SERMON XXXIV.
And when ho is come ho will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because ye believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more. Of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged.
Oa promis uotidianu, Our daily bread, is that jye sacrificium, that daily sacrifice of meditating upon God; our ]anis hodier- u, this day's bread, is to meditate upon the Holy Ghost. Today if ye will hear his voice, to-day ye are with him in paradise: for, wheresoever the Holy Ghost is. he creates a paradise. The day is not past yet; as our Saviour said fo Peter , IIodie, in octe ac, This day, even in this night thou shalt deny me, so, IIodie in code bac, Even now, thouëh evening, the day-spring from on high visits you, God carries back the shadow of your sun-dial, as to Hezekiah ; and now God brings you to the beginning of this day, if now you take knowledge, that he is corne, who, when he cornes, leFroees te u'orld of in, dyc.
The solemnity of the day requires, and the method ofthe words offers for out first consideration, the person; who is net named in out text, but designed by a most emphatical denotation, ille, e, he who is ail, and doth all. But the word bath relation te a naine, proper te the Holy Ghost: for, in the verse immediately preceding, out Saviour relis his disciples, Tat e will send tem tle Cern ferrer. Se, forbearing ail other mysterious considerations of the Holy Ghost, we receive him in that notion, and function in which Christ sends him, Te Cornforter. And therefore, in this capacity, as te Conforter, we must consider his action, tlr.quet, IIe slall reprore; reprove, and yet comfort; nay, therefore cernfort, because reprove: and then the subject of his action, 3lundurn, TI world, the whole world; no part left unreproved, yet no part left without comfort: and airer that, what he reproves the world of; that multiplies; of tin, of rigteousneas, ofjudgment. Can there be comfort in reproof for sin. or can there lie a reproof upon "righteousness, or upon judgment. Very justly; though the evidence seem at first, as strange as the crime: for, though that be good evidence against the sin of the world, that they believe net in Christ, (Of tin, because tey bdiere hot on rne) yet te be teprored of riq]tteousness, because Ctrist.qoes te Ms Fatlwr, and tt! see ]dm no rnore, and te be teloroved of judgment, because t]w trince of t]ds world is ju@ed, this seems strange, and yet this must be done, and done te our comfort; for, this must be done, Cum enerit, then when the Holy Ghost, and he in that function, as the comforter, is corne, is present, is working. Beloved, reproofs upon others without charity, rather te defame them, than amend them reproofs upon thyself, without showing mercy te thine own seul, diffldences, and je'alousies, and suspicions of God, either that he hated thee belote thy sin, or hates thee irremediably, irreconcileably, irrecoverably, irreparably for thy sin, these are reproofs, but they are 21bsente £'piritu, In the absence of the Holy Ghost, belote he cornes, or when he is gone; lVlen Iw cornes, and stays, te sl, all retrrove, and reprove ail te u'orld, and all the world of those errors, sin, and riyteousness, and jud9rnent, and those errors upon those evidenees, Ofsin, because ye beliere wt on me, ¢'c. But, in ail this proeeeding he shall never tlivest the nature of a eomforter; in that eapacity he 2 is sent, in that he cornes, and works. I doubt I shall see an end of my hour, and your patience, before I shall have passed those branches, whieh appertain most properly fo the celebration of this day, the person, the eomforter, his action, reproof, the subject thereof, the world, and the time, Uura renerit, When he cornes. The indictment, of what the accusation is, and the evidence, how itis proved, may exereise your devotion at other rimes. This day, the Holy Ghost is said to have eome suddenly 3, and therefore in that pace we proceed, and make haste to the consideration of the person, Ille, IVhen ke, he the Holy Ghost, the comforter, i corne. Ille, ille alone, he, is an emphatical denotation; for to this purpose ille and iFse is ail one; and then, you know the emphasis of that iFe; IFse conteret, lle or It shall bruise te seryent's lwad', denotes th Messiah, though there b no Messiah named: this ipse is so emphatical a denotation, as that tho ehurch of Rome, and the church of God strives for it; for they will needs read it esa, and so refer our salvation, in the bruising of the serpent's head, to the Viin Mary: we refer it according to the truth of the doctrine, and of the ferrer, to Christ himself, and therefore read it ipse, ke. If there wer no more but that in David, It fs ke tkat bath ruade us', every man would conclude, that that he is God. And if St. Paul had said ilose alone, and hot iFse,S'piritus, fllat he, and hot hethe,S'l»irit bears u'itness with our.irit', every spirit "would bave understood this tobe the Holy Spirit, the Itoly Ghost. If in our text there had been no more, but sueh a denotation of a person that should speak to the hearts of ail the world, that that ille, that he would proeeed thus, we must neeessarily bave seen an Almighty power in that denoration; but beeause that denotation might bave earried terror in it, being taken alone, therefore we are not left to that, but bave a relation to a former naine, and speeifieation of the Holy Ghost, the Conforter. For the establishment of Christ's divinity, Christ is eailed The iyhty God; for his relation to us, he hath divers names. As we were ail In massa damnata, forfeited, lost, he is tgedemFtor, a s Acts ii. 2. " Gen. iii. 15. » Psal. c. 3. ¢ Rom. viï 16. Isaiah ix. 6.
