in whom he cornes, be acceptable unto you; and love tbat, upon which himself stands, the ordinance which he hth established l'or your salvation. Ki t/le 5'on, that is, embracc him, depend upon hlm all these vays; as thy kinsman, as thy sovereign, at thy going, at thy coming; at thy reconciliation, in the truth of religion in thyself, in a peaceable unity with the church, in a reverent estimation of those men, and those means, whom he sends. Kiss him, and be hot ashamed of kissing him; it is that, which fle spouse dcsired, I would kiss thee, and hot be desTised «. If thou be despised for loving Christ in his Gospel, remembcr that when David was thought base, for dancing before the ark, his way was tobe more base. If thou be thought frivolous for thrusting in at service, in the forenoon, be more frivolous, aud corne again in the afternoon: Tanto m(çor requies, quanto ab amore Jesu nulla reTuies': The more thou tmublest thysclf, or art troubled by others for Christ, the nmre peace thou hast in Christ. We dcscend now to out second part, ri'oto the duty fo the danger, from tlle expressing of love to the impression of fear, Kiss the Son, lest ke be an9ry: and first that anger and love, are hot incompatible, that anger consists with love: God is immutable, and God is love, and yet God can be angry. God stops a little upon scorn, in the fourth verse of this Psalm lVhet the kings of the earth take counsel çqai#st his anoitted, he h«çqhs tkem to corn, ke kath thetn in deriion. But it ends no in hall peak to them i hi wrath, and eez them in hi ore dipleasure; and that is no all; He hag break them with a od of iron, and daeh them i pieces like a potter eessel. Laetantius reprehends justly two errors, and proposes a godly middle way in the doctrine of the anger of God. Solne ys he, ]lat only favour, and gentleness ean be attributed to God, Quia illæsibilis, He himself eannot be hure, and then why hould he be angry And this is, says he, arorabilis etpopularis oratio, It is a popular and an aeeeptable proposition, God eannot be angry, do wha 'ou will, you eanlmt anger him, for he is all gentleness. Others, ays Laemnfius, take both anger, and gentlene ri'oto God, nd ny he is afleted neither way: and this s Cant. vil 1. m Gregor.
]98 PREACHED ON TBINITY 8UNDAY. [SEI. XX-IX. is, says he well, Constantlor error, An error that will better hold together, better consist in itself, and be better stood to; for they are inseparable things; whosoever does love the good, does hate the bad: and therefore if there be no anger, there is no love in God; but that cannot be said. And therefore, says he, we must hot argue thus, because there is no anger in God, therefore there is no love; for that indeed would fo]]ow, if the first were truc but because there is ]ove in God, therefore there is anger; and so he concludes thus, This is cardo reliyionis, this is the hinge upon which all religion, all the worship of God turns and moves, dhiI prwstat colenti non debetur cultus, ee metus si non irascitur non colenti; If God gave me nothing for my love, I should not love him, nor fear him, if he wero hOt angry at my displeasing him. It is argument enough against the Epieures, (against whom prineipally he argues) Si non curat, non habet potestatem: If God take no eare of human actions, he bath no power; for it is impossible to think, that he bath power, and uses if not; an idle God is as impossible an imagination, as an impotent God, or an ignorant God. Anger, as it is a passion that troubles, and disorders, and discomposes a man, so if is hOt in God, but anger as it is sensible discerning of foes from friends, and of things that conduce, or disconduce to his glory, so if is in God. In a word, Hilary hatll expressed it well, Pwna latientis, ira deernentis, Ian's sufferlng is God's anger; when God inflicts such punishments, as a king justly incensed would do, then God is thus angry. l'ow here, our case is heavier; if is hOt this eat, and alnfighty, and majestical God, that may be angry; that is llke enough; but even the,'on, whom we must kiss, may be an.ory: it is not a porson whom we consider merely as God, but as man nay, not as man neither, but a corm, and o man, and he may be angry, and angry to our ruin. But is it he. Is if the Son, that is intended here? Ask the Roman translation, and if is not he: there it is, 2re irasatur Dominus, Lest the Lord be ange/; but the record, the original will be against them: though if were so, the Lord, if nfight be he, tke,çon, but if is hOt the Lord, but mus neeessarily be the Son; the Son may, the Son will be angry with us. If he eould be angry, why did he hot show it to the devil thnt tempted him, to