Sermon XXVII

SERMON XXVII.

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL'S, UPON WHITSUNDAY, 1628.
John xiv. 26.

But the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

We pass from the person to his working; we come from his coming, to his operation, from his mission, and commission, to his executing thereof, from the consideration, who he is, to what he does. His specification, his character, his title, Paracletus, the Comforter, passes through all. Therefore our first comfort is, docebintur_i we shall he taught, He shall teach you; as we consider ourselves, the disciples of the Holy Ghost, so .it is a mere teaching, for we in ourselves are merely ignorant; hut when we consider the things we are to be taught, so it is but a remembering, a refreshing of those things, which Christ in the time of his conversation in this world, had taught before; He shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. These two then, the comfort in the action, (we shall be taught) and the comfort in the way and manner, (we shall not be subject to new doctrines, but taught by remembering, by establishing us in things formerly fundamentally laid) will be our two parts at this time. And in each of these, these our steps; first, in the first we shall consider the persons, that is, the disciples, who were to learn; not only they who were so, when Christ spoke the words, but we, all, who to the end of the world, shall seek and receive knowledge from him; vos, ye; first vos ignorantes, you who are naturally ignorant, and know nothing, so as you should know it of yourselves, (which is one discomfort) and yet, vos, ye, vos appetentes, you that by nature have a desire to know, (which is another discomfort, to have a desire, and no means to perform it) vos docebimini, ye, ye that are ignorant, and know nothing; ye, ye that are hungry of knowledge, and have nothing to satisfy that hunger, ye shall be fed, ye shall be taught, (which is one comfort) and then Hie docebit, He shall teach you, he, who cannot only infuse true, and full knowledge in every capacity that he finds, but dilate that capacity where he finds it, yea create it, where he finds none, the Holy Ghost, who is not only a comforter, but the comforter, and not only so, but comfort itself, He shall teach you; and in these we shall determine our first part.

In our second part, the way and manner of this teaching, (by bringing to our remembrance all things whatsoever Christ had said unto us) there is a great largeness, but yet there is a limitation of those things which we are to learn of the Holy Ghost; for they are omnia, all things whatsoever Christ hath taught before; but then, sola ea, only those things which Christ had taught before, and not new additaments in the name of the Holy Ghost. Now this largeness extending itself to the whole body of the Christian religion, (for Christ taught all that) all that being not reducible to that part of an hour, which will be left for this exercise, as fittest for the celebration of the day in which we are now, we shall bind ourselves to that particular consideration, what the Holy Ghost, being come from the Father, in Christ's name, that is, pursuing Christ's doctrine, hath taught us of himself, concerning himself; that so ye may first see some insolences and injuries offered to the Holy Ghost by some ancient heretics, and some of later times, by the church of Rome; for, truly, it is hard to name, or to imagine any one sin, nearer to that emphatical sin, that superlative sin, the sin against the Holy Ghost, than some offers of doctrines, concerning the Holy Ghost, that have been obtruded, though not established, and some that have been absolutely established in the church. And when we shall have delivered the Holy Ghost out of their hands, we shall also deliver him into yours, so as that you may feel him to shed himself upon you all here, and to accompany you all home, with a holy peace, and in a blessed calm, in testifying to your souls, that he, that comforter, who is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father hath sent in his Son's name, hath taught you all things, that is, awakened your memories, to the consideration of all that is necessary to your present establishment. And to these divers particulars, which thus constitute our two general parts, in their order thus proposed, we shall now proceed.

