Fifty Sermons
They use this word also for Calah, and Calah is Dolere, to grieve within ourselves, for the affliction of another; But it signifies also vulnerare, to wound, and afflict another; for so it is said in this word, Saul was sore wounded. So that, whether we express 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 judgments, we are still what in the word of our Commission, Obsecramus, we pray, we entreat.
To contract this consideration, they use this word for Cruciare, to vex, and for Placare too, to appease, to restore to rest and quiet. Therefore will I make thee sick in smiting thee; there it is vexation; And then, They sent unto the House of the Lord, Placare Dominum, 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 pass, no more of that matter, for it is the physic that must first stir the humor, before it can purge it; And if our words apply to your consciences, the sovereign balm of the merits of your Savior, and that thereupon your troubled consciences find some rest, be not too soon secure, but proceed in your good beginnings, and continue in hearing, as we shall continue in all these manners of praying and entreating, which fall into the word of our Text, Obsecramus, by being beholden to you for your application, or making you beholden to us, for our ministration, which was the first use of the words, of grieving for you, or grieving you for your fins, which was the second, of troubling your consciences, and then of settling 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 itself, nothing can be more glorious, then the ministration of the Gospel, into lower terms then these. He suffered his Apostles to be thought to be drink; They were full of the Holy Ghost, and they were thought full of new wine. A dram of zeal more then ordinary, against a Patron, or against a great Parishioner, makes us presently scandalous Ministers. Truly, beloved, we confess, one sign of drunkenness is, not to remember what we said. If we do not in our practice, remember what we preached, and live as we teach, we are dead all the week, and we are drunk upon the Sunday. But Hannah prayed, and was thought drunk, and this grieved her heart; so must it us, when you ascribe our zeal 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 mind, but it is but a short one; but S. Paul was under the imputation of madness. Nay, our blessed Savior himself did some such act of vehement zeal, as that his very friends thought him mad. S. Paul, because his madness was imputed to a false cause, to a pride in his much learning, disavowed his madness, I am not mad, O noble Festus. But when the cause was justifiable, he thought his madness justifiable too; If we be besides ourselves, it is for God; and so long well enough. Insaniebat amatoriam insaniam Paulus, S. Paul was mad for love; S. Paul did, and we do take into our contemplation, the beauty of a Christian soul; Through the ragged apparel of the afflictions of this life; through the scars, and wounds, and paleness, and morphews of sin, and corruption, we can look upon the soul itself, and there see that incorruptible beauty, that white and red, which the innocence and the blood of Christ hath given it, and we are mad for love of this soul, and ready to do any act of danger, in the ways of persecution, any act of diminution of ourselves in the ways of humiliation, to stand at her door, and pray, and beg, that she would be reconciled to God.
And yet does the Holy Ghost lay us lower then this too. Mad men have some flashes, some twilights, some returns of sense and reason, but the fool hath none; And, we are fools for Christ, says the Apostle; And not only we, the persons, but the ministration itself, the function itself is foolishness; It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Anger will bear an action, and Racah will bear an action, but to say Fool, was the heaviest imputation; and we are fools for Christ, and pretend nothing to work by, but the foolishness of preaching. Lower then this, we cannot be cast, and higher then this we offer not to climb; Obsecramus, we have no other Commission but to pray, and to entreat, and that we do, in his words, in his tears, in his blood, and in his bowels who sent us, we pray you in Christ's stead, which is that that constitutes our second Part, with what respect you should receive us.
In mittendariis servanda dignitas mittentis. To diminish the honor of his Master, is not an humility, but a prevarication in any Ambassador; and that is our quality, expressed in this verse. God is the Lord of Hosts, and he is the Prince of peace; He needs neither the Armies of Princes, nor the wisdom of Council Tables, to come to his ends. He is the Proprietary and owner of all the treasures in the world; Ye have taken my silver and my gold; and, The silver is mine, and the gold is mine. All that you call yours, all that you can call yours, is his; yourselves are but the furniture of his house, and your great hearts are but little boxes in his cabinet, and he can fill them with dejection, and sadness, when he will. And does any Prince govern at home, by an Ambassador? he sends Pursuivants, and Serjeants; he sends not Ambassadors; God does, and we are they; and we look to be received by you, but as we perform those two laws which bind Ambassadors, First, Reisuae ne quis legatus esto, Let no man be received as an Ambassador, that hath that title, only to negotiate for himself, and do his own business in that Country; And then, Nemini credatur sine principale mandato, Let no man be received for an Ambassador; without his Letters of Credence, and his Masters Commission. To these two we submit ourselves.
First, we are not Rei nostrae legati, we come not to do our own business; what business of ours is it, what is it to us, that you be reconciled to God? Vae mihi si non, Necessity is laid upon me, and • oe unto me, if I preach not the Gospel; but if I do, I have nothing to glory in; nay, I may be a reprobate myself. I can claim no more at God's hand, for this service, then the Sun can, for shining upon the earth, or the earth for producing flowers, and fruits; and therefore we are not Rei nostrae • legati, Ambassadors in our own behalfs, and to do our own business.
Indeed where men are sent out, to vent and utter the ware and merchandises of the Church and Court of Rome, to proclaim, and advance the value, and efficacy of uncertain relics, and superstitious charms, and incantations, when they are sent to sell particular sins at a certain price, and to take so much for an incest, so much for a murder, when they are sent with many sums 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 piece of money to be given for it, (as for the most part they do) if all the spiritual parts of the Indulgence be performed by the poor sinner, yet if he give not that money, though he be not worth that money, though that Merchant of those Indulgencies, do 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 suae Legati, Ambassadors to serve their own turns, and do their own business. When that Bishop sends out his Legatos à latere, Ambassadors from his own chair and bosom into foreign Nations, to exhaust their treasures, to alien their Subjects, to infect their Religion; these are Rei suae Legati, Ambassadors that have businesses depending in those places, and therefore come upon their own errand. Nor can that Church excuse itself, (though it use to do so) upon the mis-behavior of those officers) when they are employed; for, they are employed to that purpose: And, Tibi imputae quicquid 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 dolentem latera; If thy sides ache, (if thy Legates à latere, be corrupt) call not thyself well, nec bonum malis innitentem, nor call thyself good, if thou rely upon the counsel of those that are ill; They, those Legates à latere, are, (as they use to express it) incorporated in the Pope, and therefore they are Rei sui Legati, Ambassadors that lie to do their own business. But when we seek to raise no other war in you, but to arm the spirit against the flesh, when we present to you no other holy water, but the tears of Christ Jesus, no other relics, 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 nostrae Legati, Ambassadors in our own behalfs, or advancers of our own ends?
And as we are not so, so neither are we in the second danger, to come sine Principali Mandato, without Commission from our Master. Christ himself would not come of himself, but acknowledged and testified his Mission, The Father which sent me, he gave me commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. Those whom he employed produced their Commissions, 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 Roman Church they excepted Cardinals, Quibus sine literis creditor, propter personarum 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 Internal calling, who are called by the Spirit of God, they can be no Judges, and for External 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 Ministry. If they require a necessity of lawful Ministers to the constitution of a Church, we require it with as much earnestness as they; Ecclesia non est quae now habet sacerdotem, we profess with Saint Jerome, It is no Church that hath no Priest. If they require, that this spiritual power be received from them, who have the same power in themselves, we profess it too, Nemo dat quod non habet, no man can confer other power upon another, then he hath himself. If they require Imposition of hands, in conferring Orders, we join hands with them. If they will have it a Sacrament; men may be content to let us be as liberal of that name of Sacrament, as Calvin is; and he says of it, Institut. l. 4. c. 14. § 20. Non invitus patior vocari Sacramentum, it a inter ordinaria Sacramenta non numero, I am not loath, it should be called a Sacrament, so it be not made an ordinary, that is, a general Sacrament; and how ill hath this been taken at some of our men's hands, to speak of more such Sacraments, when indeed they have learnt this manner of speech, and difference of Sacraments, not only from the ancient Fathers, but from Calvin himself, who always spoke with a holy wariness, and discretion. Whatsoever their own authors, their own Schools, their own Canons do 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 profess to have it. And whatsoever they can say for their Church, that from their first Conversion, 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 Ambassadors 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 Record, which have been therefore shown 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 confess we affirm no Heresy, 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 only a power in Corpus mysticum, upon the mystical 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 natural 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 mystical body of Christ, can be content that his real, and true body work upon us. Not that we have no interest to work upon the real body of Christ, since he hath made us Dispensers even of that, to the faithful, 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 confess 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 afforded us all that might serve, even for the stopping of the Adversaries mouth, and to confound them in their own way: which I speak, only to excite us to a thankfulness to God, for his abundant grace in affording us so much, and not to disparage, or draw in question any other of our neighbor Churches, who, perchance, cannot derive, as we can, their power, and their Mission, by the ways required, and practiced in the Roman 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 Ecclesiastical positive Laws admit dispensation in cases of necessity; They may justly challenge a Dispensation, but we need none; They did what was lawful in a case of necessity, but Almighty God preserved us from this necessity. As men therefore, Qui nec jussi renuunt, nec non jussi affectant, which neither neglect God's calling, when we have it, nor counterfeit it, when we have it not, Qui quod verecunde excusant, obstinatiùs non recusant, who though we confess ourselves altogether unworthy, have yet the seals of God, and his Church upon us, Nec rei nostrae legati, not to promove our own ends, but your reconciliation to God, Nec sine principali mandate, not without a direct and published Commission, in the Gospel, we come to you in Christ's stead, and so should be received by you. As for our Mission, that being in the quality of Ambassadors, we submitted ourselves to those two obligations, which we noted to lie upon Ambassadors, so here in our Reception, we shall propose to you two things, that are, for the most part, practiced by Princes, in the reception of Ambassadors. One is, that before they give audience, they endeavor, by some confident servant of theirs, to discern and understand the inclination of the Ambassador, and the general 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 express himself, or be surprised with some such message, as might not well comport with his honor to hear. But in these Ambassages from God to man, no man is made so equal to God, as that he may refuse to give Audience, except he know before hand that the message be agreeable to his mind. Only he that will be more then man, that Man of sin, who esteemeth himself to be joined in Commission with God, only he hath a particular Officer to know before hand, what message God's Ambassadors bringeth, and to peruse all Sermons to be preached before 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 inform yourselves from others first, what kind of messages, such or such an Ambassador useth to deliver; whether he preach Mercy or Judgment; that if he preach against Usury, you will hear Court-sermons, where there is less occasion to mention it; If he preach against Incontinency, you will go; whither? Is there any place that doth not extort from us, reprehensions, exclamations against that sin? But if you believe us to come in Christ's stead, what ever our message be, you must hear us.