sE. xxxv.] l,Excrn oN wn[rsvNnx,,'. 85 Redeemer, for that that is past, The Ytedeerner shall corne to,qion, sys the prophet s, and so Job saw Ms tgedeemer °, one that shonld redeem him from those miseries that oppressed him. As Christ was pleased to provide for the future, so he is,,çab:«tor, a Saviour, therefore the angel gve him that naine Jesus, For e sall re.re hls leolgle from tteir sins 0. So, because to this purpose Christ consists of two natures God anti man he is called our Mediator n. Tkere i one fediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Because he presents those merits which are his, as ours, and in our behalf, he is called an advocate, Ifany man sin, we hare a Advocate with the Father, Jesu 6'krist the riykteous TM. And because every man is to expeet aceording fo his actions, he is ealled the Judge", 1Ié testify that if is he, that is ordained oj God tobe the.]'ttclffe of quicZ" and dêad.:Now, ïor Christ's first name, which is the foot of ail, which is, The miyhty God, no ma» ean say that Jesus is the _Lord, but b the Holy Gkost"; and there is out fil'st comfort, in knowing that Christ is God; for, he were an intruder for that which is past, no Redeemer, he were a weak Saviour for the future, an iusufficient Mediator, a silenced Advoeate, and a Judge that might be misinformed, if he were hot God. And though he were God, he might be ail these to my diseomfort, if there were hot a Holy Ghost to make all these offices eomfortable unto me. To be a I£edeemer and nota Saviour, is but to pay my debts, and leave me nothing to lire on. To be a mediator, a person capable by his composition of two natures, to intereede between God and man, and hot to be my advocate, is but to be a good eounsellor, but hot of counsel with me; fo be a judge of quiek and dead, and to proceed out of outward evidenee, and hot out of his bosom mercy, is but au aeeeleration of my conviction; I were better lie in prison still, than appear at that assize; better fie in the dust of the grave for ever, than corne to that judgment. But, as there is [ens in anlma, There is a mind in the soul, and every man hath a soul, but every man bath hot mind, that is, a consideration, an actuation, an application of the faeulties of the soul to particulars; so there is s Isaiah tix. 20. Job xix. 2. o Matt. i. 21. a 1 Tire. il. 5. a 1 John il, 1. Rom. il. 6; Acts x. 42. 1 Cor. xii, 3.
,'piritus in,S'liritu, Holy Ghost in ail the holy offices of Christ, which offices, being, in a great part, directed upon the whole wor]d, are ruade conffortable to me, by being, by this holy Spirit, turned upou me, and appropriated to me; for so, even that naine ot" Christ, which might most make me afraid, the naine of judge, becomes a comfort to me. To this purpose does St. Basil call the Holy Ghost, Verbum l)ei, quia interlores fllii: The Son of God is the word of God, because ho manifests the Father, and the ttoly Ghost is the word of God, beeause he applies the Son. Christ conles with that loud proclamation, E«ce auditumfecit , Behold the Lord hath proelaimed it, to the end of the world, 'cce salrator, and 'cce mette#, Behold his salvation, Behold thy reward, (this is his publication in the manifest ordinanees of the chureh) and then the ttoly Ghost whispers to thy soul, as thon staudest in the eongregation, in that voiee that he promises, A'ibilabo pOloulum meure ', I will hiss, I will whisper to my people by soft and inward inspirations. Christ came to teil us ail, That to ag nan ag receired him, he yare power to become the gong of God ', the Holy Ghost comes to tell thee, that thou art one of them. The Holy Ghost is therefore Legatus, and Legatum Christi, he is Christ's ambassador sent unto us, and he is his legacy bequeathed unto us by his will; his will ruade of force by his death, and proved by his ascension. Now, when those days were corne, that the Bride9room wa$ to be take from tke»#, Christ Jesus to be removed from their personal sight, and conversation, and therefore even the children of the marriage ckamber were to mourn, aud ]àst ; when that church that moumed, and lamented his absence, when she was but his gpouse °, must necessarily mourn llOW in lnore vehenlent manner, when she was to be, (in some sense) his widow; when that sheyherd was not only to be smitten, and so the.Alock disyer»ed °, (this was done in his passion) but he was to be taken away, in his ascension; what a powerful comforter had that need to be, that should be able to recompense the absence of Christ Jesus himself, and to infuse comfort into his orpllans, the children of his marriage chamber, into his widow, the desolate, and s IsaJah Lxii. 11. a° Zach. x. 8. »7 John i. 12. ° Matt. ix. 15. » Cant. ° latt. xxvi. 21.
