Sermon XXX

SERMONS

PREACHED ON WHITSUNDAY.

SERMON XXX.

1 Corinthians xii. 3.
AUo no man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

We read1 that in the tribe of Benjamin, which is, by interpretation, Filius dextrce, The Son of the right hand, there were seven hundred left-handed men, that could sling stones at a hair's breadth, and not fail. St. Paul was of that tribe ; and though he were from the beginning, in the purpose of God, Filius dextrce, A man ordained to be a dexterous instrument of his glory, yet he was for a time a left-handed man, and took sinister ways, and in those ways, a good markman, a laborious and exquisite persecutor of God's church; and therefore it is, that Tertullian says of him, Paulum mihi etiam Genesis olim repromisit, I had a promise of Paul in Moses; then, when Moses said, Jacob blessed Benjamin thu-s, Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf, in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil^*, that is, at the beginning 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 threatenings, and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord^*, so he became Os orbi sufficiens^*, A mouth loud enough for all the world to hear: and as he had drawn and sucked the blood of Christ's mystical body, the church, so, in that proportion that God enabled him to, he recompensed that damage, by effusion of

¹ Judges xx. 16. ^* Gen. Xlix.

^* Acts i.\. 1. ⁴ Chrysostom.

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his own blood, He fulfilled the sufferings of Christ, in his flesh, as himself says, to the Colossians*; and then he bequeathed to all posterity these epistles, which are, as St. Augustine calk them, Ubera ecdesice, The paps, the breasts, the udders of the church, and which are, as that cluster of grapes of the land of Canaan*, which was borne by two; for here, every couple, every pair, may have their load, Jew and Gentile, learned and ignorant, man and wife, master and servant, father and children, prince and people, 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 No man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, without the Holy Ghost.

In which words, these shall be the three things, that we will consider now; first, the general impotency of man, in spiritual duties, ,,'-/,"«//"/(.</, no man can do this, no man can do anything; secondly, how, and what those spiritual duties are expressed to be; it is a profession of Jesus to be the Lord, to say it, to declare it; and thirdly, the means of repairing this natural impotency, 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, none, not one, hath any, any power; which notes their blasphemy, that exempt any person from the infection of sin: and secondly, we shall see the impotency, the infirmity, where it lies, it is in homine, no man; which notes their blasphemy, that say, man may be saved by his natural faculties, as he is man: and thirdly, by just occasion of that word, potest, he can, he is able, we shall see also the laziness of man, which, though he can do nothing effectually and primarily, yet he does not so much as he might do; and in those three, we shall determine our first part. In the second, what this spiritual duty, wherein we are all so impotent, is, it is first, an outward act, a profession ; not that an outward act is enough, but that the inward affection alone is not enough neither; to think it, to believe it, is not enough, but

⁵ Colose. i. 14. * Numb. xiii. 24.

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 all that is reported, and recorded of him, but that he is still that which he pretended to be ; Cscsar is not Caesar still, nor Alexander, Alexander; but Jesus is Jesus still, and shall be for ever. This we must profess, that he is; and then, that he is the Lord; he was not sent hither as the greatest of the prophets, nor as the greatest of the priests; his work consists not 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 after him ; but he is Lord, he purchased 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 hath a lordship in our souls, no other hath any part in the saving of them, but he : and so far we must necessarily enlarge our second consideration. And in the third part, which is, that this cannot be done but by the Holy Ghost, we shall see, that in that but, is first implied an exclusion of all means but one ; and therefore that one must necessarily be hard to be compassed, the knowledge and discerning of the Holy Ghost, is a difficult thing; and yet, as this but hath an exclusion of all means but one, so it hath an inclusion, an admission, an allowance of that one, it is a necessary duty; nothing can effect it, but the having of the Holy Ghost, and therefore the Holy Ghost may be had: and in those two points, the hardness of it, and the possibility of it, will our last consideration be employed. For the first branch of the first part, The generality, that reaches to us all, and to us all over; to all our persons, and to all our faculties; Perdidimus per peccatum, bonum possibilitatis, says St. Augustine, We have lost our possession, and our possibility of recovering, by Adam's sin. Adam at his best had but a possibility of standing; we are fallen from that, and from all possibility of rising by any power derived from him: we have not only by this fall broke our arms, or our legs, but our necks ; not ourselves, not any other man can raise us; everything hath in it, as physicians use to call it, Naturale balsamum, A natural balsamum, which, if any wound or hurt which that creature

