SERMON XXX.
1 CORINTHI,NS xii. 3. A.lso no man oaa say, that Jesus is the Lord, but by fle Holy Ghost. V read that in the tribc of BenjalniU, which is, by interpretation, Filius dextrw, The,S'on of the riht haad, there wcre se-en hundred left-hauded nleu, 01at could sliug stoppes at a hair's breadth, and not rail. St. Paul was of tiret tribe; aud thouzh ho were from the beginning, iu the purl)ose of God, Fillas dextrw» A man ordained to be a dextel'ous ilstrument of his glory, yet he was for a thne a left-handcd man, and took sinister ways, aud 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 oHm repromisit, I had a l»l'omise of Pul in Moses; theu, when Moses said, Jacob blessed Beami th«s, Benjamin sall ra¢ia as a u'o in the morainy he sh«ll devour the prey, aM at nOht he shall diride the poil , that is, at the begiu 7 ning Paul shall scatter the flock of Christ, but at last he shall gather, and re-unite the nations to his service; as he had breathed threateMnys, azd lauyter ayalast the dlscip[es o" te Lord , so he became Os orbi sciens', A mouth loud enough for all the world to hear: and as he had dl'awn and sucked the blood of Christ's mystical body, the church, so, in that proportion that God enabled him to, he recompeused that damage, by effusion of Judg xx. 16. u n. xix. » Ac l. C'ysostom. VOL. II. B
2 acn o- wm's'xn. [sa. xxx. his own blood, He fulfillêd the ering of Christ, in hi flêh, himself says, to the Coloians'; and then he bequeathed to ail posterity these epistles, which are, as St. Augustine calls them, Ubera ecdesiw, The paps, the breasts, the udders of the church, and which are, as that cluster of apes of the land of Canaan', which was borne by two; for here, every couple, every pair, may have their load, Jew and Gentile, ]earned and ignorant, man and wife, toaster and servant, father and children, prince and eople, counsel and client, how distinct soever they think their callings to be towards the world, yet here every pair must equally submit their necks to this sweet and easy yoke, of confessing Jesus to be the Lord, and acknowledging that confession to proceed from the working of the Holy Ghost, for man con say, tkat Jesus is the Lord, u.ithout the Holy Gkost. In whieh words, these shall be the three things, that we will eonsider now; first, the general impotency of lnall, in iritual duties, mmootest, no man ean do this, no man ean do anhing; seeondly, how, and what those spiritual duties are expressed to be; it is a profession of Jesus to be the Lord, to say it, to deelare it; and thirdly, the means of repairing this natural impoteney, and rectifying this natural obliquity in man, that man by the Holy Ghost may be enabled to do this spiritual duty, to profess sincerely Jesus to be the Lord. In the first we shall see first, the universality of this flood, the generality of our loss in Adam, nemo, liOn e, hot one, hath any, al}y power; whieh notes their blasphemy, that exempt any person from the infection of sin: and seeondly, we shall see the impoteney, the infirmity, where it lies, it is in homine, no man; whieh notes their blasphemy, that say, man may be saved by his natural faeulties, as he is man: and thiroey, by just occasion of that word, l»otest, he ean, he is able, we shall see also the laziness of man, whieh, though he ean do nothing effeetually and primarily, yet he does not so mueh as he might do; and in those three, we shall determine our first part. In the second, what this spil'itual duty, whereil we are all so impotent, is, it is first, an outward aet, a profession; hOt that an outward aet is enough, but that the iu-ard affection alone is not enough neither; to think it, to believe it, is hot enough, but n Colon. i. 14. t h'umb, xfii. 24.