disconsolate church, into his flock, his amazed, his distressed, and, (as we may, properly enough, say in this case) his beheaded aposfles and disciples . Quantus eryo Deus, qui dat DeumS? Less than God could not minister this comfort; how great a God is he, that sends a God to comfort us. And how powerfid a comforter he, who is not only sent by God, but is God. Therefore does the apostle enlarge, and dilate, and delight his soul upon this comfort, Blessed be God, êren the Father of out Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and tke God of all coort, who comfortetk us in all out tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any affliction, by that comfort, wherewith ourselves are comforted of God . The apostle was loath to depart from the word, evmfort; and therefore, as (god, because he could swear by no 9reater, sware by himself s, so, beeause there is no stronger adjuration, than the comfort itself, to move you to accept this comfort, as the apostle did, so we intreat you by tllat, If" there be any consola$ion in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the,S'plrit, if any bowels, and mercy s', Lay hohl upon this truc eomfort, the eoming of the Holy Ghost, and say to all the deceitful eonfforts of this world, hot only Ine consolati estis ", Your comforts are frivolous, but Onerosi consolatores, Your coinforts are burdensome s'; there is not only a disappointing of hopes, but an aggravating of sin, in entertaining the comforts of this world. As Barnabas, that is, Filius consolationis, The »5'on of consolation s, that he might be capable of this comfort, divested himself of ail worldly possessions, so, as such sons,,5'««k and be satioEed, af the breasts of thls cocsolatlon, that yoa may milk out, and be deli.qhtêd with the abundance of his ylor!/; and as one whom his motker conorteth, so will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem% Heaven is glory, and heaven is joy; we eannot tell which most; we cannot separate them; and this eomtbrt is joy in the Holy Ghost. This makes ail Job's states alike; as rich in the first chapter of his book, where ail is suddenly lost, as in the last, where ail is abundantly restored. This consolation from the Holy Ghost makes my midnight noon, mine
88 PnEACnED ON VnITSUNDAY. [$EI. XXXIVo executioner physician, a ske and pile of ragots, bonfire of triumph; this consolation makes tire, and slander, and libel against me, a paneg)ic, and an elo in my pse; it makes tolle an are, a rw an euge, a crucye an Hooanna; it makes my death-bed, a marriage-bed, and my passing-bell, an epithalamium. In this notion therefore we reeeive this person, and in this notion we eonsider his proeeeding, llle, He, he the Comforter, shall rerore. This word, that is here tnslated To rerore, Açquere, hath a double use and signification in the Scriptures. Fiat to reprehend, to rebuke, to correct, with authority, with verity; so David, in #«rore aÇqua, me, 0 Lord rebuke me hot i tMne açq«r°: and seeondly, to eonvinee, to prove, to make a thing evident, bv undeniable inferenees, and neeessary eonsequenees; o, in the inmruetions of G's ministers, the first is to reprore, and then to rebuZ'e; o that reproving is an aet of a milder ense, than rebuking is. St. Augustine interets these words twiee in his works; and in the firs place he follows the first signification of the word, that the Holy Ghost should proeeed, when he came, by power, by severity against the wofld. But though that sense will stand well with the first aet of this reproof, that he shall rerore, that is, reprehend te world of da) yet it will hot seem so properly said, to reprehend the world of righteo- ness, or of judlent; for how is rihteoness, and jud.lent the subjeet of reprehension { Therefore St. &ustine himself in the other place, where he handles these word embraees the second sense, Hoc ea arguere mundum, o,tendere era e,,e, quw on credMit; This is to reprove the world, to eonvinee the world dE ber errors, and misnës; and so (searee any exeepted) do all the aneient exsitors take it, aeeording to that, !1 tMçq are reroed te lit, and,o ruade man,t; the light does hot reprehend them, hot rebuke them, not ehide, hot upbraid them; but to deelare them, to manifest them, to make the world sec elearly what they are, this is to reprove. That reproving then, whieh is warntable by the Holy Gho, is hot a sha inerepation a bitter preeding, proeeeding only out of power, and authority, but by eightening, and informing, 0 PL vL 1. t 2 Tim. iv. 2. Eph v. 13.
SER. XXXlV. 1 PRE&CHED ON ,%'nI'rSUNDAY. 89 and convincing the understanding. The ignification of this word, which the Holy Ghost uses here for reproof, E/enclos, is best deduced, and manifeste6 to us, by the philosopher xvho had so much use of the word, who expresses it thus, Elencus est sylloyoems contra contraria opbantcm; A reproof, la a proot a proof by xvay of argument, against another man, who holds a contrary opinion. Ail the pieces must be laid together: tr, first it must be against an opinion, and then an opinion contrary to truth, and then such an opinion held, insisted upon, maintained, and ater ail this, the reproof must lie in argument, hOt in force, hOt in violence. First it must corne so far, as to be au opinion; which is a middle station, betweeu ignorance, and knowledge; for nowledge excludes ail doubting, ail hesitation; opinion does not so; but opinion excludes indifferency, and equaninfity; I ara rather incliucd to one side than another, when I ara of either opinion. Id opinat.ur quisque quod neaclt": A man tnay bave an opinion that a thing is so, and yet hot know it. St. Bernard proposes three wys for our apprehending divine things; first, understanding, whieh relies upon reason; faith, whieh relies npon supremo authority; and opinion, whieh relies upon pmbability, and verisimilitude. Now there ma) ari8e in some man, sontc mitaking8, some misapprehetsions of the sense of place of Scripture, there may arise some scruple in a case of conscience, here may arise some inclinations to some person, of whose inteo'ity and ability I have otherwise had experienee, there may arise some par doxieal imaginations in myselt and yet these never attain to the settledness of an opinion, but they float in the thney, and are but waking dreams; and sueh imaginations, and hneies, and dreams, receive too much honour la the rhino, and too much hvour in the perns, if they be reproved, or questione, or eondenmed, or disputed against. For, oftentimes, even a eondemnation nourishes the pride of the author of an opinion; and besides, begets dangerous compassion, in spectators and hearers; and then, from pitying his pressures and sufferings, who is eondemned, men corne out of that pity, to excuse his opinions; and from exeufing them, to incline towards them; and so that which was but straw st firs, by being thus blown by vehement disputation, sete tire upon imber, and