Eighty Sermons
First, for the light itself, There is a light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world. And, even this universal light is Christ, says S. John, (He was that light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.) And this universal enunciation, (He lighteneth every man) moved S. Cyril to take this light for the light of nature, and natural reason. For even nature and natural reason is from Christ. All things were made by him, says S. John, even nature itself. And, By him, and for him, all things visible, and invisible were created, says the Apostle. And therefore our latter men of the Reformation, are not to be blamed, who for the most part, pursuing S. Cyrils interpretation, interpret this universal light, that lighteneth every man, to be the light of nature. Divers others of the Fathers take this universal light (because Christ is said to be this light) to be Baptism. For, in the primitive Church, as the Nativity of Christ was called the Epiphany, Manifestation, so Baptism was called Illumination. And so, Christ lightens every man that comes into the world, (that is, into the Christian world) by that Sacrament of Illumination, Baptism. S. Augustine brought the exposition of that universal proposition into a narrow room; That he enlightened all that came into the world, that is, all that were enlightened in the world, were enlightened by him; there was no other light; and so he makes this light to be the light of faith, and the light of effectual grace, which all have not, but they that have, have it from Christ. Now which of these lights is intended in our Text, Let you light shine out? is it of the light of nature, at our coming into the world, or the light of Baptism, and that general grace that accompanies all God's Ordinances, at our coming into the Church, or the light of faith, and particular grace, sealing our adoption, and spiritual filliation there? Properly, our light is none of these three; and yet it is truly, all; for our light is the light of good works; and that light proceeds from all the other three, and so is all those, and then it goes beyond all three, and so is none of them. It proceeds from all; for, if we consider the first light, the light of nature, in our creation, We are (says the Apostle) his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. So that we were all made for that, for good works; even the natural man, by that first light. Consider it in the second light, in baptism; there we die in Christ, and are buried in Christ, and rise in Christ, and in him we are new creatures, and with him we make a covenant in baptism, for holiness of life, which is the body of good works. Consider the third, that of faith, and as everything in nature is, so faith is perfected by working; for, faith is dead, without breath, without spirit, if it be without works. So, this light is in all those lights; we are created, we are baptized, we are adopted for good works; and it is beyond them all, even that of faith; for, though faith have a preeminence, because works grow out of it, and so faith (as the root) is first, yet works have the preeminence thus, both that they include faith in them, and that they dilate, and diffuse, and spread themselves more declaratorily, then faith doth. Therefore, as our Savior said to some that asked him, What shall we do that we might work the work of God? (you see their mind was upon works, something they were sure was to be done) This is the work of God, that ye believe in him whom he hath sent, and so refers them to faith, so to another that asks him, What shall I do, that I may have eternal life? (all go upon that, that something there must be done, works there must be) Christ says, Keep the Commandments, and so refers him to works. He hath shown thee O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to show mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? This then is the light that lighteth every man that goes out of the world, good works; for, their works follow them. Their works; they shall be theirs, even after their death; which is our second branch in this first part, the propriety, lux vestra, let your light shine.
I cannot always call the works that I do, my works; for sometimes God works them, and sometimes the devil: Sometimes God works his own work, The Lord will do his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Sometimes he works my works, Thou Lord hast wrought all our works in us. In us, and in all things else, Operatur omnia in omnibus, he worketh all in all. And all this in all these, Secundum consilium voluntatis suae, After the counsel of his own will; for, I will work, and who shall let it? But for all this his general working, his enemy works in us too. That which I do, I allow not, says the Apostle; nay, I know it not; for, says he, what I hate, that I do. And, if I do that I would not do, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Yet, for all this diverse, this contrary working, as S. Augustine says of the faculty of the will, Nihil tam nostrum, quam voluntas, there is nothing so much our own, as our will before we work, so there is nothing so much our own, as our works, after they are done. They stick to us, they cleave to us; whether as fomentations to nourish us, or as corrasives, to gnaw upon us, that lies in the nature of the work; but ours they are; and upon us our works work. Our good works are more ours, then our faith is ôurs. Our faith is ours as we have received it, our work is ours, as we have done it. Faith is ours, as we are possessors of it, the work ours, as we are doers, actors in it. Faith is ours, as our goods are ours, works, as our children are ours. And therefore when the Prophet Habakkuk says, Fide sua, The just shall live by his faith, that particle His, is a word of possession, not a word of Acquisition; That God hath infused that faith into him, and so it is his, not that he hath produced that faith in himself. His faith must save him, his own, and not another's, not his parents faith, though he be the son of holy parents, not the Churches faith, (if he be of years) though he be within the covenant, but his own personal faith; yet not his so, as that it grew in him, or was produced in him, by him, by any plantation, or semination of his own. And therefore S. Paul in citing that place of Habakkuk (as he doth cite it three several times) in all those places leaves out that particle of propriety; and acquisition, his, and still says, The just shall live by faith, and he says no more. And when our blessed Savior says to the woman with the bloody issue, Fides tua, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole, it was said then, when he had seen that woman come trembling and fall down at his feet; he saw outward declarations of her faith, he saw works. And so, in divers of those places, where Christ repeats that, fides tua, thy faith, we find it added, Jesus videns fidem, Jesus seeing their faith. With what eyes? he looked upon them with his human eyes, not his divine; he saw not (that is, considered not at that time) their hearts, but their outward declarations, and proceeding as a good man would, out of their good works concludes faith. Velle & nolle nostrum est, to assent or to dis-assent is our own; we may choose which we will do; Ipsum{que} quod nostrum est, sine Dei miseratione nostrum non est; But though this faculty be ours, it is ours, but because God hath imprinted it in us. So that still to will, as well as to do, to believe, as well as to work, is all from God; but yet they are from God in a diverse manner, and a diverse respect; and certainly our works are more ours then our faith is, and man concurs otherwise in the acting and perpetration of a good work, then he doth in the reception and admission of faith. Sed quae non fecimus ipsi, says the Poet; and he was Vates, a Prophet in saying so, Vix ea nostra voco; nothing is ours, but that which we have done ourselves; and all that is ours. And though Christ refer us often to belief, in this life, because he would be sure to plant, and fasten safely that which is the only true root of all, that is, faith, yet when he comes to Judgment, in the next life, all his proceeding is grounded upon works, and he judges us by our fruits. So then, God gives us faith, immediately from himself, and out of that faith, he produces good works, instrumentally, by us, so, as that those works are otherwise ours, then that faith is. And this the propriety, lux vestra, let your light shine, which we proposed for the second branch in this first part, that God vouchsafes to afford us an interest, in the working of our salvation; And then our third branch is, the emanation of this light, from us, to others, Coram hominibus, let your light shine before men.
There was a particular Holy-day amongst the heathen, that bore the name of this day, Accensio luminum, Candlemas day; A superstitious multiplying of Lamps, and Torches in Divine Service. This superstition Lactantius reproves, elegantly, and bitterly. Num mentis suae compos putandus est? can we think that man in his wits, that offers to God, the Father, and Fountain, the Author and Giver of all light, a Candle for an Oblation, for a Sacrifice, for a New-years gift? Solem contempletur, says he; Let that man but consider seriously the Sun, and he will see, that that God who could spare him so glorious a light as the Sun, needs not his Candle. And therefore says Tertullian, (reprehending the same superstition) Lucernis diem non infringimus, we do not cut off, we do not shorten our days, by setting up lights at noon, nor induce, nor force, nor make night before it comes.
I would not be understood to condemn all use of candles by day, in Divine Service, nor all Churches that have or do use them; For, so, I might condemn even the Primitive Church, in her pure and innocent estate. And therefore, that which Lactantius, almost three hundred years after Christ, says of those Lights, and that which Tertullian, almost a hundred years before Lactantius, says, in reprehension thereof, must necessarily be understood of the abuse, and imitation of the Gentiles therein; for, that the thing it self, was in use, before either of their times, I think, admits little question. About Lactantius time, fell the Eliberitan Council; and then the use, and the abuse was evident. For, in the thirty fourth Canon of that Council, it is forbidden to set up Candles in the Church-yard: And, the reason that is added, declares the abuse, Non sunt enim inquietandi spiritus sidelium, That the souls of the Saints departed should not be troubled. Now the setting up of lights could not trouble them; but these lights were accompanied with superstitious Invocations, with magical Incantations, and with howlings and ejulations, which they had learnt from the Gentiles, and with these, the souls of the dead, were, in those times, thought to be affected, and disquieted. It is in this Ceremony of lights, as it is in other Ceremonies: They may be good in their Institution, and grow ill in their practice. So did many things, which the Christian Church received from the Gentiles, in a harmless innocence, degenerate after, into as pestilent superstition there, as amongst the Gentiles themselves. For, ceremonies, which were received, but for the instruction, and edification of the weaker sort of people, were made real parts of the service of God, and meritorious sacrifices. To those ceremonies, which were received as signa commonefacientia, helps to excite, and awaken devotion, was attributed an operation, and an effectual power, even to the ceremony it self; and they were not practiced, as they should, significative, but effective, not as things which should signify to the people higher mysteries, but as things as powerful, and effectual in themselves, as the greatest Mysteries of all, the Sacraments themselves. So lights were received in the Primitive Church, to signify to the people, that God, the Father of lights, was otherwise present in that place, then in any other, and then, men came to offer lights by way of sacrifice to God; And so, that which was providently intended for man, who indeed needed such helps, was turned upon God, as though he were to be supplied by us. But what then? Because things good in their institution, may be depraved in their practice, Ergone nihil ceremoniarum rudioribus dabitur, ad juvandam eorum imperitiam? Shall therefore the people be denied all ceremonies, for the assistance of their weakness? Id ego non dico; I say not so, says he. Omnino illis utile esse sentio hoc genus adminiculi; I think these kinds of helps to be very behoovefull for them; Tantum hîc contendo, all that I strive for, is but Moderation; and that Moderation he places very discreetly in this, That these ceremonies may be few in number; That they may be easy for observation; That they may be clearly understood in their signification; we must not therefore be hasty in condemning particular ceremonies: For, in so doing, in this ceremony of lights, we may condemn the Primitive Church, that did use them, and we condemn a great and Noble part of the reformed Church, which doth use them at this day.
These superstitious lights, are not the lights we call for here, sic luceat, let your light shine out; but lux vestra, your light, the light of good works; let that shine out. Truly, this carrying, and diffusing of light to others is so blessed a thing, as that though Lucifer, (whose name signifies the carrying of light) be now an odious name, an infamous name, applied only to the Devil, yet a great Bishop in the Primitive Church abstained not from that name, forbore not that name, Lucifer Talaritanus; that he might carry about him, in his name, a remembrancer, ferre lucem, to carry light to others, he was content with that name, Lucifer. God had made light the first day, and yet he made many lights after. One light of thine shines out in our eyes, thy profession of Christ; let us see more lights, works worthy of that profession. God calls the Sun, and the Moon too, Great lights, because though there be greater in the Firmament, they appear greatest to us; those works of ours are greatest in the sight of God, that are greatest in the sight of men, that are most beneficial, most exemplary, and conduce most to the promoving of others to glorify God. To such rich men, as produce no light at all, (no works) that of S. Augustine is appliable, cimices sunt, they are as these worms, or flies, the cimices, qui vivi mordent, mortui foetent, They bite, and suck a man, whilst they live, and they stink pestilently, and offend so, when they are dead. The actions of such rich men are mischievous whilst they live, and their memory odious when they are dead. But all rich men are not such, to be absolutely without all light. But then they may have light, (a determined purpose to do some good works) and yet this light not shine out. No man can more properly be said to hide his light under a bushel, (which because Christ says, (in the verse before our Text) no man does, certainly no man should do) then he, who hath disposed some part of his estate to pious uses, but hides it in his will, and locks up that will in his cabinet; For, in this case, though there be light, yet it does not shine out. Your gold, and your silver is cankered, says S. James, and the rust of them shall be a witness, and shall eat your flesh, as it were fire. He does not say the gold and the silver itself, as reproving the ill getting of it, but the rust, the hiding, the concealing thereof, shall be this witness against thee, this executioner upon thee. That man dies in an ill state, of whose faith we have had no evidence, till, after his death, his executors meet, and open his Will, and then publish some Legacies to pious uses: And we had no evidence before, if he had done no good before. For, show me thy faith without thy works, says the Apostle; and he proposes it, as an impossible thing, impossible to show it, impossible to have it. And therefore, as good works are our own, so are they never so properly our own, as when they are done with our own hands; for this is the true shining of our light, the emanation from us, upon others. And so have you the three pieces, which constitute our first part, the precept, Let your light shine before men; The light it self, not the light of nature, nor of Baptism, nor of Adoption, but the light of good works; And then the Appropriation of this light, how these works are ours, though the goodness thereof be only from God; And lastly the emanation of this light upon others; which cannot well be said to be an emanation of our light, of light from us, except it be whilst we are we, that is, alive. And so we pass to those many particulars, which frame our second part, the reason, and the end of this, That men may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
In this end, our beginning is, ut videant, that men may see it. The apparitions in old times, were evermore accompanied with lights; but they were private lights; such an old woman, or such a child saw a light; but non videbant homines, it did not shine out, so that men might see this light. We have a story delivered by a very pious man, and of the truth whereof he seems to be very well assured, that one Conradus a devout Priest, had such an illustration, such an irradiation, such a coruscation, such a light at the tops of those fingers, which he used in the consecration of the Sacrament, as that by that light of his fingers ends, he could have read in the night, as well as by so many Candles; But this was but a private light, & non viderunt homines, It did not shine out, so that men might see it. Blessed S. Augustine reports, (if that Epistle be S. Augustine's ) that when himself was writing to S. Jerome, to know his opinion of the measure and quality of the Joy, and Glory of Heaven, suddenly in his Chamber there appeared ineffabile lumen, says he, an unspeakable, an inexpressible light, nostr is invisum temporibus, such a light as our times never saw, and out of that light issued this voice, Hieronymi anima sum, I am the soul of that Jerome to whom thou art writing, who this hour died at Bethlehem, and am come from thence to thee, &c. But this was but a private light, and whatsoever S. Augustine saw, (who was not easily deceived, nor would deceive others) non videbant homines, this light did not shine so, as that men might see it. Here, in our Text, there is a light required that men may see. Those lights of their apparitions we cannot see; There is a light of ours, which our adversaries may see, and will not; which is truly the light of this Text, the light of good works. Though our zeal to good works shine out assiduously, day by day in our Sermons, and shine out powerfully in the Homilies of our Church, composed expressly to that purpose, and shine out actually in our many sumptuous buildings, and rich endowments, (in which works, we of this Kingdom, in this last Century, since the Reformation of Religion, have perhaps exceeded our Fathers, in any one hundred of years, whilst they lived under the Roman persuasion) yet still they cry out, we are enemies of this light, and abhor good works. As I have heard them, in some obscure places abroad, Preach, that here in England, we had not only no true Church, no true Priesthood, no true Sacraments, but that we have no material Churches, no holy Convocations, no observing of Sundays, or Holy days, no places to serve God in; so I have heard them Preach, that we do not only not advance, but that we cry down, and discredit, and dissuade, and discountenance the doctrine of good works. It is enough to say to them, as the Angel said to the Devil, Increpet te Dominus, The Lord rebuke thee. And the Lord does rebuke them, in enabling us to proceed in these pious works, which, with so notorious falsehood they deny; And we do rebuke them, the best and most powerful way, in that, (as the Apostle says) we consider one another, (consider the necessities of others) and provoke one another to love, and good works.
But then, if this be God's end in our good works, ut videant homines, that men may see them, why is Christ so earnest, in this very sermon as to say, Take heed you do not your alms before men, to be seen of them? Is there no contradiction in these? far from it; The intent of both precepts together make up this doctrine, That we do them not therefore, not to that end, that men may see them. So far we must come, that men must see them, but we must not rest there; for, it is but Sic luceat, Let your light shine out so, it is not, let it shine out therefore; Our doing of good works must have a farther end, then the knowledge of men, as we shall see, towards our end, anon.
Men must see them then, and see them to be works, Vt videant opera, That they may see your works: which is a word that implies difficulty, and pain, and labor, and is accompanied with some loathsomeness, with some colluctation. Do such works, for God's sake, as are hard for thee to do. In such a word does God deliver his Commandment of the Sabbath; not that word, which in that language signifies ordinary and eafie works, but servile and laborious works, toilsome and gainful works, those works thou mayest not do upon the Sabbath. But those works, in the virtue of the precept of this text, thou must do in the sight of men; those that are hard for thee to do. David would not consecrate nor offer unto God, that which cost him nothing; first he would buy Araunahs threshing floare at a valuable price, and then he would dedicate it to God. To give old clothes, past wearing, to the poor, is not so good a work as to make new for them. To give a little of your superfluities, not so acceptable as the widows gift, that gave all. To give a poor soul a farthing at that door, where you give a Player a shilling, is not equal dealing; for, this is to give God quisquilias frumenti, The refuse of the wheat. But do thou some such things, as are truly works in our sense, such as are against the nature, and ordinary practice of worldly men to do; some things, by which they may see, that thou dost prefer God before honor, and wife, and children, and hadst rather build, and endow some place, for God's service, then pour out money to multiply titles of honor upon thyself, or enlarge joyntures, and portions, to an unnecessary, and unmeasurable proportion, when there is enough done before.
Let men see that that thou doest, to be a work, qualified with some difficulty in the doing, and then those works, to be good works, Videant opera bona, that they may see your good works. They are not good works how magnificent soever, if they be not directed to good ends. A superstitious end, or a seditious end vitiates the best work. Great contributions have been raised, and great sums given, to build, and endow Seminaries, and schools, and Colleges in foreign parts; but that hath a superstitious end. Great contributions have been raised, and great sums given at home, for the maintenance of such refractary persons, as by opposing the government and discipline of the Church, have drawn upon themselves, silencings, and suspensions, and deprivations; but that hath a seditious end. But, give so, as in a rectified conscience, and not a distempered zeal, (a rectified conscience is that, that hath the restimony and approbation of most good men, in a succession of times, and not to rely occasionally upon one or a few men of the separation, for the present) give so, as thou mayest sincerely say, God gave me this, to give thus, and so it is a good work. So it must be, A work (something of some importance) and a good work, (not depraved with an ill end) and then your work, Vt videant opera vestra, That they may see your good works.
They are not your works, if that that you give be not your own. Nor is it your own, if it were ill gotten at first. How long soever it have been possessed, or how often soever it have been transformed, from money to ware, from ware to land, from land to office, from office to honor, the money, the ware, the land, the office, the honor is none of thine, if, in thy knowledge, it were ill gotten at first. Zacchaeus, in S. Luke, gives half his goods to the poor; but it is half of his, his own; for there might be goods in his house, which were none of his. Therefore in the same instrument, he passes that scrutiny, If I have taken anything unjustly, I restore him four-fold. First let that that was ill gotten, be deducted, and restored, and then, of the rest, which is truly thine own, give cheerfully. When Moses says, that our years are three score and ten, if we deduct from that term, all the hours of our unnecessary sleep, of superfluous sittings at feasts, of curiosity in dressing, of largeness in recreations, of plotting, and compassing of vanities, or sins, scarce any man of chreescore and ten, would be ten years old, when he dies. If we should deal so with worldly men's estates, (defalse unjust gettings) it would abridge and attenuate many a swelling Inventory. Till this defalcation, this scrutiny be made, that you know what's your own, what's other men's, as your Tomb shall be but a monument of your rotten bones, how much gold or marble soever be bestowed upon it, so that Hospital, that free-school, that College that you shall build, and endow, will be but a monument of your bribery, your extortion, your oppression; and God, who will not be in debt, (though he owe you nothing that built it) may be pleased to give the reward of all that, to them, from whom that which was spent upon it, was unjustly taken; for, The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous, says Solomon. The sinner may do pious works, and the righteous may be rewarded for them; the world may think of one founder, and God knows another. That which is enjoin'd in the name of light here, is works, (not trifles) and good works, (made good by the good ends they are directed to) and then your works (done out of that which is truly your own) and by seeing this light, men will be moved to glorify your Father which is in Heaven; which is the true end of all; that men may see them, but see them therefore, To glorify your Father which is in Heaven.