SER XXX.] PREACHED ON IIITSUNDAYo
we must say it, profess it: and what. why, first, that Jesus is; not only assent to the history, and matter-of-fact, that Jesus was, and did ail that is reported, and recorded of him, but that he is still that which he pretended to be; Coesar is hot Coesar still, nor Alexander, Alexander; but Jesus is Jesus still, and shall be t'or ever. This we must profess, that he is; and then, that he is tbe Lord; he was not sent hlther as the greatest of the prolohets, nor as the greatest of the priests; his work consists hot only in having preached to us, and instructed us, nor in having sacrificed himself, thereby to be an example to us, to walk in those ways ai'ter him; but he is Lord, he lourchased a dominion, he bought us with his blood, he is Lord; and lastly, he is the Lord, not only the Lord paramount, the highest Lord, but the Lord, the only Lord, no other bath a lordship iii 0tir s0ttls, nO other hath any part in the saving of them, but he: and so far we must neeessarily enlarge out second eonsideration. And in the third Fart, whieh is, that this eannot be done but by the Holy Ghost, we shall see, that in that b«t, is flrst imlolied an exclusion of all means but one; and therefore that one must neeessarily be hard to be eompassed, the knowledge and discerning of the Holy Ghost, is a difficult thing; and)'et, as this but bath an exclusion of ail means but one, so it bath an inelusion, an admission, an allowance of that one, it is a neeessary duty; nothing ean effect it, but the lmving of the Holy Ghost, and therefore the Holy Ghost may be had: and iii those two points, the hardness of it, and the lOossibility of it, will out last eonsiderafion be employed. For the first branch of the first part, The generality, that reaehes to us all, and to us ail over; to all out persons, and to ull out faculties; _Perdidims yer yeccatum, bom«m ¥ossibilitatis, says St. Augustine, We bave lost out possession, and out lOossibility of reeovering, by Adam's sin. Adam at his best lad but a lOossibility of standing; we are fallen from that, and fron, ail possibility of risiug by any power derived from him: we have hot only by this fall broke out arms, or out legs, but out neeks; hot ourselves, hot any other man ean raise us; everything bath in it, as physieins use to eall it, ¢Vat«rae l«lsam.«m, A natural balsamum, whieh, if any wound or hurt which that ereature bath received, be kept clean from extrinsic putrefction, will heal of itself. We are so far from that natural balsamum, as that we bave a natural poison in us original sin: for that, original sin, (as it hath relation to God, as all sin is a violating of God) God being the God of mercy, and fle God of lire, becsuse it deprves us of both those of mercy, and of life, in opposition to mercy, it is called anger and wrath, (ll are ail by nature the ckihtren OE wrath ) and in opposition to lire, it is caHed death, Death enters by sin, and death is 9one over aH men; and as original sin hath relation to our souls, it is ealled that indelible foulness, and uneleannxss whieh God diseovers in s all, (Tkouyh tho u'ash thee «cith nitre, and take th«e muck soap, yet tkine iniquity is marked boEore me, eaith tke LoM') and whieh eve man fin in hintself, as Job did, O" I waeh mye in enow-«ater, and pue y hands nerer so clean, yet y orn clothes kall make me filthy *. As i hath rdation to out dies, so it is hot only called lex carnis, a law whicll the flesh eannot disobey, and lex b mbris, a law written and imprinted naturally in out bodies, and inoeparably inherent there, but it is a law that hath go pe comitatus, ail our strength, and munition into her own hands, ail out powers, and faculties fo exeeute her purposes against us, and (as the apostle expresses ig fully) Hath Jbrce in our membeç, to brinff forth fruits unto d««th . Consider out original weakness, as God looks upon ig, so it is inexcusable sin; consider it, out souls suffit by it, so i is an indelible foulness; consider it as o bodies eontribute to it, and harbour it, and retain it, and so it is an unquenehable lire, and a brand of hell itself; it hath banished me ou of lnyself, It is no nwre I tkat do anythin9, but sin that dcelleth in me: ig doth hOt only dwdl, bu rei9n in these mortal bodi; hot only rei9n, but tyrannise, and l«ad us captires under tke law of fin, u'hich, is in our nembersL So that we have utterly lost bonumpibHitatis, for as men, we are out of ail possibility, no only of tiret viet rious, and triumphan gratulation and elamation to oursel-es, as for a delivery, I thank God throuffh Jesus Christ , but we cannot corne to that sense of our misery, as to cry out in the apostle's xvords, immediately preceding, 0 wretcked man that I ara, who akall deliver me frora tke body of tkia death? low as this death hath invaded every part and faculty of man, understanding, and will, and all, (for though original sin seem to be contracted xvithout our will, yet,S'içut onium n«tura, omuium voluntate fuere ori9inaliter in Adam, says St. Augustine, As the whole nature of mankind, and so of every partieular man, was in Adam, so also were the faeulties, and so the will of every particular man in him) so this death hath invaded every particular man; death went over all men, forasmuch as all men had sinned. And therefore they that do blasphemously exempt some persons from sin, they set them hot above the law, but vithout the law: they outlw them, in taking from them the benefit of the new law, the Gospel: and of the author of that law, Christ Jesus, who came a physician to the sick, and was sent only to save sinners; for them that are none, it is ve]l that they need no Redeemer, for if they did, they could have no part in ours, for he came only to redeem sinners, and they are none. God brought his Son out of F,9"pt, hOt out of Goshen in Eg}Tt; hot