NEver such a frame so soon set up, as this in this chapter: For, for the thing it self, there is no other thing to compare it with; for it is all, it is the whole world. And for the time, there was no other time to compare it with; for this was the beginning of time, In the beginning God crea­ted heaven and earth. That earth, which in some thousands of yeares men could not look over, nor discern what form it had (for neither La­ctantius, almost three hundred yeares after Christ; nor S. Augustine, more then a hundred [Page 2]yeares after him, would beleeve the earth to be round) That earth, which no man in his per­son is ever said to have compassed till our age: That earth, which is too much for man yet (for as yet a very great part of the earth is un­peopled) That earth, which, if we will cast it all but into a Map, costs many moneths labour to grave it; nay, if we will but cast a piece of an acre of it into a garden, costs many yeares la­bour to fashion and furnish it; all that earth: And then that heaven, which spreads so farre, as that subtill men have, with some appearance of probabilitie, imagined, that in that heaven, in those manifold Spheres of the Planets and the Starres, there are many earths, many worlds, as big as this which we inhabit: That earth and that heaven, which spent God himself, Al­mightie God, six dayes in finishing, Moses sets up in a few syllables, in one line, In princi­pio, In the beginning God created heaven and earth. If a Livie or a Guicciardine, or such ex­tensive and voluminous authours had had this story in hand, God must have made another world, to have made them a library to hold their books, of the making of this world. Into what wire would they have drawn out this earth! Into what leaf-gold would they have beat out these heavens! It may assist our conje­cture herein, to cōsider, that amongst those men, who proceed with a sober modestie and limi­tation in their writing, & make a conscience not [Page 3]to clog the world with unnecessary books; yet the volumes which are written by them, upon the beginning of Genesis, are scarce lesse then in­finite. God did no more but say, Let this & this be done; and Moses doth no more but say, that upon Gods saying it was done. God required not Nature to help him to do it; Moses required not Reason to help him to beleeve: The holy Ghost hovered upon the waters, and so God wrought; The holy Ghost hovered upon Mo­ses too, and so he wrote: And we beleeve these things to be so, by the same Spirit in the mouth of Moses, by which they were made so in Gods hand: Onely (Beloved) remember, that a frame may be thrown down in much lesse time then it was set up. A childe, an ape can give fire to a can­non; and a vapour can shake the earth: and when Christ said, Throw down this Temple, and in three dayes I will raise it, they never stood upon the consideration of throwing it down; they knew that might be soon done: but they wondered at the speedy raising of it. Now, if all this earth were made in that minute, may not all come to the generall dissolution in this minute? Or may not thy acres, thy miles, thy shires shrink into feet, and so few feet, as shall but make up thy grave? when he who was a great lord must be but a cottager, & not so wel; for a cottager must have so many acres to his cottage: but in this case, a lit­tle piece of an acre, five foot, is become the house it self, the house and the land; the grave is all: [Page 4]lower then that, the grave is the land, and the tenement, & the tenant too. He that lies in it, be­comes the same earth that he lies in; they all make but one earth, and but a little of it. But then raise thy self to a higher hope again: God hath made better land, the land of promise; a stronger citie, the new Jerusalem; & inhabitants for that ever­lasting citie, us, whom he made, not by saying, Let there be men; but by consultation, by deli­beration; God said, Let us make man, &c.

We shall pursue our great examples, Divisio. God in doing, Moses in saying, and so make haste in applying the parts. But first receive them: and since we have the whole world in contempla­tion, consider in these words, the foure quar­ters of the world, by application, by fair and just accommodations of the words. First, in the first word that God speaks here, Faciamus, Let Ʋs, in the plurall, (a denotation of divers persons in the Godhead) we consider our East, where we must begin, at the knowledge and confession of the Trinity: for though in the way to heaven we have travelled beyond the Gentiles, when we come to confesse but one God (the Gentiles could not do that) yet we are still among the Jews, if we think that one God to be but one person. Zech. 6.12. Christs name is Ori­ens, the East; if we will be named by him, (cal­led Christians) we must look to this East, the confession of the Trinitie: there is then our East in the Faciamus, Let Ʋs, Ʋs make man: And [Page 5]then our West is in the next word, Faciamus hominem: Though we be thus made; made by the councell, made by the concurrence, made by the hand of the whole Trinity: yet we are made but men; and man but in the appellation in this Text; and man there is but Adam; and Adam is but earth, but red earth, died red in bloud, in bloud, in soul, the bloud of our own souls. To that West we must all come, to the earth; The sunne knoweth his going down: Psal. 104.19. even the sunne, for all his glory and height, hath a going down, and he knows it. The highest can­not devest mortality, nor the discomfort of mortality. Luc. 12.54. When you see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway you say, There cometh a storm, sayes Christ: When out of the region of your West, (that is, your latter dayes) there comes a cloud, a sicknesse; you feel a storm: even the best morall constancie is shaken. But this cloud, and this storm, and this West there must be; and that is our second consideration. But then the next word designes a North, a strong and powerfull North, to scatter and dissipate these clouds: Ad imaginem & similitudinem; that we are made according to a pattern, to an image, to a likenesse, which God proposed to himself for the making of man. This conside­ration, that God did not rest in that preexistent matter, out of which he made all other crea­tures, and produced their forms out of their matter, for the making of man; but took a [Page 6]form, a pattern, a modell for that work: This is the North-winde that is called upon to car­rie out the perfumes of the garden, Cant. 4.16. to spread the goodnesse of God abroad: this is that which is intended in Job; Job. 37.22. Fair weather cometh out of the North. Our West, our declination is in this, that we are but earth; our North, our dissipa­tion of that darknesse is in this, that we are not all earth: though we be of that matter, we have on another form, another image, another likenesse. And then whose image and likenesse it is, is our Meridionall height, our Noon, our South-point, our highest elevation; In imagine nostra, Let us make man in our image. Though our sunne set at noon, Amos 8.9. as the prophet Amos speaks; though we die in our youth, or fall in our height; yet even in that sunne-set we shall have a noon: for this image of God shall never depart from our soul, no not when that soul departs from our bodie: And that is our South, our Meridionall height and glory. And when we have thus seen this East, in the Faciamus; that I am the workmanship and care of the whole Trinitie; and this West; in the Hominem; that for all this, my matter, my substance is but earth; But then a North, a power of over­coming that law and miserable state, In imagine, that though in my matter the earth, I must die; yet in my form, in that image which I am made by, I cannot die: And after all, a South, a know­ledge that this image is not the image of angels [Page 7]themselves, to whom we shall be like; but it is by the same life by which those angels them­selves were made, the image of God himself: when I have gone over this East, and West, and North, & South here in this world, I should be sorie, as Alexander was, if there were no more worlds. But there is another world, which these considerations will discover and leade us to, in which our joy and our glorie shall be to see that God essentially, and face to face, after whose image and likenesse we were made be­fore. But as that Pilot, which hath harboured his ship so farre within land, as that he must have change of windes, in all the points of the compasse, to bring her out, cannot hope to bring her out in one day: so being to transport you by occasion of these words, from this world to the next, and in this world, through all the compasse, all the foure quarters thereof; I cannot hope to make all this voyage to day. To day we shall consider our longitude, our East and West; and our North and South at an­other tide and another gale.

First then we look towards our East, I. Part. Oriens. the foun­tain of light and life; There this world began: The creation was in the East, and there our next world began too: there the gates of heaven opened to us, and opened to us in the gates of death: for our heaven is the death of our Saviour, and there he lived, and died there, and there he looked into our West, from the [Page 8]East, from his terrasse, from his pinacle, from his exaltation (as himself calls it) the Crosse. The light which arises to us in this East, the knowledge which we receive in this first word of our text, Faciamus, Let us (where God, speaking of himself, speaks in the plurall) is the manifestation of the Trinitie; The Trinitie, which is the first letter in his Alphabet, that ever thinks to reade his name in the Book of life; the first note in his Gammut, that ever thinks to sing his part in the Triumphant Church. Let him have done as much as all the worthies, and suffer as much as all natures martyrs, the penurious Philosophers; let him have known as much as they pretend to know, Omne scibile, all that can be known; nay, and In­intelligibilia, In-investigabilia (as Tertullian speaks) un-understandable things, unrevea­led decrees of God: let him have writ as much as Aristotle writ, or as is written upon Aristotle (which is multiplication enough) yet he hath not learned to spell, that hath not learned the Trinitie: he hath not learned to pronounce the first word, that cannot bring three persons into one God. The subject of naturall Philoso­phers, are the foure elements, which God made: the subject of supernaturall Philosophie, Divinitie, are the three elements which God is; and (if we may so speak) which make God, that is, constitute God, notifie God to us, Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost. The na­turall [Page 9]man, that hearkens to his own heart, and the law written there, may produce acti­ons that are good; good in the nature, and mat­ter, and substance of the work: he may relieve the poore, he may defend the oppressed; but yet he is but as an open field: and though he be not absolutely barren, he bears but grasse. The godly man, he that hath taken in the knowledge of a great and powerfull God, and inclosed and hedged in himself with the fear of God, may produce actions better then the meer nature of man, because he referres his actions to the glorie of an imagined God: but yet this man, though he be more fruitfull then the former, more then a grassie field, is but a ploughed field, and bears but corn, and corn (God knows) choked with weeds. But the man that hath taken hold of God, by those handles, by which God hath delivered and manifested himself, in the notions of Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost; he is no field, but a garden, a garden of Gods planting, paradise, in which grow all things good to eat, and good to see (spirituall refection, and spirituall re­creation too) and all things good to cure: he hath his being, and his diet, and his physick there, in the knowledge of the Trinitie: his be­ing, in the mercie of the Father; his physick, in the merits of his Sonne; his dier, his daily bread, in the daily visitations of the holy Ghost. God is not pleased, not satisfied with [Page 10]our bare knowledge that there is a God; for, it is impossible to please God without faith: Hebr. 11.6. and there is no such exercise of faith in the know­ledge of a God, but that reason and nature will bring a man to it. When we professe God in the Creed, by way of belief, Credo in Deum, I beleeve in God; in the same article we professe him to be a Father too; I beleeve in God the Father Almightie: and that notion, the Father, necessarily implies a second person, a Sonne. And then we professe him to be maker of heaven and earth: and in the creation the ho­ly Ghost, the Spirit of God, is expressely na­med: so that we do but exercise reason and nature in directing our selves upon God: we exercise not Faith (and without faith it is im­possible to please God) till we come to that which is above nature, till we apprehend a Trinitie: we know God, we beleeve in the Trinitie. The Gentiles multiplied gods; there were al­most as many gods as men that beleeved in them; and I am got out of that throng, and out of that noise, when I am come into the knowledge of one God: but I am got above stairs, got into the bed-chamber, when I am come to see the Trinitie, and to apprehend not onely, that I am in the care of a great & power­full God, but that there is a Father that made me, a Sonne that redeemed me, a holy Ghost that applies this good purpose of the Father and Sonne upon me, to me. The root of all is [Page 11]God. But it is not the way to receive fruits, to dig to the root, but to reach to the boughs. I reach for my creation, to the Father; for my redemption, to the Sonne; for my sanctification, to the holy Ghost: and so I make the knowledge of God a tree of life unto me, and not other­wise. Truely it is a sad contemplation to see Christians scratch, and wound, and teare one another with the ignominious invectives and uncharitable names of Heretick and Schisma­tick, about ceremoniall and problematicall, and indeed but criticall verball controversies; and in the mean time, the foundation of all, the Trinitie, undermined by those numerous, those multitudinous ant-hills of Socinians, that o­verflow some parts of the Christian world, and multiply every where. And therefore the adversaries of the Reformation were wise in their generation, when, to supplant the credit of both those great assistants of the Reforma­tion, Luther & Calvin, they impute to Calvin fundamentall errour in the divinitie of the se­cond person of the Trinitie, the Sonne; And they impute to Luther a detestation of the word Trinitie, and an expunction thereof, in all places of the Liturgie, where the Church had received that word: They knew well, if that slander could prevail against those persons, nothing that they could say, could prevail upon any good Christians. But though in our Doctrine we keep up the Trinitie aright; yet [Page 12]God knows, in our Practise we do not: I hope it cannot be said of any of us, that he beleeves not the Trinitie: but who amongst us thinks of the Trinitie, considers of the Trinitie? Father and Sonne do naturally imply and induce one another, & therefore they fall oftener into our consideration; but for the holy Ghost, who feels him, when he feels him? who takes knowledge of his working, when he works? Indeed our Fathers provided not well enough for the worship of the whole Trinitie, nor of the holy Ghost in particular, in the endow­ments of the Church, and consecrations of the Churches, and possessions in their names: what a spirituall dominion in the Prayers & worship of the people, what a temporall dominion in the possessions of the world, had the Virgin Marie, Queen of heaven, and Queen of earth too! She was made joynt-purchaser of the Church with the Sonne, and had asmuch of the worship thereof as he, though she paid her Fine in milk, and he in bloud: And, till a new sect came in her Sonnes name, and in his name, the name of Jesus, took the Regencie so farre out of that Queen-mothers hands, and sued out her sonnes liverie so farre, as that, though her name be used, the Virgin Marie is but a Feofee in trust for them; all was hers. And if God op­pose not these new usurpers of the world, po­steritie will soon see S. Ignatius worth all the Trinitie in possessions and endowments; and [Page 13]that sumptuous and splendid foundation of his first Temple at Rome, may well create a con­jecture and suspicion. Travell no farther; Sur­vey but this Citie, and, of their not one hun­dred Churches, the Virgin Marie hath a dozen: The Trinitie hath but one; Christ hath but one; the holy Ghost hath none. But not to go into the Citie, nor out of our selves, which of us doth truely & considerately ascribe the com­forts that he receives in dangers or in distresses, to that God of all comfort, the Comforter, the holy Ghost? We know who procured us our presentation, and our dispensation: you know who procured you your offices, and your honours: Shall I ever forget who gave me my comfort in sicknesse? who gave me my comfort in the troubles, and perplexities, and diffidencies of my conscience? The holy Ghost, the holy Ghost brought you hither; The holy Ghost opens your eares and your hearts here. Till in all your distresses you say, Veni Creator Spiritus, Come holy Ghost; and that you feel a comfort in his coming: you can never say, Veni Domine Jesu, Come Lord Jesus, come to judgement. Never to consider the day of judgement, is a fearfull thing; but to consi­der the day of judgement without the holy Ghost, is a thousand times more fearfull.