the Jews that erueified him.z God bless us sera xxxx.] ,eexcrmv or -trv swn,v. from such an anger, as works upon the devi|, in a desperate insensib|eness of any mercy, from any trade in that sea, which environs the whole world, and makes ail that, one island, where only the devil can be no merchant, the bottomless sea of h|ood and God bless us from such an anger, as works npon the Jews, in an obduration, and the punishment of it, a dispersion. Are ye snre David was hot angry with Shimei, because he repriived him for a time. Are ye sure the Son is hot angry now, beceuse ye perish hot yet. Do you net say, A fruit is perished, if it be hruised in one place. Is hot your religion perlshed, if locusts and ear-wis bave eaten into it, thouh they bave hot eaten it up . ]s hot your re|iion perished, if irre|igion and profaneness be entered into your manners, into your lies, thonh religion bave some motion in our ordinary meetings, public exercises here. The Son is Caput, and Corp«, as St. Augustine says often, Christ, and the church of Christ, are Christ; and, Q,ds em, meret omnia, quibt«s corlgus Christi irascitur? says the same father; Vho can reckon how many ways, this Christ, this body of Christ, the church, is constrained to express anger. How many excommunications, how many censures, how many suspensions, how manyirregularities, how many penances, and commutations of penances, the body of Christ, the church, forced to inflict upon sinners. And how heavy would these be to us, if we did hot weigh them with the weights of flesh in the shambles, or of iron in the shop; if we did hot consider them only in their temporal damage, how little an excommunication took from us of our goods, or worldly substance, and hOt how much it shut up the ordinary and ontward means of our salvation. IVhen the anger of the body, the churcb, is thus heavy, what is the anger of the head, of Christ himse]f, who is judge in his own cause. Vhen an unjust judgment was executed upon him, how was the frame of nature shaked in eclipses, in earth-quakes, in renting of the temple, and clcaving the monmuents of the dead: when his pleasure is to execute a just judgment upon a nation, upon a churcb, upon a man, in the infatuation of princes, in the recidivation of the clergy, in the consternation of particular consciences, çttis stabit who shall be able to stand in that judgTnent . Kiss te,5'o lest Ie be anyry;
but when he is angry he wi not kiss you, nor be ki8sed by you, but trow you into uçuencable re, if you be cold, and if you be luwarm, sit you out hi mouth, remove you froln the benefit and eomfo of his word. This is the anger of God, tiret reaches to ail the wodd; and the anger of the Son, that cornes home fo us; and ail this is removed with this hdy and spiritual kiss: Osculamini Filim, Kiss the,S'on lest he be anyry; implies this, If se kiss him, he will hot be any. Vhat this kiss is, we have seen all the way; it is to hang at his lips, for the rule of out life, to depend upon his word for out religion, and to snccour ourselves, by the promises of his Gospel, ail out calamities, and hot to provoke him to farther judgments, by a perverse and frowa use of those judgments whieh he hath laid npon us: as it is, in this point towards man, it is towards God too; 'ihil mansuetudine rlolentius , There is hot violent a thing as gentleness, so foreible, so powerful upon man, or upon God. This is sueh a saying, as one would think he that said it, should be ready to retract, by the multiplicity of examples to the contrary every day. Such rules as this, He that puts up one wrong invites and calls for another, will shake Chrysostom's rule shrewdly, 'ihil mansuetudine riolenti«s, That no battery is so stmng against an enemy, as gentleness. Say, if you 11, ihil malins, There is no better thing than gentleness, and we ean make up that with a comment, that is, nothing better for some purposes; say, if you will, Vihil fruflal[«s, There is hot a thriftier thing than gentleness, it saves charges, to suflbr, it is a more expensive thing revenge than to suffit, whether we convider expense of soul, or body, or founc; and, (by the way) that which we use to add in this aeeount, opinion, reputation, that which we call honour, is none of the elements of whieh man is ruade; it may be the air, that the bird flics in, it nmy be the war that the h swims in, but it is none of the elements that man is ruade of, for thoEe are only soul, and body, and foune. Say also, if you wiH, ïhil accommatius, h'othing eoorms us more to out great pattern Christ Jesus, than miless, than genfleness, for that is out lesson from him, Discite a me, yuia mitis, Zearn OE me, for I ara meek.
