The Happiness of the Church, Biblical commentary 24
THE LOST ARE FOVND.
LVK. 19. 10.
For the Sonne of man is come to seeke, and to saue that was lost.
THE first word is Causall, and puts vsus in mind of some reference. In briefe the dependance is this. Litle Zacheus became great in Gods fauour: he was. ver. 2. a Publican, a chiefe Publican, a rich Publican: Yet he hath a desire to see Iesus, and Iesus hath a purpose to see him. A figtree shall helpe him to the sight of Christ, & Christ to the sight of him.
Our Sauiour calls him downe, (it is fit they should come downe in humilitie that entertaine Christ) and bids himselfe to his house to dinner. He is made Zacheus his gest for temporall food, and Zacheus is made his guest for euerlasting cheare. This day is saluation come to this house. ver. 9.
This mercy is not without the Pharises grudging ver. 7. When they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That hee was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. Murmuring is betweene secret backbiting, and open railing: a smotherd malice, which can nether beevtterly concealed, nor dare bee openly vented. The cause of their murmuring was, that hee was become a guest to a sinner: as if the Sunne of righteousnesse could bee corrupted in shining on a Dunghill of sinne. No: whiles hee did associate the bad, hee made them good; feeding them spiritually, that fed him corporally. Hee did not consent to their sinne, but correct it: not infecting himselfe, but affecting their soules, and effecting their blisse. A man may accompany those, whom hee desires to make better, or them to make him better. And that the mouth of all wickednesse might be stopped, our Sauiour sayes, that his comming into the world was not onelyonly to call home Zacheus, but euen many such Publicans. For the Sonne of man is come to seeke, and to saue &c.
Wee are thus gotten ouer the threshold; For: let vsus now looke into the house, and suruay eueryevery chamber and roome in it. The foundation of this comfortable scripture is Iesus Christ and the building may bee distinguished into fiue seuerall Parlours, all richly hung and adorned with the graces and mercies of God: and the midst thereof paued with louelove for the daughters of Ierusalem. CHRIST is the Buttresse or corner stone; and in him consider Cant. 3. 10.here
His
Humilitie. The Sonne of man.
Veritie. Is come.
Pittie. To seeke.
Pietie. To saue.
Power. That which was lost.
1. The Sonne of man. Ecce Humilitatem. Hee that is the Sonne of eternall God, cals himselfe the Sonne of mortall man.
2. Is come. Ecce veritatem. What God had promised, his Seruants prophecied, his Types prefigured, he hath now performed. They all foretold in their kinds that he should come: he makes all good, he Is come.
3. To seeke. Ecce compassionem. He knew that we were vtterly gone; that we had Nec valentis oculum, nec volentis animum: neither an eye able, nor a mind willing to seeke him: in Pittie he seekes vsus.
4. To saue. Ecce Pietatem. He seekes vsus not in ruinam, to our destruction as we deserued: but in salutem, to our saluation as he desired. Amissos quaerit, quaesitos invenit, inventos seruat. He seekes them that were lost, hee finds them he seekes, he saues them he finds. To saue.
5. The lost. Ecce Potestatem. He is not onelyonly able to strengthen vsus weake, nor to recouer vsus sicke, nor to fetch vsus home offring our selues to bee brought: but when we had neither will nor power to procure this; yea when wee had a reluctancie against this, for wee were his enemies and hated him: he did recall vsus gone, reviue vsus dead, seeke and saue vsus that were lost.
You see the Chambers, how they lie in order: let mee keepe your thoughts in this house of MercieMercy a while, wherein may all our soules dwell for euer. In survaying the Roomes, it is fit wee should begin with the lowermost: and thither the Text aptly first leads vsus.
The Sonne of Man.
Christ is called a Sonne in three respects. 1. In regard of his Deitie, the Sonne of God, begotten of him from all eternitie, coequall and coessentiall to him. 2. In respect of his flesh, the Son of Mary, naturally borne of her. 3. He cals himselfe the Sonne of Man, in regard that he tooke on him mans nature, and vndertooke the performance of mans redemption. Man like vsus in all things, sinne onelyonly excepted. So that in this circumstance two things are considerable in Christ; the one necessarily involved in the other:
His
Humanitie.