This seal then, this impression, this notion of the Trinitie, being set upon us in this first plurall word of our Text, Faciamus, Let us (for [Page 14]Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost made man) and this seal being reimprinted upon us in our se­cond Creation, or Regeneration, in Baptisme, (man is baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Sonne, and of the holy Ghost) this notion of the Trinitie, being our distinctive character from Jew and Gentile; this being our specificall form; why doth not this our form, this soul of our Religion denominate us? why are we not called Trinitarians, a name that would embrace the profession of all the per­sons; but onely Christians, which limits and de­termines us upon one? The first Christians, amongst whose manifold persecutions, scorn and contempt was not the least, in contempt and scorn were called Nazaraei, Nazarites, in the mouth of the vulgar; and Galilaei, Galileans, in the mouth of Julian; & Judaei, Jews, in the mouth of Nero, when he imputed the burning of Rome (his own art) to them; and Christiani, Christians, so that (as Tertullian sayes) they could accuse Christians of nothing, but the name of Chri­stians: and yet they could not call them by their right name of Christians, which was gen­tle, quiet, easie, patient men, made to be troden upon; but they gave them divers names in scorn, yet never called them Trinitarians. Chri­stians themselves amongst themselves were called by divers names in the Primitive Church, for distinction; Fideles, the Faithfull; and Fratres, the Brethren; and Discipuli, Disci­ples; [Page 15]& after, by common custome at Antioch, Christians: and after that (they say, by a coun­cell which the Apostles held at the same Citie, at Antioch) there passed an expresse Canon of the Church, that they should be called so, Christians: And before they had this name at Antioch, first by common usage, after by a de­terminate Canon, to be called Christians, from Christ; at Alexandria, they were called (most likely from the name of Jesus) Jesseans. And so Philo Judaeus, in that book which he writes de Jessaeis, intends by his Jesseans, Christians. And in divers parts of the world, into which Chri­stians travell now, they finde some elements, some fragments, some reliques of the Christian religion, in the practise of some religious men, whom those Countreys call Jesseans, doubtlesly derived and continued from the name of Jesus. So that the Christians took many names to themselves for distinction (Brethren, Disciples, Faithfull) and they had many names put upon them in scorn (Nazarites, Galileans, Jews, Christians) & yet they were never by custome amongst themselves, never by commandment from the Church, never in contempt from o­thers, called Trinitarians, the profession of the Trinitie being their specifick form, and distin­ctive character. Why so? Beloved, the name of Christ involved all: not onely because it is a name that hath a dignitie in it, more then the rest (for Christ is an anointed person, a King, [Page 16]a Messiah; and so the profession of that name conferres an unction, a regall and a holy unction upon us, for we are thereby a royall priest­hood) but because in the profession of Christ, the whole Trinitie is professed. How often doth the Sonne say that the Father sent him! And how often that the Father will, and that he will send the holy Ghost! John 17.3. This is life eternall (sayes he) to know thee the onely true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent; and sent with all power in heaven and in earth. This must be professed, Father and Sonne; and then no man can professe this, no man can call Jesus the Lord, but by the holy Ghost: So that as in the persecutions in the Primitive Church, the Martyrs which were hurried to tumultuary executions, and could not be heard for noise, in excusing themselves of treason, and sedition, & crimes imputed to them, to make their cause odious, did use in the sight of the people (who might see a gesture, though they could not heare a protestation) to signe themselves with the signe of the Crosse, to let them know for what profession they died; so that the signe of the Crosse, in that use thereof, in that time, was an Abridgement and a Catechisme of the whole Christian religion: So is the professing of the name of Christ, the professing of the whole Trinitie. As he that confesseth one God, is got beyond the meer naturall man; And he that confesseth a Sonne of God, beyond him: so [Page 17]is neither got to the full truth, till he confesse the holy Ghost too. The fool sayes in his heart, There is no God: The fool, sayes David; the em­phaticall fool, in the highest degree of folly: But though he get beyond that folly, he is a fool still, if he say, There is no Christ; for Christ is the wisdome of the Father: And a fool still, if he denie the holy Ghost. Etiam Christiani nomen superficies est, is excellently said by Ter­tullian; The name and profession of a Christian, is but a superficiall outside, sprinkled upon my face in Baptisme, or upon my outward profes­sion in actions, if I have not in my heart a sense of the holy Ghost, that applies the mercies of the Father, and the merits of the Sonne to my soul. As S. Paul said, Whilest you are with­out Christ, you are without God; It is an Athe­isme (with S. Paul) to be no Christian: So whi­lest you are without the holy Ghost, you are without Christ. It is Antichristian to denie, or not to confesse the holy Ghost. For as Christ is the manifestation of the Father, so the holy Ghost is the application of the Sonne. Therein are we Christians, that in the profession of that name of Christ, we professe all the three Per­sons: In Christ is the whole Trinitie; because, as the Father sent him, so sent he the holy Ghost: And that is our specifick form; that is our distinctive character from Jew & Gentile, the Trinitie.

But then is this specifick form, this distin­ctive [Page 18]character, the notion of the Trinitie, con­veyed to us, exhibited, imprinted upon us in our creation in this word, this plurall word, in the mouth of our own God, Faciamus, Let Ʋs, Ʋs. It is here, and here first. This is an intima­tion, and the first intimation of the Trinitie from the mouth of God, in all the Bible. It is true, that though the same faith, which is ne­cessary to salvation now, were alwayes necessa­ry, and so in the old Testament they were bound to beleeve in Christ, as well as in the new, and consequently in the whole Trinitie; yet not so explicitely, nor so particularly as now: now Christ, calling upon God, in the name of the Father, sayes, I have manifested thy Name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. John 17.6. They were men appropriated to God, men exempt out of the world: yet they had not a cleare manifestation of Father and Sonne, the doctrine of the Trinitie, till Christ manifested it to them. I have manifested thy Name, thy name of Father and Sonne. And therefore the Jewish Rabbins say, that the Septuagint, the first Translatours of the Bible, did disguise some places of the Scriptures, in their translation, lest Ptolomey (for whom they translated it) should be scandalized with those places: And that this text was one of those places, which, (say they) though it be other­wise in the copies of the Scriptures which we have now, they translated Faciam, and not Fa­ciamus: [Page 19]that God said here, I will make, in the singular, and not, Let us make man, in the plu­rall; lest that plurall word might have misled King Ptolomey to think that the Jews had a plu­rall religion, and worshipped divers gods. So good an evidence do they confesse this text to be, for some kinde of pluralitie in the God­head.

Here then God notified the Trinitie; and here first. For though we accept an intimation of the Trinitie, in the first line of the Bible, where Moses joyned a plurall name, Elohim, with a singular verb, Bara; and so in constru­ction it is Creavit Dii, Gods created heaven and earth: yet besides that, that is rather a myste­rious collection, then an evident conclusion of a pluralitie of persons: though we reade that in that first verse, before this in the 26; yet Moses writ that, which is in the beginning of this chapter, more then 2000. yeares after God spake this that is in our text: so long was Gods plurall before Moses his plurall; Gods Faciamus before Moses Bara Elohim. So that in this text begins our Catechisme: here we have (and here first) the saving knowledge of the Trinitie. For, when God spake here, to whom could God speak, but to God? Non cum rebus crean­dis, non cum re nihili, sayes Athanasius, speaking of Gods first speaking, when he said of the first creature, Let there be light. God spake not then to future things, that were not. When God [Page 20]spake first, there was no creature at all to speak to: when God spake of the making of man, there were no creatures. But were there any creatures able to create, or able to assist him in the creation of man? who? Angels? some had thought so in S. Basils time; and to them S. Ba­sil sayes, Súntne illi? God sayes, Let us make man to our image; and could he say so to Angels? Are Angels and God all one? or is that that is like an Angel, therefore like God? It was sua ratio, suum verbum, sua sapientia, sayes that Fa­ther: God spake to his own word and wisdome; to his own purpose and goodnesse: And the Sonne is the word and wisdome of God; and the holy Ghost is the goodnesse and the pur­pose of God, that is, the administration, the dis­pensation of his Church. It is true, that when God speaks this over again, in the Church (as he doth every day, now this minute) then God speaks to his Angels, to the Angels of the Church, to his Ministers: he sayes, Faciamus, Let Ʋs, Ʋs both together, you and we, make a man: joyn mine ordinance (your preaching) with my Spirit (sayes God to us) and so make man: Preach the oppressour, and preach the wanton, and preach the calumniatour, into an other nature; make that ravening wolf, a man; that licentious goat, a man; that insinuating serpent, a man by thy preaching. To day if you will heare his voice, heare us; for here he calls upon us to joyn with him for the making of [Page 21]man. But for his first Faciamus, which is in our text, it is excellently said, Dictum in senatu, Rupertus.& soliloquio: It was spoken in a senate, and yet in soli­tarinesse; spoken in private, and yet publiquely spoken; spoken where there were divers, and yet but one, one God, and three persons.

If there were no more intended in this plu­rall expression, Ʋs, but (as some have concei­ved) that God spake here in the person of a Prince and Soveraigne Lord; and therefore spake, as Princes do, in the plurall, We com­mand, and we forbid: yet S. Gregories caution would justly fall upon it, Reverenter pensandum est, It requires reverent consideration, if it be but so: for God speaks so, like a King, in the plu­rall, but seldome, but five times (in my ac­compt) in all the scriptures; and in all five, in cases of important consequence. In this text first, where God creates man, whom he consti­tutes his vice-Roy in the world; here he speaks in his Royall plurall: And then in the next Chapter, where he exempts mans term in this vice-regencie to the end of the world, in pro­pounding man means of succession; Faciamus, Let us make him a helper: there he speaks in his Royall plurall. And also in the third Chapter, in declaring the hainousnesse of mans fault, & arraigning him, and all us in him, God sayes, Sicut unus ex nobis, Man is become as one of us, not content to be our vice-Roy, but our selves: there is his Royall plurall too: And again, in [Page 22]that declaration of his justice, in that confu­sion of the builders of Babylon, Descendamus, Confundamus, Let us do it. And then lastly, in that great work of mingling mercy with ju­stice, which (if we may so speak) is Gods master­piece, when he sayes, Quis ex nobis? Who will go for us, and publish this? In these places, & these onely (and not all these neither, if we take it exactly according to the originall; for in the second, the making of Eve, though the vulgar have it in the plurall, it is indeed but singular in the Hebrew) God speaks as a King, in his Roy­all plurall still. And when it is but so, Reveren­ter pensandum est, sayes that Father, It behoves us to hearken reverently to him, for kings are ima­ges of God; such images of God, as have eares, and can heare; and hands, and can strike. But I would ask no more premeditation at your hands, when you come to speak to God in this place, then if you sued to speak with the King: to speak with no more fear of God here, then if you went to the King under the conscience of a guiltinesse towards him, and a knowledge that he knew it. And that is your case here; sin­ners, and even manifest sinners: for even mid­night is noon in the sight of God; and when your candles are put out, his sunne shines still. Nec quid absconditum à calore ejus (sayes David) There is nothing hid from the heat thereof: Psal. 19.6. not onely no sin hid from the light thereof, from the sight of God; but not from the heat there­of, [Page 23]not from the wrath and indignation of God. If God speak plurally, onely in the majestie of a soveraigne Prince, still Reverenter pensandum, that calls for reverence. What reverence? There are nationall differēces in outward reve­rence and worships: some worship princes, and parents, and masters, in one; some in another fashion: children kneel to ask blessing of pa­rents, in England; but where else? servants at­tend not with the same reverence upon masters in other nations, as with us: Accesses to their princes, are not with the same difficultie, nor the same solemnitie in France, as in Turkie. But this rule goes through all nations, that in that disposition, and posture, and action of the bo­die, which in that place is esteemed most hum­ble and reverent, God is to be worshipped. Do so then here. God is your Father; ask bles­sing upon your knees; pray in that posture: God is your King; worship him with that wor­ship which is highest in our use & estimation. We have no Grandes, that stand covered to the King: where there are such, though they stand covered in the Kings presence, they do not speak to him for matters of grace, they do not sue to him: so, ancient Canons make difference of persons in the presence of God: where and how this and this shall dispose of themselves in the Church of God, dignitie, and age, and in­firmitie will induce differences. But for prayer, there is no difference: one humiliation is requi­red [Page 24]of all: As when the King comes in here, howsoever they sat diversly before, all return to one manner of expressing their acknowledge­ment of his presence: so at the Oremus, Let us pray, Let us all fall down, and worship, and kneel before the Lord our maker.

So he speaks in our Text: not onely as the Lord our King, intimating his providence and administration; but as the Lord our maker; and then a maker so, as that he made us in a Councell; Faciamus, Let us: and that he speaks as in councel, is an other argument for reve­rence. For what trust or freedome soever I have by his favour with any Counsellour of state; yet I should surely use another manner of consideration to this pluralitie in God, to this meeting in Councel, to this intimation of a Trinitie, then to those other actions, in which God is presented to us singly, as one God; for so he is presented to the naturall man as well as to us. And here enters the necessitie of this knowledge, Oportet denuo nasci; without a se­cond birth, no salvation: And so no second birth without Baptisme; no Baptisme, but in the name of the Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost. It was the entertainment of God himself, his delight, his contemplation, for those infinite millions of generations, when he was without a world, without creatures, to joy in one ano­ther, in the Trinitie, as Gregorie Nazianzene, and a Poet as well as a Father, as most of the Fathers were, expresses it: [Page 25]

It was the Fathers delight to look upon himself in the Sonne,

And to see the whole Godhead, in a three­fold and equall glorie. It was Gods own de­light, and it must be the delight of every Christian, upon particular occasions to carry his thoughts upon the severall persons of the Tri­nitie. If I have a barre of iron, that barre in that form will not nail a doore: If a sow of lead, that lead in that form will not stop a leak: If a wedge of gold, that wedge will not buy my bread. The generall notion of a mighty God, may lesse fit my particular purposes: But I coyn my gold into currant money, when I ap­prehend God in the severall notions of the Trinitie; That, if I have been a prodigall son, I have a Father in heaven, and can go to him, and say, Father, I have sinned, and be received by him; That, if I be a decayed father, and need the sustentation of my own children, there is a Sonne in heaven, that will do more for me then my own children (of what good means or good nature soever they be) can or will do; If I be dejected in spirit, there is a holy Spirit in heaven, which shall bear witnesse to my spi­rit, that I am a childe of God: And if the ghosts of those sinners, whom I made sinners, [Page 26]haunt me after their deaths, in returning to my memorie, & reproaching my conscience with the heavy judgements that I have brought up­on them; If after the death of my own sinne, when my appetite is dead to some particular sinne, the memorie and sinfull delight of those passed sinnes, the ghosts of those sinnes haunt me again: yet there is a holy Ghost in heaven, that shall exorcise these, and shall over­shadow me. The God of the whole world is God alone, in the generall notion, as he is so, God; but he is my God most especially, & most appliably, as he is received by me in the seve­rall notions of Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost.

