 Cor. 7. ult. But the former husband must be dead: The husbands absence makes not the wife a wi-
dow; nor doth the necessary, and lawfull absence of the Pastor, make the Church vacant.
The sicknesse of the husband makes not a widow; The bodily weaknesse nay the spirituall
weaknes of the Pastor in case that his parts and abilities, and faculties, be grown but weak,
do not make his Church vacant. If the Pastor be suspended, or otherwise censured, this
is but as a separation, or as a divorce; and as the wife is not a widow, upon a divorce, so
neither is the Church vacant, upon such censures. And therefore for them that take ad-
vantages upon the weaknesses, or upon the disgrace, or upon the povertie of any such
incumbent, and so insinuate themselves into his Church, this is intrusion, this is spirituall
adultery, for the husband is not dead, though he be sick. Nay if they would remove
him by way of preferment, yet that is a supplantation; when Jacob had Esau by the heel
Gen. 25. 26., whether he kept him in, till he might be strong enough to goe out before him, or whe-
ther he pushed him out, before he would have gone, Jacob was a supplanter. Some
few cases are put when a wife becomes as a widow, her husband living; but regularly
it is by death. In some few cases, Churches may otherwise be vacant, but regularly it
is by death. And then Esto vidua in Domo Patris, saith Judah to Thamar, Remain a
widow at thy fathers house Gen. 38. 11.: Then the Church remaineth in the house, in the hands of
her Father, the Bishop of that Dioces, till a new husband be lawfully tendred unto her:
And till that time, as our Saviour Christ recommended his most blessed Mother, to
Saint John, but not as a wife, so that Bishop delivers that Church, to the care and ad-
ministration of some other during her widowhood, till by due course she become the
wife of another. Thus our calling is a mariage; It should have honour; It must have labour; and it is a
lawfull mariage upon a just and equitable vacancy of the place, Fratris. without any supplanta-
tion; upon death; And then it is upon death of a brother, If brethren dwell together, and
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and one of them die, and have no childe, the wife, &c. As well Saint Gregory, Gregor. as Saint Au-
gustine before, interpret this of our elder, our eldest brother Christ Iesus. Aug. That hee
being dead, we mary his wife, the Church, and become husbands to her. But Christ,
in that capacity, as he is head of the Church, cannot die. That to which, the appli-
cation of this law, leads us, is, That predecessor, and successor, bee brethren of the same
faith, and the same profession of faith. The Sadduces put a case to Christ of a wo-
man maried successively to seven men; let seven signifie infinite; still those seven were
brethren. How often soever any wife change her husband, any Church, her Pastor,
God sends us still a succession of brethren, sincere, and unfeigned Preachers of the same
truth, sonnes of the same father; Who is that father? God is our Father; Have we not
all one Father, says the Prophet? Mal. 2. 10.Yes, we have, and so a worme, and we, are brethren,
by the same father, and mother, the same God, the same Earth. Hath not the raine a
father? Iob 38. 28. The raine hath; and the same that wee have. More narrowly, and yet very
largely, Christ is our father; One of his names is, The everlasting Father; Esa. 9. 6. And then
after these, after God, after Christ, the King is our father; See, my father, the skirt of
thy robe, in my hand, says David to his King Saul 1 Sam. 24. 11.; Now if any husband should be of-
fered to any widow, any Pastor to any vacant Church, who were not our brother by
all these fathers, in a right beliefe in God, the Father of all men, in a right profession of
Christ Iesus, the Father of all Christians, in a right affection, and allegiance to the
King, the Father of all Subjects, Bellarmin. Any that should incline to a forain father, an imagina-
ry universall father, he of whom his Vice-fathers, his Junior fathers, the Iesuites (for all
the Jesuits are Fathers) says, That the Fathers of the Church are but sons, and not fa-
thers, to him; They that say to a stock, to the Image of the beast), Thou art my father,
Ier. 2. 27.who, (not in a sense of humiliation, as Iob speaks the words) but of pride, say to corrup-
tion, Thou art my father, Iob 17. 14. that is, that prostrate themselves to all the corruptions of a
prostitute Church: If any so inclined of himself, or so inclinable if occasion should in-
vite him, or rather tempt him, be offered for husband to any widow, for a Pastor to a-
ny vacant Church, he is not within the accommodation of this law, hee is not our bro-
ther, by the whole bloud, who hath not a brotherhood rooted in the same religion, and
in the allegiance to the same Soveraign. He must be a brother, Cohabitans. and Frater Cohabitans, a brother dwelling with the former brother.
As he is a brother, we consider the unity of faith: As he dwels in the same house, we
consider the unity of discipline; That as he beleeves, and professes the same articles of
faith, so by his own obedience, and by his instructing of others, hee establish the same
government; A Schismatique is no more a brother to this purpose, then an Heretique.
If we look well, we shall see, that Christ provided better for his garments, then for his
flesh; he suffered his flesh to be torn, but not his seamlesse garment. There may bee, in
many cases, more mischief, in disobeying the uniformity of the discipline of the Church
then in mistaking in opinion, some doctrine of the Church. Wee see in Gods institu-
tion of his first Church, whom he called brethren: 1 Chron. 5. 27. Those who were instructed, and
cunning in the songs of the Church, they are called brethren; To oppose the orders of
the Church solemnly ordained, or customarily admitted, for the advancement of Gods
glory, and the devotion of the Congregation, forfeits this brotherhood, or at least dis-
continues the purpose and use of it; for, howsoever they may bee in a kinde, brothers, if
they succeed in the profession of the same faith, yet wee see where the blessednesse is
settled, Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; And we see, where the goodnesse, and
the pleasantnesse is settled, Behold, how good, and how pleasant a thing it is, for brethren
to dwell together in unity Psal. 84. 4.
133. 1.: So that, if they be not brothers in the same faith, and brothers
in the same houshold of the faithfull, and brothers in the same allegiance, If they advance
not the truth of the Church, and the peace of the Church, and the head of the Church,
fomentors of Error, and of Schisme, and Sedition, are not husbands for these widows,
Pastors for these Churches. Hee must bee a brother; Sine liberis. A brother dwelling in the same house of Christ, and then
brother to one dead without children, as Tertullian expresses it in his particular elegancy
Illiberis; that is, content to be his brother, in that sense, in that capacity, to claime no
children, no spirituall children of his own begetting; not to attribute to himself that
holy generation of the Saints of God, as though his learning, or his wit, or his labour,
had saved them; but to content himselfe to have been the foster father, and to have nursed
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nursed those children, Ier. 1. 18. whom the Spirit of God, by over-shadowing the Church, hath
begot upon her, for, though it be with the word of truth, in our preaching, yet of his
own will begot he us, though by the word, says the Apostle. Saint Paul might say to the
Corinthians, 1. 4. 15. Though you have tenne thousand instructors in Christ, yet have yee not
many fathers, for in Christ Iesus I have begotten you through the Gospel; And hee might
say of his spirituall sonne Onesimus, That he begot him in his bonds Phil. 10.; Those, to whom
he first of any presented the Gospel, That had not heard of a Christ, nor a holy Ghost,
before, They, into whom, he infused a new religion, new to them, might well enough
bee called his children, and hee their father; But we have no new doctrine to present, no
new opinion to infuse, or miracles to amaze, as in the Romane Church, they are full of
all these: wee have no children to beget of our own: Paul was not crucified for you, nor
were you baptized in the name of Paul 1 Cor. 1. 13., sayes Paul himself; as he sayes again, who is Paul?
but a Minister by whom ye beleeved 3.65., and that also not by him, but as the Lord gave to every
man; Not as Paul preached to every man, for he preached alike to every man; but as the
Lord gave to every man; I have planted, says he, it is true, but he that planteth is nothing,
says he also; Only they that proceed, as they proceed in the Romane Church Ex opere
operato, to tye the grace of God, to the action of the man, will venter to call Gods chil-
dren, their children in that sense. My prayer shal be against that commination, That God
will not give us a miscarrying womb, nor dry breasts; Hose. 9. 14. that you may always suck pure milk
from us, and then not cast it up, but digest it, to your spirituall growth; And I shall
call upon God with a holy passion, as vehement as Rachels to Jacob, Da mihi liberos,
give me children, or I die Gen. 30. 1.: That God would give me children, but his children; that he
by his Spirit, may give you an inward regeneration, as I, by his ordinance shall present
to you, the outward means, that so being begot by himselfe, the father of life, and of
light, you may be nursed, and brought up, in his service by me. That so, not attribu-
ting the work to any man, but to Gods Ordinances, you doe not tye the power of God,
nor the breath of life, to any one mans lips, as though there were no regeneration, no
begetting, but by him; but acknowledging the other to be but an instrument, and the
weakest to be that, you may remember also, That though a man can cut deeper with
an Axe, then with a knife, with a heavy, then with a lighter instrument; yet God can
pierce as far into a conscience, by a plain, as by an exquisite speaker. Now this widow being thus maried, This Church thus undertaken, He must perform
the duty of a husbands brother: Ille. First, it is a personall office, he must doe it himself. When
Christ shall say, at the Judgement, I was naked, and ye cloathed me not, sick, and ye visi-
ted me not Mat. 25. 43., it shall be no excuse to say, When saw we thee naked, when saw we thee sick? for
wee might have seen it, wee should have seen it. When we shall come to our accompt,
and see them, whose salvation was committed to us, perish, because they were uninstru-
cted, and ignorant, dare we say then, we never saw them, show their ignorance, wee never
heard of it? That is the greatest part of our fault, the heaviest weight upon our con-
demnation, that we saw so little, heard so little, conversed so little amongst them, because
we were made watchmen, and bound to see, and bound to hear, and bound to be heard;
not by others, but by our selves; My sheep may be saved by others; but I save them not,
that are saved so, nor shall I my self be saved by their labour, where mine was necessa-
rily required. The office is personall, I must doe it, and it is perpetuall, Perpetuall. I must perform it, sayes the
text, goe through with it. Lots wife looked backe, and God never gave her leave to
look forward again. That man who hath put his hand to the plow, and looks back, Christ
disables him for the kingdome of God Luke 9. 62.. The Galatians who had begun in the spirit,
and then relapsed, before whose eyes Christ Iesus had been evidently set forth 3.31., as the Apo-
stle speaks, fall under that reproach of the Apostle, to bee called, and called againe,
fooles, and men bewitched. If I beginne to preach, amongst you, and proceed not, I
shall fall under that heavy increpation from my God, you beganne, that you might for
your owne glory, shew that you were in some measure, able to serve the Church, and
when you had done enough for your own glory, you gave over my glory, and the salva-
tion of their souls, to whom I sent you. God hath set our eyes in our foreheads, to
look forward, not backward, not to be proud of that which we have done, but diligent
in that which we are to doe. In the Creation, if God had given over his worke, the
third, or fift day, where had man been? If I give over my prayers, due to the Church of
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of God, as long as God enables me to doe it service, I lose my thanks, nay, I lose the
testimony of mine own conscience for all. My office is personall, and it is perpetuall,
and then it is a duty. He must perform the duty of a husbands brother unto her. It is not of curtesie, Duty. that we preach, but it is a duty, it is not a bounty given, but it
is a debt paid: for, though I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for a necessity
is laid upon me, sayes Saint Paul himself. 1 Cor. 9. 16. It is true, that as there is Væ si non, Wo be
unto mee, if I doe not preach the Gospel, so there is an Euge bone serve, Well done, good
and faithfull servant, to them that doe. Mat. 25. 21. But the Væ, is of Justice, the Euge is of
Mercy; If I doe it not, I deserve condemnation from God; but if, I doe it, I deserve not
thanks from him. Nay, it is a debt, not onely to God, but to Gods people, to you: and
indeed there is more due to you, then you can claime, or can take knowledge of. For
the people can claime but according to the laws of that State, and the Canons of that
Church, in which God hath placed them; such preaching, as those Laws, and those
Canons enjoyn, is a debt which they can call for: but the Pastor himself hath ano-
ther Court, another Barre in himselfe, by which hee tries himselfe, and must con-
demne himselfe, if hee pay not this debt, performe not this duty, as often, as himself,
knowes himselfe, to bee fit, and able to doe it. It is a duty, and it is the duty of an husbands brother. Mariti. Now the husband hath power,
and authority over the wife. The head of the woman is the Man 1 Cor. 11. 3.; and when the office of
this spirituall husband is particularly expressed, thus, Reprove, Rebuke, Exhort 2 Tim. 4. 32., you see,
for one word of familiarity, that is, Exhort, there are two of authority, Reprove, and
Rebuke. But yet, all the authority of the husband, secular, or ecclesiasticall, tempo-
rall, or spirituall husband, is grounded, rooted in love: for, the Apostle seemes to de-
light himself, in the repeating of that Commandement, to the Ephesians, and to the
Colossians, Husbands love your wives. Moses extends himselfe no farther, in expressing
all the happinesses, that Isaak and Rebecca enjoyed in one another, but this, shee be-
come his wife, and he loved her. If shee had not beene his wife, Moses would never
have proposed that love for an example; for so it is also betweene Elkanah, and his
wife Hannah, 1 Sam. 1. 5. 1 Sam. 1. 5. Vnto Hannah he gave a double portion, for (sayes the Text)
hee loved Hannah. If the Pastor love, there will bee a double labour; if the People
love, there will bee double respect. But being so, hee thought hee said all, when
he said they loved one another; For where the Congregation loves the Pastor, hee
will forbeare bitter reproofes, and wounding increpations, and where the Pastor
loves his Congregation, his Rebukes, because they proceed our of love, will bee
acceptable, and well interpreted by them. It is a duty, Fratris. and personall, and perpetuall; a duty, of a husband, and lastly, of a
husband that is brother to the former husband; In which last circumstance, we have
time to mark but this one note, that the reason of that law, which drew the brother
to this mariage, was the preservation of the temporall inheritance, in that family. Even
in our spirituall mariages to widow Churches, we must have a care to preserve the
temporall rights of all persons; That the Parish be not oppressed with heavy extortions,
nor the Pastor defrauded with unjust substraction, nor the Patron damnified by usur-
pations, nor the Ordinary neglected by disobediences; but that people, and Pastor,
and Patron, and Ordinary, continuing in possession of their severall rights, love be-
ing the root of all, the fruit of all may be peace, love being the soul of all, the body of
all may be unity; which the Lord of unity, and concord, grant to us all, for his Sonne
Christ Jesus sake, Amen. SER.
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Sermon XLVI.
The second Sermon Preached by the Author after he came to St. Dunstanes,
25 Apr. 1624.
Psal. 34. 11.
Come ye children, Hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. THEThe Text does not call children simply, literally, but such men, and
women, as are willing to come in the simplicity of children; such
children, as Christ spoke of, Except ye become as little children, ye
shall not enter into the Kingdome of heaven Mat. 18. 3.; Come ye children come
such children. Nor does the Text call such as come, and would
fain be gone again; it is Come and Hearken; not such as wish them-
selves away, nor such as wish another man here; but such as value
Gods ordinance of Preaching, though it be, as the Apostle says, but
the foolishnesse of Preaching 1 Cor. 1. 21., and such, as consider the office, and not the person, how
meane soever; Come ye children; And, when ye are come, Hearken, And, though it be
but I, Hearken unto me; And, I will teach you the feare of the Lord; the most noble, the
most couragious, the most magnanimous, not affection, but vertue, in the world; Come
ye children, Hearken unto me, and I will teach you the feare of the Lord. To every Minister and Dispenser of the word of God, Divisio. and to every Congregation
belong these words; And therefore we will divide the Text between us; To you one,
to us appertains the other part. You must come, and you must hearken; we must teach,
and teach to edification; There is the Meum & Tuum, your part, and our part. From
each Part, these branches flow out naturally; In yours, first, the capacity, as children;
Then the action, you Come; Then your Disposition here, you hearken; And lastly, your
submission to Gods Ordinance, you hearken even unto me, unto any Minister of his sen-
ding. In our Part, there is first a Teaching; for, else, why should you come, or hearken
unto me, or any? It is a Teaching, it is not onely a Praying; And then, there is a Catho-
lique doctrine, a circular doctrine, that walks the round, and goes the compasse of our
whole lives, from our first, to our last childhood, when age hath made us children again,
and it is the Art of Arts, the root, and fruit of all true wisdome, The true feare of
the Lord. Come ye children, hearken unto mee, and I will teach you the feare of the
Lord. First then, 1 Part. the word, in which, in the first branch of the first part, your capacity is ex-
pressed, filii, pueri, children, is, from the Originall, which is Banim, often accepted in
three notions, and so rendred; Three ways, men are called children, out of that word
Banim, in the Scriptures. Either it is servi, servants; for, they are filii familiares; as the
Master is Pater familias, Father of the family, (and that he is, though there be no natu-
rall children in the family) the servants are children of the family, and are very often in
Scriptures called so, Pueri, children; Or it is Alumni, Nurse-children, foster-children,
filii mammillares, children of the breasts; whether wee minister to them, temporall or
spirituall nourishment, they are children; Or else it is filii viscerales, children of our bow-
els, our naturall children. And in all these three capacities, as servants, as sucking children,
as sons, are you called upon in this appellation, in this compellation, children. First, Servi. as you are servants, you are children; for, without distinction of age, servants
are called so, 1 Sam. 21. 54. frequently, ordinarily, in the Scriptures, Pueri. The Priest asks David, be-
fore he would give him the holy bread, An vasa puerorum sancta, Whether those children,
(speaking of Davids followers) were clean from women; Here were children that were able
to get children. Nay, Davids Soldiers are often called so, pueri, children. In the first
of the Kings 1 King 20. 15., he takes a Muster, recenset pueros; Here were children that were able to
kill men. You are his children, (of what age soever) as you are his servants; and in that
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that capacity he cals you. You are unprofitable servants; but it is not an unprofitable ser-vice, to serve God; He can get nothing by you, but you can have nothing without him.
The Centurions servants came, when he said, Come; and was their wages like yours? Had
they their beeing, their ever-lasting well-beeing for their service? You will scarce receive
a servant, that is come from another man, without testimony; If you put your selves
out of Gods service, whither will ye goe? In his service, and his onely, is perfect free-
dome. And therefore as you love freedome, and liberty, bee his servants; and call
the freedome of the Gospel, the best freedome, and come to the Preaching of that. He cals you children, Alumni. as you are servants, (filii familiares) and he cals you children,
as you are Alumni, nurse-children, filii mammillares, as he requires the humility, and sim-
plicity of little children in you. For, Cum simplicibus sermocinatio ejus, Prov. 3. 32. (as the vulgat
reads that place) Gods secret discourse is with the single heart. The first that ever came to
Christ, (so as he came to us, in blood) they that came to him so, before he came so to us,
that died for him, before he died for them, were such sucking children, those whom He-
rod slew. As Christ thought himself bound to thank his Father, for that way of procee-
ding, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast revealed these things
unto babes Mat. 11. 25.; so Christ himself pursues the same way, Suffer little children, and forbid them
not, to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdome of heaven 19. 14.. Of such; not onely of those
who were truly, literally children, (children in age) but of such as those, (Talium est re-
gnum cœlorum) such as come in such a disposition, in the humility, in the simplicity, in
the singlenesse of heart, as children do. An habituall sinner is always in minority, always
an Infant; an Infant to this purpose, All his acts, all the bands of an Infant, are void, all
the outward religious actions, even the band and contract of Baptism in an habituall sin-
ner is void, and ineffectuall. He that is in the house, and favour of God, though he be a
child, (a child to this purpose, simple, supple, tractable, single-hearted) is, as Adam was
in the state of Innocency, a man the first minute, able to stand upright in the sight of God.
And out of one place of Esay, our Expositors have drawn, conveniently enough, both
these conclusions; A child shall die 100 years old, says the Prophet Esay 65. 20.; that is, (say some) a
sinner though he live 100 years, yet he dies a child, in ignorance; And then, (say others,
and both truly) He that comes willingly, when God cals, though he die a child in age, he
hath the wisdome of 100 years upon him. There is not a graver thing, then to be such a
child; to conform his will to the will of God. Whether you consider temporall or spi-
rituall things, you are Gods children. For, for temporall, if God should take off his hand,
withdraw his hand of sustentation, all those things, which assist us temporally, would re-
lapse to the first feeble, and childish estate, and come to their first nothing. Armies would
be but Hospitals, without all strength; Councell-tables but Bedlams, without all sense;
and Schools and Universities, but the wrangling of children, if God, and his Spirit did
not inanimate our Schools, and Armies, and Councels. His adoption makes us men,
therefore, because it makes us his children. But we are his children in this consideration
especially, as we are his spirituall children, as he hath nursed us, fed us with his word. In
which sense, the Apostle speaks of those who had embraced the true Religion, (in the
same words that the Prophet had spoken before) Behold, I, and the children that God hath
given me Heb. 2. 13.; And in the same sense, the same Prophet, in the same place, says of them
who had fallen away from the true Religion, They please themselves in the children of
strangers Esay. 2. 6., In those men, who have derived their Orders, and their Doctrine from a forein
Jurisdiction. In that State where Adoptions were so frequent, (in old Rome) a Plebeian
could not adopt a Patrician, a Yeoman could not adopt a Gentleman, nor a young man
could not adopt an old. In the new Rome, that endevours to adopt all, in an imaginary
filiation, you that have the perfect freedome of Gods service, be not adopted into the
slavery, and bondage of mens traditions; you that are in possession of the ancient
Religion, of Christ, and his Apostles, be not adopted into a yonger Religion. Religio
à religando; That is Religion, that binds; that binds, that is necessary to salvation. That
which we affirm, our adversaries deny not; that which we professe, they confesse was
always necessary to salvation. They will not say, that all that they say now, was always
necessary; That a man could not be saved without beleeving the Articles of the Coun-
cell of Trent, a week before that Councell shut up. You are his children, as children are
servants; Malach. and, If he be your Lord, where is his fear? you are his children, as he hath nur-
sed you, with the milk of his word; and if he be your Father so, (your foster Father) where
is his love? Oo But
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But he is your Father otherwise; you are not onely Filii familiares, children because
servants, nor onely Filii mammillares, children because noursed by him, but you are also
Filii viscerales, children of his bowells. For, we are otherwise allied to Christ, then we
can be to any of his instruments, though Angels of the Church, Prophets, or Apostles;
and yet, his Apostle says, of one whom he loved, of Onesimus, Receive him, that is
mine owne bowells; my Sonne, says he, whom I have begotten in my hands Phil. v. 12.. How much
more art thou bound to receive and refresh those bowells from which thou art derived,
Christ Jesus himselfe; Receive him, Refresh him. Carry that, which the wiseman
hath said, Miserere animæ tuæ, bee mercifull to thine owne soule, higher then so;
and Miserere salvatoris tui, have mercy upon thine owne Saviour, put on the bowells of mer-
cy Colos. 3. 12., and put them on even towards Christ Jesus himselfe, who needs thy mercy, by
beeing so torne, and mangled, and embowelled, by blasphemous oaths, and execrati-
ons. For, beloved, it is not so absurd a prayer, as it is conceived, if Luther did say
upon his death bed, Oremus pro Domino nostro Jesu Christo, Let us pray for our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. Had we not need pray for him? If he complaine that Saul per-
secutes him, had we not need pray for him? It is a seditious affection in civill things,
to divide the King and the kingdome; to pray, to fight for the one, and leave out the
other, is seditiously done. If the kingdome of Christ need thy prayers, and thy assi-
stance, Christ needs it; If the Body need it, the Head needs it; If thou must pray for
his Gospell, thou must pray for him; Nay, thou canst not pray for thy selfe, but thou
must pray for him, for, thou art his bowells; when thou in thy forefathers, the first Chri-
stians in the Primitive Church, wast persecuted, Christ cryed out, why persecutest thou
me? Christ made thy case his, because thou wast of his bowells. When Christ is dis-
seised, and dispossest, his truth profligated, and thrown out of a nation, that professed
it before, when Christ is wounded by the blasphemies of others, and crucified by thee,
in thy relapses to repented sinnes, wilt thou not say to Them, to Thy selfe, in the be-
halfe of Christ, why persecute yee me? Wilt thou not make Christs case thine, as hee
made thine his? Art not thou the bowells of Christ? If not, (and thou art not, if
thou have not this sense of his suffering) thou hast no interest in his death, by thy Bap-
tisme, nor in his Resurrection, by thy feeble halfe repentances. But in the duty of a child,
as thou art a servant, in the simplicity of a child, as thou hast sucked from him, in the in-
terest and inheritance of a child, as thou art the Son of his bowells, in all these capacities,
(and with all these we have done) God calls thee, come ye children; and that is our next
step, the Action, Come. Passing thus from the Persons to the action, Venite. Venite, Come, we must aske first, what this
comming is? The whole mystery of our redemption is expressed by the Apostle in this
word, venit, that Christ Jesus is come into the world 1 Tim. 1. 15.. All that thou hast to do, is to come
to, and to meet him. Where is he? At home; in his own house, in the Church. Which is
his house, which is his Church? That to thee, in which he hath given thee thy Baptisme, if
that do still afford thee, as much as is necessary for thy salvation. Come thither, to the
participation of his ordinances, to the exercises of Religion there. The gates of heaven
shall be opened to you, at last in that word, Venite benedicti, come ye blessed, the way to
those gates is opened to you now, in the same word, Venite filii, come ye children, come.
Christ can come, and does often, into thy bed-chamber, in the visitation of his private
Spirit, but, here, he calls thee out into the congregation, into the communion of Saints.