Humilitie.
His Humanitie.
When the fulnesse of time was come, aGal. 4. 4.God sent his Sonne made of a Woman. Ex muliere, non in muliere: as Gorran notes against Valentinus, whose heresie was, that Christ passed through the Virgin as water through a Conduit-pipe. But this Preposition Ex, signifies a preexistent matter: as a house is made of tymber & stones, bread of wheat, wine of grapes. Christ had therefore the materials of his bodie from the virgin Mary; though not his Formale principium: for the holy Ghost was agent in this wonderfull conception.
Neither is this a thing impossible to God, though wonderfull to Man; that this Christ should be the Son of Mary without man. As it was possible to God in the first creation, to make a Woman out of a Man without the helpe of a Woman: so in this new creation, to make a Man out of a Woman without the helpe of a man. There is the same reason of possibilitie. It is as easie to bring fire from a steele without a flint, as from a flint without a steele. But he that could dare essentiam nihilo, can raise a nature ex aliquo.
God had foure diuerse manners of creating humane creatures. 1. The first man Adam was made of no man, but immediately created of God. 2. The second, that was Eue, was made (not of a woman, but) of a man alone. 3. The third sort, all men and women else are begotten of man and woman. 4. Christ the last sort was of a different maner from all these. 1. not of no precedent flesh, as Adam. 2. Not of a man without a woman, as Eue. 3. Not of man and woman, as all we. 4. But after a new way; of a woman, without a man. We are all in this sort opposed to Adam, Christ to Eue, Adam was made of neither man nor woman, wee of both man and woman. Eue of a man without a woman, Christ of a woman without a man.
Now as this was a great worke of God, so it is a great wonder to man. Three miracles here. Deum nasci, virginem parere, fidem haec credere. That the Sonne of God should become the Sonne of woman, a great myracle. That a virgin should beare a child, and yet before, at, after the birth remaine still a virgin, a great myracle. That the faith of man should beleeue all this, Maximum miraculum; this is the greatest wonder of all.
Thus you hauehave Diuinitie assuming Humanitie: a great mystery; b1. Tim. 3. 16.God manifested in the flesh. In mundum venit, qui mundum condidit: he comes downe to earth, but hee leaues not heauen; hic affuit inde non defuit. Humana natura assumpta est, Diuina non consumpta est. Hee tooke Humanitie, he lost not his Diuinitie. He abideth Mariae Pater, the Father of Mary; who is made Mariae Filius, the Sonne of Mary cEsa 9. 6.To vsus a child is borne, to vsus a sonne is giuen. Whereon dHom de. Nat.Emissenus; Natus qui sentiret occasum, datus qni resciret exordium. Hee was borne that should feele death: hee was giuen that was from euerlasting, and could not die. Natus qui & matre esset iunior, datus quo nec Pater esset antiquior. He that was borne was younger then his mother; hee that was giuen was as eternall as his father. He was Sonne to both God and Mary. Non alter ex Patre, alter ex Virgine: sed aliter ex Patre, aliter ex virgine.
As the flowers are said to hauehave Solem in coelo patrem, solum in terra matrem: so Christ hath a father in heauen without a mother, a mother on earth without a father. Here is then the wonder of his Humanitie. The euerlasting eEsa. 9. 6.Father is become a litle child. He that spreads out the heauens, is wrapd in eLuk. 2. 7.swadling clouts. Hee that is the Word, becomes an Infant not able to speake. The Sonne of God calls himselfe the Sonne of man.
His Humilitie.