Do that, and for the second thing that Princes practice in the Reception of Ambassadors, which is, to refer Ambassadors to their Council, we are well content to admit from you. Whosoever is of your nearest Council, and whose opinion you best trust in, we are content to submit it to. Let natural reason, let affections, let the profits or the pleasures of the world be the Council Table, and can they tell you, that you are able to maintain a war against God, and subsist so, without being reconciled to him? Deceive not yourselves, 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 Quails, his day-labors are thrustings at the narrow gate into Heaven, and his night • watchings are ecstasies and evocations of his soul into the presence and communion of Saints, his sweat is Pearls, and his blood is Rubies, it is at peace with God. No man that is at suite in himself, no man that carrieth a Westminster in his bosom, and is Plaintiffe and Defendant too, no man that serveth himself with Process out of his own Conscience, for every nights pleasure that he taketh, in the morning, and for every days 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 zeal which the Apostle found, we hope not for; you received me as an Angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. And, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Consider the zeal 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 far short of that which he said to the Romans, That he could wish himself separated from Christ, for his brethren; or that of Moses, that he would be blotted out of the Book of Life, rather then his charge should. When we consider the manner of hearing Sermons, in the Primitive Church, though we do not wish that manner to be renewed, yet we cannot deny, but that though it were accompanied 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 Theaters, Acclamations and Plaudites, was brought into the Church, and not only the vulgar people, but learned hearers were as loud, and as profuse in those declarations, those vocal 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. Jerome 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 Jerome saith of himself, that he was thus applauded in his Preaching; he saith it also of him whom he called his Master, Gregory Nazianzen, a grave and yet a facetious man, of him he telleth us this Story. That he having entreated Nazianzen, to tell him the meaning of that place, 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 believe you understand the place, as they do, though you do not; Et si solus tacueris, solus ab omnibus stultitiae condemnaberis, And if you do not join with the Congregation in those Plaudites, the whole Congregation will think you the only ignorant person in the Congregation; for, as we may see in Saint Augustine, 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 pass to another point; for; so saith that Father, Vidi in voice intelligentes, plures video in silent • o requirentes, I hear 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 before 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 vestrae foliae sunt arborum, sed fructus quaero; Though I look for fruit from you, yet even these acclamations are Leafes, and Leafes are Evidences that the tree is alive. Saint Chrysostom 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 speak, 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 me, Ne quis auditor plaudat, quamdiu nos loquimur; That whilst I am speaking, I may speaking, I may hear no Plaudate; yet he saith in a Sermon preached after this, Animo cogitavi Legem ponere, I have often purposed to establish such a Law, Vt decore, & cum silentio audiatis, that you would be pleased to hear with silence, but he could never prevail.
Sidonius Apollinaris, (a Bishop himself, but whether then or no, know not) saith of another Bishop, that hearing even praedicationes repentinas, his extemporal Sermons raucus plausor audivi, I poured myself out in loud acclamations, till I was hoarse: And, to contract this consideration, we see evidently, that this fashion continued in the Church, even to Saint Bernard's time. Neither is it left yet in some places, beyond the Seas, where the people do yet answer the Preacher, it his questions be appliable to them, and may induce an answer, with these vocal acclamations, Sir, we will, Sir, we will not. And truly we come too near re-inducing 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 hour, and many that were not within distance of hearing the Sermon, will give a censure upon it, according to the frequency, or paucity of these acclamations.
These fashions then, howsoever, in those times they might be testimonies of Zeal, 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 Christ's stead; Christ at his coming met Hosann' as and Crucifige's; A Preacher may be aplauded in his Pulpit, and crucified in his Barn: 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 voice, and can play well on an Instrument, and you hear our words, and do them not. Having therefore said thus much to you, first of our manner of proceeding with you, Obsecramus, of all those ways of humiliation, which we insisted upon, and engaged ourselves in, we pray, & entreat you, and the respect which should come from you, because we come in Christ's stead, if, as the E ••• ch 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 Christ's stead; what is it that you would have us do? it is but this, We pray you in Christ's 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 implieth a present enmity, and hostility with God; and then a former friendship with God, and also a possibility of returning to that former friendship; stop a little upon each of these, and we have done.
Amongst natural Creatures, because howsoever they differ in bigness, yet they have some proportion to one another, we consider that some very little creatures, contemptible 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, between whom and nothing, there went but a word, Let us make Man, That Nothing, which is infinitely less then a Mathematical point, then an imaginary Atom, shall this Man, this yesterdayes Nothing, this tomorrow worse then Nothing, be capable of that honor, that dishonor able honor, that confounding honor, to be the enemy of God, of God who is not only a multipled 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 multiplied God, a God that hath the Millions of the Heathens gods in himself alone, shall this man be an enemy to this God? Man cannot be allowed so high a sin, as enmity with God. The Devil himself 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 go no higher in expressing his misery, Why hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy? and again, Behold, he findeth occassions against me, and counteth me for his enemy. So man is an enemy to God; And then to adhere to an enemy, is to become an enemy; for Man to adhere to Man, to ascribe anything to the power of his natural faculties, to think of any beam of clearness in his own understanding, or any line of rectitude in in his own will, this is to accumulate and multiply enmities against God, and to assemble and muster up more, and more man, to fight against God.
A Reconciliation is required, therefore there is an enmity; but it is but a reconciliation, therefore was a friendship; There was a time when God and Man were friends, God did not hate man from all Eternity, God forbid. And this friendship God meant not to break; God had no purpose to fall out with man, for then he could never have admitted him to a friendship. Net hominem amicum quisquam potest fidelitter amare, cui se noverit futurum inimicum: No man can love another as a friend this year, and mean to be his enemy next. God's foreknowledge that man and he should fall out, was not a foreknowledge of anything that he meant to do to that purpose, but only that Man himself would become incapable of the continuation of this friendship. Man might have persisted in that blessed amity; and, since if he had done so, the cause of his persisting had been his own will, I speak of the next and immediate Cause, (As the cause why the Angels that did persist, was Bona ipsorum Angelorum voluntas; the good use of their own free-will) much more was the cause of their defection and breaking this friendship(in their own will; God therefore, having made man, that is Mankind, in a state of love, and friendship, God having not by any purpose of his done anything toward the violation of this friendship, in man, in any man, God continueth his everlasting goodness towards man, towards mankind still, in inviting him to accept the means of Reconciliation, and a return to the same state of friendship, which he had at first, by our Ministry. Be ye reconciled unto God.
You see what you had, and how you lost it. If it might not be recovered, God would not call you to it. It was piously declared in a late Synod, That in the offer of this Reconciliation, God means, as the Minister means; and I am sure I mean it, and desire it to you all; so does God. Nec Deus est qui inimicitias gerit, sed vos, 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, testify against me; testify if I did anything towards inducing an enmity, ot do anything towards hindering this Reconciliation; 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 general, if the merit of Christ be not as large, as the sin 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 Christ's stead, that you be reconciled to God. And, if you consider what God is, The Lord of hosts, and therefore hath means 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 scorn, and hath them in derision, or what he doth not, He doth not justify the wicked balance, nor the bag of deceitful weights, If you consider what the Lord would do, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as the Hen gathereth her Chickens, and ye would not, or what he would not do, As I live, saith the Lord, I desire not the death of the wicked, if ye consider all this, any of this, 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 do, and can do, for you or against you, that is, what he hath done already; that he who was the party offended, hath not only descended so low, as to be reconciled first, and to pay so dear for that, as the blood of his own, and only Son, but knowing thy necessity better then thyself, he hath reconciled thee to him, though thou knewest it not; God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, as it is in the former verse; there the work is done, thy reconciliation is wrought; God is no longer angry so, as to withhold from thee the means; for, there it follows, He hath committed to us the word of Reconciliation; That we might tell you the instrument of Reconciliation is drawn between God and you, and, as it is written in the history of the Council 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 sin and enemies to God, and Children 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 pens in the blood of the Lamb, and so subscribe your names, by acceptation of this offer of Reconciliation. Do but that, subscribe, accept, and then, Caetera omnia, all the rest that concerns your holy history, your Justification and Sanctification, nonne scripta sunt, are they not written in the books 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 find an eternal Decree, and a Book of life in thy behalf, if thou look 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 skin and flesh of our Blessed Savior; written in those his stripes, and those his wounds, with that blood, that can admit to Index expurgatorius, no expunction, no satisfaction; But the life of his death lies in thy acceptation, and though he be come to his, thou art not come to thy Consummatum est, till that be done.
Do that, 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 be a visible part of a Christian Congregation, without this acceptation of reconciliation, that is the particular apprehension, and application of Christ; but he is still subject to a remove, and to that question of confusion, Quomodo intrasti, How came you in? That man in the Gospel could have answered to that question, directly, I came in by the invitation, and conduct of thy servants, I was called in, I was led in; So they that come hither without this wedding garment, they may answer to Christ's Quomodo intrasti, How camest thou in? I came in by faithful parents, to whom, and their seed thou hast sealed a Covenant; I was admitted by thy Servants and Ministers in Baptism, and have been led along by them, by coming to hear them preach thy word, and doing the other external offices of a Christian. But there is more in this question; Quomodo intrasti, is not only how didst thou come in, but how durst thou come in? If thou camest to my feast, without any purpose to eat, and so to discredit, to accuse either my meat, or the dressing of it, to quarrel 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 go forward in thy sin, whatsoever 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 rely upon mine, and think that thou canst be saved without Sermons, or Sacraments, Qvmodo intrasti, How durst thou come in? Him that came in there, without this Wedding garment, the Master of the Feast calls 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, he 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 he had none on) for want of Sanctification in a holy life, God shall deliver us over to the execution of our own consciences, and eternal condemnation.
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 Adam had in Paradise. What would a soul oppressed with the sense of sin give, that she were in that state of Innocency, that she had in Baptism? Be reconciled to God, and you have that, and an elder Innocency then that, the Innocency of Paradise. Go home, and if you find an over-burden of children, negligence in servants, crosses in your tradings, narrowness, penury in your estate, yet this penurious, and this encumbered house shall be your Paradise. Go forth, into the Country, and if you find unseasonableness in the weather, rots in your sheep, murrains in your cattle, worms in your corn, backwardness in your rents, oppression in your Landlord, yet this field of thorns and brambles shall be your Paradise. Lock thyself up in thyself, in thine own bosom, and though thou find every room covered with the • oot of former sins, and shaked with that Devil whose name is Legion, some such sin as many sins depend upon, and are induced by, yet this prison, this rack, this hell in thine own conscience shall be thy Paradise. And as in Paradise Adam at first needed no Savior, so when by this reconciliation, in apprehending thy Savior, thou art restored to this Paradise, thou shalt need no sub-Savior, no joint-Savior, but Caetera adjicientur, no other Angel, but the Angel of the greas Council, 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, 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 sum 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 Christ's stead, we shall not only find rest in God, but, (as it is said of No • hs sacrifice) God shall find the savor of rest in us; God shall find 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 Sabbath 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 crowns them all, Eternity.
SERMON XLI.
Preached at Saint Paul's Cross. 6 May. 1627.
HOSEA 3. 4.
S Ome 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 mercy expressed in the Scriptures, but that from that mercy you may see another mercy. Christ sets up a candle now here, only to lighten that one room, but as he is lumen de lumine, light of light, so he would have more lights lighted at every light of his, and make every 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 find Comminations, and Judgments, but still more mercy. For this discovery let this text be our Map. First we see land, we see mercy in that gracious compellation, Children, (the Children of Israel) Then we see sea, then comes a Commination, • Judgment that shall last some time, (many days shall the Children of Israel suffer) But there they may see land too, another mercy, even this time of Judgment shall be a day, they shall not be benighted, not left in darkness in their Judgment; (many days, all the while, it shall be day) Then the text opens into a deep Ocean, a spreading Sea, (They shall be 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, we see land; for, in the next verse follows another mercy, (The Children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their King, and shall fear the Lord, and his goodness in the later days.) And beyond this land, there is no more Sea; beyond this mercy, no more Judgment, for with this mercy the Chapter ends.
Consider our text then, as a whole Globe, as an entire Sphere, and then our two Hemispheares of this Globe, our two parts of this text, will be, First, that no perverseness of ours, no rebellion, no disobedience puts God beyond his mercy, nor extinguishes his love; still he calls Israel, rebellious Israel his Children; nay his own anger, his own Judgments, then, when he is in the exercise thereof, in the execution thereof, puts him not beyond his mercy, extinguishes not his love; he hides not his face from them then, he leaves them not then, in the dark, he accompanies their calamity with a light, he 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 privilege us, but that he will execute his Judgments upon his Children too, even the Children of Israel shall fall into these Calamities. And from this first part, we shall pass to the second; from these general considerations, (That no punishments should make us desperate, that no favors should make us secure) we shall pass to the particular commination, and judgments upon the children of Israel in this text, without King, without Prince &c.