He does not say, that by seeing your good works, men shall glorify your sons upon earth. And yet truly, even that part of the reward, and retribution is worth a great deal of your cost, and your alms; that God shall establish your posterity in the world, and in the good opinion of good men. As you have your estates, you have your children from God too. As it is David's recognition, Dominus pars haereditatis meae, The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, so the Possedi virum à Domino, was Eves Recognition upon the birth of her first son, Cain, I have gotten, I possess a man from the Lord. Now that that man that thou possessest from the Lord, thy son, may possess that land that thou possessest from the Lord, it behooves thee to be righteous; for so, (by that righteousness) thou becomest a foundation for posterity, (The righteous is an everlasting foundation) his light, (his good works) shall be a cheerful light unto him; (for, The light of the righteous rejoiceth him. ) They shall be so in this life, and, He shall have hope in his death, saith Solomon; that is, hope for himself in another world, & hope of his posterity in this world; for, says he, He leaveth an inheritance to his children's children; that is, an inheritance, out of which he hath taken, and restored all that was unjustly got from men, and taken a bountiful part, which he hath offered to God in pious uses, that the rest may descend free from all claims, and encumbrances upon his children's children. The righteous is merciful, and lendeth, says David. Merciful as his Father in Heaven is merciful; that is, in perpetual, not transitory endowments, (for, God did not set up his lights, his Sun, and his Moon for a day, but forever, and such should our light, or good works be too.) He is merciful, and he lendeth; to whom? for to the poor he giveth; he looks for no return from them, for they are the waters upon which he casts his bread. Yet he lendeth; He that hath pity on the poor, lendeth to the Lord. The righteous is merciful and lendeth, and then, (as David adds there) His seed is blessed. Blessed in this (which follows there) that he shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever, (which he ratifies again, Surely he shall not be moved forever; that is, he shall never be moved, in his posterity) And as he is blessed that way, blessed in the establishment of his possession upon his children's children, so is he blessed in this, that his honor, and good name shall be poured out as a fragrant oil upon his posterity, The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance. Their memory shall be always alive, and always fresh in their posterity, when The name of the wicked shall rot. So then, the fruit of the righteous is the tree of life, says Solomon; that is, the righteous shall produce plants, that shall grow up, and flourish; so his posterity shall be a tree of life to many generations; and then, The glory of children are their Fathers, says that wise King; As Fathers receive comfort from good children, so children receive glory from good parents; in this are children glorified, that they had righteous Fathers, that lent unto the Lord. So that, (to recollect these pieces) it is no small reward that God affords you, if men, seeing your good works, glorify, that is, esteem, and respect, and love, and honor your children upon earth. But it is not only that; your good works shall be an occasion of carrying glory upon the right object, They shall glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
It is not the Father which is in Heaven; that they should glorify God, as the common Father of all, by creation. For, for that they need not your light, your good works; The Heavens declare the glory of God, says David; that is, glorify him in an acknowledgement, that he is the Father of them, and of all other things by creation. Is not he thy Father? hath he not made thee? is an interrogatory ministered by Moses, to which all things must answer with the Prophet Malachi, yes, He is our Father, for he hath made us. But that's not the paternity of this text, as God is Father of us all by creation. Nor as he is a Father of some in a more particular consideration, in giving them large portions, great patrimonies in this world; for, thus, he may be my Father and yet disinherit me; he may give me plenty of temporal blessings, and withhold from me spiritual, and eternal blessings. Now, to see this, men need not your light, your good works; for, they see daily, That he maketh his sun to shine on the evil, and on the good; and causeth it to rain on the just, and the unjust; He feeds Goats as well as Sheep, he gives the wicked temporal blessings, as well as the righteous. These then are not the paternities of our text, that men, by this occasion, glorify God as the Father of all men by creation, nor as the Father of all rich men, by their large patrimonies, not as he is the Father, not as he is a Father, but as he is your Father, as he is made yours, as he is become yours, by that particular grace of using the temporal blessings which he hath given you, to his glory, in letting your light shine before men. For, it were better God disinherited us so, as to give us nothing, then that he gave us not the grace to use that that he gave us, well: without this, all his bread were stone, and all his fishes serpents, all his temporal liberality malediction. How much happier had that man been, that hath wasted thousands in play, in riot, in wantonness, in sinful excesses, if his parents had left him no more at first, then he hath left himself at last? How much nearer to a kingdom in Heaven had he been, if he had been borne a beggar here? Nay, though he have done no ill, (of such excessive kinds) how much happier had he been, if he had had nothing left him, if he have done no good? There cannot be a more fearful commination upon man, nor a more dangerous dereliction from God, then when God says, I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; Though thou offer none, I care not, I will never tell thee of it, nor reprove thee for it, I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices. And when he says, (as he does there) If I be hungry I will not tell thee; I will not awake thy charity, I will not excite thee, not provoke thee, with any occasion of feeding me, in feeding the poor. When God shall say to me, I care not whether you come to Church or no, whether you pray or no, repent or no, confess, receive or no, this is a fearful dereliction; so is it, when he says to a rich man, I care not whether your light shine out, or no; whether men see your good works or no; I can provide for my glory other ways. For, certainly God hath not determined his purpose, and his glory so much in that, to make some men rich that the poor might be relieved, (for, that ends in bodily relief) as in this, that he hath made some men poor, whereby the rich might have occasion to exercise their charity; for, that reaches to spiritual happiness; for which use, the poor do not so much need the rich, as the rich need the poor; the poor may better be saved without the rich, then the rich without the poor. But when men shall see, that that God, who is the Father of us all, by creating us, and the father of all the rich, by enriching them, is also become your father, yours by adoption, yours by infusion of that particular grace, to do good with your goods, then are you made blessed instruments of that which God seeks here, his glory, They shall glorify your father which is in heaven.
Glory is so inseparable to God, as that God himself is called Glory, They changed their Glory into the similitude of an Ox; Their glory, their true God into an inglorious Idol. That glory may dwell in our land, says he; that is, that God may dwell therein. The first end of letting our light to shine before men, is, that they may know God's proceedings; but, the last end to which all conduces, is, that God may have glory. Whatsoever God did first in his own bosom, in his own decree, (what that was, contentious men will needs wrangle) whatsoever that first act was, God's last end in that first act of his was his own glory. And therefore to impute any inglorious or ignoble thing to God, comes too near blasphemy. And be any man who hath any sense or taste of nobleness, or honor, judge, whether there be any glory in the destruction of those creatures whom they have raised, till those persons have deserved ill at their hands, and in some way have damnified them, or dishonored them. Nor can God propose that for glory, to destroy man till he find cause in man. Now, this glory, to which Christ bends all in this Text, (that men by seeing your good works, might glorify your Father) consists especially in these two declarations, Commemoration, and Imitation; a due celebration of former founders and benefactors, and a pious proceeding according to such precedents, is this glorifying of God.
When God calls himself so often, The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, God would have the world remember, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were extraordinary men, memorable men. When God says, Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were here, they should not deliver this people, God would have it known, that Noah, Daniel, and Job were memorable men, and able to do much with him. When the Holy Ghost is so careful to give men their additions, That Iabal was the father of such as dwell in Tents, & keep Cattle, & Iubal the father of Harpers, and Organists, and Tubal-Cain of all Gravers in Brasse and Iron. And when he presents with so many particularities every piece of work, that Hiram of Tyre wrought in Brasse for the furnishing of Solomon's Temple, God certainly is not afraid that his honor will be diminished, in the honorable mentioning of such men as have benefited the world by public good works. The wise man seems to settle himself upon that meditation; let us now praise famous men, says he, and our fathers that begot us; and so he institutes a solemn commemoration, and gives a catalogue of Enoch, and Abraham, and Moses, and Aaron, and so many more, as possess six Chapters; nor doth he ever end the meditation till he end his book; so was he fixed upon the commemoration of good men; as S. Paul likewise feeds and delights himself in the like meditation, even from Abel. It is therefore a wretched impotency, not to endure the commemoration, and honorable mentioning of our Founders and Benefactors. God hath delivered us, and our Church, from those straights, in which, some Churches of the Reformation have thought themselves to be, when they have made Canons, That there should be no Bell rung, no dole given, no mention made of the dead at any Funeral, lest that should savor of superstition. The Holy Ghost hath taught us the difference between praising the dead, and praying for the dead, between commemorating of Saints, and invocating of Saints. We understand what David means, when he says, This honor have all his Saints, and what S. Paul means, when he says, Unto the only wise God be honor, and glory, forever and ever. God is honored in due honor given to his Saints, and glorified in the commemoration of those good men whose light hath so shined out before men, that they have seen their good works. But then he is glorified more, in our imitation, then in our commemoration.
Herein is my Father glorified, (says Christ) that ye bear much fruit. The seed sowed in good ground, bore some an hundred fold, the least thirty. The seed (in this case) is the example that is before you, of those good men, whose light hath shined out so, that you have seen their good works. Let this seed, these good examples bring forth hundreds, and sixties, and thirties in you, much fruit; for herein is your Father glorified, that you bear much fruit. Of which plentiful increase, I am afraid there is one great hindrance that passes through many of you, that is, that when your Will lies by you, in which some little lamp of this light is set up, something given to God in pious uses, if a Ship miscarry, if a Debtor break, if your state be any way impaired, the first that suffers, the first that is blotted out of the Will, is God and his Legacy; and if your estates increase, portions increase, and perchance other legacies, but God's portion and legacy stands at a stay. Christ left two uses of his passion; application and imitation. He suffered for us, says the Apostle; for us, that is, that we might make his death ours, apply his death, and then (as it follows there) he left us an example. So Christ gives us two uses of the Reformation of Religion; first, the doctrine, how to do good works without relying upon them, as meritorious; and then example, many, very many men (and more by much, in some kinds of charity since the Reformation of Religion, then before) even in this City, whose light hath shined out before you, and you have seen their good works. That as this noble City hath justly acquired the reputation and the testimony of all who have had occasion to consider their dealings in that kind, that they deal most faithfully, most justly, most providently, in all things which are committed to their trust for pious uses, from others, not only in a full employment of that which was given, but in an improvement thereof, and then an employment of that emprovement to the same pious use, so every man in his particular may propose to himself, some of those blessed examples which have risen amongst yourselves, and follow that, and exceed that; That as your lights are Torches, and not petty Candles, and your Torches better then others Torches, so he also may be a larger example to others, then others have been to him, for, Herein is your Father glorified, if you bear much fruit, and that is the end of all, that we all do, That men seeing it, may glorify our Father which is in heaven.
SERMON IX. Preached upon Candlemas day.
ROM. 13.7.
Render therefore to all men their dues.
The Text being part of the Epistle of that day, that year.
T He largeness of this short Text consists in that word, Therefore; therefore because you have been so particularly taught your particular duties, therefore perform them, therefore practice them, Reddite omnibus debita, Render therefore to every man his due. The Philosopher might seem to have contracted as large a law, into a few words, in his suum cuique, as the Holy Ghost had done in his Reddite omnibus, if it were not for this, Therefore; for that carries our consideration over the whole Epistle. This Epistle particularizing all duties, which appertain ad pietatem erga Deum, to our religious worship of God, ad charitatem erga proximum, to charitable offices towards one another, and ad sanctimoniam propriam, to a sanctification and holiness of life in ourselves. You have seen a list of your debts, says the Apostle, (and that men deeply indebted are loath to do) you have seen what you owe God, what you owe yourselves, and what you owe the world, Reddite ergo omnibus debita, be therefore behind hand with none of these, but render unto all their dues: For, our debts here are not restrained to those that are mentioned in the following part of this verse, Tribute, and Custom, and Fear, and Honor, but it is the knot that ties up all, and this Text in this verse, is the same that begins the next verse also; Reddite debita omnibus, Render to all men their dues, and Nemini quicquam debeas, Owe nothing to any man, is all one: It is farther then many use to come, to know what they owe; since I have brought you so far, says our Apostle, Render to all men their dues.
It is one degree of thrift, (but for the most part it comes late) to bring our debts into as few hands as we can. Our debt here we cannot bring into fewer then these three, to God, to our Neighbor, to ourselves. Consider our debts to God, to be our sins, and so we dare not come to a reckoning with him, but we discharge ourselves entirely upon our surety, our Savior Christ Jesus: but yet of that debt we must pay an acknowledgement, an interest (as it were) of praise, for all that we have, and of prayer for all that we would have, and these are our debts to God. Consider our debts to man, and our creditors are persons above us, and persons below us, superiors, and inferiors; and to superiors (who are the persons of whom this Text, or this verse, is most literally intended) we are debtors first in matter of substance, expressed here, in those words Tribute, and Custom; and in matter of ceremony, expressed here, in those words, Fear, and Honor. And to our inferiors, we are debtors for counsel to direct them, and for relief in compassion of their sufferings. And then to come to our third sort of creditors, to ourselves, we owe ourselves some debts which are to be tendered at noon, which are to be paid in our best strength and prosperity, in the course of our lives; and some which are to be tendered at night, at our Sun-set, at our deaths: Reddite ergo omnibus, Render therefore to all their dues. For your first debt, to God, we bring you to Church; this is no place to arrest in; but yet the Spirit of God calls upon you for those debts, praise him in his holy place, and pray to him in his house, which is the house of prayer. For your debts of the second kind, to other men, for those to superiors, we send you to Court; for those to inferiors, we send you to Hospitals, and prisons; and though Courts and prisons be ill paying places, yet pay you your debts of substance, and of ceremony, of tribute, and of honor, at Court; and your debt of counsel and relief to those that need them, in the darkest corners. And for you third kind of debts, debts to yourselves, make even with yourselves all the way in your lives, lest your payment prove too heavy, and you break, and your hearts break, when you come to see that you cannot do that upon your death-bed: Reddite omnibus, Render to all, to God, to man, to yourselves, their dues.
To begin then with our beginning, our debts to God; if we take that definition of of debts, which arises out of the sound of the word, Debere est de alio habere, a man owes all that which he hath received of another, we are debtors of all that we have, and all that we are, to God; our well being, and our very being is from him. If we take that definition of debt, Debere est Iure aliquo teneri ad dandum aut faciendum aliquid, To owe, is to be bound by some Law, to give something, or to do something to some person; The Law of Nature in our hearts, the Law of the Creature in our eyes, the Law of the Word in our ears, provokes us to give and to do something to that God, who hath given and done all to us; and more then giving or doing, hath suffered so much for us. What then is the payment which we are to make? First, Glory, Praise: For, in all his works, God still proposed to himself, his Glory. Those men who will needs be of God's Cabinet Counsel, and pronounce what God did first, what was his first Decree, and the first clause in that Decree, those men who will needs know, and then publish God's secrets, (And, by the way, that, which sometimes it may concern us to know, yet it may be a Libell to publish it) Those mysteries, which, for the opposing and countermining stubborn, and perverse Heresies, it may concern us, in Councils and Synods, and other fit places, to argue, and to clear, it may be an injury to God, and against his Crown, and Dignity, in breaking the peace of the Church, to publish and divulge to every popular auditory, and every itching ear, and thereby perplex the consciences of weak men, or offer contentious men, that which is their food, and delight, disputation; These men, I say, though they differ, in their order, whether God's Decree of Reprobation and Salvation, were before his Decree of Creation, (for some place it before, and some after) yet all, on all sides agree in this, That God's first purpose was his own glory; that was his first Decree, by what degrees soever he proceeded to the execution of that Decree. And so in the great and incomprehensible work of our Salvation, when that was uttered in the mouth of Angels to the Shepherds, that Ambassage began with a Gloria in excelsis, There was Peace upon earth, and there was good will towards men, but first there was Glory to God on high. And though to correct Heretical and Schismaticall men, amongst whom, some would express themselves in God's service, in one manner, and some in another, to the endangering of Doctrine, and to the confusion of Order, and thereupon some would say, in the Church-Service, Gloria Patri, in Filio, per Spiritum Sanctum, Glory be to the Father, in the Son, by the Holy Ghost; And some Gloria Patri per Filium, Glory be to the Father by the Son; And some Gloria Patri, & Filio, per Spiritum Sanctum, Glory be to the Father, and the Son, by the Holy Ghost; Though to prevent the danger of these divers forms of service, the Church came to determine all, in that one, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, yet we see out of the forms of the Heretics themselves, still so far as they conceived the Godhead to extend, so far they extended Glory, in that holy acclamation; those who believed not the Son to be God, or the Holy Ghost not to be God, left out Glory, when they came to their Persons; but to him that is God, in all confessions, Glory appertains. Now Glory is, Clara cum laude notitia, says S. Ambrose: It is an evident knowledge, and acknowledgement of God, by which, others come to know him too; which acknowledgement is well called a recognition, for it is a second, a ruminated, a reflected knowledge: Beasts do remember, but they do not remember that they remember; they do not reflect upon it, which is that that constitutes memory: Every carnal and natural man knows God, but the acknowledgement, the recognition, the manifestation of the greatness and goodness of God, accompanied with praise of him for that, this appertains to the godly man, and this constitutes glory. If God have delivered me from a sickness, and I do not glorify him for that, that is, make others know his goodness to me, my sickness is but changed to a spiritual apoplexy, to a lethargy, to a stupefaction. If God have delivered us from destruction in the bowels of the Sea, in an Invasion, and from destruction in the bowels of the earth, in the Powder-treason, and we grow faint in the publication of our thanks for this deliverance, our punishment is but aggravated, for we shall be destroyed both for those old sins which induced those attempts of those destructions, and for this later and greater sin, of forgetting those deliverances; God requires nothing else; but he requires that, Glory and Praise. And that book of the Scriptures, of which, S. Basil says, That if all the other parts of Scripture could perish, yet out of that book alone, we might have enough for all uses, for Catechizing, for Preaching, for Disputing; That whole Book, which contains all subjects that appertain to Religion, is called altogether Sepher Tehillim, The Book of praises, for all our Religion is Praise. And of that Book every particular Psalm is appointed by the Church, and continued at least for a thousand and two hundred years, to be shut up with that humble and glorious acclamation. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; O that men would therefore praise the Lord, and declare the wonderful works that he doth for the sons of men! Nil quisquam debet nisi quod turpe est, non reddere, says the Law: It is Turpe, an infamous and ignominious thing, not to pay debt; And, infamous and ignominious, are heavy and reproachful words in the Law; and the Gospel would add to that Turpe, Impium: It is not only an infamous but an impious, an irreligious thing, not to pay debts. As in debts, the State, and the Judge is my security, they undertake I shall be paid, or they execute Judgment; so, consider ourselves as Christians, God is my security, and he will punish where I am defrauded. Either thou owest God nothing, (And then, if thou owe him nothing, from whom, or from what hath shestollen that face, that is fair; or he that estate, that is rich; or that office, that commands others; or that learning, and those orders and commission, that preaches to others; or they their souls, that understand me now? If you owe nothing, from whom had you all these, all this?) Or if thou dost owe, Turpe est, Impium est, It is an unworthy, it is an unhonest, it is an irreligious thing, not to pay him, in that money, which his own Spirit mints, and coins in thee, and of his own bullion too, praise and thanksgiving. Not to pay him then, when he himself gives thee the money that must pay him, the Spirit of Thankfulness, falls under all the reproaches, that Law or Gospel can inflict in any names. How many men have we seen molder and crumble away great estates, and yet pay no debts? It is all our cases: What Poems, and what Orations we make, how industrious, and witty we are, to over-praise men, and never give God his due praise? Nay how often is the Pulpit it self, made the shop, and the Theatre of praise upon present men, and God left out? How often is that called a Sermon, that speaks more of Great men, then of our great God? Laudate eum omnes Augeli ejus, laudate eum omnes virtutes ejus; David calls upon the Angels, and all the Host of Heaven, to praise God, and in the Roman Church, they will employ willingly all their praise upon the Angels, and the Host of Heaven it self; and this is not reddere debitum; here is money enough spent, but no debt paid; praise enough given, but not to the true God. Laudate eum ligna fructifera, & universa pecora, & volucres pennatae, says David there; David calls upon fruits, and fowl, and cattle to praise God, and we praise, and set forth our lands, and fruits, and fowl, and cattle, with all Hyperbolicall praises; and this is not reddere debitum, no payment of a debt, where it is due. Laudate eum juvenes, & senes, & virgins, says David too; He calls upon old men, and young men, and virgins, to praise the Lord, and we spend all our praises, upon young men, which are growing up in favor, or upon old men, who have the government in their hands, or upon maidens, towards whom our affections have transported us, and all this is no payment of the debt of praise. Laudate eum Reges terrae, Principes & omnes Iudices; He calls upon Kings, and Judges, and Magistrates to praise God, and we employ all our praise upon the actions of those persons themselves. Beloved, God cannot be flattered, he cannot be over-praised, we can speak nothing Hyperbolically of God: But he cannot be mocked neither; He will not be told, I have praised thee, in praising thy creature, which is thine Image; would that discharge any of my debt to a Merchant, to tell him, that I had bestowed as much, or more money then my debt, upon his picture? Though Princes, and Judges, and Magistrates be pictures, and Images of God, though beauty, and riches, and honor, and power, and favor, be, in a proportion, so too, yet, as I bought not that Merchants picture, because it was his, or for love of him, but because it was a good piece, and of a good Masters hand, and a good house-ornament; so though I spend my nights, and days, and thoughts, and spirits, and words, and preaching, and writing, upon Princes, and Judges, and Magistrates, and persons of estimation, and their praise, yet my intention determines in that use which I have of their favor, and respects not the glory of God in them; and when I have spent myself to the last farthing, my lungs to the last breath, my wit to the last Metaphor, my tongue to the last syllable, I have not paid a farthing of my debt to God; I have not praised him, but I have praised them, till not only myself, but even they, whom I have so mispraised, are the worse in the sight of God, for my over-praising; I have flattered them, and they have taken occasion by that, to think that their faults are not discerned, and so they have proceeded in them.
This is then our first debt to God, glory and praise, which is, (as we said out of S. Ambrose ) a manifestation of God's blessing to us: for it is not towards God as it is towards great persons, under whom we have risen, that we should be afraid to let the world know, how rich we are, lest they that raised us, should borrow of us, or draw us into bands for them: God requires nothing but the glory, the manifestation, that by knowing what he hath done for thee, others may know what to hope, and what to pray for, at his hands: In our debts to God, the noverint universi, is the quietus est, our publishing of them, to his praise and glory, is his acquittance and discharge for them.
Our other debt to God is Prayer, for that also is due to him, and him only; For, Si quod petendum est petis, sed non à quo petendum est, impius es: If we direct our prayers to any, even for temporal things, as to the Authors of those benefits, we may pour out as many prayers, as would have paid that debt, if they had been rightly placed, but yet by such a payment, our debt is grown a debt of a higher nature, a sin. This is a circumstance, nay, an essential difference peculiar to our debts to God, that we do not pay them, except we contract more; we grow best out of debt, by growing farther in debt; by praying for more, we pay our former debt. Domus med Domus Orationis, my house, says God, is a house of prayer; for this use, and purpose, he built himself a house upon earth; He had praise and glory in heaven before, but for Prayer he erected a house here, his Church. All the world is his Exchequer, he gives in all; from every creature, from Heaven, and Sea, and Land, and all the inhabitants of all them, wereceive benefits; But the Church is his Court of Requests, there he receives our petitions, there we receive his answers.