If your vnderstandings can reach the depth of this bottome, take it at one view. The Sonne of God calls himselfe the Sonne of man. The omnipotent Creator becomes an impotent creature. As himselfe sayth; fIoh. 15. 13.Greater louelove hath no man then this, that a man lay downe his life for his friends. So greater humilitie neuer was then this, that God should be made man. It is the voyce of Pride in man, gEsa. 14. 14.I will bee like God: but the action of Humilitie in God, I will be man. Proud Nebuchadnezzar sayes, Ero similis altissimo, I will be like the Highest: meeke Christ sayth, Ero similis infimo I will be like the lowest: hee put on him the the forme of a seruant: yea hee was a despised Worme. God spoke it in derision of sinfull man; hGen. 3. 22.Behold, hee is become as one of vsus: but now we may say, God is become as one of vsus. There the lowest aspires to bee the Highest, here the Highest vouchsafes to be the lowest. Alexander a sonne of man would make himselfe the sonne of God: Christ the Sonne of God makes himselfe the sonne of man. God in iPsal. 16. 11.whose presence is fullnesse of ioy, becomes kEsa. 53. 3.a man full of sorro…es. Eternall rest betakes himselfe to vnrest: hauing whilst hee liued i passiue action, and when hee dyed actiue passion.Bern. ser. in ser. 4. hebd.
The mAct. 10. 36.LORD ouer all things, and nHebr. 1. 2.Heire of the world, vndertakes ignominie and pouertie. Ignominie: the oPsal. 24. 7.King of glory is become pPsal. 22. 6.the shame of men. Pouertie: qBern. tract. de Pass. Dom. cap. 2.Pauper in nativitate, pauperior in vita, pauperrimus in cruce. Poore in his Birth, for borne in another mans stable: poore in his Life, fed at another mans table: poore in his Death, buried in another mans sepulcher.
There are sayth rIn Cant. ser. 34.Bernard, some that are humbled, but not humble: others that are humble, not humbled: and a third sort that are both humbled and humble. Pharaoh was humbled and cast downe, but not humble: smitten with subuersion, not moued with submission. Gothfrey of Boloigne was not humbled, yet humble: for in the very heate and height of his honour he refused to be crowned in Ierusalem, with a Crowne of gold, because Christ his master had bin in that place crowned with a crowne of thornes. Others are both humbled and humble. sPsal. 78. 34.When he slew them they sought him: they returned and enquired early after GOD. Our Sauiour Christ was Passiuely humbled: tHeb. 2. 9.hee was made lower then the Angels, by suffering death: the Lord did breake him. Actiuely he humbled himselfe. uPhil. 2. 7.he made himselfe of no reputation, and tooke vponupon him the forme of a seruant: he humbled himselfe. Habitually hee was humbled. xMat. 11. 29.Learne of me, for I am meeke and lowly in heart. Let this obseruation lesson vsus two dueties.
1. Esteeme wee not the worse, but the better of Christ, that hee made himselfe the Sonne of man. Let him not lose any part of his honour, because hee abased himselfe for vsus. Hee that tooke our aRom. 9. 5flesh, is also over all, GOD blessed for ever, Amen. There is more in him then humanitie: not alia persona, but alia natura: not another person, but another nature. Though hee bee verus homo, hee is not merus homo. And euen that Man, that was crucified on a crosse, and layed in a graue, is more high then the heauens, more holy then the Angels.
Stephen saw this very bAct. 7. 56.Sonne of man standing on the right hand of God. The bloud of this Sonne of man giues saluation: and to whome it doth not, this Sonne of man shall cIoh. 5. 27.adiudge them to condemnation. VnderUnder this name and forme of Humilitie our Sauiour apposed his Disciples. dMat. 16. 13.Whome do men say, that I, the Sonne of Man, am? Peter answeres for himselfe and the Apostles, whatsoeuer the people thought; eVer. 16.Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God. He cals himselfe the Sonne of man, Peter cals him the Sonne of God. f1. Cor. 1. 23.The Iewes see him onelyonly a st…mbling blocke, and the Greekes foolishnesse: but Christians see him gVer. 24.the Power of God, and the Wisedome of God. The wicked behold him hEsa. 53. 2.without forme or comelynesse, or beauty to desire him: but the faithfull behold him iCant. 3. 11.crowned with a Crowne, kMat 17. 2.his face shining, as the Sunne in his glory. Therefore lBern. ser. 22.Quantò minorem se fecit in humilitate, tantò maiorem exhibuit in bonitate. Quanto pro me vilior, tanto mihi charior. The lower hee brought himselfe in humilitie, the higher hee magnified his merciemercy. By so much as hee was made the baser for vsus, by so much let him be the dearer to vsus.