In our first part, we stop first, upon this declaration of his mercy, in this fatherly appellation, Children, (the children of Israel) He does not call them children of Israel, as though he disavowed them, and put them off to another Father; but therefore, because they are the Children of Israel, they are his Children, for, he had married Israel; and married her to himself forever. Many of us are Fathers; and, from God, here may learn tenderness towards children. All of us are children of some parents, and therefore should hearken after the name of Father, which is nomen pietatis & potestatis, a name that argues their power over us, and our piety towards them; and so, concerns many of us, in a double capacity, (as we are children, and parents too) but all of us in one capacity, as we are children 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 sor • res suas, his sisters; but then, all those sisters of man, all those daughters of God are not alike married. God hath placed his Creatures in divers ranks, and in divers conditions; neither must any man think, that he hath not done the duty of a Father, if he have not placed all his Sons, or not matched all his daughters, in a condition equal to himself, or not equal 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 employs one Son in learning; another to husbandry, another to Merchandise, pursues God's example, in disposing his children, (his creatures) diversely, and all well. Such creatures as the Rain, (though it may seem but an imperfect, and ignoble creature, fallen from the womb of a cloud) have God for their Father; (God is the Father of the Rain.) And such creatures as light, have but God for their Father. God is Pater l • minum, the Father of lights. Whether we take lights there to be the Angels, created with the light, (some take it so) or to be the several 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 rain, and clouds too. And God is the Father of glory; (as Saint Paul styles him) of all glory; whether of those beams of glory which he sheds upon us here, in the blessings, and preferments of this life, or that weight of glory which he reserves for us, in the life to come. From that inglorious drop of rain, 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 fullness of Essentiall joy, so arise daily in accidental joys, all are the children of God, and all alike of kin to us. And therefore let us not measure our avowing, or our countenancing of our kindred, by their measure of honor, or place, or riches in the world, but let us look 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 Son, 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 David's Omnia subjecisti, when he imprints there, a natural disposition in the creature to the obedience of man. So high, so very high a filliation, hath God given man, as that, having another Son, by another filliation, a higher filliation then this, by an eternal generation, yet he was content, that that Son should become this Son, that the Son of God should become the Son of Man.
God is the Father of all; of man otherwise then of all the rest; but then, of the children of Israel, otherwise then of all other men. For he bought them; and, is not be thy Father that hath bought thee? says God by Moses. Not to speak of that purchase, which he made by the death of his Son, (for that belongs to all the world) he bought the Jews in particular, at such a price, such silver, and such gold, such temporal, and such spiritual 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 himself, poured out himself to the Nations, as he did to the Jews, all the world would have swarmed to his obedience, and herded in his pale. God was their father • and, as S. Chrysost • me, (that he might be sure to draw in all degrees of tender affection) calls him, Their Mother too. For, Matris nutrire, Patris erudire; It was a Mothers part to give them suck, and to feed them with temporal blessings; It was a Fathers part to instruct them, and to feed them with spiritual things; and God did both abundantly. Therefore doth God submit himself to the comparison of a Mother in the Prophet Isaiah, Can a woman forget her sucking child? But then, he stays not in that inferior, in that infirmer sex, but returns to a stronger love, then that of a Mother, (yes, (says he) she may forget, yet will not I forget thee.) And therefore, when David says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; David expresses that, which we translate in a general word, Benefits, in this word, Gamal, which signifies Ablactationes; 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 God's children; man is his son; but then, Israel is his first-born son; for that is the addition, 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 siliation, into this primogeniture, 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 itself, if we consider, (which is a useful consideration) their manifold provocations to such an exhaeredation, and what God suffered at their hands.
The ordinary causes of Exhaeredation, for which, a man might dis-inherit his son, are assigned and numbered 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 sewer, to two. These two, Ingratitude, and Irreligion. Vnthankfulnesse, and Idolatry were ever just causes of Exhaeredation, 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 ungrateful, that does not recompense a benefit, but he only 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 & mo • erer ingratus, You have done so much for me, (says he) that I must live, and die unthankful, that is, without showing my thankfulness by equivalent recompenses: This which he calls unthankfulness, was thankfulness enough. There are men, (says the Moral man) Qui quo plus debent, magis od • rant, that hate those men most, who have laid most obligations upon them. Leve as 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 thankfulness. But, ingratitude at the highest, (and the Jews ingratitude was at the highest) involves even a concealing, and a denying of benefits, and even a hating, and injuring of Benefactors. And so, Res peremptoria ingrati • udo, says Bernard significantly, Ingratitude is a peremptory sin; it does Perimere, that is, destroy, not only all virtues, but it destroys, that is, overflows all other particular Vices; no vice can get a name, where ingratitude is; it swallows all, devours all, becomes all; Ingratum dicas, omnia dixisti, If you have called a man unthankful, you have called him by all the ill names that are: for this complicated, this manifold, this pregnant 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 conceal a benefit; but to deny a benefit, or to hate or injure a Benefactor, they have not a word. And therefore, as S. Jerome found not the word in the Hebrew, so in all Saint Jerome's translation of the Old Testament, (or in that which is reputed his, the vulgat Edition) you have not that Latin word, Ingratus; Curious sinners, subtle self-damners; they could not name Ingratitude, and in all the steps of Ingratitude, they exceeded all men, all Nations. From the Ingratitude of murmuring, upon which, God lays that woe, (Woe unto him that says to his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth? A dog murmurs not that he is not a Lion, nor a blind-worm without eyes, that he is not a Basilisk to kill with his eyes; Dust murmurs not that it is not Amber, nor a Dunghill that it is not a Mine, nor an Angel that he is not of the Seraphim; 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 appropriation of that which he hath, to himself, Vti Datis tanquam Innatis, (as S. Bernard speaks in his music) To attribute to ourselves that which we have received from God, to think ourselves 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, (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 highest of all which is, rather then to confess herself beholden to God, to change her God, and so to • lide from Ingratitude to Idolatry, Jerusalem came, and over-went all the Nations upon the earth.
Their Ingratitude induced Idolatry in an instant. As soon as they came to that ungrateful murmuring, (As for Moses we cannot tell what is become of him) they came presently to say to Aaron, (Up and make us God's that may go before us) which is an impotency, a leprosy, that derives itself far, spreads far, that as soon as our sins induce any worldly cross, any clamity upon us, we come to think of another Church, another Religion, 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 seems to express the greatest indignation, 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 falsehood, 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 newness; and, (as it is added there) unto gods whom their fathers feared not. Men, that fall from us, (whose fathers 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 do. But, they have corrupted themselves; (as God charges them farther) They are fallen from us, whom no example of their fathers led that way; fathers have left their former superstition, which they were born and bred in, and the sons, 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 weakness that might have that excuse, that they proceeded out of a reverential 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 foreign Religion, invest a foreign Allegiance. Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, says God, and from the Ammonites. and from the Amorites, and Philistines? 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 therefore, (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 Exhaeredation; Israel abounded in both these, and yet, after all these, in this Text, he calls them Children, The Children of Israel, and therefore his children.
God is kind even to the unthankful, saith christ himself, and himself calls Jerusalem, The holy City, even when she was de • iled with many and manifold uncleannesses, because she had been holy, and had the outward help of holiness remaining in her still. Christ doth not disavow, not disinherit those children which gave most just cause of exheredation; much less doth he justify, by his example, final and total disinheriting of children, occasioned by single and small faults in the children, and grounded in the Parents, upon sudden, and passionate, and intemperate, and imaginary vows, They have vowed to do it, therefore they will do it; for, so they put a pretext of Religion upon their impiety, and make God accessory to that which he dislikes, and upon color of a vow, do that which is far from a service to God, as the performance of every lawful, and discreet vow is. God calls them his Children, (which is one) and then, though as a Father he correct them, yet he shows them his face, in that correction, (which is another beam of his mercy) He calls their calamity, their affliction, Not a night, but a day, (many days shall the children of Israel suffer this.)
We find these two words often joined 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 always a cheerfulness 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, being a day, I have assurance, that the Sun, the Sun of Righteousness will arise to me. At the light of thine Arrows, they went forward, saith the Prophet Habakkuk. Though they be Arrows, yet they are Torches too, though they burn, yet they give light too; though God shoot his Arrows 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 Sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth, in clear day) so is there a gracious promise, and a constant practice in God, That he will (as he hath done) command light of darkness, and enable 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 days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come, God adds that, as an aggravating of the calamity; yea, woe also to them, when I depart from them; as though the oppression of the affliction, the peremptoriousness of the affliction, were not in the affliction itself, hut in God's departing from them, when he afflicted 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 days, yet still he affords them the name of Children, and still their dark and cloudy days 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, which have this filliation, God doth not easily disinherit; because they were his Children, after unnatural disobediencies, he avows 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 heavy and dangerous calamities; when Christ himself saith, The children of the kingdom shall be cast into utter darkness, who can promise himself a perpetual, or unconditioned station? we have in the Scriptures two especial Types of the Church, Paradise, and the Ark. But, in that Type, the Ark, we are principally instructed, what the Church in general shall do, and in that in Paradise, what particular men in the Church should do. For, we do not read, that in the Ark Noah, or his company, did weigh any anchor, hoyst any sails, ship any oar, steare any rudder; but, the Ark, by the providence of God, who only was Pilot, rode safe upon the face of the waters. The Church it self, (figured by the Ark) cannot shipwreck; though men sleep, though the Devil wake, 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 dress Paradise, and to keep Paradise. And when he did not that which he was enjoined to do in that place, he forfeited his interest in it, and his benefit by it. Though we be born and bred in God's house, as Children Baptized, and Catechized in the true Church, if we slacken our holy industry in making fare our salvation, we, though Children of the Kingdom, may becast out, and all our former 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 Alpha and Omega, and all between. He must begin well, (embrace the true Church) and live well according to the profession of that true Church, and die well, according to that former holy life, and practice. Truth in the beginning, Zeal all the way, and Constancy in the end make up a Christian. Otherwise for all this filliation, children may be disinherited, or submitted to such calamities as these which are interminated upon the children of Israel, which constitute our second part, They shall be without a King, and without a Prince, and without a Sacrifice, and without an Ephod, and without a Teraphim.
Disobedient children are not cast off; but yet disobedience is not left uncorrected. Be merciful, but merciful so, as your Father in Heaven is merciful; Be not so merciful upon any private respect, as to be thereby cruel to the public. 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 Adversary. For, that hatred which David calls Odium perfectum, (I have hated them with a perfect hatred) is not only a vehement hatred, but (as Saint Hilary calls it) Odium religiosum, a hatred that may consist with religion: That I hate not another man, for his religion, so as that I lose all religion in myself, by such a hating of him. And Saint Augustine calls it Odium Charitativum, a hate that may consist with Charity; that I hate no man for his peremptory uncharitableness towards my religion, so as to lose mine own Charity; for, I am come to one point of his religion, if I come to be as uncharitable as he. God and Kings are at a near distance, All gods; Magistrates, and inferior persons are at a near distance, all dust. As God proceeds with a King, with Jehoshaphat, in that temper, that moderation, (Shouldst thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord?) So men with men, Magistrates with inferior men, learned men with ignorant men, should proceed with Saint Paul's moderation, If any man obey not (but be refractary, unconformable) note that man (saith the Apostle) and have no company with him, but yet count him not as an enemy. The union of the two Natures in Christ, give us a fair example, that Divinity and Humanity may consist together. No Religion induces Inhumanity; no Piety, no Zeal destroys nature; and since there is a time to hate, and a time to love, then is love most seasonable, when other civil contracts, civil alliances, civil 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 hearkening to one another, That Christ might reconcile both unto God, in one body, by the Cross, having slain the enmity thereby. Civil Offices may work upon religions too; and where that may follow, (That our mildness in civil things, may prevail upon their obduration in religion) there is the time to love. But in cases, where civil peace and religious foundations are both shaked, that the State and the Church, as they are both in one bottom, so they are chased by one Pirate, I hate not with a perfect hatred, not perfect towards God, except I declare, and urge, and press home, the truth of God, against their errors in my Ministry, nor perfect towards man, except I advance, in my place, the execution of those Laws against their practices, without which, they are enabled, nay encouraged, nay persuaded, nay entreated to go forward in those practices. God himself proceeds against his own children so far, (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 Temporal, without Ecclesiastical Government.
