Eighty Sermons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SERMON XXVIII. Preached at S. Paul's, upon Whitsunday. 1627.

T His day is this Scripture fulfilled in your cares, saith our Savior Christ, having read for his Text, that place of Isaiah, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. And that day which we celebrate now, was another Scripture fulfilled in their ears, and in their eyes too; For all Christ's promises are Scripture; They have all the Infallibility of Scripture; And Christ had promised, that that Spirit which was upon him, when he preached, should also be shed upon all his Apostles. And upon this day he performed that promise, when, They being all with one accord, in one place, there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and filled the house, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And this very particular day, in which we now commemorate, and celebrate that performance of Christ's promise, in that Mission of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, are all these Scriptures performed again, in our ears, and eyes, and in our hearts; For in all those Congregations that meet this day, to this purpose, every Preacher hath so much of this Unction (which Unction is Christ ) upon him, as that the Spirit of the Lord is upon him, and hath anointed him to that service; And every Congregation, and every good person in the Congregation, hath so much of the Apostle upon him, as that he feels This Spirit of the Lord, this Holy Ghost, as he is this cloven tongue, that sets one stem in his ear, and the other in his heart, one stem in his faith, and the other in his manners, one stem in his present obedience, and another in his perseverance, one to rectify him in the errors of life, another to establish him in the agonies of death; For the Holy Ghost, as he is a Cloven tongue, opens as a Compass, that reaches over all our Map, over all our World, from our East to our West, from our birth to our death, from our cradle to our grave, and directs us for all things, to all persons, in all places, and at all times; The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my Name, he shall teach you all things, &c.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the World it is far otherwise; Here, men for the most part, do all things according to their greatest capacity; If they be Bishops, if they be Counselors, if they be Justices, nay if they be but Constables, they will do everything according to that capacity; As though that authority, confined to certain places, limited in certain persons, and determined in certain times, gave them always the same power, in all actions; And, because to some purposes he may be my superior, he will be my equal nowhere in nothing. Christ still withdrew himself to his lower capacity; And, howsoever worldly men engross the thanks of the world to themselves, Christ cast all the honor of all the benefits that he bestowed upon others, upon his Father; And in his Veruntamen, (Yet not my will, but thine O Father be done) He humbled himself, as low as David in his Non nobis Dominc, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name be all glory given. They would have made him King; He would not; and Judge, to divide the Inheritance; and he would not. He sent the Holy Ghost; And yet, he says, I will pray the Father to send him. So the Holy Ghost was sent by them both; Father and Son; But not so, as that he was subject to a joint command of both, or to a diverse command of either, or that he came unwillingly, or had not a hand even in his own sending. But, howsoever he were perfect God, and had alwales an absolute power in himself, and had ever a desire to assist the salvation of man, yet he submitted himself to the Order of the Decree; He disordered nothing, prevented nothing, anticipated nothing, but staid, till all that which lay upon Christ, from his Incarnation, to his Ascension, was executed, and then in the due and appointed time, issued his Mission.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SERMON XXIX. Preached at S. Paul's upon Whitsunday. 1628.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The assurance of this grows from the third part of this knowledge, That Christ is in us; for that is such a knowledge of Christ's general Redemption of mankind, as that it is also an application of it to us in particular. For, for his Incarnation, by which we are in him, that may have given a dignity to our human nature; But Quae beneficiorum magnitudo fuisset erganos, si hominem solummodo, quem assumpserat, salvaret? What great benefit (how ever the dignity had been great to all mankind) had mankind had, if Christ had saved no more then that one person whom he assumed? The largeness and bounty of Christ is, to give us of his best treasure, knowledge, and to give us most at last, To know Christ in me. For, to know that he is in his Father, this may serve me to convince another, that denies the Trinity; To know that we are in Christ, so as that he took our nature, this may show me an honor done to us, more then the Angels; But what gets a lame wretch at the pool, how sovereign soever the water be, if nobody put him in? What gets a naked beggar by knowing that a dead man hath left much to pious uses, if the Executors take no knowledge of him? What get I by my knowledge of Christ in the Father, and of us in Christ so, if I find not Christ in me?