It is true that neither is that house only for prayer, nor prayer only for that house: Christ, in his person, consecrated that place, the Temple, by Preaching too: And for prayer elsewhere, Christ did much accustom himself to private prayer: But in him, who was truly Head of the Church, the whole Church was; Christ alone, was a Congregation, he was the Catholic Church. But when we meet in God's house, though, by occasion, there be no Sermon, yet if we meet to pray, we pay our debt, we do our duty; so do we not, if we meet at a Sermon, without prayer. The Church is the house of prayer, so, as that upon occasion, preaching may be left out, but never a house of preaching, so, as that Prayer may be left out. And for the debt of prayer, God will not be paid, with money of our own coining, (with sudden, extemporal, inconsiderate prayer) but with currant money, that bears the Kings Image, and inscription; The Church of God, by his Ordinance, hath fet his stamp, upon a Liturgy and Service, for his house. Audit Deus in cord cogitantis, quod nec ipse audit, qui cogitat, says S. Bernard: God hears the very first motions of a man's heart, which, that man, till he proceed to a farther consideration, doth not hear, not feel, not deprehend in himself.
That soul, that is accustomed to direct her self to God, upon every occasion, that, as a flower at Sun-rising, conceives a sense of God, in every beam of his, and spreads and dilates it self towards him, in a thankfulness, in every small blessing that he sheds upon her; that soul, that as a flower at the Suns declining, contracts and gathers in, and shuts up her self, as though she had received a blow, whensoever she hears her Savior wounded by a oath, or blasphemy, or execration; that soul, who, whatsoever string be stricken in her, base or treble, her high or her low estate, is ever tuned toward God, that soul prays sometimes when it does not know that it prays. I hear that man name God, and ask him what said you, and perchance he cannot tell; but I remember, that he casts forth some of those ejaculationes animae, (as S. August: calls them) some of those darts of a devout soul, which, though they have not particular deliberations, and be not formal prayers, yet they are the indicia, pregnant evidences and blessed fruits of a religious custom; much more is it true, which S. Bernard says there, of them, Deus audit, God hears that voice of the heart, which the heart it self hears not, that is, at first considers not. Those occasional and transitory prayers, and those fixed and stationary prayers, for which, many times, we bind ourselves to private prayer at such a time, are payments of this debt, in such pieces, and in such sums, as God, no doubt, accepts at our hands. But yet the solemn days of payment, are the Sabbaths of the Lord, and the place of this payment, is the house of the Lord, where, as Tertullian expresses it, Agmine facto, we muster our forces together, and besiege God; that is, not taking up every tatter'd fellow, every sudden rag or fragment of speech, that rises from our tongue, or our affections, but mustering up those words, which the Church hath levied for that service, in the Confessions, and Absolutions, and Collects, and Litanies of the Church, we pay this debt, and we receive our acquittance. First, we must be sure to pray, where we may be sure to speed, and only God can give. It is a strange thing, says Justin Martyr, to pray to Esculapius or to Apollo for health, as God's thereof, Qui apud Chironem medicinā didicerunt; when they who pray to them, may know, to whom those gods were beholden for all their medicines, and of whom they learnt all their physic: why should they not rather pray to their Masters, then to them? why should Apollo, Chiroes scholar, and not Chiro, Apollo's Master, be the god of physic? why should I pray to S. George for victory, when I may go to the Lord of Hosts, Almighty God himself; or consult with a Seargeant, or Corporal, when I may go to the General? Or to another Saint for peace, when I may go to the Prince of peace Christ Jesus? Why should I pray to Saint Nicolas for a fair passage at Sea, when he that rebuked the storm, is nearer me then S. Nicolas? why should I pray to S. Antony for my hogs, when he that gave the devil leave to drown the Gergesens whole heard of hogs, did not do that by S. Antonies leave, nor by putting a caveat or prae-non-obstante in his monopoly of preserving hogs? I know not where to find S. Petronilla when I have an ague, nor S. Apollonia, when I have the tooth-ache, nor S. Liberius, when I have the stone: I know not whether they can hear me in Heaven, or no; Our Adversaries will not say, that all Saints in Heaven hear all that is said on earth: I know not whether they be in Heaven, or no: our Adversaries will not say, that the Pope may not err, in a matter of fact, and so may canonize a Traitor for a Saint: I know not whether those Saints were ever upon earth or no; our Adversaries will not say, that all their Legends were really, historically true, but that many of them, are holy, but yet symbolical inventions, to figure out not what was truly done before, but what we should endeavor to do now. I know my Redeemer liveth, and I know where he is; and no man knows, where he is not. He is our Creditor, to him we must pray. But for what? we may find in some respects a better model of prayer in heathen, and unchristian Rome, then in superstitious Rome. There we find their prayer to have been, Aut innocentiam des nobis, aut maturam poenitentiam; preserve us O Lord, in an innocence, or afford us a speedy repentance: And as we find that there was in that State a public Officer, Conditor precum, that made their Collects, and prayers for public use, so we find in their prayers, that which may make us ashamed; At first, for many years, their prayer was, Vt res populi Romani ampliores facerent, that their God's would enlarge their State; after that, it was, Vt res perpetuo incolumes servarent, that their God's would preserve, and establish them, in that State; And after, Vota nuncupata, si res eo stetissent statu; They vowed their service, and their sacrifice to God, upon condition that he should keep them always in that State, and not otherwise. So far therefore they may be our example, that they contented themselves with a competency, but not, that they made themselves Judges of that competency. We come to God's house to pay a debt, and our debt is, to confess that we can have from none but him, nor desire from him anymore, then he is pleased to give.
We come now to our second sort of Creditors, to whom we are commanded to render their dues; to men: And of them, to our Superiors first, and then to our Inferiors. For, that with which, the Apostle enters into this Chapter, Omnis anima, Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, S. Chrysostom applies Ad Prophetam, & Euangelistam, though he were a Prophet; or an Evangelist; S. Bernard, Ad Episcopum, & Archiepiscopum, though a Bishop, or Archbishop, (for, though they be as spiritual meteors between Heaven, and earth, and stand between God and us, yet they are subject to that jurisdiction, which God hath given man over man, though they were in an extraordinary calling, (the Prophets were so) yet they were subject to an ordinary jurisdiction;) And Theophylact, and Theodoret both, apply it ad Monachum & Fratrem, to Monks and Friers; though they seem to be gone out of the world, yet to this entendment, of being subject to higher powers, they are all within the world, no Cloister, no Cathedral Church, no profession, no dignity is a sanctuary, a privileged place from the payment of this debt. Here is a Quo warranto to be brought against all, and what exception can be pleaded to this Omnis anima, let every soul be subject? The Anabaptist would not pay this debt, he acknowledges no Magistrate, and yet John the Baptist did, who submitted himself to Herod; The Jesuit will not pay this debt, he acknowledges no secular Magistrate, and yet Christ Jesus did, who submitted himself to Pilate; Nemo secularior Pilato, cui adstitit Dominus judicandus, says S. Bernard, there was never a more secular Judge then Pilate, and yet the Lord of life was judged to death by him.
We cannot enlarge this consideration to all our Creditors, in these debts, not to all Superiors, natural, as Parents, and civil, as Magistrates, and Ecclesiastical, as Prelates, and that which is mixed of all, matrimonial, from the wife to the husband, and therefore we contract it to the root of all, the Sovereign; And to him we consider first a Real, and substantial, and then a circumstantial and ceremonial debt. The substantial debt is paid in a faithful, in a ready and cheerful paying of those debts, those Tributes, and Customs, (as the Apostle calls them here) which belong to the King, and he that makes no conscience in defrauding the public, he that withholds part of this debt, whensoever he can, he would pay that which he pays, in counterfeit money, if he durst: he that deceives, because he sees he can scape with that deceit, he would coin too, if he saw too, that he could scape for that coining. A principal reason that makes coining and adulterating of money capital in all states, is not so much because he that coins usurps the Princes authority, (for every coyner is not a pretender to the Crown) nor because he diminishes the Princes majesty, (for what is the Prince the worse in that his face is stamped by another in base metal, then when that is done by himself, or when his face is graved in any stone that is not precious?) as because he that coins, injuries the public: and no man injuries the public more, then he, who defrauds him, who is God's steward for the public, the King. In matter of clothes and apparel, God wrought a miracle in private men's cases, in continuing and enlarging the children of Israel's clothes in the wilderness: In matter of meat he wrought a miracle in private men's behalf too, in feeding so many, with so few loafes, and fishes; and so he did for drink too, in a miraculous providing of wine at the Marriage; for, meat, and drink, and clothes are things necessary for every man: But because money is not so, if these other things may otherwise be had, (as some nations have lived, by permutation of commodities, without money) therefore God never wrought a miracle in matter of money, in any private man's case; But because money is the most necessary of all, to the public, to the Prince, therefore he wrought a miracle for that; and for that, only then, when that money was to be employed upon tribute to Caesar; no miracle in matter of money but for tribute. As it is a sign of subjection to see a man stand bare headed, so it may be a declination towards a worse condition, to see a State bare headed, to see the Prince, the Head, kept bare, by being either defrauded of that which is ordinarily due to him, or denied that which becomes also due in the payment, though it were extraordinarily given in the grant. But I am not here, to deal upon affections, but consciences, and but so far upon them, in this point, as they find themselves in a rectified, and well examined conscience, to have been enemies to the public, by having defrauded that, by any means, of that which was truly due to it. And to bring that into consideration, which is little considered, that as it is a greater sin to defraud the public, then to defraud any private person, so doth the assisting of the public lay a greater obligation upon us, then the assisting of any other, by private alms.
The other debt from us to men, and of them to Superiors, and of them principally to the Sovereign, we called ceremonial; And the Apostle, in that which follows in this verse, refers chiefly to that, in those words, Fear, and Honor, for it consists especially in those things, wherein, by outward reverence, we contribute to the maintenance, and upholding of the dignity of the Prince; and of these outward ceremonial things hath God always professed himself to be most jealous. And, (if I mistake not, as I may easily do, in things so far removed out of my way) when in your judicial proceedings in criminal causes, you make the greatest offenses to be against the Crown and Dignity, in the first, (the Crown) you intend the essential part, and in the other, (the Dignity) the ceremonial, the Honor, and Reverence, and Reputation of the Prince. God gave his very Essence to his Son, he was very God of very God; But when this Son of his became man, that which God says in general, my Honor will I give to no man, reaches so far to the Son of God himself, as that the honor due to God, is not to be given to the body, not to the manhood of Christ Jesus himself. How very great a part of the Law of God was ceremonial? and how very heavy punishments were ordained for the breakers even of those Ceremonies? The Sabbaths themselves, S. Paul puts amongst Ceremonies: And that man, who assisted the Reformation of Religion, with as much learning, and modesty, as any, defines the Commandment of the Sabbath well, to be Morale praeceptum, de Ceremoniali, That though the Commandment be moral, and bind all men forever, yet that which is commanded in that moral Commandment, is in it self Ceremonial; for, indeed, all that which we call by the general name of Religion, as it is the outward worship of God, is Ceremonial, and there is nothing more moral, then that some ceremonial things there must be. Now, as these Ceremonial things are due to God himself, so are they to them, to whom God hath imparted his name, in saying they are God's. We shall not read in any secular or profane story, of greater humility and reverence in subjects to their Princes, then in the book of God, to the Kings there. What phrases of abjecting themselves, in respect of the Prince, can exceed David's humble expressing of himself to Saul? Or Daniel's magnifying the King, when he calls him King of Kings? And certainly some of the best, and most religious of Christian Emperors took to themselves so great Titles, in their style, as can be excused no other way, but because their Predecessors had done so, there lay a necessity upon them, to keep this ceremonial respect and dignity, at the same heighth, because upon the Ceremonial, much of the Essentiall depends too. And therefore God pierces to the root, to the heart, when he forbids an irreverent, or unrespective thought of the Prince, for, says he, Those that have wings, shall declare the matter; God employs so many Informers, as Angels; It is not an office unworthy of the Angels of Heaven, much less of any other Angels of the Church, (no, not though it be delivered by way of confession) to discover any disloyal purposes; though in other cases, by our own Canons, that seal of Confession lay justly a strong obligation upon us, and God gives Angels an ability, a faculty, which in their nature they have not, that is, to know thoughts, for this purpose, for the discovery of such irreverent, and disloyal hearts. Angels do not know thoughts naturally, yet to this purpose they shall know thoughts, says God. Moral men should not discover the secrets of friends, we should not discover the things we receive in confession; but when it comes to matter of disloyalty, all moral seals, and all Ecclesiastical seals lose their obligation.
The foot of this account, the total sum of this Ceremonial debt to Superiors, is, that due respect be given to every man, in his place; for when young men think it the only argument of a good spirit, to behave themselves fellowly, and frowardly to great persons, those greater persons in time, take away their respect from Princes, and at last, (for in the chain of order, every link depends upon one another) God loses the respect and honor due to him; private men lessen their respect of Magistrates, and Magistrates of Princes, and Princes and all, of God. And therefore, that which S. Chrysostom says of the highest rank, Non putes Christian a philosophiae dignitatem laedi, reaches to all sorts, Let no man think that he departs from the dignity of a Christian, in attributing to every man that which appertains to the dignity of his place. I speak not all this, as though a man should lose the substance for the ceremony, that that man, whose place it is to advise and counsel, should be so ceremonious with his superior, as to concur with him in the allowance of all his errors. Caput meum conquassatum est (it is an expostulation of S. Bernard's ) My head is bruised, corrupted, putrefied, (he speaks it of his head, his superior, a Bishop) Et jam sanguine ebulliente, putaverim esse tegendum, now my head runs down with blood, can I think to cover it? Quicquid apposuero, cruentabitur, whatsoever I lay to it will be bloody too; if I dissemble, or cover his faults, his blood will fall upon me, and I shall have part of his sins. Every wife hath a superior at home, so hath every child, and every servant, and every man a superjour some where, in some respect, that is, in a spiritual respect: for so, not only the King, but the highest spiritual person hath a superior for absolution. And to this superior respectively, every man owes a ceremonial respect, as a debt, though this debt be not so far, as to accompany him, or to encourage him in his ill purposes, for that is too high a ceremony, and too transcendent a complement, to be damned for his sake, by concurring with my superior in his sins. And then, they whose office it is to direct, even their superiors, by their counsel, (as that office may in cases belong to a wife, to a child, to a servant, as Job professes it was in his family) have also a ceremonial duty in that duty, which is, to do even that, with sweetness, with respect, with reverence. It was a better rule in so high a business, then a man would look for at a Friars hands, which S. Bernard hath, Abs{que} prudentia & benevolentia, non sunt perfecta consilia: No man is a good Counselor, for all his wisdom, and for all his liberty of speech, except he love the person whom he counsels: If he do not wish him well, as well as tell him his faults, he is rather a Satirist, and a Calumniator, and seeks to vent his own wisdom, and to exercise his authority, then a good Counselor. And therefore, says that Father, before Christ took Peter into that high place, he asked him, and asked him thrice, Amas me? Lovest thou me? He would be sure of his love to him first, before he preferred him; Vix in multitudine hominum, unum reperio, in utra{que} gratia consummatum, says he still: Not one man amongst a thousand, that is both able to give counsel to great persons, and then doth that office out of love to that person, but rather to let others see his ability in himself, or his authority and power over that person, and so upon pretence of counseling, opens his weaknesses to the knowledge, and to the contempt of other men; as David's wife, when he had danced (as she thought) undecently before the Ark, spoke freely enough, with liberty enough, but it was with scorn, and contempt: And this is in no sort any payment of this ceremonial debt, which is, (that the foundations, and the substance being preserved, that is, the glory of God, and moral, and religious truths being kept inviolate) to think, and say, and do, those things which may conduce to the estimation, and dignity of his superior.
Now this hath led us to our other list of human creditors, that is, our inferiors, and to render to them also their dues; for, to them we said at beginning, there was due, counsel, if they were weak in understanding; and there was due, relief, if they were weak in their fortunes. For the first, there are some persons in so high place in this world, as that they can owe nothing to any temporal superior, for they have none: But there is none so low in this world, but he hath some lower then he is, to pay this debt of counsel and advise to: at least the debt of prayer for him, if he will not receive the debt of counsel to him. But in this place (for haste) we contract ourselves to the debt of relief to the poor: Amongst whom, we may consider one sort of poor whom we ourselves have made poor, and damnified, and then our debt is Restitution, and another sort, whom God, for reasons unknown to us hath made poor, and there our debt is Alms. For the first of these (those whom thou hast damnified and made poor) thou needest not come to the Apostles question of the blind man, Did this man sin or his parents, that he is born blind? Did this man waste himself in house-keeping, or in play, or in wantonness, that he is become poor? Neither he sinned, nor his parents, says Christ; neither excess, nor play, nor wantonness hath undone this man, but thy prevarication in his cause, thy extortion, thy oppression: And now he starves, and thou huntest after a popular reputation of a good house-keeper with his meat; now he freezes in nakedness, and thy train shines in liveries out of his Wardrobe; every Constable is ready to lay hold upon him for a rogue, and thy son is Knighted with his money. Sileat licet fama, non silet fames, says good and holy Bernard, fame may be silent, but famine will not: perchance the world knows not this, or is weary of speaking of it, but those poor wretches that starve by thy oppression, know it, and cry out in his hearing, where thine own conscience accompanies them, and cries out with them against thee. Pay this debt, this debt of restitution, and pay it quickly; for nothing perishes, nothing decays an estate more, nothing consumes, nothing enfeebles a soul more, then to let a great debt run on long.
But if they be poor of God's making, and not of thine (as they are to thee, if thou know not why, or how they are become poor) (for though God have inflicted poverty upon them for their sins, that is a secret between God and them, that which God hath revealed to thee, is their poverty, and not their sins) then thou owest them a debt of alms, though not restitution: though thou have nothing in thy hands which was theirs, yet thou hast something which should be theirs; nothing perchance which thou hast taken from them, but something certainly which thou hast received from God for them; and in that sense S. Bernard says truly, in the behalf, and in the person of the poor, to wasteful men, Nostrum est quod effunditis, you are prodigal, there is one fault; but then you are prodigal of that which is not your own, but ours, and that is a greater; and then we whose goods you wast, are poor and miserable, and that is the greatest fault of all. Nobis crudeliter subtrahitur, quod inaniter expenditis, whatsoever you spend wantonly and vainly upon yourselves, or sinfully upon others, is cruelly and bloodily drawn out of our bowels, and worse then so, sacrilegiously too, because we are the Temples of the Holy Ghost: If not properly taken away because we had it not, yet unjustly and cruelly withheld and kept away, because we should have it, say those poor souls to these wasteful prodigalls in that devout and persuasive mouth of S. Bernard. Here is a double misery, of which you, you that are prodigals are authors, Vos vanitando peritis, nos spoliando perimitis, In this prodigality you waste yourselves, even your souls, and you rob us; you leave us naked in the cold, and you cast yourselves into dark and tormenting fire. So that whether they be poor of God's making, or poor of your making, Reddite debitum, pay the debt you owe, to the one by alms, to the other by restitution.
We descend now to our last creditors, ourselves. It is a good rule of S. Bernard, Qui ad sui mensuram proximum diligit, seipsum diligere norit, since we are commanded to love our neighbor, as ourselves, we must be sure to love ourselves so as we should do, or else we proceed by a wrong, and a crooked rule. So to give some guess of our ability, and of our willingness, to pay our debts to God, and our debts to man, we must consider what we owe, and how we pay ourselves. Thou art a debtor (as S. Paul says of himself) to the Greek, and to the Barbarian, to the wise, and to the unwise; And thou thyself art amongst some of these; wise and learned in the best art, though thou know not a letter, rich and mighty in the best treasure, though thou possess not a penny, if thou pay these debts duly, (for as God tells us we may buy without money, so we may pay debts without money) and then ignorant and unlettered, in the midst of thy library and languages, and poor and beggarly in the midst of thy coffers and rentals, if thou call not thyself to this account, for his debt to himself alone, is debt enough to oppress any man. Solus mihi servandus, says S. Bernard, I am Bishop over no man but myself, I have no larger Diocese then mine own person, no man's debts to pay but mine own, nor any man to pay them to, but to myself, Solus tamen mihi sum scandalo, yet I am scandalized in myself, I have brought an ill name upon myself, to be an ill pay master to mine own soul; Solus taedio, though I have no creditor to disappoint but myself, yet I am grown a gedious, and dilatory man to myself, I have taken longer and longer days with myself, and still put off my repentances, from sickness to sickness, Solus taedio; solus oneri, I am a burden to myself, I have over-burdened myself even with collateral security, with entering into new bands, with new vows upon my repentances, new contracts, new stipulations, new protestations to my God, which I have forfeited also, solus oneri; and solus periculo, I am become a dangerous man to myself, I dare not trust myself alone, though I abstain from my former sinful company, yet custom of sin hath made me a temptation to myself, and I sin where no temptation offers itself: Solus mihi servandus, I have nobody to save, says S. Bernard in his Cloister, but myself, and I cannot do that, but I damn myself alone.