And then the Church celebrates Christs coming in the flesh, a moneth before he comes,
in four Sundays of Advent, before Christmas. When thou comest to meet him in the
Congregation, come not occasionally, come not casually, not indifferently, not col-
laterally; come not as to an entertainment, a show, a spectacle, or company, come solem-
ly, with preparation, with meditation. He shall have the lesse profit, by the prayer of
the Congregation, that hath not been at his private prayer before he came. Much of
the mystery of our Religion lay in the venturus, that Christ was to come, all that the
law and Prophets undertooke for, was that venturus, that Christ was to come; but the
consummation of all, the end of the law and the Prophets, is in the venit, he is come. Do
not clogge thy coming with future conditions, and contingencies, thou wilt come, if
thou canst wake, if thou canst rise, if thou canst be ready, if thou like the company, the weather,
the man. Matt. 9. 2. We finde one man who was brought in his bed to Christ; but it was but one.
Come, come actually, come earnestly, come early, come often; and come to meet him, Christ
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Christ Jesus and no body else. Christ is come into the world; and therefore thou needest
not goe out of the world to meet him; He doth not call thee from thy Calling, but in
thy Calling. Gen. 8. 11. The Dove went up and down, from the Arke, and to the Arke, and yet
was not disappointed of her Olive leafe, Thou maiest come to this place at due times,
and maiest doe the businesses of the world, in other places too, and still keep thy Olive,
thy peace of Conscience. If no Hereticall recusancy, (thou dost like the Doctrine) no
schismaticall recusancy, (thou dost like the Discipline) no lasie recusancy, (thou forbearest
not because thou canst not sit at thine ease) no proud recusancie, (that the company is
not good enough for thee) if none of these detain thee, thou maist be here, even when thou
art not here; God may accept thy desire; as, in many cases, thou maist be away, when thou
art here; as, in particular thou art, if being here, thou do not hearken to that which is said
here; for that is added to the coming, and follows in a third consideration, after the capa-
city, Children, and the Action, Come, The disposition, Hearken: Come ye children & hearken. Upon those words of David, Conturbata sunt ossa mea. Audite. St. Basil saith well, Habet & ani-
ma ossa sua, The soul hath bones as well as the body. Psalm. 6. 3.And in this Anatomy, and dissection of
the soul, as the bones of the soul, are the constant and strong resolutions thereof, and as
the seeing of the soul is understanding (The eyes of your understanding being opened) so the
Hearing of the soul is hearkning; in these religious exercises, Ephes. 1. 18. we doe not hear, except we
hearken; for hearkning is the hearing of the soul. Some men draw some reasons, out of
some stories of some credit, to imprint a belief of extasie, and raptures; That the body
remaining upon the floore, or in the bed, the soul may be gone out to the contemplati-
on of heavenly things. But it were a strange and a perverse extasie, that the body being
here, at a religious exercise, and in a religious posture, the soul should be gone out to the
contemplation, and pursuit of the pleasures or profits of this world. You come hither
but to your own funeralls, if you bring nothing hither but your bodies; you come but
to be enterred, to be laid in the earth, if the ends of your comming be earthly respects,
prayse, and opinion, and observation of men; you come to be Canonized, to grow Saints,
if your souls be here, and by grace here alwayes diffused, grow up to a sanctification. Bo-
nus es Domine animæ quærenti te, Thou art good, O Lord, to that soul that seeks thee;
It is St. Augustines note, that it is put in the singular, Animæ, to that soul: Though many
come, few come to him. A man may thread Sermons by half dozens a day, and place his
merit in the nûber, a man may have been all day in the perfume and incense of preaching,
and yet have receivd none of the savor of life unto life. Some things an Ape can do as wel
as a Man; some things an Hypocrite as wel as a Saint. We cannot see now, whether thy
soul be here now, or no; but, to morrow, hereafter, in the course of thy life, they which are
near thee, & know whether thy former faults be mended, or no, know whether thy soul
use to be at Sermons, as well as thy body uses to go to Sermons. Faith comes by hearing,
saith the Apostle; but it is by that hearing of the soul, Hearkning, Considering. And then, as
the soul is infused by God, but diffused over the whole body, & so there is a Man, so Faith
is infused from God, but diffused into our works, and so there is a Saint. Practise is the In-
carnation of Faith, Faith is incorporated and manifested in a body, by works; and the
way to both, is that Hearing, which amounts to this Hearkning, to a diligent, to a consi-
derate, to a profitable Hearing. In which, one essentiall circumstance is, that we be not
over affectionately transported with an opinion of any one person, but apply our selves to
the Ordinance, Come, and hearken unto me, To any whom God sends with the Seale and
Character of his Minister, which is our fourth and last branch in your part. David doth not determine this in his own person, Me. that you should hearken to him, and
none but him, but that you should hearken to him in that capacity and qualification, which
is common to him with others, as we are sent by God upon that Ministery; that you say
to all such, Blessed art thou that comest in the Name of the Lord. St. Augustine, and not he
alone, interprets this whole Psalme of Christ, that it is a thankesgiving of Christ to his
Father, upon some deliverance received in some of his Agonies, some of his perse-
cutions; and that Christ calleth us to hearken unto him. To him, so, as he is present with
us, in the Ministery of his Church, He is a perverse servant, that will receive no com-
mandment, except he have it immediately from his Masters mouth; so is he too, that
pretendeth to rest so wholly in the Word of God, the Scriptures, as that he seeks no inter-
pretation, no exposition, no preaching, All is in the Scriptures, but all the Scriptures are
not alwaies evident to all understandings. He also is a perverse servant, that wil receive no Oo2 com-
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commandment by any Officer of his Masters, except he like the man, or, if his Master
might, in his opinion, have chosen a fitter man, to serve in that place. And such a per-
versnesse is in those hearers who more respect the man, then the Ministery, and his man-
ner of delivering it, then the message that he delivers. Let a man so account of us, as of the
Ministers of Christ, and Stewards of the mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 1.. That is our Classis, our rank, our
station, what names soever we brought into the world by our extraction from this or that
family, what name soever we took in our baptisme, and contract between God and us,
that name, in which we come to you, is that, The Ministers of Christ, The Stewards of the
Mysteries of God, And so let men account of us, says the Apostle. Invention, and Disposition,
and Art, and Eloquence, and Expression, and Elocution, and reading, and writing, and
printing, are secondary things, accessory things, auxiliary, subsidiary things; men may
account us, and make account of us, as Orators in the pulpit, and of Authors, in the
shop; but if they account of us as of Ministers and Stewards, they give us our due; that's
our name to you. All the Evangelists mention John Baptist and his preaching; but two
of the foure say never a word of his austerity of life, his Locusts, nor his Camels haire;
and those two that do, Matthew and Marke, they insist, first, upon his calling, and then
upon his actuall preaching, how he pursued that Calling, And then upon the Do-
ctrine that he preached, Repentance, and Sanctification, and after that, they come
to these secondary and subsidiary things, which added to his estimation, and assisted the
passage of his Doctrine, His good life. Learning, and other good parts, and an exem-
plar life fall into second places; They have a first place, in their consideration who are
to call them, but in you, to whom they are sent, but a second; fixe you, in the first place,
upon the Calling. This Calling circumcised Moses uncircumcised lips Exod. 6. 12.; This made Je-
remy able to speak, though he called himself a childe Ier. 1. 6.; This is Esays coale from the Al-
tar, which takes away even his sinne, and his iniquity Esa. 6. 6.. Be therefore content to passe over
some infirmities, and rest your selves upon the Calling. And when you have thus taken the
simplicity of Children, (they are the persons, which was our first step) and are come to
the Congregation, (that is your Action, and was our second) and have conformed your
selves to hearken, (that also is the Disposition here, which was our third) And all this with
a reverence to the Calling before an affection to the man, (that is your submission to Gods
Ordinance, and was our fourth and last step) you have then built up our first part in your
selves, & laid together all those peeces which constitute your Duty, Come ye Children, and
hearken unto me; And from hence we passe, to our duty, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. In this second part, 2 Part. we made two steps; first, The manner, Docebo, I will teach; And
then the Matter, Timorem Domini, I will teach you the feare of the Lord. Upon the first, Docebo.
we will stay no longer, but to confesse, That we are bound to teach, and that this teach-
ing is to preach; And Væ si non, Wo be unto us, if we do not preach. Wo to them, who
out of ease, or state, silence themselves; And woe to them too, who by their distemper,
and Schismaticall and seditious manner of preaching, occasion and force others to silence
them; and think, (and think it out of a profitable, and manifold experience) That as
forbidden books sell best, so silence Ministers thrive best. It is a Duty, Docendum, we
must teach, Preach; but a duty that excludes not Catechizing; for catechizing seems espe-
cially to be intended here, where he calls upon them who are to be taught, by that name,
Children. It is a duty that excludes not Praying; but Praying excludes not it neither.
Prayer and Preaching may consist, nay they must meet in the Church of God. Now, he
that will teach, must have learnt before, many yeers before; And he that will preach, must
have thought of it before, many days before. Extemporall Ministers, that resolve in a day
what they will be, Extemporall Preachers, that resolve in a minute, what they will say, out-
go Gods Spirit, and make too much hast. It was Christs way;He tooke first Disciples
to learne, and then out of them, he tooke Apostles to teach; and those Apostles made
more Disciples. Though your first consideration be upon the Calling, yet our considera-
tion must be for our fitnesse to that Calling. Our Prophet David hath put them both to-
gether, well, Psal. 71. 17. O God, thou hast taught me from my youth; (you see what was his Vniversity;
Moses was his Aristotle; he had studied Divinity from his youth) And hitherto have I decla-
red thy wondrous works, says he there. Hitherto? How long was that? It follows in the
next verse, Now am I old, and gray headed, and yet he gave not over. Then Gods work goes
well forward, when they whom God hath taught, teach others. He that can say with Da-
vid, Docuistime, O God thou hast taught me, may say with him too, Docebo vos, I will teach
you. But what? that remains only, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. There
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There is a fear, which needs no teaching, a fear that is naturally imprinted in us. Timor Na-turalis. We
need not teach men to bee sad, when a mischiefe is upon them, nor to feare when it is
coming towards them; for, fear respects the future, so as sadnesse does the present; fear
looks upon Danger, and sadnesse upon Detriment; fear upon a sick friend, and sadnesse
upon a dead. And as these need not bee taught us, because they are naturall, so,
because they are naturall, they need not bee untaught us, they need not be forbidden,
nor disswaded. Our Saviour Christ had them both, fear, and sadnesse; and that man
lacks Christian wisedom, who is without a provident fear of future dangers, and without
Christian charity, who is without a compassionate sadnesse in present calamities. Now
this fear, though but imprinted in nature, is Timor Domini, The fear of the Lord,
because the Lord is the Lord of Nature, He is the Nature of Nature, Lord of all en-
dowments and impressions in Nature. And therefore, though for this naturall feare,
you goe no farther then Nature, (for it is born with you, and it lives in you) yet the
right use even of this naturall fear, is from Grace, though in the root it be a feare of na-
ture, yet in the government thereof, in the degrees, and practise thereof, it is the feare
of the Lord; Not onely as hee is Lord of Nature, (for so, you have the feare it selfe
from the Lord) but as this naturall fear produces good or bad effects, as it is regu-
lated and ordered, or as it is deserted, and abandoned, by the Spirit of the Lord; And
therefore you are called hither, Come, that you may learne the fear of the Lord, that
is, the right use of naturall fear, and naturall affections, from the Law of God; For, as it is
a wretched condition, to be without naturall affections, so is it a dangerous dereliction, if
our naturall affections be left to themselves, and not regulated, not inanimated by the
Spirit of God; Sap. 17. 12. for then my sadnesse will sinke into Desperation, and my fear will betray
the succours which reason offereth. This I gain by letting in the fear of the Lord, into
my naturall fear; that whereas the naturall object of my naturall fear is malum, some-
thing that I apprehend sub ratione mali, as it is ill, ill for me, (for, if I did not con-
ceive it to be ill, I would not fear it) yet when I come to thaw this Ice, when I come
to discusse this cloud, and attenuate this damp, by the light and heat of Grace, and the
illustration of the Spirit of God, breathing in his word, I change my object, or at least,
I look upon it in another line, in another angle, I look not upon that evill which my na-
turall fear presented me, of an affliction, or a calamity, but I look upon the glory that
God receives by my Christian constancy in that affliction, and I look upon that e-
verlasting blessednes, which I should have lost, if God had not laid that affliction upon
me. So that though fear look upon evill, (for affliction is malum pœnæ, evill as it hath
the nature of punishment) yet when the feare of the Lord is entred into my naturall
feare, my feare is more conversant, more exercised upon the contemplation of
Good, then Evill, more upon the glory of God, and the joys of heaven, then upon
the afflictions of this life, how malignant, how manifold soever. And therefore,
that this feare, and all your naturall affections, (which seem weaknesses in man, and
are so indeed, if they bee left to themselves, now in our corrupt and depraved e-
state) may advance your salvation, (which is the end why God hath planted them in
you) Come and learn the fear of the Lord, Learn from the Word of God, explicated by
his minister, in his Ordinance upon occasions leading him thereunto, the limits of this
naturall fear, & where if may become sin, if it be not regulated, and inanimated by a bet-
ter fear, then it self. There is a fear, Timor semi-
naturalis. which grows out of a second nature, Custome, and so is half-
naturall, to those men that have it. The custome of the place we live in, or of the times we live in,
or of the company we live in. Topical customes of such a place, Chronical customes of such
an Age, Personal customes of such a company. The time, or the place, or the persons in
power have advanced, & drawn into fashion and reputation, some vices, & such men as
depend upon them, are afraid, not to concur with them in their vices; for, amongst persons,
& in times, & places, that are vicious, an honest man is a rebel; he goes against that State, &
that Government, which is the kingdom of sin. Amongst drunkards, a sober man is a spy
upon thē; Amongst blasphemers, a prayer is a libell against them; And amongst dissolute
and luxurious persons, a chast man is a Bridewell, his person, his presence is a house of
Correction. In vicious times and companies, a good man is unacceptable, and cannot
prosper. And, because as amongst Merchants, men trade halfe upon stock, and halfe
upon credit, so, in all other courses, because men rise according to the opinion & estimation Oo3 which
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which person in power have of them, as well as by reall goodnesse, therefore to build
up, or to keep up this opinion and estimation in them upon whom they depend, they
are afraid to crosse the vices of the Time, so far, as by being vertuous in their owne
paticular. They are afraid it will be called a singularity, and a schismaticall and sedi-
tious disposition, and taken for a Reproach, and a Rebuke laid upon their betters, if they be
not content to be as ill, as those their betters are. Now, the fear of the Lord brings the
Quo Warranto against all these priviledged sins, and priviledged places, and persons, and
overthrows all these Customes, and Prescriptions. The fear of the Lord is not a To-
picall, not a Chronicall, not a Personall, but a Catholique, a Canonicall, a Circular, an
Vniversall fear; It goes through all, and over all; and when this halfe-naturall feare,
this feare grown out of Custome, suggests to me, That if I be thus tender-conscienced,
if I startle at an Oath, if I be sick at a Health, if I cannot conform my selfe to the vi-
ces of my betters, I shall lose my Master, my Patron, my Benefactor, This feare of
the Lord enters, and presents the infallible losse of a farre greater Master, and Patron,
& Benefactor, if I comply with the other. And therefore as you were called hither, (that
is to the explication of the Word of God) to learn how to regulate the naturall fear, that
that fear doe not deject you into a diffidence of Gods mercy, so come hither to learne
the fear of God, against this half-naturall fear, that is, bee guided by the Word of
God, how far you are to serve the turnes of those persons, upon whom ye depend,
and when to leave their commandements unperformed. Well; FrtitudoFortitudo. what will this feare of the Lord teach us? Valour, fortitude; feare teach va-
lour? yes; And nothing but feare; True feare. As Moses his Serpents devoured the
false serpents, so doth true fear all false fear. There is nothing so contrary to God, as
false fear; neither in his own nature, nor in his love to us. Therefore Gods first Name
in the Bible, and the Name which he sticks to, in all the worke of the Creation, is his
Name of Power, Elohim; El, is fortis Deus, The God of Power; and it is that
Name in the plurall, multiplied power, All Power; And what can he feare? God
descends to many other humane affections; you shall read that God was Angry, and
sory, and weary; But non timuit Deus, God was never afraid. Neither would God
that man should be. So his first blessing upon man, was to fill the earth, and to subdue
the creatures, and to rule over them, and to eat what he would upon the earth; All Acts
of Power, and of Confidence. As soon as hee had offended God, the first impotency
that he found in himself, was fear: I heard thy voice, and I was afraid, says he Gen. 3. 10.. He had
heard the voice of Lions, and was not afraid. There is not a greater commination
of a curse, then that, They shall be in a great fear, where no fear is Ps. 53. 6.; Which is more ve-
hemently expressed in another place, I will set my face against you, and you shall flye,
when none pursues you; I will send a faintnesse into their hearts, and the sound of a sha-
ken leafe, shall chase them, as a sword Lev. 26. 17. 36.. False feare is a fearfull curse. To feare that
all favours, and all preferments, will goe the wrong way, and that therefore I must
clap on a byasse, and goe that way too, this inordinate fear is the curse of God. Da-
vids last counsail to Solomon (but reflecting upon us all) was, Be thou strong therefore,
and show thy selfe a man 1 Reg. 2. 2.. E Culmine corruens, ad gyrum laboris venit, The Devill fell
from his place in heaven, and now is put to compasse the earth. The fearfull man that Gregor.
fals from his morall and his Christian constancy, from the fundamentall rules of his
religion, fals into labyrinths, of incertitudes, and impertinencies, and ambiguities, and
anxieties, Iob 7. 1. & irresolutions. Militia, vita; our whole life is a warfare; God would not chuse
Cowards; hee had rather we were valiant in the fighting of his battels; for battels, and
exercise of valour, we are sure to have. God sent a Cain into the world before an Abel;
An Enemy, before a Champion. Abel non suspicor qui non habet Cain Gregor.; we never heare
of an Abel, but there is a Cain too. And therefore think it not strange, concerning the
fiery triall, as though some strange thing happened unto you 1 Pet. 4. 12.; Make account that this world
is your Scene, your Theater, and that God himself sits to see the combat, the wrest-
ling. Chrysost. ] Vetuit Deus mortem Job; Job was Gods Champion, and God forbad Satan the
taking away of Jobs life; for, if he die, (sayes God in the mouth of that Father) The-
atrum nobis non amplius plaudetar, My Theater will ring with no more Plaudites, I
shall bee no more glorified in the valour and constancy of my Saints, my Champions.
God delights in the constant and valiant man, and therefore a various, a timorous man
frustrates, disappoints God. My
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My errand then is to teach you valour; and must my way be to intimidate you, to
teach you feare? yes, still there is no other fortitude, but the fear of the Lord. We told
you before, sadnesse and fear differ but in the present, and future. And as for the present,
Nihil aliud triste quàm Deum offendere, Chrysost. There is no just cause of sadnesse, but to have
sinned against God, (for, sudden sadnesse arising in a good Conscience, is a sparke of
fire in the Sea, it must goe out;) so there is no just cause of fear, but in Gods displeasure.
Mens in timore Domini constituta, non invenit extra quod metuat Gregor.. God is all; and if I be
established in him, what thing can I fear, when there is nothing without him? nothing
simply, Chrysost. at least nothing that can hurt me; Quæ sunt in mundo non nocentiis qui extra
mundum sunt, This world cannot hurt him that made it, nor them that are laid up in
him. Jonas did but change his vessell, his ship, when he entred the Whale, he was not
shipwracked, God was his Pilot there, as well as in the ship, and therefore he as con-
fident there. It is meant of Christ, which is spoken in the person of Wisdome, Who so
hearkneth unto me, shall dwell safely, and be quiet from the feare of evill Prov. 1. 3833.. And therefore,
when you heare of warres and commotions, be not terrified; these things must come to passe,
but the end is not by and by Luc. 21. 9.; Imaginations, and tentations, and alienations, and tribulations
must come: But this is not the end; the end that God lookes for, is, that by the bene-
fit of his fear we should stand out all these. So thēthen to teach you the fear of the Lord, Quid operatur. is to teach you what it doth, that you may love
it, and what it is, that you may know it. That wch it doth, is that it makes you a constant, a
confident, a valiant man, That which God, who is alwayes the same, loves. How doth it
that? Thus. As he that is falne into the Kings hand for debt to him, is safe from other
creditors, so is he, that fears the Lord, from other fears. He that loves the Lord, loves
him with all his love; he that fears the Lord, fears him withal his fear too; God takes
no half affections. Upon those words, Be not high-minded, but fear, Clement Rom. 11. 0220. of Alex-
andria, hath another reading; super-time, over-feare; that is, carry thy fear to the highest
place; place thy fear there, where it may be above all other fears. In the multitude of
dreams, there are divers vanities, but feare thou the Lord Eccles. 5. 7.. All fearfull things passe away
as dreams, as vanities, to him that fears the Lord; They offer at him, but in vain, if he
be established with that fear. In Christ there was no bone broken; In him that feares
the Lord, no constant purpose is ever shaken. Of Job it is said, that he was perfect and
upright; That is a rare wonder, but the wonder is qualified in the addition, He feared God. Iob. 1. 1.
So are they put together in Simeon, Justus & timoratus, he was a just man Luke 2. 25.; how should
he be otherwise? He feared God. Consider your enemies, and be not deceived with an
imagination of their power, but see whether they be worthy of your feare, if you feare
God. The World is your enemy; sed vicit mundum, be of good cheare, for I have over-
come the world, Iohn 16. 33. saith Christ. If it were not so, yet we are none of it; ye are not of the world,
for I have chosen you out of the world 15. 19.. Howsoever, the world would doe us no harm, the
world would be good enough of it self, but that the Prince of the world, the Devill, is
anima mundi, the soul of this lower world, he inanimates, he actuates, he exalts, the ma-
lignity of the world against us; and he is our second enemy. It was not the Apple, but
the Serpent that tempted; Eve, no doubt, had looked upon the fruit before, and yet did
not long. But even this enemy is not so dangerous, as he is conceived. In the life of St.
Basil, we have a story, that the Devil appeared to a penitent sinner at his praiers, and told
him, If you will let me alone, I will let you alone, meddle not with me, and I will not meddle
with you, He found that by this good souls prayers to God, God had weakned his power,
not onely upon that man that prayed, but upon others too; and therefore he was con-
tent, to come to a cessation of armes with him, that he might turn his forces another
way. Truely he might say to many of us, in a worse sense, Let me alone, and I will let you
alone; tempt not me, & I will not tempt you: Our idlenes, our high diet, our wanton discours,
our exposing our selves to occasion of sin, provoke and call in the Devill, when he seeks
not us. The Devill possesses the world, and we possesse the Devill. But then, if the fear
of the Lord possesse us, our owne Concupiscencies, (though they be indeed our greatest
enemies) because the warre that they maintain is a civill warre) shall doe us no harm, for
as the Septuagint in their Translation, diminish the power of the Devill, in that name
Myrmecoleon, (a disproportioned Creature, made up of a Lion and an Ant, because as St.
Gregory saith upon that place) formicis Leo est, volatilibus formica, The Devill is a Lion
to Ants, dasheth whole hills of them with his paw, that creep under him, but he is but an
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an Ant to birds; they prey upon him, that flie above him. If wee feare the Lord, our
concupiscencies, our carnall affections, our selves, may prove our best friends, because,
as the fire in the furnace did not burn the men, Dan. 3. but it burnt off those bands, that fette-
red and manacled them, 2. 25. (for they were loose, and walked in the furnace) so our concu-
piscencies, if we resist them, shall burn off themselves, and file off their own rust, and our
salvation shall be surer by occasion of temptations. August. We may prevent mortem mortifica-
tione, everlasting death, by a disciplinary life. Mori, ne moriamur, is his rule too, To die
to the fires of lust here, lest wee die in unquenchable fires hereafter; to die daily, (as
S. Paul speaks of himself) lest we die at the last day. To end this, this is the working of
the fear of the Lord, it devours all other fears; God will have no half-affections, God
will have no partners; He that fears God fears nothing else. This then is the operation of the feare of the Lord, Quid iste
Timor. this is his working;
remaines onely to consider what this feare of the Lord is: And, beloved in him,
be not afraid of it; for, this fear of God, is the love of God. And, howsoever there may
be some amongst us, whom the heighth of birth, or of place, or of spirit hath kept from
fear, They never feared any thing, yet, I think, there is none, that never loved any thing.