As when our Saviour Christ received that confession of all the disciples, in the mouth of St. Peter, Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God, Christ replied thereunto some things, which had a more special, and a more personal respect to Peter', than to the rest, yet were intended of the rest too; so when Christ in this text, promises the comforter, he does that most immediately, and most personally to them, to whom he then spoke, but he intends it to us also, and the Holy Ghost shall teach us; us, that are in ourselves ignorant, which is our first discomfort. The schools have made so many divisions, and sub-divisions, and re-divisions, and post-divisions of ignorance, that there goes as much learning to understand ignorance, as knowledge. One, much elder than all they, and elder (as some will have it) than any but some of the first secretaries of the Holy Ghost in the Bible, that is, Trismegistus, hath said as much as all, Nequitia animw ignorantia, Ignorance is not only the drowsiness, the silliness, but the wickedness of the soul: not only dis-estimation in this world, and damnification here, but damnification in the next world, proceeds from ignorance. And yet, here in this world, knowledge is but as the earth, and ignorance as the sea; there is more sea than earth, more ignorance than knowledge; and as if the sea do gain in one place, it loses in another, so is it with knowledge too; if new things be found out, as many, and as good, that were known before, are forgotten and lost. What anatomist knows the body of man thoroughly, or what casuist the soul? What politician knows the distemper of the state thoroughly; or what master, the disorders of his own family? Princes glory in Arcanis, that they have secrets which no man shall know, and, God knows, they have hearts which they know not themselves; thoughts and purposes indigested fall upon them and surprise them. It is so in natural, in moral, in civil things; we are ignorant of more things than we know; and it is so in divine and supernatural

¹ Matt. xvi. 18.

things too; for, for them, the Scripture is our only light, and of the Scripture, St. Augustine professes, Plura se nescire quam scire, That there are more places of Scripture, that he does not, than that he does understand.

Hell is darkness; and the way to it, is the cloud of ignorance; hell itself is but condensed ignorance, multiplied ignorance. To that, David ascribes all the distempers of the world, They do not know, neither will they understand, they walk on in darkness*; and therefore, (as he adds there) All the foundations of all the earth are out of course. He that had made the most absolute conquest of ignorance in this world, Solomon, is the best judge of it, the best counsellor against it; and he says, As thou knowest not how thy bones grew in thy mother, even so thou knowest not the works of God, who worketh all³. We are all equally ignorant of all, of natural, of spiritual things. What though? This; That man knoweth not his time*; but is snared in an evil time; if he knew his time, no time would be evil unto him. Yet though he know npt the present time, but let that pass inconsiderately, yet if he consider the future, he may recover. But he does not that, he cannot do that; Man cannot tell what shall be, says Solomon; but may he not learn? No. For, who can tell him? says he there⁵. For, he knows not how to go to the city; in vulgar, in trivial things, he is ignorant of his end, and ignorant of his way. Bene facere nesciverunt, says the prophet", They have no knowledge to do good; and what follows I Erubescere nescierunt, They are not ashamed when they have done evil. Nesciunt cujus spiritus sunt; it was Christ's increpation upon his own disciples, They knew not of what spirit they were¹, they discerned not between a zealous and a vindictive spirit. Nescitis quid petatis, was Christ's increpation upon his disciples too, You know not what you ask". And yet this Nequitia animw, this wickedness of the soul, this pestilence of the soul, ignorance, have men ventured to call the mother of devotion. But miserable comforters are they, in respect of the comforter, the Holy Ghost; for, as that Cum perverso perverteris, is spoken of God⁹, that God will learn of the froward,

to be froward, so God will learn of the ignorant, to be ignorant; ignorant of us; and to those that do not study him here, he will say hereafter, Nescio vos, I know not you. This then is our first discomfort, of ourselves we are ignorant; and yet there is a greater vexation than this, that naturally we have a desire of knowledge, and naturally no means to attain it.