Obserue it O man: & quia limus es, non sis superbus: & quia Deo iunctus; non sis ingratus: because thou art dust of thy selfe, be not proud: because thou art made immortall by Christ, be not vnthankefull.
Condemned world, that despisest him appearing as a silly man! The Iewes expected an externall pompe in the Messias: Can hee not come downe from the Crosse; how should this man saue vsus? They consider not, that hee who wanted a Rest for his head, & Bread for his followers, fed some thousands of them with a few loaues: that hee which wanted a pillow, giues rest to all beleeuing soules: that hee could, but would not come downe from the crosse; that the deare price of their redemption might be payed.
Many still hauehave such Iewish hearts: what, beleeue on a crucified man? But Paul m1. Cor. 2. 2.determines to know nothing, but this Iesus Christ, and him crucified. They can be content to dwell with him on mount Tabor, but not to follow him to mount Caluary. They cleaue to him so long as hee giues them bread, but forsake him when himselfe nIoh. 19. 28.cryes for drinke. Oderunt pannos tuos. O Christ, they like well thy robes of glory, but not thy rags of pouertie. They louelove him whiles the people cry Hosanna; but shrinke backe when they cry, Crucifie him. All pleaseth them but the Crosse: all the faire way of delights they will accompany him, but at the Crosse they part.
They would share with him in his kingdome, but they will none of his vassalage. The Lyon (in a Fable) had many attendants, and he prouided for them good cheare. They like well of this, and are proud of their master, to whom all the other beastes gaue awe and obedience. But it chanced that the Lyon fell into the daunger of the Dragon; who had got him downe; readie to deuoure him. His followers seeing this quickly betake them to their heeles; and fell eueryevery beast to his old trade of rapine. OnelyOnly the poore Lambe stood bleating by, and though hee coulde not helpe, would not forsake his Lord At last the Lyon gets the victory, and treads the Dragon vnderunder his feet to death. Then he punisheth those revolting traytors with deserued destruction, and sets the Lambe by his owne side.
The great aReu. 5. 5.Lyon of Iudah feeds many of the Iewes, and at this day profane wretches: whilest his bountie lasts, Christ, and none but Christ. But when the Red Dragon hath got him vnderunder, nailed him to the crosse, Crucified him dead; away goe these runnagates; no more peny, no more Paternoster. If affliction come for Christ his cause, they know where to find a kinder Master. Backe to the world: one to his fraud, and hee will ouer-reach others with the sinne of deceitfulnesse, though himselfe be ouer-reached with the bHeb. 3. 13.deceitfulnesse of sinne. Another to his vsurie; and hee chymically proiects money out of the poores bowels. A third to his couetousnesse; and hee had rather that the very frame of the world should fall, then the price of corne. A fourth to his Idols; and hee hopes for cakes from the Queene of heauen, as if the King of heauen was not able to giuegive bread. If the Lord pinch them with distresse, they runne to Rome for succour: expecting that from a blocke, which they would not tarry to obtaine from the God of merciemercy. Then they cry like the Israelites: cExod. 32. 1.Vp, make vsus gods to goe before vsus: for as for this Moses, wee know not what is become of him. But at last this Lyon conquers the Dragon; ouercomes Sathan & his damnation: what shall he then say to those Rebelles that would not hauehave him raigne ouer them? But dLuk. 19. 27.Bring those mine enemies, and slay them before me. But the poore and pure innocent Lambs that eRom. 8. 17.suffer with him, shall raigne with him. fMat. 5. 10.Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake, for theirs is the kingdome of heauen.
…. The other vse is St. Pauls. gPhil. 2. 5.Let the same minde be in you, which was in Christ Iesus. What mind is that? Humilitie. Ver. 7. He that thought it no robberie to bee equall with God, humbled himselfe to become Man: we should hauehave found it no robberie to be equall with Deuils, and shall we be proud? What an intolerable disproportion is this; to behold Humilem Deum, & superbum hominem? an humble God, and a proud man? Who can indure to see a Prince on foot, & his vassall mounted? Shall the Sonne of God be thus humble for vsus, & shall not we be humble for our selues? For our selues, I say; that deserue to be cast downe among the lowest; for our selues, that we may be exalted.
