enfeebled, justification that may be suspected, and sanctification that may be blemished. But we look for more; for joy, and glory; for such a justification, and such a sanctification, as shall be sealed, and riveted in a glorification. Manna putrefied if it were kept by any man, but a day; but in the ark, it never putrefied. That treasure, which is as manna from heaven, grace, and peace, yet, here, hath a brackish taste: when grace, and peace, shall become joy and glory in heaven, there it will be sincere. Sordescit quod inferiori miscetur naturæ, etsi in suo genere non sordidetur: Though in the nature thereof, that with which a purer metal is mixed, be not base; yet, it abases the purer metal. He puts his example in silver and gold; though silver be a precious metal, yet it abases gold. Grace, and peace, and faith, are precious parts of our treasure here; yet, if we mingle them, that is, compare them with the joys, and glory of heaven; if we come to think, that our grace, and peace, and faith here, can no more be lost, than our joy and glory there; we abase, and over-alloy those joys, and that glory. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, says our Saviour". But is that all? Is any treasure like unto it? None: for, (to end where we begun) treasure is Depositum in crastinum, Provision for to-morrow. The treasure of the worldly man is not so; he is not sure of any thing to-morrow. Nay, the treasure of the godly man is not so in this world; he is not sure, that this day's grace, and peace, and faith, shall be his to-morrow. When I have joy and glory in heaven, I shall be sure of that, to-morrow. And that is a term long enough: for, before a to-morrow, there must be a night; and shall there ever be a night in heaven? No more than day in hell. There shall be no sun in heaven"1; therefore no danger of a sun-set. And for the treasure itself, when the Holy Ghost hath told us, that the walls and streets of the city are pure gold, that the foundations thereof are all precious stones, and every gate of an entire pearl; what hath the Holy Ghost himself left to denote unto us, what the treasure itself within is? The treasure itself, is the Holy Ghost himself, and joy in him. As the Holy Ghost proceeds from Father and Son, but I know not how; so there shall some 49 Augustine, 50 Matt. xiii. 44. 51 Rev. xxi. 23. thing proceed from Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and fall upon me, but I know not what. Nay, not fall upon me neither; but enwrap me, embrace me: for, I shall not be below them, so as that I shall not be upon the same seat with the Son, at the right hand of the Father, in the union of the Holy Ghost: rectified by the power of the Father, and feel no weakness; enlightened by the wisdom of the Son, and feel no scruple; established by the joy of the Holy Ghost, and feel no jealousy. Where I shall find the fathers of the first age, dead five thousand years before me; and they shall not be able to say they were there a minute before me. Where I shall find the blessed and glorious martyrs, who went not per viam lacteam, but per viam sanguineam; not by the milky way of an innocent life, but by the bloody way of a violent death; and they shall not contend with me for precedency in their own right, or say, We came in by purchase, and you but by pardon. Where I shall find the virgins, and not be despised by them, for not being so; but hear that redintegration, which I shall receive in Christ Jesus, called virginity, and entireness. Where all tears shall be wiped from mine eyes; not only tears of compunction for myself, and tears of compassion for others; but even tears of joy, too: for, there shall be no sudden joy, no joy unexperienced there; there I shall have all joys, altogether, always. There Abraham shall not be gladder of his own salvation, than of mine; nor I surer of the everlastingness of my God, than of my everlastingness in him. This is that treasure, of which the God of this treasure, gives us those spangles; and that single money, which this mint can coin, this world can receive, that is, prosperity, and a good use thereof, in worldly things; and grace, and peace, and faith, in spiritual. And then reserve for us the exaltation of this treasure, in the joy and glory of heaven, in the mediation of his Son Christ Jesus, and by the operation of his blessed Spirit. Amen. 452 SERMON CXXXVII. PREACHED AT WHITEHALL, APRIL 21, 1616. ECCLESIASTICUs viii. 11. Because sentence against an evil work, is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the children of men, is fully set in them, to do evil. We cannot take into our meditation, a better rule, than that of the Stoic', Nihil infœlicius fœlicitate peccantium; There is no such unhappiness to a sinner, as to be happy; no such cross, as to have no crosses: nor can we take a better example of that rule, than Constantius the Arian emperor, in whose time first of all, the cross of Christ suffered that profanation, as to be an ensign of war, between Christian and Christian: when Magnentius by being an usurping tyrant, and Constantius by being an Arian heretic, had forfeited their interest in the cross of Christ, which is the ensign of the universal peace of this world, and the means of the eternal peace of the next; both brought the cross to cross the cross, to be an ensign of war, and of hostility; both made that cross, when the Father accepted for all mankind, the blood of Christ Jesus, to be an instrument for the sinful effusion of the blood of