Ignorance may be said to work, as an inappetency in the stomach, and as an insipidness, a tastelessness in the palate; but the desire of knowledge, without means to attain to it, is as a hunger in a dearth, or in a wilderness. Ignorance is a kind of slumbering, or stupidity, but this desire without means, is a continual racking, a continual pressing; a far greater vexation, and torment: ignorance may work as a lethargy, but this desire as a phrensy. This is the day of trouble, (says Hezechias in the bitterness and passion of his soul) and of rebuke, and of blasphemy, for the children have come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring them forth¹". To a barrenness, that is, never to have conceived, there belonged, amongst that people, a kind of shame and contempt, (and that is our case in ignorance, which is the barrenness of the soul) but to come to the throes of childbirth, and then not to have strength, or not to have help to be delivered, that is the dangerous, that is the deadly torment; and that represents our soul, in this desire of knowledge, without means to attain to it. And yet, this vexation no man can divest; it is an hereditary, a natural impression in man; every man naturally, says the philosopher, desires to know, to learn. And yet, nature that imprinted that desire in every man, hath not given every man, not any man, in nature, means to satisfy that desire; for even by nature man hath a desire to know supernatural things. Solomon was extended with this desire of knowledgebut he found no satisfaction, till upon petition, and contracting all his desires into that one, he obtained it of God. Daniel was vir desideriorum, a man composed of desires, and, of solicitude^{] 8}: he professes that he mourned three full weeks¹³, he eat no pleasant bread, neither came flesh or wine into his mouth, nor oil upon his body¹⁴; his comeliness was turned into corruption, and he retained no

¹⁰ Esay xxxvii. 3. ¹¹ 1 Kings iii. 11. ¹⁸ Dan. ix. 23.

¹⁸ Dan. x. 2. ¹⁴ Ver. 8.

strength, till God by his angel satisfied his desire of knowledge. Consider the anxiety and torture, under which that eunuch was in the chariot¹⁵, till he was taught the meaning of the prophet Esay. And consider the way that God took; God sent an angel, and that angel sent Philip to him. Instruction is from God; but yet by the ministry of man, Philip asks him, Dost thou understand? He would have a confession of his impotency from himself. Alas, How can I, says he, except some man should guide me? And Philip guides him; and then how soon he comes to that holy cheerfulness, and dilatation of the soul, / believe that Jestis is the Son of God¹", and, See, here is water, what doth hinder me, that I be baptized? Nec sanctior sum hoc eunucho, nec studiosior, says St. Hierome of himself; I cannot have more desire to learn than he had; yet, in myself, I have no more means neither; and therefore must be under the same pain, till the same hand, the hand of God relieve me. The soul of man cannot be considered under a thicker cloud, than ignorance, nor under a heavier weight, than desire of knowledge. And therefore, for our deliverance in both, our Saviour Christ here comforts us with The Comforter; you, you that are in the darkness of ignorance, you, you that are under the oppression of a hunger of knowledge, you shall be satisfied, for, He that comes from my Father, in my name, He shall teach you.

That which the vulgate reads, Eccles. vi. 9, Desiderare quod nescias, To desire to know that which thou knowest not yet, our translation calls, The wandering of the desire, and in the original it is, The walking, the pilgrimage of the soul; the restlessness, and irresolution of the soul. And when man is taught that which he desired to know, then the soul is brought home, and laid to rest. Desire is the travel, knowledge is the inn; desire is the wheel, knowledge is the bed of the soul. Therefore we affect society and conversation to know present things; therefore we assist ourselves with history, to know things past, and with astrology, and sometimes with worse arts, to know future things. The name of master, of teacher, that passes through the Scripture, is rabbi, and rabbi in the root thereof signifies, magnum, and multum; it is a word that denotes greatness; and truly no man should be

¹⁵ Acts viii. "Ver. 36.