This is our East; II. Part. Occidens. here we see God, God in all the persons, consulting, concurring to the making of us. But then my West presents it self; that is an occasion to humble me, in the next word: he makes but man; a man, that is, but Adam, but Earth. I remember 4. names, by which man is often called in the scriptures: & of these foure, three do absolutely carry mi­serie in their significations; three to one against any man, that he is miserable: One name of man is Ish; and that they derive à sonitu; Man is but a voice, but a sound, but a noise: he begins the noise himself, when he comes crying into the world; & when he goes out, perchance friends celebrate, perchance enemies calumniate him, with a diverse voice, a diverse noise. A melan­cholick man is but a groning; a sportfull man, [Page 27]but a song; an active man, but a trumpet; a mighty man, but a thunder-clap: every man but Ish, but a sound, but a noyse. An other name is Enosh. Enosh, is meer calamitie, miserie, de­pression. It is indeed most properly oblivion; And so the word is most elegantly used by David, Quid est homo? where the name of man is Enosh: And so that which we translate, What is man, that thou art mindfull of him? is indeed, What is forgetfulnesse, that thou shouldest remem­ber it; that thou shouldest think of that man, whom all the world hath forgotten? first man is but a voice, but a sound: but because fame & honour may come within that name of a sound, of a voice; therefore he is overtaken with an­other damp, man is but oblivion: his fame, his name shall be forgotten. One name man hath, that hath some taste of greatnesse and power in it, Gheber; and yet, I that am that man (sayes the Prophet, for there that name of man Gheber is used) I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of Gods wrath. Man Ish is so miserable, Lam. 3.1. as that he afflicts himself, cries, and whines out his own time; and man Enosh, so miserable, as that others afflict him, and bury him in ignomi­nious oblivion: and man, that is, Gheber, the greatest & powerfullest of men, is yet but that man, that may possibly, that may justly see af­fliction by the rod of Gods wrath. And from Gheber, he made Adam, which is the fourth name of man, indeed the first name of man, the [Page 28]name in this text, and the name to which every man must be called, and referre himself, and call himself by; earth, and red earth.

Now God did not say of man, as of other creatures, Let us, or let the earth bring forth herbs, and fruits, and trees, as upon the third day; Now let the earth bring forth cattell and worms, as upō the sixth day, the same day that he made man: Non imperiali verbo, sed familiari manu, sayes Tertullian; God calls not man out with an imperious command, but he leads him out with a familiar, with his own hand. And it is not, Fiat homo, but, Faciamus; not, Let there be, but, Let us make man. Man is but an earthen ves­sell. It is true: but when we are upon that con­sideration, God is the potter: if God will be that, I am well content to be this: let me be any thing, so that that I am be from my God. I am as well content to be a sheep as a lion, so God will be my shepherd; and the Lord is my shep­herd: to be a cottage, as a castle; the house, as a citie, so God will be the builder: and the Lord builds, and watches the citie, the house; this house, this citie, me: to be rye, as wheat, so God will be the husbandman: and the Lord plants me, and waters, and weeds, and gives the increase: and to be clothed in leather, as well as in silk, so God will be the merchant: and he clothed me in Adam, and assures me of clo­thing, in clothing the lilies of the field; and is fitting the robe of Christs righteousnesse to [Page 29]me now this minute: Adam is as good to me, as Gheber; a clod of earth, as a hill of earth, so God be the potter.

God made man of earth, not of aire, not of fire. Man hath many offices, that appertain to this world, and whilest he is here, must not withdraw himself from those offices of mu­tuall societie, upon pretence of zeal, or better serving God in a retired life. A ship will no more come to the harbour without ballast, then without sails: A man will no more get to hea­ven without discharging his duties to other men, then without doing them to God himself: Man liveth not by bread onely, sayes Christ; Luke 4.4. but yet he liveth by bread too: every man must do the duties, every man must bear the encum­brances of some calling.

Pulvis es, Thou art earth: he whom thou treadest upon, is no lesse; and he that treads upon thee, is no more. Positively, it is a low thing to be but earth: and yet the low earth, is the quiet center: there may be rest, acquie­scence, content in the lowest condition: But comparatively, earth is as high as the highest. Challenge him that magnifies himself above thee, to meet thee in Adam; there bid him, if he will have more nobilitie, more greatnesse then thou, take more originall sin then thou hast. If God have submitted thee to as much sin, and penalty of sin, as him; he hath afforded thee as much, and as noble earth as him. And if [Page 30]he will not trie it in the root, in your equalitie in Adam; yet, in another test, another furnace, in the grave, he must: there all dusts are equall. Except an epitaph tell me who lies there, I can­not tell by the dust; nor by the epitaph know, which is the dust it speaks of, if another have been layed there before, or after, in the same grave: nor can any epitaph be confident in say­ing, Here lies; but, Here was laid: for so various, so vicissitudinarie is all this world, as that even the dust of the grave hath revolutions. As the motions of an upper sphere imprint a motion in a lower sphere, other then naturally it would have; so the changes of the life work after death. And as envie supplants and removes us alive; a shovell removes us, and throwes us out of our grave, after death. No limbeck, no weights can tell you, This is dust royall, this plebeian dust: no commission, no inquisition can say, This is catholick, this is hereticall dust. All lie alike, and all shall rise alike: alike, that is, at once, and upon one command. The saint cannot accelerate, the reprobate cannot retard the resurrection. And all that rise to the right hand, shall be equally kings; and all at the left, equally what? the worst name we can call them by, or affect them with, is devil: and then they shall have bodies to be tor­mented in, which devils have not. Miserable, unexpressible, unimaginable, macerable condi­tion, where the sufferer would be glad to be [Page 31]but a devil; where it were some happinesse, and some kinde of life, to be able to die; and a great preferment, to be nothing!

He made us all of earth, and all of red earth: our earth was red, even when it was in Gods hands: a rednesse that amounts to a shamefast­nesse, to a blushing at our infirmities, is imprint­ed in us by Gods hands: for this rednesse is but a conscience, a guiltinesse of needing a continu­all supply, and succession of more and more grace: and we are all red, red so, even from the beginning, and in our best state. Adam had, the angels had thus much of this infirmitie, that though they had a great measure of grace, they needed more. The prodigall childe grew poore enough after he had received his portion: and he may be wicked enough, that trusts upon for­mer or present grace, and seeks not more. This rednesse, a blushing, that is, an acknowledge­ment that we could not subsist with any mea­sure of faith, except we pray for more faith; nor of grace, except we seek more grace, we have from the hand of God: and an other rednesse from his hand too, the bloud of his Sonne; for that bloud was effused by Christ, in the vail of this ransome for us all, and accepted by God in the vail thereof for us all: and this rednesse is in the nature thereof as extensive, as the red­nesse derived from Adam is: both reach to all; so we were red earth in the hands of God, as rednesse denotes our generall infirmities: and as [Page 32]rednesse denotes the bloud of his Sonne, our Saviour, all have both. But that rednesse which we have contracted from bloud shed by our selves, the bloud of our own souls, by sinne, was not upon us when we were in the hands of God: that rednesse is not his tincture, not his complexion: no decree of his is writ in any such red ink. Our sins are our own, & our destruction is from our selves. We are not as accessaries, and God as principall in this soul-murder: God forbid. We are not as executioners of Gods sentence, and God the malefactour in this soul­damnation: God forbid. Cain came not red in his brothers bloud out of Gods hands; nor Da­vid red with Ʋriahs bloud; nor Achitophel with his own; nor Judas with Christs, or his own. That that Pilate did illusorily, God can do truely, wash his hands from the bloud of any of those men. It were a weak plea to say, I killed not that man; but it is true, I commanded one who was under my command, to kill him: It is rather a prevarication, then a justification of God, to say, God is not the authour of sinne in any man: but is is true, God makes that mans sinne, that sinne. God is innocencie: and the beams that flow from him, are of the same na­ture and colour. Christ, when he appeared in heaven, was not red, but white; his hand, his head, and hairs too: he, and that that grows from him; he, and we, as we come from his hands, are white too: his angels, that provoke us to the [Page 33]imitation of that pattern, are so in white; two men, Acts 1.10. two angels stood by the apostles in white apparell: the imitation is laid upon us, by precept too: Eccles 9.8. At all times let thy garments be white; those actions, in which thou appearest to the world, innocent. It is true that Christ is both; My beloved is white and ruddy, Cant. 5.10. sayes the Spouse: but the white was his own; his rednesse is from us. That which Zipporah said to her husband Moses in anger, the Church may say to Christ in thankfulnesse, Verè sponsus sangui­num, Thou art truely a bloudy husband to me; Da­mim, sanguinum; of blouds, blouds in the plurall: for all our blouds are upon him. This was a mercie to the militant Church, that even the triumphant Church wondred at it. They knew not Christ, when he came up into heaven in red; Who is this that cometh in red garments? Isa. 63.1.wherefore is thy apparell red, like him that tread­eth in the wine-presse? They knew he went down in white, in entire innocencie; and they wondred to see him return in red: but he satis­fies them; Calcavi, You think I have troden the wine-presse, and you mistake it not: I have tro­den the wine-presse: and Calcavi solus, and that alone: All the rednesse, all the bloud of the whole world is upon me: and as he addes, Non vir de gentibus; Of all people there was none with me; with me so, as to have any part in the merit; so, of all people there was none with me: without me so, as to be excluded by [Page 34]me, without their own fault, from the benefit of the merit. This rednesse he carried up to heaven; Col. 1.21. for by the bloud of his crosse came peace, both to the things in heaven, and the things on earth. For the peccabilitie, that possi­bilitie of sinning, which is in the nature of the angels of heaven, would break out into sinne, but for that confirmation, which those angels have received in the bloud of Christ. This red­nesse he carried to heaven; and this rednesse he hath left upon earth, that all we, miserable clods of earth, might be tempered with his bloud: that in his bloud, exhibited in his ho­ly & blessed Sacrament, our long robes might be made white in the bloud of the Lambe: that, though our sinnes be robes, habits of long continuance in sinne; yet, through that rednesse which our sinnes have cast upon him, we might come to participate of that white­nesse, that righteousnesse, which is his own: We; that is, all we: for, as to take us in, who are of low condition, and obscure station, a cloud is made white, by his sitting upon it; He sat upon a white cloud: so, to let the highest see, that they have no whitenesse, but from him, he makes the throne white by sitting upon it: He sat upon a great white throne. It had been great, if it had not been white: white is the colour of dilatatiō; Goodnesse enlarges the throne. It had not been white, if he had not sat upon it. That goodnesse onely which consists in glorifying [Page 35]God, and God in Christ, and Christ in the sin­ceritie of the truth, is true whitenesse. God hath no rednesse in himself, no anger towards us, till he considers us as sinners. God casts no rednesse upon us, inflicts no necessitie, no con­straint of sinning upon us: we have died our selves in sinnes as red as scarlet, we have drown­ed our selves in such a red sea. But as a gar­ment that was washed in the Red sea, Psal. 106.22. would come out white, (so wonderfull works hath God done at the Red sea, sayes David) so doth his whitenesse work through our red, and makes this Adam, this red earth, Calculum candidum, that white stone, that receives a new name, not Ish, not Enosh, not Gheber; no name that tasts of miserie, nor of vanitie; but that name re­newed and manifested, which was imprinted upon us in our elections, the sonnes of God; the irremoveable, the undisinheritable sonnes of God.

Be pleased to receive this note at parting, that there is Macula alba, a spot, and yet white, as well as a red spot: a whitenesse, that is an in­dication of a leprosie, as well as a rednesse. It is whole-Pelagianisme, to think nature alone suf­ficient; half-Pelagianisme, to think grace once received to be sufficient; super-Pelagianisme, to think our actions can bring God in debt to us by merit, and supererogation, & Catharisme, imaginarie puritie, in canonizing our selves as present saints, and condemning all that differ [Page 36]from us, as reprobates. All these are white spots, and have the colour of goodnesse; but are indications of leprosie. So is that, that God threatens, Joel 1.7. Decorticatio ficûs & albi rami; that the fig-tree shall be barked, and the boughs thereof left white. To be left white without bark, was an indication of a speedy withering. Ostensa candescunt, & arescunt, sayes S. Grego­rie of that place: the bough that lies open without bark, looks white, but perisheth. The good works that are done openly to please men, have their reward (sayes Christ) that is, shall never have reward. To pretend to do good, and not mean it; to do things good in themselves, but not to good ends; to go to­wards good ends, but not by good wayes; to make the deceiving of men thine end, or the praise of men thine end; all this may have a whitenesse, a colour of good: but all this is a barking of the bough, and an indication of a mischievous leprosie. There is no good white­nesse, but a reflexion from Christ Jesus, in an humble acknowledgement that we have none of our own; and in a confident assurance, that in our worst estate we may be made partakers of his. We are all red earth. In Adam, we would not; since Adam, we could not avoid sinne, and the concomitants thereof, miseries; which we have called our West, our cloud, our darknesse. But then we have a North, that scatters these clouds, in the next word, Adimaginem; [Page 37]that we are made to another pat­tern, in another likenesse then our own. Facia­mus hominem. So farre we are gone, East and West; which is half our compasse, and all this dayes voyage: for we are struck upon the sand, and must stay another tide and another gale for our North and South.

BY fair occasion from these words, we proposed to you the whole compasse of mans voyage, from his launching forth in this world, to his anchoring in the next; from his hoysing sail here, to his striking sail there: in which compasse we designed to you his foure quarters: first, his East, where he must begin, the fundamentall knowledge of the Trinitie (for that we found to be the speci­fication & distinctive character of a Christian) where, though that be so, we shewed you also, why we were not called Trinitarians, but Chri­stians: and we shewed you the advantage that [Page 2]man hath, in laying hold upon God in these se­verall notions; That the prodigall sonne hath an indulgent father; that the decayed father hath an abundant sonne; that the dejected spi­rit hath a Spirit of comfort to fly to in heaven. And as we shewed you from S. Paul, that it was an Atheisme to be no Christian: (Without God, sayes he, as long as without Christ) so we la­mented the slacknesse of Christians, that they did not seriously and particularly consider the persons of the Trinitie, and especially the holy Ghost, in their particular actions: And then we came to that consideration, whether this do­ctrine were established, or directly insinuated, in this plurall word of our text, Faciamus, Let us make man: and we found that doctrine to be here, and here first, of any place in the Bible: and finding God to speak in the plurall, we ac­cepted (for a time) that interpretation which some had made thereof, That God spake in the person of a Soveraigne Prince, and therefore (as they do) in the plurall, We: And thereby having established reverence to Princes, we claymed, in Gods behalf, the same reverence to him; that men would demean themselves here, when God is spoken to in prayer, as reve­rently as when they speak to the King. But afterwards we found God to speak here not onely as our King, but as our Maker, as God himself, and God in councel, Faciamus: And we applied thereunto the difference of our re­spect [Page 3]to a person of that honourable rank, when we came before him at the councel-table, and when we came to him at his own table; and thereby advanced the seriousnesse of this con­sideration, God in the Trinitie. And farther we sailed not with our Eastern winde. Our West we considered in the next word, Hominem; That, though we were made by the whole Trinitie, yet the whole Trinitie made us but men, and men in this name of our text, Adam; and Adam is but earth: and that is our West, our declina­tion, our Sun-set. We passed over the foure names, by which man is ordinarily expressed in the scriptures; and we found necessary mise­rie in three of them; and possible, nay, likely miserie in the fourth, in the best name. We in­sisted upon the name of our text, Adam, earth; and had some use of these notes; first, That if I were but earth, God was pleased to be the potter; If I but a sheep, he a shepherd; If I but a cottage, he a builder: So he work upon me, let me be what he will. We noted, that God made us earth, not aire, not fire; that man hath bodily and worldly duties to perform, and is not all spirit in this life. Devotion is his soul: but he hath a bodie of discretion & usefulnesse to invest in some calling. We noted too, that in being earth we are equall: we tried that e­qualitie, first in the root, in Adam; there if any man will be nobler earth then I, he must have more originall sinne then I: for that was all A­dams [Page 4]patrimonie, all that he could give. And we tried this equalitie in another furnace, in the grave; where there is no means to distin­guish royall from plebeian, nor catholick from hereticall dust. And lastly we noted, that this our earth was red; & considered in what respect it was red, even in Gods hands; but found that in the bloud-rednesse of sinne, God had no hand; but sinne, and destructions for sinne, were wholly from our selves: which consideration we ended with this, that there was Macula alba, a white spot of leprosie, as well as a red: and we found the overvaluation of our own puritie, and the uncharitable condemnation of all that differ from us, to be that white spot. And so farre we sailed with that Western winde, & are come to our third point in this our compasse, our North.