First, then, we presume, we presuppose, (and that necessarily) every piece of this part of our Text, to fall under the Commination; they were threatened with the loss of every particular, and therefore they were the worse for every particular loss. Not the worse only because they thought themselves the worse, because they had fixed their love and their delight upon these things, but because they were really the better for having them, it was really a curse, a Commination, that they should lose them; as well that they should lose their Ephod, and their Image, and their Teraphim, as that they should lose their Sacrifices. But first,(though that other fall also within the Commination, that they should be without a settled 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 Civil form of government, without King, and without Prince. For, though our Religion prepare us to our Bene esse, our well-being, our everlasting happiness, yet it is the State, the civil and peaceable government, which preserves our very Esse, our very Being; and there cannot be a Bene esse, without an Esse, a well and a happy Being, except there be first a Being established. It is the State, the Law, that constitutes Families and Cities, and Propriety, and Magistracy, and Jurisdiction. The State, the Law preserves and disting •• shes, not only the Meum & Tuum, the Possessions of men, but the Me & Te, the very persons of men; The Law tells me, not only whose land I must call every Acre, but whose son I must call every man. Therefore God made the Body before the Soul; Therefore there is in man a vegetative, and a sensitive soul, before an immortal, and reasonable soul enter. Therefore also, in this place, God proposes first the Civil State, the temporal Government, (what it is, to have a King and a Prince) before he proposes the happiness of a Church, and a Religion; not but that our Religion conduces to the greater happiness, but that our Religion cannot be conserved, except the Civil State, and temporal Government be conserved too.
The first thing then that the Commination falls upon, is the loss of their Temporal State. But the Commination doth not fall so fully upon the exclusion of all forms of Government, as upon the exclusion of Monarchy; It does not so expressly threaten an An •• chy, that they should have no Government, no Governors; It is not sine Regimine, but sine Rege, If they had any, they should not have the best, They should be without a King. Now, if with S. Jerome, and others that accompany him in that interpretation, 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 own, in any part of the world; no interest at all, in any part of the Magistracy and Jurisdiction of the world, anywhere, but they are a whole Nation of Cain's, fugitives, and vagabonds. But howsoever it be, the heat, and the vehemency of this Commination falls 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 do 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 only in that respect, That they might be like their neighbors, to whom God would not have had them too like: And also, because God, to keep their thankfulness 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 Kingdom; Till the Crown of glory be presented, in the coming of the Messias, thou canst not be happier. Those therefore that allow but a conditional Sovereignty in a Kingdom, an arbitrary, a temporary Sovereignty, 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 temporal Monarchy, Nolumus hoc. Those that determine Allegiance, and civil obedience only by their own religion, and think themselves bound to obey none, that is of another persuasion, 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 foreign hopes, Nolumus hunc. Those that fix a super-Sovereignty in the people, or in a Presbytery, they oppose the Nolumus sic, we would not have things carried thus; They pretend to know the happiness of living under that form, A Kingdom, and to acknowledge the person of the King, but they would be governed every man according to his own mind. And all these, the Nolumus hoc, (they that desire not the continuance of that form, of a Kingdom in an Independency, but would have a dependency upon a foreign 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 interminates 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 Kingdom, to Crumble out a King.
There is another branch in this Part, which is of Temporal calamities, That they shall be sine Principe, Without a King, and without a Prince. The word in the original 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 Isaiah; Sar Salem; The Son of God, is called the Prince of Peace. And so, the commination upon the Jews is thus far aggravated, That they shall be without a Prince, that is, without a certain heir; and Successor; which uncertainty, (more then anything 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, where they are sine Principe, without a certain heir. But the word enlarges it self farther; for, Sar signifies a Judge; when Moses rebuked a Malefactor, he replies to Moses, Who made thee a Judge? And in many, very many places, Sar signifies a Commander in the Wars. So that where the Justice of the State, or the Military power of the State fail, (and they fail, where the men who do, or should execute those places, will not, or dare not do, what appertains to their places) there this Commination falls, They are without a Prince, that is, without future assurance, without present power, or Justice.
But we pass to the spiritual Commination; 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 tenderness of their conscience, or their zeal shall be taken 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 believe 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 kinds are intended in the particulars of this Text, Sacrifice and Ephod, Image and Teraphim.
First, it is a part of the curse, to be without Sacrifice. Now, if according to S. Jerome's interpretation, this Text be a Prophecy upon the Jews, after Christ's 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 be 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 real 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 blasphemous men have profaned, or unclean 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 only 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 begs 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 far from their blasphemous over-boldness, who constitute a propitiatory Sacrifice, in the Church of Rome, as from their over-tenderness, who startle at the name of Sacrifice. We do not, (as at Rome ) first invest the power of God, and make ourselves 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 Christ's actions and passions; we sacrifice, we represent, we offer to God. Calvin alone, hath said enough, Non possumus, except we be assisted with outward things, we cannot fixe ourselves upon God. Therefore is it part of the malediction here, that they shall be sine Sacrificio, without Sacrifice; so is it also in inferior helps, sine Ephod, they shall be without an Ephod.
The Ephod amongst the Jews, was a garment, which did not only distinguish times, (for it was worn only in time of divine Service) but, even in time of divine Service, it distinguished persons too. For, we have a Pontifical Ephod, peculiar only to the high Priest; And we have a Levitical Ephod, belonging to all the Levites; (Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen Ephod.) And we have a common Ephod, which, any man, that assisted in the service of God might wear; That linen Ephod, 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 times. Christ's garment was not divided; nay, the Soldiers were not divided about it, but agreed in one way; And shall we, (the Body of Christ) be divided about the garment, that is, vary in the garment, by denying a conformity to that Decency which is prescribed? When Christ devested, or suppressed the Majesty of his outward appearance, at his Resurrection, Mary Magdalene took him but for a Gardener. Ecclesiastical persons in secular habits, lose their respect. Though the very habit be but a Ceremony, yet the distinction of habits is rooted in nature, and in morality; And when the particular habit is enjoined by lawful 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. Ritual, and Ceremonial 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, without these outward Ritual, and Ceremonial solemnities of a Church; first, without Sacrifices, which are more substantial and essential parts of Religion, (as we consider Religion to be the outward worship of God, and then, without Ephod, without those other assistances, which, though they be not of God's Revenue, yet they are of his Subsidies, and though they be not the soul, yet are the breath of Religion. And so also is it of things of a more inferior nature then Sacrifice or Ephod, that is of Image and Teraphim, which is our next, and last Consideration.
Both these words, (that which is translated, and called Image, and that which is not translated, but kept in the original 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 everywhere. And for the other, though when Rachel stole her fathers Teraphim, (Images) though when the King of Babylon consulted with Teraphim, (Images) the word Teraphim have an ill sense, yet, when Michal, David's 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, because they fall under the commination, and that God threatens it, as a part of their calamity, that they should be without their Idols, it hath been, not inconveniently, argued from this place, that even a Religion mixed with some Idolatry, and superstition, is better then none, as in Civil Government a Tyranny is better then an Anarchy. And therefore we must not bring the same indisposition, the same disaffection towards a person misled, and soured with some leaven of Idolatry, as towards a person possessed with Atheism. And yet, how ordinarily we see, zealous men start, and affected, and troubled at the presence of a Papist, and never moved, never forbear the society and conversation of an Atheist: Which is an argument too evident, that we consider ourselves 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 themselves, 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 signify Idols.
But Saint Jerome, and others with him, take these words, in a good sense; to be the Cherubim, and Palms, and such other representations, as God himself had ordained in their Temple; and that the Commination falls upon this, That in some cases, it may be some want, to be without some Pictures in the Church. So far as they may conduce to a reverend adoring of the place, so far as they may conduce to a familiar instructing of unlettered people, it may be a loss to lack them. For, so much Calvin, out of his religious wisdom, is content to acknowledge, Fateor, ut res se habet hodie, &c. I confess, as the case stands now, (says he) (speaking of the beginning of the Reformation) there are many that could not be without those Books, (as he calls those Pictures) because then they had no other way of Instruction; but, that that might be supplied, if those things which were delivered in picture, to their eyes, were delivered in Sermons to their ears. And this is true, that where there is a frequent preaching, there is no necessity of pictures; but will not every man add this, That if the true use of Pictures be preached unto them, there is no danger of an abuse; and so, as Remembrancers of that which hath been taught in the Pulpit, they may be retained; And that was one office of the Holy Ghost himself, 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 anymore inclined, or endangered to worship a picture in a Wall or Window of the Church, then if he saw it in a Gallery, were it only for a reverent adorning of the place, they may be retained here, as they are in the greatest part of the Reformed Church, 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 extol 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 Roman Church hath multiplied in this point, not only 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 do daily miracles; to transfer the honor due to God, to the Image, and then to encumber themselves with such ridiculous riddles, and scornful distinctions, as they do, for justifying unjustifiable, inexcusable, uncolourable enormities, Va Idololatris, woe to such advancers of Images, as would throw down Christ, rather then his Image: But Vae 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. Jerome's exposition, that falls within the Vae, the Commination of this Text, to be without those Sacrifices, those Ephods, those Images, as they are outward helps of devotion. And, laying hold, not upon S. Jerome, but upon Christ himself, who is the God of love, and peace, and unity, yet falls under a heavy, and insupportable Vae, to violate the peace of the Church, for things which concern it not fundamentally. Problematicall things are our silver, but fundamental, our gold; problematicall out sweat, but fundamental our blood. If our Adversaries would be bought in, with our silver, with our sweat, we should not be difficult in meeting them half way, in things, in their nature, indifferent. But if we must pay our Gold, our Blood, our fundamental points of Religion, for their friendship, A Fortune, a Liberty, a Wife, a Child, a Father, a Friend, a Master, a Neighbor, a Benefactor, a Kingdom, a Church, a World, is not worth a dram of this Gold, a drop of this Blood. Neither will that man, who is truly rooted in this foundation, redeem an Empoverishing, an Emprisoning, a Dis-inheriting, a Confining, an Excommunicating, a Deposing, with a dram of this Gold, with a drop of this Blood, the fundamental Articles of our Religion. Blessed be that God, who, as he is without change or color of change, hath kept us without change, or color of change, in all our foundations; And he in his time bring our Adversaries to such a moderation as becomes them, who do truly desire, that the Church may be truly Catholic, one stock, in one fold, under one Shepherd, though not all of one color, of one practice in all outward and disciplinarian points. Amen.
SERMON XLII.
A Sermon Preached in Saint Paul's in the Evening, November 23. 1628.
PROV. 14. 31.
Part of the first Lesson, for that Evening Prayer.