greater in our eyes, nor be thought to have laid greater obligations upon us, than he that hath taught us. When Christ is promised thus, The Lord shall send them a Saviour, and a great one¹¹, there is this word rabbi: the Lord shall send them a Saviour, which shall be rabbi, a great teacher; Christ was a Saviour, as he paid God a ransom for all; as he made man capable of this salvation, he was this rabbi, this teacher; and in this capacity, did those two disciples of John Baptist, who first applied themselves to Christ, apply themselves, Magister ubi habitas? Master, where dwellest thou¹"? where may we come to school to thee? where may we be taught by thee? St. Paul hath showed us the duty of all true disciples, in the practice of the Galatians"; You received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus, and I bear you record, that if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. I thank him that brings me a candle, when it grows dark, and him that assists me with a spectacle, when my sight grows old; but to him that hath given the eyes of my soul, light and spectacles, how much a greater debtor am 1I I will not dispute against nature, nor natural affections, nor dispute against allegiance, nor civil obligations, nor dispute against gratitude, nor retribution of benefits; but I willingly pronounce, that I cannot owe more to my benefactor, to my father, to my prince, than I do to them that have taught me; nor can there be a deeper ingratitude, than to turn thy face from that man, or from his children, that hath taught thee. This Christ presents for the first comfort, Docebimini, You are ignorant, but that cloud shall be dispersed, you would learn, but have no help, but that defect shall be supplied, you shall be taught: and then, this comfort shall be exalted to you, in the person of the teacher, Ille docebit, He whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you.

Quintilian requires no more of a schoolmaster, but that either he be learned, or do not think himself to be so, if he be not: because if he over-value himself, he will admit no usher, no assistant. Here we have a master that is both absolute in himself, and yet undertaken for by others too; the Father sends him,

and in the Son's name, that is, to perfect the Son's work. Tertullian (a man of adventurous language) calls him Tertium numen dhinitatis, et tertium nomen majestatis: The Holy Ghost hath but a third place, but the same Godhead, but a third name, )⁷et the same majesty, as the first, the Father, or the second, the Son. Porphyry that denied the Trinity, is convinced by St. Cyril, to have established a trinity, because he acknowledged first Deiim summum, and then, Conditorem omnium, and after them Animam mundi; One that is a supreme God, One that was the Creator of all things, and one that quickens and inanimates all, and is the soul of the whole world: and this soul of the world is the Holy Ghost, who doth that office to the soul of every Christian, which the soul itself doth to every natural man, informs him, directs him, instructs him, makes him be that he is, and do that he doth. And therefore as Tertullian calls Christ by the Holy Ghost's name, (for he calls Christ Spiritum Dei, because, as the office of our spirits is to unite the body and the soul, so Christ hath united God and man in one Emanuel) St. Basil gives the Holy Ghost Christ's name, for he calls the Holy Ghost Verbum Dei, The word of God, because he undertakes the pedagogue of the soul, to be the soul's schoolmaster, and to teach it as much of God as concerns it, that is, Christ crucified. Therefore when the Holy Ghost was first sent, he was sent but to testify of Christ; at Christ's baptism (which was his first sending) he was sent but to establish an assurance, and a belief, that that Christ was the Son of God, in whom he was well pleased; and this he did but as a witness, not as a teacher ; for the voice that wrought this, and taught this, came not from the dove, not from the Holy Ghost, but from above; the Holy Ghost said nothing then. But when the Holy Ghost in performance of Christ's promise in this text, was sent as a teacher, then he came in the form of tongues, and they that received him, were thereby presently enabled to speak to others.

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

They had wont to call pictures in the church, the layman's book, because in them, he that could not read at all, might read much. The ignorantest man that is, even he that cannot read a picture, even a blind man, hath a better book in himself; in his

⁸⁰ Jer. xxxii. 35.

own memory he may read many a history of God's goodness to him. Quid ab initio, 'How it was in the beginning, is Christ's method; to determine things according to former precedents; and truly the memory is oftener the Holy Ghost's pulpit that he preaches in, than the understanding. How many here would not understand me, or not rest in that which they heard, if I should spend the rest of this hour in repeating, and reconciling that which divers authors have spoken diversly of the manner of Christ's presence in the sacrament, or the manner of Christ's descent into hell, or the manner of the concurrence, and jointworking of the grace of God, and the free-will of man, in men's actions? But is there any man amongst us that is not capable of this catechism, remember to-morrow but those good thoughts which you have had within this hour, since you came hither now: remember at your last hour, to be but as good as you are this minute; I would scarce ask more in any man's behalf, than that he would always be as good, as at sometimes he is; if he would never sink below himself, I would less care, though he did not exceed himself: if he would remember his own holy purposes at best, he would never forget God; if he would remember the comfort he had in having overcome such a temptation yesterday, he would not be overcome by that temptation to-day. The memory is as the conclusion of a syllogism, which being inferred upon true propositions, cannot be denied: he that remembers God's former blessings, concludes infallibly upon his future. Therefore Christ places the comfort of this comforter, the Holy Ghost, in this, that he shall work upon that pregnant faculty, the memory; he shall bring things to your remembrance; and then, Omnia, All those things which I haw said unto you.