Christians. But when this heretical emperor had a victory over this usurping tyrant, this unhappy happiness transported him to a greater sin, a greater insolence, to approach so near to God himself, as to call himself Eternum principum, The eternal emperor; and to take into his style, and rescripts, this addition, Eternitatem nostram, Thus and thus, it hath pleased our eternity to proceed: yea, and to bring his Arian followers, who would never acknowledge an eternity in Christ, nor confess him to be the eternal Son of God, to salute himself by that name, eternum Cæsarem, the eternal emperor: so venomous, so deadly is the prosperity of the wicked to their own souls, that even from the mercy of God, they take occasion of sinning; not only thereby, but even therefore; they do not only make that their excuse, when they do sin, but their reason why they may sin; as we see 1 Seneca. in these words, Because sentence against an evil work, is not executed speedily, &c. In which words, we shall consider, first, the general perverseness of a natural man, who by custom in sin, comes to assign a reason why he may sin; intimated in the first word, Because. And secondly, the particular perverseness of the men in this text, who assign the patience of God, to be the reason of their continuance in sin, Because sentence is not executed speedily. And then lastly, the illusion upon this, what a fearful state this shuts them up in, That therefore their hearts are fully set in them, to do evil. And these three, the perverseness of colouring sins with reasons, and the impotency of making God's mercy the reason, and the danger of obduration thereby, will be the three parts, in which we shall determine this exercise. First then, in handling the perverseness of assigning reasons for sins, we forbid no man the use of reason in matters of religion. As St. Augustine says, Contra Scripturam, nemo Christianus, No man can pretend to be a Christian, if he refuse to be tried by the Scriptures: and, as he adds, Contra ecclesiam nemo pacificus, No man can pretend to love order and peace, if he refuse to be tried by the church: so he adds also, Contra rationem nemo sobrius, No man can pretend to be in his wits, if he refuse to be tried by reason. He that believes any thing because the church presents it, he hath reason to assure him, that this authority of the church is founded in the Scriptures: he that believeth the Scriptures, hath reasons that govern and assure him that those Scriptures are the Word of God. Mysteries of religion are not the less believed and embraced by faith, because they are presented, and induced, and apprehended by reason. But this must not enthrone, this must not exalt any man's reason so far, as that there should lie an appeal, from God's judgments to any man's reason: that if he see no reason, why God should proceed so, and so, he will not believe that to be God's judgment, or not believe that judgment of God, to be just: fcr, of the secret purposes of God, we have an example what to say, given us by Christ himself, Ita est, quia complacuit; It is so, O Father, because thy good pleasure was such: all was in his own 2 Matt. xi. 26. breast and bosom, in his own good will and pleasure, before he decreed it; and as his decree itself, so the ways and executions of his decrees, are often unsearchable, for the purpose, and for the reason thereof, though for the matter of fact, they may be manifest. They that think themselves sharp-sighted and wise enough, to search into those unrevealed decrees; they who being but worms, will look into heaven; and being the last of creatures, who were made, will needs inquire, what was done by God, before God did any thing, for creating the world, In ultimam dementiam ruerunt, says St. Chrysostom, They are fallen into a mischievous madness, Et ferrum ignitum, quod forcipe deberent, digitis accipiunt: They will needs take up red-hot irons, withtheir bare fingers, without tongs. That which is in the centre, which should rest, and lie still, in this peace, that it is so, because it is the will of God, that it should be so; they think to toss and tumble that up, to the circumference, to the light and evidence of their reason, by their wrangling disputations. : If then it be a presumptuous thing, and a contempt against God, to submit his decrees to the examination of human reason, it must be a high treason against the majesty of God, to find out a reason in him, which should justify our sins; to conclude out of any thing which he does, or leaves undone, that either he doth not hate, or cannot punish sinners: for this destroys even the nature of God, and that which the apostle lays, for the foundation of all, To believe that God is, and that he is a just rewarder3. Adam's Quia mulier, The woman whom thou gavest me, gare me the apple and Eve's Quia serpens, Because the serpent deceived me; and all such, are poor and unallowable pleas, which God would not admit for there is no quia, no reason, why any man, at any time, should do any sin. God never permits any perplexity to fall upon us, so, as that we cannot avoid one sin, but by doing another or that we should think ourself excusable by saying, Quia inde minus malum, There is less harm in a concubine, than in another wife; or, Quia inde aliquod bonum, That my incontinence hath produced a profitable man to the state or to the church though a bastard; much less to say, Quia obdormivit Deus, Tush, God sees it not, or cares not for it, though he see it. : 3 8 Heb. xi. 6. |