7

God forbid. A man is heard, when that is given which his will desired; and our will is ever understood to be a will rectified, and concurrent with God. This is voluntas, a discoursed and examined will. That which is upon the first sight of the object, is velleitas, a willingness, which we resist not, only because we thought not of it. And such a willingness had Christ, when suddenly he wished that the cup might pass: but quickly couformed his will to his Father's. But in this prayer his will was present, therefore fulfilled. Briefly then, in this prayer he commended not all the Jews, for he knew the chief to sin knowingly, and so out of the reach of his reason, (for they know not). Nor any, except they repented after: for it is not ignorance, but repentance, which deriveth to us the benefit of God's pardon. For he that sins of ignorance, may be pardoned if he repent; but he that sins against his conscience, and is thereby impenitable, cannot be pardoned. And this is all, which I will say of these words, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

O Eternal God, look down from thy throne to thy foot-stool: from thy blessed company of angels and saints, to us, by our own faults made more wretched and contemptible, than the worms which shall eat us, or the dust which we were, and shall be. O Lord, under the weight of thy justice we cannot stand. Nor had any other title to thy mercy, but the name of Father, and that we have forfeited. That name of sons of God, thou gavest to us, all at once in Adam; and he gave it away from us all by his sin. And thou hast given it again to every one of us, in our regeneration by baptism, and we have lost it again by our transgressions. And yet thou wast not weary of being merciful, but didst choose one of us, to be a fit and worthy ransom for us all; and by the death of thy Christ, our Jesus, gavest us again the title and privilege of thy sons; but with conditions, which though easy, we have broke, and with a yoke, which though light and sweet, we have cast off. How shall we then dare to call thee Father? Or to beg that thou wilt make one trial more of us? These hearts are accustomed to rebellions, and hopeless. But, O God, create in us new hearts, hearts capable of the love and fear, due to a

Father. And then we shall dare to say, Father, and to say, Father, forgive us. Forgive us O Father, and all which are engaged, and accountable to thee for us; forgive our parents, and those which undertook for us in baptism. Forgive the civil magistrate, and the minister. Forgive them their negligences, and us our stubbornnesses. And give us the grace that we may ever sincerely say, both this prayer of example and counsel, Forgive our enemies, and that other of precept, Our Father which art in heaven, &c.

SERMON CXVI.

PREACHED FEBRUARY 21, 1611.

MATTHEW Xxi. 44.

Whosoever shall fall on this stone, shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

ALMIGHTY GOD made us for his glory, and his glory is not the glory of a tyrant, to destroy us, but his glory is in our happiness. He put us in a fair way towards that happiness in nature, in our creation, that way would have brought us to heaven, but then we fell, and (if we consider ourselves only) irrecoverably. He put us after into another way, over thorny hedges and ploughed lands, through the difficulties and encumbrances of all the ceremonial law; there was no way to heaven then, but that; after that, he brought us a cross way, by the cross of Jesus Christ, and the application of his Gospel, and that is our way now. If we compare the way of nature, and our way, we went out of the way at the town's end, as soon as we were in it, we were out of it. Adam died as soon as he lived, and fell as soon as he was set on foot; if we compare the way of the law, and ours, the Jews and the Christians, their synagogue was but as God's farm, our church is as his dwelling-house; to them locavit vineam, he let out his vine to husbandmen, and then peregre profectus, he went into a

far country, he promised a Messias, but deferred his coming a long time but to us dabitur regnum, a kingdom is given; the vineyard is changed into a kingdom, here is a good improvement, and the lease into an absolute deed of gift, here is a good enlargement of the term. He gives, therefore he will not take away again. He gives a kingdom, therefore there is a fulness and allsufficiency in the gift; and he does not go into any far country, but stays with us, to govern us, usque ad consummationem, till the end of the world; here therefore God takes all into his own hands, and he comes to dwell upon us himself, to which purpose he ploughs up our hearts, and he builds upon us; Vos Dei agricultura, et Dei ædificium, Ye are God's husbandry, and God's building now of this, this husbandry God speaks familiarly and parabolically many times in Scriptures: of this building particucularly and principally in this place, where having intimated unto us the several benefits we have received from Christ Jesus in that appellation, as he is a stone; he tells us also our dangers in mis-behaving ourselves towards it, Whosoever shall fall on this, &c.