Begin therefore to pay these debts to thyself betimes; for, as we told you at beginning, some you are to tender at noon, some at evening. Even at your noon and warmest Sun-shine of prosperity, you owe yourselves a true information, how you came by that prosperity, who gave it you, and why he gave it. Let not the Olive boast of her own fatness, nor the Fig-tree of her own sweetness, nor the Vine of her own fruitfulness, for we were all but Brambles. Let no man say, I could not miss a fortune, for I have studied all my youth; How many men have studied more nights, then he hath done hours, and studied themselves blind, and mad in the Mathematiques, & yet withers in beggary in a corner? Let him never add, But I studied in a useful and gainful profession; How many have done so too, and yet never compassed the favor of a Judge? And how many that have had all that, have struck upon a Rock, even at full Sea, and perished there? In their Grandfathers & great Grandfathers, in a few generations, whosoever is greatest now, must say, With this staff came I over Jordan; nay, without any staff came I over Jordan, for he had in them at first, a beginning of nothing. As for spiritual happiness, Non volentis, nec currentis, sed miserentis Dei, It is not in him that would run, nor in him that doth, but only in God that prospers his course; so for the things of this world, it is in vain to rise early, and to lie down late, and to eat the bread of sorrow, for, nisi Dominus aedificaverit, nisi Dominus custodierit, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain; except the Lord keep the City, the watchman waketh but in vain. Come not therefore to say, I studied more then my fellows, and therefore am richer then my fellows, but say, God that gave me my contemplations at first, gave me my practice after, and hath given me his blessing now. How many men have worn their brains upon other studies, and spent their time and themselves therein? how many men have studied more in thine own profession, and yet, for diffidence in themselves, or some disfavour from others, have not had thy practice? How many men have been equal to thee, in study, in practice, and in getting too, and yet upon a wanton confidence, that that world would always last, or upon the burden of many children, and an expensive breeding of them, or for other reasons, which God hath found in his ways, are left upon the sand at last, in a low fortune? whilst the Sun shines upon thee in all these, pay thyself the debt, of knowing whence, and why all this came, for else thou canst not know how much, or how little is thine, nor thou canst not come to restore that which is none of thine, but unjustly wrung from others. Pay therefore this debt of surveying thine estate, and then pay thyself thine own too, by a cheerful enjoying and using that which is truly thine, and do not deny nor defraud thyself of those things which are thine, and so become a wretched debtor, to thy back, or to thy belly, as though the world had not enough, or God knew not what were enough for thee.
Pay this debt to thyself of looking into thy debts, of surveying, of severing, of serving thyself with that which is truly thine, at thy noon, in the best of thy fortune, and in the strength of thine understanding; that when thou comest to pay thy other, thy last debt to thyself, which is, to open a door out of this world, by the dissolution of body and soul, thou have not all thy money to tell over when the Sun is ready to set, all the account to make of every bag of money, and of every quillet of land, whose it is, and whether it be his that looks for it from thee, or his from whom it was taken by thee; whether it belong to thine heir, that weeps joyful tears behind the curtain, or belong to him that weeps true, and bloody tears, in the hole in a prison. There will come a time, when that land that thou leavest shall not be his land, when it shall be no bodies land, when it shall be no land, for the earth must perish; there will be a time when there shall be no Manors; no Acres in the world, and yet there shall lie Manors and Acres upon thy soul, when land shall be no more, when time shall be no more, and thou pass away, not into the land of the living, but of eternal death. Then the Accuser will be ready to interline the schedules of thy debts, thy sins, and infert false debts, by abusing an over-tenderness, which may be in thy conscience then, in thy last sickness, in thy deathbed: Then he will be ready to add a cyphar more to thy debts, and make hundreds thousands, and abuse the faintness which may be in thy conscience then, in thy last sickness, in thy death-bed. Then he will be ready to abuse even thy confidence in God, and bring thee to think, that as a Pirate ventures boldly home, though all that he hath be stolen, if he be rich enough to bribe for a pardon; so, howsoever those families perish whom thou hast ruined, and those whole parishes whom thou hast depopulated, thy soul may go confidently home too, if thou bribe God then, with an Hospital or a Fellowship in a College, or a Legacy to any pious use in apparance, and in the eye of the world.
Pay thyself therefore this debt, that is, make up thine account all the way, for when that voice comes, Redde rationem, Give up an account of thy Stewardship, it is not, go home now, and make up thy account perfect; but now, now deliver up thine account; if it be perfect, it is well, if it be not, here is no longer day, for I am non poteris villicare, now thou canst be no lenger Steward, now thou hast no more to do with thyself. Here the voice is not in the word to Hezekiah, Dispone domui, put thy house in order, for, morieris, thou shalt die; For, there God had a gracious purpose, to give him a longer term, but here it is, fool, this night, repetunt, not they shall, but they do fetch away thy soul, and then what is become of that To morrow, which thou hadst imagined and promised to thyself, for the payment of this debt, of this repentance? Be just therefore to thyself all the way, pay thyself, and take acquittances of thyself, all the way, which is only done under the seal, and in the testimony of a rectified conscience. Let thine own conscience be thine evidence, and thy Rolls, and not the opinion of others: Non tutum plane, sed stultum, ibi thesaurum tuum recondere, ubi non vales resumere, cum volueris, says Saint Bernard. It is not providently done, to lock thy treasure in a chest, of which thou hast no key, and to which thou hast no access: Si ponis in os meum jam non in tua, sed mea potestate est, ut te laudare, vel tibi derogare possim: If thou build thy reputation upon my report, it is now in my power, not in thine, whether thou shalt be good or bad, honorable or infamous: Sanum vas, & inconcussum, conscientia, a good conscience is a sweet vessel, and a strong; Quicquid in ea reposueris, servabit vivo, & defuncto restituet: Whatsoever thou laiest up in that, shall serve thee all thy life, and after; and that shall be thine acquittance, and discharge, atthy last payment, in manustuas, when thou returnest thy spirit, into his hands that gave it: And then reddidisti debita omnibus, thou shalt have rendered to all their dues, when thou hast given the King, Honor; the poor, alms; thyself, peace; and God thy soul.
SERMON X. Preached upon Candlemas Day.
ROM. 12.20.
Therefore if thine enemy hunger feed him, if he thirst give him drink; for, in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
I T falls out, I know not how, but, I take it from the instinct of the Holy Ghost, and from the Prophetical spirit residing in the Church of God, that those Scriptures which are appointed to be read in the Church, all these days, (for I take no other this Terme) do evermore afford, and offer us Texts, that direct us to patience, as though these times had especial need of those instructions. And truly so they have; for though God have so far spared us as yet, as to give us no exercise of patience in any afflictions, inflicted upon ourselves, yet, as the heart aches if the head do, nay, if the foot ache, the heart aches too; so all that profess the name of Christ Jesus aright, making up but one body, we are but dead members of that body, if we be not affected with the distempers of the most remote parts thereof. That man says but faintly, that he is heart-whole, that is macerated with the Gout, or lacerated with the Stone; It is not a heart, but a stone grown into that form, that feels no pain, till the pain seize the very substance thereof. How much and how often S. Paul delights himself with that sociable syllable, Syn, Con, Conregnare, and Convificare, and Consedere, of Raigning together, and living, and quickening together: As much also doth God delight in it, from us, when we express it in a Conformity, and Compunction, and Compassion, and Condolency, and (as it is but a little before the Text) in weeping with them that weep. Our patience therefore being actually exercised in the miseries of our brethren round about us, and probably threatened in the aims and plots of our adversaries upon us, though I hunt not after them, yet I decline not such Texts, as may direct our thoughts upon duties of that kind.
This Text does so; for the circle of this Epistle of S. Paul, this precious ring, being made of that golden Doctrine, That Justification is by faith, and being enameled with that beautiful Doctrine of good works too, in which enameled Ring, as a precious stone in the midst thereof, there is set, the glorious Doctrine of our Election, by God's eternal Predestination, our Text falls in that part, which concerns obedience, holy life, good works; which, when both the Doctrines, that of Justification by faith, and that of Predestination have suffered controversy, hath been by all sides embraced, and accepted; that there is no faith, which the Angels in heaven, or the Church upon earth, or our own consciences can take knowledge of, without good works. Of which good works, and the degrees of obedience, of patience, it is a great one; and a hard one that is enjoined in this Text; for whereas S. Augustine observes six degrees, six steps in our behavior towards our enemies, whereof the first is nolle laedere, to be loath to hurt any man by way of provocation, not to begin; And a second, nolle amplius quam laesus laedere, That if another provoke him, yet what power soever he have, he would return no more upon his enemy, then his enemy had cast upon him, he would not exceed in his revenge; And a third, velle minus, not to do so much as he suffered, but in a less proportion, only to show some sense of the injury; And then another is, nolle laedere licet laesus, to return no revenge at all, though he have been provoked by an injury; And a higher then that, par atum se exhibere ut amplius laedatur, to turn the other cheek, when he is smitten, and open himself to farther injuries; That which is in this Text, is the sixth step, and the highest of all, laedenti benefacere, to do good to him, of whom we have received evil, If thine enemy hunger, to feed him, if he thirst, to give him drink; for in so, &c.
The Text is a building of stone, and that bound in with bars of Iron: fundamental Doctrine, in point of manners, in it self, and yet buttressed, and established with reasons too, therefore, and for; Therefore feed thine enemy; For, in so doing, thou shalt heap coals. This therefore, confirms the precedent Doctrine, and this For, confirms that confirmation.
But all the words of God are Yea, and Amen, and therefore we need not insist upon reasons, to ratify or establish them. Our parts shall be but two; Mandatum, and Emolumentum; first the Commandment, (for we dare not call it by so indifferent a name, as an Evangelical Counsel that we may choose whether we will do or no; It is a Commandment, do good to thine enemy ) And secondly, the benefit that we receive by that benefit, we heap coals upon his head. Each part will have divers branches: for, in the Commandment, we shall first look upon the person, to which God directs us, inimicus, though he be an enemy, and inimicus tuus, though he be thine enemy; but yet it is but tuus, thine enemy; It is not simply inimicus homo, the Devil, nor inimicus vester, a spreading enemy, an enemy to the State, nor inimicus Dei, an enemy to Religion; And from the person, we shall pass to the duty, Ciba, and Da aquam, feed, and give drink, in which, all kinds of reliefes are implied: But that is, si esurierit, if he be hungry; There is no wanton nor superfluous pampering of our enemy required, but so much as may preserve the man, and not nourish the enmity. In these considerations we shall determine our first part; and our second in these; First, that God takes nothing from us, without recompense; nothing for nothing; he seals his Commandment with a powerful reason, promise of reward: And then, the reward specified here, arises from the enemy himself; And that reward is, That thou shalt cast coals of fire upon his head; and congeres, accumulabis, Thou shalt heap coals of fire upon him.
It is not ill said by a Jesuit, of these words, Sententia magis Euangelica, quàm Mosaica; This Text, that enjoins benefits upon our enemies, is fitter for the Gospel, then for the Law, fitter for the new, then for the Old Testament; and yet it is tam Mosaica, quam Euangelica, to show that it is Universal, Catholic, Moral Doctrine, appertaining to Jew, and Christian, and all, this Text is in the Old Testament, as well as in the new. In the mouth of two witnesses is this truth established, in the mouth of a Prophet, and in the mouth of an Apostle, Solomon had said it before, and S. Paul says it here, If thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, &c.
Your Seneca's and your Plutarch’s have taught you an art, how to make profit of enemies, because as flatterers dilate a man, and make him live the more negligently, because he is sure of good interpretations of his worst actions; So a man's enemies contract him, and shut him up, and make him live the more watchfully, because he is sure to be calumniated even in his best actions: But this is a lesson above Seneca, and Plutarch, reserved for Solomon, and Saint Paul, to make profit by conferring and placing benefits upon enemies: And that is our first branch, Though he be an enemy.
S. Augustine cites, and approves that saying of the moral Philosopher, Omnes odit, qui malos odit, he that hates ill men, hates all men, for if a man will love none but honest men, where shall he find any exercise, any object of his love? So if a man will hold friendship with none, nor do offices of society to none, but to good natured, and gentle, and souple, and sociable men, he shall leave very necessary businesses undone. The frowardest and perversest man may be good ad hoc, for such or such a particular use. By good company and good usage, that is, by being mingled with other simples, and ingredients, the very flesh of a Viper, is made an Antidote: A Viper loses not his place in Physic, because he is poison; a Magistrate ceases not to be a Magistrate, because he is an ill man; much less does a man cease to be a man, and so to have a title to those duties, which are rooted in nature, because he is of an ill disposition. God makes his Sun to shine upon the good, and upon the bad, and sendeth rain upon the just, and upon the unjust. God hath made of one blood all mankind: how unkindly then, how unmanly is it to draw blood? We come too soon to the name of enemy, and we carry it too far: Plaintiff and Defendant in a matter of Trespass, must be enemies: Disputers in a Problematicall matter of Controversy, that concerns not foundations, must be enemies; And then all enmity must imply an irreconcileablenesse, once enemies may never be friends again: we come too soon to the name, and we stand too long upon the thing; for there are offices and duties even to an enemy; and that, though an enemy in as high a Degree, as the word imports here, osor, a hater, and osor tuus, such an enemy as hates thee, which is our next Branch.
We use to say, that those benefits are longest remembered, which are public, and common; and those injuries, which are private, and personal: But truly in both, the private, and personal makes the greatest impression. For, if a man have benefitted the public, with a College, with an Hospital, with any perpetual endowment, yet he that comes after to receive the benefit of any such place, for the most part determines his thankfulness upon that person, who brought him thither, and reflects little upon the founder, or those that are descended from him. And so it is in injuries, and violences too, we hate men more for personal, then for national injuries; more, if he have taken my Ship, then if he have attempted my Country. We should be more sensible of the public, but because private and personal things do affect us most, the Commandment here goes to the particular.; Though he be thine enemy, and hate thee. If you love them that love you, and lend to them that pay you, what thanks have you? Truly not much: Publicans do the same, says S. Matthew; Sinners do the same, says S. Luke: But love you your enemies; For, in the same place, where Christ puts all those cases, If a man have been angry with his Brother, If a man have said Racha to his Brother, if he have called his Brother Fool, he ends all with that, Agree with thine adversary; Though he be thine adversary, yet he is thy Brother. If he have damnified thee, calumniated thee, pardon him. If he have done that to another, thou hast no power to pardon him; Herein only thou hast exercise of greatness and goodness too, If he be thine enemy, thou and thou only canst pardon him; and herein only thou hast a Supremacy, and a Prerogative to show.
So far then, the text goes literally, do good to an enemy; to thine enemy; and literally, no farther: It does not say to a State, Si Inimicus vester, It does not bind us to favor, or further a public enemy; It does not bind the Magistrate to favor Thieves and Murderers at land, nor Pirates at Sea, who are truly Inimici nostri, our enemies even as we are men, enemies to mankind. It does not bind Societies and Corporations Ecclesiastical or Civil, to sink under such enemies, as would dissolve them or impair them in their privileges; for such are not only Inimici vestri, but Vestrorum, enemies of you, and yours, of those that succeed you: And all men are bound to transfer their jurisdictions and privileges, in the same integrity, in which they received them, without any prevarication. In such cases it is true, that Corporations have no souls, that is, they are not bound to such a tenderness of conscience; for there are divers laws in this doctrine of patience, that bind particular men, that do not bind States and Societies, under those penalties.
Much less does the Commandment bind us to the Inimicus homo, which is the devil, to farther him, by fuelling and advancing his temptations, by high diet, wanton company, or licentious discourse; and so, upon pretence of maintaining our health, or our cheerfulness, invite occasions of sin. S. Jerome tells us of one sense, in which we should favor that enemy, the devil, and that in this text, we are commanded to do so: Benevolus est erga Diabolum, says he, he is the devils best friend, that resists him; for by our yielding to the devils temptations, wesubmit him to greater torments, then, if he mist of his purpose upon us, he should suffer. But between this enemy and us, God himself hath set such an enmity, that, as no man may separate those whom God hath joined, so no man may join those whom God hath separated; God created not this enmity in the devil; he began it in himself; but God created an enmity in us, against him; and, upon no collateral conditions, may we be reconciled to him, in admitting any of his superstitions.
It is not then Inimicus vester, the common enemy, the enemy of the State; less, Inimicus homo, the spiritual enemy of Mankind, the devil; least of all, Inimicus Dei, they who oppose God, (so, as God can be opposed) in his servants who profess his truth. David durst not have put himself upon that issue with God, ( Do not I hate them, that hate thee ) if he had been subject to that increpation, which the Prophet Jehu laid upon Jehoshaphat, Shouldst thou help the ungodly, and love them, that hate the Lord? But David had the testimony of his conscience, that he hated them, with a perfect hatred: which, though it may admit that interpretation, that it is De perfection virtutis, that his perfect hatred, was a hatred becoming a perfect man, a charitable hatred; yet it is De perfection intentionis, a perfect hatred is a vehement hatred, and so the Chaldee paraphrase expresses it, Odio consummato, a hatred to which nothing can be added; Odio religioso, with a religious hatred; not only that religion may consist with it, but that Religion cannot subsist without it; a hatred that gives the tincture, and the stamp to Religion it self. The imputation that lies upon them, who do not hate those that hate God, is sufficiently expressed in S. Gregory; He saw how little temporizers and worldly men, were moved with the word Impiety, and ungodliness, and therefore he waves that; He saw they preferred the estimation of wisdom before and above piety, and therefore he says not Impium est, but stultum est, si illis placere quaerimus, quos non placere domino scimus: It is a foolish thing, to endeavor to be acceptable to them, who, in our own knowledge, do not endeavor to be acceptable to God.
But yet, Beloved, even in those enemies, that thus hate God, Solomon's rule hath place, There is a time to hate, and a time to love. Though the person be the same, the affection may vary. As S. Cyprian says, (if that book be not rather Origen's, then Cyprians, for it is attributed to both) Ama foeminas inter Sacra solennia, Love a woman at Church, (that is, love her coming to Church,) (though, as S. Augustine in his time did, we, in our times may complain of wanton meetings there) But Odio habe in communion privata, Hate, that is, forbear women in private conversation; so, for those that hate God in the truth of his Gospel, and content themselves with an Idolatrous Religion, we love them at Church, we would be glad to see them here, and though they come not hither, we love them so far, as that we pray for them; and we love them in our studies so far, as we may rectify them by our labors; But we hate them in our Convocations, where we oppose Canons against their Doctrines, and we hate them in our Consultations, where we make laws to defend us from their malice, and we hate them in our bed-chambers, where they make children Idolaters, and perchance make the children themselves. We acknowledge with S. Augustine, Perfectio odii est in charitate, the perfect hatred consists with charity, Cum nec propter vitia homines oderimus, nec vitia propter homines amemut; when the greatness of the men brings us not to love their religion, nor the illness of their Religion, to hate the men. Moses, in that place, is S. Augustine's example, whom he proposes, Orabat & occidebat, he prayed for the Idolaters, and he slew them; he hated, says he, Iniquitatem, quam puniebat, that sin which he punished, and he loved Humanitatem, pro qua or abat, that nature, as they were men, for whom he prayed: for, that, says he, is perfectum odium, quod facti sunt diligere, quod fecerunt, odiisse, to love them as they are creatures, to hate them as they are Traitors. Thus much love is due to any enemy, that if God be pleased to advance him, De ejus profectu non dejiciamur, says S. Gregory, His advancement do not deject us, to a murmuring against God, or to a diffidence in God; And that when God, in his time, shall cast him down again, Congaudeamus justitiae Iudicis, condoleamus miseriae pereuntis, We may both congratulate the justice of God, and yet condole the misery of that person, upon whom that judgment is justly fallen: for, though Inimicus vester, the enemy that maligns the State, and Inimicus Dei, the enemy that opposes our religion, be not so far within this text, as that we are bound to feed them, or to do them good; yet there are scarce any enemies, with whom we may not live peaceably, and to whom we may not wish charitably.
We have done with all, which was intended and proposed of the person; we come to the duty expressed in this text, Ciba, feed him, and give him drink. Here, there might be use in noting the largeness, the fullness, the abundance of the Gospel, above the law: Not only in that the blessings of God are presented in the Old Testament, in the name of Milk and Honey, and Oil, and Wine, (all temporal things) and in the New Testament, in the name of Joy, and Glory, (things, in a manner spiritual,) But that also, in the Old Testament, the best things are limited, and measured unto them; a Gomer of Manna, and no more, for the best man, whereas for the joy of the Gospel, we shall enter In Gandium Domini, Into our Masters Joy, and be made partakers with Christ Jesus, of that Joy, for which he endured the Cross; And here, in this world, Gaudium meum erit, says Christ, My Joy shall be in you; in what measure? Implebitar, says he, Your Joy shall be full; How long? forever; Nemo tollet, your Joy shall no man take from you. And such as the Joy is, such is the glory too: How precious? Divitiae Gloria, The Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance; How much? Pondus gloriae, A weight of glory; How long? Immarcescibilis Corona, A crown of Glory, that never fadeth: We might, I say, take occasion of making this comparison, between the Old, and the New Testament, out of this Text, because this charity, enjoined here, in this text, to our enemy, in that place, from whence this text is taken, in the Proverbs, is but Lachem, and Maiim, Bread, and Water; But here, in S. Paul, it is in words of better signification, feed him, give him drink. But indeed, the words, at the narrowest, (as it is but bread and water) signify whatsoever is necessary for the relief of him, that stands in need. And if we be enjoin'd so much to our enemy, how inexcusable are those Datores cyminibiles (as the Canonists call them) that give Mint, and Cumin for alms, a root that their Hogs will not, a broth that their Dogs will not eat. Remember in thy charity, the times, and the proportions of thy Savior; After his Death, in the wound in his side, he poured out water, and blood, which represented both Sacraments, and so was a bountiful Dole: provide in thy life, to do good after thy death, and it shall be welcome, even in the eyes of God, then: But remember too, that this dole at his death, was not the first alms that he gave; his water was his white money, and his blood was his gold, and he poured out both together in his agony, and severally in his weeping, and being scourged for thee. What proportion of relief is due to him, that is thy brother in Nature, thy brother in Nation, thy brother in Religion, if meat and drink, and in that, whatsoever is necessary to his sustentation, be due to thine enemy?