SER, XXXIX.] PREACHED ON TRINITY SUNDAY. 01 Ail this Chrysostom might say; but will ts, There is hot so violent, so forcible a thing as mildness that there is no suc bu]]et, as pi]]ow, no such oetion, as passion, no such revenge, as suffering an injury Yet, even this is truc; nothing defeats an anger so much as patience; nothing reproaches a chiding so nmch as silence. Reprehendis irat«m? acc«sas ind@ationem? says that father: Art thou sorry to sec a man any [ Cor mayis irasci eis? Vhy dost thou add thy auget to his Vhy dost thon fud his anger with dfine hoc @w mansuetudo, As water works upon tire, so would thy patience upon his anger. St. Ambrose hath expresed it well too, H«'c sunt arma fitsti, ut cedeMo incat; This is the war of the righteous man, to conquer by yielding. If was Hezekiah" s way; when Rabshakeh reviled, they held their peace, (where the very phrase aords us this note, That silece is æeace, we continue our peace best by silence) They held theb'peace, says that text, and aswered him ot a wo'd, br the ti¢ htd commanded them not to atswer . XVhy St. Hierome tells us why; Wad mc#ores blasThemiasprorocaret; Lest the multiplying of cholcric words anlongst men, should have occasioned more blasphemies against God. And as it is thus with man, with God it is thus too; nothing spends his judgments, and his corrections so soen, as our patience, nothing kindles them, exasperates them so much, as out frowardness, and murmuring. ïss the,Sbtt, and he vill hot be a»9ty; if he be, kiss the rod, and he will be angry no longer; love him lest he be, fear him when he is angry: the preservative is easy, and so is the restorative toe: the balsanmm of this kiss is all; to suck spiritual milk out of thc left breast, as well as out of the right, to find nlercy in his judnents, reparation in his ruins, feasts in his lents, joy in his anger. But yet we have reserved it for out last consideration, what will make him angry: what sins are especially directed upou the second Person, the Son of God, and then we have doue all. Though those three attributes of God, power, and wisdonl, and goodness, be all three in all the three Persons of the Trinity, (for they are all, as we say in the school, co-omnipotentes, they have all a joint-almightiness, a joint-wisdom, and a joint-goedness), yet Isaiah x, 21,
20 °.. PgEACHED ON TH[NITY SUN'DAY. [SEI. XXX|Xo because the Father is prindpim, the rt of aH, independent, net poceeding frein ny other, oth the other Persons de, sn power, and sovereignty best resemMes that independency, therefore we attribute power te the Father: and because the Son procee per od«m Dtdlectus, (which is the phrase that pses throuh the fathers, and the school) that as out undending proceeds frein out reasonable seul, se the sond Person, the Son, proceeds frein the Father, therefore we attrlbute sdom te the Son: and then, because the Hoir Ghost is said te proceed per modnm roluntatis, that as out so ( the foot) and out understanding, proceeding from that soul, produee out wiH, and the object of out will, is evermore bonum, that weh is goed in out appreheusion, therefore we attribute to the Holy Ghost, goodne. And hereforo David fo his prayer, in that manner, plurally, M;serere mei Elohim'*, Be mercifd un me ail, because in his sin upon Uriah, (which ho laments in that Plm) ho hnd transgressed against ail the three Persons, in aH their attributes, against the power, and the wisdom, and the goodns of God. That then which we consider principally in the Son, is wisdom. And trulv those very many things, which are spoken of sdom, in the Proverbs of Solomon, do, for the most pa, hold in Christ: Christ is. for fle most pa, the XVisdom of that book. And for that book which is called altogether, Tho Book of XVisdom, lsid«re says, That a rabbi of the Jews tdd him, that that book was hetofore in the canonical Seripture, and so reeeived bv the Jews; till after Christ's crueifng, when they obseed, what evideut testimonies there were in tiret book for Chri, they removed it from the canon. This I know, is hot true; but I remember it tllerefore, beeause ail sists us, to eonsider wisdom in Christ, as that does alto, that the test mple of the Chri tians in Constantinople, w dedieated in thnt naine, Sophia, to wisdom; by implication to Christ. And in some apritions, where the Son of God is raid to have appeared, he eaHs mse bv that naine,,ç&utiam Dei. He is Visdom, therefore, buse he reveals the 11 of the Father to us; and therefore is no man wise, but he that knows the Father in m. Isidore mak this difference lnter saientem, et rentem, that the fir, The wise man, attends the next world, the last, Tlae prudent man, but this world: but wisdom, even heavenly wisdom, does hOt exclude that prudence, though the principal, or rather the ordinary object thereof, be this world. And therefore sins against the second Person, are sins against wisdom, in either extreme, either in affected and gross ignorance, or in over-refined and sublimed curiosity. As we place this ignorance in praetical things of this world, so it is stupidity; and as we place it in doctrinal things, of the next world, so ignorance is implicit belief: and euriosity, as we place if upon practical things, is craft, and upon doctrinal things, subtilty; and this stupidity, and this implicit faith, and then this craft, and this subtilty, are sins directed against the Son, who is truc and only Visdom. First then, a stupid and negligent passage through this world, as though thou wert no part of it, without enbarking thyselï in auy calling; to cross (Jod's purpose so much as that, whereas he produced everything out of nothing, fo be something, thou wilt go so far baek, towards nothing again, as to be good for nothing, that when as our laws call a calling, an addition, thou wilt have no addition, and when (as St. Augustine says) lI,«sca soli prtvferênda, quia vvit, A fly is a nobler creature than the sun, in this reect, because a fly hath lire in itself, and the sun bath none, so any artificer is a better part of a state, than any retired or contemplative man that embraces no calling; these chippings of the world, these fragrnentary and incoherent men, trespass against the Son, against the second Person, as he is Visdom. And so do they in doctrinal things, that swallow any particular religion, upon an implicit faith. Vhen Crist declared a very forward knowledge, in the temple, af twelve years of age, with the doetors, yet ho was there, audien et interroyans, he heard what they would say, and he moved questions, to hear what they could say; for, jnsdem scientiw est, scire 9uid interroges, 9ffd.re .eslondeas , It is a testimony of as much knowledge to ask a pertinent question, as fo give a pertinent answer. But never to have been able to give answer, never fo have asked Luke il. 46. Origen.