Obligations of Matrimony, or of friendship, or of blood, or of alliance, or of conversation,
hath given every one of us, no doubt, some sense in our selves, what it is to love, and to
enjoy that which we doe love; And the fear of God, is the love of God. The love of
the Lord passeth all things, Ecclus. 25. 11. saith the Wise man: The love, what is that to fear? It fol-
lows, The fear of the Lord, is the beginning of his love. As they that build Arches, place
centers under the Arch, to beare up the work, till it bee dried, and setled, but, after,
all is Arch, and there is no more center, no more support; so to lie at the Lords feet
a while, delivers us into his arms, to accustome our selves to his fear, establishes us in his
love. Be content to stop a little, even at the lowest fear, the fear of hell. When Saul
was upon an expedition, 1 Sam. 11. 7. and did not finde himself well followed, he took a yoke of Ox-
en, and hewed them in pieces, and proclaimed, that whosoever came not to the supply,
all his Oxen should be so served; and upon this, (says the Text there) The fear of the
Lord fell upon all the people, and they came out, as one man, three hundred and thirty thou-
sand. If Sauls threatning of their worldly goods, wrought so; let Gods threatning of thy
selfe, thine inwardest self, thy soul, with hell, make thee to stop even upon thy fear of
the Lord, the fear of Torment. Stop upon the second fear too, the fear of privation, and
losse of the sight of God in heaven; That when all wee have disputed, with a modest
boldnesse, and wondred with a holy wonder, what kinde of sight of God we shall have
in heaven, then when thou shouldst come to an end, and to an answer of all these doubts,
in an experimentall triall, how he shall be seen, (seen thus) thou shalt see then that thou
shalt never see him. After thou hast used to hear, all thy life, blessednesse summed up into
that one act, We shall see God, thou shalt never come nearer to that knowledge, thou shalt
never see him; fear the Lord therefore in this second fear, fear of privation. And fear
him in a third fear, the fear of the losse of his grace here in this world, though thou have
it now. S. Chrysostome serves himself and us, with an ordinary comparison, A Tyler is
upon the top of the house, but he looks to his footing, he is afraid of falling. A righ-
teous man is in a high place in Gods favour, but hee may lose that place. Who is
higher then Adam, higher then the Angels? and whither fell they? Make not thou
then thy assurance of standing, out of their arguments, that say it is impossible for the
righteous to fall, The sins of the righteous are no sins in the sight of God; but build thy
assurance upon the testimony of a good conscience, that thou usest all diligence, and
holy industry, that thou maist continue in Gods favour, and fearest to lose it; for, hee
that hath no fear of losing, hath no care of keeping. Accustome thy self to these fears,
and these fears will flow into a love. As love, and jealousie may bee the same thing, so
the feare and love of God will be all one; for, jealousie is but a fear of losing. Brevissima
differentia Testamentorum, Timor & Amor August.; This distinguishes the two Testaments, The
Old is a Testament of fear, the New of love; yet in this they grow all one, That we de-
termine the Old Testament, in the New, and that we prove the New Testament by the
Old; for, but by the Old, we should not know, that there was to bee a New, nor, but
for the New, that there was an Old; so the two testaments grow one Bible; so in these
two Affections, if there were not a jealousie, a fear of losing God, we could not love him;
nor can we fear to lose him, except we doe love him. Place the affection, (by what name
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name soever) upon the right object, God, and I have, in some measure, done that which
this Text directed, (Taught you the fear of the Lord) if I send you away in either disposi-
tion, Timorous; or amorous, possessed with either, the fear, or the love of God; for, this
fear is inchoative love, and this love is consummative fear; The love of God begins in
fear, and the fear of God ends in love; and that love can never end, for God is love. Sermon XLVII.
An Anniversary Sermon preached at St. Dunstans, upon the commemoration
of a Parishioner, a Benefactor to that Parish.
Gen. 3. 24.
And dust shalt thou eat all the dayes of thy life. THisThis is Gods malediction upon the Serpent in Paradise, There in the
Region, in the Store-house of all plenty, he must starve; This is
the Serpents perpetuall fast, his everlasting Lent, (Dust shalt thou
eat all the dayes of thy life.) There is a generation derived from
this Serpent, Progenies viperarum, a generation of Vipers, that
will needs in a great, and unnecessary measure, keep this Serpents
Lent, and binde themselves to performe his fact; for, the Carthu-
sian will eat no flesh, (and yet, I never saw better bodied men, men of better habitudes
and constitution, howsoever they recompense their abstinence from flesh) and the Fue-
illans will eat neither flesh nor fish, but roots, and sallets, (and yet amongst them,
amongst men so enfeebled by roots, was bred up that man, who had both malicious
courage, and bodily strength, to kill the last King, who was killed amongst them) They
will be above others in their fasts, Fish, and Roots will they eat, all the dayes of their
life, but their Master will be above them in his fast, (Dust must he eat all the dayes of
his life.) It is Luthers observation upon this place, That in all Moses his Books, God never
spoke so long, so much together, as here, upon this occasion. Indeed the occasion was
great; It was the arraignment of all the world, and more; of mankinde, and of An-
gels too; of Adam, and Eve, (and there were no more of them) and then of the Ser-
pent, and of Satan in that, and of all the fallen Angels in him. For the sentence which
God, as Judge gave upon them, upon all these Malefactors, of that part which fell up-
on the woman, all our mothers are experimentall witnesses; they brought forth us in
sorrow and in travaile. Of that part of the sentence which fell upon man, every one
of us is an experimentall witnesse, for in every calling, in the sweat of our face, we eat
our bread. And of that part of the Judgement, which was inflicted upon the Serpent,
and Satan in him, this dead brother of ours who lyes in this consecrated earth, is an
experimentall witnesse, who being by death reduced to the state of dust, for so much
of him, as is dust, that is, for his dead body, and then, for so long time, as he is to re-
maine in that state of dust, is in the portion, and jurisdiction, and possession of the Ser-
pent, that is, in the state which the Serpent hath induced upon man, and dust must he
eat all the dayes of his life. In passing thorough these words, Divisio. we shall make but these two steps; first, What
the Serpent lost, by this judgement inflicted upon him; and secondly, What man
gained by it; for these two considerations imbrace much, involve much; first,
That Gods anger is so intensive, and so extensive, so spreading, and so vehe-
ment, as that in his Justice, he would not spare the Serpent, who had no volun-
tary, no innate, no naturall ill disposition towards man, but was onely made the instru-
ment of Satan, in the overthrow of man. And then, that Gods mercy is so large,
so overflowing, so super-abundant, as that even in his Judgement upon the Serpent,
he would provide mercy for man. For, as it is a great waight of judgement upon the
Serpent, that the Serpent must eat dust, so is it a great degree of mercy to man, that the
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the Serpent must eate but dust, because mans best part is not subject to be served in at
his table, the soule cannot become dust, (and dust must he eate all the dayes of his life.
O, in what little sinne, though but a sinne of omission, though but a sinne of ignorance,
in what circumstance of sinne, may I hope to scape Judgement, if God punished the
Serpent who was violently, and involuntarily transported in this action? And in what
depth, in what height, in what hainousnesse, in what multiplicity of sin can I doubt of
the mercy of my God, who makes Judgment it self the instrument, the engin, the Chariot
of his mercy? What room is there left for presumption, if the Serpent, the passive Ser-
pent were punished? What room for desperation, if in the punishment, there be a ma-
nifestation of mercy? The Serpent must eate dust, that is his condemnation, but he
shall eate no better meat, he shall eate but dust, there is mans consolation. First then, 1 Part. as it is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God, so is it an
impossible thing to scape it. Heb. 10. 31. God is not ashamed of being jealous; he does not onely
pronounce that he is a jealous God, but he desires to be known by none other name,
(The Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God) so jealous, Exod. 34. 14. as that he will not have
his name uttered in vaine; not onely not blasphemed, not sworne by, but not used
indifferently, transitorily, not Proverbially, occasionally, not in vaine. And if it be,
what then? Even for this, he will visite to the third, and fourth generation; and three
and foure are seven, and seven is infinite. So jealous, as that in the case of the Angels,
not for looking upon any other Creatures, or trusting in them, (for, when they fell, (as
it is ordinarinlyordinarily received) there were no other creatures made) but for not looking immedi-
diately, directly upon God, but reflecting upon themselves, and trusting in their own
naturall parts, God threw those Angels into so irrecoverable, and bottomelesse a depth,
as that the merits of Christ Jesus, though of infinite, super-infinite value, doe not boye
them up; so jealous a God, is God, so jealous, as that in Adams case, for over-loving his own
wife, for his over tender compassion of her, foreating the forbidden fruit, ne contristaretur
delicias suas, (as Saint Hierome layes his fault) lest he should deject her into an inordi-
nate and desperate malancholy, and so make her incapable of Gods mercy, God threw
the first man, and in him, all, out of Paradise, out of both Paradises, out of that of rest,
and plenty here, Numb. 22. 5. and that of Joy, and Glory hereafter. Consider Balaams sin about
cursing Gods people, or Moses sinne about striking the rock, and wouldst not thou be 20. 11.
glad to change sinnes, with either of them? Are not thy sinnes greater, heavier sinnes;
And yet, wouldest thou not be sorry, to undergoe their punishments? are not thy punish-
ments lesse? Prov. 25. 16. Hast thou found hony, says the holy Ghost in Solomon; and, he says it
promiscuously, and universally, to every body; eate, as much as is sufficient. Every
man may. 1 Sam. 14. 17. And then, Jonathan found that hony, and knew not that it was forbidden
by Sauls proclamation, and did but taste it, and that in a case of extreme necessity, and
Jonathan must die. Any man might eate enough, He did but taste, and he must die.
If the Angels, if Adam, if Balaam, if Moses, if Jonathan did, if the Serpent in the text,
could consider this, how much cheaper God hath made sinne to thee, then to them,
might they not have colour in the eye of a naturall man, to expostulate with God?
Might not Ananias, Act. 5. 8. and Saphira, who onely withheld a little of that, which, but a little
before, was all their own, and now must die for that, have been excusable if they had
said at the last gaspe, How many direct Sacrileges hath God forborne, in such and such,
and we must die? Might not Er, and Onan, after their uncleane act upon themselves
onely, for which they died, Gen. 38. 2. have been excusable, if they had said at the last gaspe, How
many direct adulteries, how many unnaturall incests hath God forborne in such
and such, and we must die? How many loads of miserable wretches maist thou have
seen suffer at ordinary executions, when thou mightest have said with David, Lord I
have done wickedly, but these sheep what have they done? What had this Serpent
done? The Serpent was more subtile then any other beast. Quia in-
strumentum. It is a dangerous thing to have
a capacity to doe evill; to be fit to be wrought upon, is a dangerous thing. How ma-
ny men have been drawn into danger, Gen. 3. 1.because they were too rich? How many wo-
men into solicitation, and tentation, because they were too beautifull? Content thy
selfe with such a mediocrity in these things, as may make thee fit to serve God, and to
assist thy neighbour, in a calling, and be not ambitious of extraordinary excellency in
any kinde; It is a dangerous thing, to have a capacity to do evill. God would do a great work;
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work; Num. 28. 22. and he used the simplicity of the Asse; he made Balaams Asse speak; But the De-vill makes use of the subtilty, of the craft of the Serpent; The Serpent is his Instru-
ment; no more but so, but so much he is, his instrument. And then, says S. Chrysostome,
Pater noster execratur gladium, as a naturall father would, so our heavenly father does
hate, that which was the instrument of the ruine of his children. Wherein hath he ex-
pressed that hate? not to binde our selves to Josephus his opinion, (though some of
the ancients in the Christian Church have seconded that opinion, too) that at that time
the Serpent could goe upright, and speak, and understand, and knew what he did, and
so concurred actually and willingly to the temptation and destruction of man, though
he were but anothers instrument, he became odious to God. Our bodies, of themselves,
if they had no souls, have no disposition to any evill; yet, these bodies which are but
instruments, must burn in hell. The earth was accursed for mans sin, though the earth
had not been so much as an instrument of his sin; Onely because it was, after, to con-
duce to the punishment of his children, it was accursed, God withdrew his love from it.
And in the law, Lev. 20. 15. those beasts with which men committed bestiality, were to be stoned, as
well as the men. How poor a plea will it be, to say, at the last day, I got nothing by such
an extortion, to mine own purse, it was for my master; I made no use of that woman
whom I had corrupted, it was for a friend. Miserable instrument of sin, that hadst not
the profit, nor the pleasure, and must have the damnation! As the Prophet cals them,
that help us towards heaven, Obad. v. 21. Saviours, (Saviours shall come up on Mount Sion) so are all
that concurre instrumentally to the damnation of others, Devils. And, at the last day,
we shall see many sinners saved, and their instruments perish. Adam, and Eve both God
interrogated, and, gave them time, to meditate and to deprecate; To Adam, he says, Where
art thou, and, who told thee that thou wast naked? And to Eve, What is this that thou hast
done? But to the Serpent no such breathing; The first words is, Quia fecisti; no calling
for evidence whether he had done it or no, but, Because thou hast done it, thou art accur-
sed. Sin is Treason against God; and in Treason there is no Accessory; The instrument
is the Principall. We passe from that first Part, 2 Part. the consideration of heavy Judgements upon faults, in
appearance but small, derived from the punishment of the Serpent, though but an Instru-
ment. Let no man set a low value upon any sin; let no man think it a little matter to sin
some one sin, and no more; or that one sin but once, and no oftner; or that once but a
little way in that sin, and no father; or all this, to do another a pleasure, though he take
none in it himself (as though there were charity in the society of sin, and that it were an
Alms to help a man to the means of sinning.) The least sin cost the blood of the Son
of God, and the least sinner may lose the benefit of it, if he presume of it. No man may
cast himself from a Pinnacle, because an Angel may support him; no man may kill him-
self, because there is a Resurrection of the body; nor wound his soul to death by sin, be-
cause there may be a resurrection of that, by grace. Here is no roome for presumption
upon God; but, as little for desperation in God; for, in the punishment of the Serpent,
we shall see, that his Mercy, and Justice are inseparable; that, as all the Attributes of
God, make up but one God (Goodnesse, and Wisdome, and Power are but one God)
so Mercy and Justice make up but one act; they doe not onely duly succeed, and second
one another, they doe not onely accompany one another, they are not onely together,
but they are all one. As Manna, though it tasted to one man like one thing, to another
like another, (for it tasted to every man like that, that that man liked best) yet still was
the same Manna; so, for Gods corrections, they have a different taste in different per-
sons; and howsoever the Serpent found nothing but Judgement, yet we find mercy even
in that Judgement. The evening and the morning make up the day, Gen. 1. 5. says Moses; as soon as
he had named evening comes in morning, no interposing of the mention of a dark, and
sad night between. As soon as I hear of a Judgement, I apprehend Mercy, no interpo-
sing of any dark or sad suspition, or diffidence, or distrust in God, and his mercy; and
to that purpose we consider the Serpents punishment, and espcially as it is heightned,
and aggravated in this Text, Dust shalt thou eate all the days of thy life. There are three degrees in the Serpents punishment; Super pectus. First, Super pectus, He must creep
upon his belly; And secondly, Inimicitias ponam, I will put enmity, God will raise him an
enemy; And thirdly, Pulverem comedes, Dust shalt thou eate all the days of thy life. And,
in all these three, though they aggravate the judgement upon the Serpent, there is mercy to
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to us; For, for the first, that the Serpent now does but creep upon his belly, S. Augu-stine, and S. Gregory understands this belly to be the seat of our affections, and our con-
cupiscencies; That the Serpent hath no power upon our heart, nor upon our brain, for,
if we bring a tentation to consideration, to deliberation, that we stop at it, think of it,
study it, and forsee the consequences, this frustrates the tentation. Our nobler fa-
culties are always assisted with the grace of God to resist him, though the belly, the
bowels of sin, in sudden surprisals, and ebullitions, and foamings of our concupiscen-
cies, be subject to him: for, though it may seem, that if that be the meaning, (which,
from S. Augustine and S. Gregory we have given you) That the Serpent hath this pow-
er over our affections, and that is intended by that, The belly, it should rather have
been said, super pectus vestrum, Hee shall creep upon your belly, then upon his owne,
yet, indeed, all that is his own, which we have submitted and surrendred to him, and hee
is upon his own, because we make our selves his; (for, to whom ye yeeld your servants to o-
bey, his servants you are. Rom. 6. 18. ) So that if he be super pectus nostrum, if he be upon our belly,
he is upon his own. But he does but creep; He does not fly; He is not presently upon
you, in a present possession of you; you may discern the beginning of sin, and the ways
of sin, in the approaches of the Serpent, if you will. The Serpent leaves a slime that
discovers him, where he creeps; At least behinde him, after a sin, you may easily see oc-
casion of remorse, and detestation of that sinne, and thereby prevent relapses, if you
have not watched him well enough in his creeping upon you. When hee is a Lion,
he does not devoure all whom he findes; 1 Pet. 5. 8. He seeks whom he may devoure; He may not
devoure all, nor any but those, who cast themselves into his jaws, by exposing them-
selves to tentations to sin. He does but creep; An forma
mutata. why, did he any more before? was his forme changed in this
punishment? Many of the Ancients think literally that it was; and that before the
Serpent did goe upon feet; we are not sure of that; nor is it much probable. That
may well be true, which Luther says, fuit suavissima bestiola, till then it was a creature
more lovely, more sociable, more conversable with man, and, (as Calvin expresses
the same) Minus odiosus, man did lesse abhor the Serpent before, then after. Beloved,
it is a degree of mercy, if God bring that, which was formerly a tentation to mee,
to a lesse power over me, then formerly it had; If deformity, if sicknesse, if age, if o-
pinion, if satiety, if inconstancy, if any thing have worn out a tentation in that face, that
transported me heretofore, it is a degree of mercy. Though the Serpent be the same
Serpent, yet if he be not so acceptable, so welcome to me, as heretofore, it is a happy, a
blessed change. And so, in that respect, there was mercy. It was a punishment to the Serpent, Inimicitias
ponam. that, though he were the same still as before, yet
he was not able to insinuate himself as before, because hee was not so welcome to us.
So, the having of the same form, which he had, might be a punishment, as naked-
nesse was to man after his fall; He was naked before, but he saw it not, he felt it not, he
needed no cloathes before; Now, nakednesse brings shame, and infirmities with it. So,
God was so sparing towards the Serpent, as that he made him not worse in nature, then
before, and so mercifull to us, as that hee made us more jealous of him, and thereby
more safe against him, then before. Which is also intimated pregnantly, in the next
step of his punishment, Inimicitias ponam, That God hath kindled a war between him
and us. Peace is a blessed state, but it must be the peace of God; for, Simeon and Le-
vi are brethren, Gen. 49. 5. they agree well enough together; but they are instruments of evill;
and, in that case, the better agreement, the worse. So, war is a fearfull state; but not
so, if it be the war of God, undertaken for his cause, or by his Word. Many times, a State
suffers by the security of a Peace, and gains by the watchfulness of a War. Wo be to
that man that is so at peace, as that the spirit fights not against the flesh in him; and
wo to them too, who would make them friends, or reconcile them, betweene whom,
God hath perpetuated an everlasting war, The seed of the woman, and the seed of the
Serpent, Christ and Beliall, Truth and Superstition. Till God proclaimed a warre
between them, the Serpent did easily overthrow them, but therefore God brought it
to a war, that man might stand upon his guard. And so it was a Mercy. But the greatest mercy is in the last, Pulverem
comedes. and that which belongs most directly, (though
all conduce pertinently and usefully) to our present occasion;) Dust shalt thou eat all the
days of thy life. He must eat dust, that is, our bodies, and carnall affections; Hee was at
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at a richer diet, he was in better pasture before; before, he fed upon souls too; But for
that his head was bruised, in the promise of a Messias, who delivers our souls from his
tyranny; But the dust, the body, that body, which for all the precious ransome, and the
rich, and large mercy of the Messias, must die, that dust is left to the Serpent, to Satan,
that is, to that dissolution, and that putrefaction, which he hath induced upon man, in
death. He eats but our dust, in our death, when he hath brought us to that; that is a mer-
cy; nay he eats up our dust before our death, which is a greater mercy; our carnal affecti-
ons, our concupiscencies are eaten up, and devoured by him; and so, even his eating is a
sweeping, a cleansing, a purging of us. Many times we are the better for his tentations.
My discerning a storm, makes me put on a cloak. My discerning a tentation, makes me
see my weaknesse, and fly to my strength. Nay, I am somtimes the safer, and the readier
for a victory, by having been overcome by him. The sense, and the remorse of a sin, after
I have fallen into it, puts me into a better state, and establishes better conditions be-
tween God and me then were before, when I felt no tentations to sin. He shall eat up my
dust, so, as that it shall fly into mine eyseyes; that is, so work upon my carnall affections, as
that they shall not make me blinde, nor unable to discern that it is he that works. It is
said of one kinde of Serpent, that because they know, Stellio by an instinct they have, that their
skin is good for the use of man, (for the falling sickness) out of Envy, they hide their
skin, when they cast it. The Serpent is loth we should have any benefit by him; but we
have; even his tentations arm us, and the very falling exalts us, when after a sin of in-
firmity, we come to a true, and serious repentance, and scrutiny of our conscience. So he
hath nothing to eat but our dust, and he eats up our dust so, as that he contributes to
our glory, Ion. 1. 17. by his malice. The Whale was Jonas Pilot; The Crows were Elias caters;
The Lions were Daniels sentinels; 1 Reg. 7. 6. The Viper was Pauls advocate; it pleaded for him, &
brought the beholders in an instant, Dan. 6. 22. from extreme to extreme, from crying out that Paul
was a murderer, to cry that he was a god. Though at any time, the Serpent having brought Act. 28.
me to a sin, cry out, Thou art a murderer, that is, bring me to a desperate sense of having
murdred mine own soul, yet in that darkness I shal see light, & by a present repentance, &
effectual application of the merits of my Savior, I shall make the Serpent see, I am a God;
thus far a God, 2 Pet 1. 4. that by my adhering to Christ, I am made partaker of the Divine Na-
ture. For, that which S. Chrysost. says of Baptism, is true too in the second Baptism, Re-
pentance, Deposui terram, & cœlum indui; then I may say to the Serpent, Your meat is
dust; 2 Cor 5. 17. and I was dust; but Deposui terram, I have shak'd off my dust, by true repen-
tance, for I have shak'd off my self, and am a new creature, and am not now meat for your
Table. Jam terra non sum, sed sal, says the same Father, I am not now unsavoury dust, but
I am salt; And, Sal ex aqua & vento says he; Salt is made of water and winde; I am
made up of the water of Baptism, of the water of Repentance, of the water that accom-
panies the blood of Christ Jesus, Ioh. 3. 8. and of that winde that blows where it list, and hath been
pleased to blow upon me, the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, and I am no longer meat
for the Serpent, for Dust must he eat all the days of his life. I am a branch of that Vine,
(Christ is the Vine, Ioh. 15. 5. and we are the branches) I am a leafe of that Rose of Sharon, and of
that Lilly of the valleys; Cant. 2. 1. I am a plant in the Orchard of Pomegranats, and that Orchard
of Pomegranats is the Church; I am a drop of that dew, that dew that lay upon the 4. 14.
head of Christ. 5. 2.And this Vine, and this Rose, and Lilly, and Pomegranats, of Para-
dise, and this Dew of heaven, are not Dust, And dust must thou eate all the dayes of
thy life. So then, Totâ vitâ. the Prophecy of Esay fulfils it self, That when Christ shall reign powerfully
over us, The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, (Saul and Ananias shall meet in a house, Esay 65. 25.