I) 2

hath received, be kept clean from extrinsic putrefaction, will heal of itself. We are so far from that natural balsamum, as that we have 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 the God of life, because it deprives us of both those, of mercy, and of life, in opposition to mercy, it is called anger and wrath, (We are all by nature the children of wrath¹) and in opposition to life, it is called death, Death enters by sin, and death is gone over all men*; and as original sin hath relation to our souls, it is called that indelible foulness, and uncleanness which God discovers in us all, (Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord*) and which every man finds in himself, as Job did, If I wash myself in snow-water, and purge my hands never so clean, yet my own clothes shall make me filthy". As it hath relation to our bodies, so it is not only called lex carnis, a law which the flesh cannot disobey, and Ux in membris, a law written and imprinted naturally in our bodies, and inseparably inherent there, but it is a law that hath got posse comitatus, all our strength, and munition into her own hands, all our powers, and faculties to execute her purposes against us, and (as the apostle expresses it fully) Hath force in our members, to bring forth fruits unto death".

Consider our original weakness, as God looks upon it, so it is inexcusable sin ; consider it, as our souls suffer by it, so it is an indelible foulness; consider it as our bodies contribute to it, and harbour it, and retain it, and so it is an unquenchable fire, and a brand of hell itself; it hath banished me out of myself, It is no more I that do anything, but sin that dwelleth in me : it doth not only dwell, but reign in these mortal bodies; not only reign, but tyrannise, and lead us captives under the law of sin, which is in our members". So that we have utterly lost bonumpossibilitatis, for as men, we are out of all possibility, not only of that victorious, and triumphant gratulation and acclamation to ourselves, as for a delivery, / thank God through Jesus ChristTM, but we

⁷ Ephes. ii. 3. * Rom. v. 12. * Jer. ii. 22. " Job be.

" Rom. vii. 5. " Ver. 23. ^1s Ver. ult.

cannot come to that sense of our misery, as to cry out in the apostle's words, immediately preceding, 0 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Now as this death hath invaded every part and faculty of man, understanding, and will, and all, (for though original sin seem to be contracted without our will, yet Sicut omnium natura, ita omnium voluntates fuere originaliter in Adam, says St. Augustine, As the whole nature of mankind, and so of every particular man, was in Adam, so also were the faculties, 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 not above the law, but without the law: they outlaw 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 well 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 Egypt, not out of Goshen in Egypt; not out of a privileged place in Egypt, but out of Egypt; God brought his Son Christ Jesus out of the Virgin Mary without sin, but he brought not her so, out of her mother. If they might be believed that the blessed Virgin, and John Baptist, and the prophet Jeremy were without 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 nostra, 0 Lord forgive us our trespasses, and confess that we needed forgiveness, even for the sins which we have not done; Dimissafateor, et quc e mea sponte feci, et quc e 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 not restrained me, I should have done. And therefore if another think he hath escaped those sins that I have committed, non me derideat ab eo medico cearum sanari, a quo ei prcestitum ne ayrotaret; let him not despise me, who am recovered, since it is the same physician who hath wrought upon us both, though by a diverse method, for he hath preserved him, and he hath recovered me: for, for himself, we say still with the game father, Perdidwat bonum possibilitatis, As well he as I, had lost all possibility of standing, or rising after our fall.

This was our first branch, The universal impotency; and our second is, That this is in homine, in man, no man (as man) can make this profession, That Jesus is the Lord: and therefore we consider first, wherein, and how far man is disabled. In every age, some men have attributed to the power of nature, more than a natural man can do, and yet no man doth so much as a natural man might do. For the over-valuing of nature, and her power, there are impressions in the fathers themselves, which (whether misunderstood by the readers, or by the authors) have led and prevailed much. When Justin Martyr says, Ratio pro fide Grcecis et barbaris, That rectified reason did the same office in the Gentiles, as faith did in the Christians; when Clement says, Philosophia per sese justificavit Grcecos, That the Gentiles to whom the law and the Gospel was not communicated, were justified by their philosophy; when Chrysostom says, Satis fuit Gentibus abstinuisse ab idololatria, It was sufficient for the Gentiles, if they did not worship false gods, though they understood not the true; when St. Augustine says, Recte facis, nihil qucerere amplius, quam quod docet ratio, He doth well that seeks no farther, than his reason leads them, these impressions in the fathers have transported later men farther; so far, as that Andradius in the Roman church, saves all honest philosophers, that lived morally well without Christ: and Tostatus takes all impediments out of their way, that original sin is absolutely remitted to them, In prima bona operations in charitate, In their first good moral work that they do. So that they are in an easier way than we, who are but Christians; for in the opinion of Tostatus himself, and that whole church, we cannot be delivered from original sin, but by baptism; nothing less than a sacrament would deliver us from original sin, and any good work shall deliver any of the Gentiles so disposed.