But all this bountiful charity, is Si esurierit, si sitit, If he be hungry, if he be thirsty. To the King, who bears the care and the charge of the public, we are bound to give, Antequam esuriat, Antequam sitias, before he be overtaken with dangerous, and dishonorable, and less remediable necessities: not only substantial wants, upon which our safety depends, but circumstantial and ceremonial wants, upon which his Dignity, and Majesty depends, are always to be, not only supplied, but prevented. But our enemy must be in hunger, and thirst, that is, reduced to the state, as he may not become our enemy again, by that which we give, before we are bound, by this text, to give anything. No doubt but the Church of Rome hungers still for the money of this land, upon which they fed so luxuriantly heretofore: and no doubt but those men, whom they shall at any time animate, will thirst for the blood of this land, which they have sought before; but this is not the hunger, and the thirst of the enemy, which we must feed: The Commandment goes not so far, as to feed that enemy, that may thereby be a more powerful enemy; But yet, thus far, truly, it does go, deny no office of civility, of peace, of commerce, of charity to any, only therefore, because he hath been heretofore an enemy.
There remains nothing of those two branches, which constitute our first part, the person, that is, an en ••• reduced to a better disposition; and the duty, that is, to relieve him, with things necessary for that state: And for the second part, we must stop upon those steps laid down at first, of which the first was, That God takes nothing for nothing, he gives a Reward. When God took that great proportion of Sheep and Oxen out of his subjects goods in the State of Israel, for Sacrifice, that proportion, which would have kept divers Kings houses, and would have victualed divers navies, perchance no man could say, I have this, or this benefit, for this, or this Sacrifice; but yet could any man say, God hath taken a Sacrifice for nothing? Where we have Peace, and Justice, and Protection, can any man say, he gives anything for nothing? When God says, If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, that's not intended, which Tertullian says, Scriptum est, Deus non esuriet nec sitiet, It is written, God shall neither hunger nor thirst, (for, first, Tertullian's memory failed him, there is no such sentence in all the Scripture, as he cites there; And then God does hunger and thirst, in this sense, in the members of his mystical body,) neither is that only intended in that place of the Psalm (though Cassiodore take it so) That if God in his poor Saints, were hungry, he could provide them, without telling thee; but it is, If I were hungry, I need not tell thee; for, The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, and they that dwell therein. God does not always bind himself to declare his hunger, his thirst, his pressing occasions, to use the goods of his subjects, but as the Lord gives, so the Lord takes, where and when he will: But yet, as God transfuses a measure of this Right and power of taking, into them, of whom he hath said, you are God's, so he transfuses this goodness too, which is in himself, that he takes nothing for nothing; He promises here a reward, and a reward arising from the enemy, which puts a greater encouragement upon us, to do it; Super caput ejus, In so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
God is the Lord of Hosts, and in this Text, he makes the seat of the war in the enemies Country, and enriches his servants Ex manubiis, out of the spoil of the enemy; In caput ejus, It shall fall upon his head. Though all men that go to the war, go not upon those just reasons deliberated before in themselves, which are 〈◊〉 defense of a just cause, the obedience to a lawful Commandment, yet of those that do go without those conscientiense deliberations, none goes therefore, because he may have room in an Hospital, or relief by a pension, when he comes home lame, but because he may get something, by going into a fat country, and against a rich enemy; Though honor may seem to feed upon blows, and dangers, men go cheerfully against an enemy, from whom something is to be got; for, profit is a good salve to knocks, a good Cere-cloth to bruises, and a good Balsamum to wounds. God therefore here raises the reward out of the enemy, feed him, and thou shalt gain by it. But yet the profit that God promises by the enemy here, is rather that we shall gain a soul, then any temporal gain; rather that we shall make that enemy a better man, then that we shall make him a weaker enemy: God respects his spiritual good, as we shall see in that phrase, which is our last branch, Congeres carbones, Thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.
It is true that S. Chrysostom (and not he alone) takes this phrase to imply a Revenge: that God's judgments shall be the more vehement upon such ungrateful persons, Et terrebuntur beneficiis, the good turns that thou hast done to them, shall be a scourge and a terror to their consciences. This sense is not inconvenient; but it is too narrow: The Holy Ghost hath taken so large a Metaphor, as implies more then that. It implies the divers offices, and effects of fire; all this; That if he have any gold, any pure metal in him, this fire of this kindness will purge out the dross, & there is a friend made. If he be nothing but straw and stubble, combustible still, still ready to take fire against thee, this fire which God's breath shall blow, will consume him, and burn him out, and there is an enemy marred: If he have any tenderness any way, this fire will mollify him towards thee; Nimis durus animus, says S. Augustine, he is a very hard hearted man, Qui si ultro dilectionem non vult impendere, etiam nolit rependere, Who, though he will not requite thy love, yet will not acknowledge it. If he be wax, he melts with this fire; and if he be clay, he hardens with it, and then thou wilt arm thyself against that pellet. Thus much good, God intends to the enemy, in this phrase, that it is pia vindicta si resipiscant, we have taken a blessed revenge upon our enemies, if our charitable applying of ourselves to them, may bring them to apply themselves to God, and to glorify him: si benefaciendo cicuremus, says S. Jerome, if we can tame a wild beast by sitting up with him, and reduce an enemy by offices of friendship, it is well. 〈◊〉 much good God intends him in this phrase, and so much good he intends us, that, si non incendant, if these coals do not purge him, si non injiciant pudorem, if they do not kindle a shame in him, to have offended one that hath deserved so well, yet this fire gives thee light to see him clearly, and to run away from him, and to assure thee, that he, whom so many benefits cannot reconcile, is irreconcilable.
SERMON XI. Preached upon Candlemas day.
MAT. 9.2.
And Jesus seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, My son, be of good cheare, thy sins be forgiven thee.
I N these words, and by occasion of them, we shall present to you these two general considerations; first upon what occasion Christ did that which he did, and then what it was that he did. And in the first, we shall see first some occasions that were remote, but yet conduce to the Miracle it self; some circumstances of time, and place, and some such dispositions, and then the more immediate occasion, the disposition of those persons who presented this sick man to Christ; and there we shall see first, that Faith was the occasion of all, for without faith it is impossible to please God, and without pleasing of God, it is impossible to have remission of sins. It was fides, and fides illorum, their faith, all their faith; for, though in the faith of others there be an assistance, yet without a personal faith in himself, no man of ripe age comes so far, as to the forgiveness of sins; And then, this faith of them all, was fides visa, a faith that was seen; Christ saw their faith, and he saw it as man, it was a faith expressed, and declared in actions: And yet, when all was done, it is but cum vidit, it is not quia vidit, Christ did it When he saw, not Because he saw their faith, that was not the principle and primary cause of his mercy, for the mercy of God is all, and above all; it is the effect and it is the cause too, there is no cause of his mercy, but his mercy. And when we come in the second part, to consider what in his mercy he did, we shall see first, that he establishes him, and comforts him with a gracious acceptation, with that gracious appellation, Fili, Son: He doth not disavow him, he doth not disinherit him; and then, he doth not wound him, whom God had stricken; he doth not flea him, whom God had scourged; he doth not salt him, whom God had flayed; he doth not add affliction to affliction, he doth not shake, but settle that faith which he had with more, Confide fili, My son be of good cheare; and then he seals all with that assurance, Dimittuntur peccata, Thy sins are forgiven thee; In which, first he catechises this patient, and gives him all these lessons, first that he gives before we ask, for he that was brought, they who brought him had asked nothing in his behalf, when Christ unasked, enlarged himself towards them, Dat prius, God gives before we ask, that is first; And then Dat meliora, God gives better things then we ask, All that all they meant to ask, was but bodily health, and Christ gave him spiritual; and the third lesson was, that sin was the cause of bodily sickness, and that therefore he ought to have sought his spiritual recovery before his bodily health: and then, after he had thus rectified him, by this Catechism, implied in those few words, Thy sins are forgiven thee, he takes occasion by this act, to rectify the by-standers too, which were the Pharisees, who did not believe Christ to be God: For, for proof of that, first he takes knowledge of their inward thoughts, not expressed by any act or word, which none but God could do; And then he restores the patient to bodily health, only by his word, without any natural means applied, which none but God could do neither. And into fewer particulars then these, this pregnant and abundant Text is not easily contracted.
First then to begin with the Branches of the first part, of which the first was, to consider some, somewhat more remote circumstances, and occasions conducing to this miracle, we cannot avoid the making of some use of the Time, when it was done: It was done, when Christ had dispossessed those two men of furious, and raging Devils, amongst the Gergesens; at what time, because Christ had been an occasion of drowning their heard of swine, the whole City came out to meet him, but not with a thankful reverence, and acclamation, but their procession was, to beseech him to depart out of their coasts: They had rather have had their Legion of Devils still, then have lost their hogs; and since Christ's presence was an occasion of impairing their temporal substance, they were glad to be rid of him.
We need not put on spectacles to search Maps for this Land of the Gergesens; God knows we dwell in it; Non quaerimus Iesum propter Iesum, (which was a Prophetical complaint by S. August. ) we love the profession of Christ only so far, as that profession conduces to our temporal ends. We seek him not at the Cross; there most of his friends left him; but we are content to embrace him, where the Kings of the East bring him presents of Gold, and Myrrh, and Frankincense, that we may participate of those: we seek him not in the hundred and thirtieth Psalm, where, though there be plenty, yet it is but copiosa redemtio, plentiful redemption, plenty of that that comes not yet; but in the twenty fourth Psalm we are glad to meet him, where he proclaims Domini terra, & plenitudo ejus, The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, that our portion therein may be plenteous: We care not for him in S. Peters Hospital, where he excuses himself, Aurum & argentum non habeo, Silver and gold have I none; but in the Prophet Haggais Exchequer we do, where he makes that claim, Aurum meum, All the gold and all the silver is mine. Scarce any Son is Protestant enough, to stand out a rebuke of his Father, or any Servant of his Master, or any Officer of his Prince, if that Father, or Master, or Prince would be, or would have him be a Papist; But, as though the different forms of Religion, were but the fashions of the garment, and not the stuff, we put on, and we put off Religion, as we would do a Livery, to testify our respect to him, whom we serve, and (miserable Gergesens ) had rather take in that Devil again, of which we have been dispossessed three or fourscore years since, then lose another hog, in departing with any part of our pleasures or profits; Non quaerimus Iesum propter Iesum, we profess not Jesus, for his, but for our own sakes.
But we pass from the circumstance of the time, to a second, that though Christ thus despised by the Gergesens, did, in his Justice, depart from them; yet, as the Sea gains in one place, what it loses in another, his abundant mercy builds up more in Capernaum, then his Justice throws down amongst the Gergesens: Because they drave him away, in Judgment he went from them, but in Mercy he went to the others, who had not entreated him to come.
Apply this also; And, wretched Gergesen, if thou have entreated Christ to go from thee, for loss of thy hogs, that when thou hast found the Preaching of Christ, or the sting of thy conscience whet thereby, to hinder thee in growing rich so hastily as thou wouldst, or trouble thee, in following thy pleasures so fully as thou wouldst, thou hast made shift to devest, and put off Christ, and sear up thy conscience, yet Christ comes into his Capernaum now, that sent not for him; he comes into thy soul now, who camest not hither to meet him, but to celebrate the day, by this ordinary, and fashionall meeting; to thee he comes, as into Capernaum, to preach his own Gospel, and to work his miracles upon thee. And it is a high mercy in Christ, that he will thus surprise thy soul, that he will thus way-lay thy conscience, that what collateral respect soever brought thee hither, yet when he hath thee here, he will make thee see that thou art in his house, and he will speak to thee, and he will be heard by thee, and he will be answered from thee; and though thou thoughtest not of him, when thou camest hither, yet he will send thee away, full of the love of him, full of comforts from him.
But we pass also from this, to a third circumstance, that when he came to Capernaum, he is said to have come into his own City; not Nazareth, where he was borne, but Capernaum where he dwelt, and preached, is called his own City. Thou art not a Christian, because thou wast borne in a Christian Kingdom, and borne within the Covenant, and borne of Christian Parents, but because thou hast dwelt in the Christian Church, and performed the duties presented to thee there.
Again, Capernaum was his own City, but yet Christ went forth of Capernaum, to many other places. I take the application of this, from you, to ourselves; Christ fixes no man by his example so to one Church, as that no occasion may make his absence from thence excusable. But yet when Christ did go from Capernaum, he went to do his Fathers will, and that, which he was sent for. Nothing but preaching the Gospel, and edifying God's Church, is an excuse for such an absence; for, Vaesi non Euangelizaverit, if he neither preach at Capernaum, nor to the Gergesens, neither at home, nor abroad, woe be unto him: If I be at home, but to take my tithes; If I be abroad, but to take the air, woe be unto me.
But we must not stop long upon these circumstances; we end all of this kind, in this one, that when Christ had undertaken that great work of the Conversion of the world, by the Word, and Sacraments, to show that the word was at that time the more powerful means of those two, (for Sacraments were instituted by Christ, as subsidiary things, in a great part, for our infirmity, who stand in need of such visible and sensible assistances) Christ preached the Christian Doctrine, long before he instituted the Sacraments; But yet, though these two permanent Sacraments, Baptism, and the Supper were not so soon instituted, Christ always descended so much to man's infirmity, as to accompany the preaching of the Word, with certain transitory, and occasional Sacraments; for miracles are transitory and occasional Sacraments, as they are visible signs of invisible grace, though not seals thereof; Christ's purpose in every miracle was, that by that work, they should see Grace to be offered unto them. Now this history, from whence this Text is taken, begins, and ends with the principal means, with preaching; for, as S. Mark relates it, he was in the act of preaching, when this cure was done; And in S. Matthew, after all was done, he went about the Cities, and Villages, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom: And then between, S. Matthew here, records five of his transitory and occasional Sacraments, five miracles, of which everyone, well considered, (as the petitions of Abraham did upon God) may justly be thought to have gained more and more, upon his Auditory.
First, this paralytique man in our Text, who is Sarcinasibi, over-loaded with himself, he cannot stand under his own burden, he is cadaver animatum; It is true, he hath a soul, but a soul in a sack, it hath no Lims, no Organs to move, this Paralytique, this living dead man, this dead and buried man, buried in himself, is instantly cured, and recovered. But the Palsy was a sudden sickness; what could he do, upon an inveterate disease? He cured the woman that had had the bloody issue twelve years, by only touching the hem of his garment. After, he extends his miraculous power to two at once, he cures two blind men. But all these, though not by such means merely, yet in nature, and in art might be possible, Palsies, and Issues, and Blindnesses have been cured: but he went farther then ever art pretended to go; He raised the Rulers Daughter to life, then when he was laughed to scorn, for going about to do it. And lastly to show his Power, as over sickness, and over death, so over hell it self, he cast out the Devil out of the dumb man, in some such extraordinary manner, as that the multitude marveled, and said, It was never so seen in Israel. This then was his way, and this must be ours, and it must be your way too. Christ preached, and he wrought great works, and he preached again; It is not enough in us to preach, and in you to hear, except both do and practice, that which is said, and heard; Neither may we, though we have done all this, give over, for every day produces new temptations, and therefore needs new assistances. And so we pass from these more remote, to that which is our second Branch of this first part, the immediate occasion of Christ's doing this miracle, When Jesus saw their faith.
Here then, the occasion of all that ensued, was faith; for, without faith, it is impossible to please God; Where you may be pleased to admit some use of this note, (for it is not a mere Grammatical curiosity to note it) that it is not said in those words of S. Paul, It is impossible to please God, or impossible to please him, (which is with relation to God, as our Translation hath it,) but it is merely, simply, only, impossible to please, and no more, impossible to please any worth pleasing; but if we take away our faith in God, God will take away the protection of Angels, the favor of Princes, the obedience of children, the respect of servants, the assistance of friends, the society of neighbors; God shall make us unpleasing to all; without faith it is impossible to please any, but such, as we shall repent to have made ourselves pleasing companions unto. When our Savior Christ perfected the Apostles Commission, and set his last seal to it, after his Resurrection, he never modifies, never mollifies their instructions, with any milder phrase then this, He that believeth not, shall be damned. It is not, that he shall be in danger of a Council; no, nor in danger of hell fire: It is not, that it were better a Mill-stone were tied about his neck, and he cast into the Sea: It is not, that it will go hard with him at the last day: It is not, that it shall be easier to Tyre, and Sidon, then to him; For he is not bound to believe, but that Tyre, and Sidon, and he too, may do well enough: Here is no modification, no mollification, no reservation; roundly, and irrevocably, Christ Jesus himself, after his Resurrection, says, Qui non crediderit, he that believeth not, shall be damned.
If the Judge must come to a sentence of condemnation, upon any person of great quality in the Kingdom, that Judge must not say, Your Lordship must pass out of this world, nor, your Lordship must be beheaded; but he must tell them plainly, You must be carried to the place of execution and there hanged. Christ Jesus hath given us the Commission and the sentence there; Go into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature; And then, the sentence follows upon those that will not receive it, He that believeth not, shall be damned. These men then, who prevailed so far upon Christ, brought faith; though not an explicit faith of all those articles, which we, who from the beginning have been Catechized in all those points, are bound to have, yet a constant assurance that Christ could, and that he would relieve this distressed person, in which assurance, there was enwrapped an implicit faith even of the Messias, that could remove all occasions of sickness, even sin it self.
There was faith in the case; but in whom? Whose faith was it, that Christ had respect to? To whom hath that Illorum in the Text, their faith, reference? There can be no question, but that it hath reference to those four friends, that brought this sick man in his bed, to Christ: For, else it could not have been spoken in the plural, and called their faith. And certainly S. Ambrose does not inconveniently make that particular an argument of God's greatness and goodness, of his magnificence, and munificence, Magnus Dominus, qui aliorum meritis, aliis ignostit; This is the large and plentiful mercy of God, that for one man's sake, he forgives another. This Joash acknowledged in the person of Elisha; when Elisha was sick, the King came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, O my Father, my Father, the Chariot of Israel, and the horse men thereof. Here were all the forces of Israel mustered upon one sick bed, the whole strength of Israel consisted in the goodness of that one man. The Angel said to Paul, when they were in an evident and imminent danger of shipwreck, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee; He spared them, not for their own sakes, but for Paul's. God gave those passengers to Paul so, as he had given Paul himself before to Stephen; Si Stephanus non sic orasset, Paulum hodie Ecclesia non haberet, says S. Augustine; If Paul had not been enwrapped in those prayers, which Stephen made for his persecutors, the Church had lost the benefit of all Paul's labors; and if God had not given Paul the lives of all those passengers in that Ship, they had all perished. For the righteousness of a few, (if those few could have been found) God would have spared the whole City of Sodom: And when God's fury was kindled upon the Cities of that Country, God remembered Abraham, says that story, and he delivered Lot: And when he delivered Jerusalem from Sennacherib, he takes his servant David by the hand, he puts his servant David into Commission with himself, and he says, I will defend this City, and save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. Quantus murus Patriae vir justus, is a holy exclamation of S. Ambrose, What a Wall to any Town, what a Sea to any Island, what a Navy to any Sea, what an Admiral to any Navy, is a good man! Apply thyself therefore, and make thy conversation with good men, and get their love, and that shall be an armor of proof to thee.
When Saint Augustine's Mother lamented the ill courses that her son took in his youth, still that Priest, to whom she imparted her sorrows, said, Filius istarum lacrymarum, non potest perire; That Son, for whom so good a Mother hath shed so many tears, cannot perish: He put it not upon that issue, filius Dci, the elect child of God, the son of predestination cannot perish, for at that time, that name was either no name, or would scarce have seemed to have belonged to S. Augustine, but the child of these tears, of this devotion cannot be lost. Christ said to the Centurion, fiat sicut credidisti, Go thy way, and as thou believest, so be it done unto thee, and his servant was healed in the self-same hour: The master believed, and the servant was healed. Little knowest thou, what thou hast received at God's hands, by the prayers of the Saints in heaven, that enwrap thee in their general prayers for the Militant Church. Little knowest thou, what the public prayers of the Congregation, what the private prayers of particular devout friends, that lament thy carelessness, and negligence in praying for thyself, have wrung and extorted out of God's hands, in their charitable importunity for thee. And therefore, at last, make thyself fit to do for others, that which others, when thou wast unfit to do thyself that office, have done for thee, in assisting thee with their prayers. If thou meet thine enemies Ox, or Ass going astray, (says the Law) thou shalt surely bring it back to him again: If thou see the Ass of him that hateth thee, lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help him. Estne Deo cura de Bobus, is the Apostles question, Hath God care of Oxen? of other men's Oxen? How much more of his own Sheep? And therefore if thon see one of his Sheep, one of thy fellow Christians, strayed into sins of infirmity, and negligent of himself, join him with thine own soul, in thy prayers to God. Relieve him, (if that be that which he needs) with thy prayers for him, and relieve him, (if his wants be of another kind) according to his prayers to thee. Cur apud te homo Collega non valeat, says S. Ambrose, why should not he that is thy Colleague, thy fellow-man, as good a man, that is as much a man as thou, made of the same blood, and redeemed with the same blood as thou art, why should not he prevail with thee, so far as to the obtaining of an alms, Cum apud Deum, servus, & interveniendi meritum, & jus habe at impetrandi, when some fellow-servant of thine, hath had that interest in God, as by his intercession, and prayers to advance thy salvation? wilt not thou save the life of another man that prays to thee, when perchance thy soul hath been saved by another man, that prayed for thee?