(as S. Hierome expounds that) and Ananias not be afraid of a Persecutor.) The Lion
shall eate straw like the Bullock, says that Prophet in that place, Tradent se rusticitati
Scripturarum, says the same Father, The strongest understandings shall content them-
selves with the homelinesse of the Scriptures, and feed upon plain places, and not stu-
dy new dishes, by subtilties, and perplexities, and then, Dust shall be the Serpents meat,
says the Prophet there, The power of Satan shall reach but to the body, and not touch
a soul wrapt up in Christ. But then, it is Totâ vitâ, all his life. His diet is impaired,
but it is not taken away; He eats but dust, but he shall not lack that, as long as
hee lives. And how long lives the Serpent, this Serpent? The life of this
Serpent is to seduce man, to practise upon man, to prevaile upon man, as farre, Pp and
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and as long as man is dust. And therefore wee are not onely his dust, whilst wee live
(all which time we serve in our carnall affections, for him to feed upon) but when we are
dead, we are his dust still. Man was made in that state, as that he should not resolve to dust,
but should have passed from this world to the next, without corruption, or resolution
of the body. Gen. 3. 18. That which God said to Adam, Dust thou art, belonged to all, from the be-
ginning, he, and all we were to be of dust, in his best integrity; but that which God adds
there, & in terram revertêris, (dust thou art, and to it thou shalt returne) that the Serpent
brought in, that was induced upon man by him, and his tentation. So that when we
are living dust here he eats us, and when we are dead dust too, in the grave, he feeds
upon us, because it proceeds from him both that we die, and that we are detained in the
state of exinanition, and ingloriousnesse, in the dust of the earth, and not translated
immediately to the joyes of heaven, as but for him, we should have been. But as, though
he do feed upon our living dust, that is, induce sicknesses, and hunger, and labour, and
cold, and paine upon our bodies here, God raises even that dust out of his hands, and
redeemes it from his jaws, in affording us a deliverance, or a restitution from those bo-
dily calamities here, as he did abundantly to his servant, and our example Job, so,
though he feed upon our dead dust and detain our bodies in the disconsolate state of
the grave, yet, as the Godhead, the divine nature did not depart from the body of Christ
when it lay dead in the grave, so neither doth the love and power of God, depart from
the body of a Christian, though resolved to dust in the grave, but, in his due time, shall
recollect that dust, and recompact that body, and reunite that soul, in everlasting joy
and glory. And till then, the Serpent lives; till the Judgement, Satan hath power upon
that part of man; and that's the Serpents life, first to practise our death, and then to
hold us in the state of the dead. Till then we attend with hope, and with prayers Gods
holy pleasure upon us, and then begins the unchangeable state in our life, in body and
soul together, then we beginne to live, and then ends the Serpents life, that is, his ear-
nest practise upon us in our life, and his faint triumph in continuing over our dust. That
time, Mat. 8. 28. (the time of the generall Resurrection) being not yet come, the devills thought
themselves wronged, and complained that Christ came before the time to torment
them; and therefore Christ yeelded so much to their importunity, as to give them leave
to enter into the swine. And therefore, let not us murmur nor over-mourne for that,
which as we have induced it upon our selves, so God shall deliver us from, at last, that
is, both death, and corruption after death, and captivity in that comfortlesse state, but
for the resurection. For, so long we are to be dust, and so long lasts the Serpents life,
Satans power over man; dust must he eate all the days of his life. In the meane time, Conclusio. (for our comfort in the way) when this Serpent becomes a
Lyon, Apoc. 5. 5. yet there is a Lyon of the Tribe of Judah, that is too strong for him. So, if he
who is Serpens serpens humi, the Serpent condemned to creep upon the ground, doe
transforme himselfe into a flying Serpent, and attempt our nobler faculties, there is
Serpens exaltatus, a Serpent lifted up in the wildernesse, Numb. 12. 18. to recover all them that are
stung, and feel that they are stung with this Serpent, this flying Serpent, that is, these
high and continued sinnes. The creeping Serpent, the groveling Serpent, is Craft; the
exalted Serpent, the crucified Serpent, is Wisdome. All your worldly cares, all your
crafty bargaines all your subtill matches, all your diggings into other mens estates, all
your hedgings, in of debts, all your planting of children in great allyances; all these dig-
gings, and hedgings and plantings savour of the earth, and of the craft of that Serpent,
that creeps upon the earth: But crucifie this craft of yours, bring all your worldly sub-
tilty under the Crosse of Christ Jesus, husband your farmes so, as you may give a
good account to him, presse your debts so, as you would be pressed by him, market
and bargaine so, as that you would give all, to buy that field, in which his trea-
sure, and his pearle is hid, and then you have changed the Serpent, from the Ser-
pent of perdition creeping upon the earth, to the Serpent of salvation exalted in the
wildernesse. Creeping wisedome, that still looks downward, is but craft; Crucified
wisedome, that looks upward, is truly wisedome. Between you and that ground Ser-
pent God hath kindled a war; and the nearer you come to a peace with him, the far-
ther ye go from God, and the more ye exasperate the Lord of Hosts, and you whet his
sword against your own souls. A truce with that Serpent, is too near a peace; to condition
with your conscience for a time, that you may continue in such a sin, till you have paid for
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for such a purchase, married such a daughter, bought such an annuity, undermined
and eaten out such an unthrift, this truce, (though you mean to end it before you die) is too
near a peace with that Serpent, between whom and you, God hath kindled an everlasting
war. A cessation of Arms, that is, not to watch all his attempts and tentations, not to
examine all your particular actions, A Treaty of Peace, that is, to dispute and debate in
the behalf and favour of a sin, to palliate, to disguise, to extenuate that sin, this is too
near a peace with this Serpent, this creeping Serpent. But in the other Serpent, the cru-
cified Serpent, God hath reconciled to himself, all things in heaven, and earth, and hell.
You have peace in the assistance of the Angels of heaven, Peace in the contribution of
the powerfull prayers, and of the holy examples of the Saints upon earth, peace in the
victory and triumph over the power of hell, peace from sins towards men, peace of affe-
ctions in your selves, peace of conscience towards God. From your childhood you have
been called upon to hold your peace; To be content is to hold your peace; murmure
not at God, in any corrections of his, and you doe hold this peace. That creeping Ser-
pent, Satan, is war, and should be so; The crucified Serpent Christ Jesus is peace, and
shall be so for ever. The creeping Serpent eats our dust, the strength of our bodies, in sick-
nesses, and our glory in the dust of the grave: The crucified Serpent hath taken our
flesh, 2 Sam. 5. 14. and our blood, and given us his flesh, and his blood for it; And therefore, as Da-
vid, when he was thought base, for his holy freedome in dancing before the Ark, said he
would be more base; so, since we are all made of red earth, let him that is red, be more
red; Let him that is red with the blood of his own soul, be red again in blushing for that
rednesse, and more red in the Communion of the blood of Christ Jesus; whom we shall
eat all the days of our life, and be mystically, and mysteriously, and spiritually, and Sa-
cramentally united to him in this life, and gloriously in the next. In this state of dust, and so in the territory of the Serpent, the Tyrant of the dead, lies
this dead brother of ours, and hath lien some years, who occasions our meeting now, and
yearly upon this day, and whose soul, we doubt not, is in the hands of God, who is the
God of the living. And having gathered a good Gomer of Manna, a good measure of
temporall blessings in this life, and derived a fair measure thereof, upon them, whom na-
ture and law directed it upon, (and in whom we beseech God to blesse it) hath also di-
stributed something to the poor of this Parish, yearly, this day, and something to a mee-
ting for the conserving of neighbourly love, and something for this exercise. In which,
no doubt, his intention was not so much to be yearly remembred himself, as that his po-
sterity, and his neighbours might be yearly remembred to doe as he had done. For, this
is truly to glorifie God in his Saints, to sanctifie our selves in their examples; To cele-
brate them, is to imitate them. For, as it is probably conceived, and agreeably to Gods
Justice, that they that write wanton books, or make wanton pictures, have additions of
torment, as often as other men are corrupted with their books, or their pictures: so may
they, who have left permanent examples of good works, well be beleeved, to receive ad-
ditions of glory and joy, when others are led by that to do the like: And so, they who are
extracted, and derived from him, and they who dwelt about him, may assist their own
happiness, and enlarge his, by following his good example in good proportions. Amen. Sermon XLVIII.
Preached at St. Dunstans.
Lament. 3. 1.
I am the man, that hath seen affliction, by the rod of his wrath. YOUYou remember in the history of the Passion of our Lord and Saviour Christ Je-
sus, there was an Ecce homo, a shewing, an exhibiting of that man, in whom we
are all blessed. Ioh. 19. 5. Pilat presented him to the Jews so, with that Ecce homo, Be-
hold the man. That man upon whom the wormwood and the gall of all the ancient
Prophecies, and the venome and malignity of all the cruell instrnmentsinstruments thereof,
was now poured out; That man who was left as a tender plant, and as a roote
out of a dry ground, without forme, or beauty, or comelinesse, that wee should desire to
see him, Esay 53. 2. as the Prophet Esay exhibits him; That man who upon the brightnesse of Pp2 his
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his eternall generation in the bosome of his Father, had now cast a cloud of a tempo-rary and earthly generation in the wombe of his mother, that man, who, as he entred in-
to the wombe of his first mother, the blessed Virgin, by a supernaturall way, by the o-
vershadowing of the holy Ghost, so he vouchsafed to enter into the wombe of her, whom
he had accepted for his second mother, the earth, by an unnaturall way, not by a na-
turall, but by a violent, and bitter death, that man so torne and mangled, wounded
with thornes, oppressed with scornes and contumelies, Pilate presents and exhibits
so, Ecce homo, Behold the man, But in all this depression of his, in all his exinanition,
and evacuation yet he had a Crown on, yet he had a purple garment on, the emblems, the
Characters of majesty were always upon him. And these two considerations, the mise-
ries that exhaust, and evacuate, and annihilate man in this life, and yet, those sparkes,
and seeds of morality, that lie in the bosome, that still he is a man, the affilictions that de-
presse and smother, that suffocate and strangle their spirits in their bosomes, and yet
that unsmotherable, that unquenchable Spirit of Adoption, by which we cry Abba Father,
that still he is a Christian, these Thornes, and yet these Crownes, these contumelies, and
yet this Purple, are the two parts of this text, I am the man, that hath seen affliction by the
rod of his wrath. For, here is an Ecce, behold; Jeremy presents a map, a manifestation of
as great affliction, as the rod of Gods wrath could infflict; But yet it is Ecce homo, Be-
hold the man, I am the man, he is not demolished, he is not incinerated so, not so annihi-
lated, but that he is still a man; God preserves his children from departing from the
dignity of men, and from the soveraigne dignity of Christian men, in the deluge, and in-
undation of all afflictions. And these two things, so considerable in that Ecce homo, in the exhibiting of Christ,
that then when he was under those scornes, and Crosses, he had his Crownes, his purples,
ensignes of majesty upon him, may well be parts of this text; for, when we come to
consider who is the person of whom Jeremy says, I am the man, we finde many of the
ancient Expositors take these words prophetically of Christ himself; and that Christ
himselfe who says, 1. 12. Behold and see if there be any sorrow, like unto my sorrow, says here also,
I am the man, that hath seen affliction, by the rod of his wrath. But because there are
some other passages in this Chapter, that are not conveniently appliable to Christ, (it
is not likely that Christ would say of himselfe, verse 8. That his Father shut out his prayer, even
then when he cryed and shouted; 10. not likely that Christ would say of himselfe, That his Fa-
ther was to him, as a Beare in the way, and as a Lion in secret places; 17. not likely that Christ
would say of himselfe, That his Father had removed his soul far from peace) therefore this
chapter, and this person cannot be so well understood of Christ. Others therefore have
understood if of Jerusalem it selfe; but then it would not be expressed in that Sex, it
would not be said of Jerusalem, I am the man. Others understand it of any particular
man, that had his part, in that calamity, in that captivity; that the affliction was so uni-
versall upon all of that nation of what condition soever, that every man might justly say,
Ego vir, I am the man that have seen affliction. But then all this chapter must be figura-
tive, and still, where we can, it becomes, it behooves us, to maintain a literall sense and in-
terpretation of all Scriptures. And that we shall best do in this place, if we understand
these words literally of Jeremy himself, that the Minister of God, the Preacher of God,
the Prophet of God, Jeremy himself, was the man; the Preacher is the text, Ego vir, I am
the man: As the Ministers of God are most exposed to private contumelies, so should they
be most affected with publique calamities, & soonest come to say with the Apostle, Quis
infirmatur who is weake, 2 Cor. 11. 29. and I am not weake too, who is offended, and I am not affected with it?
when the people of God are distressed with sicknesse, with dearth, with any publique ca-
lamity, the Minister is the first man, that should be compassionate, and sensible of it. In these words then, Divisio. (I am the man &c.) these are our two parts; first the Burden, and
then the Ease, first the waight, and then the Alleviation, first the Discomfort, and then the
Refreshing, the sea of afflictions that overflow, and surround us all and then our emergen-
cy and lifting up our head above that sea. In the first we shall consider, first, the Generali-
ty of afflictions; and that first in their own nature, And then secondly in that name of man.
upon whom they fall here, Gheber, Ego vir, I am the man, which is that name of man,
by which the strongest, the powerfullest of men are denoted in the Scriptures;
They, the strongest, the mightiest, they that thought themselves safest,
and sorrow-proofe, are afflicted. And lastly, in the person, upon whom these
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these afflictions are fastned here, Jeremy the Prophet, of whom literally we understand
this place: The dearliest beloved of God, and those of whose service God may have
use in his Church, they are subject to be retarded in their service, by these afflictions.
Nothing makes a man so great amongst men, nothing makes a man so necessary to God,
as that he can escape afflictions. And when we shall have thus considered the genera-
lity thereof, these three wayes, In the nature of affliction it selfe, In the signification of
that name of exaltation Gheber, And in the person of Jeremy, we shall passe to the con-
sideration of the vehemency and intensnesse thereof, in those circumstances that are
laid down in our Text, First, that these afflictions are Ejus, His, The Lords, And then they
are in virga, in his rod, And again, In virga iræ, in the rod of his wrath. And in these two
branches, the extent and the weight of afflictions, and in these few circumstances, that
illustrate both, we shall determine our first part, the burden, the discomfort. When we
shall come at last, to our last part, of comfort, we shall finde that also to grow out into 2
branches; for, first, Vidit, he saw his affliction, (I am the Man that hath seen affliction) Af-
fliction did not blinde him, not stupefie him, affliction did not make him unsensible of af-
fliction, (which is a frequent, but a desperate condition) vidit, he saw it; that is first;
And then, Ego vir, I am the man that saw it, he maintained the dignity of his station,
still he played the man, still he survived to glorifie God, and to be an example to other
men, of patience under Gods corrections, and of thankfulnesse in Gods deliverance.
In which last part, we shall also see, that all those particulars that did aggravate the af-
fliction, in the former part, (That they were from the Lord, from his Rod, from the Rod
of his wrath) doe all exalt our comfort in this, That it is a particular comfort that our
afflictions are from the Lord, Another that they are from his Rod, and another also, that
they are from the Rod of his wrath. First then in our first art, 1 Part. and the first branch thereof, The Generality of affliction, con-
sidered in the nature thereof: Generalitas. We met all generally, in the first Treason against our selves;
without exception all; In Adams rebellion, who was not in his loins? And in a second Trea-
son, we met all too; in the Treason against Christ Jesus, we met all; All our sins were up-
on his shoulders. In those two Treasons we have had no exception, no exemption. The
penalty for our first Treason, in Adam, in a great part, we doe all undergoe; we doe all
die, though not without a lothnesse and colluctation at the time, yet without a delibe-
rate desire to live in this world for ever. How loth soever any man be to die, when death
comes, yet I thinke, there is no man that ever formed a deliberate Prayer, or wish, that
he might never die. That penalty for our first Treason in Adam, we do bear. And would
any be excepted from bearing any thing deduced from his second Treason, his conspiracy
against Christ, from imitation of his Passion, and fulfilling his sufferings in his body, in
bearing cheerfully the afflictions and tribulations of this life? Gen. 6. 12. Omnis caro corruperat; and
thou art within that generall Indictment, all flesh had corrupted his way upon Earth.
Statutum est omnibus mori; Heb. 9. 27. and thou art within that generall Statute, It is appointed unto
all men once to die. Anima quæ peccaverit, ipsa morietur: and thou art within that generall
Sentence, and Judgement, Every soul that sinneth shall die, The death of the soul. Out of
these generall Propositions thou canst not get; Ezek. 18. 4. And when in the same universality
there commeth a generall pardon, 1 Tim. 2. 4. Deus vult omnes salvos, God will have all men to be sa-
ved, Because that Pardon hath in it that Ita quod, that condition, Omnem filium, Hee
scourgeth every sonne whom he receiveth, Heb. 12. 6. wouldst thou lose the benefit of that Adoption,
that Filiation, that Patrimony and Inheritance, rather then admit patiently his Father-
ly chastisements in the afflictions and tribulations in this life? Col. 2. 14. Beloved, the death of
Christ is given to us, as a Hand-writing: for, when Christ naild that Chirographum, that
first hand-writing, that had passed between the Devill and us, to his Crosse, he did not
leave us out of debt, nor absolutely discharged, but he laid another Chirographum upon
us, another Obligation arising out of his death. His death is delivered to us, as a wri-
ting, but not a writing onely in the nature of a peece of Evidence, to plead our inheri-
tance by, but a writing in the nature of a Copy, to learne by; It is not onely given
us to reade, but to write over, and practise; Not onely to tell us what he did, but how
we should do so too. All the evills and mischiefes that light upon us in this world, come (for the most
part) from this, Quia fruimur utendis, August. because we thinke to injoy those things which God
hath given us onely to use. God hath given us a use of things, and we set our hearts Pp3 upon
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Serm. XLVIII.upon them. And this hath a proportion, an assimilation, an accommodation in the death
of Christ. God hath proposed that for our use, in this world, and we think to enjoy it;
God would have us doe it over again, and we think it enough to know that Christ hath
done it already; God would have us write it, and we doe onely read it; God would
have us practise the death of Christ, and we do but understand it. The fruition, the en-
joying of the death of Christ, is reserved for the next life; To this life belongs the use of
it; that use of it, to fulfill his sufferings in our bodies, by bearing the afflictions and tribu-
lations of this life. Ambros. For, Priùs Trophæum; Crucis erexit, deinde Martyribus tradidit erigen-
dum; first Christ set up the victorious Trophee of his Crosse himself, and then he deli-
vered it over to his Martyrs to do as he had done. Nor are they onely his Martyrs that
have actually died for him, but into the signification of that name, which signifies a
Witnesse, fall all those, who have glorified him, in a patient and constant bearing the
afflictions and tribulations of this life. All being guilty of Christs death, there lies an ob-
ligation upon us all, to fulfill his sufferings. And this is the generality of afflictions, as
we consider them in their own nature. Now, Gheber.
Vir. this generality is next expressed, in this word of exaltation, Gheber, Ego vir, I
am the man; It was that man, that is denoted and signified in that name, that hath lien
under affliction, and therefore no kinde of man was likely to scape. There are in the O-
riginall Scriptures, four words, by which man is called; four names of man; and any of
the others, (if we consider the origination of the words) might better admit afflictions
to insult upon him, then this, Gheber, vir, I am the man. At first, man is called Ishe;
a word, which their Grammarians derive à sonitu, from a sound, from a voice. Whether
mans excellency be in that, that he can speak, which no other creature can doe; or whe-
ther mans impotency be in that, that he comes into the world Crying, in this denomi-
nation, in this word, man is but a sound, but a voyce, and that is no great matter. Ano-
ther name of man is Adam, and Adam is no more but earth, and red earth, aud the word
is often used for blushing. When the name of man imports no more but so, no more
but the frailty of the earth, and the bashfull acknowledgement and confession of that
frailty, in infinite infirmities, there is no great hope of scaping afflictions in this name,
Adam. Lesse in his third name, Enosh: for Enosh signifies ægrum, calamitosum, a person
naturally subject to, and actually possest with all kindes of infirmities. So that this
name of man, Enosh, is so farre from exempting him, as that it involves him, it over-
flows him in afflictions: He hath a miserable name, as well as a miserable nature, Put
them in fear, O Lord, Ps. 9. 20. (says David) that they may know they are but men; but such men,
as are denoted in that name of man, Enosh, (for there that name is expressed) weak and
miserable men. Now, (to collect these) as man is nothing but a frivolous, an empty,
a transitory sound, or but a sad and lamentable voice, (he is no more in his first name Ishe)
As man is nothing but red earth, a moldring clod of infirmities, and then, blushing,
that is, guilty, sensible, and ashamed of his own miserable condition, (and man is no
more, as hee is but Adam) As man is nothing but a receptacle of diseases in his bo-
dy, of crosses in his estate, of immoderate griefes for those crosses in his minde,
(and man is no more as hee is but Enosh) so there is no wonder, why man in generall
should be under affliction, for these names import, these names inforce it: As Adam
gave names to the creatures according to their natures, so God hath given names
to man, according to his nature, miserable names, to miserable wretches. But when
man is presented in this Text, in this fourth and great name, Gheber, which denotes
excellency, Excellency in virtue, (his minde rectified) Excellency in wealth, (his estate
enlarged) Excellency in power, (his authority extended) Excellency in favour, (all seas
calm on the top, and foordable at the bottome to him) when man is expressed in that
word, Gen. 27. 29. which Isaac used to Jacob, in his abundant blessing, Be Lord over thy brethren,
and let thy mothers sonnes bow down to thee: And then, in this heighth, this heighth of
vertue and merit, of wealth and treasure, of command and power, of favour and ac-
clamation, is thrown down into the pit of misery, and submitted to all afflictions, what
man can hope to be exempted? Man carries the spawn and seed and egges of affliction
in his own flesh, and his own thoughts make haste to hatch them, and to bring them up.
We make all our worms snakes, all our snakes vipers, all our vipers dragons, by our
murmuring. And so have you this generality of affliction, considered in this name of
Exaltation Gheber. Now
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Now, Jeremy. in our third consideration of this extent of affliction, in that this person, this
Prophet Jeremy, (for, of him literally we understand these words, Ego vir, I am the
man) is thus submitted to these extraordinary afflictions, Nemo necess-
arius Deo. we see first, that no man is so
necessary to God, as that God cannot come to his ends without that man; God can
lack, and leave out any man in his service. If Christ had revealed to his Apostles, before
he called them to be Apostles, or qualified them for that service, that he had a pur-
pose to subdue and convert the whole world, by the labour and the meanes of twelve
men, would it ever have faln or entred into their imaginations, that any of them, should
have been any of those twelve? Men of low rank, and estimation, men disfurnished,
not onely of all helps of learning, but of all experience in Civill or in Ecclesiasticall af-
fairs? And as Christ infused new abilities into these men that had none, so can he effect
his purposes without them, who think they have all. And therefore, when he had cho-
sen his twelve Apostles, and had endowed and qualified them for that service, when in
their sight some of his Disciples forsook him, because he preached Duros sermones, Do-
ctrines hard to flesh and bloud, Ioh. 6. 7. Christ was not afraid to say to the twelve, Numquid
& vos vultis abire, Will ye also goe away? Hee says it to the twelve; and hee does not
say, Will any of you, but will you, you twelve, all, goe away? I can doe my work without
you. And therefore let no man goe about to promove or advance his own fancies, his
own singularities, his own Schismaticall opinions, because he hath done God service
before, because he hath possessed himself of the love of that Congregation, because no
mans preaching is so acceptable there, as his, and that the Church cannot be without
him; for, no man hath made God beholden to him, so far, as that he should be afraid to
offend him. So also let no man be disheartned nor discouraged, if hee have brought a
good conscience, and faithfull labour to the service of God. Let him not thinke his
wages the worse paid, if God doe mingle bodily sicknesse, temporall losses, personall dis-
graces, with his labours; Let him not think that God should not doe thus to them that
wear out themselves in his service; for the best part of our wages is adversity, because
that gives us a true fast, and a right value of our prosperity. IeremyJeremy had it; the best of
his rank must. In his example, Non excu-
samur à fu-
turis per præ-
terita. we have thus much more, that no man is excused of subsequent af-
flictions, by precedent, nor of falling into more, by having born some already. Elias
reckoned too hastily, when he told God, Satis est, now it is enough, Lord take away my
life; God had more to lay upon him. A last years fever prevents not this, nor a sick-
nesse in the fall, another in the Spring. Men are not as such Copises, as being felled now, 1 Reg. 19. 4.
stand safe from the Axe for a dozen year after; But our Afflictions are as beggers, they
tell others, and send more after them; Sicknesse does but usher in poverty, and poverty
contempt, and contempt dejection of spirit, And a broken spirit who can bear? No man
may refuse a Privy seal, because he hath lent before. And, though Afflictions be not of
Gods revenue, for, Afflictions are not reall services to God) yet they are of his Subsidies,
and he hath additionall glory out of our Afflictions; and, the more, the more. Jeremy had
been scornfully and despitefully put in the stocks by Pashur, Cap. 20. 1. before; He had been impri-
soned in the Kings house, before; He had been put in the dungeon, & almost starved in 32. 2.
the mire, before; And yet he was reserved to this farther calamity. Affliction is truly a 38. 9.
part of our patrimony, of our portion. If, as the prodigall did, we wast our portion, (that
is, make no use of our former affliction) it is not the least part of Gods bounty and libe-
rality towards us, if he give us a new stock, a new feeling of new calamities, that we may
be better emproved by them, then by the former; Jeremies former afflictions were
but preparatives for more; no more are ours. And, Publicavit. in his example wee have this one note more, That when the hand of God had
been upon him, he declared, he published Gods hand-writing: not onely to his owne
conscience, by acknowledging that all these afflictions were for his sins, but by acknow-
ledging to the world, that God had laid such and such afflictions upon him. There is
not a neerer step to obduration, nor a worse defrauding of God of his glory, then to
be loth to let the world know, what God hath laid upon us. Say to your selves, These
afflictions are for my sins, and say to one another, Ego vir, I am the man whom God
hath thus, and thus afflicted. For, as Executions in criminall justice, are done as much
for example of others, as for punishment of delinquents, so would God faine proceed
that cheap way, to make those afflictions which he lays upon thee, serve another too; as
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as they will, if thou be content to glorifie God, in letting others know, how he hath af-flicted thee. Shut we up this first branch of this first part (The extent and universality of
afflictions) which we have considered first in the nature of the case, (we have all contri-
buted to the afflictions of Christ, and therefore must all fulfill his sufferings in our flesh)
And then secondly, in this name of Exaltation, Gheber, (man, in the highest considerati-
on of man, is the subject of affliction) And lastly, in the person of Jeremy, in whom we
have made our use of those three observations; First, That no man is so necessary to
God, as that God cannot be without him, Then, That no man is excused of future ca-
lamities, by former, And lastly, That he whom God hath exercised with afflictions, is
bound to glorifie God in the declaration thereof; shut wee up this branch, with that
story of S. Ambrose, who, in a journey from Milan to Rome, passing sometime in the
evening with his Host, and hearing him brag that he had never had any crosse in his
life, S. Ambrose presently removed from thence to another house, with that protesta-
tion, That either that man was very unthankfull to God, that would not take know-
ledge of his corrections, or that Gods measure was by this time full, and hee would
surely, and soundly, and suddenly poure down all together. And so we passe to our o-
ther branch of this first part, from the extent and generality of afflictions, to the weight
and vehemence of them, expressed in three heavy circumstances, That they are His,
the Lords, That they are from his Rod, That they are from the Rod of his wrath: I am
the man, that have seen afflictions, by the rod of his mouth. First, Ejus. they are aggravated in that they are Ejus, His, The Lords. It is ordinary in
the Scriptures, that when the Holy Ghost would expresse a superlative, or the highest
degree of any thing, to expresse it, by adding to it, the name of God. So, in many pla-
ces, fortitudo Domini, and timor Domini, The power of the Lord, and the fear of the
Lord, doe not import that power which is in the Lord, nor that fear which is to be con-
ceived by us of the Lord, but the power of the Lord, and the fear of the Lord denote
the greatest power, and the greatest fear that can be conceived. As in particular, when
Saul and his company were in such a dead sleep, as that David could enter in upon
them, and take his speare, and his pot of water from under his head, this is there cal-
led sopor Domini, the sleep of the Lord was upon him, the heaviest, the deadliest sleep that 1 Sam. 26. 22.