Christ gave the Holy Ghost to the apostles, when he gave them the power of absolution in his lifetime⁸¹. He gave them the Holy Ghost more powerfully, when after his resurrection, He breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost^1*. He opened himself to them, in a large fulness, when he said, All things that I have heard of my Father, I haw made known unto

^8l Matt, xviii. 18.

John xx. 22.

you"; but in a greater largeness than that, when upon this day, according to the promise of this text, the Holy Ghost was sent unto them; for this was in the behalf of others. And upon this fulness, out of Tertullian it is argued, Nihil ignorarunt, ergo nihil non docuerunt, As the apostles were taught all things by Christ, so they taught the church all things. There is then the sphere, and the compass, and the date of our knowledge; not what was thought or taught in the tenth, or fourteenth century: but what was taught in Christ, and in the apostles' time. Christ taught all things to his apostles, and the Holy Ghost brought all things to their remembrance that he had taught them, that they might teach them to others, and so it is derived to us.

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

They are many; too many, for many revolutions of an hour

⁸³ John xv. 15. ^4* John xv. 26.

glass. Therefore we proposed at first, that when we should come to this branch, for the proper celebration of the day, we would only touch some things, which the Holy Ghost had taught of himself, that so we might detect, and detest such things, as some ancient, and some later heretics had said of the Holy Ghost. Now those things which the ancient heretics have said, are sufficiently gainsaid by the ancient fathers. The Montanists said the Holy Ghost was in Christ, and in the apostles, but in a far higher exaltation in Montanus, than in either; but Tertullian opposed that. Manes was more insolent than the Montanist, for he avowed himself to be the Holy Ghost, and St. Augustine overthrew that. Hierarchas was more modest than so, and did but say, That Melchisedech was the Holy Ghost, and St. Cyprian would not endure that. The Arians said the Holy Ghost was but creatura creaturw, made by the Son, which Son himself was but made in time, and not eternally begotten by the Father; but Liberius, and many of the fathers opposed that; as a whole general council did Macedonius, when he refreshed many errors formerly condemned, concerning the Holy Ghost; and few of these have had any resurrection, any repullulation, or appeared again in these later days. But in these later times, two new heresies have arisen concerning the Holy Ghost.

About four hundred years since, came out that famous infamous book in the Roman church, which they called Evangelium Spiritus Sancti, The Gospel of the Holy Ghost; in which, was pretended, that as God the Father had had his time in the government of the church, in the law, and God the Son his time, in the Gospel, so the Holy Ghost was to have his time; and his time was to begin within fifty years after the publishing of that Gospel, and to last to the end of the world; and therefore it was called Evangelium wternum, The everlasting Gospel. By this Gospel, the Gospel of Christ was absolutely abrogated, and the power of governing the church, according to the Gospel of Christ, utterly evacuated; for, it was therein taught, that only the literal sense of the Gospel had been committed to them, who had thus long governed in the name of the church, but the spiritual and mystical sense was reserved to the Holy Ghost, and that now the Holy Ghost would set that on foot: and so, (which was the principal