Well then; Christ had respect to their faith, that brought this sick man to him. Consuetudo est miserecordis Dei, It is God's ordinary way, (says S. Chysost. ) hunc honorem dare servis suis, ut propter eos salventur & alii, to afford this honor to his servants, that for their sakes he saves others. But neither this which we say now out of S. Crhysostome, nor that which we said before out of S. Ambrose, nor all that we might multiply out of the other Fathers, doth exclude the faith of that particular man, who is to be saved. It is true, that in this particular case, S. Jerome says, Non vidit fidem ejus qui offer ebatur, sed corum qui offerebant, That Christ did not respect his faith that was brought, but only theirs that brought him; but except S. Jerome be to be understood so, that Christ did not first respect his faith, but theirs, we must depart from him, to S. Chrysostom, Ne{que} enim se portari sustinuisset, He would neither have put himself, nor them, to so many difficulties, as he did, if he had not had a faith, that is, a constant assurance in this means of his recovery. And therefore the Rule may be best given thus; That God gives worldly blessings, bodily health, deliverance from dangers, and the like, to some men, in contemplation of others, though themselves never thought of it, all the examples which we have touched upon, convince abundantly.
That God gives spiritual blessings to Infants, presented according to his Ordinance, in Baptism, in Contemplation of the faith of their Parents, or of the Church, or of their sureties, without any actual faith in the Infant, is probable enough, credible enough. But take it as our case is, de adultis, in a man who is come to the use of his own reason, and discretion, so God never saves any man, for the faith of another, otherwise then thus, that the faithful man may pray for the conversion of an unfaithful, who does not know, nor, if he did, would be content to be prayed for, and God, for his sake that prays, may be pleased to work upon the other; but before that man comes to the Dimittuntur peccata, that his sins are forgiven, that man comes to have faith in himself. Iustus in fide sua vivit; there is no life without faith, nor In fide aliena, no such life as constitutes Righteousness, without a personal faith of our own. So that this fides illorum, in our Text, this that is called their faith, hath reference to the sick man himself, as well as to them that brought him.
And then, in Him, and in Them, it was fides visa, faith, which, by an ouvert act, was declared, and made evident. For, Christ, who was now to convey into that company the knowledge that he was the Messias, which Messias was to be God, and Man, as afterwards for their conviction, who would not believe him to be God, he shown that he knew their inward thoughts, and did some other things, which none but God could do; so here, for the better edification of men, he required such a faith, as might be evident to men. For, though Christ could have seen their faith, by looking into their hearts, yet to think, that here he saw it by that power of his Divinity, nimis coactum videtur, It is too narrow, and too forced an interpretation of the place, says Calvin. They then, that is, all they declared their faith, their assurance, that Christ could, and would help him. It was good evidence of a strength of faith in him, that in a disease, very little capable of cure, then when he had so far resolved, and slackened his sinews, that he could endure no posture but his bed, he suffered himself to be put to so many incommodities. It was good evidence of a strength of faith in them, that they could believe that Christ would not reject them for that importunity of troubling him, and the congregation, in the midst of a Sermon; That when they saw, that they who came only to hear, could not get near the door, they should think to get in, with that load, that offensive spectacle; That they should ever conceive, or go about to execute, or be suffered to execute such a plot, as without the leave of Christ, (if Christ preached this Sermon in his own house, as some take it to have been done) or without the Masters leave, in whose house soever it was, they should first untile or open, and then break through the floor, and so let down, their miserable burden: That they should have an apprehension, that it was not fit for them to stay, till the Sermon were done, and the company parted, but that it was likeliest to conduce to the glory of God, that Preaching, and working might go together, this was evidence, this was argument of strength of faith in them. Take therefore their example, not to defer that assistance, which thou art able to give to another. Ne dic as assistam cr as, says S. Gregory, do not say, I will help thee tomorrow; Ne quid inter propositum, & beneficium intercedat; Perchance that poor soul may not need thee tomorrow, perchance thou mayest have nothing to give tomorrow, perchance there shall be no such day, as tomorrow, and so thou hast lost that opportunity of thy charity, which God offered thee, today: Vnica beneficentia est, quae moram non admittit, only that is charity, that is given presently.
But yet, when all was done, when there was faith, and faith in them all, and faith declared in their outward works, yet Christ is not said to have done this miracle, quia sides, but cum fides, not Because he saw, but only When he saw their faith. Let us transfer none of that, which belongs to God, to ourselves: when we do our duties, (but when do we go about to begin to do any part of any of them?) we are unprofitable servants: When God does work in us, are we saved by that work, as by the cause, when there is another cause of the work it self? When the ground brings forth good corn, yet that ground becomes not fit for our food: When a man hath brought forth good fruits, yet that man is not thereby made worthy of heaven. Not faith it self (and yet faith is of somewhat a deeper die, and tincture, then any works) is any such cause of our salvation. A beggars believing that I will give him an alms, is no cause of my charity: My believing that Christ will have mercy upon me, is no cause of Christ's mercy; for what proportion hath my temporary faith, with my everlasting salvation? But yet, though it work not as a cause, though it be not qui a vidit, because he saw it, yet cum videt, when Christ finds this faith, according to that gracious Covenant, and Contract which he hath made with us, that wheresoever, and whensoever he finds faith, he will enlarge his mercy, finding that in this patient, he expressed his mercy, in that which constitutes our second part, Fili confide, my son be of good cheare, thy sins are forgiven thee.
Where we see first, our Savior. Christ opening the bowels of compassion to him, and receiving him so, as if he had issued out of his bowels, and from his loins, in that gracious appellation, Fili, my Son. He does not call him brother; for greater enmity can be nowhere, then is often expressed to have been between brethren; for in that degree, and distance, enmity amongst men began in Cain, and Abel, and was pursued in many pairs of brethren after, in Sacred and in secular story. He does not call him friend; that name, even in Christ's own mouth, is not always accompanied with good entertainment: Amice, quomodo intrasti, says he, Friend, how came you in? and he bound him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness. He does not call him son of Abraham, which might give him an interest in all the promises, but he gives him a present Adoption, and so a present fruition of all, Fili, my Son. His Son, and not his Son in law; he loads him not with the encumbrances, and half-impossibilities of the Law, but he seals to him the whole Gospel, in the remission of sins. His Son, and not his dis-inherited son, as the Jews were, but his Son, upon whom he settled his ancient Inheritance, his eternal election, and his new purchase, which he came now into the world to make with his blood. His Son, and not his prodigal son, to whom Christ imputes no wastfulnesse of his former graces, but gives him a general release, and Quietus est, in the forgiveness of sins. All that Christ asks of his Sons, is, Fili da mihi cor, My Son give me thy heart; and till God give us that, we cannot give it him; and therefore in this Son he creates a new heart, he infuses a new courage, he establishes a new confidence, in the next word, Fili confide, My Son be of good cheer.
Christ then does not stay so long wrestling with this man's faith, and shaking it, and trying whether it were fast rooted, as he did with that Woman in the Gospel, who came after him, in her daughters behalf, crying, Have mercy upon me O Lord, thou Son of David, for Christ gave not that woman one word; when her importunity made his Disciples speak to him, he said no more, but that he was not sent to such as she; This was far, very far from a Confide filia, Daughter be of good cheer: But yet, this put her not oft, but (as it follows) She followed, and worshipped him, and said, O Lord help me: And all this prevailed no farther with him, but to give such an answer, as was more discomfortable, then a silence, It is not fit to take the children's bread, and cast it unto dogs. She denies not that, she contradicts him not; she says, Truth Lord, It is not fit to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto dogs, and Truth Lord, I am one of those dogs; but yet she persevers in her holy importunity, and in her good ill-manners, and says, Yet the Dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the Masters table: And then, and not till then comes Jesus to that, O Woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee, even as thou wilt; and her Daughter was healed. But all this, at last, was but a bodily restitution, here was no Dimittuntur peccata in the case, no declaration of forgiveness of sins: But with this man in our Text, Christ goes farther, and comes sooner to an end; He exercises him with no disputation, he leaves no room for any diffidence, but at first word establishes him, and then builds upon him. Now beloved, which way soever of these two God have taken with thee, whether the longer, or the shorter way, bless thou the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for that. If God have settled and strengthened thy faith early, early in thy youth heretofore, early at the beginning of a Sermon now, A day is as a thousand years with God, a minute is as six thousand years with God, that which God hath not done upon the Nations, upon the Gentiles, in six thousand years, never since the Creation, which is, to reduce them to the knowledge, and application of the Messias, Christ Jesus, that he hath done upon thee, in an instant. If he have carried thee about the longer way, if he have exposed thee to scruples, and perplexities, and storms in thine understanding, or conscience, yet in the midst of the tempest, the soft air, that he is said to come in, shall breath into thee; in the midst of those clouds, his Son shall shine upon thee; In the midst of that flood he shall put out his Rainbow, his seal that thou shalt not drown, his Sacrament of fair weather to come, and as it was to the Thief, thy Cross shall be thine Altar, and thy Faith shall be thy Sacrifice. Whether he accomplish his work-upon thee soon or late, he shall never leave thee all the way, without this Confide fili, a holy confidence, that thou art his, which shall carry thee to the Dimittuntur peccata, to the peace of conscience, in the remission of sins.
In which two words, we noted unto you, that Christ hath instituted a Catechism, an Instruction for this new Convertite, and adopted Son of his; in which, the first lesson that is therein implied, is, Antequam rogetur, That God is more forward to give, then man to ask: It is not said that the sick man, or his company in his behalf, said anything to Christ, but Christ speaks first to them. If God have touched thee here, didst thou ask that at his hands? Didst thou pray before thou camest hither, that he would touch thy heart here? perchance thou didst: But when thou wast brought to thy Baptism, didst thou ask anything at God's hands then? But those that brought thee, that presented thee, did; They did in thy Baptism; but at thine election, then when God writing down the names of all the Elect, in the book of Life, how camest thou in? who brought thee in then? Didst thou ask anything at God's hands then, when thou thyself wast not at all?
Dat prius, that's the first lesson in this Catechism, God gives before we ask, and then Dat meliora rogatis, God gives better things, then we ask; They intended to ask but bodily health, and Christ gave spiritual, he gave Remission of sins. And what gained he by that? why, Beati quorum remissae iniquitates, Blessed are they, whose sins are forgiven. But what is Blessedness? Any more then a confident expectation of a good state in the next world? Yes; Blessedness includes all that can be asked or conceived in the next world, and in this too. Christ in his Sermon of blessedness, says first, Blessed are they, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven; and after, Blessed are they, for they shall in her it the earth; Again, Blessed, for they shall obtain mercy; and, Blessed for they shall be filled: Remission of sins is blessedness, and as Godliness hath the promise of this world, and the next, so blessedness hath the performance of both: He that hath peace in the remission of sins, is blessed already, and shall have those blessings infinitely multiplied in the world to come. The farthest that Christ goes in the expressing of the affections of a natural Father here, is, That if his Son ask bread, he will not give him a stone; and if he ask a Fish, he will not give him a Scorpion; He will not give him worse then he asked; But it is the peculiar bounty of this Father, who adopted this Son, to give more, and better, spiritual for temporal.
Another lesson, which Christ was pleased to propose to this new Convertite, in this Catechism, was, to inform him, That sins were the true causes of all bodily diseases. Diseases and bodily afflictions are sometimes inflicted by God Ad poenam, non ad purgationem, Not to purge or purify the soul of that man, by that affliction, but to bring him by the rack to the gallows, through temporary afflictions here, to everlasting torments hereafter; As Judas his hanging, and Herod's being eaten with worms, was their entrance into that place, where they are yet. Sometimes diseases and afflictions are inflicted only, or principally to manifest the glory of God, in the removing thereof; So Christ says of that man, that was borne blind, that neither he himself had sinned, nor bore the sins of his parents, but he was borne blind to present an occasion of doing a miracle. Sometimes they are inflicted Ad humiliationem, for our future humiliation; So S. Paul says of himself, That least he should be exalted above measure, by the abundance of Revelations, he had that Stimulum carnis, That vexation of the flesh, that messenger of Satan, to humble him. And then, sometimes they are inflicted for trial, and farther declaration of your conformity to God's will, as upon Job. But howsoever there be divers particular causes, for the diseases and afflictions of particular men, the first cause of death, and sickness, and all infirmities upon mankind in general, was sin; and it would not be hard for every particular man, almost, to find it in his own case too, to assign his fever to such a surfeit, or his consumption to such an intemperance. And therefore to break that circle, in which we compass, and immure, and imprison ourselves, That as sin begot diseases, so diseases begot more sins, impatience and murmuring at God's corrections, Christ begins to shake this circle, in the right way to break it, in the right link, that is, first to remove the sin, which occasioned the disease; for, till that be done, a man is in no better case, then, (as the Prophet expresses it) If he should fly from a Lion, and a Bear met him, or if he should lean upon a wall, and a Serpent bit him. What ease were it, to be delivered of a palsy, of slack and dissolved sinews, and remain under the tyranny of a lustful heart, of licentious eyes, of slack and dissolute speech and conversation? What ease to be delivered of the putrefaction of a wound in my body, and meet a murder in my conscience, done, or intended, or desired upon my neighbor? To be delivered of a fever in my spirits, and to have my spirit troubled with the guiltiness of an adultery? To be delivered of Cramps, and Coliques, and Convulsions in my joints and sinews, and suffer in my soul all these, from my oppressions, and extortions, by which I have ground the face of the poor. It is but lost labor, and cost, to give a man a precious cordial, when he hath a thorn in his foot, or an arrow in his flesh; for, as long as the sin, which is the cause of the sickness, remains, Deterius sequetur, A worse thing will follow; we may be rid of a Fever, and the Pestilence will follow, rid of the Cramp, and a Gout will follow, rid of sickness, and Death, eternal death will follow. That which our Savior prescribes is, Noli peccare ampliùs, sin no more; first, non ampliùs, sin no more sins, take heed of gravid sins, of pregnant sins, of sins of concomitance, and concatentation, that chain and induce more sins after, as David's idleness did adultery, and that murder, & the loss of the Lord's Army, and Honor, in the blaspheming of his name, Noli ampliùs, sin no more, no such sin as induces more; And Noli ampliùs, sin no more, that is, sin thy own sin, thy beloved sin, no more times over; And still Noli ampliùs, sin not that sin which thou hast given over in thy practice, in thy memory, by a sinful delight in remembering it; And again, Noli ampliùs, sin not over thy former sins, by holding in thy possession; such things as were corruptly gotten, by any such former practices: for, Deterius sequetur, a worse thing will follow, A Tertian will be a Quartan, and a Quartan a Hectique, and a Hectique a Consumption, and a Consumption without a consummation, that shall never consume it self, nor consume thee to an unsensiblenesse of torment.
And then after these three lessons in this Catechism, That God gives before we ask, That he gives better then we ask, That he informs us in the true cause of sickness, sin, He involves a tacit, nay he expresses an express rebuke, and increpation, and in beginning at the Dimittuntur peccata, at the forgiveness of sins, tells him in his ear, that his spiritual health should have been preferred before his bodily, and the cure of his soul before his Palsy; that first the Priest should have been, and then the Physician might be consulted. That which Christ does to his new adopted Son here, the Wiseman says to his Son, My Son, in thy sickness be not negligent; But wherein is his diligence required, or to be expressed? in that, which follows, Pray unto the Lord, and he will make thee whole; But upon what conditions, or what preparations? Leave off from sin, order thy hands aright, and cleanse thy heart from all wickedness. Is this all? needs there no declaration, no testimony of this? Yes, Give a sweet savor, and a memorial of fine flour, and make a fat offering, as not being; that is, as though thou wert dead: Give, and give that which thou givest in thy life time, as not being. And when all this is piously, and religiously done, thou hast repented, restored, amended, and given to pious uses, Then, says he there, give place to the Physician, for the Lord hath created him. For if we proceed otherwise, if we begin with the Physician, Physic is a curse; He that sinneth before his Maker, let him fall into the hands of the Physician, says the Wiseman there: It is not, Let him come into the hands of the Physician, as though that were a curse, but let him fall, let him cast and throw himself into his hands, and rely upon natural means, and leave out all consideration of his other, and worse disease, and the supernatural Physic for that. Asa had had a great deliverance from God, when the Prophet Hanani asked him, Were not the Ethiopians, and the Lubins a huge Host? but because after this deliverance, he relied upon the King of Syria, and not upon God, the Judgment is, From henceforth thou shalt have wars: That was a sickness upon the State, & then he fell sick in his own person, and in that sickness, says that story, He sought not to the Lord, but to the Physician, and then he died. To the Lord and then to the Physician had been the right way; If to the Physician and then to the Lord, though this had been out of the right way, yet he might have returned to it: But it was to the Physician, and not to the Lord, and then he died. Omnipotenti medico nullus languor insanabilis, says S. Ambrose, there is but one Almighty; and none but the Almighty can cure all diseases, because he only can cure diseases in the root, that is, in the forgiveness of sins.
We are almost at an end; when we had thus Catechised his Convertite, thus rectified his patient, he turns upon them, who beheld all this, and were scandalized with his words, the Scribes and Pharisees; And because they were scandalized only in this, that he being but man, undertook the office of God, to forgive sins, he declares himself to them, to be God. Christ would not leave, even malice it self unsatisfied; And therefore do not thou think thyself Christian enough, for having an innocence in thyself, but be content to descend to the infirmities, and to the very malice of other men, and to give the world satisfaction; Nec paratum habeas illud etrivio, (says S. Jerome ) do not arm thyself with that vulgar, and trivial saying, Sufficit mihi conscientia mea, nec curo quid loquantur homines, It suffices me, that mine own conscience is clear, and I care not what all the world says; thou must care what the world says, and thinks; Christ himself had that respect even towards the Scribes, and Pharisees. For, first he declared himself to be God, in that he took knowledge of their thoughts; for they had said nothing, and he says to them, why reason you thus in your hearts? and they themselves did not, could not deny, but that those words of Solomon appertained only to God, Thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men, And those of Jeremiah, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, and I try the reins. Let the School dispute infinitely, (for he that will not content himself with means of salvation, till all School points be reconciled, will come too late) let Scotus and his Heard think, That Angels, and separate souls have a natural power to understand thoughts, though God for his particular glory restrain the exercise of that power in them, (as in the Roman Church, Priests have a power to forgive all sins, though the Pope restrain that power in reserved cases; And the Cardinals by their Creation, have a voice in the Consistory, but that the Pope for a certain time inhibites them to give voice) And let Aquinas present his arguments to the contrary, That those spirits have no natural power to know thoughts; we seek no farther, but that Christ Jesus himself thought it argument enough to convince the Scribes and Pharisees, and prove himself God, by knowing their thoughts. Eadem Majestate & potentia, says S. Jerome, Since you see I proceed as God, in knowing your thoughts, why believe you not, that I may forgive his sins as God too?
And then, in the last act he joins both together; he satisfies the patient, and he satisfies the beholders too: he gives him his first desire, bodily health; He bids him take up his bed and walk, and he doth it; and he shows them that he is God, by doing that, which (as it appears in the Story) was harder in their opinion, then remission of sins, which was, to cure and recover a diseased man, only by his word, without any natural, or second means. And therefore since all the world shakes in a palsy of wars, and rumors of wars, since we are sure, that Christ's Vicar in this case will come to his Dimitmittuntur peccata, to send his Bulls, and Indulgences, and Crociatars for the maintenance of his part, in that cause, let us also, who are to do the duties of private men, to obey and not to direct, by presenting our diseased and paralytique souls to Christ Jesus, now, when he in the Ministry of his unworthiest servant is preaching unto you, by untiling the house, by removing all disguises, and palliations of our former sins, by true confession, and hearty detestation, let us endeavor to bring him to his Dimittuntur peccata, to forgive us all those sins, which are the true causes of all our palsies, and slacknesses in his service; and so, without limiting him, or his great Vicegerents, and Lieutenants, the way, or the time to beg of him, that he will imprint in them, such counsels and such resolutions, as his wisdom knows best to conduce to his glory, and the maintenance of his Gospel. Amen.
SERMON XII. Preached upon Candlemas day.