could be imagined. So may these Afflictions in our Text be conceived to bee exalted
to a superlative heighth, by this addition, that They, and the Rod, and the wrath, are
said to be His, The Lords. But this cannot well be the sense, nor the direct proceeding,
and purpose of the Holy Ghost, in this place, because where the addition of the
name of God constitutes a superlative, that name is evidently and literally expressed
in that place, as fortitudo Det, sopor Dei, and the rest; But here, the name of God is one-
ly by implication, by illation, by consequence; All necessary, but yet but illation, but
implication, but consequence. For, there is no name of God in this verse; but, because in
the last verse of the former chapter, the Lord is expresly named, and the Lords Anger,
and then, this which is the first verse of this chapter, and connected to that, refers these
afflictions, and rods, and wrath to Him, (The rod of his wrath) it must necessarily bee
to him who was last spoken of, The Lord, They are Ejus, His, and therefore
heavy. Then is an Affliction properly Gods Affliction, when thou in thy Conscience canst
impute it to none but God. When thou disorderest thy body with a surfeit, nature
will submit to sicknesse; When thou wearest out thy selfe with licentiousnesse, the sin
it self will induce infirmities; when thou transgressest any law of the State, the Iustice
of the State will lay hold upon thee. And for the Afflictions that fall upon thee in
these cases, thou art able to say to thy selfe, that they would have falne upon thee,
though there had been no God, or though God had had no rod about him, no anger
in him; Thou knowest in particular, why, and by whose, or by what means, these Afflicti-
ons light upon thee. But when thou shalt have thy Conscience clear towards such
and such men, and yet those men shall goe about to oppresse thee, when thou labou-
rest uprightly in thy calling, and yet doest not prosper, when thou studiest the
Scriptures, hearkenest to Sermons, observest Sabbaths, desirest conferences, and
yet receivest not satisfaction, but still remainest under the torture of scruples and an-
xieties, when thou art in S. Pauls case, Nihili conscius, That thou knowest nothing
by thy selfe, 1 Cor. 4. 4. and yet canst not give thy selfe peace, Though all Afflictions upon
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upon Gods Children, be from him, yet, take knowledge that this is from him, more
intirely, and more immediately, and that God remembers something in thee, that
thou hast forgot; And, as that fit of an Ague, or that pang of the Gout, which may
take thee to day, is not necessarily occasioned by that which thou hast eaten to day,
but may be the effect of some former disorder, so the affliction which lights upon thee
in thine age, may be inflicted for the sinnes of thy youth. Thy affliction is his, The
Lords; And the Lord is infinite, and comprehends all at once, and ever finds some-
thing in thee to correct, something that thou hast done, or something that thou woul-
dest have done, if the blessing of that correction had not restrained thee. And there-
fore, when thou canst not pitch thy affliction upon any particular sinne, yet make not
thy selfe so just, August. as that thou make God unjust, whose Judgements may be unsearcha-
ble, but they cannot be unjust. This then is the first weight that is laid upon our afflictions, In Virga. that they are His, The
Lords; and this weight consists in this, That because they are his, they are inevita-
ble, they cannot be avoyded, And because they are His, they are certainly just, and
cannot be pleaded against, nor can we ease our selves with any imagination of an in-
nocency, as though they were undeserved. And the next weight that is laid upon
them, is that they are, In virga ejus, in his rod. For, though this Metaphore, the
Rod, Prov. 23. 13. may seeme to present but an easie correction, such as that, If thou beat thy
childe with a rod, be shall not dye, (It will not kill him) yet there is more weight then
so in this Rod; Exod. 21. 20. for the word here is Shebet, and Shebet is such a Rod as may kill; If
a man smite his servant with a Rod, so that he dye under his hand, he shall be surely pu-
nished. Beloved, whether Gods Rod, and his correction, shall have the savour
of life unto life, or of death unto death, consists much in the hand, that is to receive
it, and in the stomach that is to digest it. As in Gods Temporall blessings that he
raines downe upon us, it is much in our gathering, and inning, and spending them,
whether it shall be frumenti, or laqueorum, whether this shall prove such a shoure, as
shall nourish our soule spiritually, in thankfulnesse to God, and in charitable workes
towards his needy Servants, Psal. 11. 6. or whether it shall prove a shoure of snares, to minister
occasions of tentations; so when he raines afflictions upon us, it is much in our gather-
ing, whether it shall be Roris, or Grandinis, whether it shall be a shoure of fatning
dew upon us, or a shoure of FgyptianEgyptian haile-stones, to batter us in peeces, as a Potters
Vessell, Jerem. 19. 11. that cannot be renewed. Our murmuring makes a rod a staffe, and a staffe a
sword, and that which God presented for physick, poyson. The double effect and
operation of Gods Rod, and Corrections, is usefully and appliably expressed in the
Prophet Zachary: 11. 7. where God complaines, That he had fed the sheep of slaughter,
that he had been carefull for them, who would needs dye, say he what he could.
Therefore he was forced to come to the Rod, to correction. So he does; And I tooke
unto me, sayes he there, two Staves, the one I called Beauty, the other Bands; Two
wayes of correction, a milder, and a more vehement. When his milder way pre-
vailed not, Then said I, I will not feed you; I will take no more care of you; That
which dyeth let it dye, (sayes he) and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; And I
tooke my staffe of Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might breake my Covenant, which I
had made with them. Beloved, God hath made no such Covenant with any State,
any Church, any soule, but that, being provoked, he is at liberty to break it. But
then, upon this, when the stubborne, and the refractory, the stiff-necked and the re-
bellious were cut off, The poore of the sheep (sayes God) that waited upon me, knew
that it was the word of the Lord. It is not every mans case, to mend by Gods corre-
ctions; onely the poore of the sheep, the broken hearted, the contrite spirit, the discer-
ner of his owne poverty and infirmity, could make that good use of affliction, as to
finde Gods hand, and then Gods purpose in it. For, this Rod of God, this Shebet,
can kill; Affliction can harden, as well as mollifie, and entender the heart. And
there is so much the more danger, that it should worke that effect, that obduration,
because it is Virga Iræ, The rod of his wrath, which is the other weight that aggravates
our afflictions. In all afflictions that fall upon us from other instruments, Virga Iræ. there is Digitus Dei,
The finger of God leads their hand that afflicts us; Though it be sicknesse, by our in-
temperance, though it be poverty, by our wastfulnesse, though it be oppression, by the malice
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malice, or by our exasperation of potent persons, yet still the finger of God is in all
these. But in the afflictions which we speake of here, such as fall upon us, when we
thinke our selves at peace with God, and in state of grace, it is not Digitus, but
Manus Dei, the whole worke is his, and man hath no part in it. Whensoever he takes
the Rod in hand, there is a correction towards; but yet, it may be but his Rod of
Beauty, of his Correction, not Destruction. But, if he take his Rod in anger, the case
is more dangerous; for, though there be properly no anger in God, yet then is God
said to do a thing in anger, when he does it so, as an angry man would do it. Upon
those words of Psal. 6. 1. David, O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, Saint Augustine ob-
serves, that David knew Gods rebukes and corrections were but for his amend-
ment; but yet, In Ira corrigi noluit, in Ira emendari noluit, David was loth, that
God should go about to mend him in anger; afraid to have any thing to do with
God, till his anger were over-passed. Beloved, to a true anger, and wrath, and in-
dignation towards his children, God never comes; but he comes so neare it, as that
they cannot discerne, whether it be anger, or no. A Father takes a Rod, and looks
as angerly, as though he would kill his childe, but means nothing but good to him.
So God brings a soule to a sad sense of an angry countenance in God, to a sad
apprehension of an angry absence, to a sad jealousie and suspition that God will ne-
ver returne to it againe; And this is a heavy affliction, whilst it lasts. Our Saviour
Christ, in that case, came to expostulate it, to dispute it with his Father, Vt quid
dereliquisti, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Do but tell me why. For,
if God be pleased to tell us, why he is angry, his anger is well allayd, and we have a
faire overture towards our restitution. But, in our infirmity, wee get not easily so
farre; we apprehend God to be angry; we cannot finde the cause, and we sinke un-
der the burden; we leave the disease to concoct it self, and we take no Physick. And
this is truly the highest extent, and exaltation of affliction, That in our afflictions
we take God to be angryer then he is. For, then is God said to take his Rod in an-
ger, when he suffers us to thinke that he does so, and when he suffers us to decline, and
sinke so low towards diffidence, and desperation, that we dare not looke towards him,
because we beleeve him to be so angry. And so have you all those peeces which con-
stitute both the branches of this first part, The generality and extent of afflictions,
considered in the nature of the thing, in the nature of the word, this name of man,
Gheber, and in the person of Jeremy, the Prophet of God, And then the intensenesse,
and weight and vehemency of afflictions, considered in these three particulars, That
they are His, The Lords, That they are from His Rod, And from the Rod of his anger.
But to weigh down all these, we have comforts ministred unto us, in our Text, which
constitute our other part. 2 Part.
Vidi.Of these the first is Vidi, I have seen these afflictions, for this is an act of particular
grace and mercy, when God enables us to see them: for, naturally this is the infir-
mity of our spirituall senses, Eph. 1. 18. that when the eyes of our understanding should be en-
lightened, our understanding is so darkened, as that we can neither see prosperity, 4. 18.
nor adversity, for, in prosperity our light is too great, and we are dazeled, in adver-
sity too little, none at all, and we are benighted, we do not see our afflictions. There
is no doubt, but that the literall sense of this phrase, To see afflictions, is to feele, to
suffer afflictions. Psal. 89. 48. As, when David sayes, What man is he that liveth, and shall not see
death, and when Christ sayes, Thou shalt not suffer thine holy One to see corruption, to see 16. 10.
death, and to see corruption, is to suffer them. But then, the literall sense being thus
duly preserved, That the children of God shall certainly see, that is, certainly suffer
afflictions, receive we also that sweet odour and fragrancy which the word breaths out,
That they shall see it, that is, understand it, consider it: For, as when the wicked come
to say, Psal. 4. 7. The Lord does not see it, it is presently added, Neither doth the God of Jacob re-
gard it, (It is a seeing that induces a regarding) so when the godly come to see their
afflictions, they come to regard them, to regard Gods purpose in them. Vidisti Domi-
ne, ne sileas, 35. 22. sayes David, All this thou hast seen, O Lord, Lord do not hold thy peace.
David presumed, that if God saw his afflictions, he would stirre in them; when we come
to see them, we stir, we wake, we rise, we looke about us, from whence, and why these
afflictions come; and therein lyes this comfort, Vidi, I have seen afflictions, I have
been content to look upon them, to consider them. The
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The Prophets in the Old Testament, doe often call those sights, and those prenoti-ons which they had of the misery and destruction of others, Onus visionis, Onus verbi
Domini, O the burden of this sight, O the burden of this message of God. It was a burden to
them, to see Gods judgements directed upon others; how much more is it a burden to
a man, to see his own affliction, and that in the cause thereof? But this must be done,
we must see our affliction in the Cause thereof. No man is so blinde, so stupid, as that
he doth not see his affliction, that is, feele it; but we must see it so, as to see through it,
see it to be such as it is, so qualified, so conditioned, so circumstanced, as he that sends
it, intends it. We must leave out the malice of others in our oppressions, and forgive
that; leave out the severity of the Law in our punishments, and submit to that; and
looke intirely upon the certainty of Gods judgement, who hath the whole body of our
sins written together before him, and picks out what sin it pleaseth him, and punisheth
now an old, now a yesterdayes sin, as he findeth it most to conduce to his glory, and
our amendment, Dan. 5. 51. and the edification of others, We must see the hand of God upon the
wall as Belshazzar did, (for even that was the hand of God) though wee cannot read that
writing, no more then Belshazzar could. Wee must see the affliction, so as we must see
it to be the hand of God, though wee cannot presently see, for what sinne it is, nor what
will be the issue of it. And then when we have seen that, then we must turn to the study
of those other particulars, for, till we see the affliction to come from God, we see no-
thing; There is no other light in that darknesse, but he. If thou see thy affliction, thy
sicknesse, in that glasse, in the consideration of thine own former licentiousnesse, thou
shalt have no other answer, but that soure remorse, and increpation, you might have
lived honestly. If thou see thy affliction, thy poverty, in that glasse, in the malice & oppres-
sion of potent adversaries, thou wilt get no farther, then to that froward and churlish
answer, Psal. 55. 23. The Law is open, mend your selfe as you can. But Jactate super Dominum, saith
David, Lay all thy burden upon the Lord, and hee will apply to thee that Collyrium,
that soveraigne eye-salve, whereby thou shalt see thy afffiction, (it shall not blinde thee) Apos. 3. 18.
And see from whence it commeth, (from him, who, as hee liveth, would not the death of a
sinner) And see why it commeth, (that thou mightest see and taste the goodnesse of God
thy selfe, and declare his loving kindnesse to the Children of Men.) And this is the com-
fort deduced from this word Vidi, I have seen affliction. And this leadeth us to our other Comfort, Ego vir. That though these Afflictions have
wrought deepe upon thee, yet thou canst say to thy soule, Ego vir, I am that man;
Thy Morality, thy Christianity is not shaked in thee. vers. 22. It is the Mercy of God, that wee
are not conumedconsumed, saith Jeremy here; And it is a great degree of his mercy, to let us
feele that wee are not consumed, to give us this sense, that our case is not desperate, but
that Ego vir, I am the man, that there remaineth still strength enough to gather more;
That still thou remainest a man, a reasonable man, and so art able to apply to thy selfe;
all those medicines and reliefs, which Philosophy and naturall reason can afford. For,
even these helps, deduced from Philosophy and naturall reason, are strong enough against
afflictions of this world, as long as we can use them, as long as these helps of reason
and learning are alive, and awake, and actuated in us, they are able to sustain us from
sinking under the afflictions of this world, for, they have sustained many a Plato, and
Socrates, and Seneca in such cases. But when part of the affliction shall be, that God
worketh upon the Spirit it selfe, and damps that, enfeebles that, that he casts a sooty
Cloud upon the understanding, and darkens that, that he doth Exuere hominem, devest,
strip the man of the man, Eximere hominem, take the man out of the man, and with-
draw and frustrate his naturall understanding so, as that, to this purpose, he is no man,
yet even in this case, God may mend thee, in marring thee, hee may build thee up in
dejecting thee, hee may infuse another, Ego vir, another Manhood into thee, and
though thou canst not say Ego vir, I am that Morall man, safe in my Naturall Reason
and Philosophy, that is spent, yet Ego vir, I am that Christian man, who have seen this
affliction in the Cause thereof, so farre off, as in my sinne in Adam, and the remedy of
this affliction, so farre off, as in the death of Christ Jesus I am the Man, that cannot
repine, nor murmure, since I am the Cause; I am the man that cannot despair, since
Christ is the remedy. I am that man, which is intended in this Text, Gheber. Not onely an
Adam, a man amongst men, able to convince me, though they speak eloquently against
me, Iob 16. 20. and able to prove that God hath forsaken me, because he hath afflicted me, but able to prevail
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prevail with God himself, Gen. 32. 24. as Jacob did, and to wrastle out a blessing out of him, &, though
I doe halt, become infirm with manifold afflictions, yet they shall be so many seals of my
infallibility in him. Now this comfort hath three gradations in our text, three cir-
cumstances, which, as they aggravated the discomfort in the former, so they exalt
the comfort in this part, That they are His, The Lords, That they are from his rod,
That they are from the rod of his wrath. We may compare our afflictions that come immediately from God, Ejus. with those that
come instrumentally from others, by considering the choice and election which Da-
vid made, and the choice which Susanna made in her case. The Prophet Gad offers
David his choice of three afflictions, 2 Sam. 24. War, Famine, or Pestilence. It does not appeare,
it is not expressed, that David determined himself, or declared his choice of any of
the three. 2 Sam. 12. 13. Hee might conceive a hope, that God would forbear all three. As, when
another Prophet Nathan had told him, The childe shall surely die, yet David said, for
all that determined assurance, Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that
the child may live, and he fasted a fast, and mourned and prayed for the childes life;
Beloved, no commination of God, is unconditioned, or irrevocable. But in this case
David intimates some kinde of election, Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his
mercies are exceeding great, and not into the hands of men. Susanna, when shee was
surprised, (and in a straight too, though of another kind) she resolves that it is better
for her to fall into the hands of men, (let men defame her, let men accuse her, condemn
her, execute her) rather then sin in the sight of God, and so fall into his hands. So
that, if wee compare offences, wee were better offend all the Princes of the earth,
then offend God, because he is able to cast body and soul into hell fire. But when
the offence is done, for the punishment which follows, God forgives a treason, sooner
then thy neighbour will a trespasse; God seales thee a Quietus est, in the bloud of his
Son, sooner then a Creditor will renue a bond, or withdraw an Action; and a Scandalum
magnatum, will lie longer upon thee here, then a blasphemy against God, in that Court.
And therefore, as it is one degree of good husbandry, in ill husbands, to bring all their
debts into one hand, so doest thou husband thy afflictions well, if thou put them all
upon thy debts to God, and leave out the consideration of Instruments; And he shall
deale with thee, 2 Sam. 24. 18. as hee did with David there, that plague, which was threatned for
three days, he will end in one; In that trouble, which, if men had had their will upon
thee, would have consumed thee, thou shalt stand unconsumed. For, if a man
wound thee, it is not in his power, though hee be never so sorry for it, whether that
wound shall kill thee, or no; but if the Lord wound thee to death, he is the life, he can
redeem thee from death, and if hee doe not, he is thy resurrection, and recompenses
thee with another, and a better life. And so lies our first comfort, that it is Ejus, His,
The Lords, And a second is, that it is In virga ejus, In his rod. Job would fain have come to a cessation of arms, In Virga.
9. 34. before hee came to a treaty with
God: Let the Lord take away his rod from me, sayes he, and let not his fear terrifie
me; Then would I speak. As long as his rod was upon him, and his fears terrified him,
it was otherwise; he durst not. But truly his feares should not terrifie us, though his
rod be upon us; for herein lies our comfort, That all Gods rods are bound up with
that mercy, which accompanied that rod that God threatned David, to exercise up-
on his son Solomon, If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men; (I will 2 Sam. 7. 14.
let him fall into the hands of men) This was heavy; Therefore it is eased with that
Cordiall, But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul. But for
this mercy, the oppressions of men were mercilesse; But all Gods rods are bound up
with this mercy; and therein lies our comfort. And for the rods of other men, O my
people be not afraid of the Assyrian, Esa. 10. 24. says God. Why, blessed Lord, shall the Assyrian
doe thy people no harm? yes, says God there, He shall smite them with a rod, and he
shall lift up his staffe against them; Some harm he shall doe; (He shall smite them with
a rod) And he shall threaten more, offer at more (he shall lift up his staffe) where then
is the peoples reliefe, Vv. 26. and comfort? In this; The Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge
for him. God shall appear in that notion of power, The Lord of Hosts, and he shall en-
counter his enemies, and the enemies of his friends, with a scourge upon them, against
their rod upon us. Gods own rods are bound up in mercy, (they end in mercy) And,
for the rods of other men, God cuts them in pieces, and their owners, with his sword. Gods
455
Serm. XLVIII.
At Saint Dunstans.
Gods owne rods, even towards his owne Children, are sometimes, as that rod which
he put into Moses hand was, Exod. 7. 12. chang'd into Serpents. Gods owne rods have some-
times a sting, and a bitternesse in them; but then, they are chang'd from their owne
nature; Naturally Gods roddes towards us, are gentle, and harmlesse: When
Gods rod in Moses hand, was changed to a Serpent, it did no harme, that did but
devoure the other Serpents: when Gods rods are heaviest upon us, if they devoure
other rods, that is, enable us to put off the consideration of the malice and oppression
of other Men, and all displeasure towards them, and lay all upon God, for our sinnes,
these serpentine rods have wrought a good effect: When Moses his Rod was a Ser-
pent, yet it return'd quickly to a Rod againe; how bitter so ever Gods corrections
be, they returne soone to their naturall sweetnesse, and though the correction continue,
the bitternesse does not: with this Rod Moses tam'd the Sea, and divided that; but he
drowned none in that Sea, but the Ægyptians. Gods rod will cut, and divide between
thy soule, and spirit, but he will destroy nothing in thee, not thy Morality, not thy Chri-
stianity, but onely thine owne Ægyptians, thy Persecutors, thy concupiscencies. But all this while, Quia Virga. we have but deduced a comfort out of thy Word, Quia Virga,
though that be a rod; but this is a comfort Quia Virga, therefore, because that is a
Rod: for, this word which is here a Rod, is also, in other places of Scriptures, an In-
strument, not of correction, Mich. 7. 14. but direction: Feed thy sheep with thy Rod, saies God; and
there it is a Pastorall Rod, the direction of the Church; Virga rectitudinis virga regni
tui, Psal. 45. 7. saies David; The Scepter of thy kingdome is a right Scepter; and there its a royall
rod, the protection of the state: so that all comforts that are deriv'd upon us, by the
direction of the Church, and by the protection of the State, are recommended to us, and
conferr'd upon us in this His Rod. Nor is it onely a Rod of comfort, by implication,
and consequence; Psal. 23. 4. but expresly and literally it is so: Though I should walke thorough
the valley of the shadow of death, I will feare no evill; Thy rod, and thy staffe, they com-
fort me. He had not onely a comfort, though he had the rod, but he had not had
so much comfort, except he had had it; we have not so good evidence of the joyes of
the next life, except we have the sorrowes of this. The discomfort then lies not in this, Virga Iræ. That the affliction is ejus, his, the Lords, (for
we have an ease in that) nor, that it is In Virga ejus, in his rod, (for we have a benefit by
that) but it is In virga iræ, in that it is the rod of his wrath, of his anger. But truely,
beloved, there is a blessed comfort ministred unto us, even in that word; for that word
ﬠﬤﬢﬣ ★ ★ Gnabar, which we translate Anger, wrath, hath another ordinary signification in
Scripture, which, though that may seem to be an easier, would prove a heavier sense
for us to beare, than this of wrath and anger; this is, preteritio, conniventia, Gods
forbearing to take knowledge of our transgressions; when God shall say of us, as he
does of Israel, Esa. 1. 5. Why should ye be smitten any more? when God leaves us to our selves,
and studies our recovery no farther, by any more corrections; for, in this case, there is
the lesse comfort, because there is the lesse anger show'd. And therefore S. Bernard,
who was heartily afraid of this sense of our word, heartily afraid of this preterition,
that God should forget him, leave him out, affectionately, passionately embraces this
sense of the word in our Text, Anger; and he sayes, Irascaris mihi Domine, Domine
mihi irascaris, Be angry with me ô Lord, O Lord be angry with me, lest I perish! for, till
we have a sense of such an anger in God, towards us, as Children have from their Pa-
rents, that not onely they correct them, but deny them some things that they aske,
and keep them some time from their sight and presence, till we be made Partakers of
this blessed anger of God, (for we doe not pray, that God would not be angry, but
that he would not be angry with us for ever) till then we come not to see an affliction,
that is, to discerne, what, and whence, and why that comes: Nor we see that not like
Men, like such Men, like Christian Men, not with a faithfull and constant assurance,
that all will have an end in him who suffered infinitely more for us, than he hath layd
upon us. Qq Sermon
456
A Sermon Preached at Saint Dunstans.
Serm. XLIX.
Sermon XLIX.
A Sermon Preached at Saint Dunstan's upon
New-years-day, 1624.
Gen. 17. 24.
Abraham himselfe was ninety nine yeares old, when the foreskin of his flesh was
Circumcised.