T Hese are such words, as if we were to consider the words only, might make a Grammar Lecture, and a Logic Lecture, and a Rhetoric and Ethick, a Philosophy Lecture too; And of these four Elements might a better Sermon then you are like to hear now, be well made. Indeed they are words of a large, of an extensive comprehension. 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 entry into the rest, to consider, not only the powerfulness of the matter, but the sweetness and elegancy of the words of the Word of God in general, before I descend to the particular words of this Text, He that oppresseth the poor, &c.
We may justly accommodate those words of Moses, to God the Father, What God is there in Heaven, or in Earth, that can do according to thy works? And those words of Jeremiah, to God the Son, Behold, and see, if there be any sorrow, like unto my sorrow; And those to the Holy Ghost which are in Isaiah, Loquimini, ad Cor, speak to the heart, speak comfortably to my People, And those of Saint John too, A voice of Thunder, and after, A voice of seven Thunders talking with me: for, who can do, like the Father, who can suffer like the Son, who can speak like the Holy Ghost? Eloquia Domini, eloquia casta, saith David, The words of the Lord are chaste words, sincere, pure words, no dross, no profaneness, no such allay mingled with them; for, as it followeth there, They are as silver tried and purified seven 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 powerful upon the Hearer too; Ignitum Eloquium tuum vehementer, saith he, 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 especially, because it carrieth a sweetness with it. For, the sting of the Serpent pierces, and the toothe of the Viper pierces, but they carry venenosam salivam, a venomous and mischievous liquor with them. But Dulcia faucibus super Mel, Thy words are sweeter to my mouth, then Honey; then Honey it self. For, verba composita, saith Solomon, chosen words, studied, premeditated words, pleasing words, (so we translate it) are as a Honycombe. Now, in the Honey comb, the Honey is collected and gathered, and dispensed, and distributed from the Honey-comb, And of this Honey-comb is wax, wax apt for sealing, derived too. The distribution of this Honey to the Congregation, The sealing of this Honey to the Conscience, is in the outward Ordinance of God, and in the labor of the Minister, and his conscionable fitting of himself for so great a service. But the Honey-Comb is not the Honey, The gifts of the man, is not the Holy Ghost. Jacob laid this blessing upon his son Naphtali, Dabit Eloquia pulchritudinis; That he should be a well-spoken, and a persuasive man. For, of a defect in this kind, Moses complained, and so did Isaiah, and Jeremiah did so too, when they were to be employed in God's service, Moses that he was of uncircumcised; Isaiah that he was of unclean lips, and Jeremiah that he was a Child, and could not speak; and therefore this was a Blessing upon Naphtali, that he should be a well-spoken, and a persuasive man. For so, Moses, after God had farther enabled him, saith, Give ear, O ye Heavens, and I will speak; Hear 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 self may be content to hear. For, when Saint Paul saith, That to the Principalities, and Powers in Heavenly places, the manifold wisdom of God, is made known by the Church, that is, by the Ministry, and Service of the Church, and by that which is done here, we may congruously and piously believe, that even those Principalities and Powers in Heavenly places, The Angels of Heaven do hear our Sermons, and hearken how the glory of God is communicated, and accepted, and propagated through the Congregation; and as they rejoice at the conversion of a Sinner, so rejoice also at the means of their Conversion, the powerful, and the congruous preaching of the Word of God. And therefore, let no man, though an Angel of the Church, though an Archangel of the Church, Bishop or Archbishop, refuse to hear a man of imeriour place, or inferior parts to himself; neither let any man be discouraged by the fewness or meanness of his Hearers: For, as the Apostle saith, with relation to Abraham, 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 Wisdom of God made known by the Church, and Angels are here; here, for the augmentation of their own Joy, in their fresh knowledge of the propagation of the Kingdom of God, in this Congregation, and they are here, for their Accusation that are not here, but frivolously and causelessly absent, or negligently, absently present, if they be here. Therefore Moses might say, Give ear O ye Heavens, though it be but I, that speak; And he might add, as he doth there, My Doctrine shall drop 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 do, must this be ascribed unto you? no, Moses claimeth not that; for when he had said, Give ear, O ye Heavens, (let no man think himself too high, or too wise to hear me) and called it his Doctrine, and his speech, because he published the Name of the Lord, yet he transferreth all upon God himself, He establisheth their attentions with that Ascribe ye Greatness unto our God. It becometh me to make myself 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 do, is but a small matter, the greatness of the work lieth in your Application, and that must proceed from the Word of God it self, quickened by his Spirit, and therefore Ascribe all Greatness unto our God, for that is the Honey, whatsoever, or whosoever be the Honycombe. Truly, when I read a Sermon of Chrysostom, or of Chrysologus, or of Ambrose, Men, who carry in the very signification of their Names, and in their Histories, the attributes of Honey mouthed, and Golden-mouthed Men, I find myself oftentimes, more affected, with the very Citation, and Application of some sentence of Scripture, in the midst or end of one of their Sermons, then with any witty, or forcible passage of their own. And that is it, which Saint Jerome doth especially magnify in Saint Paul. After he had said, Quotiescunque lego, non verba mihi videor, sed tonitrua audire, wheresoever I open Saint Paul's Epistles, it is not a word or a sentence, but a clappe of Thunder, that flieth out; he addeth moreover, Legatis, do but use yourselves to the reading of Saint Paul's Epistles, Videbitis, in testimoniis quae sumit, ex veteri Testamento, quàm Artifex sit, quàm prudens, you will easily see how artificially, how dexterously, how cunningly, and how discreetly he makes his use of those places which he citeth out of the Old Testament; Videntur verba Innocontis, & rusticani; you would take them saith he, 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, he maketh you see, that they are flashes of lightning, and that they possess, and melt, affect and dissolve every soul they touch. And hence it is, Beloved, that I return so often at home in my private Meditations, that I present so often to God's People in these Exercises, this Consideration, That there are not so exquisite, so elegant Books in the World, as the Scriptures; neither is any one place a more pregnant example thereof, for the purity and elegancy, for the force and power, for the largeness and extension of the words, then these which the Holy Ghost hath taken in this Text, He that oppresseth the poor, reproaches his Master, &c. And so we pass from this first Consideration, The power and Elegancy of the whole word of God, in general, to the same consideration in these particular words.
The Matter, which in the general is but this, That the poor must be relieved, being a Doctrine obvious to all; The Manner will rather be our object, at this time: How the Holy Ghost, by Solomon's 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 perverseness hath changed God's method; God made man good, but in a possibility of being ill; Now, God finds man ill, but in a possibility of being good. When man was good, and enabled to continue so, God began with him, with affirmative Commandments; Commandments that implied liberty and Sovereignty; such as that, Subjicite & Dominamini, Subdue the Creature, and rule over the Creature; and he comes not till after, to Negative, to Prohibitive Commandments, Commandments that imply infirmity, and servility; such as this, Of this Tree thou shalt not eat, upon thy life; this life, and the next, thou shalt not. But now, because God finds man ill, and prone to be worse, God is fain 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, Depart from evil, and then, Do 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 far from being good of himself, as that he must forget himself, devest himself, forsake himself, before he can be capable of any good. And such is the method of our Text; Because God sees a natural declination in man, to abuse his power, to the oppression of inferiors, he begins with that Prohibition, Oppresse not the poor; And then when he hath brought them to that moderation, and that temper, then he carries them farther towards perfection, to an honoring of God in showing 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 itself, Oppression; which, in general, is an unjust damnifying of others. And secondly, the specification of the Persons, the Poor; for others, our Superiors, we may unjustly damnify 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 kinds of sins, Whether emulation of superiors, or oppression of inferiors, be in the nature, and root thereof, the greater sin. In which latter sin, which is properly the sin of our Text, that is, oppression of the poor, we shall see, (in a third branch) the iniquity, and heinousness thereof aggravated in this, that it is said to be a Reproach, a Contumely; and Contumely, and Reproach, against whomsoever it be bent; hath always a venomous, and a mischievous Nature. But much more here, where it is bent against God himself; 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 variety of the Hebrew Grammars, would justify mine ignorance, for they will not admit it to be easily determined, whether it be Factorem ejus, or Factorem suum, whether he that oppresses the poor, be said to reproach his Maker that is made poor, or his own Maker: And therefore we shall make our use of both; for both meet to aggravate the fault; If I oppress the poor, I reproach him that made that poor man, and made that man poor, and I reproach him that made me. And in these circumstances, The fault, Oppression; the specification of the Persons, the Poor; the Problem, the Comparison of the two sins; the Aggravation, as it is a Reproach, a reproach against God, and God as a Creator, as his Creator, as my Creator, we shall determine that first part. And when in our order thus proposed, we shall come to our second Part, which is the recommendation, and celebration of the Duty it self, To honor God, by showing mercy to the poor, we shall first consider the persons, the poor; and then the act, to show mercy to the poor; 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 honoring of God. After all which we shall conclude all, with the consideration of that which is indeed the poorest of all, the sickest, and forest, and saddest, the feeblest and faintest, the wretchedest, and miserablest thing in the world, your own souls; and lead you to see, how you do reproach God in oppressing, how you might honor God in showing mercy to those poor souls of yours. And this will be the compass, in which I shall lead your devotions for this hour; this will be the circle, which from this center, relief of the poor, (which is the sum, and resultance of the Text) and by these poles, the heinousness of the fault, the happiness of the duty, I shall design unto you.