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

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

SERMON XXXI. Preached at S. Paul's, upon Whitsunday. 1629.

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

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

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

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

Si quis quaerat ex me, quid horum Moses senserit, If any man ask me, which of these, which may be all true, Moses meant, Non sum sermons isti •• onfessiones, Lord, says he, This that I say is not said by way of Confession, as I intend it should, if I do not freely confess, that I cannot tell, which Moses meant; But yet I can tell, that this that I take to be his meaning is true; and that is enough. Let him that finds a true sense of any place, rejoice in it, Let him that does not beg it of thee, Vtquid mihi molest us est? Why should any man press me, to give him the true sense of Moses here, or of the holy Ghost, in any dark place of Scripture? Ego illuminem ullum hominen, venientem in mundum? says he; Is that said of me, that I am the light, that enlightened every man, any man, that comes into this world? So far I will go, says he, so far will we, in his modesty and humility accompany him, as still to propose, Quod luce veritatis, quod fruge utilitatis excellit, such a sense as agrees with other Truths, that are evident in other places of Scripture, and such a sense as may conduce most to edisication. For to those two, does that heavenly Father reduce the four Elements, that make up a right exposition of Scripture; which are, first, the glory of God, such a sense as may most advance it; secondly, the analogy of faith, such a sense as may violate no confessed Article of Religion; and thirdly, exaltation of devotion, such a sense, as may carry us most powerfully upon the apprehension of the next life; and lastly, extension of charity, such a sense, as may best hold us in peace, or reconcile us, if we differ from one another. And within these limits we shall contain ourselves, The glory of God, the analogy of faith, the exaltation of devotion, the extension of charity. In all the rest, that belongs to the explication or application, to the literal, or spiritual sense of these words, And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, to which, having stopped a little upon this general consideration, the exposition of dark places, we pass now.

Within these rules we proceed to inquire, who this Spirit of God is, or what it is; whether a Power, or a Person. The Jews who are afraid of the Truth, lest they should meet evidences of the doctrine of the Trinity, and so of the Messias, the Son of God, if they should admit any spiritual sense, admit none, but cleave so close to the letter, as that to them the Scripture becomes Liter a occidens, A killing Letter, and the savor of death unto death. They therefore, in this Spirit of God are so far from admitting any Person, that is, God, as they admit no extraordinary operation, or virtue proceeding from God in this place; but they take the word here (as in many other places of Scripture it does) to signify only a wind, and then that that addition of the name of God (The Spirit of God) which is in their Language a denotation of a vehemency, of a high degree, of a superlative, (as when it is said of Saul, Sopor Domini, A sleep of God was upon him, it is intended of a deep, a dead sleep) enforces, induces no more but that a very strong wind blew upon the face of the waters, and so in a great part dried them up. And this opinion I should let fly away with the wind, if only the Jews had said it. But Theodoret hath said it too, and therefore we afford it so much answer, That it is a strange anticipation, that Wind, which is a mixed Meteor, to the making whereof, divers occasions concur with exhalations, should be thus imagined, before any of these causes of Winds were created, or produced, and that there should be an effect before a cause, is somewhat irregular. In Lapland, the Witches are said to sell winds to all passengers; but that is but to turn those winds that Nature does produce, which way they will; but in our case, the Jews, and they that follow them, dream winds, before any winds, or cause of winds was created; The Spirit of God here cannot be the Wind.

It cannot be that neither, which some great men in the Christian Church have imagined it to be; Operatio Dei, The power of God working upon the waters, (so some) or, Efficientia Dei, A power by God infused into the waters; so others. And to that S. Augustine comes so near, as to say once in the negative, Spiritus Dei hic, res dei est, sed non ipse Deut est, The Spirit of God in this place is something proceeding from God, but it is not God himself; And once in the affirmative, Posse esse vitalem creaturam, quâ universus mundus movetur; That this Spirit of God may be that universal power, which sustains, and inanimates the whole world, which the Platoniques have called the Soul of the world, and others intend by the name of Nature, and we do well, if we call The providence of God.