THisThis is the place where Circumcision began, and this is the Day,
when Circumcision ended; in this Scripture it was Instituted, in
the person of Abraham; and upon this Day it was perfected and con-
summated in the person of Christ Jesus: for, though Circumcision
were admitted in a few cases, in the Apostles time, after Christ, yet
that was, as dead herbs are re-admitted into medicines in the winter,
when fresh and green herbs cannot be had of that kind: So Cir-
cumcision was sometimes admitted for peace, and to avoid scandall, and the better to
propagate the Church, Divisio. after the vertue thereof was extinguished in Christ. In the In-
stitution thereof in this Text, we will consider Abrahams ready, and exact obedience:
In the Consummation thereof, in the person of Christ, we will consider that, to which,
this Circumcision had relation, that is, the spirituall Circumcision of our hearts. It is
a Text well handled, and it is a Day well spent, if the Text teach us to obey God
readily, and immediately, what inconveniences soever present themselves in the way,
and if the celebration of the Day, teach us to come this Day, to that which is the true
Circumcision, the Circumcision of the Heart. In the first, in Abraham's example, we
shall passe by these steps: First, that though there be allowed to us an Omnia Probate,
a Triall of all things, and a spirit to discerne spirits; yet when once it appeares to us,
to be a commandement of God, there's a fine leavied, all Titles concluded, no more
claime to be made by our understanding, our reason, but a present, and an exact obe-
dience must be given to it. Secondly, that in particular Men, and in particular ca-
ses, there may arise tentations, objections, reasons, why a Man might forbeare alto-
gether, or at least differ the execution of such a commandement, as there may have
done in Abraham's case, as we shall see anon. Thirdly, that though such tentations
doe arise in us out of our infirmities, yet God gives his Children strength to over-
come those difficulties, and to oppose stronger reasons against those reasons, and so
to come to a willing obedience to his will. And then lastly, the triumph that belongs
to this victory; which we shall find, in considering what benefit Abraham received by
this obedience in his Circumcision: And these will be the branches of our first part,
rising out of the Institution of Circumcision, in the person of Abraham at that great
age, First, that Gods manifest will must not be disputed, nor reasoned upon: Second-
ly, that Mans corrupt nature will offer reasons against it: Thirdly, that God will give
the issue with the tentation, reason above that reason: And lastly, he will accompany
that victory, with other blessings too. First then, 1 Part.
Obediendum. for our exact obedience to that which God exacts of us, it is well said by
Luther, Depuerascendum est, cum agitur de obedientia Dei: when the question is, whe-
ther this, or this be commanded by God or no, when traditions and additions of men,
are imposed upon us, as commandements of God, here's no Depuerascendum in this case, this
is no Childs-play; then viriliter agendum, (as the Apostle speaks) we must
quit our selves like men, we must dispute like Men, (like learned men) preach like Men,
(like Zealous Men) pray like Men (like devout Men) resist like Men, (like valiant Men)
or at least, (in cases where we may not resist) suffer like Men, (like constant Christian
Men.) But when the question is, De obedientia Dei, that this is agreed to be the will
of God, and all the question is, whether God might not be content to accept an obe-
dience to some part of it, or to all of that hereafter, but not now, whether God would
not forgive the debt, or at least give day for the payment of it; either when we are old,
457
Serm. XLIX.
A Sermon Preached at Saint Dunstans.
old, or by legacies to pious uses, when we die, when this is the question, Depuerascendum
est, we must grow Children again; we must not onely, not argue, not dispute against it
(which are acts of men, of strong & able understandings) but we must return to the first
weaknesse of Children, to be speechlesse, to be thoughtlesse; we must not utter a word,
not conceive a thought against it, Periculosa & pestilens quæstio, Quare; saies Luther
also, It is a Dangerous and Infectious Monasillable, How or Why: If I will aske a
reason, why God commands such a thing; first, Periculosum est, It is Dangerous; for,
I have nothing to answer me, but mine owne reason, and that affords not Lead enough,
nor Line enough, to sound the depth of Gods proceedings, nor length enough, nor
strength enough to reach so farre, and therefore I may mistake the reason, and goe
upon false grounds. So, Periculosum est, It is a Dangerous question, and a lost que-
stion, because I can have no certaine answer; and it is an infectious question too, for
here is one coale of the Devils fire, of his pride, kindled in me; as the Devil said, Si-
milis ero Altissimo, I will be like the Highest, and see whether I may not stand by my
selfe, without any Influence from God, without any Dependance upon God: so, in
our case, I will be so farre equall to God, as that I will measure his actions by my rea-
son, and not doe his Commandements till I know why he commanded them: And
then, when the infection is got into a House, who can say, it shall end here in this Per-
son, and kill no more; or it shall end this weeke, and last no longer? So if that infe-
ctious inquisition, that Quare, (Why should God command this or this perticular? be
entred into me, all my Humilitie is presently infected, and I shall looke for a reason,
why God made a world, or why he made a world no sooner then 6000. yeares agoe,
and why he saves some, and why but some, and I shall examine God upon all the In-
terrogatories that I can frame, upon the Creed (why I should believe a Sonne of a Virgin
without a Man, or believe the Sonne of God to descend into Hell) Or frame upon the
Pater Noster, (why I should worship such a God, that must be prayed to, not to leade
me into tentation) Or frame upon the Ten Commandements, why after all is done and
heapt, for any sinfull action, yet I should be guilty of all, for coveting in my heattheart a-
nother mans horse or house. And therfore Luther pursues it farther, with words of
more vehemence, Odiosa & exitialis vocule, Quare, It is an Execrable and Damnable
Monasillable, Why; it exasperates God, it ruines us: For, when we come to aske a
reason of his actions, either we doubt of the goodnesse of God, that he is not so carefull
of us, as we would be; or of his power, that he cannot provide for us, so well as we
could doe; or of his wisdome, that he hath not grounded his Commandements so
well as we could have advised him: whereas Saint Augustine saies justly, Qui ratio-
nem quærit voluntatis Dei, aliquid majus Deo quærit, He that seekes a reason of the will
of God, seekes for something greater then God. It was the Devill that opened our
eies in Paradise, it is our parts to shut them so farre, as not to gaze upon Gods secret
purposes. God guided his Children as well by a Pillar of Cloud, as by a Pillar of Fire,
and both, Cloud and Fire, were equally Pillars: There is as much strength in, and as
safe relying upon some ignorances, as some knowledges; for God provided for his
people, as well in this, that he hid Moses body from them, as that he revealed other
Mysteries to them, by him. All is well summ'd and collected by Saint Augustine,
Dominus cur jusserit, viderit; faciendum est à serviente, quod jusserit: Why God com-
mands any thing, God himselfe knowes; our part is, not to enquire why, but to doe
what he commands. This is the Rule: Tamen tenta-
mur. 'Tis true, there should not be: but yet is there not sometimes, in
the minds and mouths of good and godly men, a Quare, a reasoning, a disputing a-
gainst that which God hath commanded or done? The murmuring of the Children
in the Desert, had still this Quare, Quare eduxisti, Wherefore have you brought us hi-
ther to die here, Num. 20. in this miserable place, where there is no Seed, no Figges, no Vines, no
Pomegrantes, no Water? Saul had this Quare, this rebellious inquisition, upon that
Commandement of God against the 1 Sam. 4. Amalekites, Slay both Man and Woman, Infant and
Suckling, Oxe and Sheepe, Camell and Asse: And from this Quare, from this disputa-
tion of his, arose that conclusion, That it were better to spare some for Sacrifice, then
to destroy all: But though his pretence had a religious colour, that would not justifie
a slacknesse in obeying the manifested will of God; for, for this, God repented that
he made him King, and told him that he had more pleasure in Obedience, then in Sa-
Qq2 crifice
458
Preached at Saint Dunstans, Novemb. 1624.
Serm. XLIX.
crifice. But, to come to better men then the Israelites in the Wildernesse, or Saul in his
Government, Job, though he, and his Friends held out long, (They sate upon the ground
even daies and seven nights, and none spoke a word) yet at last fell into these Quares,
Why did I not die in the birth? or, why sucked I the breast? Peter himselfe had this
reluctation; and though that were out of piety, yet he was chidden for it, Quare la-
vas, saies he, Joh. 13. Lord, doest thou wash my feet? thou shalt never wash my feet: till Christ
was faine to say, If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me. Upon this common infirmitie; inherent in the best men that may (and not unlikely)
be, that when God commanded Abraham, at that great age to circumcise himselfe,
there might arise such Quares, such scruples and doubts, as there, in Abrahams minde,
(for, as Saint Paul saies of himselfe, If any man thinke he hath whereof to trust in the
flesh, much more I, Circumcised, an Hebrew, an Israelite, a Pharisee, a Zealous Servant in Phil. 3.
the persecution, and in righteousnesse unblameable): So if any man might have taken
this libertie to have disputed with God, upon his precepts, Abraham might have done
it; for, when God called him out to number the Starres, (which was, even to Art,
impossible) and promised him, Gen. 15. that his seed should equall them, (which was, in Nature,
incredible) for all this Incredibilitie and Impossibilitie, Abraham believed, and this was
accounted to him for Righteousnesse: Heb. 11. And Abraham had declared his easie, and forward,
and implicit faith in God, when God called him, and he went out, not knowing whi-
ther he went: And therefore when God offered him a new seale, Circumcision, Abra-
ham might have said, Quare sigillum? What needs a seale betweene thee and me?
I have used to take thy word before, and thou hast tried me before: But Abraham
knew that Obedience was better then wit or disputation; for, though Obedience and
good works, do not beget faith, yet they nurse it; Per ea augescit fidei, & pinguescit, saies
Luther, Our faith grows into a better state, and into a better liking, by our good works. Againe, when Abraham considered, that it was, Mandatum in re turpi, That this
Circumcision, in it selfe, was too frivolous a thing; and, in that part of the Bodie, too
obscene a thing, to be brought into the fancy of so many Women, so many young
Men, so many Strangers to other Nations, as might bring the Promise and Covenant
it selfe into scorne, and into suspicion, that should require such a seale to it as that was,
he might have come to this, Quare tam turpe, quare tam sordidum? why does God
command me so base and uncleane a thing, so scornfull and mis-interpretable a thing,
as Circumcision, and Circumcision in that part? Againe, when he considered, that
to Circumcise all his family in one day, (as by the Commandement he must) which
could not be (in likelyhood) of lesse then 400. (for he went out before, to the rescue of
Lot, with 318. borne and brought up in his House) he must make his House a Spittle
of so many impotent Persons, unable to helpe one another for many daies, (for such
was the effect of Circumcision, Gen. 14. as we see in their Story, when Simeon and Levi came
upon the Sichemites three daies after they had beene, by their perswasion, circumcised,
the Sichemites were unable to resist or defend themselves, Gen. 34. and so were slaine: Yea the
sorenesse and incommodity upon Circumcision was so great, as that the very Com-
mandement it selfe of Circumcision, was forborne in the Wildernesse, because they
were then put to suddaine removes, which presently after a Circumcision, they could
not have perform'd) Might not Abraham have come to his Quare tam molestum?
Why will God command me so troublesome and incommodious a thing as this?
And (to contract this) when he considered, That one principall reason of the Com-
mandement of Circumcision, was, that that marke might be alwaies a remembrance
to them against intemperance and incontinency. Might not Abraham have come to his
Quare mihi? What use is there of this, in my Body, which is now dried up and wi-
thered by 99 yeares? What Quares, what reluctations Abraham had, or whether he
had any or no, is not expressed; but very religious and good men, sometimes, out of
humane infirmities, have them: But then, God brings them quickly about to Christ's
Veruntamen, Yet not my will, but thine be done; and he delivers them from the tentati-
on, and brings them to an intire obedience to his will, which is that which we pro-
posed for the next Branch in this part. Tu qui vas figuli, sayes the Apostle; whensoever any disputation against a com-
mandement of God, Liberat Deus. arises in Gods children, the Spirit of God smothers that spirit of
Rebellion with that, Tu qui vas figuli, wilt thou who art but the vessell, dispute with the
459
Serm. XLIX.
A Sermon Preached at Saint Dunstans.the potter, that fashioned thee? If Abraham had any such doubts, of a frivolousnesse
in so base a seale, of an obscenity in so foule a seale, of an incommodiousnesse in so trou-
blesome a seale, of a needlesnesse in so impertinent a seale; if he had these doubts, no
doubt but his forwardnesse in obeying God, did quickly oppose these reasons to
those, and overcome them: That that part of the body is the most rebellious part;
and that therefore, onely that part Adam covered, out of shame, for all the other parts
he could rule: Ad hominis inobedientiam redarguendam, suâ inobedientiâ quodammodo
caro testimonium perhibet, August. to reproach Mans rebellion to God, God hath left one part
of Mans body, to rebell against him; for though the seeds of this rebellion be dispersed
through all the body, yet, In illa parte magis regnat additamentum Leviathan, sayes
Saint Bernard, the spawns of Leviathan, the seed of sinne, the leven of the Devil,
abound and reignes most in that part of the body; it is sentiva peccati, saies the same
Father, the Sewar of all sinne; not onely because all sinne is deriv'd upon us, by ge-
neration, and so implyed, and involv'd in originall sinne; but because, almost all other
sinnes have relation to this: for, Gluttony is a preparation to this sinne in our selves;
Pride and excesse is a preparation to it, in others, whom we would enveigle and allure,
by our bravery; Anger and malice inclines us to pursue this sinfull and inordinate
love, quarrelsomly, so, as, that then, we doe not quarrell for wayes, and walls in the
street, but we quarrell for our way to the Devil; and when we cannot go fast enough
to the Devil, by wantonnesse in the chamber, we will quarrell with him, who hinders
us of our Damnation, and find a way, to go faster in the field, by Duells, and unchri-
stian Murder, in so foule a cause, as unlawfull lust. In this rebellious part, is the root
of all sinne, and therefore did that part need this stigmaticall marke of Circumcision,
to be imprinted upon it. Besides, (for the Jewes in particular) they were a Nation
prone to Idolatry, and most, upon this occasion, if they mingled themselves with Wo-
men of other Nations: And therefore, Dedit est signum, ut admoverentnradmoverentur de genera-
tione pura, saies Saint Chrysostome, God would be at the cost even of a Sacrament, (which
is the greatest thing that passes between God and Man next to his Word) to defend
them thereby against dangerous alliances, which might turne their hearts from God;
God imprinted a marke in that part, to keep them still in mind of that law, which for-
bade them foraigne Marriages, Theodor. or any company of strange Women: Custodia pietati
servandæ, ne macularent paternam Nobilitatem, lest they should degenerate from the
Nobility of their race, God would have them carry this memoriall about them, in their
flesh. And God foresaw that extreme Idolatry, that grosse Idolatry, which that
Nation would come to, and did come to, when Maachah the Mother of Asa worship-
ped that Idol, 1 Reg. 15. 13. which Saint Hierome calls Belphegor, and is not fit to be nam'd by us;
and therefore, in foresight of that Idolatry, God gave this marke, and this mutilation
upon this part. If Abraham were surprized with any suggestions, any half reasons a-
gainst this commandement, he might quickly recollect himself, and see, that Circum-
cision was first, Signum memorativum, & monimentum isti fæderis, it was a signe of
the Covenant between God and Abraham; Gen. 17. the Covenant was the Messias, who being to
come, by a carnall continuance of Abrahams race, the signe and seale was convenient-
ly placed in that part. And that was, secondly, Signum representativum, it represented
Baptisme, In Christ you are circumcised, saies the Apostle, in that you are buried with
him, through Baptisme: Colos. 2. And then, that was Signum Distinctivum; for, besides that
it kept them from Idolatry, as the Greeks called all Nations, whom they despised,
Barbares, Barbarians, so did the Jewes, Incircumcisos, Uncircumcised: And that was
a great threatning in the Prophet, Ezek. 28. Thou shalt die the death of the Uncircumcised; that is,
without any part in the everlasting promise, and Covenant. But yet, the principall
dignity of this Circumcision, was, that it was Signum figurativum, it prefigured,
it directed to that Circumcision of the heart; Circumcise the foreskin of your heart,
for the Lord your; God is God of Gods, and Lord of Lords Deut. 10.. And for all the other reasons
that could be assigned, of Remembrance, of Representation, of Distinction, Caret ubique
ratione Judaica carnis Circumcisio, (sayes Lactantius) Nisi quod est Circumcisionis figura,
quæ est Cor Mundum: The Jewish Circumcision were an absurd and unreasonable
thing, if it did not intimate and figure the Circumcision of the heart: And that is
our Second part of this Exercise: But before we come to that, we are to say a word
of the fourth branch of this part, That as there is no Quære to be made nor admitted Qq3 against
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A Sermon Preached at Saint Dunstans.
Serm. XLIX.
against God, (which was our first part) If Man, out of his infirmity, doe fall into that,
(which was our Second) God provides and furnishes them with Reasons against
those Reasons, (which was our third.) And then, God rewards their fighting of that
battaile, (which is his owne worke) with victories, and crownes, and blessings here;
(which must be our fourth branch.) Of Examples of this, Retributio. the Booke of God is full: but we contract our selves onely to
that, which God did to Abraham at this time, in contemplation of this obedience. We
consider Abraham at the end of one Age, he was almost one hundred ninety nine
when he was Circumcised; and now was entring into another age, (for he liv'd seventy
five yeares after this:) this therefore was as the Eve of his New-years-day, and God pre-
sents him thus many New-years-gifts: First, he gives him a new Name; in which
change of his Name, from Abram, to Abraham, (besides that he was chang'd from
Pater Magnus, to Pater Multudinis, from the Father of a great possession and family,
to the Father of a great successession and posterity, for that diminishes any Greatnesse,
to have no posterity to leave that to) this also arises to be noted, that Gods Name
Jehovah, having in that two Letters of one kind, two H H, God divides with his Ser-
vant, God affords one of those letters to the dignifying of Abrahams name, he adds an
H of his owne Name to his: Jehovah is his essentiall name; and in communicating
any beame of that Essence, any letter of that Name, we become semen Dei, the seed of
God; and filii Dei, the Sonnes of God; and participes divinæ naturæ, Partakers of
the Divine nature; and idem spiritus cum Domino, the same spirit with the Lord; and Hea-
rers of that voice; Ego dixi Dii estis, I have said you are Gods: If we were carefull
to answer our old name, the name of Christians, in our conformity to Christ, and per-
formance of Christianly duties, that were well, and other Names needed not, as re-
membrancers unto us: But God does give us new Names and additions of Offices,
and Titles in Schoole, or Court, or Common-wealth, as new testimonies of his love, and
rebukes of our former negligences, and Remembrancers of our present Duties in those
places, and Encouragers to a more carefull proceeding in them. Secondly, God
gave Abraham a new Wife: in which, the blessing was, that he tooke not from him
that virtuous and obedient Wife which he had before, Sara, but now he made her a
Wife unto him, and he supplied that onely defect which was in her, Barrennesse, and so
made her fully a Wife, a Mother. Thirdly, he gave him a new Sonne; for, God
who purposed to blesse all Nations in Abraham's seed, would not onely repaire and
furnish his old house, (that is, blesse Ismael with temporall blessings) but he would
build him a new house, raise him up a new Sonne, Isaac: He would not onely fulfill
that petition of Abrahams, Oh that Ismael might live in thy sight! not onely preserve
Ismael, which signifies, Exauditionem Domini, that the Lord had heard that prayer, in
the behalf of Ismael; but he would give him an Isaac, which signifies, Risum, lætiti-
am, that is, he would give him a new, and true occasion of joy. Fourthly, he gave
him a new promise; that as in Adam he had promised a Messias, in semine mulieris,
in the seed of the Woman; now he contracts that promise to Abraham, in semine tuo,
in thy seed shall all Nations be blessed; and so makes Abraham, not onely a Partner
with his other Children, in the Salvation of that Messias, but he makes Abraham a
meanes to derive that Salvation upon others also, In semine tuo, thou shalt not onely
be blessed in the Seed of the Woman, but all Nations shall be blessed in thy seed. And
lastly, he gives him a new seale; not onely that seale, under which he was wont to deale
with him, not onely an inward seale in his heart, but he gives him a new seale, a visible
seale, the seale of Circumcision. This being then the Dignity of Gods precepts, that
they require a present, and an exact obedience, without any counter-disputing; this
being the infirmity of mans nature, that he is ever ready to object and oppose reasons,
according to flesh and blood, against Gods precepts; this being the overflowing mea-
sure of Gods mercy to his Children, to give them the issue with the tentation; Rea-
son above that Reason, victory at last, and alacrity in the performance of that pre-
cept; and this being his infinite bounty, to give us such rewards and retributions for
those victories, of which, onely his goodnesse, and his strength, was the Author in us,
when we doe performe those duties, (all which we have seen in Abrahams obedience to
a fleshly Circumcision) that Circumcision being come to an end in the Circumcision
of Christ, performed this day: Let us come to this Circumcision, of which, that was but
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but a Figure, a Spirituall Circumcision, the Circumcision of the heart, and God shall
give us new Names (new Demonstrations, that our names are written in the Booke of
life) and new Marriages (refresh his promise in the Prophet, that he will marry himselfe
to us for ever) and new Sonnes, new Isaacks (assurance of new Joyes, Essentiall and Acci-
dentall, in the Kingdome of Heaven, and inchoative here in the way) and new promises,
and new seales (new obligations of his Blessed Spirit) that that Infallibility of salvation
which we have conceived, is well grounded. We have done with our first part, 2 Part. with that which was occasioned by the Institution
of Circumcision in Abraham; we passe to that, which is occasioned by the celebrating
of this Day, in which this legall Circumcision taking an end, in the Person of Christ,
we come aptly to consider Spirituall Circumcision, by which onely we can be made
conformable to our patterne and example, Divisio. Christ Jesus: In which, we will charge
your memory but with these two considerations; First, Quid sit, what this spirituall
Circumcision is, (for in that is implyed the Quomodo, how this Circumcision is to be
wrought and effected) And Secondly, the Ubi, what part of a Man is to be circumcised
in this Circumcision, for that implyes Integritatem, that it is the whole Man in every
part. Briefly then, Quid. Spirituall Circumcision is to walke in the spirit; for then, saies the
Apostle, Gal. 5. ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh; no Circumcision can bring us to this,
that we shall not have them, for they are borne in us, and they will live in us, whilst we
live; but this is this Circumcision, not to fulfill them. Neither was Abraham's race,
which was to be circumcised, more numerous, more plentifull, more manifold, then is
this issue of the flesh, Sinne: How suddaine, and how large a pedigree! A Child, at
the first minute, when the soule enters, is as good a Sinner, that is, as absolute a Sinner,
and hath as good title to Damnation, by being conceived in sinne, as the eldest man;
nay, he is as old a Sinner as the eldest man that is; nay, as the eldest man that ever
was; for, he sinn'd in Adam, and, though conceived but this night, sinn'd 6000 yeares
agoe. In young Men, vanity begets excesse; excesse; licentiousnesse; licentious-
nesse, envy, hatred, quarrels, murders; so that here is generation upon generation, here
are risen Grandfather and Great-grandfather-sinnes quickly, a forward generation: And
then they grow suddainly to be habits, and they come to prescribe in us: Prescription
is, when there is no memory to the contrary; and we cannot remember when that sin-
full custome begun in us: yea, our sinnes come to be reverenced in us, and by us; our
sinnes contract a majestie, and a state, and they grow sacred to us; we dare not trouble
a sinne, we dare not displace it, nor displease it; we dare not dispute the prerogative
of our sinne, but we come to thinke it a kinde of sedition, a kinde of innovation, and a
troubling of the state, if we begin to question our Conscience, or change that security
of sinne which we sleepe in, and we thinke it an easier Reformation to repent a sinne
once a yeare, at Easter, when we must needs Receive, then to watch a sinne every
Day. There is scarce any sinne, but that in that place of the Apostle to the Galatians, it
comes within the name of workes of the flesh; for, though he names divers sinnes,
which are litterally and properly workes of the flesh, (as Adultery, fornication, unclean-
nesse, wantonnesse) yet those sinnes that are against a mans owne selfe, (as Gluttony and
Drunkennesse) those that are against other men, (as Contentions and Murders) those that
are directed upon new Gods (as Idolatry) those that are Contracts with the Devil (as
Witchcraft) those that are offences to the Church (as Heresy) are all called by Saint Paul
in that place, workes of the flesh: So that the object of this Spirituall Circumcision is all
that concernes the flesh, the world, the Devil, or God, or man, or the Church; in every
one of these we may finde somewhat to circumcise. But because abundance and su-
perfluity begets these workes of the flesh, (for though vvewe carry the Serpent about us,
yet he does not sting, nor hisse, till he be warme: As long as poverty and vvretched-
nessewretched-
nesse freezes our Concupiscences, they are not so violent) therefore spirituall Circum-
cision is vvellwell expressed by Saint Bernard; Moralis Circumcisio est, victum & vestitum
habentem, esse contentum; A cutting off of these superfluities, is this morall, that is,
this spirituall Circumcision. NovvNow for some understanding of these superfluities, Modus.vve we must consider, that some-
times a poore man, that hath no superfluity in his estate, is yet vvastfullwastfull in his minde, Qq4 and
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and puts himselfe to superfluous expences, in his diet, in his apparell, and in all things
of outvvardoutward shevvshew and ostentation: And on the other side, a covetous man, that hath
a superfluous estate, yet starves him selfe, and denies himselfe all conveniences for this
life: Here's a superfluous confidence in the one, that he cannot vvantwant, though he throvvthrow
avvayaway money; and here's a superfluous feare in the other, that he shall vvantwant, if he give
himselfe bread; and here's vvorkeworke for this spirituall Circumcision on both sides: But
then the Circumcision is not necessarily to be applied to the riches of the rich man, so
as that every rich man must necessarily cast away his riches (a Godly man may
be rich) nor necessarily applied so to all outward expences of the free and liberall
minded man, as that he should shut up dores, and weare ragges; for, a Godly man
may fare in his diet, and appeare in his garments, according to that Degree which he
holds in that state: But the superfluity is, and (consequently the Circumcision is to be)
in the Affection, in our Confidence, that whatsoever we wast, by one meanes or other,
we shall have more; or in our diffidence, that if we lay not up all, we shall never have
enough. These be the inordinate affections that must be Circumcised: But how? for
that's intended in this part. We need enquire no farther, for the meanes of this spi-
rituall Circumcision, then to the very word which the Holy Ghost hath chosen for
Circumcision here, which is Mul and Namal; for that word hath in other places of
Scripture, three significations, that expresse much of the manner, how this Circumcisi-
on is to be wrought: It signifies, Purgare, to purge, to discharge the Conscience: (and
that is, by Confession of our sinnes) It signifies, Mundare, to cleanse and purify the
Conscience: (and that is, by Contrition and Detestation of that sinne) And it signifies,
Succidere, to cut downe, to weed and root out whatsoever remaines in our possession,
that is unjustly got (and that is) by Destitution. Now for the first of these, Purgare. the purging; the proper use and working of purging
Physick, is, not that that Medicine pierces into those parts of the Body, where the pec-
cant humour lies, and from which parts, Nature, of her selfe, is not able to expell it:
the substance of the Medicine does not goe thither, but the Physick lies still, and draws
those peccant humours together; and being then so come to an unsupportable Masse,
and burden, Nature her selfe, and their owne waight expels them out. Now, that
which Nature does in a naturall body, Grace does in a regenerate soule, for Grace is
the nature and the life of a regenerate man. As therefore the bodily Physick goes not
to that part of the body that is affected; we must not stay till our Spirituall Physick
(the Judgements of God) worke upon that particular sinne, that transports us: That
God should weaken me with a violent sicknesse, before I will purge my selfe of my
licentiousnesse; Or strike me with poverty, and losse of my stocke, before I will purge
my selfe of my usury; or lay me flat with disgraces and dis-favours of great Persons,
before I will purge my selfe of my Ambition; or evict my land from me, by some
false title, that God, in his just Judgement, may give way to, to punish my sinnes, be-
fore I will purge my selfe of my oppression, and racking of Tenants: But before these
violent Medicines come, if thou canst take Gods ordinary Physick, administred in the
Word and Sacraments; if thou canst but endure that qualme of calling thy selfe to an
account, and an examination; if thou canst draw all thy sinnes together, and present
them to thine owne Conscience, then their owne waight will finde a vent, and thou
wilt utter them in a full and free Confession to thy God, and that is Circumcision; as
Circumcision consists in the purging of the Conscience, to be mov'd upon hearing the
Word preached, and the denouncing of his Judgements in his Ordinance, before those
Judgements surprize thee, to recollect thy sinnes in thine owne memory, and poure
them out in a true Confession. The next step in this Circumcision, Mundare. (as they are intimated in that word, which the
Holy Ghost uses here) is Mundare, to cleanse; and this is a Contrition for those sinnes,
and a Detestation of those sinnes, which I have thus gathered in my Memory, and
poured out in my Confession. A house is not clean, though all the Dust be swept to-
gether, if it lie still in a corner, within Dores; A Conscience is not clean, by having
recollected all her sinnes in the Memory, for they may fester there, and Gangreen even
to Desperation, till she have emptied them in the bottomlesse Sea of the bloud of Christ
Jesus: and the mercy of his Father, by this way of Confession. But a house is not
clean neither, though the Dust be thrown out, if there hang Cobwebs about the Walls, in
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in how dark corners soever. A Conscience is not clean, though the sins, brought to
our memory by this Examination, be cast upon Gods mercy, and the merits of his
Sonne, by Confession, if there remaine in me, but a Cobweb, a little, but a sinfull de-
light in the Memory of those sins, which I had formerly committed. How many men
sinne over the sinnes of their youth again, in their age, by a sinfull Delight in remem-
bring those sinnes, and a sinfull Desire, that their Bodies were not past them? How
many men sin over some sins, but imaginarily, (and yet Damnably) a hundred times,
which they never sinned actually at all, by filling their Imaginations, with such
thoughts as these, How would I be revenged of such an Enemy, if I were in such a
place of Authority? How easily could I overthrow such a wastfull young Man, and
compasse his Land, if I had but Money, to feed his humours? Those sinnes which
we have never been able to doe actually, to the harme of others, we doe as hurtfully to
our owne Souls, by a sinfull Desire of them, and a sinfull Delight in them. Therefore
is there a cleansing required in this Circumcision; such a cleansing as God promises,
I will cleanse their bloud, Joel 3. that is, the fountaine, the work of all corrupt Desires, and
sinfull Delights. Now there is no clensing of our bloud, but by his bloud; and the in-
fusion, and application of his bloud, is in the seale of the Sacrament; so that that soule
onely is so clensed, as is required in this spirituall circumcision, that preserves it selfe
alwayes, or returnes speedily, to a disposition of a worthy receiving of that holy and
blessed Sacrament: He that is now in that disposition, as that, in a rectified Consci-
ence, he durst meet his Saviour at that Table, and receive him there, (which cannot be
done without Contrition, and Detestation of former sins) hath admitted this spirituall
Circumcision, so far, as is intended in the second signification of this word, which is,
To clense. But then there is a third action, Succidere. which is, succidere, to cut up, to root out all, from
whence this sinne may grow up againe, as the word is used in Job 18. His root shall be
dryed beneath, and all his branches shall be cut downe. In this Circumcision, we must cut
the root, the mother-sinne, that nourishes all our sinnes, and the branches too, that if
one sinne have begot another, there be a fall of all our woods, of our timber wood,
(our growne and habituall sinnes) and of our under-woods, (those lesser sinnes which
grow out of them.) It is a cutting downe, and a stubbing up, which is not done, till we
have shak'd off all, that we have gotten by those Sinnes: It is not the Circumcision of
an Excessive use of that sinne, that will serve our turne, but such a Circumcision, as
amounts to an Excession, a cutting off the root, and branch, the sinne, and the fruits,
the profits of that sinne. I must not think to bribe God, by giving him some of the
profit of my sinne, to let me enjoy the rest: for, was God a venturer with me in my
sinne? Or did God set me to Sea, that is, put me into this world, to see what I could
get by Usury, by Oppression, by Extortion, and then give him a part to charitable uses?