We proposed at first, to consider our two parts, the fault, and the duty, in the elegancy 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 oppression; Gnashak in the Original; and Gnashak, as it does oftentimes signify vim, violence, and force, so does it often signify dolum, deceit and fraud also: so that violence and deceit concur in this oppression. And more then they. For Solomon does not depart from that which he means, when he says here, He that oppresses the poor, reproaches his Maker, when he says in another place, He that macks the poor, reproaches his Maker. So that now these three, violence, and deceit, and scorn are the elements, the ingredients that make up this oppression. There is not a more brutish thing then violence; amongst beasts all goes by force. There is not a more devilish thing then deceit; the Serpent destroyed us all by that. But man hath raised a degree of oppression, beyond beasts, and their violence, and beyond the devil, and his falsehood, that is, scorn. For, though the devil oppress man, and hate man, he does not scorn man; he finds man a considerable enemy. For when he hath thrown a man into the world, oppressed with original sin, that man is not therefore his; the Sacrament of Baptism frustrates him of that Title. When he hath oppressed him in the world, by actual and habitual sins, 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 weak soever man be in himself, yet, in Christo omnia possumus, There is one man (and in that one man are all men, that is, all mankind, enwrapped) who lie open to the Serpent only in his heel, and the Serpent to him, in his head; and in him, Omnia possumus, in Christ, the weakest man can do anything. The Devil could oppress Job with violence; fire, and sword, and ruin upon his goods, and cattle, and servants, and children, and himself too. The Devil could oppress him with deceit, corrupt the wife of his bosom, to tempt him to desperation; but he never came to scorn Job; for he saw Job did not serve God for naught; Job had good wages, and God had hedged him, enclosed him, for himself. Scorn is an affection, that implies such a heighth above another, as cannot be justified in any but God himself. Man can oppress by deceit; The Kings of the earth take counsel together; they study how to circumvent; and man can oppress with violence; there they break bands asunder, and cast away cords; they will be bound by no laws. But then, it is only God, who there laughs them to scorn, and hath them in derision. Now here, the oppressor practices the beasts part, he comes to violence, and the Devils part, he comes to deceit, and he usurps upon God's part, he comes to that heighth, as to think he may scorn and contemn. And whom? for that is our next consideration; he oppresseth the poor, he treads down the poor; him that was dust before, he treads into dirt, macerated with his own sweat, his own tears, his own blood. He oppresses him with deceit; the credulous and confident wretch, who, because he is harmless in himself, is fearless of others, he betrays, he circumvents. And he oppresses with scorn; him whom poverty hath made the subject of pity and of prayers, he makes the anvil of scorn and of jeasts. For, so far, our first word, Gnashak, carries his signification and our meditation, he oppresses by violence, by deceit, by scorn, brutishly, devilishly, and more, (which is the qualification of the fault, and was our first consideration) and all this upon the poor, (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 marks; Violence, deceit, scorn. But who is this poor man, and how shall you know him? How shall you know, whether he that asks 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 man's condition to whom I gave mine alms. If I give to one that is poor in my sight, I shall find that alms upon God's score, amongst them, who were poor in God's sight: And my mistaking the man, shall never make God mistake my meaning. Where I find undeniable, unresistible evidence to the contrary, when I see a man able in his limbs live in continual idleness, when I see a man poor in his means, and oppressed with his charge, spend in continual drunkenness, in this case, I were the oppressor of the poor, if I should give to that man, for this were to give the children's 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 beggary an occupation from their infancy, were ever within Church, how few of them ever Christened, or ever married? Foris Canes, they are dogs, that are without; and the Children's bread must not be given to Dogs. But to pursue our first intention, and so to find 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 beggar. It was the name given to one of those first heretics who occasioned the writing of St. John's Gospel; he was called Ebion. So that it may well be imagined, that those first Heretics were Mendicants: Men that professed begging, and lived upon the labors, and sweat of other men. For the Ebionit is a beggar; not only he that needs, but he that declares his need, that asks, that craves, that begs: for, the root of Ebion is Ahab; which is not only to desire, but to declare that desire, to ask, to crave, to beg. Now, this poor man must be relieved. The charity that God required in Israel, was, that no man should be put to this necessity, but provided for otherwise; There shall be no beggar 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 Jeremiah, that man is well spoken of, that did good even to the Ebionit, to the beggar; he that is brought to a necessity of asking, must be relieved. Not that we are not bound to give, till another ask, or never to open our hand, till another open his mouth; for, as Saint John did, in the beginning of the Revelation, a man may see a sound, see a voice. A sad aspect, a pale look, a hollow cheek, a bloodless lip, a sonke eye, a trembling hand, speak so loud, as that if I will not hear them from him, God will hear them against me. In many cases, and with many persons, it is a greater anguish to ask, 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 speak, when the needy man says nothing, and his case may cry aloud, when he is silent. Therefore I must lay mine ear to the ground, and hearken after them that lie in the dust, and inquire after the distresses of such men; for this is an imitation of God's preventing grace, that grace, then which we can conceive no higher thing in God himself, (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 beggar, but not he only, 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 Exhaustum, attenuatum, a man whose former estate is exhausted, and gone, or whose present labors do not prosper, but that God, for ends best known to himself, exercises him with continual poverty; the word signifies also a man enfeebled, and decrepit with age; and more then that, the word signifies sickness too: for this very word we have in Hezekiah's mouth, The Lord will cut me off with sickness. So that now you have the specification of the person, who is the poor man, that is most properly the object of your charity, he whose farmer 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 less able to repair his wants, and in his age, afflicted with sickness, and so the less able to endure his wants. And this poor man, this laboring man, this decayed man, this aged man, this sickly man, this oppressor in our text pursues; and pursues with violence, with deceit, with scorn. 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, I remember, I asked leave at first, only to stir this consideration, only to propound this Problem, only to ask this question, whether Envy, and Emulation, and supplantation of Superiors, or this oppression, and conculcation of Inferiors in this kind, were in the nature, and root thereof, the greater sin; and surely the sentence, and the Judgment 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 labors to supplant another, that he may succeed, will in some measure endeavor 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 envious man hath upon virtue. Besides, he that envies a higher person, he does not practice (as the Poet says) sine talione; He deals with a man that can be at full even with him, and can deal as ill with him. But he that oppresses the poor, digs in a dunghill for worms; 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 himself, and makes himself insensible of the cries, and curses of the poor here in this world, does but prepare himself for the howlings, & gnashings of teeth, in the world to come. It is the Serpents taste, the Serpents diet, Dust shalt thou eat 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 himself, 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, 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, Moses, is blasphemed, as well as God: And Goliath blasphemed the Israel of God, as well as the God of Israel; and, for the most part, where we read 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. 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 goodness of God's Spirit, a true sense of my sins, a true remorse, and repentance of those sins, true Absolution from those sins, true seals of reconciliation after those sins, true diligence, and preclusion of occasions of relapsing into those sins, still to suspect my state in God's favor, and my full redintegration with him, still to deny myself that peace, which his Spirit, by these means, offers me, still to call my repentance imperfect, and the Sacramental seals ineffectual, still to accuse myself of sins, thus devested, thus repented, this is to reproach, this is to to blaspheme mine own soul. If I will say with Job, My heart shall reproach me of nothing, this is not, that I will accuse myself of no sin, or say, the elect of God cannot sin, no, nor that God sees not the sins of the elect, nor that God is not affected, or angry with those sins, and those sinners, as long as they remain unrepented, but after I have accused myself of those sins, and brought them into Judgment, by way of Confession, and received my pardon under seal, in the Sacrament, and pleaded that pardon, to the Church, by a subsequent amendment of life, then I reproach myself of nothing, for this were a self-blaspheming, and a reproaching of mine own soul. Now, the word of our text, in the root thereof, Charak, is manifestare; prostituere; It is to publish the fault, or to prostitute the fame of any man, extrajudicially, not in a right form of Judgment, and amongst those men, who are not to be his Judges. So to fill itching ears with rumors, and whisperings, so to minister matter and fuel 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 manifestare, prostituere, to publish a man's faults, and to prostitute a man's 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 speak ill of a man, and not before a competent Judge. And in such a sense, a man may reproach God himself.
But is there then a Judge between God and man? Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? is Abraham's question; 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 God's proceeding there? There is. The Scripture is a Judge, by which God himself will be tried. 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 Judgments, which he hath laid down in the Scripture. When God says in Isaiah, Judge between me and my Vineyard, certainly, God means that there is something extant, some contract, some covenant, something that hath the nature of a Law, some visible, some legible thing, to judge by. And Christ tells us what that is; Search the Scriptures. says he; for, by them we must be tried for our lives. So then, if I come to think that God will call me in question for my life, for my eternal 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, before 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 exhibited himself, 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 tried 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 believe, 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 down in the Scriptures, and not grounded upon any secret purpose, is a reproaching of God, in the word of this Text.
This, this Oppressor of the poor is said to do here; He reproaches the Maker; God, in that notion, as he is the Creator. Now this is the clearest notion, and fastest apprehension, and first handle that God puts out to man, to lay hold upon him by, as he is The Creator. For though God did elect me, before he did actually create me, yet God did not mean to elect me, before he meant to create me; when his purpose was upon me, to elect me, surely his purpose had passed upon me, to create me; 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 University 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 work by him. But still the State, and the Church, and the University, and the first School itself, 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 is this world, we make ourselves; that is, we make one another: Kings make Judges, and Judges make Officers: Bishops make Parsons, and Parsons make Curates: But when we consider our Creation, It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we did not only not do anything, but we could not do so much as wish anything to be done, towards our Creation, till we were created. In the Application of that great work, The Redemption of mankind, 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 work upon; But in the Creation there was nothing at all. I honor my Physician, upon the reasons that the Wise man assigns; because he assists my health, and my well-being; But I honor not my Physician with the same honor as my Father, who gave me my very Being. I honor my God in all those notions, in which he hath vouchsafed to manifest himself to me; Every particular blessing of his is a Remembrancer; but my Creation is a holy 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, 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 other additions depend. And when thou comest to any post-Creations, any after-makings in this world, to be made rich, made wise, made great, Praise thou the Lord, bless him, and magnify him forever, for those Additions, and bless 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 Honorable; But still return to thy first making, thy Creation, as thou wast made of nothing, nothing; so low, as that not sin itself, not sin against the holy Ghost himself can cast thee so low again; nothing can make thee nothing; nothing that thou canst do 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 reproach God; He reproaches the Maker. But then, whose Maker? for that is also another branch, another Disquisition.
Here we accept willingly, and entertain usefully their doubt, that will not resolve, whether 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 oppress 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 Emperor 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) he would not, he durst not say, it was a disorderly Clock, or a disproportioned picture. Wise Fathers have foolish children, and beautiful, deformed; yet we do not oppress, nor despise those children, 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 God's making, but of the Devils, induced by his riot and wastfulnesse, howsoever the poverty may be the Devils, still the Man is of God's making.
Probris afficit factorem ejus, He reproaches Him that made that man poor, and Probris afficit factorem suum, He reproaches that God who made him rich, his own Maker. Now, doth he consider, that the Devil hath super-induced a half-lycantropy upon him, The Devil hath made him half a wolf, so much a wolf as that he would tear all that fall into his power, And half a spider, so much a spider, as that he 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 he consider that the Devil hath made him half a wolf, half a spider, half a viper, and doth he not consider that that God that is his Maker, could have made him a whole Wolf, 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 ruin here, and the occasion of his everlasting ruin hereafter, by making 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 less 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 heinously, as to deserve so high an increpation, as to be said to Reproach, and to Reproach God, and God in that supreme 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, The poor are immediately in God's protection. Rich and poor are in God's administration, in his government, in his providence; But the poor are immediately in his protection. Tibi derelictus est pauper, 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 especial care of those that are in their protection. And the poor are such; And therefore God more sensible in their behalf. And so, he that oppresses the poor, Reproaches God, God in his Orphans.
Again, 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 Greatness, may be a better picture of God, of God considered in himself, who is all Greatness, 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 lived in continual poverty. And so, he that oppresses the poor, reproaches God, God in his Orphans, God in his Picture.
Saint Augustine carries this consideration farther, then that the poor is more immediately God's 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, says, The Son of man hath not where to lay his head, Saint Augustine says, Ecce caput Panperum, Behold that head, to which, the poor make up the body, Ob eam tantùm causam venerabiles, says that Father, Therefore venerable, therefore honorable, because they are members suitable to that head. And so, all that place, where the Apostle says, That upon those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, we bestow most honor, that Father applies to the poor, that therefore most respect and honor should be given to them, because the poor are more suitable members to their head Christ Jesus, then the rich are. And so also, he that oppresses the poor reproaches God, God in his Orphans, God in his Image, God in the Members of his own body.
Saint Chrysostom carries this consideration farther then this of Saint Augustine. That whereas every creature hath filiationem vestigii, that because God hath imparted a being, an essence, from himself, who is the root, and the fountain of all essence, and all being, therefore every creature hath a filliation from God, and is the Son of God so, as we read in Job, God is the father of the rain; and whereas every man hath filiationem imaginis, as well Pagan as Christian, hath the Image of God imprinted in his soul, and so hath a filliation from God, and is the Son of God, as he is made in his likeness; 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 filliation from God, and is the Son of God, as he is incorporated into his Son 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 poor, says that Father, are not only filii, but Haeredes, and Primogeniti, Sons and eldest Sons, Sons, and Sons and Heirs. And to that purpose he makes use of those words in St. James, Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and Heirs of that Kingdom? Heirs, for, Ipsorum est, says Christ himself, Theirs is the Kingdom of heaven; And upon those words of Christ, Saint Chrysostom comments thus, Divites ejus regnitantum habent, quantum à pauperibus, eleemosynis coemerunt, The rich have no more of that Kingdom of heaven, then they have purchased of the poor, by their alms, and other erogations to pious uses. And so he that oppresses the poor reproaches God, God in his Orphans, God in his Image, God in the Members of his own Body, God in his Sons, and Heirs of his Kingdom.