But there is more of God, in this Action, then the Instrument of God, Nature, or the Vice-roy of God, Providence; for as the person of God, the Son was in the Incarnation, so the person of God, the Holy Ghost was in this Action; though far from that manner of becoming one and the same thing with the waters, which was done in the Incarnation of Christ, who became therein perfect man. That this word the Spirit of God, is intended of the Person of the Holy Ghost, in other places of Scripture, is evident, undeniable, unquestionable, and that therefore it may be so taken here. Where it is said, The Spirit of God shall rest upon him, (upon the Messiah) where it is said by himself, The Lord and his Spirit is upon me, And, the Lord and his Spirit hath anointed me, there it is certainly, and therefore here it may be probably spoken of the Holy Ghost personally. It is no impossible sense, it implies no contradiction; It is no inconvenient sense, it offends no other article; it is no new sense; nor can we assign any time, when it was a new sense: The eldest Fathers adhere to it, as the ancientest interpretation. Saint Basil says not only, Constantissime asseverandum est, We must constantly maintain that interpretation, (for all that might be his own opinion) not only therefore, Quia verius est, (for that might be, but because he found it to be the common opinion of those times) but Quia à majoribus nostris approbatum, because it is accepted for the true sense, by the Ancients; The Ancients, says that ancient Father Basil; which reason prevails upon S. Ambrose too, Nos cum sanctorum, & fidelium sententia congruentes, We believe, and believe it, because the Ancients believed it to be so, that this is spoken generally of the Holy Ghost. S. Basil, and S. Ambrose assume it, as granted, S. Jerome disputes it, argues, concludes it, Vivificator, ergo Conditor, ergo Deus; This Spirit of God gave life, therefore this Spirit was a Creator; therefore God. S. Augustine prints his seal deep; Secundùm quod ego intelligere possum, ita est, as far as my understanding can reach, it is so; and his understanding reached far. But he adds, Nec ullomodo, &c. Neither can it possibly be otherwise. We cannot tell, whether that Poem which is called Genesis, be Tertullian's, or Cyprians; It hath been thought an honor to the learnedest of the Fathers, to have been the Author of a good Poem; In that Poem this text is paraphrased thus, Immensusque Deus super aequora vastameabat; God, God personally moved upon the waters. Truly the later School is (as they have used it) a more Poetical part of divinity, then any of the Poems of the Fathers are, (take in Lactantius his Poem of the Phenix, and all the rest) and for the School, there Aquinas says, Secundùm Sanctos, intelligimus Spiritum sanctum, As the holy Fathers have done, we also understand this personally of the Holy Ghost.

To end this, these words do not afford such an argument for the Trinity, or the third Person thereof, the Holy Ghost, as is strong enough to convert, or convince a Jew, because it may have another sense; but we, who by God's abundant goodness have otherwise an assurance, and faith in this doctrine, acknowledge all those other places, Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, and they are created, By his spirit he hath garnished the Heavens, and the rest of that kind, to be all but echoes from this voice, returns from Job, and from David, and the rest, of this doctrine of all comfort, first, and betimes delivered from Moses, that there is a distinct person in the Godhead, whose attribute is goodness, whose office is application, whose way is comfort. And so we pass from our first, That it is not only the Power of God, but the Person of God, To the second, in this branch, His Action, Ferebatur.