As this word signifies Excedere, to cut of all that is grown out of sinne, so from this
word Namal, comes Nemâla, which is Formicæ, an Ant, which the Hebrewes de-
rive from this word, out of this reason, That as an Ant doth gnaw all the Corne it
layes up, upon one side, so that it may never grow againe, so this spirituall Circum-
cision must provide, that that sinne take no new roote: but as long as thou makest
profit, or takest pleasure in any thing sinfully gotten, thy sinne growes; so that this
Circumcision is not perfected but by restitution and satisfaction of all formerly dam-
nified. These then be all the waies that are presented in these significations and use
of this word, Ubi. which the holy Ghost hath chosen here, purging by Consideration and Con-
fessing, clensing by Contrition and Detesting, preventing of future growth by Satisfa-
ction in Restoring. A little remains to be said (though it be also implyed in that which
hath been said) of the Ubi, the place where this Circumcision is to be applyed. The
Scripture speaks of uncircumcised hearts, and uncircumcised lips, and uncircumcised
eares; And our eyes in looking, and coveting, and our hands in reaching to that which
is not ours, are as farre uncircumcised as eares, or lips, or hearts: Therefore we are to
carry this Circumcision all over; we must Circumcise, sayes Saint Bernard, In carne,
peccatum, the flesh, the body, the substance of the sinne, in cute, operimentum, in the
skin, all covers, and palliations, and disguises, and extenuations of the sinne; and, in
sanguine incentivum, in the blood all fomentations and provocations to that sinne:
the sinne it self, the circumstances of the sinne, the relapses to or towards that sin must be
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Serm. XLIX.
be circumcised: Judæus ut parvulus, congruum accepit mandatum, exiguæ Circumci-sionis, saies the same Father, The Jew was but in an infancy, in a minority, and God
did not looke for so strong a proceeding from the Jew, as from us, but led him by the
armes, by the helpe of Ceremonies and Figures, and accordingly required but a Cir-
cumcision in one part of the body: but God lookes for more, at the hands of Christi-
ans, to whom he hath fully manifested and applied himselfe. As Christ said to the
Jewes, Except your righteousnesse exeeedexceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees,
it is nothing: So except our righteousnesse exceed them that exceeded the Scribes, it
is nothing; and therefore, Toto corpore baptizamur (saies Bernard) quia totius hominis
integra Circumcisio; to shew, that it is the whole man that is to be circumcised; we
are baptized, we are washed all over, (for so long, even to Bernards time, it seemes, that
manner of Baptizing, by Immersion of the whole body, and not by Aspersion upon the
face onely, continued in the generall practice of the Church.) So that if it be not an
entire Circumcision of the whole man, that will fall upon us, which God threatens in
the Prophet, Jer. 9. 25. I will visit all them which are circumcised, with them which are not circum-
cised; If we circumcise in part, leave some sinnes, and cleave to others, we shall be, in
the sight of God, altogether uncircumcised; Adam was not the lesse naked in Gods
sight, for his Figge-leafe; halfe-repentances are no repentances; either we are in a
privation, or in a habit; covered over with righteousnesse, or naked. When therefore the Lord and his Spirit cals thee to this spirituall Circumcision,
remember that Abraham did not say when he was call'd, Lord, I have followed thy
voyce, in leaving my Country; Lord, I have built thee an Altar, what needs more
demonstration of my obedience? Say not thou, Lord, I have built an Hospitall;
Lord, I have fed the poore at Christmas; Lord, I have made peace amongst thy people
at home; I have endowed an Almes-house; but persevere in doing good still, for, God
takes not the Tree, where it growes, but where it fals; for the most part, the death of a
man is such, as his life was; but certainly the life of a man, that is, his everlasting life,
is such as his death is. Againe, Abraham did not say of this, that it was a Com-
mandement in a slight, and frivolous, and uncivill matter; doe not thou say, that it
is an impertinent thing in this spirituall Circumcision, to watch thy eating and drin-
king, and all such indifferent actions, and to see that all they be done to the glory of
God; for, as the Apostle saies, That the foolishnesse of God is wiser then the wisdome of
man; so we may piously say, that the levity of God is graver then the gravity of all
the Philosophers and Doctors of the world; as we may see in all his Ceremoniall
Lawes, where the matter seemes very light in many places, but yet the signification very
important; and therefore apply this Circumcision, even in thy least, and most fami-
liar action. So also Abraham was not diverted from obeying God, by the inconveni-
ence of having all his family diseas'd at once; he did not say, I am content to circum-
cise my Sonne, but would spare my Servants yet, for necessary uses; doe not thou
say, thou art content to circumcise thine eldest Sonne, to abate somewhat of that
sinne which thou beganst with in thy youth, but wouldst faine spare some serviceable
and profitable sinnes for a time, and circumcise them hereafter. To pursue this ex-
ample, Abraham did not say, Cras Domine, Lord, I will doe all this to morrow; but,
as the Commandement was given in that phrase of expedition, Circumcidendo circum-
cides, In Circumcising thou shalt circumcise; which denoted a diligent and a present
dispatch; so Abraham did dispatch it diligently and presently that day. Doe not
thou say, Cras Domine, to morrow, some other day, in the day of mine age, or of my
Death, or of affliction and tribulation; I will circumcise all, for age, and sicknesse, and
tribulations, are Circumcisions of themselves; a Feaver circumcises thee then, or an
Apoplexy, and not thy Devotion; and incapacity of sinning is not sanctification: If
any man put off his Repentance till death, Fateor non negamus quod petit, saies Saint
Augustine, I dare not deny that man, whatsoever God may be pleased to grant him;
Sed non presumimus, quod bene erit; I dare not presume to say, that that man died
well, Non presumo, non vos fallo, non presumo, saies that Father, with some vehemen-
cy, I dare not warrant him, let me not deceive you with saying that I dare, for I dare
not: And, Beloved, that is but a suspicious state in any man, in which another Chri-
stian hath just reason to doubt of his salvation, as Saint Augustine doth shrewdly doubt
of these late Repenters, Sicut ejus damnatio incerta, ita remissio dubia; As I am not sure he
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he is damned, so I am not sure he is saved, no more sure of one then of the other. It is
true, we have the example of the Crucified Thiefe, but it is but a hard case, when a
Thiefe must guide us and be our Example; we suspect wills that are made of tempo-
rall goods in that state, at the last gaspe, and shall we think a Man to be compos men-
tis, of a perfect understanding for the bequeathing of his Soule at his last gaspe? non
presumo, non nos fallo, non presumo, I should deceive you, if I should say it, I dare not say
it, sayes that Father. Come therefore to this Circumcision betimes, come to it, this
Day, come this Minute: This Day thy Savior was Circumcised in the flesh, for
thee; this Day Circumcise thy heart to him, and all thy senses, and all thy affections.
It is not an utter destroying of thy senses, and of thy affections, that is enjoyned thee;
but, Deut. 21. 11. as when a Man had taken a beautifull Woman captive in the warres, he was not
bound to kill her, but he must shave her head, and pare her nailes, and change her gar-
ments, before he might marry her; so captivate, subdue, change thy affections, and
that's the Destruction which makes up this Circumcision: change thy choler into
Zeale, change thy amorousnesse into devotion, change thy wastfulnesse into Almes to the
poore, and then thou hast circumcised thy affections, and mayest retaine them, and
mayest confidently say with the Apostle, Phil. 3. 3. we are the Circumcision, which worship God in
the spirit, and rejoyce in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Doe this to
day; as God this day gives thee a New yeare, and hath not surpriz'd thee, nor taken
thee away in the sinnes of last yeare; as he gives thee a new yeare, doe thou give him
a New-years-gift, Cor novum, a new and a Circumcised heart, and Canticum novum,
a new Song, a delight to magnifie his name, and speak of his glory, and declare his
wondrous works to the Sonnes of men, and be assured that whether I, or any other of
the same Ministry, shall speake to you from this place, this day twelve month, and
shall aske your consciences then, whether those things which you heard now, have
brought you to this Circumcision, and made you better this yeare than you were the
last, and find you under the same uncircumcision still, be assured that God will not,
God cannot be mocked, but as he wil receive us, with an Euge bone serve, Well done
my good and faithfull Servant; so he will say to you, Perditio tua ex te, Your destructi-
on is from your selves: Enough hath been done for you by me, enough hath been said
to you by my Servants, Quare moriemini, Why will you die ô; house of Israel? And
after a long despising of his graces, he will come to a finall separation; you shall
come to say, Nolumus hunc regnare, we will not have Christ Jesus to reigne over us;
and Christ Jesus shall come to say, Nescio vos, I know you not, nor whence you are.
Hodie si vocem ejus, If you wil heare his voice this day, Hodie eritis, This day you shall
be with him in Paradise, and dwell in it all the yeare, and all the yeares of an Ever-
lasting life, and of infinite generations. Amen. Sermon
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1 Thes. 5. 16.
Rejoyce evermore. WEWe reade in the naturall Story, of some floating Islands, that swim
and move from place to place; and in them a Man may sowe in
one place, and reape in another: This case is so farre ours, as that
in another place we have sowed in teares, and by his promise, in
whose teares we sowed then, when we handled those two words,
Jesus wept, we shall reape in Joy: That harvest is not yet; it is
reserved to the last Resurrection: But the Corne is above
ground, in the Resurrection of our head, the first fruits of the Dead, Christ Jesus, and
that being the first visible steppe of his exaltation, begins our exultation, who in him
are to rejoyce evermore. Prov. 14. 10. The heart knoweth his owne bitternesse; he and none but he;
others feele it not, retaine it not, pity it not; and therefore saies the Text, A Stranger
doth not intermeddle with his joy: He shall have a Joy which no stranger, not he him-
selfe whilest he was a stranger to God, and to himselfe, could conceive. If we aske, as
Christs Disciples asked of him, Mat. 24. 3. Quod signum? what shall be the signe of thy com-
ming, of this Joy in the midst of thy bitternesse? Aug: Ipsæ lachrymæ lætitiæ testes, &
nuncii: The tears themselves shall be the sign, the tears shall be Ambassadours of Joy;
a present gladnesse shall consecrate your sorrow, and teares shall baptize, and give a
new name to your passion, for your Wormwood shall be Manna; even then when it is
Wormwood, it shall be Manna, for, Gaudebitis semper, you shall Rejoyce evermore. But our Text does more then imply a promise to us, Divisio. for it laies a precept upon us:
It is not, Gaudebitis, you shall Rejoyce, by way of Comfort, but it is, Gaudete, Rejoyce,
see that you doe Rejoyce, by way of Commandement, and that shall be our first part.
Cadit sub præcepto; It hath the nature of a commandement. Angels passe not from
extreame to extreame, but by the way betweene; Man passes not from the miseries
of this life, to the joyes of Heaven, but by joy in this life too; for he that feeles no joy
here, shall finde none hereafter. And when we passe from the substance of the precept,
to the extent thereof (which will be our second part) from the first word, Rejoyce, to
the other, Rejoyce alwaies; we shall cleave that into two periods, Gaudete in bonis, Re-
joyce in your prosperitie, and Gaudete in malis, Rejoyce in your adversitie too. But
because it is in sempiternum, that must be in sempiterno, because it is always, it must be
in him who is alwaies, yesterday and to day, and the same for ever, Joy in God, Joy in
the Holy Ghost, which will be another branch in that second part; of which Joy,
though there be a preparatory, and inchoative participation and possession in this life,
yet the consummation being reserved to our entrance into our Masters Joy, not onely
the Joy which he gives, that's here, but the Joy which he is, that's onely there, we shall
end in that, beyond which none can goe, no not in his thoughts, in some dimme con-
templation, and in some faint representation of the Joyes of Heaven, and in that Con-
templation we shall dismisse you. First then it is presented in the nature of a Commandement, Part. and laies an Obligati-
on upon all, at all times to procure to our selves, and to cherish in our selves, this Joy,
this Rejoycing. Aquin: 1 2æ.
28. 3. What is Joy? Comparatur ad desiderium sic ut quies admotum; As
Rest in the end of motion, every thing moves therefore that it may rest, so Joy is the
end of our desires, whatsoever we place our desires, our affections upon, it is therefore,
that we may enjoy it; Bannez. and therefore, Quod est in brutis in parte sensitiva Delectatio, in
hominibus in parte intellectiva est gaudium: Beasts and carnall men, who determine
all their desires in the sensuall parts, come no farther then to a delight: but men, who
are truly men, and carry them to the intellectuall part, they, and onely they, come to Joy.
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Joy. And therefore saies Solomon, It is the joy of the just to doe judgment; to have lyen
still, and done no wrong occasions, is not this Joy; Joy is not such a Rest, as the Rest of
the Earth, that never mov'd; but as the Sunne rejoyceth to runne his race, and his cir-
cuit is unto the end of heaven; so this Joy is the rest and testimony of a good consci-
ence, that we have done those things which belong to our calling, that we have mov'd
in our Sphere. For, if men of our profession, whose Function it is, to attend the service
of God, delight our selves in having gathered much in this world; if a Souldier shall
have delighted himselfe, in giving rules of Agriculture, or a Architecture; if a Coun-
sellour of State, who should assist with his counsell upon present emergencies, delight
himself in writing Books of good counsell for posterity, all this occasions not this joy;
because though there have been motion, and though there be Rest, yet that is not Rest
after the Motion proper to them. A Man that hath been out of his way all the day,
may be glad to find a good Inne at night; but yet 'tis not properly Joy, because he is
never the neerer home. Joy is peace for having done that which we ought to have
done: Banner ibid. And therefore it is well expressed, Optima conjectura an homo sit in gratia est
gaudere; The best evidence that a Man is at peace, and in favour with God, is, that he
can rejoyce. To trie whether I be able by Argument and disputation to prove all, that
I believe, or to convince the Adversary, this is Academia animæ, the soules University,
where some are Graduats, and all are not: To trie whether I be able to endure Mar-
tyrdome for my beliefe, this is Gehenna animæ, the rack, the torture of the Soule, and
some are able to hold it out, and all are not: But to trie whether I can rejoyce in the
peace, which I have with God, this is but Catechismus animæ, the Catechisme of the
Soule, and every Man may examine himselfe, and every Man must; for it is a Com-
mandement, Gaudete semper, Rejoyce evermore. It is, we cannot say the Office, but the Essence of God to doe good; and when he
does that, Deut. 30. 9. he is said to rejoyce: The Lord thy God will make thee plenteous; (there is his
goodnesse) and he will Rejoyce again over thee for good, as he rejoyced over thy Fathers Zeph. 3. 17..
The Lord will love thee, there is his goodnesse; and rejoyce in thee, and he will rest
in his love. Such a joy as is a rest, a complacency in that good which he hath done,
we see is placed in God himselfe. It is in Angels too: Their office is to minister to
Men, (for by nature they are Spirits, but by office they are Angels) and when they see
so good effect of their service, Luk. 15. 10. as that a Sinner is converted, There is joy in the presence
of the Angels of God. Christ himselfe had a spirituall office and employment, To give
light to the blind, and to inflict blindnesse upon those who thought they saw all. And when
that was done, Exultavit in spiritu, in that houre Christ rejoyced in the Spirit, and said,
I thank thee ô; Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, &c. To have something to doe, to Luk. 10. 21.
doe it, and then to Rejoyce in having done it, to embrace a calling, to performe the
Duties of that calling, to joy and rest in the peacefull testimony of having done so;
this is Christianly done, Christ did it; Angelically done, Angels doe it; Godly
done, Esay 62. 1. God does it. As the Bridegroome rejoyceth in his Bride, so doth thy God rejoyce
in thee. Example, as well as the Rule, repeats it to you, Gaudete semper. But how farre may we carry this joy? Basil. q. bre-
vis 31. To what outward declarations? To laugh-
ing? Saint Basil makes a round answer to a short question. An in Universum ridere
non licet? May a Man laugh in no case? Admodum perspicuum est, It is very evi-
dent, that a Man may not, because Christ saies, Væ vobis, Wo be unto you that laugh;
And yet Saint Basil himselfe in another place sayes (which we are rather to take in
explanation, Homil. de
gratiar. actione. than in contradiction, of himselfe) that that woe of Christ is cast in ob-
streperum Sonum, non in sinceram hilaritatem: upon a dissolute and undecent, and
immoderate laughing, not upon true inward joy, howsoever outwardly expressed.