out of a privileged place in Egypt, but out of ETt; God brought his Son Christ Jesus out of the Virgin Mary without sin, but he brought uot her so, out of her mother. If theymight be believed that the blessed Vil'gin, and John Baptist, and the l?rophet Jeremy were wlthout all sin, they would go about at last to make us believe, that Ignatius were so too. For us, in the highest of our sanctification, still let us press with that, Dimitte nobis debita ostra, 0 Lord for9ire «s our trespases, and confess that we needed forgiveness, even for the sins which we have hOt done; Dimissa fateor, et quw ea sloonte feci, et quoa te duce, non feci, says St. Augustine, I confess I need thy mercy, both for the sins which I have done, and for those, which if thy grace had hOt restrained me, I should have done. And therefore if another think he hath escaped those sins that I have colnmitted, non me derideat ab eo medico w9rum anarl, a uo ei lorwstitum e wgrotarer; let him hot despise me, who ana recovered, since it is the same physician who bath wrought upon us both, though by diverse method, for he hth preserved him, ud he bath recovered me: for, for himsilf, we say still with the saine father, Perdiderat bonumposdbilitatis, As well he as I, had lest ail possibility of standing, or rising aftcr out fall. This was our first branch, The universal impoteucy; and our second fs, That this fs iv omie, in man, no man (as man) can make this profession, T/at Jesu8 i te Lord: and therefore we consider first wherein, and how far man fs disabled. In every age, some men have attributed te the power of nature, more than a natural man can de, and yet no man doth se much a natural man might de. For the over-valuing of nature, and ber power, there are imiressions in the fathers themselves, which (whether misuuderstood by the readers, or by the authors)bave led and prevailed much. Vhen Justin llartyr says, l?atio pro ff'de Grweis et barbaris, That rectified reason did the saine oflîce in the Gentiles, as faith did in the Christians; when Clement says, Pilosopia per 8ese justi.carit Grwcos, That the Gentiles te whom the law and the Gospel was net communicated, were justified by their philosoihy; when Chrysostom says,,S'atis fuit Genti abtim«isse ab idolo[atria, It was sutïicient for the Gentiles, if they did net worship false gods, thouh they understood net the true; when St. Auustine says, Tectefacis, iil çuarere amplius, uam wd doeet ratio, He doth well that seeks no farther, than his reason leads them, tllese impressious in the fathers have transported later lnen farther se far, as that Andradius in the loman church, saves ail honest philosoihers, that lived morally" well without Christ: and Tostatus takes all impedimints out of their way, that original sin fs absolutely rimittid te them, n prirna bona operatiozw in caritate, In their first good moral work that they de. Se that they are in an easier way than we, who are but Christians; for in the opinion of Tostatus himselfi and that whole church, we cannot be delivered frein original sin, but by baptism; nothing less than a sacrament would deliver us frein original sin, and any good work shall deliver a.ny of the Gentiles se disposed. In all ages, in ail churches, there bave been men, who bave been içratl 9ratioe, as St. Augustine calls them, that have been unthankful te the grace ot" God and attributed that te nature, vhich belonged te grace. But we bave an universal conclusion, s'., xxx.] rx.crD o wnrrsuDx'. 7 God bath mode of one blood all mankind , and no man can adopt himself into the family of God; man is excluded, and ail power in man, and all assistance from man; neither your own reason, nor the reason of your masters, whom you rely upon, ean raiso you to this knowledgo: for,.rF, yyptu» homo, non deus, The Eyyptians are mon, and hot yods, and their horses are flesh, and hot spirit; and when the Lord shall stretch out his haad, the helper shall fall, and ho that is holpen shall rail, and they shall rail toyether 5. The atheist and ail his philosophy, helper and ho that is holpen, horse and man, nature and art, reason nmunted and advaneed upon learning, shall noyer be able to leap over, or break through this wall, no man, no natural man ean do anything towards.n. supernatural work. This w.n.s out second braneh, That too much is ordinarily attributed by man to man, and our third is, That too little is donc by any man, and that is worse than the other. When Nebuchadnezzar had ruade his image of gold of sixty eubit.% it had been a madness in him, hot to bave eelebrated the dedieation thereof, with all the pomp, and solemnity that ho did: to have gone so far, and not to bave ruade it serve his farther uses, had been strange impertinence. So is it a strange contemplation, to sec a man set up a golden image, to attribute even a divinity to out nature, and to imagine it to be able to do, whatsoever the grace of God can do, and yet with this angelical nature, with this celestial soul, to contribute less to the glory of God, than an ant, or a plant, or a stone. As the counsel of the philosopher Epictetus directs thee, if thou take any nev action in hand, consider what Socrates would do in that case; that is, dispose thvself therein, according to the example, and precedent of some wise man: so if thou wilt take this new action in hand, (that which is new, but should be ordinary unto thee) if thou wilt take a view of thy sins that are past, do but consider, if ever thou didst any sin, which Socrates, or Seneca would hot bave forborne. And whatsoever thou seest another can do, by the power of that reason, and that persuasion which thou art able fo minister, who are not able to infuse faith, nor inspire grace into bim, but must work by thy reason, and upon his reason, why shouldest thou not be as pow- ' Acts xvii. 26. 5 Isaiah xxxi. 3.