Christ then is a stone, and we may run into two dangers: first, we may fall upon this stone, and then this stone may fall upon

us; but yet we have a great deal of comfort presented to us, in that Christ is presented to us as a stone, for there we shall find him, first, to be the foundation-stone, nothing can stand which is not built upon Christ; secondly, to be lapis angularis, a corner stone, that unites things most disunited; and then to be lapis Jacob, the stone that Jacob slept upon; fourthly, to be lapis Davidis, the stone that David slew Goliah withal; and lastly to be lapis Petra, such a stone as is a rock, and such a rock as no waters nor storms can remove or shake, these are benefits: Christ Jesus is a stone, no firmness but in him; a fundamental stone, no building but on him; a corner stone, no piecing nor reconciliation, but in him; and Jacob's stone, no rest, no tranquillity, but in him; and David's stone, no anger, no revenge, but in him; and a rocky stone, no defence against troubles and tribulations, but in him; and upon this stone we fall and are broken, and this stone may fall on us, and grind us to powder.

11 Cor. iii. 9.

First in the metaphor, that Christ is called a stone, the firmness is expressed: forasmuch as he loved his own that were in the world, In finem dilexit eos, says St. John, He loved them to the end; and not to any particular end, for any use of his own, but to their end; Qui erant in mundo, says Cyril, ad distinctionem angelorum, He loved them in the world, and not angels; he loved not only them who were in a confirmed estate of mutual loving him too, but even them who were themselves conceived in sin, and then conceived all their purposes in sin too, them who could have no cleansing but in his blood, and when they were cleansed in his blood, their own clothes would defile them again, them who by nature are not able to love him at all, and when by grace they are brought to love him, can express their love no other way, but to be glad that he was betrayed, and scourged, and scorned, and nailed, and crucified; and to be glad, that if all this were not already done, it might be done yet, to long, and wish, that if Christ were not crucified, he might be crucified now, (which is a strange manner of expressing love) those men he loved, and loved unto the end; men and not angels; and then men, Ad distinctionem mortuorum, says Chrysostom, Not only the patriarchs, who were departed out of the world, who had loved him so well, as to take his word for their salvation, and had lived and died in the faithful contemplation of a future promise, which they never saw performed; but those who were partakers of the performance of all those promises, those into the midst of whom he came in person, those upon he wrought with his piercing doctrine, and his powerful miracles, those who for all this loved not him, he loved; et in finem, he loved them to the end: it is much that he should love them in fine, at their end, that he should look graciously on them at last, that when their sun sets, their eyes faint, his sun of grace should arise, and his East be brought to their West, that then in the shadow of death, the Lord of life should quicken and inanimate their hearts: that when their last bell tolls, and calls them to their first judgment, (and first and last judgment to this purpose is all one) the passing bell, and angel's trump sound all but one note, Surgite qui dormitis in pulvere, Arise ye that sleep in the dust, which is the voice of the

2 John xiii. 1.

angels, and Surgite qui vigilatis in plumis, Arise ye that cannot sleep in feathers, for the pangs of death, which is the voice of the bell, is but one voice; for God at the general judgment, shal] never reverse any particular judgment, formerly given; that God should then come to the bed's side, Ad sibilandum populum suum, as the prophet Ezekiel speaks, to hiss softly for his child, to speak comfortably in his ear, to whisper gently to his departing soul, and to drown and overcome with this soft music of his, all the danger of the angels' trumpets, all the horror of the ringing bell, all the cries, and vociferations of a distressed, and distracted, and scattering family, yea all the accusations of his own conscience, and all the triumphant acclamations of the devil himself; that God should love a man thus in fine, at his end, and return to him then, though he had suffered him to go astray from him before, it is a great testimony of an unspeakable love: but his love is not only in fine, at the end, but in finem, to the end, all the way to the end. He leaves them not uncalled at first, he leaves them not unaccompanied in the way, he leaves them not unrecompensed at the last, that God who is Almighty, Alpha and Omega, first and last, that God is also love itself, and therefore this love is Alpha and Omega, first and last too; consider Christ's proceeding with Peter in the ship, in the storm; first he suffered him to be in some danger, but then he visits him with that strong assurance, Noli timere, Be not afraid, it is I3, any testimony of his presence rectifies all. This puts Peter into that spiritual knowledge and confidence, Jube me venire, Lord bid me come to thee; he hath a desire to be with Christ, but yet stays his bidding; he puts not himself into an unnecessary danger, without a commandment; Christ bids him, and Peter comes, but yet, though Christ were in his sight, and even in the actual exercise of his love to him, yet as soon as he saw a gust, a storm, timuit, he was afraid, and Christ letteth him fear, and letteth him sink, and letteth him cry; but he directed his fear, and his cry to the right end, Domine salvum me fac, Lord save me, and thereupon he stretcheth out his hand and saved him: God doth not raise his children to honour, and great estates, and then leave them, and expose them to be subjects, and exercises of the malice

8 Matt. xiv. 27.