MAT. 5.2.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
T He Church, which is the Daughter of God, and Spouse of Christ, celebrates this day, the Purification of the blessed Virgin, the Mother of God: And she celebrates this day by the name, vulgarly, of Candlemas day. It is dies luminarium, the day of lights; The Church took the occasion of doing so, from the Gentiles; At this time of the year, about the beginning of February, they celebrated the feast of Februus, which is their Pluto; And, because that was the God of darkness, they solemnized it, with a multiplicity of Lights. The Church of God, in the outward and ceremonial part of his worship, did not disdain the ceremonies of the Gentiles; Men who are so severe, as to condemn, and to remove from the Church, whatsoever was in use amongst the Gentiles before, may, before they are aware, become Surveyors, and Controllers upon Christ himself, in the institution of his greatest seals: for Baptism, which is the Sacrament of purification by washing in water, and the very Sacrament of the Supper itself, religious eating, and drinking in the Temple, were in use amongst the Gentiles too. It is a perverse way, rather to abolish Things and Names, (for vehement zeal will work upon Names as well as Things) because they have been abused, then to reduce them to their right use. We dealt in the reformation of Religion, as Christ did in the institution thereof; He found ceremonies amongst the Gentiles, and he took them in, not because he found them there, but because the Gentiles had received them from the Jews, as they had their washings, and their religious meetings to eat and drink in the Temple, from the Jews Passover. Christ borrowed nothing of the Gentiles, but he took his own where he found it: Those ceremonies, which himself had instituted in the first Church of the Jews, and the Gentiles had purloined, and profaned, and corrupted after, he returned to a good use again. And so did we in the Reformation, in some ceremonies which had been of use in the Primitive Church, and depraved and corrupted in the Roman. For the solemnizing of this Day, Candlemas-day, when the Church did admit Candles into the Church, as the Gentiles did, it was not upon the reason of the Gentiles, who worshipped therein the God of darkness, Februus, Pluto; but because he who was the light of the world, was this day presented and brought into the Temple, the Church admitted lights. The Church would signify, that as we are to walk in the light, so we are to receive our light from the Church, and to receive Christ, and our knowledge of him, so as Christ hath notified himself to us. So it is a day of purification to us, and a day of lights, and so our Text fits the Day, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
In these words we shall consider first, Qui sint, who they are, that are brought into consideration, that are put into the balance, and they are mundi cord, such as are pure of heart; And secondly, Quid sint, what they come to be, and it is Beati, blessed are the pure in heart; And lastly, Vnde, from whence this blessedness accrues and arises unto them, and in what it consists, and that is, Videbunt Deum, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Ask me wherein these men differ from other men, and it is in this main difference, Mundi cord, that whereas every imagination of the thought of man's heart, is only evil continually, They are pure of heart. Ask me what they get by that, They get this main purchase, Beati, That which all the books of all the Philosophers could never teach them so much as what it was, that is true Blessedness; That their pocket book, their Manual, their bosom book, their conscience, doth not only show them, but give them, not only declare it to them, but possess them of it. Ask me how long this Blessedness shall last, because all those Blessednesses which Philosophers have imagined, as honor, and health, and profit, and pleasure, and the like, have evaporated and vanished away, this shall last forever; Videbunt Deum, they shall see God, and they shall no more see an end of their seeing God, then an end of his being God: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
These then are our three parts; first the Price, mundities cordis, cleanness, and cleanness of heart; Secondly, the Purchase, Beati, Blessedness, and present possession of blessedness, Blessed are they; And then thirdly, the Habendum, the term, Everlastingnesse, because it consists in the enjoying of him who is everlasting, They shall see God. These arise out of the Text; but from whence arises the Text it self? The Text itself is a piece of a Sermon, of that blessed Sermon of our Savior's, which is called the Sermon of Beatitudes. So that we shall make it a part apart, to consider the Sermon from which this Text is taken, before we dilate the Text itself into a Sermon: for there will arise some useful observations, out of these three doubts, first Quae concio, what this Sermon itself was; and then Quibus, to what Auditory it was preached; And lastly, Quomodo, in what manner Christ preached this Sermon: And these three, the Sermon, the Auditory, the disposition of the Preacher, will also be three branches of this, which we shall make our first part, before we come to the other three of the Text itself.
First then, there is this doubt made of this Sermon altogether, whether this Sermon which S. Matthew records here, be the same Sermon which S. Luke mentions in his sixth Chapter, or whether they were preached at several times; The greater part of the ancients (but yet not all) take them to be several Sermons; The greater part of the later men (and yet not all neither) take them to be but one and the same Sermon. If it be so, if both be but one Sermon, this may be justly considered, that since S. Luke remembers but a few passages, and a few parts of that Sermon, in respect of S. Matthew, (for S. Matthews relation is large and particular, and S. Luke's more brief and summary) they that come to hear Sermons, and would make benefit by them, by a subsequent meditation, must not think themselves frustrated of their purposes, if they do not understand all, or not remember all the Sermon. Scarce any Sermon is so preached, or so intended, as that all works upon all, or all belongs unto all. The Lord and his Spirit puts into the Preachers mouth, a judgment against oppression, against extortion, against usury, and he utters that judgment. But perchance thou hast no lands to rack tenants, no office to grind suitors, no money to devour a debtor by usury, and so that passage of the Sermon, bent against oppression, or extortion, or usury, concerns not thee, affects not thee. But next to thee there may sit an oppressor, or extortioner, or usurer, and he needed that, and by God's grace receives benefit by that, which found nothing to work upon in thee. And then thy turn comes after, and God speaks to thy soul, in a discovery of those sins to which thou art inclined; and then he gives thy neighbor (who was pinched, and brought to a remorse before) that refreshing which thou hadst before, that is, a thankful acknowledgement, that though he be subject to other sins, yet God hath preserved him from that particular.
God directs the tongue of his Ministers, as he doth his showers of rain: They fall upon the face of a large compass of earth, when as all that earth did not need that rain. The whole Congregation is, oftentimes, in common entendment, conformable, and well settled in all matters of Doctrine, and all matters of Discipline. And yet God directs us sometimes to extend our discourse (perchance with a zeal and a vehemence, which may seem unnecessary, and impertinent, because all in the Church are presumed to be of one mind) in the proof of our doctrine against Papists, or of our discipline against Nonconformitans. For, God's eye sees, in what seat there sits, or in what corner there stands someone man that wavers in matters of Doctrine, and inclines to hearken after a Seducer, a Jesuit, or a Semi-Jesuit, a practicing Papist, or a Sesqui-Jesuit, a Jesuited Lady; And God's eye sees in what seat there sits, or in what corner there stands some weak soul that is scandalized, with some Ceremony, or part of our Discipline, and in danger of falling from the unity of the Church: And for the refreshing of that one span of ground, God lets fall a whole shower of rain; for the rectifying of that one soul, God pours out the Meditations of the Preacher, into such a subject, as perchance doth little concern the rest of the Congregation. S. Matthew relates Christ's Sermon at large, and S. Luke but briefly, and yet S. Luke remembers some things that S. Matthew had left out. If thou remember not all that was presented to thy faith, all the Citations of places of Scriptures, nor all that was presented to thy reason, all the deducements, and inferences of the Schools, nor all that was presented to thy spiritual delight, all the sentences of ornament produced out of the Fathers, yet if thou remember that which concerned thy sin, and thy soul, if thou meditate upon that, apply that, thou hast brought away all the Sermon, all that was intended by the Holy Ghost to be preached to thee. And if thou have done so, as at a donative at a Coronation, or other solemnity, when money is thrown among the people, though thou light but upon one shilling of that money, thou canst not think that all the rest is lost, but that some others are the richer for it, though thou beest not; so if thou remember, or apply, or understand but one part of the Sermon, do not think all the rest to have been idly, or unnecessarily, or impertinently spoken, for thou broughtest a fever, and hast had thy Julips, another brought a fainting, and a diffident spirit, and must have his Cordials.
Thus then, if S. Luke's Sermon be the same that S. Matthews was, we see by S. Luke's manner of repeating it, That a Sermon may be well remembered, and well applied, though all the parts thereof be not so. And then, if these were divers Sermons, and so preached by Christ, at several times, there arises also this consideration, That Christ did not, and therefore we need not forbear to preach the same particular Doctrines, or to handle the same particular points, which we, or others, in that place, have handled before: A preachers end is not a gathering of fame to himself, but a gathering of souls to God; and his way is not novelty, but edification. If we consider the Sermon in Saint Matthew, and the Sermon in S. Luke, the purpose and the scope of both, the matter and the form of both, the body and the parts of both, the phrase and the language of both, is for the most part the same, and yet Christ forbore not to preach it twice.
This excuses no man's ignorance, that is not able to preach seasonably, and to break, and distribute the bread of life according to the emergent necessities of that Congregation, at that time; Nor it excuses no man's laziness, that will not employ his whole time upon his calling; Nor any man's vain-glory, and ostentation, who having made a Pye of Plums, without meat, offers it to sale in every Market, and having made an Oration of Flowres, and Figures, and Phrases without strength, sings it over in every Pulpit: It excuses no man's ignorance, nor laziness, nor vain-glory, but yet it reproaches their itching and curious ears, to whom any repetition of the same things is irk some and fastidious. You may have heard an answer of an Epigrammatist appliable to this purpose; When he read his Epigrams in an Auditory, one of the hearers stopped him, and said, Did not I hear an Epigram to this purpose from you, last year? Yes, says he, it is like you did; but is not that vice still in you this year, which last years Epigram reprehended? If your curiosity bring you to say to any Preacher, Did not I hear this Point thus handled in your Sermon, last year? Yes, must he say, and so you must next year again, till it appear in your amendment, that you did hear it. The Devil maintains a War good cheap, if he may fight with the same sword, and we may not defend with the same buckler; If he can tempt a Son with his Fathers covetousness, and a Daughter with her Mothers wantonness, if he need not vary the sin, nor the temptation, must we vary our Doctrine? This is indeed to put new Wine into old vessels, new Doctrine into ears, and hearts not disburdened of old sins. We say, as the Spouse says, Vetera & nova, we prepare old and new, all that may any way serve your holy taste, and conduce to your spiritual nourishment; And he is not a Preacher sufficiently learned, that must of necessity preach the same things again, but he is not a Preacher sufficiently discreet neither, that for bears anything therefore, because himself, or another in that place, hath handled that before. Christ himself varied his Sermon very little, if this in S. Matthew, and that in S. Luke, were divers Sermons.
The second doubt which is made about this Sermon, and which ministers to us occasion of another kind of observations, is the Auditory, to whom Christ preached this Sermon. For first, as this Evangelist reports it, it seems to have been Concio ad Clerum, a Sermon Preached to them who had taken Degrees in Christ's School, and followed him, and not ad populum, to the promiscuous, and vulgar people; for he says, That Christ seeing the multitude, went up into a mountain, and thither his Disciples came, and to them he Preached. And then, as S. Luke reports, though the Sermon seem principally to be directed to the Disciples, yet it was in the presence and hearing of all; for he says, Christ came down, and stood in the plain, and a great multitude of people about him. Both must be done; we must preach in the Mountain, and preach in the plain too; preach to the learned, and preach to the simple too; preach to the Court, and preach to the Country too. Only when we preach in the mountain, they in the plain must not calumniate us, and say, This man goes up to Jerusalem, he will be heard by none but Princes, and great persons, as though it were out of affectation, and not in discharge of our duty, that we do preach there: And when we preach on the plain, they of the mountain must not say, This man may serve for a mean Auditory, for a simple Congregation, for a Country Church, as though the sitting of ourselves to the capacity, and the edification of such persons, were out of ignorance, or laziness, and not a performance of our duties, as well as the other. Christ preached on the mountain, and he preached in the plain; he hath his Church in both; and they that preach in both, or either, for his glory, and not their own vain-glory, have his Example for their Action.
To make the like use of the other difficulty, arising out of the several relation of this Sermon, which is Quomodo, in what manner, in what position of body Christ preached this Sermon, by this Evangelist it seems that Christ preached sitting, and by the other, that he preached standing. Now, for the most part, Christ did preach sitting. When he preached in the Synagogue of Nazareth, and took that Text, out of Isaiah, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, &c. He stood up to read, (says the story) and then he closed the Book, and sat down to preach. So also when he came down from the Mount of Olives into the Temple, he sat down there and taught them. And so Christ himself professes, that it was his ordinary custom to do; For, when they came to apprehend him, he said, Are ye come out, as against a Thief? I sat daily with you, teaching in the Temple, and ye laid no hold on me. And according to this custom of his, they who came to great place, and dignity in •• e Church, did ordinarily preach sitting too; and therefore their Churches were called Cathedral, because they preached sitting in chairs.
Why then will such men, as in all actious of Divine Service, pretend to limit everything precisely to the pattern of Christ himself, to do just as he did, and no otherwise, why will they admit any other position of the body, in preaching, then sitting, since, ut plurimùm, at least, for the most part, Christ did preach sitting? Or if Christ did both sit, and stand, why will they not acknowledge, that all positions of the body, that are reverent, are indifferent in themselves, in the service of God; and being so, why will they not admit that position of the body, which being indifferent in it self, is by the just command of lawful authority, made necessary to them, that is, kneeling at the Sacrament? They who resuse it, pretend but two Reasons; First, because Christ at the institution thereof, did not use that position of kneeling, but sitting; Secondly, because they might scandalize others, or enter a false belief into others, who should see them kneel, that they kneeled in such adoration thereof, as the Papists do.
But for the first, who refer all (in their desire) to the practice of Christ himself herein, it cannot be a clear case, In what position of body Christ did institute this Sacrament. There was at that time, a civil Supper, the ordinary household Supper, and there was a legal Supper, the eating of the Passover, and then this Sacramental Supper, of a new institution; And it is clear, that Christ did not continue one position all this while, but he arose and did some actions between; Neither could that position of body, which they used at the Table, for their civil Supper, and natural refection, be properly called a sitting, for it was rather a lying, a reclining, a leaning upon a bed; And let it be exactly a sitting, and let that sitting run through all the three Suppers, yet how will that position of sitting, justify that Canon, which hath passed in a Synod amongst out neighbors, Liberum est stando, sedendo, eundo, coenam celebrare, non autem geniculando? How will standing, or walking, be anymore maintainable then kneeling, by Christ's example? and yet they say, sitting, or walking, or standing, they may receive, but kneeling they must not: But this, I presume that particular Synod did not declare by way of Doctrine, to bind other Churches, but enjoined a Discipline for their own.
Now, for the danger of scandalizing others, all that come to Church, and are of our profession in Religion, are sufficiently catechized, and informed of the reason of our kneeling, and that we are therein far from the Adoration of the Roman Practice. It is a complaint often made, and often to be repeated, that one of the greatest illusions, and impostures of the Roman Church, is, That the Book-Doctrine, of their learned men, and the ordinary practice of their people agree not. They know the people do commit Idolatry, in their manner of adoring the Bread in the Sacrament, and they never preach against this error of the people, nor tell them wherein that Idolatry lies; It is true, that in their Books of Controversies, which the people could not understand, if they might read them, nor may read them, if they could understand them, in those books they proceed upon safer grounds; There they say, that when a man adores the Sacrament, he must be sure, that he carry not his thoughts upon anything that he sees, not only not upon Bread and Wine, (for, that they must not believe to be there, whatsoever they see or taste) but not upon those species and apparences of Bread and Wine, which they seem to see, but he must carry all his thoughts upon the person of Christ, who is there, though he see him not; for, otherwise, say they, if he should adore that which he sees, he should commit Idolatry. Now, if the people were acquainted with this Doctrine, and could possibly observe it, the danger were not so great, in that Adoration of the Sacrament. Much less is there in our kneeling, who, as we acknowledge, that God is present everywhere, yet otherwise present to us, when we throw ourselves down before him in devotion, and prayer in our Chamber, then he is in the Market, or in the street, and otherwise in the Congregation, at Public prayer, then at private prayer in our Chamber; so weacknowledge, that he is otherwise present at the Sacrament, then at any other act of Divine Service. That which Christ's Example left indifferent, the Authority of that Church, in which God hath given thee thy station, may make necessary to thee; Though not absolutely necessary, and Ration medii, that none can be saved that do not kneel at the Sacrament, therefore because they do not kneel, yet necessary Ration praecepti, as it is enjoined by lawful authority, and to resist lawful authority, is a disobedience, that may endanger any man's salvation.
Now from this Sermon, which gave us our Text, we pass to the Text, which must give us our Sermon, the particular Branches of the Text it self, which we proposed at first, for our second part. And there, our first is, Qui sint, who they be, that are brought into consideration, Mundi cord, those that are pure of heart; first pure, and then, pure of heart. In the purest times of the Primitive Church, there crept in false opinions of purity; we find two sorts of Puritans then; The Catharists, and the Cathari; the Catharists were purifying Puritans, and the Cathari were purified Puritans: The first thought no creatures pure for man's use, till they were sanctified by them; and thereupon they induced certain charms, and forms of Purification, too detestable to be named amongst Christians. And then the Cathari, the purified Puritans thought no men pure but themselves, and themselves so pure, as that they left out that petition out of the Lord's prayer, Dimitte nobis, forgive us our trespasses, for they thought they had trespassed in nothing.
They have a third state of Puritans above these, in the Roman Church; where they say that a man come to such a state of purity in this life, as that he shall be abstracted, not only a passionibus, from all inordinateness of affections and passions, but a phantasmatibus, from apprehending anything by those lazy degrees of the senses, and the fantasy, and discourse, and reading, and meditation, and conversation, but they shall come to such a familiarity with God, as that they shall know all by immediate Revelation; They mean, (and, indeed, some of them say) that a man come to that purity in this life, as that in this life, he shall be in possession of that very Beatifical vision, which is the state of glory in heaven; In which purity, they say also, that a man may not only be empty of all sin, but he may be too full of God's presence, overfraighted with his grace, so far, that (as they make Philip Nerius, the Founder of their last Order, their example) they shall be put to that exclamation, Recede à me Domine, O Lord depart farther from me, and withdraw some of this grace, which thou pourest upon me.
And then besides these three imaginary and illusory purities, The Catharists that think no things pure, The Cathari that think no men pure but themselves, and the Super-cathari, in the Roman Church, that think these men as pure, as the Saints, who are in possession of the sight of God in heaven, there is a true purity, which will not serve our turns, which is a partial purity, that pureness, that cleanness, that innocence, to which David so often refers himself, in his religious and humble expostulations with God, Judge me, and deal with me, according to my righteousness, and mine innocence, and cleanness of heart, and hands, says David; that is, as I am innocent, and guiltless, in that particular, which Saul imputes to me, and persecutes me for. For, this pureness, which is this mark of the Saints of God, is not partial, but universal; it is not a fig-leaf, that covers one spot of nakedness, but an entire garment, a cleanness in all our actions.
We say sometimes, and not altogether improperly, that a man walks clean, if in a foul way, he contract but a few spots of dirt; but yet this is not an absolute cleanness. A house is not clean, except Cobwebs be swept down; A man is not clean, except he remove the lightest and slightest occasions of provocation. It is the speech of the greatest to the greatest, of Christ to the Church, Capite vulpeculas, Take us the little Foxes, for they devour the Vine. It is not a cropping, a pilling, a retarding of the growth of the Vine that is threatened, but a devouring, though but from little Foxes. It is not so desperate a state, to have thy soul attempted by that Lion, that seeks whom he may devour, (for then, in great and apparent sins, thou wilt be occasioned to call upon the Lion of the tribe of Judah, to thine assistance) as it is to have thy soul eaten up by vermin, by the custom and habit of small sins. God punished the Egyptians with little things, with Hailestones, and Frogs, and Grashoppers; and Pharaohs Conjurers, that counterfaited all Moses greater works, failed in the least, in the making of lice. A man may stand a great temptation, and satisfy himself in that, and think he hath done enough in the way of spiritual valor, and then fall as irrecoverably under the custom of small. I were as good lie under a millstone, as under a hill of sand; for howsoever I might have blown away every grain of sand, if I had watched it, as it fell, yet when it is a hill, I cannot blow it, nor shove it away: and when I shall think to say to God, I have done no great sins, God shall not proceed with me, by weight, but by measure, nor ask how much, but how long I have sinned.
And though I may have done thus much towards this purity, as that, for a good time, I have discontinued my sin, yet if my heart be still set upon the delight, and enjoying of that which was got by my former sins, though I be not that dog that returns to his vomit, yet I am still that Sow, that wallows in her mire; though I do not thrust my hands into new dirt, yet the old dirt is still baked upon my hands; though mine own clothes do not defile me again, as Job speaks, (though I do not relapse to the practice of mine old sin) yet I have none of Jeremiah's Nitre, and Sope, none of Job's Snow-water, to wash me clean, except I come to Restitution. As long as the heart is set upon things sinfully got, thou sinnest over those years sins, every day: thou art not come to the purity of this text, for it is pure, and pure in heart.
But can any man come to that pureness? to have a heart pure from all foulness? can a man be borne so? Who can bring a clean thing out of filthiness, is Job's unanswerable question? can any man make it clean, of himself? Who can say, I have made clean my heart? is Solomon's unanswerable question. Beloved, when such questions as these, are asked in the Scriptures, How can? who can do this? Sometimes they import an absolute impossibility, It cannot be done by any means; And sometimes they import but a difficulty, It can hardly be done, it can be done but someone way. When the Prophet says, Quid proderit sculptile? What good can an Idol, or an Idolatrous Religion do us? It shall not help us in soul, in reputation, in preferment, it will deceive us every way, it is absolutely impossible, that an Idol, or an Idolatrous Religion should do us any good. But then when David says, Domine quis habitabit, Lord who shall ascend to thy Tabernacle, and dwell in thy holy hill? David does not mean that there is no possibility of ascending thither, or dwelling there, though it be hard clambering thither, & hard holding there; And therefore when the Prophet says, Quis sapiens, & intelliget haec, Who is so wise as to find out this way, he places this cleanness, which we inquire after, in Wisdom. What is Wisdom? we may content ourselves, with that old definition of Wisdom, that it is Rerum humanarum, & divinarum scientia; The Wisdom that accomplishes this cleanness, is the knowledge, the right valuation of this world, and of the next; To be able to compare the joys of heaven, and the pleasures of this world, and the gain of the one, with the loss of the other, this is the way to this cleanness of the heart; because that heart that considers, and examines, what it takes in, will take in no foul, no infectious thing. God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness, says the Apostle. If we be in the ways of uncleanness, God hath not called us thither: We may slip into them, by the infirmity of our nature; or we may run into them by a custom of sin; we may be drawn into them, by the inordinateness of our affections; or we may be driven into them, by fear of losing the favor of those great Persons, upon whom we depend, and so accompany, or assist them in their sins.