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intention in that plot) they would have brought all doctrine, and all discipline, all government into the cloister, into their religious orders, and overthrown the hierarchy of the church, of bishops, and priests, and deacons, and cathedral and collegiate churches, and brought all into monasteries. He that first opposed this book was Waldo, he that gave the name to that great body, that great power of men, who attempted the reformation of the church, and were called the Waldenses, who were especially defamed, and especially persecuted for this, that they put themselves in the gap, and made themselves a bank, against this torrent, this inundation, this impetuousness, this multiplicity of friars, and monks, that surrounded the world in those times. And when this book could not be dissembled, and being full of blasphemy against Christ, was necessarily brought into agitation, yet all that was done by them, who had the government of the church in their hands then, was but this, that this book, this Gospel of the Holy Ghost should be suppressed and smothered, but without any, noise, or discredit; and the book which was writ against it should be solemnly, publicly, infamously burnt. And so they kindled a war in heaven, greater than that in the Revelation *⁶, where Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and his angels; for here they brought God the Son into the field, against God the Holy Ghost, and made the Holy Ghost, divest, dethrone, disseize, and dispossess the Son of his government.

Now when they could not advance that heresy, when they could not bring the Holy Ghost to that greatness, when they could not make him king to their purposes, that is, king over Christ, they are come to an heresy clean contrary to that heresy, that is, to imprison the Holy Ghost, and since they could not make him king over Christ himself, they have made him a prisoner, and a slave to Christ's vicar, and shut him up there, in scrinio pectoris, (as they call it) in that close imprisonment, in the breast and bosom of one man, that bishop: and so, the Holy Ghost is no longer a dove, a dove in the ark, a dove with an olivebranch, a messenger of peace, but now the Holy Ghost is in a bull, in bulls worse than Phalaris's bull, bulls of excommunication, bulls of rebellion, and deposition, and assassinates of Chris

⁸⁵ Rev. xii. 7.

tian princes. The Holy Ghost is no longer omnipresent, as in David's time, (Whither shall I go from thy Spirit¹'¹ ?) but he is only there, whither he shall be sent from Rome in a cloak-bag, and upon a post-horse, as it was often complained in the Council of Trent. The Holy Ghost is no longer omniscient, to know all at once, as in St. Paul's time, when the Spirit of God searched all things, yea the deep things of God", but as a sea-captain receives a ticket, to be opened when he comes to such a height, and thereby to direct his future course, so the Holy Ghost is appointed to ask the Pope's nuncio, his legate, what he shall declare to be truth. So the Holy Ghost was sent into this kingdom, by Leo the Tenth, with his legate, that brought the bull of declaration for Henry the Eighth's divorce; but the Holy Ghost might not know of it, that is, not take knowledge of it, not declare it to be a divorce, till some other conditions were performed by the king, which being never performed, the Holy Ghost remained in the case of a new created cardinal, ore clauso, he had no voice; and so the divorce, though past all debatements, and all consents, and all determinations at Rome, was no divorce, because he that sent the Holy Ghost from Rome, forbad him to publish and declare it. So that the style of the court is altered from the apostle's time; then it was, Visum est Spiritui Sancto, et nobis, It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to «<s⁸⁸,- first to the Holy Ghost, before others; and when it is brought to others, it is to us, to others in the plural, to many others. But now it is Visum est mihi, et Spiritui Sancto, It seems good unto me, to one man alone; and when it does so, it shall seem good to the Holy Ghost too. And of these two heretical violences to the Holy Ghost, we complain against that church, first, that they put the Holy Ghost in a rebellion against the Son of God, from whom he proceeds; and then, (as for the most part, the end of them, who pretend right to a kingdom, and cannot prove it, is to lie in prison) that they * have imprisoned the Holy Ghost in one man's breast, and not suffered that wind to breathe where it will, as Christ promised the Holy Ghost should do: for neither did the Holy Ghost bring any such thing to their remembrance, as though Christ had taught any such doctrine, neither can they that teach it, come

⁸⁶ Psal. cxxxix. 7. ^£7 1 Cor. ii. 10. ⁸⁸ Acts xv. 28.

nearer the sin, the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, than thus 'to make him a supplanter of Christ, or supplanted by Antichrist.