draws men of more learnin and authority to side and mingle themselves in these impertinencie-. Every fancy hould hOt be so much as reproved, disputed against, or called in question. As it nmst hot be only a faney, an imagination, but an opinion, (in whieh, though there be hot a certo, yet there is a ¥otiu, though I be hot sure, yet I do rather think it) so we consider contraria oTinantem, that it must be an opinion eontrary to something that we are sure of; that is, to some received article, or to some eident religious duty; contrary to religion, as religion marrer of faith, or as religion is marrer of obedience, to laxsnCul authority. Though fancies grow fo be opinions, that men corne fo think they have reasons for their opinions, and to know they have other men on their side, in those opinions; yet, as long as these are but opinions of a little too much, or a little too little, in marrer of cerenmny and circumstance, as long as they are but deflectings, and deviations upon collateral matters, no foundation shaked, no corner-stone displaced, as long as they are but preteritions, hot contradictions, but omissions, hot usurpations, they are hot worthy of a reproof, of a conviction, and there may be more danger than profit in bringing them into an over-vehement agitation. Those men whose end is schism, and sedition, and distraction, are brought so near their owu ends, and the accomplishment of their own desires, if they can draw other men together by the ears: as some have ail they desire, if they can make other men drunk, so bave these if they can make sober men wrngle. They must be opinions, hot fancies, and they must bave a contrariety, an opposition to certain truths, and then they must be held, persisted in, belote it be fit to We a reprooï, either by calling in question, or by confutation. As some men are said to bave told a lie so often, as that at lat, they believe it themselves, so a man adnfits sometimes an opinion to lode so long, as that n t[[ectm ', It fstens upon his understaudin, and that that he did but think before, now he seems to himself to know it, and he believes it. And then, Fides si habet hwsitationem, flrma est, As that faith that admits a scruple is weak, and se, without scruple ho cornes peremptorily te believe it. But se, Opinio si labet assertiow», temeraria est, Vhen that which is but an opinion cornes te ho published and avowed for a certain, and a necessary truth, then it becomes dangerous; and that grows apace; for scarcely does any man believe an opinion te be truc, but he bath a certain appetite and itch te infuse it into others too. New when these pieces meet, when these atoms make up a body, a body of errer, that it corne te an opinion, a half-assurance, and that in something contrary te foundations, and that it be held stiffly, publicly persisted in, then enters this reproof; but:}'et even then reproof is but sylloyismus, it is but an argument, it is but convincing, it is net destroying; it is net an inquisition, a prison, a sword, an axe, a halter, a tire; it is a syllogisln; net a syllogism, whose m«jor is this, others, your ancestors believed it, and the inor this, we that are your superiors believe it, eryo you must, or else be banished or burnt. With such syllogisms the Arians abounded, where they prevailed in the primitive church, and this is the logic of the inquisition of Reine.:But our syllogism nmst be a syllogism within our author's definition, when out of seine things which are agreed on ail sides, other thillgs that are controverted, are ruade evident and manifest. Hell is presented te us by tire, but tire without light: heaven by light, and light without any iii eflct of tire in it. Where there is nothing but ail accuser, (perchance net that) and firc, citation and excommunication, here is Satan, (who is an accuser, but an invisible one) and here is hell itself, a devilish and a dark proceeding.:But when they, te whom this reproof belongs, take Christ's way, net te tread ott smokiy flax, that a poor seul, misled by ignorant zeal, and se easily combustible and apt te take tire, be net ti'odden down with too nmch power, and passion, when they de net break a br«ised reed, that is, net terrify a distracted conscience, which perchance a long iii conversation with schismatical company, and a spiritual melancholy, and over-tender sense of sin hath cast too low before, theu does this reproof work aright, when it is brought in with light before tire, with convcnient instruction, and net hasty condemnation. Ve may well call this F-iam Clristi, and tS"am,5']»irit«s 'ancti.
Christ's way, and the Holy Ghost's way, for he had need be ver)- ood Christian, and very sanctified man, that cau walk in that way; JPerfectorum e,,'t, nlkil in ]eccatore odisse prwter peccata': He that hates nothing in a heretie, or in a sehismatic, but the schism, or the heresy, he that sers bounds to that sea, and hath said to his affections, and human passions, stay there, go no farther, bath got far in the steps of Christian perfection. The slipperiness, the preeipitation is so great on the other side, that commonly we begin fo hate the person first, and then grow glad, when he grows guilty of anything worthy our hate; ad we make God himself the devil's instrument, when we pretend zetd to his service, in these reproofs and eorreetions, and serve only out own impotent passion, and inordinate ambition. For thereit _Plerumque cure tibi ¢ideris odi,se inimicum, fratrem odLti, et neci; Thou thinkest or eretendest to hate an enemy, and hatest thine own brother, and knowest it hot; thou knowest hot, considerest not, that he, by good usage and instruction, might have been made thy brother, a fe]low-member in the visible ehurch, by outward conformity, and in the invisible too, by inward. Etiam fictilia ¢asa cofdnyere, domino soli concessum , If thon be a vessel of gold or silver, and that other of clay, thou of a clear, and rectified, he of a dark and perverted understanding, yet evet vessels of clay are only in the power of that potter's hand that ruade them, or bought them, to break, and no bodies else: still, as long as it is possible, proceed we with the moderation of that blessed Father ,,ç'ic peccata hwreticorum ce»pece, l,t sint qnos oeniteat peccasse, Take hOt away the subject of the error, (the perverseness of the man) so, as that thou take awav the subject of repentanee, the man himself; if thou require fruit, ]cave a tree; if thou wou]dst bave him repent, take hOt away his life, says he. We see the leisurely pace that Godes justice walks in: when Daniel had told iNebuchadnezzar his danger », ye tke decree of God qon im, (as he calls it) yet he told him a way how to revoke it; by zcorks of mercy to the poor, and breakbço ofl'his sins; and after all this, he had a year's space to consider himself, before the judgment was executed upon him. -s Augustine. « Augustine. C.Tl.ian. Augustine. » Dan. iv. 24.