In all ages, in all churches, there have been men, who have

een ingrati gratice, as St. Augustine calls them, that have been

unthankful to the grace of God, and attributed that to nature,

which belonged to grace. But we have an universal conclusion, God hath made of one blood all mankind", and no man can adopt himself into the family of God ; man is excluded, and all power in man, and all assistance from man ; neither your own reason, nor the reason of your masters, whom you rely upon, can raise you to this knowledge : for, sEyyptits homo, non deus, The Egyptians are men, and not pods, and their hortet are flesh, and not spirit; and when the Lord shall stretch out his hand, the helper shabl fall, and he that is holpen shall fall, and they shall fall together". The atheist and all his philosophy, helper and he that is holpen, horse and man, nature and art, reason mounted and advanced upon learning, shall never be able to leap over, or break through this wall, no man, no natural man can do anything towards a supernatural work.

This was our second branch, That too much is ordinarily attributed by man to man, and our third is, That too little is done by any man, and that is worse than the other. When Nebuchadnezzar had made his image of gold of sixty cubits, it had been a madness in him, not to have celebrated the dedication thereof, with all the pomp, and solemnity that he did: to have gone so far, and not to have made it serve his farther uses, had been a strange impertinence. So is it a strange contemplation, to see a man set up a golden image, to attribute even a divinity to our 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 new action in hand, consider what Socrates would do in that case; that is, dispose thyself 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 not have forborne. And whatsoever thou seest another can do, by the power of that reason, and that persuasion which thou art able to minister, who are not able to infuse faith, nor inspire grace into him, but must work by thy reason, and upon his reason, why shouldest thou not be as pow¹⁴

Acts xvii. 26. " Isaiah xxxi. 3.

erful upon thyself, and as strong in thine own behalf, and obey that counsel from thyself, which thou thinkest another man mad, if he do not obey, when thou givest it ? Why shouldest thou pretend reason, why another should forbear any particular sin, and not present that reason to thyself, or not obey it I To love the Scriptures of God better than any other book ; to love the house of God better than any other court; to love the communion of saints better than any other conversation; to study to know the revealed will of God, rather than the secrets of any princes ; to consider the direct purposes of God against his enemies, 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.

He that attributes more to nature, he that allows her any ability of disposing herself beforehand, without prevention of grace, or concurrence and co-operation after, without continual -assistance of particular graces, he sets up an idol, and magnifies nature beyond that which appertains unto her. But he that goes not so far as this, that the reason of man, and his natural faculties, are the instruments and organs that God works in by his grace, howsoever he may in discourse and in argument exalt nature, howsoever he may so give too much to her, yet he does not so much with her, as he might do: he hath made her a giant, and then, as though he were afraid of her, he runs away from her : he will not do that which is in his power, and yet ho thinks it is 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 implied in our next part, To say that Jesus is the Lord.

In this, our first duty is an outward act, dicere, to profess Christ Jesus. Non erubesco, says St. Paul, / am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, for it is the power of God unto salvation": and Qui crubuerit, says Christ, Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my word, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in glory11. This is a necessary duty, but is it the duty of this place ? for here it is not non vult, but non potest: not that he is loath to profess Jesus, but that he is not able to do it. We see that some could say that, and say it aloud,

" Rorn. i. 16. " Luke ix. 26,

preach it, and yet without the Holy Ghost; Some (says the apostle) preach Christ through envy and strife, supposing to add more afflictions unto my bands". Which may well be, that some Jews and Gentiles, to exasperate the state against Paul, fained themselves also to be converted to his religion, because when they had made him odious by drawing off others, they who pretended to have been drawn by him, could always save themselves with recanting, and renouncing their new profession : so they could say That Jesus was the Lord, and never mean it. And of those twelve whom Christ chose to preach, Judas was one, of whom Christ says, Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil¹⁰ ? So that this devil Judas, and that devil that made him a devil, the devil himself, could say as much as this, Jesus I know, and Paul I knowTM; they said it, they cried it, Thou art the Christ, the Son of God", and that incessantly, Till Jesus rebuked them, and suffered them not to say, That they knew him to be the Christ.