question in matter of religion, this is such an implicitness, and indiffcrency, as transgresscs against the Son of God, who is Visdom. It is so too, in the other extreme, curiosity; and this, in practical things, is craft, in doctrinal, subtilty. Craft, is properly and narrowly, to go towards ood ends, by ill ways: and though this be not so ill, as when either ends, nor ways be good, yet this is ill too. The civilians use to say of the canonists, and casuists, That flley consider nothing but crassam «'ltdtate», fat equity, downright truths, things obvious and apprehensible by every natural man: and fo do but so, to be but honest men, and no more, they think dimilmtion. To stay within thc limits of profession, within the limits of precedcnts, within the limits of time, is to over-active men contemptible nothing is wisdonl, till it be exalted to craft, and got abovc other nlen. And so it is, 'ith some, -vith many, in doctrinal things too. To rest in positive divinity, and articles confessed by all churches, to be content with alvation at last, aud raise no estimation, no emulation, no opinion of Sillgularity by the way, only to edify an auditory, and hot to anlaze them, only to bring them to an assent, and to practice, and not fo an adnliration, this is but home-spun divinity, but country-learning, but catcchistical doctrine. Let nie know (say these high-flying men)what God meant to do with man, before ever God nleant to nlake man: I c,re llOt for that law that Moses hath wl'itten; that every man can read fllat he might bave receivcd ff'oto God, in one day; let lne know the cabal, that 'hich passed between God and him, in all the rest of the forty days. I tare hot for God's revealed will, his cts of parliament, his public proclamations, let me know his cabinet COUllsels, his bosoln, his pocket despatches. Is there hOt another killd of predêstination, than that which is revealed in Scriptures, which seenls to be only of those that bêlieve in Christ. May not man be saved, though he do not, and may hot man be danmed, though he do perform those conditions, which seem fo make sure his salvation in the Scl.il»tul.êS. Bêloved, our count Tman Holkot, upon the Book of Visdoln, says wêll of this wisdom, which we must seek in the Book of God: al'ter he hath magnified it in his harmoaious manner which vas the style of that time)
after he had said, Cujus aut]ore niM1 sublimis, That the Author of the Scripture was thc highest Author, for that was God, Cus tenore iMl solidi«s, That the assurance oç the Scripture was the safest foundation, for it was rock, Cçus valore niM1 locupletius, That tho riches of the Scripture was the best treasure, for it defrayed us in tire next wofld, After ho had pursued his way of elegncy, and called it Mdmentm majestatis, That maesty und sovereity itself was established by the Scriptues, and FundamevtumflrmRatis, That all truc constancy was built upon tiret, and »»plementum potestatis, That the exercise of all power, was to be directed by that, he reserves the force of ail to the last, and contrats ail to that, E»wl«entum propr&tatis, The profit which I bave, in appropriating the power and the wisdom of the Scriptures fo myself: all wisdom is nothing fo me, if t be hOt mine: and I bave title to nothing, that is not conveyed to me, by God, in his Scriptures; and in the wisdom manifested to me there, I rest. I look upon Goffs decrees, in the execution of those decrees, and I try whether I be within thm decree of election, or no, by examining myself, whether the marks of the elect he upon me, or no, and so I approl,riate the wisdom of the Scripture to myselL A stupid negligence in tlle practical things of this worhl, to do nothing; and an implicit credulity in doctrinal things, to believe all; and so also, a crafty preventing, and circumventing in the practical part; and a subtle, and perplexing intricacy, in the doctrinal part; the first on t]lis side, the other beyold, do both transgress ri'oto that Visdom of God, which is the Son, and, in such a respt, are sins, especially ainst the second Peton in the Trinity.