erful upon thyself, and as strong in thine own behalf, and obey that counsel from thyself, which thou thinkest another man nad, if he do hot ohey, when thou vest it Vhy shouldest thou pretend reason, why another shou]d forbear any particu]ar sin, and hot present that reon to thyse]f, or hot obey it To ]ove the Scriptures of God better than anv other book; to love the bouse of God better than any other cou; to love the conmmnion of iuts better than anv other conversation; to study to know the revea]ed wi]l of God, rathcr than tbe crets of any princes; to consider the direct purposes of God against his enemie rather than the sinister supplantations of pretenders to places in court; briefly. to read, to hear, to believe the Bible, is a work within the ability of nature, within the power of a moral man. IIe that attributes more to nature, he that allows ber any ability of disposing herself beforehand, without prevent]on of grace, or concurrence and coperation after, without contiuual sistance of paoEicular graces, ho sers up an idol, and magnifies nature beyond that which appeains unto ber. But he that goes not far as this, that the reason of man, and his natura] faculties, are he instruments aud organs that God works in by h]s grace, howsoever he may in discourse and in argument exalt nature, howsoever he may so give too much to ber, yet he does not so nuch with her, as he might do: he hath ruade ber a giant, and then, as thongh he vere afraid of ber, he runs away from ber: he will hOt do that which is in his powee, and yet he thinks it in his power to repent when he lists, and when he lists to apply the merits of Christ to himself, and to do all those duties which are ]mplied in our next part, To / tat Jest i te Lord. In this, out first duty is an outward act, dicere, to profess Christ Jesus. er«be»co, says St. Paul, I ara ot a»anwd of te Go.T«l Crist J«8t8, for it i8 te ower God tto tio «: and çti erbwrit, ays Christ, llosver 8all be OEe, ad of y eord, of im »all te on of a be aamed, ceu e »all tome ylory'. This is a nece duty, but it the duty of this place for here if is not on tdt, but ote»t: ]ot that he is loath to profess Jesus, but that he is hOt able to do it. We see that some cod say that, and say it aloud, ]« Rom. i. 16. ] Luke . 26.
SEl{. XXX.] PREACHED ON,VHITSUNDAY. preach it, and yet wlthout the Holy host; ome (says the a.postle) reach Chris thronyh enzy and stroEe, sosiny fo add more aictions nnto my bands . Vhich may well be, that some Jews and Gentiles, to exasperate the state against Paul, fained themselves also to be converted fo his religion, because when they ha.d me him odious by drawing off others, they who pretended to bave been dra by him, could always sve themIves with recanting, and renouncing their new profession: so they could say That Jesus t'as the Lord, aud never mcan it. And of those twelve.whom Christ chose fo preach, Judas was one, of whom Christ says, Hare I hot chosez yo twelee, and one of is a dil »? So that this devil Judas, aud that devil that me him a devil, the devil himself, could say as much as this, Jesns I bnoc, and Paul [ nowt°¢ they aid it, they eried Thou art th Christ, the,S'on of God , raid tiret incessantly, Till Jesns rebuked thé, and suffered them hot to say, That they 'new hlm fo be the Christ. But beides that, even this confessing of Christ, is hot sine omni imnlsu,Siritns Sanctl, altogether without ny motion of the Holy Ghost, (for the Holy Ghost, even in these cases, had purpose to drnw testimonies for Christ, out of the mouths of his adversaries) flfis is hot the professing required here when Tiberius had n purpose to eanonize Christ Jesu, and to adroit him into the number of the oman gods, nd to make him beholden to him for that honour, he therefore proposed it to the senate, that so that honour, which Jesus hould lmve, might be derived ri-oto him, and when the senate had an inclination of themselves to lmve donc Christ that honour, but yet forbore it, beeause the intinaation came hot from themselres, but from the enlperor, who still wronght and gained upon their privileges, neither of these, though they meant collaterally and obliquely to do Christ an honour, neither of them did 8ay Jesum domlnum, that is, profe Jesus, so is intended here, for they had their own ends, and their own honours principally in eontempltion. There is at first an open profeion of the tongue required; and therefore de Holy Ghost deoeended in fiery tonues, Et liuyu« propria Siritui S«ncto, says St. Gregory, The tongue is the rhem. 15. John ri. 0, to Acts . 15. Luke if. 41, fittest instrument for the Holy Ghost to work upon, and to work by, Qui magnam kabet co.qnationem cure érbo, says ho, Tho Son of God is the Vord, and the Holy Ghost proeeeds from him, and because that faith that unites us to God, is expressed in the tongue, howsoever the heart be the centre in which the Holy Ghost tests, the tongue is the sphere, in which ho moves; and therefore, says St. Cyril, As God set the cherubim with a fiery sword, to keep us out of Paradise, so ho hath set the Holy Ghost in fiery tongues to let us in agaiu. As long as John Baptist was unborn, Zachary was dumb; when ho was born, Z:ehary spoke; Christ is hot born in us, we aro hOt regenerate in him, if wo delight hOt to speak of his wondrous mereies, and infinite goodness to the sons of mon; as soon as ho is bore in us, his Spirit speaks in us, and by us; in which, our first profession is Je»um esse, that Jesus is, that there is a Jesus. This is to profess with Esay ', That ho is Germen Jehorce, the ]3ud of the Lord, the blossom of God himself; for this profession is a two-edged sword » for it wounds the Arians on one side, that Jesus is Jehovah, (because that is the naine that signifies tho vcry essence of God) and thon it wounds the Jews on the other side, because if Jesus be.oermen Jehoroe, the bud, the blossoln, the ofl:spring of God. thon there is: plurality of l'ersons, Father and Son in the Godhead. So that it is n compendiary and summary abridgement, and catechism of ail out religion, to profess that Jesus is, for that is n profession of his everlasting essence, that is, his Godhead. It bath been denied that ho was such as ho was pretended to ho, that is, born of a Virgin; for the first heretics of all, Cerinthus, and Ebion, who occasioned St. John's Gospel, affirmed hiln to be n more man, made by ordinary generation, between Joseph and 5Iary. It hath been denied, that ho vas such n man, as those heretics allowed hiln to be, for Apelles his heresy was, that ho ruade himself a body out of the elements, as ho came down from heaven, through them. It hath been denied that ho had any body at all; Cordon and Marcion, said, That ho lived and died but in phantasmate, in appearance, and only in a form and shape of a body assumed; but, in truth, no body, that did lire or die, but did only appear, and vanish. It hath beeu "Isaiah iv. 2.