But we hold you no longer in this ill air, blasphemous and irksome contumelies against the Holy Ghost: we promised at first, to dismiss you at last, in a perfume, with the breath of the Holy Ghost upon you; and that is, to excite you to a rectified sense, and knowledge, that he offers himself unto you, and is received by you. Facies Dei est, qua nobis innotescit"; That is always the face of God to us, by which God vouchsafes to manifest himself to us: so, his ordinance in the church, is his face. And Lux Dei, qua nobis illucescit, The light of God to us, is that light by which he shines upon us; lex Dei, lux Dei, his word, in his church. And then, the evidence, the seal, the witness of all, that this face which I see by this light, is directed upon me for my comfort, is, the testimony of the Holy Ghost, when that Spirit bears witness with our spirit, that he is in us. And therefore in his blessed name, and in the participation of his power, I say to you all, Accipite Spiritum Sanctum, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Not that I can give it you, but I can tell you, that he offers to give himself to you all. Our sufficiency is of God³⁰, says the apostle; acknowledge you a sufficiency in us, a sufficient power to be in the ministry; for, (as the apostle adds) He hath made us able ministers of the New Testament: not able only in faculties and gifts requisite for that function, (those faculties and gifts, whether of nature, or of acquisition, be, in as great measure, in some that have not that function) but able, by his powerful ordinance, (as it is also added there) to minister, not the letter, (not the letter only) but the spirit, the spirit of the New Testament, that is, the Holy Ghost to you. Therefore as God said to Moses, / will come down, and talk with thee, and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and put it upon them", God, in his spirit does come down to us in his ministry, and talk with us, his ministers at home, that is, assist us in our meditations, and lucubrations, and preparations, for this service here, and then, here, in this place, he takes of that spirit from us, and

sheds upon you, imparts the gifts of the Holy Ghost to you also, and makes the Holy Ghost as much yours, by your hearing, as he made him ours, by our study: be not deceived by the letter, by the phrase of that place; God does not say there, that he will take of the spirit from us, and give it you, that is, fill you with it, and leave us without it; but he will take of that spirit, that is, impart that spirit so to you, as that by us, and our present ministry, he will give you that that shall be sufficient for you, today, and yet call you to us again in his ordinance, another day. Learn as much as you can every day, and never think that you have learnt so much, as that you have no more need of a teacher; for though you need no more of that man, (you may be perchance as learned as he) yet you need more of that ordinance: we give you the Holy Ghost then, when we open your eyes to see his offers.

Those words of the apostle, Ourselves have the first-fruits of the Spirit³*, St. Ambrose interprets so, ourselves, we the ministers of God, have the first-fruits of the Spirit, the prepossession, the preinhabitation, but not the sole possession, nor sole inhabitation of the Holy Ghost; but we have grace for grace, the Spirit therefore, to shed the Spirit upon you; that that precious ointment³³, (the Holy Ghost is this unction) which was poured upon the Head, upon Christ, may run down, upon Aarotis beard, and from those gray, and grave, and reverend hairs of his ministers, may also go down to the skirts of his garments, to every one of you, who do not only make up the garment, that is, the visible, but the mystical body itself of Christ Jesus. The dew of Hermon descends upon the mountains of Sion; but the waters that fall upon the mountains, fall into the valleys too from thence; the Holy Ghost falls, through us, upon you also, so as that you may, so as that you must find it in yourselves. The Holy Ghost was the first person, that was declared in the creation, The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters³*; that was the first motion. This is eternal life, to know God, and him whom he sent, Christ Jesus. But this you cannot do, but by him whom they both sent, the Holy Ghost; No man can say, that Jesus is the

Lord, but by the Holy Ghost³". John Baptist who was to baptize Christ, was filled with the Holy Ghost from the womb, You, who were baptized in Christ, were filled, (in your measure) with the Holy Ghost, from that womb, from the time that the church conceived you in baptism.