In this point, III. Part. Aquilo. the North, we place our first comfort. The North is not alwayes the com­fortablest clime; nor is the North alwayes a type of happinesse in the scriptures. Many times God threatens storms from the North: but even in those Northern storms, we consi­der their action, that they scatter, they dissi­pate those clouds which were gathered, and so induce a serenitie. Job 37.22. And so fair weather comes from the North. The consideration of our West, our low estate, that we are but earth, but red earth, died red by our selves; and that imaginary white, which appeares so to us, is [Page 5]but a white of leprosie: this West inwraps us in heavie clouds of murmuring in this life, that we cannot live so freely as beasts do; and in clouds of desperation for the next life, that we cannot die so absolutely as beasts do. We die all our lives; and yet we live after our deaths: These are our clouds; & then the North shakes these clouds. Prov. 25.13. The North-winde driveth away the rain, sayes Solomon. There is a North in our text, that drives all these tears from our eyes. Cant. 4.16. Christ calls upon the North as well as the South, to blow upon his garden, and to diffuse the perfumes thereof. Adversitie, as well as pro­speritie, opens the bountie of God unto us; and oftentimes better. But that is not the benefit of the North, in our present consideration: but this is it, that first our Sunne sets in the West. The Eastern dignitie which we received in our first creation, as we were the work of the whole Trinitie, falls under a Western cloud, that that Trinitie made us but earth. And then blows our North, and scatters this cloud; that this earth hath a nobler form then any other part or limbe of the world: for we are made by a fairer pattern, by a nobler image, by a higher likenesse. Faciamus; Though we make but a man, Let us make him in our image, after our likenesse.

The varietie which the holy Ghost uses here in the pen of Moses, hath given occasion to divers, to raise divers observations upon [Page 6]these words, which seem divers, Image and Likenesse; as also in the varietie of the phrase: for it is thus conceived and layed, In our image; and then, After our likenesse. I know it is a good rule that Damascen gives, Parva non sunt parva, ex quibus magna proveniunt; Nothing is to be neglected, as little, from which great things may a­rise: If the consequence may be great, the thing must not be thought little. No Jod in the scripture shall perish; therefore no Jod is su­perfluous: if it were superfluous, it might pe­rish. Words, and lesse particles then words, have busied the whole Church.

In the Councel of Ephesus, where Bishops in a great number excommunicated Bishops in a greater; Bishop against Bishop, and Patriarch against Patriarch; in which case, when both parties had made strong parties in Court, and the Emperour forbore to declare himself on either side for a time, he was told, that he re­fused to assent to that which 6000 Bishops had agreed in: the strife was but for a word, whether the blessed Virgin might be called Deipara, The mother of God; for Christipara, The mother of Christ; which Christ all agree to be God. Nestorius and all his partie agreed with Cyril, that she might be. In the Councel of Calcedon, the difference was not so great, as for a word composed of syllables. It was but for a syllable, whether Ex or In. The heretiques condemned then, confessed Christ to be Ex du­abus [Page 7]naturis, to be composed of two natures, at first; but not to be In duabus naturis, not to consist of two natures after. And for that In, they were thrust out. In the Councel of Nice, it was not so much as a syllable made of letters; for it was but for one letter; whether Homoousion, or Ho­möusion, was the issue. Where the question hath not been of divers words, nor syllables, nor letters, but onely of the place of words, what tempestuous differences have risen! How much hath sola sides and sides sola changed the case! Nay, where there hath been no quarrell for precedencie, for transposing of words, or syllables, or letters, where there hath not been so much as a letter in question, how much doth an accent varie a sense! An interrogation or no interrogation, will make it directly contrarie. All Christian expositours reade those words of Cain, My sinne is greater then can be pardoned, Gen. 4.13. positively; and so they are evident words of desperation. The Jews reade them with an in­terrogation, Are my sinnes greater then can be pardoned? and so they are words of compunction and repentance. The prophet Micheas sayes, Mich. 5.3. that Bethlehem is a small place: Matth. 2.6. The Evangelist S. Matthew sayes, No small place. An interroga­tion in Micheas mouth reconciles it; Art thou a small place? amounts to that, Thou art not. Sounds, voices, words, must not be neglected: for Christs forerunner, John Baptist, qualified himself no otherwise; he was but a voice: and [Page 8]Christ himself is Verbum; The Word is the name even of the Sonne of God. No doubt but States-men & Magistrates finde often the danger of having suffered small abuses to passe uncorrected. We that see State-businesse but in the glasse of storie, and cannot be shut out of chronicles, see there, upon what little ob­jects the eye and the jealousie of the State is oftentimes forced to bend it self. We know in whose times in Rome a man might not weep, he might not sigh, he might not look pale, he might not be sick, but it was informed against, as a discontent, as a murmuring against the pre­sent government, and an inclination to change. And truely many times, upon Damascens true ground, though not alwayes well applied, Par­va non sunt parva; Nothing may be thought little, when the consequence may prove great. In our own sphere, in the Church, we are sure it is so; great inconveniences grew upon small tolerations. Therefore in that businesse, which occasioned all that trouble which we mention­ed before, in the Councel of Ephesus, when S. Cyril wrote to the Clergie of his diocesse about it, at first he sayes, Praestiterat abstinere, It had been better these questions had not been raised: but (sayes he) Si his nugis nos adoriantur, If they vex us with these impertinences, these trifles: And yet these, which were but trifles at first, came to occasion Councels; and then to divide Councel against Councel; and then to force the Empe­rour [Page 9]to take away the power of both Councels, and govern in Councel by his Vicar generall, a secular Lord sent from Court. And therefore did some of the Ancients (particularly Phila­strius) crie down some opinions for heresies, which were not matters of faith, but of philo­sophie; and even in philosophie truely held by them who were condemned for hereticks, and mistaken by their Judges that condemned them. Little things were called in question, lest great things should passe unquestioned: and some of these upon Damascens true ground (still true in rule, but not alwayes in the appli­cation) Parva non sunt parva; Nothing may be thought little, where the consequence may prove great. Descend we from those great spheres, the State and the Church, into a lesser, that is, the conscience of particular men, and consider the danger of exposing those vines to little foxes; Cant. 2.15. of leaving small sinnes unconsi­dered, unrepented, uncorrected. In that glister­ing circle in the firmament, which we call the Galaxie, the milkie-way, there is not one starre of any of the six great magnitudes, which Astronomers proceed upon, belonging to that circle: it is a glorious circle, and possesseth a great part of heaven; and yet is all of so little starres as have no name, no knowledge taken of them: So certainly are there many Saints in heaven, that shine as starres, and yet are not of those great magnitudes, to have been Patri­archs, [Page 10]or Prophets, or Apostles, or Martyrs, or Doctours, or Virgins; but good & blessed souls, that have religiously performed the duties of inferiour callings, and no more. And as certain­ly are there many souls tormented in hell, that never sinned sinne of any of the great magni­tudes, Idolatry, Adultery, Murder, or the like; but inconsiderately have slid, and insensibly conti­nued in the practise and habit of lesser sinnes. But parva non sunt parva; Nothing may be thought little, where the consequence may prove great. Matth. 12.36. When our Saviour sayes, That we shall give an account for every idle word in the day of judgement, what great hills of little sands will oppresse us then! And if substances of sinne were removed, yet what circumstances of sinne would condemne us! If idle words have this weight, there can be no word thought idle in the Scriptures: And therefore I blame not in any, I decline not in mine own practise, the making use of the varietie and copiousnesse of the holy Ghost, who is ever abundant, and yet never superfluous in ex­pressing his purpose in change of words. And so no doubt we might do now in observing a difference between these words in our text, Image, and Likenesse; and between these two forms of expressing it, In our image, and, After our likenesse. This might be done. But that that must be done, will possesse all our time; that is, to declare (taking the two for this time to be [Page 11]but a farther illustration of one another; Image and Likenesse, to our present purpose, to be all one) what this image and this likenesse imports; and how this North scatters our former cloud; what our advantage is, that we are made to an image, to a pattern; and our obligation to set a pattern before us in all our actions.

God appointed Moses to make all that he made, by a pattern. God himself made all that he made, according to a pattern. God had de­posited and laid up in himself certain forms, patterns, Ideas of every thing that he made. He made nothing, of which he had not precon­ceived the form, and predetermined in himself, I will make it thus. And when he had made any thing, he saw it was good; Good, because it an­swered the pattern, the image; Good, be [...]use it was like to that. And therefore though of other creatures God pronounced they were good, because they were presently like their pattern, that is, like that form which was in him for them: yet of man, he forbore to say that he was good; because his conformitie to his pat­tern was to appeare after in his subsequent acti­ons. Now as God made man after another pat­tern, and therefore we have a dignitie above all, that we had another manner of creation then the rest: so have we a comfort above all, that we have another manner of administration then the rest. God exercises another manner of providence upon man, then upon other [Page 12]creatures. Matth. 10.29. A sparrow falls not without God, sayes Christ: yet no doubt God works otherwise in the fall of eminent persons, then in the fall of sparrows; for ye are of more value then many spar­rows, sayes Christ there of every man: & some men single, are of more value then many men. God doth not thank the ant, for her industrie and good husbandrie in providing for her self. God doth not reward the foxes, Judg. 15.4. for concurring with Samson in his revenge. God doth not fee the lion, 1. King. 13.24 which was his executioner upon the Prophet which had disobeyed his command­ment; 2. King. 2.24. nor those few she-bears, which slew the petulant children who had calumniated and reproached Elisha. God doth not fee them before, nor thank them after, nor take know­ledge of their service: But for those men that served Gods execution upon the idolaters of the golden calf, Exod. 32.25. it is pronounced in their be­half, that therein they consecrated themselves unto God; and for that service God made that Tribe, the Tribe of Levi, his portion, his cler­gie, Gen. 22.16. his consecrated Tribe: So, Quia fecisti hoc, sayes God to Abraham, By my self I have sworn, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not with­held thy sonne, thine onely sonne: that in blessing I will blesse thee, and in multiplying I will multi­ply thee. 2. Pet. 2.22. So neither is God angrie with the dog that turns to his vomit; nor with the sow, that after her washing wallows in the mire. But of man in that case he sayes, Hebr. 6.4. It is impossible for [Page 13]those who were once enlightned, if they fall away, to renew themselves again by repentance. The creatures live under his law, but a law imposed thus, This they shall do, this they must do: Man lives under another manner of law, This you shall do, that is, This you should do, This I would have you do. And, Fac hoc, Do this, and you shall live; disobey, and you shall die: but yet the choice is yours; choose you this day life or death. So that this is Gods administration in the creature, that he hath imprinted in them an instinct, and so he hath something to preserve in them: In man, his administration is this, that he hath imprinted in him a facultie of will and election, and hath something to reward in him. That instinct in the creature God leaves to the naturall working thereof in it self: but the free­will of man God visits & assists with his grace, to do supernaturall things. When the creature doth an extraordinarie action above the nature thereof (as when Balaams asse spake) the crea­ture exercises no facultie, no will in it self; but God forced it to that it did. When man doth any thing conducing to supernaturall ends, though the work be Gods, the will of man is not meerly passive. The will of man is but Gods agent; but still an agent it is, and an agent in another manner then the tongue of the beast. For the will considered as a will (and grace never destroyes nature; nor, though it make a dead will a live will, or an ill will a [Page 14]good will, doth it make the will no will) might refuse or omit that it does. So that be­cause we are created by another pattern, we are governed by another law, and another pro­vidence.

Go thou then the same way. If God wrought by a pattern, and writ by a copie, and proceeded by a precedent; do thou so too. Never say, There is no Church without errour; therefore I will be bound by none, but frame a Church of mine own, or be a Church to my self. What greater injustice then to propose no image, no pattern to thy self to imitate; and yet propose thy self for a pattern, for an image to be ado­red? Thou wilt have singular opinions, and sin­gular wayes, differing from all other men: and yet all that are not of thy opinion, must be he­reticks; and all reprobates, that go not thy wayes. Propose good patterns to thy self, and thereby become a fit pattern for others. God (we see) was the first that made images; and he was the first that forbad them: he made them for imitation; he forbad them, in danger of adoration. For, what a basenesse, what a madnesse of the soul is it, to worship that which is no better, nay, not so good as it self! Worship belongs to the best: know then thy distance and thy period, how farre to go, and where to stop. Dishonour not God by an image, in worshipping it; and yet benefit thy self by it in following it: There [Page 15]is no more danger out of a picture, then out of a historie, if thou intend no more in either then example. Though thou have a West, a dark and a sad condition, that thou art but earth, a man of infirmities, and ill-counselled in thy self: yet thou hast here a North, that scat­ters and dispells these clouds, that God pro­poses to thee in his Scriptures; and otherwise, images, patterns of good and holy men to go by. But beyond this North, this assistance of good examples of men, thou hast a South, a Meridionall height, by which thou seest thine image, thy pattern, to be no copie, no other man, but the originall it self, God himself: Fa­ciamus ad nostram; Let us make man in our image, after our likenesse.