The Action of the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, in this place, is expressed in a word, of a double, and very diverse signification; for it signifies motion, and it signifies rest. And therefore, as S. Augustine argues upon those words of David, Thou knowest my down sitting, and my uprising, That God knew all that he did, between his down sitting and his uprising; So in this word which signifies the Holy Ghosts first motion, and his last rest, we comprehend all that was done in the production, and creation of the Creatures. This word, we translate, As the Eagle fluttereth over her young ones, so it is a word of Motion; And S. Jerome upon our Text expresses it by Incubabat, to sit upon her young ones, to hatch them, or to preserve them, so it is a word of rest. And so, the Jews take this word to signify, properly the birds hatching of eggs. S. Cyprian unites the two significations well, Spiritus sanctus dabat aquis motum, & limitem; The Holy Ghost enabled the waters to move, and appointed how, and how far they should move. The beginnings, and the ways, and the ends, must proceed from God, and from God the Holy Ghost: That is, by those means, and those declarations, by which God doth manifest himself to us, for that is the office of the holy Ghost, to manifest and apply God to us. Now the word in our Text is not truly Ferebatur, The Spirit moved, which denotes a thing past; but the word is Movens, Moving, a Participle of the present; So that we ascribe first God's manifestation of himself in the creation, and then the continual manifestation of himself in his providence, to the holy Ghost; for God had two purposes in the creation, Vt sint, ut maneant, That the creature should be, and be still; That it should exist at first, and subsist after; Be made, and made permanent. God did not mean that Paradise should have been of so small use when he made it; he made it for a perpetual habitation for man. God did not mean that man should be the subject of his wrath when he made him; he made him to take pleasure in, and to shed glory upon him. The holy Ghost moves, he is the first author; the holy Ghost perpetuates, settles, establishes, he is our rest, and acquiescence, and center; Beginning, Way, End, all is in this word, Recaph; The Spirit of God moved, and rested. And upon what? And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

S. Augustine observing aright, That at this time, of which this Text is spoken, The waters enwrapped all the whole substance, the whole matter, of which all things were to be created, all was surrounded with the waters, all was embowelled, and enwombed in the waters; And so the holy Ghost moving, and resting upon the face of the waters, moved, and rested, did his office upon the whole Mass of the world, and so produced all that was produced; and this admits no contradiction, no doubt, but that thus the thing was done, and that this, this word implies. But whether the holy Ghost wrought this production of the several creatures, by himself, or whether he infused, and imprinted a natural power in the waters, and all the substance under the waters, to produce creatures naturally of themselves, hath received some doubt. It need not: for the work ascribed to the holy Ghost here, is not the working by nature, but the creating of nature; Not what nature did after, but how nature herself was created at first. In this action, this moving, and resting upon the face of the waters, (that is, all involved in the waters) the Spirit of God, the holy Ghost, hatched, produced then all those creatures; For no power infused into the waters, or earth then, could have enabled that earth, then to have produced Trees with ripe fruits, in an instant, nor the waters to have brought forth Whales, in their growth, in an instant. The Spirit of God produced them then, and established and conserves ever since, that seminal power which we call nature, to produce all creatures (then first made by himself) in a perpetual Succession.

And so have you these words, And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, literally, historically: And now these three terms, The Spirit of God, Moved, Upon the face of the waters, You are also to receive in a spiritual sense, in the second world, the Christian Church: The Person, the Action, the Subject, the holy Ghost, and him moving, and moving upon the waters, in our regeneration.