But then Christ himself carries his consideration, beyond all these resemblances, and conformities, not to a proximity only, but to an identity, The poor are He. 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 only to be his, but to be He, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? The poor are He, He is the poor. And so, he that oppresseth the poor, reproaches God, God in his Orphans, God in his Image, God in the Members of his own Body, God in the Heirs of his Kingdom, God in himself, in his own person. And so we have done with all those pieces, which constitute our first part, the heinousness of the fault, in the elegancy of the words chosen by the holy Ghost, in which you have seen, The fault itself, Oppression, and the qualification thereof, by the marks, Violence, Deceit, and Scorn. And then the specification of the persons, The poor, as he is the Eb • onite, the very vocal beggar, and as the word is Dalal, a decayed, an aged, a sickly man; And in that branch, you have also had that Problem, Whether aemulation of higher, or oppression of lower, be the greater sin: And then, the aggravation of this sin, 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 especially 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, in those words of choice elegancy, He that hath mercy on the poor, honors God, though we be to look upon the persons, the poor, and the act, showing mercy to the poor, and the benefit, honoring of God, yet, of the persons, (who are still the same poor, poor, made poor 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 poor, only thus much more needs be said, that the word, in which, the holy Ghost expresses this act here, is the very same word, in which, he expresses the free mercy of God himself, Miserebor cujus miserebor, 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 greatest attribute, his power of showing mercy. And then, left any man should think, that he had no interest in this great dignity, that God had given him no means to partake of this attribute of God, this power of showing 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, 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 means to relieve the poor, prays for the poor, is thereby made partaker of this great attribute of God's, this power of showing mercy. He hath showed mercy to the poor, if, having nothing to give, he have given mild and comfortable 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, no more being needful to be said, of the persons, the poor, nor of the Act, showing of mercy to the poor, there remains no more in this last part, but according to our way, all the way, to consider the origination and latitude of this last word, Cahad, this honoring of God. The word does properly signify Augere, ampliare, To enlarge God, to amplify, to dilate God; to make infinite God, shall I dare to say, more God? certainly, God to more, then he was before. O who can express this abundant, this superabundant largeness of God's goodness to man, that there is a power put into man's hands, to enlarge God, to dilate, to propagate, to amplify God himself! I will multiply this people, says God, and they shall not be few, I will glorify them, and they shall not be small; there's the word of our text. God enables me to glorify him, to amplify him, to increase him, by my mercy, my alms. For this is not only that increase, that Saint Jerome intends, that he that hath pity on the poor, Foeneratur Domino, he lends upon use to the Lord, for, this, though it be an increase, is but an increase to himself; but he that shows mercy to the poor, increases God, says our text, dilates, enlarges God. How? Corpus aptasti mihi; when Christ comes into the world, (says Saint Paul ) he says to his Father, Thou hast prepared and fitted a body for me. That was his natural body, that body which he assumed in the bowels of the blessed Virgin. They that pretend to enlarge this body by multiplication, by making millions of these bodies in the Sacraments, by the way of Transubstantiation, they do not honor this body, whose honor is to sit in the same dimensions, and circumscriptions, at the right hand of God. But then, as at his coming into this world, God had fitted him a body, so in the world, he had fitted himself another body, a Mystical body, a Church purchased with his blood. Now this body, this Mystical body I feed, I enlarge, I dilate, and amplify, by my mercy, and my charity. For, as God says to Jerusalem, Thou wast in thy blood, thou wast not salted, nor swaddled, no eye pitied thee, but thou wast cast out into the open field, and I loved thee, I washed thee, I appareled and adorned thee, & prosperataes in regnum, I never gave thee over, till I saw thee an established kingdom: so may all those Saints of God say to God himself, to the Son of God invested in this body, this mystical body, the Church, thou was cast out into the open field, all the world persecuted thee, and then we gave thee suck with our blood, we clothed thee with our bodies, we built thee houses and adorned and endowed those houses to thine honor, & prosperatus es in regnum, we never gave over spending, and doing, and suffering for thy glory, till thou hadst an established kingdom, over all the earth. And so thou, thy body, thy mystical body, the Church, is honored, that is, amplified, dilated, enlarged, by our mercy. Magnificat Anima mea Dominum, was the exultation of the blessed Virgin; My soul doth magnify the Lord. When the meditations of my heart, digested into writing, or preaching, or any other declaration of God's glory, carry, or advance the knowledge of God, in other men, then My soul doth magnify the Lord, enlarge, dilate, amplify God. But when I relieve any poor wretch, of the household of the faithful, with mine alms, then my mercy magnifies the Lord, occasions him that receives, to magnify the Lord by this thanksgiving, and them that see it to magnify the Lord by their imitation, in the like works of mercy. And so far, do 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 honor him so far, as to dilate, to enlarge, to amplify him, that is that body, which he in his Son, hath invested by purchase, his Church.
We have done; If you will but clasp up all this in your own bosoms, if you will but lay it to your own hearts, you may go. A poorer thing is not in the world, nor a sicker, (which you may remember to have been one signification of this word poor) then thine own soul. And therefore the Chaldee paraphrase renders this text thus, He that oppresses the poor reproaches his own soul; for, his own soul is as poor, as any whom he can oppress. To a beggar, that needs, and asks but bodily things, thou wilt say, Alas poor soul; and wilt thou never say Alas poor soul to thyself, that needest spiritual things? If thy affections, thy pleasures, thy delights, beg of thee, and importune thee so far, to bestow upon them, say unto them, I have those that are nearer me then you, Wife and Children, and I must not empoverith them, to give unto you, I must not starve my family, to feed my pleasures. But if this Wife and Children beg, and importune so far, say unto them too, I have one that is nearer me, then all you, a soul; and I must not endanger that, to satisfy you; I must not provide Ioyntures, and Portions with the damnifying, with the damning of mine own soul. It is a miserable Alchimy and extracting of spirits, that stills away the spirit, the soul it self; and a poor Philosophers Stone, that is made with the coals of Hell-fire; a lamentable purchase, when the soul is paid for the land. And therefore show mercy to this soul. Do not oppress this soul; not by Violence, which was the first signification of this word Oppression: Do not violate, do not smother, not strangle, not suffocate the good motions of God's Spirit in thee • for, it is but a woeful victory, to triumph over thine own conscience, and but a servile greatness to be able to silence that. Oppresse not thy soul by Fraud, which was the second signification of this word Oppression. Defraud not thy soul of the benefit of God's Ordinances; frequent these exercises; come hither; And be not here like Gideon's 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 Gideon's 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 Judgments denounced here, over which, they that stand by thee, are able, by a faithful and cheerful laying hold of God's offers, though they stand guilty of the same sins that thou doest, to lift up their heads, must still necessarily overflow and surround thee. Oppresse not that soul, by violence, by Fraud, nor by Scorn, which was the other signification of this word Oppression. Hoc nos perdit, 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 poor soul, by this Violence, this Fraud, this Scorn, thou wilt come to Reproach thy Maker, to impute that loss of thy soul, which thou hast incurred by often breach of Laws evidently manifested to thee; to his secret purpose, and un-revealed will; then which, thou canst not put a greater Reproach, a greater Contumely, a greater Blasphemy upon God. For, God cannot be God, if he be not innocent, nor innocent if he draw blood of me, for his own Act. But if thou show mercy to this soul, mercy in that signification of the word, as it denotes an actual performance of those things that are necessary for the making sure of thy salvation, or, if thou canst not yet attain 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 believe, Lord help mine unbelief, Lord I stand yet, yet Lord raise me when I fall, Honorabis Deum, thou shalt honor God, in the sense of the word in this Text, thou shalt enlarge God, amplify, dilate God, that is, the Body of God, the Church, both here, and hereafter. For, thou shalt add a figure to the number of his Saints, and there shall be a Saint the more for thee; Thou shalt add a Theme of Joy, to the Exultation of the Angels; They shall have one occasion of rejoicing the more from thee: Thou shalt add a pause, a stop to that Vsquequo of the Martyrs, under the Altar, who solicit God for the Resurrection, for, Thou shalt add a step to the Resurrection it self, 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 fullness the Resurrection shall follow. And thou shalt add a Voice, to that Old, and ever-new Song, that Catholic Hymn, in which, both Churches, Militant and Triumphant, shall join, Blessing, Honor, Glory, and Power, be unto him, that sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lamb, forever, and ever. Amen.
SERMON XLIII.
A Sermon upon the fist of Novemb. 1622. being the Anniversary celebration of our Deliverance from the Powder Treason.
Intended for Paul's Cross, but by reason of the weather, Preached in the Church.
LAMENT. 4. 20.
The Prayer before the Sermon.
O LORD open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show 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 only look 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 succor us; This is the day, and these are the hours, wherein that should have been acted: In this our Day, and in these hours, We praise thee, O God, we acknowledge thee, to be the Lord; All our Earth doth worship thee; The holy Church throughout all this Land, doth knowledge thee, with commemorations of that great mercy, now in these hours. Now, in these hours, it is thus commemorated, in the Kings House, where the Head and Members praise thee; Thus, in that place, where it should have been perpetrated, where the Reverend Judges of the Land do 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 several Societies, in many several Parishes, and thus, here, in this Mother Church, in this great Congregation of thy Children, where, all, of all sorts, from the Lieutenant of thy Lieutenant, to the meanest son of thy son, in this Assembly, come with hearts, and lips, full of thanksgiving: Thou Lord, openest their lips, that their mouth may show forth thy praise, for, Thou, O Lord, diddest make haste to help them, Thou diddest make speed 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 Catholic Church, by them, who pretend themselves the only sons thereof; dishonored this Day; upon these Churches of England, Scotland, and Ireland, shaked and threatened dangerously this Day; upon thy servant, our Sovereign, for his Defense of the true Faith, designed to ruin this day; upon the Prince, and others derived from the same root, some but Infants, some not yet Infants, enwrapped in dust, and annihilation, this day; upon all the deliberations of the Counsel, That in all their Consultations, they may have before their eyes, the Record and Registers of this Day; upon all the Clergy, That all their Preaching, and their Governement, may preclude, in their several Jurisdictions, all re-entrances of that Religion, which, by the Confession of the Actours themselves, was the only ground of the Treason of this day; upon the whole Nobility, and Commons, all involved in one Common Destruction, this Day; upon both our Universities, which though they lack no Arguments out of thy Word, against the Enemies of thy Truth, shall never leave out this Argument out of thy Works, The History of this Day; And upon all those, who are any ways afflicted, That our afflictions be not multiplied upon us, by seeing them multiplied amongst us, who would have diminished thee, and annihilated us, this Day; And lastly, upon this Auditory assembled here, That till they turn to ashes in the Grave, they may remember, that thou tookest them, as fire-brands out of the fire, this Day.
Hear us, O Lord, and hearken to us, Receive our Prayers, and return them with Effect, for his sake, in whose Name and words, we make them:
Our Father which art, &c.
The SERMON.
OF the Author of this Book, I think there was never doubt made; but yet, that is scarce safely done, which the Council of Trent doth, in that Canon, which numbers the Books of Canonical Scriptures, to leave out this Book of Lamentations. For, though I make no doubt, but that they had a purpose to comprehend, and involve it, in the name of Jeremiah, yet that was not enough; 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 for so they might have comprehended and involved, Genesis, and Deuteronomy, 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 self in the number. But one of their own Jesuits, though some, (whom in that Canon they seem to follow) make this Book of Lamentations, but an Appendix to the Prophecy of Jeremiah, 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 Jeremiah, and not the first of the Lamentations. But that which gives most assurednesse, is, That in divers Hebrew Bibles, it is placed otherwise, then we place it, and not presently, and immediately after the Prophecy of Jeremiah, but discontinued from him, though he were never doubted to be the Author thereof.