S]Io XXX.] PIREACHED ON WHITSLrNDAYo ]1 denied that that body which he had, though a truc and a natural body, did surfer, for Basilides sad, That when he v«as led to execution, and that on the way, the cross was laid upon Simon of Cyrene, Christ cast a mist belote their eyes, by which they took Simon for him, and crucified Simon, Christ having withdrawn himself invisibly from them, as at other rimes he had donc. It hath been denied, (though he had a truc body, and suflired truly therein) that he bath any body now in heaven, or shall return with any, for he that said he ruade his body of the ele]nents as he came down from heaven, says also that he resolved that bodv into those elements again, at his return. It hath been denied, that he was, that ho is, that he shall be; but this profession, that Jesus is, includes all, for, he of whom that is always truc, est, he is, he is eternal, and he that is eternal, is God: this is therefore a profession of the godhead of Christ Jesus. Now, in the next, as we profess hi]n to be Dombts, a Lord, we profess him to ho God and man, ",ve behold him as he is a mixed person, and so made fit to be the Messiah, the anointed High Priest, King of that church, which he bath purchased with his blood, and the anointed king of that kingdom which he hath conquered with his cross. As he is yermen Jelwvcc, the offspring of Jehovah, so he must necessarily be Jeho'ah; and that is the naine, which is evermore translated, The Lord; so also as he is Jehovah, which is the fountain of ail essence and of ail being, so he is Lord, by his interest, and his concurrence, in out creation; it is a devout exercise of the soul, to consider how absolute a Lord he is, by this title of creation; if the king give a man a creation by a new title, the king belote in that man, some virtuous and fit disposition, some preparation, some object, some subject of his favour. The king gives creations to nen, whom the nni'ersities, or other societies had prepared; they created persons whom other lower schools had prepared; at lowest, he that deals upon him first, finds a man, begotten and prepared by parents, upon whom he may work. But remember thy Creator that called thee, when thou wast hOt, as though thou hadst been, and brought thee out of nothing; which is a condition (if we may call it a condition, to be nothing, hOt to be) farther removed from heaven, than hell itself: who is the Lord of lire, and breathed this life into thee, and swears by that eternal life, which he is, that he would bave this lire of thine immortal, As I lire, s«ith the Lord, I tro,ld hot the deoth Çf a sinner. This eontemplation of Jesus, as a Lord, by creating us, is a devout, and an hunble contemplation; but to contemplate him as Lord by redeenfing us, and breeding us in a church, where that redemption is applied to us, this is a devout, aud a glorious contemplation..As he is Lord over that which his Father gave him, (his Father gave him ail power in heaven and in earth, and omnejudici, his Father put ail judgment into his hands, ail judiciary and ail militai T power was his; he was Lord Judge, and Lord of Hosts) as lle is Lord over his own purchase, ac9uisirit sanynine, Thot churcl whicl he lnrchased with his own blood ": so he is more than the llereties of out rime have marie him, that he was but sent as a principal prophet to explain the law, and make that clear to us in a Gospel; or as a priest, to sacrifice himself, but not for a ransom, hOt for a satisfaction, but only for a lively example, thereby to incline us to surfer for God's glory, and for the edification of one another. If we call llim Dominum, a Lord, we call him 3lessiam, Swtum, tge9em, anointed with the oil of gladness by the Hoir Ghost, to be cheerful conqueror of the world, and the grave, and sin, and hell, and anointed in his own blood, to be a Lord in the administration of that church, which he hath so purehased. This is to sa)" that 3esus is a Lord; to profess that he is a person so qualified, in his being eomposed of God and man, that he was able to give suft]- cieut for the whole world, and did give it, and so is Lord of it. V,'hen we say Jesus est, That Jesus is, there we confess his eternity, and therein, his Godhead: when we say Jesns Domints, That he is a Lord, therein we confess a dominion which he hath purchased; and when we say Jesum 1)ominum, so, as that we profess him fo be the Lord, then we confess a vigilancy, a superintendency, a residence, and a permanency of Christ, in his dominion, in his church, to the world's end. If he be the Lord, in his church, there is no other that rules with him, there is no other that rules for him. The temporal magistrate is hot so lord, as that Christ and ho are colleagu¢s, or fellow-consuls, that t Acta 28.