But now beloved, ail that we hure said, or tan be said to this purpose, conduces but to this, that though this reproof, which the Holy Ghost leads us to, be rather in convincing the understanding by argmnent, and other persuasions, than by extending our power to the destruction of the person, yet this bath a modification, how it must be, and a determination where it must end, for there are cases in which we may, we must go farther.:For, for the understanding, we know how to work upon that; we know what arguments have prevailed upon us, with what artèrements we bave prevailed upon others, and those we can use: so far, Ut ihil habeant contra, etsi o assentiantur, That though they will hot be of out mind, yet they shall have nothing to say against it. So far we can go upon that faculty, the understanding. But the will of man is so irregular, so unlimited a thing, as that no man bath a bridle upon another's will, no man can undertake nor promise for that; no creature bath that faculty but man, yet no man understands that faculty. It bath been the exercise of a thousand wits, it hath been the subject, yea the knot and perplexity of a thousand disputations, to find out, what it is that determines, that concludes the will of man so, as that it assents thereunto. For, if that were absolutely truc which some bave said, (and yet perchance that is as far as auy have goue) that Ultimus actus intellectus est :oluntas, That the last act of the undcrstanding is the will, theu ail our labour were still to work upon the understanding, and when that were rectified, the will must follow. But it is hot so; as we feel in ourselves that we do many sins, which our understanding, and the soul of out understanding, out conscience, tells us we should hot do, so we see many others persist in errors, after manifest convincing, after ail reproof which can be directed upon the understanding. When therefore those errors which are to be reproved, are in that faculty, which is hot subject to this reproof by argument, in a per-erted will, because this wilful stubbornness is always accompanied with pride, with singularity, with faction, with schism, with sedition, we must remember the way which the Holy Ghost bath directed us in, If the iron be bl«,t, we must either lout to more strenyt, or whet tire edye "°. Now, when the fault is in the perverseness of the wil], we can put to no more strengtb, no argument serres to overcome that; and tberefore the Holy Ghost bath admitted another way, To whet tle iron; and in that way does the apostle say, Utinam absciMatur, ] would they were eren cut off which trouble yot ". There is an incorrigibility, in which, when the reproof cannot lead the will, it must draw blood; which is, where pretences of religion are ruade, and treasons, and rebellions, and invasions, and massacres of people, and assassinates of princes practised. And this is a reproof (which, as we shal] see of the test, in the following branches is) fmm the Holy Ghost, in his function in this text, as he is a comforter; this therefore is our comfort, that our church was never negligent in reproving the adversary, but bath from time to rime strenuously and confidently maintained ber truths against all oppositions, to the satisfying of any understanding, though not to the reducing of some perverse wills. So Gregory de Valentia professes of our aréments, I confess these reasons would conclude my understanding, risi didlcissem.captivare itellectum e«m ad itellect«m ecclesiw, But that I bave learned fo captivate my understanding to the understanding of the church, and, say what they will, to believe as the church of Rome believes; which is Maldonat's profession too, upon divers of Calvin's arguments, This argument would prevail upon me, but that he was a heretic that round it. So that here is out comfort, we have gone so far in this way of reproof, Ut ihil habeact co,tra, etsi nobisc«m ,on se,tiat. This is our eomfort, that as some of the greatest divines in foreign parts, so also, in our church at home, some of the greatest prelates, who bave been traduced to favour Rome, bave wrltten the most solidly and effectually aghinst the heresies of Rome of any other. But it nmst be a comfort upon them that are reproved. And thls is their comfort, that the state never drew drop of blood for religion; but then, this is our comfort still, that where thelr perverseness shall endanger either ehurch or state, both the state and ehurch may, by the Holv Ghost's direction, and will return to those means which God allows them for their preservation, that is, To whet te edge of tlw iro, in execution of the laws. And so we pass from out second consideration, the action, reproof, to the subject of reproof, the world, tfe shall rffarove the world. It is no wonder that this word mundus should bave a larger signification than other words, for it contains ail, embraces, comprehends ail: but there is no word in Scripture, that bath hot only so large, but so diverse a signification, for it signifies things contrary to one another. It signifies commonly, and primarily, the whole frame of the world; and more particularly all mankind; and oftentimes only wicked men; and sometimes only good men, as, JDilexit »undum, God loved the world , and Hic est ere salrator mundi, This is the Christ, the,S'aviour of the worid «; and reconciliatio mundl, The casting away of the Jews, is the reconciliatiou of the world «: the Jews were a part of the world, but not of this world.:Now in cvery sense, the world may well be said to be subject to the reproof of God, as reproof is a rebuko: for he rebtked the wind, and it was quiet *; and he rebu]{-ed the tted »Ses, and, if was dried up *; he rebuked the earth bitterly in that maledicta terra, for Adam's punishment, Cursed be the 9-round for thy,«i'e "; and for the noblest part of earth, man, and the noblest ])art of men, kings, He rebuked even kigs for their sali-es, and said, Touch wt miw anolnted «. But this is hot the rebuke of our text; for ours is a rebuke of comfort, even to them that are rebuked; whereas the angry rebuke of God carries heavy effects with it. God shall rebelle them, awl t]ey dallfly ]àr off"; he shall chide them out of his presence, and they shall never return to it. Increpasti superbos, et maledicti isti: Thou hast rebuked t/Se proud °, and thy rebuke bath wrought upon them as a naledlction, hot physic, but poison; as it is in another Psalm, Iwrepasti, et Iperiit, Thou ]tast rebu){-ed them, and they peris]ted t. In these cases, there is a wor]ing of the Ho]y Ghost; and that, as the Holy Ghost is a comforter; for it is a comfort to them, for whose deliverances God executes these judgments upon otbers, that they are executed; but we consider a rebuke,.a reproof that ministers comfort even to them upon whom