The Book is certainly the Prophet Jeremiah's, and certainly a distinct book, But whether the Book be a history, or a Prophecy, whether Jeremiah lament that which he 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 Historical parable, and a Parabolicall history, some such persons there were, and some such things were really done, but some other things were figuratively, symbolically, parabolically added: So we say of Jeremiah's Lamentation, It is a Prophetical history, and a Historical 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 Chaldee Paraphrasts, who were the first that illustrated the Bible, in that Nation, nor of S. Jerome, who was much conversant 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 Jeremiah writ these Lamentations, after he saw some declinations in that State, in the death of Josiah, and so the Book is Historical, but when he only foresaw their transportation into Babylon, before that calamity fell upon them, and so it is Prophetical. Or, if we take the exposition of the others, That the whole Book was written after their transportation into Babylon, and to be, in all parts, Historical, yet it is Prophetical still; for the Prophet laments a greater Desolation then that, in the utter ruin, and devastation of the City, and Nation, which was to fall upon them, after the death of Christ Jesus. Neither is any piece of this Book, the less fit to be our Text, this day, because it is both Historical, and Prophetical, for, they, from whom, God, in his mercy, gave us a Deliverance, this day, are our Historical Enemies, and our Prophetical Enemies; historically we know, they have attempted our ruin heretofore, and prophetically we may be sure, they will do so again, whensoever any new occasion provokes them, or sufficient power enables them.
The Text then is as the Book presented to Ezckiel; In it are written Lamentations, and Mournings, 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 Jeremiah had certainly seen, ) and they concern them prophetically, for farther attempts Jeremiah did certainly foresee. They are appliable to us both ways too: Historically, because we have seen, what they would have done, And Prophetically, because we foresee what they would do. 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 Calendar, another Babylon: Stilo veteri, in the Jews Calendar, 700 year 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 year after Christ came in all fullness, in all clearness, There were pits made again, and The breath of our nostrils, The anointed of the Lord, was almost taken in those pits.
It is then Jeremiah's, and it is a distinct Book; It concerns the Jews, and it concerns us too; And it concerns us both, both wages, Historically, and Prophetically. But whether Jeremiah lament here the death of a good King, of Josiah, (for so Saint Jerome, and many of the Ancients, and many of the Jews themselves take it, and think that those words in the Chronicles, have relation to these Lamentations, And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the people speak 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 Expositors) we argue not, we dispute now; we embrace 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 nostrils, 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 counsel from them, who have that great honor and that great charge, to be near them in that kind, and by support and supplly, from all, of all sorts, from falling into such dangers.
These considerations will, I think, have the better impression in you, if we proceed in the handling of them thus: First, the main cause of the Lamentation was the Ruin, or the dangerous declination of the Kingdom of that great and glorious State, The Kingdom; But then they did not seditiously sever the King, and the Kingdom, as though the Kingdom could do 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; perchance 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 anointed of the Lord, and to be Spiritus narium, The breath of their nostrils: When this person therefore, was fallen into the pits of the Enemy, the Subject laments; but this lamenting because he was fallen, implies a deliverance, a restitution, he was fallen, but he did not lie there: so the Text, which is as yet but of Lamentation, will grow an hour hence to be of Congratulation; and then we shall see, That whosoever, in rectified affections, 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 sustaining the Kingdom and the King, in safety and in honor.
Our first step then in this Royal progress, is, That the cause of this Lamentation, was, the declination, the diminution of the Kingdom. 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 Kingdom of the Jews, in the body of the Kingdom, 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 model, a platform, an examplar of everything, 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 Kingdom, God, who is but one, is the Idea; God himself, in his Unity, • s the Model, 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 ruin. He made this one World, but one Eye, The Sun; The Moon is not another Eye, but a Glass; upon which, the Sun reflects. He made this one World, but one Eare, The Church; He tells not us, that he hears by a left Eare, by Saints, but by that right Eare, the Church he doth. There is One God, One Faith, One Baptism, and these lead us to the love of one Sovereign, of Monarchy, of Kingdom. In that Name, God hath conveyed to us the state of Grace, and the state of Glory too; and he hath promised both, in injoining that Petition, Adveniat Regnum, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Kingdom of Grace here, Thy Kingdom of Glory hereafter. All forms of Government have one and the same Soul, that is, Sovereignty; That resides somewhere in every form; and this Sovereignty is in them all, from one and the same Root, from the Lord of Lord's, from God himself, for all Power is of God: But yet this form of a Monarchy, of a Kingdom, is a more lively, and a more masculin Organe, and Instrument of this Soul of Soveraigntie, then the other forms are: We are sure Women have Souls as well as Men, but yet it is not so expressed, that God breathed a Soul into Woman, as he did into Man; All forms of Government have this Soul, but yet God infuseth it more manifestly, and more effectually, in that form, in a Kingdom: All places are alike near to Heaven, yet Christ would take a Hill, for his Ascension; All governments may justly represent God to me, who is the God of Order, and fountain of all government, but yet I am more eased, and more accustomed to the contemplation of Heaven, in that notion, as Heaven is a kingdom, by having been borne, and bred in a Monarchy: God is a Type of that, and that is a Type of Heaven.
This form then, in nature the noblest, in use the profitablest of all others; God always intended to his best-beloved people, God always meant that the Jews should have a King, though he prepared them in other forms before; As he meant them peace at last, though he exercised them in War, and meant them the land of promise, though he led them through the Wilderness; so he meant them a King, though he prepared them by Judges. God intended it in himself, and he declared it to them, 400 years before he have them a King, he instructed them, what kind of King they should set over them, when they came to that kind of government: And long before that he made a promise, by Jacob to Judah of a Kingdom, and that the Scepter should not depart from him, till Siloh came. And when God came near the time, in which he intended to them that government, in the time of Samuel, who was the immediate predecessor to their first King, Saul, God made way for a Monarchy; for Samuel had a much more absolute authority, in that State, then any of the Judges had; Samuel judged them, and in their petition for a King, they ask but that, Make us a King to judge us; Samuel was little less then a King; and Saul's reign, and his, are reckoned both in one number, and made as the reign of one man; when it is said in the Acts, that Saul reigned 40 years, Samuel's time is included in that number, for all the years, from the death of Eli, • to the beginning of David, are but 40 years. God meant them a Kingdom in himself, promised them a kingdom in Judah, made Laws for their kingdom in Deuteronomy, made way for the kingdom in Samuel, and why then was God displeased with their petition for a Kingdom?
It was a greater fault in them, then it could have been in any other people, to ask a King; not that it was not the most desirable form of government, but that God governed them, so immediately, so presentially himself, as that it was an ungrateful intemperance in them, to turn upon any other means; God had ever performed that which he promised them, in that which comprehended all, Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me, above all people; And therefore Josephus hath expressed it well; All other people are under the form of Democrati • , or Aristocrati • , or such other forms, composed of men; Sed noster Legislator, Theocratiam instituit, The Jews were only under a Theocrati • , an immediate government of God, he judged them himself, and he himself fought their battles: And therefore God says to Samuel, They have not rejected thee, Thou wast not King, But they have rejected me, I was. To be weary of God, is it enough to call it a levity? But if they did only compare form with form, and not God himself with any form, if they did only think Monarchy best, and believe that God intended a Monarchy to them, yet yet to limit God his time, and to make God perform his promise before his day, was a fault, and inexcusable. Daniel saw, that the Messiah should come within seventy weeks: Daniel did not say, Lord, let it be within fifty weeks, or let it be this week: The Martyrs under the Altar, cry Vsqueque Domine, How long Lord, but then, they leave it there, Even as long as pleaseth thee: Their petition should have been, Adveniat regnum • words • , Let us have that Kingdom, 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 Wisdom sees it best for us: You said to me (says Samuel, by way of Reproof and Increpation) You said, Nay but a King shall reign over us; Now, that was not their fault; but that which follows, The unseasonablesse and inconsideration of their clamorous Petition, You said a King shall reign over us, when the Lord your God, was your King; They would not trust God's means, there was their first fault: And then, though they desired a thing good in it self, and a good intended to them, yet they fixed God his time, and they would not stay his leisure; And either of these, To ask other things then God would give, or at other times, then God would give them, is displeasing to him: Use his means, and stay his leisure.
But yet, though God were displeased with them, he executed his own purpose; he was angry with their manner of asking a King, but yet he gave them a King: Howsoever God be displeased with them, who prevaricate in his cause, who should sustain it, and do not, God's cause shall be sustained, though they do it not. We may distinguish the period of the Jewish State well enough, thus, that they had Infantiam, or pueritiam, their infancy, their minority, in Adam, and the first Patriarchs till the flood: that they had Adolescentiam, A growing time, from Noah, through the other Patriarchs, till Moses: and that they had Iuventu • em, a youth and strength from Moses, through the Judges, to Saul: but then they had Virilitatom, virilem, atatem, their established vigor, under their Kings; and after them, they fell in s • nectutem, into a wretched and miserable decay of old age, and decrepitnesse: their kingdom was their best State; and so much, God in the Prophet, intimates pregnantly, when refreshing to their memories, in a particular Inventory, and Catalogue, all his former benefits to them, how he clothed 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 kingdom: there was the Tropique, there was the Solstice, farther then that, in this world, we know not how God could go; a kingdom was really the best State upon Earth, and Symbolically, the best figure, and Type of Heaven. And therefore, when the Prophet Jeremiah, historically beheld the declination of this kingdom, in the death of I • osiah, and prophetically foresaw the ruins 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 kingdom, are now nowhere a village, and they who had such Kings, have now nowhere a Constable of their own, historically, prophetically, Jeremiah had just cause of lamentation for the danger of that kingdom.
We had so also, for this our kingdom, this day; God hath given us a kingdom, not as other kingdoms, made up of divers Cities, but of divers kingdoms, and all those kingdoms were destined to desolation, in one minute. It was not only the destruction of the persons present, but of the kingdom • for to submit the kingdom to the government of a foreign Prelate, was to destroy the Monarchy, to annihilate the Supremacy, to ruin the very form of a kingdom; a kingdom under another head, besides the King, is not a kingdom, as ours is. The oath that the Emperor takes to the Pope, is by their authors called Iuramentum Sidelitatis, an oath of Allegiance; and if they had brought our Kings, to take an oath of Allegiance so, this were no kingdom. Pope Nicolas the second, went about to create two kingdoms, 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 kingdom. That they have attempted historically; and as long as these Axioms, and Aphorisms remain in their Authors, that one shall say, that De jurs? by right all Christian kingdoms do hold of the Pope, and De facto, are forfeited to the Hope, and another shall say, that Christendom would be better governed if the Pope would take the forfeiture, and so bring all these Royal farms, into his own demesne, we see also, their prophetical desire, their prophetical intention, against this kingdom, what they would do: In their Actions we have their history, in their Axioms we have their prophecy.
Jeremiah lamented the desolation of the kingdom, but that, expressed in the death, and destruction of the King. He did not divide the King and the kingdom, as if the kingdom could do well, and the King in distress: Umnipotentia Dei, Asylum haeresic • rum; it is well said, by more then one of the ancients, that the Omnipotence of God, is the Sanctuary of Heretics: when they would establish any heresy, they fly to God's Almightiness. God can do All, therefore he can do this. So, in the Roman Church, they establish their heresy of Transubstantiation; And so, their deliverance of souls not from Purgatory only, but from Hell it self. They think to stop all mouths with that, God can do it, no man dares deny that; when as, if that were granted, (which, in such things, as naturally imply contradiction in themselves, or contradiction to God's word, cannot be granted, for God cannot do that, God cannot lie,) yet though God