At the promise of a Son, Gen. 17. 17. Abraham fell on his face and laughed; a religious Man, and a
grave Man, 100 yeares old, expressed this joy of his heart, by this outward declara-
tion. Hierome's Translation reads it, Risit in Corde, he laughed within himselfe,
because Saint Hierome thought that was a weaknesse, a declination towards unbeliefe,
to laugh at Gods promise, as he thinks Abraham did. But Saint Paul is a better Wit-
nesse in his behalf; Rom. 4. Against hope he believed in hope; he was not weake in faith; he
staggered not at the promise of God, through unbelief. Amo. Quòd risit, non incredulitatis,
sed exultationis indicium fuit, his laughing was no ebbe of faith, but a flood of joy. It
is not as S. Hier. Hierome takes it, Risit in Corde putans celare deum, apertè ridere non ausus; Rr he
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he kept-in his laughing, and durst not laugh out; But as St. Ambrose says well, Risus
non irrisio diffidentis, sed exultatio gratulantis; he laughed not in a doubtfull scorne of
Gods promise, but in an overflowing of his own joy: It is well expressed, and, well
concluded, Rupertus. O virum æterno risu vere dignum, & sempiternæ jucunditati bene præparatum,
This was good evidence, that he was a man well disposed for the joyes of heaven; that
he could conceive joy in the temporall blessings of God, and that he thought nothing
mis-becomming him, that was an outward declaration of this joy. It is a dangerous
weaknesse, to forbeare outward declarations of our sense of Gods goodnesse, for feare
of mis-interpretations; to smother our present thankfulnesse, for fear that some should
say it was a levity to thank God so soon, till God had done the whole work. For God
does sometimes leave half his work undone, because he was not thanked for it. When
2 Sam. 6. 14.David danced and leaped, and shouted before the Arke; if he laughed too, it mis-became
him not. Not to feele joy is an argument against religious tendernesse, not to show that
joy, is an argument against thankfulnesse of the heart: that is a stupidity, this is a con-
tempt. A merry heart maketh a cheerfull countenance. Prov. 15. 13. If it be within, it will be without
too. Except I heare thee say in thine actions, Gaudeo, I do rejoyce, I cannot know that
thou hast heard the Apostle say, Gaudete. Joy for Gods blessings to us, joy for Gods glory to himself, may come ad Risum,
and farther: Not onely ad Ridendum, but ad Irridendum, not onely to laugh in our own
prosperity, but to laugh them to scorne that would have impeached it. They are put
both together in God himself, Ridebo, and Irridebo, I will laugh at your calamities, and
I will mock when your feare cometh. Prov. 1. 26. And this being in that place intended of God, is spo-
ken in the person of Wisdome; It mis-becomes not wisdome and gravity to laugh in
Gods deliverances, not to laugh to scorne those that would have blown up Gods Ser-
vants, when it is carried so high as to the Kings of the Earth, and the Rulers that take
counsell against the Lord, and against his Anoynted Psal. 2. 2., we may come Ad Gaudium, to joy in
Gods goodnesse, but because their place, and persons are sacred, we leave the Ridere
and the Irridere to God Verse 4.: who says, ver. 4. That he will laugh at them, and hold them in
derision. But at lower instruments, lower persons may laugh, when they fill the world
with the Doctrine of killing of Kings, and meane that that should animate men against
such Kings as they call Heretiques, and then finde in experience that this hath wrought
onely to the killing of Kings of their own Religion, we lament justly the event, but yet
we forbeare our Ridere and our Irridere, at the crossing and the frustrating of their plots
and practises. Pharaohs Army was drowned, Et Cecinit Moses, Moses sung, Sisera was
slaine Et Cecinit Deborah, Deborah sung. Thus in the disappointing of Gods ene-
mies, Gods servants come to outward manifest signes of joy. Not by a libellous
and scurrill prophanation of persons that are sacred, but in fitting Psalmes and
Sermons, and Prayers, and publique Writings to the occasion, to proceed to a Ri-
dere and Irridere, and as Saint Augustine reades that place of the Proverbs, Su-
perridere, to laugh Gods Enemies into a confusion to see their Plots so often,
so often, so often frustrated. For so farre extends Gaudete, Rejoyce evermore. Joy then, and cheerefulnesse, is Sub præcepto, it hath the nature of a commandment,
and so he departs from a commandment that departs, and abandons himself into an in-
ordinate sadnesse. Psal. 42. 5. And therefore David chides his soule, Why art thou cast down, O my soul,
why art thou disquieted within me? And though he come after to dispute against this sad-
nesse of the soul, which he had let in, Hope yet in God, and yet the Lord will command his
loving kindnesse, and my prayer shall be unto the God of my life, yet he could not put it off,
but he imagines that he heares his enemies say, Where is thy God? and when he hath
wrestled himself weary, he falls back again in the last verse, to his first faintnesse, Why art
thou cast down, O my soule, why art thou disquieted within me? For, As he that taketh away
a garment in cold weather, so is he that singeth Songs to a heavy heart Prov. 25. 20.: That heavinesse
makes him uncapable of Naturall, of Morall, of Civill, of Spirituall comforts,
charme the Charmer never so wisely. Heli heard that the Battell was lost, and
that his Sonnes were slaine, and admitted so much sorrow for those, that when
the last was added, 1 Sam. 4. 17. The Arke was taken by the Enemy, he was too weake for that,
and fell down and brake his neck. It was his daughter in Lawes case too; shee over-
charged her soul with sadnesse for her husbands death, and her fathers death, and when
the report of the Arke came, she fell into labour and died; and though the women told her,
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her, Feare not, thou hast born a Sonne, yet shee answered not. Though the Arke of God,
the worship of his Name, bee at any time transferred from where it was, despaire not
thou of Gods reducing it; for this despairing of others, may bring thee to despaire in
some accident to thy self: Accustome thy selfe to keepe up the consideration of Gods
mercy at the highest, lodge not a sad suspition in any publique, in any private businesse,
that Gods powerfull mercy can goe but thus farre: hee that determineth Gods
Power and his Mercy, and faith here it must end, is as much an Atheist, as hee that
denieth it altogether. The Key of David openeth and no man shutteth; The Spi-
rit of Comfort shineth upon us, and would not be blown out. Monasterie, and Ermi-
mitage, and Anchorate, and such words of singularitie are not Synonyma with those
plurall words Concio, Cœtus, Ecclesia, Synagoga & Congregatio, in which words God
delivereth himselfe to us. A Church is a Company, Religion is Religation, a bind-
ing of men together in one manner of Worship; and Worship is an exteriour service;
and that exteriour service is the Venite exultemus, to come and rejoyce in the presence
of God. If in any of these wayes God cast a Cloud upon our former joyes, yet to receive good
at Gods hand, and not to receive evill; to rejoice in the calme, and not in the storme;
this is to breake at least halfe of the Commandement, which is, Gaudete semper. And
so from the first part, which is the substance which we have passed by these steps, That
this rejoycing hath the nature of a Commandement, it must bee maintained, And that
inward joy must be outwardly expressed, even to the disgrace and confusion of Gods
enemies, and to the upholding of a joyfull constancy in our selves: We passe now to the
extent of the Commandement, Gaudete semper, Evermore. Did God mean that we should rejoyce alwayes; 2 Part. when he made sixe dayes for labour,
and but one for rest? Semper. Certainly he did. Sixe dayes we are to labour, and to doe all that we
have to doe: And part of that which we have to doe, is to rejoyce in our labour. Adam
in the state of Innocency had abundant occasion of continuall rejoycing; but yet even
in that joyfull state he was to labour, to dresse and to keep the Garden. After the fall, when Gen. 2. 15.
3. 19.God made the labour of man more heavie in sudore vultus, that he should not eat, but in
the sweat of his browe, yet God gave him not that penalty, that occasion of sadnesse, till
he had first imprinted the roote of true Joy, the promise of a Messias; that promise he
made before he came to denounce the penalty, first came the Ipse conteret, and then in
sudore vultus: upon those words, Thou shalt eat the labour of thy hand; Debuit dicere fru-
ctum, non laborem, Psal. 128. 2. saith Augustine, David should have said, he shall eate the fruit, not the
labour of his hands. August. Sed ipsi labores non sunt sine gaudio, but the very labours, the ve-
ry afflictions of good men, have joy in them. Si labor potest manducari & jucundari,
manducatus fructus laboris qualis erit? And if labour it self, affliction it self, minister
Joy, what a manner, what a measure of joy is in the full possession thereof in Heaven?
And as the consideration of the words immediately after the Text, hath made more
then one of the Fathers say, Etiam Somnia justorum preces sunt, Even the sleep of the
righteous is a service to God, and their very Dreams are Prayers and Meditations, so
much more properly, may wee call the sleep, and the bodily rest, nay, the bodily tor-
ments of the righteous, joye, rejoycing. So that neither weeke day, nor Sabbath day
nor night, labour nor rest interrupteth this continuall Joy: Wee may, wee must re-
joyce evermore. Gaudete in bonis, Rejoyce when God giveth you the good things of this world;
First, In bonis
Temporali-
bus. in Temporalibus when God giveth you the good Temporall things of this
world. Gaudete in Terra, Rejoyce that God hath placed you in so fertill, in so fruitfull
a Land. Gaudete in pace, Rejoyce that God hath afforded you peace to till the Land,
Gaudete de Temporibus, Rejoyce that God giveth good seasons, that the Earth may give
her increase, and that Man may ioy in the increase of the Earth: And Gaudete de amicitiis,
Rejoyce that God giveth you friendship with such Nations, as may take of your super-
fluities, and return things necessary to you. There is a joy required for Temporall
things; for hee that is not ioyfull in a benefit, is not thankefull. Next to that de-
testable assertion (as Saint Augustine calleth it) That God made any man to
to damn him, it is the perversest assertion, That God gives man temporall things to
ensnare him. Gen. 9. 20. Was that Gods primary intention in prospering Noahs Vineyard, That
Noah should be drunken? God forbid. Rr2 Doth
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Doth God give any man honour or place, Vt glorietur in malo, qui potens est, that
his power might be an occasion of mischief and oppression? God forbid. God made
light at first; but wee know not what that light was: but God gathered all light
into the Sun, and all the world sees it. God infuses grace and spirituall blessings into
a mans heart, and no man sees that, but the Spirit that is in that man; but the Evi-
dence, the great Seale, that he pleads in the Eye of the world, is Gods temporall bles-
sings. When Assuerus put the Royall Vesture and Ring, and Crown upon Morde-
cai, it was to shew that hee was in his favour; in the same intention proceeds God
too, when he gives riches, or honour, or favour, or command; hee would have that
soul rejoyce in these, as in testimonies of his favour. God loves hilarem datorem, a
cheerfull giver, but he that is not a cheerfull receiver, is a worse natur'd man, and more
dishonours, nay, reproaches his benefactor. They then disobey this Commandment,
of rejoycing in temporall things, that employ not their industry, that use not all good
means to attaine them. Every man is therefore planted in the world, that hee may
grow in the world, and as venomous hearbs delight in the shade, so a sullen retiring ar-
gues a murmuring and venomous disposition; To contemn Gods temporall blessings,
or to neglect or undervalue those instruments, those persons, by whom God sheds such
blessings upon us, is to break that branch of this Commandement Gaudete semper, Re-
joyce evermore; for he does not rejoyce in bonis temporalibus. So is it also, as not to
seek them before, so not to use them when we have them. When in a feare of grow-
ing poore, makes us think God to be poor too, that if we spend this, God can give
us no more, when for feare of lacking at our end, we lack all the way, when we abound
and yet will pay no debts, not to our own bellies, our own backs, our own respect, and
the decency that belongs to our rank, these men so sordid, so penurious, & suspitious
of Gods Providence, breake this branch of this Commandement too, because they
doe not rejoyce in bonis temporalibus. And as the not-seeker, and the not-user, so
the abuser of these temporall blessings is in the same transgression. Hee that thinkes
all the world as one Jewell, and himselfe the Cabinet, that all was made for him,
and hee for none, forgets his owne office, his Stewardship, by which he is enabled and
bound to the necessities of others: to collect, hee that seeks not, hee that denies all
to himself, hee that denies all but himself, break this branch, for they doe not rejoyce
in bonis temporalibus. This we must doe; In spiritu-
alibus. but in bonis spiritualibus, in the spirituall good things of this
world, much more we call those the spirituall good things of this world, which ad-
vance our devotion here, and consequently our salvation hereafter. The rituall and ce-
remoniall, the outward worship of God, the places, the times, the manner of meetings,
which are in the disposition of Christian Princes, and by their favours of those Chur-
ches, which are in their government: and not to rejoyce in the peacefull exercise of those
spirituall helps, not to be glad of them, is a transgression. Now the Prophet expresses
this rejoycing thus, Venite exultemus, let us come and rejoyce. We must doe both. And
therefore they who out of a thraldome to another Church abstaine from these places
of these exercises, that doe not come, or if they doe come, doe not rejoyce, but
though they be here brought by necessity of law, or of observation, yet had ra-
ther they were in another Chappell, or that another kinde of service then in this: and
they also who abstain out of imaginary defects in this church, & think they cannot per-
form Davids De profundis, they cannot call upon God out of the depth, except it be in
a Conventicle in a cellar, Eccles. 5. 8. nor acknowledge Solomons Excelsis Excelsior, that God is
higher then the highest, except it be in a Conventicle in a garret, & when they are here
wink at the ornaments, & stop their ears at the musique of the Church, in which manner
she hath always expressed her rejoycing in those helps of devotion; or if there bee a
third sort who abstain, because they may not be here at so much ease, and so much li-
berty, as at their own houses, all these are under this transgression. Are they in the
Kings house at so much liberty as in their own? and is not this the King of Kings house?
Or have they seene the King in his owne house, use that liberty to cover himselfe in
his ordinary manner of covering, at any part of Divine Service? Every Preacher
will look, and justly, to have the Congregation uncovered at the reading of his Text:
and is not the reading of the Lesson, at time of Prayer, the same Word of the same God,
to be received with the same reverence? The service of God is one entire thing; and though
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though we celebrate some parts with more, or with lesse reverence, some kneeling, some
standing, yet if we afford it no reverence, we make that no patrpart of Gods service. And
therefore I must humbly intreat them, who make this Quire the place of their Devoti-
on, to testifie their devotion by more outward reverence there; wee know our parts in
this place, and we doe them; why any stranger should think himself more priviledged in
this part of Gods House, then we, I know not. I presume no man will mis-interpret
this that I say here now; nor, if this may not prevaile, mis-interpret the service of our
Officers, if their continuing in that unreverent manner give our Officers occasion to
warn them of that personally in the place, whensoever they see them stray into that un-
comely negligence. They should not blame me now, they must not blame them then,
when they call upon them for this reverence in this Quire; neither truly can there be
any greater injustice, then when they who will not do their duties, blame others for do-
ing theirs. But that we are bound to a thankfull rejoycing in all that falls well to us, In malis. In bonis,
admits lesse doubt, and therefore requires lesse proof: But the semper of our Text
extends farther, Gandete in malis, we doe not rejoyce always, except we rejoyce in evill
days, in all our crosses and calamities. Now, if we be not affected with Gods judge-
ments, if we conceive not a sorrow for them, or the cause of them, our sins, God is an-
gry; will he be angry too, if we be not glad of them, if we doe not rejoyce in them?
Can this sorrow and this joy consist together? very well. The School in the mouth of
Aquinas gives instances; Aquin. 3. 84.
9. 2. If an Innocent man be condemned, Simul placet ejus justitia,
& displicet afflictio, I congratulate his innocency, and I condole his death both at once.
So Displicet mihi quod peccavi, & placet quod displicet; I am very sorry that I have sin-
ned, but yet I am glad that I am sorry. So that, Ipsa tristitia materia gaudii; Some sor-
row is so far from excluding joy, Aug. as that naturally it produces it. S. Augustine hath sea-
led it with this advice, Semper doleat pœnitens, Let him who hath sinned always lament;
But then where is the Gaudete semper? he tels us too, Semper gaudeat de dolore, Let him
always rejoyce, Basil. that God hath opened him a way to mercy, by sorrow. Lacrymæ Semi-
nium quoddam sunt & fœnus, quibus increscit gaudium; Sorrow is our Seminary, from
whence we are transplanted into a larger Orchard, into the dilatation of the heart, Joy;
sorrow, says he, Seminium est, & fœnus est; It is our interest, our use; And if we have
sorrow upon sorrow, it is use upon use, it doubles the principall, which is joy, the soo-
ner. Cordæ cum distenduntur, it is S. Augustines musicall comparison, when the strings of
an instrument are set up, the musicall sound is the clearer; if a mans sinew be stretcht
upon the rack, his joy is not the lesse perfect. Not that a man must seek out occasion of
sorrow; provoke the Magistrate by seditious intemperance, and call it zeal; or macerate
the body with fastings, Aug. or mangle it with whippings, and call that merit; Non ut quæ-
rant materiam quam non habent, sed ut inveniant eam quam nescientes habent; This is the
way of joy, not to seek occasions of sorrow, which they have not, but to finde out those
which they have, and know not; that is, their secret sins, the causes of Gods judgements
in themselves. To discern that that correction that is upon me, is from God, and not a
naturall accident, this is a beam of joy, for I see that he would cure me, though by coro-
sives. To discern that God is not unjust, nor cruell, and therefore it is something in me,
and not in him, that brings it to this sharpnesse, this is a beam of joy too; for I see how
to discharge God, and to glorifie him, and how to accuse my self; and that is a good de-
gree of repentance. But to perfect my repentance, A sensis. Non sufficit dolere de peccatis, sed requiritur gaudium
de dolore, It is not enough to come to a sorrow in my sin, that may flow out into despair,
but I must come to a joy in my sorrow, for that fixes me upon the application of Christ,
and such a joy a man must suscitate and awaken in himselfe by these steps, In malis tem-
poralibus, in all worldly crosses; Else he does not Gaudere semper. No nor except he finde this joy, In spiritua-
libus. In malis Spiritualibus, in Spirituall afflictions too.
When I fall into new sorrow, after my former joy, relapse into those sins which I have
repented (and beloved, the dangerous falling in any man, is to fall backward, he that
fals forward, hath his eyseyes to help him, and his hands to help him, but he that fals back-
ward lacks much) yet even out of these relapses we must finde joy too. For when Saint
James says, Iames 1. 2. Count it all joy when you fall into divers tentations, as he speaks of all joy, so
he intends, or may justly be extended to all tentations, not onely tentations, that is, tri-
Rr3 als,alls,
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alls, when God proves a man by affliction, where morall constancy is exercised, but e-ven in triall of religious constancy; in tentations to sin, still there is fresh occasion of
joy in discerning Gods deliverance from the falling into the sinne, or from lying in the
sinne. Ambros. Ipsa tentatio sal animæ, as salt preserves flesh, so tentations preserve the Soule:
not the sinning, but the discerning that it is, nay that that was a tentation to sinne,
preserves the soule. And therefore, he calls tentationes custodes; he makes even the
evill Angells, our Guardians, our Tutelar Angells, because by their tentations they
bring us up in the feare of God, and in the ways of joy. And therefore though
it be a ioyfull thing to have overcome a tentation, yet determine not your Joy in
that; that if that tentation had overcome you, you might have no more Joy, but
(as Christ says) In this rejoyce not, Luke 10. 20. that is, not onely in this, that the Spirits are subject
to you, but rather rejoyce that your names are written in heaven. Reioyce not in this, that is,
determine not, conclude not your ioy in this, that you have overcome that tentation,
but rather in this; that God does not forsake you after a sinne, nor after a re-
lapse into sinne; but manifests your election by continuall returning to you:
But that this may bee the ioy of the text, true Joy, not a ioy that induces pre-
sumption, for that will faile, that it may bee Semper, it must bee in Sempi-
terno, a Joy
rightly conceived, and rightly placed. Gaudium in Domino: and that is our next
step. Rejoyce in the Lord always, says the Apostle; and lest it should admit any interrup-
tion, he repeates it, In sempi-
terno. Iterum dico gaudete, Againe I say rejoyce, But still in the Lord. For,
Quasi locus quidam, justorum capax est Dominum: Basil. though God be in no place, God is
the place, in whom all good men are. God is the Court of every just King: God is
the Church of every holy Priest: God is the field of every valiant man; and the bed
of every sickly man: whatsoever is done in Domino, in the Lord, is done at home in
the right place. Chrysost. He that is settled in God, centred in God, Lætitiæ fontem, voluptatis
radicem lucratus est. They are all considerable words; Lucratus est, he hath purchased
something which he did not inherit, he hath acquired something which was not his be-
fore, and what? Fontem lætitiæ; 'tis joy, else it were nothing: for what is wealth if
sicknesse take away the joy of that? Or what is health, if imprisonment take away
the joy of that? Or what is liberty, if poverty take away the joy of that? but he hath joy,
and not a Cistern but a fountain, the fountaine of joy, that rejoyces in God: He car-
ries it higher in the other Metaphore; he hath radicem voluptatis; a man may have
Flores, flowers of joy, and have no fruit, a man may have some fruit, and not enough,
but if he have joy in God, he hath radicem voluptatis; if we may dare to translate it so,
(and in a spirituall sense we may) it is a voluptuous thing to rejoyce in God. In re-
joycing in another thing Saint Bernards harmonious charme will strike upon us, Bern. Rara
hora, brevis mora, they are joyes that come seldome, and stay but a little while when
they come. Call it joy, to have had that thou lovest, in thine eye, or in thine armes,
remember what oathes, what false oathes, it did cost thee before it came to that? And
where is that joy now, is there a Semper in that? Call it joy to have had him whom
thou hatest, in thine hands or under thy feet, what ignoble disguises to that man, what
servile observations of some greater, then either you, or he, did that cost you before
you brought him into your power? and where is that joy, if a Funerall or a bloudy
conscience benight it? Currus Domini, says David, the Chariots of the Lord are twenty
thousand, thousands of Angels Psal. 68. 17., says our translation; Millia lætantium, says the vulgat;
thousands of them that reioyce. How comes it to bee all thing Angells and Reioy-
cers? Ne miremur illos lætari continuò subiecit, Dominus in illis August., Saint Augustine saith, to
take away all wonder, it is added, the Lord is in the midst of them, and then, be what
they will, they must reioyce; For if he be with them they are with him, and hee is Joy.
The name of Isaac signifies ioy; Bern. and the triall of Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac:
Immola Isaac tuum, sacrifice all thy Joy in this world, to God, Et non mactatus
sed sanctificatus Isaac tuus, thy Joy shall not bee destroyed, but sanctified, so
farre from being made none, that it shall bee made better, better here, but
not, better then that hereafter; which is our last steppe, beyond which there is
nothing, that even true Joy, rightly placed, is but an inchoative, a preparatory
Joy in this world. The consummation is for the next; Gaudebimus sem-
per. Sicut
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Sicut lætantium omnium habitatio est in te, Psal. 87. 7. as Saint Hierome reads those words, spea-king of the Christian Church here, It is the house of all them, who do as it were re-
joyce; who come nearest to true joy. And so, when the Lord turned againe the
Captivity of Sion, Facti sumus sicut consolati Psal. 126., We were as it were comforted. Quare
sicut, sayes that Father, Why is it so modified with that diminution, as it were? Quia
hic etiam in Sanctis non perfecta consolatio; Because, sayes he, in this world, even the
Saints themselves have no perfect joy. Where the Apostle compares the sorrow and
the joy of this world, then the Quasi lyes upon the sorrows side; it is but a halfe sor-
row; Quasi tristes, We are as it were sorrowfull, but indeed rejoycing 2 Cor. 6. 10.; but compare the
best ioy of this world, with the next, and the Quasi will fall upon the ioy of the
world. Eph. 1. 14. For though we be sealed with the holy Spirit of promise, which is the earn-
est of our inheritance, (and this is the Tropique of Joy, the farthest that Spirituall
Joy goes in this Zodique, in this world) Hierom. yet this carries us no farther, but Vt ex arra-
bone æstimetur hæreditas; That by the proportion of the earnest, we might value the
whole bargaine: For what a bargaine would we presume that man to have, that would
give 20000 l. for earnest? what is the Joy of heaven hereafter, if the earnest of it here,
be the Seale of the holy Ghost? God proceeds with us, as we do with other men. O-
perariis in Sæculo, cibus in opere, merces in fine datur Bernard.: In this world, we give labourers
meat and drink by the way, but wages at the end of their work. God affords us refresh-
ing here, but joy hereafter. The best Seale is the holy Ghost, and the best matter that
the holy Ghost seales in, is in blood; in the dignity of Martyrdome; and even for
that, 1 Pet. 4. 13. for Martyrdome, we have a rule in the Apostle, Rejoyce in as much as ye are par-
takers of Christs sufferings; That as he suffered for you, so you suffer for him: but in
what contemplation? That when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be made glad with
exceeding Joy; not with exceeding Joy, till then; For till then, the Joyes of Heaven
may be exceeded in the addition of the body. There is the rule, and the example is
Christ himself, Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the Crosse; in contempla-
tion of the Propterea exaltatus, that therefore he should be exalted above all in heaven.
Rejoyce and be glad; Mat. 5. 12. why? for great is your reward: but where? in heaven. And there-
fore Ask and you shall receive; Iohn 16. 24. Pray and you shall have answer: but what answer? That
your joy shall be full. August. It shall be; in heaven. For Quis sic delectat quam ille, qui fecit
omnia quæ delectant: In whom can we fully rejoyce, but him, who made all things in
which we rejoyce by the way, Psal. 89. 16. In thy Name shall we rejoyce all the day, says David; Si in
nomine suo, non tota die August.. St. Augustine says not that to any particular person, nor any
particular calling, but to any man, to every man; Any Prince, any Counsellor, any
Prelate, any Generall, any Discoverer, any that goes in any way of joy, and glory, Si
nomine suo, non tota die, If they rejoyce in their own names, their own wisdome, their
own strength, they shall not rejoyce all the day, but they shall be benighted with darke
sadnesse, before their dayes end; And their sunne shall set at noon too, as the Prophet
Amos speaks. And therefore that shall be Christs expressing of that joy, at the last
day, Enter into thy Masters Joy, and leave the joy of Servants (though of good
Servants) behind thee; for thou shalt have a better Joy then that, Thy Masters
Joy. It is time to end; but as long as the glasse hath a gaspe, as long as I have one, I
would breathe in this ayre, in this perfume, in this breath of heaven, the contemplation
of this Joy. Psal. 89. 15. Blessed is that man, qui scit jubilationem, says David, that knowes the joyfull
sound: August. For, Nullo modo beatus, nisi scias unde gaudeas; For though we be bound to re-
joyce alwayes, it is not a blessed joy, if we do not know upon what it be grounded: or
if it be not upon everlasting blessednesse. Cant. 5. 1. Comedite amici, says Christ, bibite & inebria-
mini. Eat and drink, and be filled. Joy in this life, Vbi in sudore vescimur, where grief
is mingled with joy, Bernard. is called meat, says Saint Bernard, and Christ cals his friends to
eat in the first word. Potus in future, says he, Joy in the next life, where it passes down
without any difficulty, without any opposition, is called drink; and Christ calls his
friends to drink: but the overflowing, the Ebrietas animæ, that is reserved to the last
time, when our bodies as well as our souls, shall enter into the participation of it:
Where, when wee shall love every one, as well as our selves, and so have that
Joy of our owne salvation multiplied by that number, wee shall have that Joy
so many times over, as there shall bee soules saved, because wee love them as
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as our selves, how infinitely shall this Joy be enlarged in loving God, so far above our
selves, Matt. 9. 15. and all them. Wee have but this to add. Heaven is called by many pretious
names; Luc. 12. 32. Life. Simply and absolutely there is no life but that. And Kingdome; Simply,
absolutely there is no Kingdom, Esay. 66. 23. that is not subordinate to that. And Sabbatū ex Sabbato,
A Sabbath flowing into a Sabbath, a perpetuall Sabbath: but the Name that should
enamour us most, is that, that it is Satietas gaudiorum; fulnesse of Joy. Fulnesse that
needeth no addition; Psal. 16. 11. Fulnesse, that admitteth no leake. And then though in the Schoole
we place Blessednesse, in visione, in the sight of God, yet the first thing that this sight
of God shall produce in us (for that shall produce the Reformation of the Image of
God, in us, and it shall produce our glorifying of God) but the first thing that the see-
ing of God shall produce in us, is Joy. The measure of our seeing of God is the mea-
sure of Joy. See him here in his Blessings, and you shall ioy in those blessings here; and
when you come to see him Sicuti est, in his Essence, then you shall have this Joy in Es-
sence, and in fulnesse; of which, God of his goodnesse give us such an earnest here, as
may binde to us that inheritance hereafter, which his Sonne our Saviour Christ Jesus
hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen. FINIS.