9 PREACIlED ON",VllITSUNDAY. [SEB. XXXIV. it falls; and so in that sense, we shall see that this Comforter prores the world, in all those significations of the word which we named belote. As the world is the whole frame of the wor]d, Goal bath Fut into it a reproof, a rebuke, lest it should seem eterna], which a sensiblc decay and age in the whole frame of the world, and every piece thereof. The seasons of the year irregular and distempered; the sun fainter, and languishing; men less in stature, and shorter-lived. 'o addition, but only every year» new sorts, new species of worms, and flies, and sicknesses, which argue more and more putrefaction of which they are engendered. And the angels of heaven, which did so familiarly converse with men in the beginning of the world, thouh they may hot be doubted to peçorm to us sil] their mînisterial assistances, yet they seem so far to bave deserted this world, as that they do hot appear to us, as they did to those out fathers. St. CTrian observed this in his time, when,vriting to Demetrianus, who imputed ail those calamities which afflicted the world then, to the impiety of the Christians who would hot join with them in the worship of their gods, Cyprian went no farther for the cause of these calamities, but ad ene,wentem mundtm, to the age and impotency of the whole world; and therefore, says he, Imputent sertes Christianis, 9uod minus :alea»t in senectutem; Old lnen were best accuse Christians, that they are more siekly in their age, than they were in fleir youth; Is the fault in our religion, or in their deeay Canos in p«eri :idcmus, nec wta in enectute definit, ed incipit a senectute; $Ve see gray llairs in ehildren, and we do hot die old, and yet we are born old. Lest the world (as the world signifies the whole ri'ame of the world) should glorify itself, or flatter, and abuse us with an opinion of eternity, we ma), adnfit usefully (though we do hot eonelude peremptorily) this observation to be true, that there is a reproof, a rebuke borne in if, a sensible deeay and mortality of the whole world. But is this a reproof agreeable to our text. a reproof that earries eomfor with it. eomfor to the world itself, that it is hot eternal. Truly it is; as St. Paul bath most pathetieally expressed it; Tke creature (that is, the world)i i an earne»t epeet«tlon, te ereature waiteth, the whole eeatlot.qroaneth, and traeailetl in loain l. Therefore the ere:ture (tlmt is, the world) reeeives a perfeet eomfort, iii being dêlivered at last, and an iaehoative comfort, in knowing new, tlut it skall be d«lieered; Frein what.z Frein subjeetlon te 'anit.q, frein tke bondage ofeorruptioc; tiret wllerens the world is new subjeet te mutability and corruption, ai the resurreetion it shall no longer be se, b«t iii that measure, and in t]lat degree whieh if is e:qable of, # skall enter itto tke 91orlous libert of tke ekildreu of (go& that is, be as ri'ce frein corruption, or ehinge in that state, wherein it shall be glorilïed, as the saints shall be iii the glory of their state; for, Tke ligkt of tke moou skall be as tke light of tke suu, and tke ligkt of the su skall be serenfold»; And tkere sh«ll be new hearens, and new eartls'; vhieh is a state, that this world eould net attain te, if it vere eternally te last, in that condition, in whieh it is nov, a condition subjeet te vanity, impoteney, corruption, and therefore there is a eomfort in this reproof, evea te this wo,'ld, that if is net eternal; this world is thc happier for that. As the world, in a second seuse, signifies ail the men of the worhl, (se it is, Voe unto the worhl, because of offeuces ) there is a reproof born in every man; which reproof is aa,ncontrollablo sense, and an anresistible remorse, and ehiding of himself inwardly, when he is about te sin, and a horror of the majesty of God, whom, when he is alone, he is forced (and foreed by himself) te fear, and te believe, though lin wouhl faln make tho worhl believe, that he did net believe in God, but lived at peace, and subsisted of himself, without being beholden te God. For, as in nture, heavy things will ascend, and light descend rather than adroit a vacuity, se in religion, the devil will get into God's room, rather thau the heurt of nmn shall be without the opinion of God; there is no Atheist; they that oppose the truc, de)'et worship a false god; and he that says there is no God, doth for ail that, set up seine god te himself. Every man bath this reproof born in him, that he doth ill, that he offends God, that he breaks a law when he sins. And this reproof is a reproof
thin our text çor it hath this comfort with it, that howsoever some men labour to ovcrcomc thc natural tendcrncss of the conscience, and so tumph over thcir own ruin, and rcjoice when they can sleep, and wake aain without any noise in thcir conscience, or sense of sin, yet, in truth this candle cannot bc b]own out, this relnorse cannot be ovcrconle; but wcre it hot a reater comfo to roc if I could overcome it No. For thouh this remorsc (which is but a natura] impression, and common to ail men) be hot grace, yet this remorse, hich is the natural reproef of tire soul, is that, that grace worls upon. Gracc doth hot ordinarily worl upon the stiflhess of the soul, Ul)On the silence, upon thc fi'owardness, npon the averoeness of the ul, bnt when the soul is sui.pied and mellowed, and feels this reproof, this remorse in itself, that reprooL that renmrse becomes as the matter, and 'ace enters as the form, at becomes the body, and grace becomes the ul; and t]mt is the comfo of this natural reproof of t]m world, that is, of cvel'y man: first, that it will »ot be «luenchcd in itself, and then, that ordinarily it induces a nobl«r light then itself, which is eflbctual and true repentance. As the world, in a third sense, simifies only dru wicked woa'ld (so it is, ah i prepari[/ an ar', coMemwd the world«; and so, God sTared wt tke old worhl ) that world, the world of the wicked suffit many reproofs, many rebukes in their hearts, which they will not discover, because they envy God that gloD,. We read of dive's great actors in the first persecutions of thc Christians, who being fearfully torm¢nted in body aml ul, at lheir deaths, look care only, that the Cbristians might hot know what they snflred, lest they shou]d receive comfort, and their glory therein. Certainly Herod wonld have been more affected, if he had thought that we should bave klmwn how his pride was punihed with those sudden worms , than with the punishmeut itself. This is a self-reproof; even in this, though he will hot suffit it to break out to the edification of othem, lhere is some kind of ehiding himself for something misdone. But is there any conffo]oE in this rcproof Trnly, beloved, I eau harldly speak comfortably of such a man, after he is dead, that dies in such a distinction, loath that God sllould receive gloD-, or his servants Hcb. . 7. » 2 Pet. ii. 5. ne Ac x. 23.