So we may slip, and run, and be drawn, and be driven, but we are not called, not called by God, into any sin; not called by any Decree of God; not by any profession or calling; not by any complexion, or constitution, to a necessity of committing any sin; All sin is from ourselves: But if we be in the ways of holiness, it is God that called us thither, we have not brought ourselves. God calls us by his Ordinance, and Ministry in the Church; But when God hath called us thither, we may see, what he expects from us, by that which the Apostle says, Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness; that is, let us employ that faculty, that is in ourselves, let us be appliable and supple, easy and ductile, in those ways, to which God hath called us. Since God, by breeding us in the Christian Church, and in the knowledge of his word, by putting that balance into our hand, to try heavenly, and earthly things, by which we may distinguish Lepram à non lepra, what is a leprous and sinful, what is an indifferent, and clean action, let us be content to put the ware, and the weights into the balance, that is, to bring all objects, and all actions to a consideration, and to an examination, by that trial, before we set our hearts upon them: for God leaves no man, with whom he hath proceeded so far, as to breed him in the Christian Church, without a power to do that, to discern his own actions, if he do not wink.
Upon those word, Isaac digged the Wels of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham, and the Philistines had stopped, Origen extends this power far, though not very confidently; Forte in uniuscuiusque nostrûm anima, says he; perchance in everyone of our souls, there is this Well of the water of Life, and this power to open it: whether Origen's Nostrûm, our soul, be intended by him of us, as we are men, or of us, as we are Christians, I pronounce not; but divide it; In all us, as we are natural men, there is this Well of water of Life, Abraham digged it at first, The Father of the faithful our heavenly Abraham, infused it into us all at first in Adam, from whom, as we have the Image of God, though defaced, so we have this Well of water though stopped up; But then the Philistines having stopped this well, (Satan by sin having barred it up) the power of opening it again is not in the natural man; but Isaac diggs them again, Isaac who is Filius laetitiae, the Son of Joy, our Isaac, our Jesus, he opens them again, to all that receive him according to his Ordinance in his Church, he hath given this power, of keeping open in themselves, this Well of Life, these means of Salvation: Peccata tua alios inducunt colores, says Origen in the same place; Thy sins cover the Image of God with other Images, Images of Beauty, of Honor, of Pleasure, so that sometimes thou dost not discern the Image of God, in thy soul, but yet there it is: sometimes thou fillest this Well with other waters, with tears of hypocrisy, to deceive, or tears of lamentation for worldly crosses, but yet such a Well, such a power to assist thine own salvation, there is in thee: Mulier drachmam invenit, non extrinsecus, sed in dome; The Woman who had lost her piece of silver, found it not without doors, but within; It was In domo mundata, when her house was made clean, but it was within the house, and within her own house. Make clean thy house, by the assistances, which Christ affords thee in his Church, and thou shalt never fail finding of that within thee, which shall save thee: Not that it grows in thee naturally, or that thou canst produce it of thyself, but that God hath bound himself by his holy Covenant, to perfect his work, in every man, that works with him. So then in repenting of former sins, in breaking off the practice of those sins, in restoring whatsoever was gotten by those sins, in precluding all relapses, by a diligent survey and examination of particular actions, this is this cleanness, this purity of heart, which constitutes our first branch of this part; And the second is the Purchase, what we get by it, which is Blessedness, Blessed are the pure in heart.
In this, we make two steps, Blessedness, and the present possession of this Blessedness. Now, to this purpose, it is a good Rule that S. Bernard gives, and a good way that he goes: Cui quaeque res sapiunt prout sunt, is sapiens est, says he: He that tastes, and apprehends all things in their proper and natural taste, he that takes all things aright as they are, Is sapiens est, nothing distastes him, nothing alters him, he is wise. If he take the riches of this world to be in their nature, indifferent, neither good, nor bad in themselves, but to receive their denomination in their use, If he take long life to be naturally an effect of a good constitution, and temperament of the body, and a good husbanding of that temper by temperance, If he take sickness to be a declination and disorder thereof, and so other calamities to be the declination of their power, or their favor, in whose protection he trusted, then he takes all these things, prout sunt, as they are, in their right taste, and Is sapiens est, he that takes things so, is morally wise. But thus far, S. Bernard does but tell us, Quis sapiens, who is wise; but then, Cui ipsa sapientia sapit, prout est, is beatus, He that tastes this Wisdom it self aright, he only is Blessed. Now to taste this moral Wisdom aright, to make the right use of that, is to direct all that knowledge upon heavenly things. To understand the wretchedness of this world, is to be wise, but to make this wisdom apprehend a happiness in the next world, that is to be blessed. If I can digest the want of Riches, the want of Health, the want of Reputation, out of this consideration, that good men want these, as well as bad, this is moral Wisdom, and a natural man may be as wise, herein, as I. But if I can make this Wisdom carry me to a higher contemplation, That God hath cast these wants upon me, to draw me the more easily to him, and to see, that in all likelihood, my disposition being considered, more wealth, more health, more preferment would have retarded me, and slackened my pace in his service, then this Wisdom, that is, this use of this moral Wisdom, hath made me blessed; and to this Blessedness, a natural man cannot come.
This Blessedness then, is Congeries bonorum, A concurrence, a confluence, an accumulation of all that is Good; And he that is Mundus cord, pure of heart, safe in a rectified conscience, hath that. Not that everything, that hath Aliquam rationem boni, any tincture, or name of Good in it, (as Riches, and Health, and Honor) must necessarily fall upon every man, that is, good, and pure of heart; (for, for the most part, such men want these more then any other men.) But because even those things, which have in them, Aliquam rationem mali, some tincture, and name of ill, (as sickness of body, or vexation of spirit) shall be good to them, because they shall advance them in their way to God; therefore are they blessed, as Blessedness is Congeries bonorum, the accumulation of all that is good, because nothing can put on the nature of ill, to them. And though Blessedness seem to be but an expectative, a reversion reserved to the next life, yet so blessed are they in this testimony of a rectified conscience, which is this purity of heart, as that they have this blessedness in a present possession, Blessed are the pure in heart; they are now, they are already Blessed.
The farthest that any of the Philosophers went in the discovery of Blessedness, was but to come to that, Nemo ante obitum, to pronounce that no man could be called Blessed before his death; not that they had found what kind of better Blessedness they went to after their death, but that still till death they were shure, every man was subject to new miseries, and interruptions of anything which they could have called Blessedness. The Christian Philosophy goes farther; It shows us a perfecter Blessedness then they conceived for the next life, and it imparts that Blessedness to this life also: The pure in heart are blessed already, not only comparatively, that they are in a better way of Blessedness, then others are, but actually in a present possession of it: for this world and the next world, are not, to the pure in heart, two houses, but two rooms, a Gallery to pass thorough, and a Lodging to rest in, in the same House, which are both under one roof, Christ Jesus; The Militant and the Triumphant, are not two Churches, but this the Porch, and that the Chancel of the same Church, which are under one Head, Christ Jesus; so the Joy, and the sense of Salvation, which the pure in heart have here, is not a joy severed from the Joy of Heaven, but a Joy that begins in us here, and continues, and accompanies us thither, and there flows on, and dilates it self to an infinite expansion, (so, as if you should touch one corn of powder in a train, and that train should carry fire into a whole City, from the beginning it was one and the same fire) though the fullness of the glory thereof be reserved to that which is expressed in the last branch, Videbunt Deum, They shall see God; for, as S. Bernard notes, when the Church is highliest extolled for her Beauty, yet it is but Pulcherrima inter mulieres, The fairest amongst women, that is, says he, Inter animas terrenas, non autem inter Angelicas beatitudines, She is not compared with her own state in Heaven, she shall have a better state in that State, then she hath here; So when John Baptists Office is highliest extolled, that he is called The greatest Prophet, it is but Inter natos mulierum, Amongst the sons of women, he is not compared with the Son of God. So this Blessedness appropriated to the pure in heart, gives a present assurance of future joy, and a present inchoation of that now, though the plenary consummation thereof be respited, till we see God.
And first videbunt & non contremiscent; This is a Blessedness, they shall see God, and be glad to see him; see him in Judgment, and be able to stand in Judgment in his sight; They shall see him, and never trouble the hills to fall upon them, nor call the mountains to cover them; upon them he shall not steal as a thief in the night, but because he hath used to stand at their door, and knock, and enter, they shall look for his coming, and be glad of it. First they come to a true valuation of this world, in S. Paul's Omnia stercora, I count all things but Dung, but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; When they have found the true value of worldly things, they will come to something worth the getting, they will come to S. Paul's way of Gain, Mors lucrum, that to die is gain and advantage: When they know that, they will conceive a religious covetousness of that, and so come to S. Paul's Cupio dissolvi, to desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ: When they have entertained that Desire, they will declare it, make a petition, a suite for it, with a Veni Domine Jesus, Come Lord Jesus, come quickly; and they shall have a holy and modest, but yet an infallible assurance of this answer to their petition; Venite benedicti, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world; So Videbunt & non contremiscent, by this acquainting themselves, and accustoming themselves to his presence, in all their actions, and meditations in this life, they shall see him, and be glad to see him, even in Judgment, in the next.
But the seeing of God principally intended in this place, is that Visio beatifica, to see God so, as that that very seeing makes the seer Blessed, They are Blessed therefore, because they see him; And that is videre Essentiam, to see the very Essence and nature of God. For, that we shall see God in his Essence, is evident enough by that place of the Apostle, Now we are the Sons of God, (that is, now by this purity of heart, and testimony of a rectified conscience, we are so) And it doth not yet appear what we shall be, (that is, there are degrees of glory reserved for us, that yet do not appear to our understanding, we cannot conceive them) But we know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, (that is, receive incorruption and glory in our bodies, as he hath done) And then the reason given there, of that, is, For we shall see him, sicuti est, as he is, in his Essence; All our Beatification, and Glorification in our bodies consists in this, that we shall see him sicuti est, as he is, in his Essence. Then says S. Paul, I shall know, even as I am known, Essentially. But whether then, in the resurrection, and glorification of the body, God in his Essence be to be seen with those eyes which the body shall then have, is yet, and hath been long a question. The Scripture goes no farther, then to S. John's Sicuti est, I shall see him as he is, and to S. Paul's Cognoscam, I shall know him as I am known; but with what eyes I shall see him, (without any perplexing curiosities) we will look a little into the Fathers, and into the School, and conclude so, as may best advance our edification.
For the Fathers, it may be sufficient to insist upon S. Augustine; not because he is always to be preferred before all, but because in this point, he hath best collected all that were before him, and is best followed of all that come after. S. Augustine had written against a Bishop who was of the Sect of the Anthropomorphits, whose Heresy was that God had a Body; and in opposition of him, S. Augustine had said, Istius corporis oculos nec videre Deum, nec visuros, That God was so far from having a Body, that our bodily eyes, howsoever glorified, should never see God. In that Treatise S. Augustine had been very bitter against that Bishop, and being warned of it, in another Epistle to another Bishop, Fortunatianus, he repents, and retracts his bitterness, but his opinion, his doctrine, That our bodily eyes should never see God, S. Augustine never retracted. He professes ingenuously, Longe tolerabilius corpori arrogare, quàm Deo derogare, That he could be more easily brought to attribute so much too much to the body of man, as to say that with these bodily eyes he should see God, then to derogate so much from God, as to say that he had a body that might be seen; but because he saw that one might follow on the other, he denied both, and did no more believe that man's eyes should see God, then that God had a body to be seen.
And this negative opinion of his, S. Augustine builds upon S. Ambrose, and upon S. Jerome too, who seem to deny that the Angels themselves see the Essence of God; and upon Athanasius, who, against the Arians opinion, That God the Father only was invisible, but the Son, (who was not equal to the Father) and the Holy Ghost, (who was not equal to the Son) might be seen, argues and maintains, that the whole Trinity is equal in itself, and equally invisible to us. So doth he also assist himself with that of Nazianzen, Quando Deus visus, salva sua invisibilitate visus, howsoever God be said to have been seen, it is said in some such sense, as that even then when he was seen, he was invisible. He might have added Chrysostom's testimony too, Ipsum quod Deus est, nec Angeli viderunt, nec Archangeli; Neither Angel nor Archangel did ever see that Nature, which is the very Essence of God: And he might have added Areopagita too, who expresses it with equal elegancy and vehemency, Dei nec sententia est, nec ratio, nec opinio, nec sensus, nec phantasia: If we bring the very Nature and Essence of God into question, we can give no judgment upon it, (non sententia) we can make no probable discourse of it, (non ratio) we can frame no likely opinion, or conjecture in it, (non opinio) we cannot prepare ourselves with anything which hath fallen under our senses, (non sensus) nor with anything which we can bring studiously, or which can fall casually into our fancy, or imagination, (non phantasia.) And upon the whole matter, and all the evidence, he joins in this verdict with S. Jerome, Tunc cernitur, cum invisibilis creditor; God is best seen by us, when we confess that he cannot be seen of us. S. Augustine denies not, That our eyes shall be spiritual eyes, but in what proportion spiritual, or to what particular use spiritual, he will not pretend to know: Vtrum in simplicitatem spiritus cedat, it a ut totus homo jam sit spiritus, whether the body of man shall be so attenuated and rarified, as that the whole man shall become spirit, Aut animam adjuvet corpus ad videndum, whether the body shall contribute and assist the faculties of the soul, as in this life it doth, Fateor me non alicubi legisse, quod existimarem sufficere, ad docendum, aut ad discendum, says that blessed and sober Father, I confess I never read anything that I thought sufficient to rectify mine own judgment, much less to change another's: But to all those places of Scripture, which are to this purpose, That the Angels see the face of God, and that we shall be like the Angels, and see God face to face, he answers well, Facies Dei ea est, qua Deus innotescit nobis, That is the face of God to us all, by which God is known and manifested to us; in which sense, Reason is the face of God to the natural man, the Law to the Jew, and the Gospel to us; and such a sight of God, doth no more put such a power of seeing in our bodily eyes, then it puts a face upon God: We shall see God face to face, and yet God shall have no face to be seen, nor we bodily eyes to see him by: For, Non legi, That, I have not read, says he; This, says he, I have read, Regi incorruptibili, & invisibili, Unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, &c. Neither dare I, says S. Augustine, sever those things which the Spirit of God hath joined, Vt dicam incorruptibilem quidem in saecula saeculorum, invisibilem autem in hoc saeculo, I dare not say that God is immortal in this world, and in the next world too, but invisible in this world only, and visible in the next, for the Holy Ghost hath pronounced him invisible, as far as immortal.
Si rogas, says he, if you press me, Cannot God then be seen? Yes, I confess he can. If you ask me, how? Cum vult, & sicuti vult, He may be seen when he will, and how he will. If you pursue it, can he not be seen in his Essence? yes, he can; If you proceed farther, and ask me how again? I can say no more, says he, then Christ says, Erimus sicut Angeli, we shall be like the Angels, and we shall see God, so as the Angels do, but they see him not with bodily eyes, nor as an object, which is that that S. Ambrose, and S. Hicrome, and S. Chrysostom intend, when they deny that the Angels see the Essence of God, that is, they see him not otherwise then by understanding him. All agree in this resolution, Solus Deus videt cor, & solum cor videt Deum, Only God can see the heart of man and only the heart of man can see God: For, in this world, our bodily eyes do not see bodies, they see but colors and dimensions, they see not bodies; much less shall our eyes, though spiritual, see spirits in heaven; least of all, that Spirit, in comparison of of whom, Angels, and our spirits are but gross bodies.
So far the Fathers lead us towards a determination herein; and thus far the School; Nulla visio naturalis in terris; Here, in this life, neither the eyes, nor the mind of the most subtle, and most sanctified man can see the Essence of God: Nulla visio corporalis in coelis, The bodily eyes of no man, in the highest stare of glorification in heaven, can see the Essence of God: Nulla visio comprehensiva omnino, That faculty of man, which shall see the Essence of God in heaven, yet shall not comprehend that Essence; for to comprehend, is not to know a thing, as well as I can know it, but to know it as well as that thing can be known; and so only God himself can see, and know, that is, comprehend God.
To end all, in the whole body of the Scriptures we have no light, that our bodily eyes shall be so enlightened in the Resurrection, as to see the Essence of God; For, when Job says, In carne mea, In my flesh I shall see God, and Oculi mei videbunt, Mine eyes shall see God, (if these words must necessarily be understood of the last Resurrection, which some Expositors deny, and Calvin in particular, understands them of a particular resurrection from that calamity which lay upon Job at that time, and of his confidence that God would raise him again, even in this life) yet howsoever, and to which resurrection soever you refer them, the words must be understood thus, In my flesh, that is, when my soul shall re-assume this flesh in the Resurrection, In that flesh I shall see God; he doth not say, That flesh shall, but He, in that flesh, shall. So when he adds Oculi mei, Mine eyes shall do it, he intends Oculos internos, of which the Apostle speaks, The eyes of your understanding being enlightened. So then, a faculty to see him so, in his Essence, with bodily eyes, we find not in Scripture; But yet in the Scriptures we do find, that we shall see him so, Sicuti est, As he is, in his Essence; How? It is a safe answer which S. Augustine gives in all such questions, Meliùs affirmamus, de quibus minime dubitamus, Only those things are safely affirmed, and resolved, which admit no doubt: This hath never admitted any doubt, but that our soul, and her faculties shall be so exalted in that state of glory, as that in those internal faculties of the soul, so exalted, we shall see the very Essence of God, which no measure of the light of grace, communicated to any, the most fanctified man here, doth effect, but only the light of glory there shall. And therefore this being clear, that in the faculties of our souls we shall see him, Restat ut de illa vision secundum interiorem hominem certissimi simus, says that blessed and sober Father, As our reason is satisfied that the Saints in heaven shall see God so, so let our consciences be satisfied, that we have an interest in that state, and that we in particular shall come to that sight of God; Et cor mundum ad illam visionem praeparemus, Let us not abuse ourselves with false assurances, nor rest in any other, then this, that we have made clean, and pure our very hearts, for only such shall see God. Omnis meridies diluculum habuit, (as the same Father continues this Meditation) The brightest non had a faint twilight, and break of day; The sight of God which we shall have in heaven, must have a Diluculum, a break of day here; If we will see his face there, we must see it in some beams here: And to that purpose, Visus per omnes sensus recurrit, (as S. Augustine hath collected out of several places of Scripture) Every sense is called sight, for there is Odora & vide, and Gusta & vide, Taste and See how sweet, and Smell and See what a savor of life the Lord is; So S. John turned about, To see a voice, There Hearing was Sight; And so our Savior Christ says, Palpate & videte, and there Feeling is Seeing. All things concur to this Seeing, and therefore in all the works of your senses, and in all your other faculties, See ye the Lord; Hear him in his word, and so see him; Speak to him in your prayers, and so see him; Touch him in his Sacrament, and so see him; Present holy and religious actions unto him, and so see him.
David's heart was towards Absalom, says that Story: Joab saw that, and, as every man will be forward to further persons growing in favor, (for so it should be done to him, whom the King will honor) Ioah plotted and effected Absalom's return, but yet Absalom saw not the Kings face in two years. Beloved in Christ Jesus, the heart of your gracious God is set upon you; and we his servants have told you so, and brought you thus near him, into his Court, into his house, into the Church, but yet we cannot get you to see his face, to come to that tenderness of conscience, as to remember and consider, that all your most secret actions are done in his sight and his presence; Caesar's face, and Caesar's inscription you can see; The face of the Prince in his coin you can rise before the Sun to see, and sit up till mid-night to see; but if you do not see the face of God upon every piece of that money too, all that money is counterfeit; If Christ have not brought that fish to the hook, that brings the money in the mouth, (as he did to Peter ) that money is ill fished for; If nourishing of suits, and love of contention amongst others, for your own gain have brought it, it is out of the way of that counsel, Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob; Innocens manibus, & mundus cord, either such an innocence, as never fouled the hands, or such an innocence as hath washed them clean again, such an innocence as hath kept you from corrupt getting, or such an innocence as hath restored us, by restoring that, which was corruptly got. It is testified of Solomon, That he exceeded all the Kings of the Earth, for Wisdom, and for Riches, and all the Earth sought the face of Solomon; A greater then Solomon is here, for Wisdom, and Riches; your wisdom is foolishness, and your riches beggary, if you see not the face of this Solomon; If either you have studied, or practiced, or judged, when his back is towards you, that is, if you have not done all, as in his presence. You are in his presence now; go not out of it, when you go from hence. Amor rerum terrenarum, viscus pennarum spiritualium; God hath given you the wings of Doves, and the eyes of Eagles to see him now, in this place; If in returning from this place, you return to your former ways of pleasure or profit, this is a breaking of those Doves wings, and a cieling of those Eagles eyes. Coge cor tuum cogitare divina, compelle, urge, says that Father; Here, in the Church, thou canst not choose but see God, and raise thy heart towards him: But when thou art returned to thy several distractions, that vanities shall pull thine eyes, and obtrectation, and libellous defamation of others shall pull thine ears, and profit shall pull thy hands, then Coge, compelle, urge. force and compel thy heart, and press, even in that thrust of temptations, to see God. What God is in his Essence, or what our sight of the Essence of God shall be in the next world, dispute not too curiously, determine nor too peremptorily; Cogitans de Deo, si finivisti, Deus non est, is excellently said by S. Augustine: If thou begin to think, what the Essence of God is, and canst bring that thought to an end, thou hast mistaken it; whensoever thou canst say, Deus est, this is God, or God is this, non est Deus, that is not God, God is not that, for he is more, infinitely more then that. But,