8ERo XXX.] PREACHED ON VHITSUNDAYo if he command against Christ, he should be as soon obeyed as Christ; for a magistrate is a lord, and Christ is the Lord, a magistrate is a lord to us, but Christ is the Lord to him, and to us, and to a||, none ru|es with him, none ru|es for him; Christ needs no vicar, he is no non-resident; he is nearer to all particular churches at God's right hand, than the bishop of Rome at his left. Direct lines, direct beams do always warm better, and produce their effects more powerfully, than oblique beams do; the influence of Chm'ist Jesus directly from heaven upon the church, hath a truer operation, than the oblique and collatera| reflections from Rome: Christ is not so far off, by being above the clouds, as the bishop of RÇme is, by being beyond the hills. ])icim«ts.Donum Jesum, we say that Jesus is the Lord, and we refuse ail power upon earth, that will be Lord with him, as though he needed a coadjutor, or Lord for him, as though he we'e absent from us. To concludo this second part, To say that Jests is the Lord, is to confess him to be God ti'om everlasting, and to have been ruade man in the fulness of time, and to govern still that chm'ch, which he hath purchased with his blood, and that therefore he lools that we direct all our particular actions to his glory. For this voice, whereiu thou saycst Domius Jes«s, The Lord Jess, must be, as the voice of the seraphim in Esay ', thrice repeated, A'awtus, sattcttts, "satwtt«s, tloly, koly, holy; our hearts mu.st sa)- it, and our tongue, and out hands too, or else we have not said it. For when a man will lnake Jesus llis companion, and be sometimes with him, and sometimes with the world, and not direct all things principally towards him; when he will make Jesus his servant, tllat is, proceed in ail things, upon the strength of his outward profession, upon the colour, and pretence, and advantage of religion, and devotioll, would this man be thought to have said Jesum Dominu», That Jes«s is the Lord? Il'h!/callye e Lord, Lord, ad do ot tlw tlti.qs I speak to you . says Christ; Christ places a tongue in the hands; actions speak; and Omni tttba clarlor Ter opera denotstratio, says St. Chrysostom, There is not only a tongue, but a trumpet, in every good work. Vhen Christ secs a disposition ia his hearers, to do according unto their Isaiah ri. 2. » Luke ri. 46.
1 nACHEn O WHTSt'nAY. ISSU. XXX. professing, then on]v he ives a]lowance to that that they say, Dicitis me Dominum, et b«ne dicitls ', 'ou call me Lord, and you do well in doing so, do ye thereïore, as I bave doue to you. To call him Lord, is to contemplate his kingdom of power, to feel his kingdom of grace, to wish his kingdom of glory. It is hot a Domine sque quo, Lord how long before the consummation corne, as though we were weary of our warfare: it hot a Domine si.f«isses, Lord if thou hadst bee ere, out brotker had hot died , &s Martha said of Lazarus, as though, as soon as we surfer any worldly calamity, we should think Christ to be absent from us, in his power, or in his cure of us; it is hot a Domine ris mandemus, Lord wilt tkou that we command fire from keaven to consume these,S'¢tmaritans , as though we would serve the Lord no longer, than he would revenge his own and our quarrel; for, (that we may eome to out last part) to that fiery question of the apostles, Christ answered, l'ou know ot of what spirit you are; it is hot the Spirit of God, it is uot the Holy Ghost, whieh makes you eall Jesus the Lord only to serve your own ends, and purposes; and _Ao ma can say, that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Gkost. For this part, we proposed only two considerations, first that this but, excluding ail nleans but one, that one nust therefore necessarily be diflàeult, and secondly that that.but, admitting one meaus, that one must therefore necessarilv be possible; so that there is a diffleulty, but)et a possibility in having this working by the Holy Gllost. For the first, of those lleretical words of Faustus the Manichean, That in the Trinity, the Father dwelt lu illa I«ce iacc«ssibili, ]u that light whieh none eau attain to, and the Son of God dwelt in this created light, whose fountain and foot is the planer of the sun, and the Holy Ghost dwelt in the air, and other parts illumined bv the sun, we may make this good use, that for the knowledge of the Holy Ghost, we bave hot so present, so ex'ident light in reason, as for the knowledge of the other blessed persous of the glorious Trinity. For, for the Son, beeause he assumed out nature, and lived and died with us, we eoneeive certain bodily impressions, and notions of him; and then naturally, and necessarily, as soon as we heur of a son, we « Jolm xii. 14. ml John xi. 21. Luke ix. i4.