And therefore, as the twelve said to the multitude, Look ye among ye seven men full of the Holy Ghost³*, so we say to the whole congregation, look every man to himself, that he be one of the seven, one of that infinite number, which the Holy Ghost offers to fall upon; that as ye were baptized in the Holy Ghost, and as your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost, so your souls may be priests of the Holy Ghost, and you altogether, a lively and reasonable sacrifice to God, in the Holy Ghost. That as you have been sealed with the holy Spirit of promise³¹, you may find in yourselves the performance of that promise, find the seal of that promise, in your love to the Scriptures; for, (as St. Chrysostom argues usefully) Christ gave the apostles no Scriptures, but he gave them the Holy Ghost instead of Scriptures; but to us, who are weaker, he hath given both, the Holy Ghost in the , Scriptures; and, if we neglect either, we have neither; if we frust to a private spirit, and call that the Holy Ghost, without Scripture, or to the Scriptures without the Holy Ghost, that is, without him, there, where he hath promised to be, in his ordinance, in his church, we have not the seal of that promise, the Holy Ghost. Find then that promise in your holy love, and sober study of the Scriptures, and find the performance, the fruits thereof in your conversation, and then you have an autumn better than any worldly spring, a vintage, a gathering of those blessed fruits, The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suff ring^ gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance³³; where (by the way) these are not called severally the fruits of the Spirit, as though they were so many several fruits, which might be had one without another, but collectively, all together, they are called the fruit; it is not love alone, nor joy alone, no nor faith alone, that is the fruit of the Holy Ghost; love, but not love alone, but that love, when between the Holy Ghost and you, you can joy

⁸⁵1 Cor. xii. 3. ³⁸ Acts vi. 3.

³' Eph. i. 13, ³⁸ Gal. v. 22.

in that love, and not repent it; joy, but not joy alone, but that joy, when between the Holy Ghost and you, you can find peace in that joy, that you be not the sadder after, for having been so merry before, this, these, these and all the rest together are the fruit of the Holy Ghost; and therefore labour to have thom all, or you lack all.

And then lastly, as we pursuing God's ordinance, have been able to say to you Accipite Spiritum Sanctum, Behold the Holy Ghost in yourselves, behold he appeared to you, when he moved you to come hither, behold he appeared to you, as often as he hath opened the window of the ark, your hearts, to take in this dove, this hour, so we may say unto you, as we say in the school, There is an infusion of the Holy Ghost; liquor is infused into a vessel, if that vessel hold it, though it do but cover the bottom and no more: the Holy Ghost is infused into you, if he have made any entry, if he cover any part, if he have taken hold of any corrupt affection. There is also a diffusion of the Holy Ghost; liquor is diffused into a vessel, when it fills all the parts of the vessel, and leaves no emptiness, no dryness; the Holy Ghost is diffused into you, if he overspread you, and possess you all, and rectify all your perversenesses. But then, in the school, we have also an effusion of the Holy Ghost; and liquor is effused then, when it so fills the vessel, as that that overflows, to the benefit of them, who will participate thereof. Receive therefore the Holy Ghost, so, as that the Holy Ghost may overflow, flow from your example, to the edification of others; that you may go home, and say to your children, receive ye the Holy Ghost, in the spirit of contentment, and acquiescence, and thankfulness to God, and me, in that portion that I can leave you; and say to your servants, receive ye the Holy Ghost, in the spirit of obedience, and fidelity; and say to your neighbours, receive ye the Holy Ghost, in the spirit of peace and quietness; and say to your creditors, receive ye the Holy Ghost in the spirit of patience, and tenderness, and compassion, and forbearing; and to your debtors, receive ye the Holy Ghost in the spirit of industry, and labour in your calling. You see, preaching itself, even the preaching of Christ himself, had been lost, if the Holy Ghost had not brought all those things to their remembrance.

And if the Holy Ghost do bring these things, which we preach to your remembrance, you are also made fishers of men, and apostles, and (as the prophet speaks) Salvatores mundiTM, men that assist the salvation of the world, by the best way of preaching, an exemplar life, and holy conversation. Amen.