But besides that, even this confessing of Christ, is not sine omni impulsu Spiritus Sancti, altogether without any motion of the Holy Ghost, (for the Holy Ghost, even in these cases, had a purpose to draw testimonies for Christ, out of the mouths of his adversaries) this is not the professing required here; when Tiberius had a purpose to canonize Christ Jesus, and to admit him into the number of the Roman gods, and to make him beholden to him for that honour, he therefore proposed it to the senate, that so that honour, which Jesus should have, might be derived from him, and when the senate had an inclination of themselves to have done Christ that honour, but yet forbore it, because the intimation came not from themselves, but from the emperor, who still wrought and gained upon their privileges, neither of these, though they meant collaterally and obliquely to do Christ an honour, neither of them did say Jesum dwninum, that is, profess Jesus, so as is intended here, for they had their own ends, and their own honours principally in contemplation.

There is at first an open profession of the tongue required ; and therefore the Holy Ghost descended in fiery tongues, Et linguapropria Spiritui Sancto, says St. Gregory, The tongue is the

¹⁰ Philem. 15, 1* John vi. 70, ⁸⁰ Acts xix. 15. " Luke iv, 41,

fittest instrument for the Holy Ghost to work upon, and to work by, Qui maf/nam habet cognationem cum Verbo, says he, The Son of God is the Word, and the Holy Ghost proceeds 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 rests, the tongue is the sphere, in which he moves; and therefore, says St. Cyril, As God set the cherubim with a fiery sword, to keep us out of Paradise, so he hath set the Holy Ghost in fiery tongues to let us in again. As long as John Baptist was unborn, Zachary was dumb ; when he was born, Zachary spoke ; Christ is not born in us, we are not regenerate in him, if we delight not to speak of his wondrous mercies, and infinite goodness to the sons of men; as soon as he is born in us, his Spirit speaks in us, and by us; in which, our first profession is Jesum i ------'-. that Jesus is, that there is a Jesus.

This is to profess with Esay", That he is Germen Jehovce, the Bud 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 name that signifies the very essence of God) and then it wounds the Jews on the other side, because if Jesus be germen Jehovce, the bud, the blossom, the offspring of God, then there is a plurality of Persons, Father and Son in the Godhead. So that it is a compendiary and summary abridgement, and catechism of all our religion, to profess that Jesus is, for that is a profession of his everlasting essence, that is, his Godhead. It hath been denied that ho was such as he was pretended to be, that is, born of a Virgin ; for the first heretics of all, Cerinthus, and Ebion, who occasioned St. John's Gospel, affirmed him to be a mere man, made by ordinary generation, between Joseph and Mary. It hath been denied, that he was such a man, as those heretics allowed him to be, for Apelles his heresy was, that he made himself a body out of the elements, as he came down from heaven, through them. It hath been denied that he had any body at all; Cerdon and Marcion, said, That he 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 live or die, but did only appear, and vanish. It hath been

^M Isaiuh iv. 2.

denied that that body which he had, though a true and a natural body, did suffer, for Basilides said, That when he was led to execution, and that on the way, the cross was laid upon Simon of Gyrene, Christ cast a mist before their eyes, by which they took Simon for him, and crucified Simon, Christ having withdrawn himself invisibly from them, as at other times he had done. It hath been denied, (though he had a true body, and suffered truly therein) that he hath any body now in heaven, or shall return with any, for he that said he made his body of the elements as he came down from heaven, says also that he resolved that body into those elements again, at his return. It hath been denied, that he was, that he is, that he shall be; but this profession, that Jesus is, includes all, for, he of whom that is always true, 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 him to be Dominus, a Lord, we profess him to be God and man, we 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 hath purchased with his blood, and the anointed king of that kingdom which he hath conquered with his cross. As he is germen Jehovce, the offspring of Jehovah, so he must necessarily be Jehovah; and that is the name, which is evermore translated, The Lord ; so also as he is Jehovah, which is the fountain of all essence and of all being, so he is Lord, by his interest, and his concurrence, in our 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 before in that man, some virtuous and fit disposition, some preparation, some object, some subject of his favour. The king gives creations to men, whom the universities, 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 not, 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, not to be) farther removed from heaven, than hell itself: who is the Lord of life, and breathed this life into thee, and swears by that eternal life, which he is, that he would have this life of thine immortal, As I live, saith the Lord, I would not the death of a sinner.