sma. xxxv.] PRV.ACnV.V O. wnn'svrvAv. 99 edification by these jud/qnents. But e'en with such a man, if I assisted at his deathbed, I would proceed with a hope to infuse comfort, even from that disafl'ection of his: as long as I saw him in any acknowledgment (though a negligent, nay though a malignant, a despitcful acknowledgment) of God, as long as I round him loath that God should receive glory, even from that loathness, ri'oto that reproof, from that acknowledgment, that there is a God to whom glory is due, I would hope fo draw him to glorify that God before his last gasp; my zeal should 1.st as long as lais vife's offlciousness, or his children's, or friends', or servants'obsequiousness, or the solicitude of his physicians should; as long as there were breath, they would minister some help; as long as there were any sense of God, I would hope to do somc good. Aud so much comfort may arise even out of this reproof of the world, as the world is only the wicked world. In the last sense, the world signifies the saints, the elect, tlm good men ofthe world, believing and persevering men. Of thoso Christ says, The world sall know tat I love te Father»; and, That the world may beliere t$at t$ott $ast sent ««% And this world, that is, the godliest of this xvorld, bave many reproofs, many corrections upon them. That outwardly they are the prey of tllc wicked, and inwardly bave that stimd««m carnis, which is the deviFs solicitor, and round about them they sec nothing but profanation of his word, mis-employment of his works, his ercaturcs, mis-constructions of his actions, his judgments, blasphemy of his naine, negligeneo and undcr-valuation of his sacraments, violations of his Sabbaths, and holy eonvocations. 0 what a bitter reproof, what a manifest evidence of the infirmity, nay of the malignity of man, is this, (if it be put home, and thoroughly considered) that even tlle goodness of man gets to no highcr, degree, but to bave been the occasion of the greatest ill, tho greatest cruelty that ever was donc, the crucifying of the Lord of lire! The better a man is, the more he concurred towards being the cause of Christ's death; which is a strange, but a truc and a pious consideration. He lored the world, and he came to sare the world; that is, most espeeially, and effectually, those that should believe in him, in the -orld, and lire aceording to that belief, and John xiv. 31. o John xvii, 21.
die according to that lire. If there had been no such, Christ had hot died, neçer been crucified. So that impenitent men, misbelieving men haçe hOt put Christ to death, but if is we, we whom he loves, we that love him, that have crucified him. In what rank then, of opposition against Christ, shalI we our sins, since eçen our faith and good works have been so far the cause why Christ died, that, but for the salvation of such cn, helieçers, wo]'kers, per»everers, Christ had uot died This then is the reproof of the world, that is, of the saints of God in the worhl, that though I ad eater b a Joof keeper in tke koue of my God, I must dwell in tke tents of wid'edness «', that though mg zeal consume me, because mim enemies kaeefor9otten tkg words «, I must stay anaongst them that bave forgotten thy words; but this, and ail orbe," reproofs, that arise in the godly, (that we may still keep up that eonsideration, that he that reproves us, is the Co»orter) have this eomfort in thetn, that the faults that I endure in others, God hath either pardoned me, or kept fivm me: and that though this svorld be eked, yet when I shall eome to the next world, I shall fiud Noah, that had been drunk"*; and Lot, that had been inee tuous"'; and Moses, that murmured af God's proeeedius"; and Job, and Jeremy, and Jonas, impatient, cven to impreeations azinst themselves; Christ's own disciples ambitious ofworld]y preferment; his apostles forsaking ]fini, his great apostle ïorswearing him; and Marv Magdalen that had been I know not what sinner; and David that had been-aI1; I leave none so ill in this worhl, but I may earry one that was, or find some that had been as ill as they, in heaven; and that blood of Christ Jesus, xvhieh had brought them thither, is oflred to them that are here, xvho may be sueeesrs in their repentanee, as flley are in their sins. And so have you ail intended for the person, the eomïoer, and the action, reprooï, and the subjeet, the,vorld; remains only (that for hieh there remains but a little rime) the time, lVhen tke Co»brter cotoeê he will proceed We use to note th,'ee Advents. three eomings of Christ. An adveut of humiliation, when he came in the flesh; an advent of 61 POEI. Lxiv. 10. « PI. cxix. 138. « Gen. ix. 21. « Gvn. 33. «» Nb. xi. 1 i.