Here, as before, our first Terme, and Consideration, is the name, The Spirit of God; And here God knows, we know too many, even amongst the outward professors of the Christian religion, that in this name, The Spirit of God, take knowledge only of a power of God, and not of a person of God; They say it is the working of God, but not God working. Mira profunditas eloquiorum tuorum; The waters in the creation, were not so deep as the word of God, that delivers that creation. Ecce, ante nos superficies blandiens pueris, says that Father; We, we that are but babes in understanding, as long as we are but natural men, see the superficies, the top, the face, the outside of these waters, Sed mira profunditas, Deus meus, mira profunditas, But it is an infinite depth, Lord my God, an infinite depth to come to the bottom. The bottom is, to profess, and to feel the distinct working of the three distinct persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and holy Ghost. Rara anima, quae cum de illa loquitur, sciat quid loquatur, Not one man, not one Christian amongst a thousand, who when he speaks of the Trinity, knows what he himself means. Natural men will write of lands of Pygmies, and of lands of giants; and write of Phoenixes, and of Unicornes; But yet advisedly they do not believe, (at least confidently they do not know) that there are such Giants, or such Pygmies, such Unicorns or Phoenixes in the world. Christians speak continually of the Trinity, and the holy Ghost, but alas, advisedly, they know not what they mean in those names. The most know nothing, for want of consideration; They that have considered it enough, and spent thoughts enough upon the Trinity, to know as much as needs be known thereof, Contendunt & dimicant, & nemo sine pace vidit istam visionem, They dispute, and they wrangle, and they scratch, and wound one another's reputations, and they assist the common enemy of Christianity by their uncharitable differences, Et sine pace, And without peace, and mildness, and love, and charity, no man comes to know the holy Ghost, who is the God of peace, and the God of love. Da quod amo; amo enim, nam & hoc tu dedisti; I am loath to part from this father, and he is loath to be parted from, for he says this in more then one place; Lord thou hast enamored me, made me in love; let me enjoy that that I love; That is, the holy Ghost: That as I feel the power of God (which sense, is a gift of the holy Ghost) I may without disputing rest in the belief of that person of the Trinity, that that Spirit of God, that moves upon these waters, is not only the power, but a person in the Godhead.

This is the person, without whom there is no Father, no Son of God to me, the holy Ghost. And his action, his operation is expressed in this word, Ferebatur, The Spirit of God moved; Which word, as before, is here also a comprehensive word, and denotes both motion, and rest; beginnings, and ways, and ends. We may best consider the motion, the stirring of the holy Ghost in zeal, and the rest of the holy Ghost in moderation; If we be without zeal, we have not the motion; If we be without moderation, we have not the rest, the peace of the holy Ghost. The moving of the holy Ghost upon me, is, as the moving of the mind of an Artificer, upon that piece of work that is then under his hand. A Jeweller, if he would make a jewel to answer the form of any flower, or any other figure, his mind goes along with his hand, nay prevents his hand, and he thinks in himself, a Ruby will conduce best to the expressing of this, and an Emeraud of this. The holy Ghost undertakes every man amongst us, and would make every man fit for God's service, in some way, in some profession; and the holy Ghost sees, that one man profits most by one way, another by another, and moves their zeal to pursue those ways, and those means, by which, in a rectified conscience, they find most profit. And except a man have this sense, what doth him most good, and a desire to pursue that, the holy Ghost doth not move, nor stir up a zeal in him.

But then if God do afford him the benefit of these his Ordinances, in a competent measure for him, and he will not be satisfied with Manna, but will needs have Quails, that is, cannot make one meal of Prayers, except he have a Sermon, nor satisfied with his Gomer of Manna, (with those Prayers which are appointed in the Church) nor satisfied with those Quails which God sends, (the preaching of solid and fundamental doctrines) but must have birds of Paradise, unrevealed mysteries out of God's own bosom preached unto him, howsoever the holy Ghost may seem to have moved, yet he doth not rest upon him; and from the beginning, the office and operation of the holy Ghost was double; He moved, and rested upon the waters in the creation; he came, and tarried still upon Christ in his Baptism: He moves us to a zeal of laying hold upon the means of salvation which God offers us in the Church; and he settles us in a peaceful conscience, that by having well used those means, we are made his. A holy hunger and thirst of the Word and Sacraments, a remorse, and compunction for former sins, a zeal to promove the cause, and glory of God, by word, and deed, this is the motion of the holy Ghost: And then, to content myself with God's measure of temporal blessings, and for spiritual, that I do serve God faithfully in that calling which I lawfully profess, as far as that calling will admit, (for he, upon whose hand-labor the sustentation of his family depends, may offend God in running after many working days Sermons) This peace of conscience, this acquiescence of having done that that belongs to me, this is the rest of the Spirit of God. And this motion, and this rest is said to be done Super faciem, And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, which is our last consideration.