This contemplation of Jesus, as a Lord, by creating us, is a devout, and an humble contemplation; but to contemplate him as Lord by redeeming us, and breeding us in a church, where that redemption is applied to us, this is a devout, and a glorious contemplation. As he is Lord over that which his Father gave him, (his Father gave him all power in heaven and in earth, and omne judicium, his Father put all judgment into his hands, all judiciary and all military power was his; he was Lord Judge, and Lord of Hosts) as he is Lord over his own purchase, Quod acquisivit sanguine, That church which he purchased with his own blood" : so he is more than the heretics of our time have made 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, not for a satisfaction, but only for a lively example, thereby to incline us to suffer for God's glory, and for the edification of one another. If we call him Domimim, a Lord, we call him Messiam, Unctwn, Regem, anointed with the oil of gladness by the Holy Ghost, to be a 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 purchased. This is to say that Jesus is a Lord ; to profess that he is a person so qualified, in his being composed of God and man, that he was able to give sufficient for the whole world, and did give it, and so is Lord of it.

When we say Jesus est, That Jesus is, there we confess his eternity, and therein, his Godhead : when we say Jesus Dominus, That he is a Lord, therein we confess a dominion which he hath purchased; and when we say Jesum Dominum, so, as that we profess him to 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 not so lord, as that Christ and he are colleagues, or fellow-consuls, that

^*3 Acts xx. 28.

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 all, none rules with him, none rules 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 Christ Jesus directly from heaven upon the church, hath a truer operation, than the oblique and collateral reflections from Rome: Christ is not so far off, by being above the clouds, as the bishop of Rome is, by being beyond the hills. Dicimus Dominum Jesum, we say that Jesus is the Lord, and we refuse all power upon earth, that will be Lord with him, as though he needed a coadjutor, or Lord for him, as though he were absent from us.

To conclude this second part, To say that Jesus is the Lord, is to confess him to be God from everlasting, and to have been made man in the fulness of time, and to govern still that church, which he hath purchased with his blood, and that therefore he looks that we direct all our particular actions to his glory. For this voice, wherein thou sayest Dominus Jesus, The Lord Jesus, must be, as the voice of the seraphim in Esay", thrice repeated, Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Holy, holy, holy; our hearts must say it, and our tongue, and our hands too, or else we have not said it. For when a man will make Jesus his 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, that is, proceed in all things, upon the strength of his outward profession, upon the colour, and pretence, and advantage of religion, and devotion, would this man be thought to have said Jesum Dominum, That Jesus is the Lord ? Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things I speak to youTM ? says Christ; Christ places a tongue in the hands; actions speak; and Omni tuba clarior per opera demonstratio, says St. Chrysostom, There is not only a tongue, but a trumpet, in every good work. When Christ sees a disposition in his hearers, to do according unto their

** Isaiali vi 2. " Luke vi. 40.

professing, then only he gives allowance to that that they say, Dicitis me Dominum, et bene dicitis", You call me Lord, and you do well in doing so, do ye therefore, as I have done 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 not a Domine usque quo, Lord how long before the consummation come, as though we were weary of our warfare: it not a Domine si fuisses, Lord ifthou hadst been here, our brother had not died", as Martha said of Lazarus, as though, as soon as we suffer any worldly calamity, we should think Christ to be absent from us, in his power, or in his care of us; it is not a Domine vis mandemvs, Lord wilt thou that we command fire from heaven to consume these Samaritans", as though we would serve the Lord no longer, than he would revenge his own and our quarrel; for, (that we may come to our last part) to that fiery question of the apostles, Christ answered, You know not of what spirit you are; it is not the Spirit of God, it is not the Holy Ghost, which makes you call Jesus the Lord only to serve your own ends, and purposes; and No man can gay, that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

For this part, we proposed only two considerations, first that this but, excluding all means but one, that one must therefore necessarily be difficult, and secondly that that but, admitting one means, that one must therefore necessarily be possible; so that there is a difficulty, but yet a possibility in having this working by the Holy Ghost. For the first, of those heretical words of Faustus the Manichean, That in the Trinity, the Father dwelt In illa luce inaccessibili, In that light which none can attain to, and the Son of God dwelt in this created light, whose fountain and root is the planet of the sun, and the Holy Ghost dwelt in the air, and other parts illumined by the sun, wo may make this good use, that for the knowledge of the Holy Ghost, we have not so present, so evident light in reason, as for the knowledge of the other blessed persons of the glorious Trinity. For, for the Son, because he assumed our nature, and lived and died with us, we conceive certain bodily impressions, and notions of him; and then naturally, and necessarily, as soon as we hear of a son, we

" John xiii. 14. " John xi. 21. » Luke ix. 54.