Here we consider first, where the image is; IIII Part. Meridies. and then, what it doth: first, in what part of man God hath imprinted this his image; and then, what this image conferres and derives up­on man, what it works in man. And as when we seek God in his essence, we are advised to proceed by negatives (God is not mortall, not passible:) so when we seek the image of God in man, we begin with a negative, This image is not his Bodie. Tertullian declined to think it was; nay, Tertullian inclined others to think so; for he is the first that is noted to have been the authour of that opinion that God had a bodie: yet S. Augustine excuses Tertullian for heresie: Because (sayes he) Tertullian might [Page 16]mean, That it was so sure that there is a God; and that God was a certain, though not a finite essence; that God was so farre from being nothing, as that he had rather a bodie. Because it was possible to give a good interpretation of Ter­tullian, that charitable Father would excuse him of heresie. I would S. Augustines chari­tie might prevail with them that pretend to be Augustinianissimi, and to adore him so much in the Romane Church, not to cast the name of Heresie upon every probleme, nor the name of Heretick upon every inquirer of truth. S. Augustine would deliver Tertullian from here­sie, in a point concerning God; and they will condemne us of heresie, in every point that may be drawn to concern, not the Church, but the Court of Rome; not their doctrine, but their profit. Malo de misericordia Deo rationem redde­re, quàm de crudelitate; I shall better answer God for my mildenesse, then for my severitie. And though anger towards a brother, or a Racha, or a Fool, will bear an action; yet he shall recover lesse against me at that barre, whom I have cal­led weak, or misse-led (as I must necessarily call many in the Romane Church) then he whom I have passionately and peremptorily called he­retick: for I dare call an opinion heresie for the matter, a great while before I dare call the man that holds it an heretick: for that consists much in the manner. It must be matter of faith, be­fore the matter be heresie; but there must be [Page 17]pertinacie after convenient instruction, before the man be an heretick. But how excusable so­ever Tertullian be herein, in S. Augustines chari­tie, there was a whole sect of hereticks an hun­dred yeares after Tertullian, the Audiani, who over literally taking those places of Scripture, where God is said to have hands, and feet, and eyes, and eares, beleeved God to have a bo­die like ours; and accordingly interpreted this text, that in that image, and that likenesse, a bodily likenesse, consisted this image of God in man. And yet even these men, these Audi­ans, Epiphanius (who first took knowledge of them) calls but schismaticks, not hereticks: so loth is charitie to say the worst of any. Yet we must remember them of the Romane perswa­sion, that they come too neare giving God a bodie in their pictures of God the Father: and they bring the bodie of God, that bodie which God the Sonne hath assumed, the bodie of Christ, too neare in their Transsubstantiation: not too neare our faith (for so it cannot be brought too neare to our sense, so it is as really there as we are there) not too neare in the ubi; for so it is there, there, that is, in that place to which the Sacrament extends it self: for the Sacrament extends as well to heaven, from whence it fetches grace, as to the table from whence it delivers bread and wine: but too neare in modo; for it comes not thither that way. We must necessarily complain, that they [Page 18]make religion too bodily a thing. Our Savi­our Christ corrected Marie Magdalenes zeal, where she flew to him in a personall devotion; and said, John 20.17. Touch me not, for I am not yet ascend­ed to my Father. Fix your meditations upon Christ Jesus, so as he is now at the right hand of his Father in heaven, and entangle not your selves so with controversies about his bodie, as to lose reall charitie for imaginarie zeal; nor enlarge your selves so farre in the pictures and images of his bodie, as to worship them more then him. As Damascen sayes of God, that he is Superprincipale principium, A beginning before any beginning we can conceive; and praeterea aeter­nitas, an eternitie infinitely elder then any eternity we can imagine: so he is superspiritualis Spiritus, such a Superspirit, as that the soul of man, and the substance of angels, is but a bodie compa­red to this Spirit. God hath no bodie, though Tertullian disputed it, though the Audians preached it, though the Papists paint it: and therefore this image of God is not in the body of man that way.

Nor that way neither which some others have assigned, That God, who hath no bodie as God, yet in the creation did assume that form which man hath now, and so made man in his image, that is, in that form which he had then assumed. Some of the ancients thought so; and some other men of great estimation in the Ro­mane Church have thought so too. In particu­lar, [Page 19] Oleaster, a great officer in the Inquisition of Spain. But great inquirers into other men, are easie neglecters of themselves. The image of God is not in mans bodie this way.

Nor that third way which others have ima­gined, that is, that when God said, Let us make man after our likenesse, God had respect to that form, which in the fulnesse of time his Sonne was to take upon him upon earth. Let us make him now (sayes God) at first, like that which I intend hereafter my Sonne shall be: for though this were spoken before the fall of man, and so before any occasion of decreeing the sending of Christ; yet in the School a great part of great men adhere to that opinion, That God from all eternitie had a purpose, that his Sonne should become man in this world, though A­dam had not fallen; Non ut medicus, sed ut Do­minus, ad nobilitandum genus humanum, say they: Though Christ had not come as a Redeemer, if man had not needed him by sinne, but had kept his first state; yet as a Prince, that desired to heap honour upon him whom he loves, to do man an honour by his assuming that nature, Christ (say they) should have come: and to that image, that form which he was to take then, was man made in this text, say these imaginers. But (alas!) how much better were wit and learn­ing bestowed, to prove to the Gentiles that a Christ must come (that they beleeve not) to prove to the Jews, that the Christ is come (that [Page 20]they beleeve not) to prove to our own con­sciences, that the same Christ may come again this minute to judgement (we live as though we beleeved not that) then to have filled the world, and torn the Church with frivolous dis­putations, Whether Christ should have come if Adam had not fallen! Wo unto fomentours of frivolous disputations. None of these wayes: not because God hath a bodie, not because God assumed a bodie; not because it was intended that Christ should be born, before it was in­tended that man should be made, is this image of God in the bodie of man: nor hath it in any other relation respect to the bodie; but, as we say in the School, arguitivè, and significativé; that because God hath given man a bodie of a noblerform then any other creature, we inferre, and argue, and conclude from thence, that God is otherwise represented in man then in any other creature: and so farre is this image of God in the bodie above that in the creatures, that as you see some pictures, to which the very tables are jewels; some watches, to which the very cases are jewels; and therefore they have outward cases too; and so the picture and the watch are in that outward case, of what mean­er stuff soever that be: so is this image in this bodie, as in an outward case, so as that you may not injure nor enfeeble this bodie, neither by sinfull intemperance and licentiousnesse, nor by inordinate fastings or other disciplines of [Page 21]imaginarie merits, while the bodie is alive; for the image of God is in it: nor defraud the body of decent buriall and due solemnities after death; for the image of God is to return to it. But yet the bodie is but the outward case, and God looks not for the gilding, or enamelling, or painting of that; but requires the labour and cost therein to be bestowed upon the table it self, in which this image is immediately, that is, the soul: and that is truely the ubi, the place where this image is. And there remains onely now the operation thereof, how this image of God in the soul of man works.

The sphere then of this Intelligence, the gallerie for this picture, the arch for this statue, the table and frame and shrine for this image of God, is inwardly and immediately the soul of man: not immediately so, as that the soul of man is a part of the essence of God; for so es­sentially Christ onely is the image of God. S. Augustine at first thought so; Putabam te, Deus, corpus lucidum, & me frustum de illo cor­pore: I took thee, O God (sayes that Father) to be a globe of fire, and my soul to be a spark of that fire; thee to be a bodie of light, and my soul to be a beam of that light. But S. Augustine doth not onely retract that in himself, but dispute a­gainst it in the Manichees. But this image is in our soul, as the soul is the wax, and this image the seal. The comparison is S. Cyrils; and he addes well, that no seal but that which printed [Page 22]the wax at first, can fit that wax, and fill that im­pression after: no image, but the image of God, can fit our soul; every other seal is too narrow, too shallow for it. The magistrate is sealed with the Lion; the Wolf will not fit that seal: the ma­gistrate hath a power in his hand, but not oppres­sion. Princes are sealed with the Crown; the Mitre will not fit that seal. Powerfully and gra­ciously they protect the Church, and are su­pream heads of the Church; but they minister not the Sacraments of the Church: they give preferments, but they give not the capa­citie of preferments: they give order who shall have, but they have not Orders by which they are enabled to have that they have. Men of in­feriour and laborious callings in the world are sealed with the Crosse; a Rose, or a bunch of Grapes will not answer that seal: ease and plentie in age must not be looked for without crosses, and labour, and industrie in youth. All men, Prince and people, Clergie and Magistrate, are sealed with the image of God, with a conformitie to him; and worldly seals will not answer that, nor fill up that seal. We should wonder to see a mother in the midst of many sweet children, passing her time in making babies and puppets for her own delight. We should wonder to see a man, whose chambers and galleries were full of curious master-pieces, thrust in a village­fayre, to look upon sixpenie pictures & three­farthing prints. We have all the image of God [Page 23]at home; and we all make babies, fancies of honour in our ambitions. The master-piece is our own, in our own bosome; and we thrust in countrey-fayres, that is, we endure the distem­pers of any unseasonable weather, in night-journeys and watchings; we endure the opposi­tions, and scorns, and triumphs of a rivall and competitour, that seeks with us, and shares with us. We endure the guiltinesse and re­proach of having deceived the trust which a confident friend reposes in us, and solicite his wife or daughter. We endure the decay of fortune, of bodie, of soul, of honour, to pos­sesse lovers pictures; pictures that are not ori­ginals, not made by that hand of God, Nature; but artificiall beauties: and for that bodie we give a soul; and for that drug which might have been bought where they bought it, for a shilling, we give an estate. The image of God is more worth then all substances; and we give it for colours, for dreams, for shadows.

But the better to prevent the losse, let us consider the having of this image; in what re­spect, in what operation this image is in our soul: for whether this image be in those facul­ties, which we have in Nature; or in those qua­lifications which we have in Grace; or in those super-illustrations, which the blessed shall have in Glorie, hath exercised the contempla­tion of many. Properly this image is in na­ture; in the naturall reason, and other faculties [Page 24]of the immortall soul of man; for thereupon doth S. Bernard say, Imago Dei uri potest in gehenna, non exuri; till the soul be burnt to ashes, to nothing (which cannot be done, no not in hell) the image of God cannot be burnt out of the soul; for it is radically, primarily in the very soul it self: and whether that soul be infused into the elect, or reprobate, that image is in that soul: as farre as he hath a soul by na­ture, he hath the image of God by nature in it. But then the seal is deeper cut, or harder pressed, or better preserved in some then in others, and in some other considerations then meerly naturall: therefore we may consider man, who was made here to the image of God, and of God in three persons, to have been made so in Gods intendment three wayes: Man had this image in Nature, and doth deface it; he hath it also in Grace here, and so doth re­fresh it; and he shall have it in Glorie hereafter, and that shall fix it, establish it. And in every of these three, in this Trinitie in man, Nature, Grace, and Glorie, man hath not onely the image of God, but the image of all the persons of the Trinitie, in every of his three ca­pacities. He hath the image of the Father, the image of the Sonne, the image of the holy Ghost, in nature; and all these also in grace; and all these in glorie too. How all these are in all, I cannot hope to handle particularly, not though I were upon the first grain of our sand, [Page 25]upon the first dram of your patience, upon the first flash of my strength: But a cleare repeating of these many branches, that these things are thus, that all the persons of the heavenly Tri­nitie are (in their image) in every branch of this humane Trinitie in man, may (at least must) suffice.

In nature then, man, that is, the soul of man, hath this image of God; of God, considered in his unitie, entirely, altogether in this, that this soul is made of nothing, proceeds of no­thing. All other creatures are made of that preexistent matter which God had made be­fore; so were our bodies too, but our souls of nothing: now not to be made at all, is to be God himself; onely God himself was never made. But to be made of nothing, to have no other parent but God, no other element but the breath of God, no other instrument but the purpose of God, this is to be the image of God; for this is nearest to God himself (who was never made at all) to be made of nothing. And then man (consider­ed in nature) is otherwise the nearest represen­tation of God too: for the steps which we consider, are foure; First, Esse, Being; for some things have onely a being, and no life, as stones: Secondly, Vivere, Living; for some things have life, and no sense, as plants: and then thirdly, Sentire, Sense; for some things have sense, and no understanding; which understanding and [Page 26]reason man hath with his being, and life, and sense; and so is in a nearer station to God, then any creature, and a livelier image of him (who is the root of being) then all they; because man onely hath all the declarations of beings. Nay, if we consider Gods eternitie, the soul of man hath such an image of that, as that, though man had a beginning, which the originall, the eternall God himself had not; yet man shall no more have an end, then the originall, the eter­nall God himself shall have. And this image of eternitie, this post-meridian, this after-noon eternitie, that is, this perpetuitie and after-ever­lastingnesse is in man, meerly as a naturall man, without any consideration of grace: for the re­probate can no more die, that is, come to no­thing, then the elect. It is but of the naturall man that Theodoret sayes, A King built a citie, and erected his statue in the middest of that citie; that is, God made man, and imprinted his image in his soul. How will this King take it (sayes that Father) to have this statue thrown down? Every man doth so, if he do not exalt his naturall faculties, if he do not hearken to the law written in his heart, if he do not run, as Plato, or as Socrates, in the wayes of vertuous actions; he throws down the statue of this King, he defaces the image of God. How would this King take it (sayes he) if any other statue, especi­ally the statue of his enemie should be set up in his place? Every man doth so too, that embraces [Page 27]false opinions in matter of doctrine, or false ap­pearances of happinesse in matter of conversation; for these a naturall man may avoid in many cases, without that addition of Grace which is offered to us as Christians. That comparison of other crea­tures to man, which is intimated in Job, is intend­ed but of the naturall man. There speaking of Be­hemoth, that is, of the greatest of creatures, he sayes in our Translation that He is the chief of the wayes of God: S. Hierom hath it, Principium; Job 40.19. and others before him, Initium viarum Dei; that when God went the progresse over the world in the cre­ation thereof, he did but begin, he did but set out at Behemoth, at the best of all such creatures; He. All they were but Initium viarum, The beginning of the wayes of God: but, Finis viarum, the end of his journey, and the eve, the vespers of his Sabbath, was the making of man, even of the naturall man. Behemoth and the other creatures were vestigia, sayes the School. In them we may see where God hath gone; for all being is from God and so every thing that hath a being, hath filiationem vestigii, a testimonie of Gods having passed that way, and called in there: but man hath filiationem imaginis, an expression of his image; and doth the office of an image or picture, to bring him whom it repre­sents, the more lively to our memories. Gods abridgement of the whole world was man; re­abridge man into his least volume, in pura natura­lia, as he is but meer man, and so he hath the image of God in his soul.

He hath it as God is considered in his unitie; for as God is, the soul of man is, indivisibly, impar­tibly, one entire. And he hath it also as God is notified to us in a Trinitie: for as there are three persons in the essence of God; so are there three faculties in the soul of man. The attributes, and some kinde of speculation of the persons in the Trinitie, are, power to the Father, wisdome to the Sonne, and goodnesse to the holy Ghost. And the three faculties of the soul have the images of these three: the Ʋnderstanding is the image of the Fa­ther, that is, Power; for no man exercises power, no man can govern well, without understanding the natures & dispositions of them whom he governs: and therefore in this consists the power which man hath over the creature, that man understands the nature of every creature; for so Adam did when he named every creature according to the nature thereof: and by this advantage of our under­standing them, and comprehending them, we ma­ster them; and so, Obliviscuntur quod natae sunt, sayes S. Ambrose: the lion, the bear, the elephant, have forgot what they were born to; Induuntur quod ju­bentur, they invest and put on such a disposition and such a nature as we enjoyn them & appoint them: Serviunt ut famuli (as that Father pursues it ele­gantly) and, Verberantur ut timidi; they wait upon us as servants, who, if they understood us, as well as we understand them, might be our masters; and they receive correction from us, as though they were afraid of us, when, if they understood us, [Page 29]they would know that we were not able to stand in the teeth of the lion, the horn of the bull, in the heels of the horse; and, Adjuvantur ut infirmi, they counterfeit a weaknesse, that they might be beholding to us for help; and they are content to thank us, if we afford them rest, or any food, who, if they understood us as well as we do them, might tear our meat out of our throats; nay, tear out our throats for their meat. So then in this first natu­rall facultie of the soul, the Ʋnderstanding, stands the image of the first person, the Father, Power.