In the moving of the Spirit of God upon the waters, we told you before, it was disputed, whether the Holy Ghost did immediately produce those creatures of himself, or whether he did fecundate, and inanimate, and enable those substances, (the water, and all contained under the waters) to produce creatures in their divers specifications. In this moving of the Spirit of God upon the waters, in our regeneration, it hath also been much disputed, How the Holy Ghost works, in producing man's supernatural actions; whether so immediately, as that it be altogether without dependence, or relation to any faculty in man, or man himself have some concurrence, and co-operation therein. There we found, that in the first creation, God wrought otherwise for the production of creatures, then he does now; At first he did it immediately, entirely, by himself; Now, he hath delegated, and substituted nature, and imprinted a natural power in everything to produce the like. So in the first act of man's Conversion, God may be conceived to work otherwise, then in his subsequent holy actions; for in the first, man cannot be conceived to do anything, in the rest he may: not that in the rest God does not all; but that God finds a better disposition, and souplenesse, and maturity, and mellowing, to concur with his motion in that man, who hath formerly been accustomed to a sense, and good use of his former graces, then in him, who in his first conversion, receives, but then, the first motions of his grace.

But yet, even in the first creation, the Spirit of God did not move upon that nothing, which was before God made heaven and earth: But he moved upon the waters; though those waters had nothing in themselves, to answer his motion, yet he had waters to move upon: Though our faculties have nothing in themselves to answer the motions of the Spirit of God, yet upon our faculties the Spirit of God works; And as out of those waters, those creatures did proceed, though not from those waters, so out of our faculties, though not from our faculties, do our good actions proceed too. All in all, is from the love of God; but there is something for God to love; There is a man, there is a soul in that man, there is a will in that soul; and God is in love with this man, and this soul, and this will, & would have it. Non amor ita egenus & indigus, ut rebus quas diligit subjiciatur, says S. Aug. excellently: The love of God to us is not so poor a love, as our love to one another; that his love to us should make him subject to us, as ours does to them whom we love; but Superfertur, says that Father, and our Text, he moves above us; He loves us, but with a Powerful, a Majesticall, an Imperial, a Commanding love; He offers those, whom he makes his, his grace; but so, as he sometimes will not be denied. So the Spirit moves spiritually upon the waters; He comes to the waters, to our natural faculties; but he moves above those waters, He inclines, he governs, he commands those faculties; And this his motion, upon those waters, we may usefully consider, in some divers applications and assimilations of water, to man, and the divers uses thereof towards man. We will name but a few; Baptism, and Sin, and Tribulation, and Death, are called in the Scripture, by that name, Waters; and we shall only illustrate that consideration, how this Spirit of God, moves upon these Waters, Baptism, Sin, Tribulation, and Death, and we have done.

The water of Baptism, is the water that runs through all the Fathers; All the Fathers that had occasion to dive, or dip in these waters (to say anything of them) make these first waters, in the Creation, the figure of baptism. There Tertullian makes the water, Primam sedem Spiritus Sancti, The progress, and the settled house, The voyage, and the harbor, The circumference, and the center of the Holy Ghost: And therefore S. Jerome calls these waters, Matrem Mundi, The Mother of the World; and this in the figure of Baptism. Nascentem Mundum in figura Baptismi parturiebat, The waters brought forth the whole World, were delivered of the whole World, as a Mother is delivered of a child; and this, In figura Baptismi, To fore-show, that the waters also should bring forth the Church; That the Church of God should be borne of the Sacrament of Baptism: So says Damascene, And he establishes it with better authority then his own, Hoc Divinus asseruit Basilius, says he, This Divine Basil said, Hoc factum, quia per Spiritum Sanctum, & aquam voluit renovare hominem; The Spirit of God wrought upon the waters in the Creation, because he meant to do so after, in the regeneration of man. And therefore Pristinam sedem recognoscens conquiescit, Till the Holy Ghost have moved upon our children in Baptism, let us not think all done, that belongs to those children; And when the Holy Ghost hath moved upon those waters, so, in Baptism, let us not doubt of his power and effect upon all those children that die so. We know no means how those waters could have produced a Menow, a Shrimp, without the Spirit of God had moved upon them; and by this motion of the Spirit of God, we know they produce Whales, and Leviathans. We know no ordinary means of any saving grace for a child, but Baptism; neither are we to doubt of the fullness of salvation, in them that have received it. And for ourselves, Mergimur, & emergimus, In Baptism we are sunk under water, and then raised above the water again; which was the manner of baptizing in the Christian Church, by immersion, and not by aspersion, till of late times: Affectus, & ameres, says he, our corrupt affections, and our inordinate love of this world is that, that is to be drowned in us; Amor securitatis, A love of peace, and holy assurance, and acquiescence in God's Ordinance, is that that lifts us above water.