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 creaturce; that Christ himself, from whom (say they) the Holy Ghost had his creation, was but a creature, and not God, and so the Holy Ghost, the creature of a creature. And Maximu s Hie gigas, (as St. Bernard calls Plato) That giant in all kind of learning, Plato, never stopped at any knowledge, till he came to consider the Holy Ghost: Unum invent, quod cuncta operatur, I have (says Plato) found one, who made all things; Et unum per quod cuncta efficiuntur, And I have found another, by whom all things were made; Tertium autem non potui invenire, 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 not 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 : Si cuncta putarem nostra cogltatione pagse comprehendi, vererer forte ignorantiam profiteri, If I thought that all things might be known by man, I should be as much afraid, and ashamed, as another man, to be ignorant; but, says he, since we all see, that there are many things whereof we are ignorant, Cur non de Spiritu Sancto, absque rubore, ignorantiam faterer ? Why should I be ashamed to confess mine ignorance in many things concerning the Holy Ghost ?

There is then a difficulty, no less than an impossibility, in searching after the Holy Ghost, but it is in those things which appertain not to us ; but in others, there is a possibility, a facility and easiness. For, there are two processions of the Holy Ghost, jEterna, and Temporaria, his proceeding from the Father, and the Son, and his proceeding into us. The first we shall never understand, if we read all the books of the world, the other we shall not choose but understand, if we study our own consciences. In the first, the darkness, and difficulty is recompensed in this, that though it be hard to find anything, yet it is but little that we are to seek ; it is only to find that there is a Holy Ghost, proceeding from Father, and Son; for in searching farther, the danger is noted by St. Basil, to be thus great, Qui quomodo interrogas, et ubi ut in loco, et quando ut in tempore, interrogabis; If thou give thy curiosity the liberty to ask how the Holy Ghost proceeded, thou wilt ask where it was done, as though there were several rooms, and distinct places in that which is infinite. And thou wilt ask when it was done, as though there were pieces of time, in that which is eternal: Et quceres, non ut fidem, sed ut infidelitatem invenias, (which is excellently added by that father) The end of thy inquiring will not be, that thou mightest find anything to establish thy belief, but to find something that might excuse thine unbelief; all thy curious questions are not in hope that thou shalt receive satisfaction, but in hope that the weakness of the answer may justify thy infidelity.

Thus it is, if we will be over-curious in the first, the eternal proceeding of the Holy Ghost. In the other, the proceeding of the Holy Ghost into us, we are to consider, that as in our natural persons, the body and soul do not make a perfect man, except they be united, except our spirits (which are the active part of the blood) do fit this body, and soul for one another's working; Bo, though the body of our religion may seem to be determined in these two, our creation, which is commonly attributed to the Father, Tanquam fonti Deitatis, 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 man, upon whom the Father hath wrought by creation, and the Son included within his redemption, and he works in him a vocation, a justification, and a sanctification, and leads him from that esse, which the Father gave him in the creation, and that bene esse which he hath in being admitted into the body of his Son, the visible church, and congregation, to an optime esse, to that perfection, which is an assurance of the inhabitation of this spirit in him, and an inchoation of eternal blessedness here, by a heavenly and sanctified conversation, without which spirit JVb man can say, that Jesus it the Lord, because he is not otherwise in a perfect obedience to him, if he embrace not the means ordained by him in his church.