Sl.II. XXXIV.] PRI.ACHED ON' 'HITSUIDAt'o glory, when he shall corne to judgment; and bctween thesc an advent of grace, in his gracious working in us, in this lire; and this middlemost advent of Christ, is the advent of thc Holy Ghost, in this text; when Christ works in us, the Holy Ghost cornes to us. And so powerful is his coming, that whereas ho that sent him, Christ Jesus himself, Came vnto his owa, aM his own received hlm o; the Holy Ghost never cornes to his ovn but they receive him; for, only by receiving him, they are his own; for, besides his title of creation, by which wo are all his, with the Father, and the Son, as there is a particular title accrued to the Son by redemption, sois there to the Holy Ghost, of certain persons, upon whom he sheds the comfort of his application. The Holy Ghost pieks out and chooses whom he will; spir«$ ubi vMt; perchance me that speak; perehance him that hears; perchance him that shut his eyes yesternight, and opened them this morning in the guiltiness of sin, and repents it now: perchance him that bath been in the meditation of an usurious contra°t, of an ambitious supplantation, of a licentious solicitation, since he came hither into God's bouse, and deprehends himself in that sinfnl purpose now. This is his advent, this is his pentecost. As he came this day with a manifestation, so, if he come into thee this evening, he cornes with a declaration, a declaration in operation.)I Father worZ's even ww, ad I work , was Christ's answer, when he was accused to have broken the Sabbath-day; that the Father wrought that day as well as he. So also Christ assigns other reasons of working upon the Sabbath ; Whose ox is in danger, and the owner will not relieve him. Have you not rend how David eat the show-bread '. and did hot the priests break the Sabbath, in their service in the temple. But the Sabbath is the Holy Ghost's greatest working-day: the Holy Ghost works more upon the Sunday, than all the week. In other days, he picks and chooses; but upon these days of holy convocation, I ara suret that God speaks to me, than at home, in any private inspiration. For, as the conoTegation besieges God in public prayers, aymiw facto °, so the Holy Ghost casts a net ° John i. 11. 7 John v. 17. ° Luke xiv. 5. lIatt..'i. 3, 5. o Tertullian.
102 xu«cnu oN 'HIT8UNnAY. [SER. XXV. over the wholo conegation, in this onanoe of prehing, and catches ail that brk hot out. If he be eome into thee, he is corne to reprove theo; to mako thee reprovo thyselg; but do that, cure vnt#, wez te IIoI Gos is corne. If thou hase heen slack in the outward ac of religion, and findest that thou art the worse thought of amongst mon, for tbat rspect, and the more open to some penal laws, for thoso omiions, and for theoe reasons only beginnest to correct, and reprove thyself, this is a reproof, AneoEua»,çirRus r«n«it, Before the Hdy Ghost is eome into thee, or hath breath upon thee, and inanimated thine actions. If the werfulne, and the piercing of the meies v thy Saviour, have sometimes, in the preaching thereof, entcndered and melted thy hearL and yet upoa the confidence of the rness, and einess of that mercy, thou retu to thy vomir, and to the -pursuit of those half-repentcd sins, and thinkest it time enough to go forward upon thy deathbcd, this is a reproof oquam abieri,çirit, After tho ]loly Ghost is depaed fmm tbee. If the burden of thy sins oppress thee, if thou beest rey to cast thyself from the pinnoelo of tho temple, from tbe paicipation of the comforts afforded thee in the absolution, and sacraments of the church, if this appear to thoe in a kind of hmnility, and reverenee to the majesty og God, that thou dare hot corne into bis sight, uotto his table, hot to speak him in prayer, whom thou ht so iufinitely offended, this is a reprf, Cure,iritu,Sanctu »imulatur, Vhen the Hdy Ghost is oeunterfcited, when Samn is transformed into angel of light, and makes thy smayed conseieneo bdieve, thag thag afftion, which is truly a higher treaoen again God, than all tby other si, (which is, a dident suspecting of God's mercy) is such a reverend fear, and trembng as he loe for. Repaye thysdf; but do it by convincg, hot by a doight stupifaetion of the conscience; but by a comideration of th« natte of thy sin, and a contemplation of tho inite proportion between God and thee, and so between that fin, and the mercy of God; for, thou canst hot he so absolutely, so entirely, so essentially sinful, as God is absolutely, and entirely, and essentially mereif. Do what thou canst, there is still somo gons in thee: thut nature that God ruade, is good still: de God what ho wil], ho canner strip h]mse]ï, net divest himself of mercy. If thou canst de us much as God can pardon, thou wert a Manichoean god, a god of ovil, a« infinite as the God of goodness is. De it, ct«m venerit,çpiritas, when the IIoly Ghost p]euds on thy side; net cure enerit home, net when man's reuson urgues fr thee, and says, It were injustice in God, te punish one for another, the seul for the body: much lcss cure ve»writ Mmicus omo, when tho dcvi] plcads, und p]eads aguinst thee, that thy slns are greater than God can forgive. Rcprove any over-bo]d presumption, that God caunot forsake thee, with remembering who it was that said, 1]Iy God, raff God, w!! hast tou forsakea me . Even Christ h]mself could apprehend a dereliction. Reprove any distrust in God, with remembering te whom it was sMd, Hodie mecum erls in Paradiso; Even the thief himselï, who noyer suw him, noyer met him, but at both their executlons, was carried up with him, t|m first day of hls aequaintance. If e]ther thy cheerfalness, or thy sadness be conceived of the Holy Ghost, there is a good ground of thy noli timere, fear neither. Se tho angel proceeded with Joseph, Fear net te take IaT, for that wMct is coweived i er, is ofthe Holy Gost. Fear net thou, that a cheerfulness and alaerity in using God's blessings, fear net that a moderate de]ight ill music, in conversation, in recreations, shall be imputed te thee for a fault, for, it is conceived by the Holy Ghost, and is the offspring of a peaceïul conscience. Embrace therefore his working, Q«i omnia opera nostra operattts est nobis, Thou, 0 Lord, hast uwou.qht ll ottr works it ttsT'; and whose working noue shall be able to frustrate in us; 01perabitur, et quis avertir? I will work, and who shall let iris? And as the Son concurred with the Father, and the Holy Ghost with the Son, in working in our behalf, so operemur et nos, let us also wor]c out our salvation with fear and trembling, by reproving the orrors in our understanding, and tho perversenesses of our conversation, that way, in -hich the Holy Ghost is our guide, by reproving, that is, chiding and convincing the conscience, but still with comfort, that is, stedfast application of tho merits of Christ Jesus.