SER, XXXo] PREACHED ON 'HITSUNDAYo 15 conceive a father too. But the knowledge of the Holy Ghost is not so evident, neither do we bend our thoughts upon the consideration of the Holy Ghost, so much as we ought to do. The Arians enwrapped him in double clouds of darkness, when they called him creaturam creaturw; that Christ himself, from vhom (say they) the Holy Ghost had his creation, was but a ereature, and not God, and so the Holy Ghost, the creature of a creature. And l]Iaximus ille TiTas, (as St. Bernard calls Plato) That giant in all kind of learning, Plato, never stopped at any knowledge, till he came to eonsider the tloly Ghost: Unum inveni, quod cuncta oTeratur, I bave (says Plato) tbund one, who ruade all things; Et unum ]aer quod cuncta ef/ïciuntur, And I bave found another, by whom all thiugs were ruade; Tertium autem potui inz'eub'e, A third, besides those two, I could never find. Though all the mysteries of the Trinity be things equally easy to faith, when God infuses that, yet to our reason, (even as reason serves faith, and presents things to that) things are hot so equal, but that St. Basil himself saw, that the eternal generation of the Son, was too hard for reason; but yet it is in the proceeding of the Holy Ghost, that he clearly professes his ignorance: 5'i cuncta Tutarem nostra co9itatione Tosse comTrehendi, :ererer forte 'antiam proflteri, If I thought that ail things might be known by man, I should be as mueh afraid, and ashamed, as another man, to be ignorant; but, says he, sinee we ail see, that there are many things whereof we are ignorant, Car non de STb'itu »S'ancto, absque rubore, ignoratiamfaterer. Vhy should I be ashamed to eonfess naine ignorance in many things eoncerning the Holy Ghost . There is then a diffieulty, no less than an impossibility, searching after the Holy Ghost, but it is in tlmse things whieh appertain hOt to us; but in others, there is a possibility, a facility and easiness. For, there are two processions of the Holy Ghost, _/Eterna, and TeTo,raria, his proceeding from the Father, and the Son, and his proeeeding into us. The first we shall never understand, if we read ail the books of the world, the other we shall not ehoose but understand, if we study out own consciences. In the first, the darknes, and diflieulty is recompensed in this, that though it be hard fo find anything, yet it is but little that we are to seek; it is only to find that there is a Holy Ghost, proceeding ri'oto Father, and Son; for in searching farther, the danger is noted by St. Basil, to ho thus great, Qui quomodo interrogas, et ubl ut in loco, et quando ut in tempore, interrogabis; If thou give thy CUl'iosity the liberty to ask how the Holy Ghost proeeeded, thou wilt ask where it was done, as though there were several roonls, and distinct places in that which is infinite. And thou wilt ask when it was done, as though there were pieces of tilne, in tbat whieh is eternal: Et quecres, non ut ridera, sed ut izfidditatem inrenias, (whieh is exeellentl)- added by that father) The end of thy inquiring will hot be, that thou mightest find anything to establish thy belief, but to find SOlnething that lnight excuse thine unbelief; ail thy ctu'ious questions are hOt in hope that thon shalt receive satisfaction, but in hope that the weakness of the answer lnay justify thy infidelity. Tlms it is, if we will be over-curious in the fil'st, the eternal proceeding of the tloly Ghost. In the other, the proceeding of the Holy Ghost into us, we are to consider, that as in out natural persous, the body and soul do hot make a perfect man, except they be united, except out spirits (which are the active part of the blood) do fit this body, and soul for one another's working; so, though the bodv of out religion may seem to be determined in these two, out creation, which is commonly attributed to the Father, T«nluamfonti Dêit«iis, As the fountain of the Godhead, (for Christ is God of God) and our redemption, which belongs to the Son, yet for this body there is a spirit, that is, the Holy Ghost, that takes this nmn, upon whom the Father bath a'ought by creation, and the Son included within his redelnption, and he works in him a vocation, a justification, and a sanctification, and leads hiln from that esse, which the Father gave hiln in the creation, and that bene esse which he bath in being admitted into the body of his Son, the visible church, and congregation, to an oTtime esse, to that perfection, which is an assurance of the inhabitation of this spirit in him, attd au inchoation of eternal blessedness here, by a heavenly mxd sanctified conversation, without which spirit No man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, because he is hOt otherwise in a perfect obedience fo him, if he embraee hot the means ordained by hiln in his church.