So that this Spirit disposes, and dispenses, distributes, and disperses, and orders all the power of the Father, and all the wisdom of the Son, and all the graces of God. It is a centre to all; so St. Bernard says upon those words of the apostle, We approve ourselves as the ministers of God; but by what? By watching, by fasting, by suffering, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned. Vide, tanquam omnia ordinantem, quomodo in medio virtutum, sicut cor in medio corporis, constituit Spiritum Sanctum : As the heart is in the midst of the body, so between these virtues of fasting and suffering before, and love unfeigned after, the apostle places the Holy Ghost, who only gives life and soul to all moral, and all theological virtues. And as St. Bernard observes that in particular men, so doth St. Augustine of the whole church; Quod in corpore nostro anima, id in corpore Christi, ecclesia, Spiritus Sanctus; That office which the soul performs to our 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 at the creation the whole Trimty was intimated in that plural word, Elohim, creavit Dii, but no person of the Trinity is distinctly named in the creation, but the Holy Ghost, The Spirit of God moved upon the waters, as the Holy Ghost was first conveyed to our knowledge in the creation, so in our regeneration, by which we are new creatures, though our creation, and our redemption be religious subjects of our continual meditation, yet let us be sure to hold this that is nearest us, to keep a near, a familiar, and daily acquaintance, and conversation with the Holy Ghost, and to be watchful to cherish his light, and working in us. Homines decent quarrere, solus ipse, qui docet invenire, nabere, friu"; Men can teach us ways how to find some things; the pilot how to find a land, the astronomer how to find a star; men can teach us ways how to find God, the natural man in the book of creatures, the moral man in an exemplar life, the Jew in the law, the Christian in general in the Gospel, but Solus ipse, qui docet invenire, habere,frui, Only the Holy Ghost enables us to find God so, as to make him ours, and to enjoy him. First you must get more light than nature gives, for, The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit**: when that light is so

" Bernard. ^M 1 Cor. ii. 14.

VOL. II. C

mended, that you have some sparks of faith, you must also leave the works of the flesh, for, Fleshly men have not the Spirit*¹ : when the Spirit offers itself in approaches, resist it not, as Stephen accuses them to have done, Acts 7. When it hath prevailed, and sealed you to God, Grieve not the holy Spirit, by whom ye are tealed unto redemption^**. For this preventing the Spirit, hy trusting to nature, and morality, this infecting the Spirit, by living ill in a good profession, this grieving of the Spirit, by neglecting his operations, induces the last desperate work of quenching the SpiritTM, which is a smothering, a suffocating of that light by a final obduration.

Spiritus ubi vult spirat, says our Saviour Christ¹"; which St. Augustine, (and indeed most of the fathers) interpret of the Holy Ghost, and not of the wind, though it may also properly enough admit that interpretation too. But The Holy Ghost, says he, l/reathes where it pleases him; Et vocem ejus audis, says Christ, You hear the voice of the Holy Ghost; for, (says St. Augustine upon those words of Christ) Sonat psalmus, vox est Spiritus Sancti, When you hear a psalm sung, you hear the voice of the Holy Ghost; Sonat evangelium, sonat sermo Divinus, You hear the Gospel read, you hear a sermon preached, still you hear the voice of the Holy Ghost; and yet, as Christ says in that place, Nescis unde venit, Thou knowest not from whence that voice comes, Thou canst find nothing in thyself, why the Holy Ghost should delight to entertain thee, and hold discourse with thee, in so familiar, and so frequent, and so importunate a speaking to thee; Nescis unde ven-it, Thou knowest not from whence all this goodness comes, but merely from his goodness; so also, as Christ adds there, Nescis quo vadat, Thou knowest not whither it goes, 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 which, since he began to speak to thee, at this time, thou hast felt some remorse, some detestation, he will not go with thee, he will give thee over. But as long as he, the Spirit of God, by your cherishing of him, stays with you, when Jesus shall say to you, (in your consciences) Quid vos dicitis ? Whom do you say that I am ?

^al Jude 19. ^M Ephes. iv. 30.

^0* 1 Thess. v. ^*4 John iii. 8.

You can say Jesus Dominus, we say, we profess, That thou art Jesus, and that Jems is the Lord: if he proceed, Si Dominus, ubi timor? If I be Lord, where is my fear? You shall show your fear of him, even in your confidence in him, In timore Domini, fiducia fortitudinis, In the par of the Lord, is an assured strength : You shall not only say Jesum Domimon, profess Jesus to be the Lord, but Veni Domine Jesu, you shall invite, and solicit Jesus to a speedy judgment, and be able, in his right, to stand upright in that judgment. This you have, if you have this spirit; and you may have this spirit, if you resist it not, now; for, As when Peter spake, the Holy Ghost fell upon all that heard", so in the ministry of his weaker instruments, he conveys, and diffuses, and seals his gifts upon all, which come well disposed to the receiving of him, in his ordinance.