Therefore that Father puts all upon the due consideration of our Baptism: And as S. Jerome says, Certainly he that thinks upon the last Judgment advisedly, cannot sin then, So he that says with S. Augustine, Procede in confessionc, fides mea, Let me make every day to God, this confession, Domine Deus meus, Sancte, Sancte, Sancte Domine Deus meus, O Lord my God, O Holy, Holy, Holy Lord my God; In nomine tuo Baptizatus sum, I consider that I was baptized in thy name, and what thou promisedst me, and what I promised thee then, and can I sin this sin? can this sin stand with those conditions, those stipulations which passed between us then? The Spirit of God is motion, the Spirit of God is rest too; And in the due consideration of Baptism, a true Christian is moved, and settled too; moved to a sense of the breach of his conditions, settled in the sense of the Mercy of his God, in the Merits of his Christ, upon his godly sorrow. So these waters are the waters of Baptism.

Sin also is called by that name in the Scriptures, Water. The great whore sitteth upon many waters; she sits upon them, as upon Egges, and hatches Cockatrices, venomous and stinging sins; and yet pleasing, though venomous; which is the worst of sin, that it destroys, and yet delights; for though they be called waters, yet that is said also, That the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine. Sin is wine at first, so far as to allure, to intoxicate: It is water at last, so far as to suffocate, to strangle. Christ Jesus way is to change water into wine; sorrow into joy: The Devils way is to change wine into water; pleasure, and but false pleasure neither, into true bitterness. The watrish wine, which is spoken of there, and called fornication, is idolatry, and the like. And in such a respect, God says to his people, What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt? In the way of Egypt we cannot choose but have something to do; some conversation with men of an Idolatrous religion, we must needs have. But yet, What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink of the waters of Sihor? Or what hast thou to do in the ways of Assyria, to drink the waters of the River? Though we be bound to a peaceable conversation with men of an Idolatrous persuasion, we are not bound to take in, to drink, to taste their errors. For this facility, and this indifferency to accompany men of divers religions, in the acts of their religion, this multiplicity will end in a nullity, and we shall hew to ourselves Cisterns, broken Cisterns, that can hold no water; We shall scatter one religion into many, and those many shall vanish into none. Praise we God therefore, that the Spirit of God hath so moved upon these waters; these sinful waters of superstition and idolatry, wherein our fore-Fathers were overwhelmed; that they have not swelled over us; For, then the cold North-wind blows, and the water is congealed into Ice; Affliction overtakes us, damps us, stupifies us, and we find no Religion to comfort us.

Affliction is as often expressed in this word, Waters, as sin. When thou passest through waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. But then, the Spirit of God moves upon these waters too; and grace against sin, and deliverance from affliction, is as often expressed in waters, as either. Where God takes another Metaphor for judgment, yet he continues that of water for his mercy; In the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against them, (speaking of enemies; but then speaking of Israel) I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. This is his way, and this is his measure; He sprinkles enough at first to make us clean; even the sprinkling of Baptism cleanses us from original sin; but then he sets open the windows of heaven, and he enlarges his Flood-gates, I will pour out water upon the thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: To them that thirst after him, he gives grace for grace; that is, present grace for an earnest of future grace; of subsequent grace, and concomitant grace, and auxiliant grace, and effectual grace; grace in more forms, more notions, and in more operations, then the School it self can tell how to name.