And in the second facultie, which is the Will, is the image, the attribute of the second person, the Sonne, which is Wisdome: for wisdome is not so much in knowing, in understanding, as in electing, in choosing, in assenting. No man needs go out of himself, nor beyond his own legend, and the histo­rie of his own actions for examples of that, That many times we know better, and choose ill wayes. Wisdome is in choosing or assenting.

And then in the third facultie of the soul, the Memorie, is the image of the third person, the holy Ghost, that is, Goodnesse. For to remember, to re­collect our former understanding, and our former assenting, so farre as to do them, to crown them with action, that is true goodnesse. The office that Christ assignes to the holy Ghost, and the good­nesse which he promiseth in his behalf is this, that he shall bring former things to our remembrance. John 14.26. The wise man places all goodnesse in this facultie, the Memorie: properly nothing can fall into the [Page 30]Memorie, but that which is past; and yet he sayes, Whatsoever thou takest in hand, Ecclus 7.36.remember the end, and thou shalt never do amisse. The end cannot be yet come, and yet we are bid to remember that. Vi­sus per omnes sensus recurrit, sayes S. Augustine: as all senses are called sight in the Scriptures (for there is Gustate Dominum, and Audite, and Palpate; Taste the Lord, and Heare the Lord, and Feel the Lord; and still the Videte is added, Taste and see the Lord) so all goodnesse is in remembring; all goodnesse (which is the image of the holy Ghost) is in bringing our understanding and our assenting into action. Certainly (beloved) if a man were like the King but in countenance, and in proporti­on, he himself would think somewhat better of himself, and others would be the lesse apt to put scorns or injuries upon him, then if he had a vulgar and course aspect: with those who have the image of the Kings power (the Magistrate) the image of his wisdome (the Councel) the image of his good­nesse (the Clergie) it should be so too; there is a re­spect due to the image of the King in all that have it. Now in all these respects, man, the meer na­turall man, hath the image of the King of kings; and therefore respect that image in thy self, and exalt thy naturall faculties, emulate those men, and be ashamed to be outgone by those men who had no light but nature. Make thine understanding, and thy will, and thy memorie (though but natu­rall faculties) serviceable to thy God, and auxilia­rie & subsidiarie for thy salvation: for though they [Page 31]be not naturally instruments of grace, yet natural­ly they are susceptible of grace, and have so much in their nature, as that by grace they may be made instruments of grace, which no facultie in any crea­ture but man can be. And do not think that be­cause a naturall man cannot do all, he hath nothing to do for himself.

This then is the image of God in man, the first way, in Nature; and most literally this is the inten­tion of the text. Man was this image thus; and the room furnished with this image, was paradise: but there is a better room then that paradise for the second image (the image of God in man by Grace) that is, the Christian Church: for though for the most part this text be understood de natu­ralibus, of our naturall faculties; yet Origen, and not onely such allegoricall expositours, but Saint Basil, and Nissen, and Ambrose, and others, who are literall enough, assigne this image of God to consist in the gifts of Gods grace, exhibited to us here in the Church. A Christian then in that se­cond capacitie, as a Christian, and not onely as a Man, hath this image of God, of God first consi­dered entirely. And those expressions of this im­pression, those representations of this image of God in a Christian by grace, which the Apostles have exhibited to us, that we are the sonnes of God, the seed of God, the off-spring of God, and partakers of the divine nature, (which are high and glorious exaltations) are enlarged and exalted by Dama­scen to a further height, when he sayes, Sicut Dens [Page 32]homo, ità ego Deus; As God is man, so I am God, sayes Damascen; I, taking in the whole mankinde (for so Damascen takes it out of Nazianzen; and he sayes, Sicut verbum caro, ità caro verbum; As God was made man, man may become God) but especially I; I, as I am wrought upon by grace in Christ Jesus. So a Christian is made the image of God entirely. To which expression S. Cyril also comes neare, when he calls a Christian Deiformem hominem, man in the form of God; which is a mysterious and a blessed metamorphosis and transfiguration: that, whereas it was the greatest trespasse of the greatest trespas­ser in the world, Isa. 14.14. the devil, to say, Similis ero Al­tissimis, I will be like the Highest; it would be as great a trespasse in me not to be like the Highest, not to conform my self to God, by the use of his grace in the Christian Church. And whereas the humiliation of my Saviour is in all things to be imitated by me, yet herein I am bound to depart from his humiliation; Phil. 2.6, 7. that, whereas he being in the form of God, took the form of a servant; I, being in the form of a servant, may (nay, must) take up­on me the form of God, in being Deiformis homo, a man made in Christ, the image of God. So have I the image of God entirely in his unitie, because I professe that faith which is but one faith, Ephes. 4.5. and under the seal of that Baptisme which is but one Baptisme. And then, as of this one God, so I have also the image of the severall persons of the Trini­tie, in this capacitie as I am a Christian, more then in my naturall faculties.

The attribute of the first person, the Father, is Power: and none but a Christian hath power over those great tyrants of the world, Sinne, Satan, Death, and Hell. For thus my power accrues and grows unto me: first, Possum judicare, 1. Cor. 6.5. I have a pow­er to judge; a judiciarie, a discretive power, a power to discern between a naturall accident and a judgement of God, and will never call a judgement an accident; and between an ordinarie occasion of conversion, & a temptation of Satan: Possum judica­re. And then, Possum resistere, Eph. 6.13. which is another act of power: when I finde it to be a temptation, I am able to resist it. And Possum stare (which is another) I am able not onely to withstand, but to stand out this battell of temptations to the end. And then, Possum capere; that which Christ proposes for a tri­all of his disciples, He that is able to receive it, Matt. 19.12.let him receive it: I shall have power to receive the gift of continencie against all temptations of that kinde. Bring it to the highest act of power, that with which Christ tried his strongest Apostles; Possum bibere calicem, Matt. 20.22. I shall be able to drink of Christs cup, even to drink his bloud, and be the more innocent for that; and to poure out my bloud, and be the stronger for that. Phil. 4.13. In Christo om­nia possum; there is the fulnesse of power: In Christ I can do all things; I can want, or I can abound; I can live, or I can die. And yet there is an extension of power beyond all this, in this, Non possum peccare; 1 John 3.9. being born of God in Christ, I cannot sinne. This that seems to have a name of impotence, Non pos­sum, [Page 34]I cannot, is the fullest omnipotence of all: I cannot sinne; not sinne to death, not sinne with a desire to sinne, not sinne with a delight in sinne; but that temptation that overthrows another, I can resist; or that sinne which being done, casts an­other into desperation, I can repent. And so I have the image of the first person, the Father, in Power.

The image of the second person, whose attribute is Wisdome, I have in this, that wisdome being the knowledge of this world and the next, I embrace nothing in this world, but as it leads me to the next: for thus my wisdome, my knowledge grows: first, 2. Tim. 1.12. Scio cui credidi, I know whom I have beleeved; I have not mislayed my foundation; my foundati­on is Christ: and then, Scio non moriturum; my foundation cannot sink: Rom. 6.9. I know that Christ being raised from the dead, Rom. 8.27.dies no more: again, Scio quod desideret spiritus; I know what my spirit, enlighten­ed by the Spirit of God, desires: I am not transport­ed with illusions and singularities of private spi­rits. And as in the attribute of Power we found an Omnipotence in a Christian; so in this there is an Omniscience. 1. Cor. 8.1.Scimus quia omnem scientiam habemus; there is all together: We know that we have all know­ledge; for all S. Pauls universall knowledge was but this, 1. Cor. 2.2. Jesum crucisixum: I determined not to know any thing, save Jesus Christ, and him crucisied. And then the way by which he would proceed and take degrees in this wisdome, 1. Cor. 1.21. was, stultitia praedi­candi, the way that God had ordained: When the [Page 35]world by wisdome knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve. These then are the steps of Christian wisdome: my foundation is Christ; of Christ I enquire no more but fundamentall doctrines, him crucified; and this I apply to my self by his ordinance of preach­ing. And in this wisdome I have the image of the second person.

And then of the third also in this, that, his attri­bute being goodnesse, I, as a true Christian, call nothing good, that conduceth not to the glorie of God in Christ Jesus; nor any thing ill, that draws me not from him. Thus I have an expresse image of his goodnesse, that Omnia cooperantur in bonum; Rom. 8.28. all things work together for my good, if I love God. I shall thank my fever, blesse my povertie, praise my oppressour; nay, thank, and blesse, and praise even some sinne of mine, which by the con­sequences of that sinne, which may be shame, or losse, or weaknesse, may bring me to a happie sense of all my former sinnes; and shall finde it to have been a good fever, a good povertie, a good oppression, yea, a good sinne. Vertit in bonum, sayes Joseph to his brethren; You thought evil, Gen. 50.20but God meant it unto good: and I shall have the benefit of my sinne, according to his transmutation; that is, though I meant ill in that sinne, I shall have the good that God meant in it. Amos 3.6. There is no evil in the citie, but the Lord doth it: but if the Lord do it, it cannot be evil to me. I beleeve that I shall see bona Dei, the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living; Psal. 27.13. that is, in heaven: but David speaks also of signum [Page 36]in bonum; Shew me a token of good: and God will shew me a present token of future good, an inward infallibilitie, that this very calamitie shall be be­neficiall and advantageous unto me: and so as in nature I have the image of God in my whole soul, and of all the three persons in the three fa­culties thereof; the understanding, the will, and the memorie: so in grace, in the Christian Church, I have the same images of the power of the Fa­ther, of the wisdome of the Sonne, of the good­nesse of the holy Ghost, in my Christian professi­on. And all this we shall have in a better place then paradise (where we considered it in nature) and a better place then the Church, as it is mili­tant (where we considered it in grace) that is, in the kingdome of heaven (where we considered this image in glorie) which is our last word.

There we shall have this image of God in per­fection: for if Origen could lodge such a conceit, that in heaven at last all things should ebbe back into God, as all things flowed from him at first; and so there should be no other essence but God, all should be God, even the devil himself: how much more may we conceive an unexpressible as­sociation (that is too farre off) an assimilation (that is not neare enough) an identification (the School would venture to say so) with God in that state of glorie! Whereas the sunne by shining upon the moon, makes the moon a planet, a starre as well as it self, which otherwise would be but the thickest and darkest part of that sphere: so those beams of glorie which shall issue from my [Page 37]God, and fall upon me, shall make me (otherwise a clod of earth, and worse, a dark soul, a spirit of darknesse) an angel of light, a starre of glorie, a something that I cannot name now, not imagine now, nor to morrow, nor next yeare; but even in that particular, I shall be like God: that as he that asked a day to give a definition of God, the next day asked a week, and then a moneth, and then a yeare; so undeterminable would my imaginations be, if I should go about to think now, what I shall be there: I shall be so like God, as that the devil himself shall not know me from God, so farre as to finde any more place to fasten a temptation up­on me, then upon God; nor to conceive any more hope of my falling from that kingdome, then of Gods being driven out of it: for though I shall not be immortall as God, yet I shall be as immor­tall as God. And there is my image of God, of God considered all together, and in his unitie in the state of grace.

I shall have also then the image of all the three persons of the Trinitie. Power is the Fathers; and a greater power then he exercises here, I shall have there: here he overcomes enemies, but yet here he hath enemies; there, there are none: here they cannot prevail; there they shall not be. So Wisdome is the image of the Sonne; and there I shall have better wisdome: the spirituall wisdome it self is here: for here our best wisdome is, but to go towards our end; there it is to rest in our end: here it is to seek to be glorified by God; there it is that God may be everlastingly glorified by me. [Page 38]The image of the holy Ghost is Goodnesse. Here our goodnesse is mixt with some ill; faith mixt with scruples, & good works mixt with a love of praise, and hope of better mixt with fear of worse: there I shall have sincere goodnesse, goodnesse imper­mixt, intemerate and indeterminate goodnesse; so good a place, as no ill accident shall annoy it; so good companie as no impertinent, no importune person shall disorder it; so full a goodnesse, as no evil of sinne, no evil of punishment for former sins can enter; so good a God, as shall no more keep us in fear of his anger, nor in need of his mercie; but shall fill us first, and establish us in that fulnesse in the same instant, and give us a satietie that we can wish no more, and an infallibilitie that we can lose none of that, and both at once. Whereas the Ca­balists expresse our nearenesse to God in that state, in that note, that the name of man and the name of God, ADAM and JEHOVAH, in their nu­merall letters are equall: so I would have leave to expresse that inexpressible state, so farre as to say, that if there can be other worlds imagined besides this that is under our moon, and if there could be other Gods imagined of those worlds, besides this God to whose image we are made, in Nature, in Grace, in Glorie; I had rather be one of these Saints in this heaven, then one of those Gods in those o­ther worlds. I shall be like the angels in a glorified soul, and the angels shall not be like me in a glori­fied bodie.

The holy noblenesse and religious ambition that I would imprint in you for attaining of this [Page 39]glorie, makes me dismisse you with this note, for the fear of missing that glorie; that, as we have ta­ken just occasion to magnifie the goodnesse of God towards us, in that he speaks plurally, Faciamus, Let Ʋs, all Ʋs do this; & so poures out the blessings of the whole Trinitie upon us, in this image of himself, in every person of the three, and in all these three wayes which we have considered: so when the anger of God is justly kindled against us, God collects himself, summons himself, assem­bles himself, musters himself, and threatens plu­rally too: for of those foure places in Scripture, in which onely (as we noted before) God speaks of himself in a royall plurall, God speaks in anger, and in a preparation to destruction, in one of those foure entirely, as entirely he speaks of mercie but in one of them, in this text; here he sayes meerly out of mercie, Faciamus, Let Ʋs, Ʋs, all Ʋs, make man: and in the same pluralitie, the same universa­litie, he sayes after, Descendamus & confundamus, Gen. 11.7.Let Ʋs, Ʋs, all Ʋs, go down to them and confound them, as meerly out of indignation and anger, as here out of mercie. And in the other two places, where God speaks plurally, he speaks not meerly in mercie, nor meerly in justice in neither; but in both he mingles both: so that God carries him­self so equally herein, as that no soul, no Church, no State may any more promise it self patience in God if it provoke him, then suspect anger in God if we conform our selves to him. For from them that set themselves against him, God shall with­draw [Page 40]his image in all the persons and all the attri­butes: the Father shall withdraw his power, and we shall be enfeebled in our forces; the Sonne his wisdome, and we shall be enfatuated in our coun­sels; the holy Ghost his goodnesse, and we shall be corrupted in our manners, and corrupted in our religion, and be a prey to temporall and spirituall enemies, and change the image of God into the image of the beast. And as God loves nothing more then the image of himself in his Sonne, and then the image of his Sonne Christ Jesus in us; so he hates nothing more then the image of Antichrist in them in whom he had imprinted his Sonnes image; that is, declinations towards Antichrist, or concurrences with Anti­christ, in them who were born, and baptized, and catechized, & blessed in the profession of his truth.