So that this Spirit disposes and dispenses, distribtes and dis- çerses, and orders ail the pover of the Father and ail the wisdom o£ the Son, and all the gres of od. It is a centre to ail; so St. Beard says on those words of the apostle oursêles as te ministers of G; but by what y watcin.q, taquam omnia ordinantem, quomodo in medio irtutum, aicut cor i dio eorporù, cotltuit »Siritum Snctttm: As the heart in the midst o the body, so between these virtues of fasting and suffering belote, and love unfeigned aRer, the apostle places the Holy Ghost, who only gives life alld soul fO M1 moral, and all theologieal viues. And as St. Benxard observes that in par tieular men, so doth St. Augustine of the whole ehureh; Quod i»z colore o,tro a»zima, id in corpore Chrùti, eccleda, @iritus 'anctua; That oce whieh the soul peffomxs to out body, the Holy Ghost performs in the body of Christ, which is the church. And therefore since the Holy Ghost is thus necessary, and thus near, as ai the creation the whole Trimty was infimated in plurM word, Elo.im, creait Dii, but no person of the Trinity distinctly named i the ereation, but the Holy Ghost, Te of God w ?otz tke 'ater,, as the Holy Ghost was first eonveyed to out knowledge in the creatiou, so in out regeneration, by whieh xve are new creatures, though our ereation, and our r dempfion be religious subjec of out eontinual meditation, yet 1 us be sure fo hold this that is nearest , to keep familiar, and daily acquainmnce, and conversation with the Holy Ghost, and to be watchful to eherish his light, and working in Homiea doceit quwrere, solus ipse, qti doter ilre»dre, kabere, fruit'; Men eau tech us ways how tO find some things; pilot how to find a land, the aronomer how to find a star; men ean teach us ways how to find God, the natural man in the book of ereatures, the moral man in an exemplar life, the $ew in the law, the Chrisfian in general in the Gospel, but »$çlu, i?se, doe inenlre, labere, frui, Only the Holy Ghost enables us to find God so, as to make him ours, and to enjoy him. First you nm get more light than nature gives, for, Tle atural erieth hot the tkins OE the irit 0: when that light is so o Beard. ao 1 çor. ii. VOL. II. C mended, that you have some sparks of faith, you must also leave the works of the flesh, for, FlesMy en ave ot te 'pirit ": when the Spirit offers itself in approaches, reist if not, as Stephen accuses them to have donc, Acts î. Vhen it hath prevailed, and sealed you to God, Griere hot the holy pirit, by urhom ye are sealed tnto redem]otion 8. For this preventing the Spirit, by trusting to nature, and morality, this infecting the Spirit, by living ill iu a good profession, this grieving of the Spirit, by neglecting his operations, iuduces the last desperate work of quenchi.q tke,'pirit , whieh is: smothering, a suflbcating of that liht by a final obduration.,_'l,iritus «bi vult sl»irat, says our Saviour ChrisC'; which St. Augustine, (and indeed most of the fathers) interpret of the Holy Ghost, and hOt of the vind, though it may also properly enough adroit that interpretation too. But The Holy Ghost, says he, breathes where it pleases kim; Et vocetn ejus audis, says Christ, You hear the volce of the Hol!! Ghost; for, (says St. Augustine upon those words of Christ),S'onat psalmus, voa: est 'piritus,b'ancti, When you hear psalm sung, you hear the voice of the Holy Ghost; 8onat eranyelium, sonat sermo I_)ivinus, You hear the Gospel read, you hear sermon preached, still you hear the voice of the Holy Ghost; and yet, as Christ says in that place, 'escis «nde venir, Thou knou'est wt from u'hence that voice cornes, Thou canst find nothing in thyself, why the Holy Ghost should delight to entêrtain thee, and hold discourse with thee, in so familiar, and so fre«luent, and so importunate a speaking to thee 2Vescis «nde venir, Thou knowest hot from vhence all this goodness cornes, but merely from his goodness; so also, as Christ adds there, 'esciê quo vadat, Thou knou'est wt «hither it.ooes, how long it will last and go with thee. If thou carry him to dark and foul corners, if thou carry him back to those sins, of whieh, since he began to speak to thee, at this time, thou hast felt some remorse, some detestation, he will hOt go with thee, he will give thee over. But as long as he, the Spirit of God, by your cherishing of him, stys with you, when 3esus shall say to you, (in your consciences) Quid vos dicitis? ll'hom do you s Jude 19. Ephes. iv. 30. 8 1 The. v. John iii. 8.
You eau sy Jesus Dominus, we say, we profess, T]at tllou es, and ta es is te Lord: if ho proceed, Ei Dominus, ubi $imoz? lf I be Lord, were if y fiaz You shall show your fear of him, even in your confidence in him, In fldia fortitudinis, In t£e Jear of t£e Lord, is an assured streyth: You shall hot only say Jesum Dominum, profe Jesus tobe tho rd, but Veni Domine J, you shall invite, and licit Jesus fo a spdy judent, and ho able, in his right, fo stand upright in that judgment. This you have, if you bave this spirit; and you may havo this irit, if you refis it hot, now; for, As PeUr sake, the Holy Ghost fell uFon all that kmrd% so in the minist of his weaker instrument he convey and difihses, and seals his gifts upon ail, whieh corne well dispooed to tire reeeiving of him, in his ordinanee.