Thus the Spirit of God moves upon our waters. By faith Peter walked upon the waters; so we prevent occasions of temptation to sin, and sink not in them, but walk above them. By godly exercises we swim through waters; so the Centurion commanded that they that could swim, should cast themselves into the sea; Men exercised in holiness, can meet a temptation, or tribulation in the face, and not be shaked with it; weaker men, men that cannot swim, must be more wary of exposing themselves to dangers of temptation; A Court does some man no harm, when another finds temptation in a Hermitage. By repentance we sails through waters; by the assistance of God's ordinances in his Church, (which Church is the Ark) we attain the harbor, peace of conscience, after a sin; But this Ark, this help of the Church we must have. God can save from dangers, though a man went to Sea without art, Sine rate, says the Vulgat, without a Ship. But God would not that the work of his Wisdom should be idle; God hath given man Prudentiam navifactivam, says our Holkot upon that place, and he would have that wisdom exercised. God can save without Preaching, and Absolution, and Sacraments, but he would not have his Ordinance neglected.

To end all with the end of all, Death comes to us in the name, and notion of waters too, in the Scriptures. The Widow of Tekoah said to David in the behalf of Absalom, by the Counsaile of Joab, The water of death overslowes all; We must needs die, says she, and are as water spilled upon the ground, which cannot be gathered up again: yet God devises means, that his banished, be not expelled from him. So the Spirit of God moves upon the face of these waters, the Spirit of life upon the danger of death. Consider the love, more then love, the study, more then study, the diligence of God; he devises means, that his banished, those whom sins, or death had banished, be not expelled from him. I sinned upon the strength of my youth, and God devised a means to reclaim me, an enfeebling sickness. I relapsed after my recovery, and God devised a means, an irrecoverable, a helpless Consumption to reclaim me; That affliction grew heavy upon me, and weighed me down even to a diffidence in God's mercy, and God devised a means, the comfort of the Angel of his Church, his Minister, The comfort of the Angel of the great Counsel, the body and blood of his Son Christ Jesus, at my transmigration. Yet he lets his correction proceed to death; I do die of that sickness, and God devises a means, that I, though banished, banished into the grave, shall not be expelled from him, a glorious Resurrection. We must needs die and be as water spilled upon the ground, but yet God devises means, that his banished shall not be expelled from him.

And this is the motion, and this is the Rest of the Spirit of God upon those waters in this spiritual sense of these words, He brings us to a desire of Baptism, he settles us in the sense of the obligation first, and then of the benefits of Baptism. He suffers us to go into the way of temptations, (for Coluber in via, and every calling hath particular temptations) and then he settles us, by his preventing, or his subsequent grace. He moves, in submitting us to tribulation, he settles us in finding, that our tribulations, do best of all conform us to his Son Christ Jesus. He moves in removing us by the hand of Death, and he settles us in an assurance, That it is he that now lets his Servants depart in peace; And he, who as he doth presently lay our souls in that safe Cabinet, the Bosom of Abraham, so he keeps an eye upon every grain, and atom of our dust, whither soever it be blown, and keeps a room at his own right hand for that body, when that shall be re-united in a blessed Resurrection; And so The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

SERM. XXXII. Preached upon Whitsunday.

W E read that in the Tribe of Benjamin, which is, by interpretation Filius dextrae, The Son of the right hand, there were seven hundred left-handed Men, that could sling stones at a hairs breadth, and not fail. S. Paul was of that Tribe; and though he were from the beginning, in the purpose of God, Filius dextrae, A man ordained to be a dextrous Instrument of his glory, yet he was for a time a left-handed man, and took sinister ways, and in those ways, a good markman, a laborious and exquisite persecutor of God's Church; And therefore it is, that Tertullian says of him, Paulum mihi etiam Genesis olim repromisit, I had a promise of Paul in Moses; Then, when Moses said, Jacob blessed Benjamin thus, Benjamin shall ravin as a Wolf, In the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoilc, that is, At the beginning Paul