That God, who hath hitherto delivered us from all cause or colour of jealousies or suspicions thereof in them whom he hath placed over us, so conform us to his image in a holy life, that sinnes continued and multiplied by us against him, do not so provoke him against us, that those two great helps, the assiduitie of preaching, and the personall and exemplarie pietie & constancie in our Princes, be not by our sinnes made unprofitable unto us: for that is the height of Gods malediction upon a na­tion, when the assiduitie of preaching and the ex­ample of a religious Prince doth them no good, but aggravates their fault.

THe word which is the hinge upon which all this text turns, is Erash: and Erash signifies not onely a be­trothing, as our later translation hath it, but a marrying; and so it is used by David, Deliver me my wife Michael, 2. Sam. 3.14whom I married: and so our former translation had it, and so we accept it, and so shall handle it. I will marrie thee unto me for ever.

The first marriage that was made, God made; and he made it in Paradise: and of that marriage, I have had the like occasion as this, to speak before, in the presence of many honourable per­sons in this companie. The last marriage which shall be made, God shall make too, and in Para­dise too, in the kingdome of heaven: and at that marriage, I hope in him that shall make it, to meet, not some, but all this companie. The marriage in this text hath relation to both those marriages. [Page 2]It is it self the spirituall and mysticall marriage of Christ Jesus to the Church, and to every mar­riageable soul in the Church: and it hath a retro­spect, it looks back to the first marriage; for to that the first word carries us, because from thence God takes his metaphor and comparison, Sponsa­bo, I will marrie: and then it hath a prospect to the last marriage; for to that we are carried in the last word, In aeternum, I will marrie thee unto me for ever. Be pleased therefore to give me leave in this exercise, to shift the Scene thrice, and to present to your religious considerations three objects, three subjects: first, a secular mar­riage, in Paradise; secondly, a spirituall marriage, in the Church; and thirdly, an eternall marriage, in Heaven: And in each of these three, we shall present three circumstances; first, the persons, Me and Tibi, I will marrie thee; and then the action, Sponsabo, I will marrie thee; and lastly, the term, In aeternum, I will marrie thee to me for ever.

In the first acceptation then, 1 Part. in the first, the se­cular marriage in Paradise, the persons were Adam and Eve: ever since, they are He and She, man and woman: at first, by reason of necessitie, without any such limitation as now; and now without any other limitations, then such as are expressed in the law of God. As the Apostles say, in the first generall Councel, Act. 15.28. We lay nothing upon you but things necessarie; so we call nothing necessarie, but that which is commanded by God. If in heaven I may have the place of a man that hath performed the [Page 3]commandments of God, I will not change with him, that thinks he hath done more then the com­mandments of God enjoyned him. The rule of marriage for degrees and distance in bloud, is the law of God; but for conditions of men, there is no rule at all given. When God had made Adam and Eve in Paradise, though there were foure rivers in Paradise, God did not place Adam in a Mona­sterie on one side, and Eve in a Nunnerie on the other, and so a river between them. They that build walls and cloysters to frustrate Gods insti­tution of marriage, advance the doctrine of de­vils, in forbidding of marriage. The devil hath advantages enow against us, in bringing men and women together: it was a strange and superdevil­ish invention, to give him a new advantage against us, by keeping men and women asunder, by for­bidding marriage. Between the heresie of the Nicolaitans, that induced a communitie of women (any might take any) and the heresie of the Tatians, that forbad all (none might take any) was a fair latitude. Between the opinion of the Manichaean hereticks, that thought women to be made by the devil; and the Colliridian hereticks, that sacrificed to a woman, as to God, there is a fair distance. Between the denying of them souls, which S. Ambrose is charged to have done; and giving them such souls, as that they may be priests, as the Peputian hereticks did, is a fair way for a moderate man to walk in. To make them gods, is ungodly; and to make them devils, is de­vilish: [Page 4]to make them mistresses, is unmanly; and to make them servants, is unnoble: to make them, as God made them, wives, is godly, and manly too. When in the Romane church they dissolve mar­riages in naturall kindred, in degrees where God forbids it not; when they dissolve marriage upon spirituall kindred, because my grandfather chri­stened that womans father; when they dissolve marriage upon legall kindred, because my grand­father adopted that womans father, they separate those whom God hath joyned so farre, as to give them leave to joyn in lawfull marriage. When men have made vows to abstain from marriage, I would they would be content to trie a little longer then they do, whether they could keep that vow or no: And when men have con­secrated themselves to the service of God in his Church, I would they would be content to trie a little further then they do, whether they could abstain or no: But to dissolve marriages made af­ter such a vow, or after orders, is still to separate those whom God hath not separated. The per­sons are He and She, man and woman: they must be so much; he must be a man, she must be a wo­man: and they must be no more; not a brother and a sister, not an uncle and a neece. Adduxit ad eum, was the case between Adam & Eve; God brought them together: God will not bring me a precon­tracted person; he will not have me defraud an­other: God will not bring me a misbeleeving, a superstitious person; he will not have me drawn [Page 5]from himself: But let them be persons that God hath made, man and woman; and persons that God hath brought together, that is, not put asun­der by any law of his; and all such are persons capable of this first, this secular marriage.

In which our second consideration is the action, Sponsabo; where the active is a kinde of passive: I will marrie thee, is, I will be married to thee; for we marrie not our selves. They are somewhat hard driven in the Romane church, when, making marriage a sacrament, and being pressed by us with this question, If it be a sacrament, who administers it? who is the Priest? they are fain to answer, The Bridegroom and the Bride, he and she are the Priest in that sacrament. As marriage is a civil contract, it must be done so in publick, as that it may have the testimonie of men: as marriage is a religious contract, it must be so done, as that it may have the benediction of the Priest. In a marriage without testimonie of men, they cannot claim any benefit by the Law; in a marri­age without the benediction of the Priest, they cannot claim any benefit of the Church: for how matrimonially soever, such persons as have mar­ried themselves, may pretend to love and live together; yet all that love and all that life is but a regulated adulterie, it is not marriage.

Now this Institution of marriage had 3 objects: First, In ustionem, it was given for a remedie against burning; and then, In prolem, for propagation, for children; and lastly, In adjutorium, for mutuall [Page 6]help. As we consider it the first way, In ustionem, every heating is not a burning; every naturall con­cupiscence does not require a marriage: nay, every flaming is not a burning; though a man continue under the flame of carnall temptation, as long as S. Paul did, yet it needs not come presently to a Sponsabo, I will marry. God gave S. Paul other physick, Gratia mea sufficit, grace to stand under that temptation: and S. Paul gave himself other physick, Contundo corpus, convenient disciplines to tame his bodie. These will keep a man from burn­ing; for, Ʋri, est desideriis vinci; desideria pati, il­lustris est & perfecti: To be overcome by our concu­piscencies, that is to burn; but to quench that fire by religious wayes, that is a noble, that is a perfect work. When God, at the first institution of marriage, had this first use of marriage in his contemplation, that it should be a remedie against burning, God gave man the remedie, before he had the disease: for marriage was instituted in the state of innocencie, when there was no inordinatenesse in the affections of man, and so no burning. But as God created Rheubarb in the world, whose qualitie is to purge choler, before there was any choler to purge: so God, according to his abundant for­wardnesse to do us good, created a remedie be­fore the disease, which he foresaw coming, was come upon us. Let him then, that takes his wife in this first and lowest sense, In medicinam, but as his physick, yet make her his cordiall physick, take her to his heart, and fill his heart with her; let her [Page 7]dwell there, and dwell there alone: and so they will be mutuall antidotes and preservatives to one another, against all forrain temptations. And with this blessing blesse thou, O Lord, these whom thou hast brought hither for this blessing: make all the dayes of their life, like this day unto them: and as thy mercies are new every morning, make them so to one another: and if they may not die together, sustain thou the surviver of them in that sad houre, with this comfort, that he that died for them both, will bring them together again in his everlastingnesse.

The second use of marriage was, In prolificati­onem, For children: And therefore (as S. Augu­stine puts the case) to contract before, that they will have no children, makes it no marriage, but an adultery. To deny themselves to one another, is as much against marriage, as to give themselves to another. To hinder that by physick, or any other practise; nay, to hinder that so farre, as by a de­liberate wish or prayer against children, consists not well with this second use of marriage. And yet in this second use we do not so much consider generation, as regeneration; not so much procrea­tion, as education; nor propagation, as transplan­tation of children: for this world might be filled full enough of children, though there were no mar­riage; but heaven could not be filled, nor the places of the fallen angels supplied, without that care of childrens religious education, which from parents in lawfull marriage they are likeliest to receive. [Page 8]How infinite and how miserable a circle of sinne do we make, if, as we sinned in our parents loyns before we were born, so we sinne in our childrens actions when we are dead, by having given them either example or libertie of sinning! We have a fearfull commination from God, upon a good man, upon Eli, for his not restraining the licenti­ousnesse of his sonnes: 1. Sam. 3.11 I will do a thing in Israel, sayes God there, at which both the eares of every one that heareth it shall tingle: and it was executed; Eli fell down, 1. Sam. 4.18 and broke his neck. We have also a promise of consolation to women, for children: She shall be saved in childe-bearing, 1. Tim. 2.15 sayes the Apo­stle: but, as Chrysostome and others of the ancients observe and interpret that place (which interpre­tation arises out of the very letter) it is, Si perman­serint; not, If she, but, If they, if the children continue in faith, and charitie, and holinesse, with sobrietie. The salvation of the parents hath so much relation to the childrens goodnesse, as that, if they be ill by the parents example or indulgence, the parents are as guiltie as the children. Art thou afraid thy childe should be stung with a snake, and wilt thou let him play with the old serpent, in opening himself to all temptations? Art thou afraid to let him walk in an ill aire, and art thou content to let him stand in that pestilent aire, that is made of nothing but oathes and execrations of blasphe­mous mouthes round about him? It is S. Chryso­stomes complaint, Perditionem magno pretio emunt, salutem nec dono accipere volunt: we pay deere for [Page 9]our childrens damnation, by paying at first for all their childish vanities, and then for their sinfull insolencies at any rate; and we might have them saved, and our selves to the bargain (which were a frugall way, and a debt well hedged in) for much lesse then ours and their damnation stands us in. If you have a desire, sayes that blessed Father, to leave them certainly rich, Deum iis relinque debi­torem; Do some such thing for Gods service, as you may leave God in their debt. He cannot break; his estate is inexhaustible: He will not break promise, nor break day; He will shew mercie unto thousands, in them that love him, and keep his commandments. And here also may another shower of his benedi­ctions fall upon them, whom he hath prepared and presented here; Ps. 128.3. Let the wife be as a fruitfull vine, and their children like olive-plants. To thy glorie, let the parents expresse the love of parents, and the children, to thy glorie, the obedience of children, till they both lose that secular name of parents and children, and meet all alike, in one new name, all saints in thy kingdome, and fellow-servants there.

The third and last use in this institution of se­cular marriage, was, In adjutorium, For mutuall help. There is no state, no man in any state, that needs not the help of others. Subjects need Kings; and if Kings do not need their subjects, they need alliances abroad, and they need counsel at home. Even in paradise, where the earth produced all things for life, without labour, and the beasts [Page 10]submitted themselves to man, so that he had no outward enemie; and in the state of innocencie in paradise, where, in man, all the affections sub­mitted themselves to reason, so that he had no in­ward enemie; yet God, in this abundant paradise, and in this secure innocencie of paradise, even in the survey of his own works, saw, that though all that he had made, was good, yet he had not made all good; he found thus much defect in his own work, that man lacked an helper. Every bodie needs the help of others; and every good bodie does give some kinde of help to others. Even into the ark it self, where God blessed them all with a powerfull and an immediate protection, God admitted onely such, as were fitted to help one another, couples. In the ark, which was the type of our best condition in this life, there was not a single person. Christ sayed once one thief at the last gasp, to show that there may be late repentances: but in the ark he saved none but married persons, to show, that he eases himself in making them helpers to one another. And therefore when we come to the Posui Deum adjuto­rium meum, to relie upon God primarily for our helper; God comes to the Faciam tibi adjutorium, I will make thee a help like thy self: not alwayes like in complexion, nor like in yeares, nor like in fortune, nor like in birth; but like in minde, like in disposition, like in the love of God and of one another, or else there is no helper. It was no kinde of help, that Davids wife gave him, when she [Page 11]spoke by way of counsel, but in truth in scorn and derision, to draw him from a religious act, as the dancing before the ark at that time was. It is no help, for any respect, to slacken the husband in his religion. It was but a poore help that Nabals wife was fain to give him, by telling David, Alas, my husband is but a fool, like his name; and what will you look for at a fools hand? It is the worst help of all, to raise a husband by dejecting her self; to help her husband forward in this world, by forfeiting sinfully and dishonourably her own in­terest in the next. The husband is the helper in the nature of a foundation, to sustain and uphold all; the wife in the nature of the roof, to cover imperfections and weaknesses: the husband in the nature of the head, from whence all the sinews flow; the wife in the nature of the hands, into which those sinews flow, and enable them to do their offices: the husband helps as legs to her; she moves by his motion: the wife helps as a staffe to him; he moves the better by her assistance. And let this mutuall help be a part of our present benediction too: In all the wayes of fortune, let his industrie help her; and in all the crosses of for­tune, let her patience help him; and in all emer­gent occasions and dangers, spirituall or tempo­rall, O God, make speed to save them; O Lord, make haste to help them.

We have spoken of the persons, Man and Wo­man, Him and Her; and of the action, first, as it is physick, but cordiall physick; and then for chil­dren, [Page 12]but children to be made the children of God; and lastly for help, but true help, and mu­tuall help: there remains yet in this secular marri­age, the term how long, for ever; I will marrie thee for ever. Now though there be properly no eternitie in this secular marriage, nor in any thing in this world, (for eternitie is onely that which never had beginning, nor ever shall have end) yet we may consider a kinde of eternitie, a kinde of circle, without beginning, without end, even in this secular marriage: for first, marriage should have no beginning before marriage; no half marriages, no lending away of the minde in conditionall precontracts before, no lending away of the bo­die in unchaste wantonnesse before. The bodie is the temple of the holy Ghost; and when two bo­dies by marriage are to be made one temple, the wife is not as the chancell, reserved and shut up, and the man as the walks below, indifferent and at libertie for every passenger. God in his temple looks for first-fruits from both; that so, on both sides, marriage should have such a degree of eter­nitie, as to have had no beginning of marriage be­fore marriage. It should have this degree of eter­nitie too, this qualitie of a circle, to have no in­terruption, no breaking in the way, by unjust su­spicions and jealousies. Where there is spiritus immunditiei, as S. Paul calls it, A spirit of unclean­nesse, there will necessarily be spiritus zelotypiae, as Moses calls it, A spirit of jealousie. But to raise the devil in the power of the devil, to call up one [Page 13]spirit by another spirit, by the spirit of jealousie and suspicion, to induce the spirit of uncleannesse where it was not, if a man conjure up a devil so, God knows who shall conjure it down again. As jealousie is a care, and not a suspicion, God is not ashamed to protest of himself, that he is a jealous God. God commands that no idolatrie be com­mitted, Thou shalt not bowe down to a graven image; Exod. 20.5 and before he accuses any man to have bowed down to a graven image, before any idolatrie was committed, he tells them that he is a jealous God; God is jealous before there be any harm done. And God presents it as a curse, when he sayes, My jealousie shall depart from thee, Eze. 16.42.and I will be quiet, and no more angrie; that is, I will leave thee to thy self, and take no more care of thee. Jea­lousie that implies care, and honour, and counsel, and tendernesse, is rooted in God; for God is a jealous God, and his servants are jealous servants, as S. Paul professes of himself, 2. Cor. 11.2 I am jealous over you with a godly jealousie. But jealousie that im­plies diffidence, and suspicion, and accusation, is rooted in the devil; for he is The accuser of the brethren.

So then this secular marriage should be In aeter­num, eternall, for ever, as to have no beginning before, and so too, as to have no jealous interru­ption by the way; for it is so eternall, as that it can have no end in this life. Those whom God hath joyned, no man, no devil can separate so, as that it shall not remain a marriage so farre, as that, [Page 14]if those separated persons will live together again, yet they shall not be new married; so farre, cer­tainly, the band of marriage continues still. The devil makes no marriages: he may have a hand in drawing conveyances; in the temporall conditions there may be practise; but the marriage is made by God in heaven. The devil can break no marri­ages neither, though he can by sinne break off all the good uses, and take away all the comforts of marriage. I pronounce not now, whether adulte­rie dissolve marriage or no: It is S. Augustines wisdome to say, When the Scripture is silent, let me be silent too: and I may go lower then he, and say, Where the Church is silent, let me be silent too; and our Church is so farre silent in this, as that it hath not said, that adulterie dissolves marriage. Perchance then it is not the death of marriage; but surely it is a deadly wound. We have authours in the Romane church, that think Fornicationem non vagam, that such an incontinent life, as is limited to one certain person, is no deadly sinne: but there are none, even amongst them, that dimi­nish the crime of adulterie. Habere quasi non habe­res, is Christs counsel; to have a wife, as though thou hadst none, that is, for continencie and tem­perance, and forbearance, and abstinence upon some occasions. But, Non habere quasi haberes, is not so: not to have a wife, and yet have her; to have her that is anothers, this is the devils counsel. Of that salutation of the Angel to the blessed Vir­gin Mary, Blessed art thou amongst women, we may [Page 15]make ever this interpretation, not onely that she was blessed amongst women, that is, above wo­men; but that she was Benedicta, Blessed amongst women, that all women blest her, that no woman had occasion to curse her. And this is the eter­nitie of this secular marriage, as farre as this world admits any eternitie, that it should have no begin­ning before, no interruption of jealousie in the way, no such approach towards dissolution, as that incontinencie, in all opinions, and in all Churches, is agreed to be. And here also, with­out any scruple of fear, or of suspicion of the con­trarie, there is place for this benediction upon this couple: Build, O Lord, upon thine own foun­dations, in these two, and establish thy former graces with future; that no person ever complain of either of them, nor either of them of one an­other; and so he and she are married in aeternum, for ever.

We are come now, II Part. in our order proposed at first, to our second part; for all is said that I in­tended of the secular marriage. And of this se­cond, the spirituall marriage, much needs not to be said: there is another priest that contracts that, another preacher that celebrates that, the Spirit of God, to our spirit. And for the third marriage, the eternall marriage, it is a boldnesse to offer to say any thing of a thing so inexpressible as the joyes of heaven; it is a diminution of them, to go about to heighten them; it is a shadowing of them, to go about to lay any colours or lights up­on [Page 16]on them. But yet your patience may perchance last to a word of each of these three circumstan­ces, the persons, the action, the term, both in this spirituall and in the eternall marriage.

First then, as in the former part, the secular mar­riage, for the persons there, we considered first Adam and Eve; and after, every man and woman, and this couple in particular: so in this spirituall marriage, we consider first Christ and his Church, for the persons; but more particularly, Christ and my soul. And can these persons meet? In such a distance, and in such a disparagement, can persons meet? The Sonne of God, and the sonne of man? When I consider Christ to be Germen Jehovae, the bud and blossome, the fruit & off-spring of Jeho­vah, Jehovah himself; and my self, before he took me in hand, to be, not a potters vessel of earth, but that earth of which the potter might make a vessel if he would, and break it if he would, when he had made it: when I consider Christ to have been from before all beginnings, and to be still the image of the Father, the same stamp upon the same metall; and my self a piece of rusty copper, in which those lines of the image of God, which were imprinted in me, in my creation, are defa­ced, and worn, and washed, and burnt, and ground away by my many, and many, and many sinnes: when I consider Christ in his circle, in glorie with his Father, before he came into this world, esta­blishing a glorious Church when he was in this world, and glorifying that Church, with that glo­rie [Page 17]which himself had before, when he went out of this world; and then consider my self in my circle, I came into this world washed in mine own tears, and either out of compunction for my self, or compassion for others, I passe through this world, as through a valley of tears, where tears settle and swell; and when I passe out of this world, I have their eyes, whose hands close mine, full of tears too: Can these persons, this image of God, this God himself, this glorious God, and this vessel of earth, this earth it self, this inglorious worm of the earth, meet without disparagement?

They do meet, and make a marriage: because I am not a bodie onely, but a bodie and soul; there is a marriage, and Christ marries me. Deut. 21.12 As by the Law a man might marrie a captive woman in the warres, if he shaved her head, and pared her nails, and changed her clothes: so my Saviour having fought for my soul, fought to bloud, to death, to the death of the crosse for her; having studied my soul so much, as to write all those epistles, which are in the New Testament, to my soul; having presented my soul with his own picture, that I can see his face in all his temporall blessings; ha­ving shaved her head, in abating her pride; and pared her nails, in contracting her greedie desires; and changed her clothes, not to fashion her self after this world; my soul being thus fitted by him­self, Christ Jesus hath married my soul; married her to all the three intendments mentioned in the secular marriage: First, In ustionem, Against [Page 18]burning; that, whether I burn my self in the fire of temptation, by exposing my self to occasions of temptation; or be reserved to be burnt by others in the fires of persecution and martyrdome; whe­ther the fires of ambition, or envie, or lust, or the everlasting fires of hell offer at me, in an apprehen­sion of the judgements of God; yet, as the Spirit of God shall wipe all teares from mine eyes, so the teares of Christ Jesus shall extinguish all fires in my heart: and so it is a marriage, In ustionem, a remedie against burning. It is so too, In prolifi­cationem, For children. First, Vae soli, Wo unto that single soul that is not married to Christ, that is not come into the way of having issue by him, that is not incorporated in the Christian Church, and in the true Church; but is yet either in the wilder­nesse of idolatrie amongst the Gentiles, or in the labyrinth of superstition amongst the Papists. Vae soli, Wo unto that single man, that is not married to Christ in the sacraments of the Church; and, Vae sterili, Wo unto them that are barren after this spirituall marriage: for that is a great curse in the Prophet Jeremie, Jer. 22.30.Scribe virum istum sterilem, Write this man childlesse; that implied all calami­ties upon him. And assoon as Christ had laid that curse upon the fig-tree, Matt. 21.19 Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever, presently the whole tree withered: if no fruit, no leaves neither, nor bodie left. To be incorporated in the bodie of Christ Jesus, and bring forth no fruits worthy of that profession, is a wofull state too. Vae soli: First, Wo [Page 19]unto the Gentiles not married to Christ: and, Vae sterili, Wo unto inconsiderate Christians, that think not upon their calling, that conceive not by Christ: but there is a Vae pregnanti too, Matt. 24.19 Wo unto them that are with childe, and are never deliver­ed; that have sometimes good conceptions, religi­ous dispositions, holy desires to the advancement of Gods truth; but, for some collaterall respects, dare not utter them, nor bring them to their birth, to any effect. The purpose of his marriage to us, is, to have children by us: and this is his abun­dant and his present fecunditie, that working now by me in you, in one instant he hath children in me, and grand-children by me. He hath married me In ustionem, and In prolem; Against burning, and for children: but can he have any use of me, In adjutorium, For a helper? Surely, if I be able to feed him, and clothe him, and harbour him (and Christ would not condemne men at the last day for not doing these, if man could not do them) I am able to help him too. Great persons can help him over sea, convey the name of Christ, where it hath not been preached yet: and they can help him home again, restore his name and his truth, where superstition with violence hath dis­seized him: and they can help him at home, de­fend his truth there, against all machinations to displant and dispossesse him. Great men can help him thus: and every man can help him to a better place in his own heart, and his own actions, then he hath had there; and to be so helped in me, and [Page 20]helped by me, to have his glorie thereby advan­ced, Christ hath married my soul. And he hath married it In aeternum, For ever, which is the third and last circumstance in this spirituall, as it was in the secular marriage. And here the Aeternum is enlarged. In the secular marriage it was an eter­nitie considered onely in this life; but this eternitie is not begun in this world, but from all eternitie, in the book of life, in Gods eternall decree for my election; there Christ was married to my soul. Christ was never in minoritie, never under yeares; there was never any time, when he was not as an­cient as the Ancient of dayes, as old as his Father. But when my soul was in a strange minoritie, in­finite millions of millions of generations before my soul was a soul, did Christ marrie my soul in his eternall decree: so it was eternall, it had no beginning. Neither doth he interrupt this, by gi­ving me any occasion of jealousie by the way, but loves my soul as though there were no other soul, and would have done and suffered all that he did for me alone, if there had been no name but mine in the book of life. And as he hath married me to him In aeternum, For ever, before all beginning; and In aeternum, For ever, without any interruptions: so I know, that whom he loves, he loves to the end; and that he hath given me, not a presumptuous impossibilitie, but a modest infallibilitie, that no sinne of mine shall divorce or separate me from him: for that which ends the secular marriage, doth not end the spirituall; not death: for my death [Page 21]doth not take me from that husband; but that hus­band being by his Father preferred to higher titles and greater glorie in another state, I do but go by death, where he is become a King, to have my part in that glorie, & in those additions, which he hath received there. And this hath led us to our third and last marriage, our eternall marriage, in the tri­umphant Church.

And in this third marriage, III Part. Apoc. 19.7, 9. the persons are the Lambe and my Soul. The marriage of the Lambe is come, and blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lambe, sayes S. John, speak­ing of our state in the generall resurrection. That Lambe who was brought to the slaughter, Isa. 53.7. and opened not his mouth, and I, who have opened my mouth, and poured out imprecations and curses upon men, and execrations and blasphemies against God, upon every occasion; that Lambe which was slain from the beginning, and I, who was slain by him who was a murderer from the beginning; that Lambe which took away the sinnes of the world, and I, who brought more sinnes into the world, then any sacrifice but the bloud of this Lambe could take away; this Lambe and I (these are the persons) shall meet and marrie, there is the action.

This is not a clandestine marriage, not the pri­vate seal of Christ in the obsignation of his Spirit; and yet such a clandestine marriage is a good mar­riage: nor is it such a parish-marriage, as when Christ married me to himself at my baptisme, in a [Page 22]Church here; and yet that marriage of a Christi­an soul to Christ in that sacrament, is a blessed marriage: But this is a marriage in that great and glorious congregation, where all my sinnes shall be laid open to the eyes of all the world; where all the blessed Virgins shall see all my uncleannesses, and all the Martyrs see all my tergiversations, and all the Confessours see all my double dealings in Gods cause; where Abraham shall see my faith­lesnesse in Gods promises, and Job my impatience in Gods corrections, and Lazarus my hardnesse of heart in distributing Gods blessings to the poore: and those Virgins, and Martyrs, and Confessours, and Abraham, and Job, and Lazarus, and all that congregation, shall look upon the Lambe, and up­on me, and upon one another, as though they would all forbid those banes, and say to one an­other, Will this Lambe have any thing to do with this soul? And yet there and then this Lambe shall marrie me, and marrie me In aeternum, For ever; which is our last circumstance.

It is not well done to call it a circumstance; for the eternitie is a great part of the essence of that marriage. Consider then how poore and needie a thing all the riches of this world, how flat and tastlesse a thing all the pleasures of this world, how pallid, and faint, and dilute a thing all the honours of this world are, when the very treasure, and joy, and glorie of heaven it self were unperfect, if it were not eternall: and my marriage shall be so, In aeternum, For ever. The Angels [Page 23]were not married so; they incurred an irreparable divorce from God, and are separated for ever; and I shall be married to him In aeternum, For ever. The Angels fell in love, when there was no object presented, before any thing was created; when there was nothing but God and themselves, they fell in love with themselves, and neglected God, and so fell In aeternum, For ever. I shall see all the beautie and all the glorie of all the Saints of God, and love them all, and know that the Lambe loves them too, without jealousie on his part, or theirs, or mine; and so be married In aeternum, For ever, without interruption, or diminution, Reve. 6.12, 13, 14. or change of affections. I shall see the sunne black as sack­cloth of hair, and the moon become as bloud, and the starres fall, as a fig-tree casts her untimely figs, and the heavens rolled up together as a scrowl: I shall see a divorce between princes and their prerogatives, between nature and all her elements, between the spheres and all their intelligences, between matter it self and all her forms, and my marriage shall be In aeternum, For ever. I shall see an end of faith, nothing to be beleeved that I do not know; and an end of hope, nothing to be wished that I do not enjoy; but no end of that love, in which I am married to that Lambe for ever: yea, I shall see an end of some of the offices of the Lambe himself: Christ himself shall be no longer a Mediatour, an Intercessour, an Advocate, and yet shall continue a Husband to my soul for ever: where I shall be rich enough without joynture, for my Husband [Page 24]cannot die; and wise enough without experience; for no new thing can happen there; and healthy enough without physick, for no sicknesse can en­ter; and (which is by much the highest of all) safe enough without grace, for no temptation that needs particular grace can attempt me. There, where the Angels, which cannot die, could not live, this very bodie, which cannot choose but die, shall live, and live as long as that God of life that made it. Lighten our darknesse, we beseech thee, O Lord, that in thy light we may see light: illu­strate our understandings, kindle our affections, poure oyl to our zeal, that we may come to the marriage of this Lambe, and that this Lambe may come quickly to this marriage: and in the mean time blesse these thy servants, with making this secular marriage a type of the spirituall, and the spirituall an earnest of that eternall, which they and we by thy mercie shall have in that kingdome, which thy Sonne our Saviour hath purchased with the inestimable price of his incorruptible bloud. To whom, &c.