He that here cals himselfe the Sonne of man, is now glorified: they that humbly acknowledge themselues to be the Sonnes of men, that is mortall, shalbe made the Sonnes of God, that is immortall. In the first of King. 19. There was a mightie strong winde, that rent the mountaines, and brake the rockes; but God was 1. King. 19. 11.not in the Wind: the Lord will not rest in the turbulent spirit, puffed vp with the wind of vaine-glory. There was an earth-quake, but God was not in the earth-quake. He will not dwell in a couetous heart, buryed in the furrowes of the earth, and cares of the world. There was a Fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. Hee will not rest in a cholericke angry soule, full of combustion and furious heate. There was a still soft voyce, and the Lord came with it. In a milde and humble spirit the God of heauen and earth will dwell. hEsa. 57. 15.The high and loftie One that inhabiteth eternitie, will dwell in the contrite and humble soule.
It is a sweet mixture of Greatnesse and Goodnesse; Vt dum nihil in honore sublimius, nihil in humilitate submissius; When the highest in dignitie are the lowest in courtesie. Augustine called himselfe, Minimum non solùm omnium Apostolorum, sed etiam Episcoporum; the least not onelyonly of all the Apostles, but of all the Bishops: wheras he was the most illuminate doctor and best Bishop of his times. Paul thought himselfe i1. Cor. 15. 9.not worthy to be called an Apostle: and behold, he is called The Apostle; foreign; not Paul, but The Apostle. Abraham that esteemed himselfe kGen. 18. 27.dust and ashes, is honoured to bee the lRom. 4. 11.Father of all them that beleeue. Dauid sits content at his sheepe-folds; the Lord makes him King ouer his Israell.
But as Humilitie like the Bee gathers Honey out of ranke Weeds, very sinnes; mouing to repentance. So Pride like the Spider suckes poyson out of the fairest flowers, the best graces, and is corrupted with insolence. Vna superbia destruit omnia. OnelyOnly Pride ouerthrowes all. It thrust proud Nabuchadnezzar out of mens societie, proud Saul out of his kingdome, proud Adam out of Paradise, proud Haman out of the Court, proud Lucifer out of heauen. Pride had her beginning among the Angels that fell, her continuance in earth, her end in hell. Poore man; how ill it becomes thee to be proud, when God himselfe is humble!
Is come.
We vnderstand the person, let vsus come to his Comming. And herein, Ecce veritatem; behold his Truth. Did God promise a Sonne of a virgin; Emanuell, a Sauiour? He is as good as his word; Venit, he is come. Did the sacrificed bloud of so many Buls, Goates, and Lambes, prefigure the expiatory bloud of the Lambe of God to be shed? mIoh. 1. 29.Ecce agnus Dei; Behold that Lambe of God that taketh away the sinnes of the world. Is the Seed of the woman promised to breake the head of the serpent? Behold he breakes the heauens, and comes downe to doe it. n1. Ioh. 3. 8.For this purpose the Sonne of God was manifested, that he might destroy the workes of the Deuill. Did God ingage his word for a Redeemer to purge our sinnes? oMath. 1. 21.Call his name Iesus: for he shall saue his people from their sinnes.
Against vnbeleeuing Atheists, and mis-beleeuing Iewes, here is sufficient conviction. But I speake to Christians, that beleeue he is come. Hac fide credite venturum esse, qua creditis venisse. Beleeue that he will come againe, with the same faith wherewith you beleeue he is come alreadie. Doe not curtall Gods word, beleeuing onelyonly so much as you list. Faith is holy and catholicke: if you distrust part of Gods word, you prepare infidelitie to the whole. Did God promise Christ, and in pGal. 4. 4.the fulnes of time to send him? Then since he hath againe promised him, and qAct. 17. 31.appointed a day wherein he will iudge the world by that man, he shall come. As certainly as he came to suffer for the world, so certainely shall he come to iudge the world. rHeb. 9. 28.Christ was once offered to beare the sinnes of many, and vntounto them that looke for him shall he appeare the second time without sinne vntounto saluation. He that kept his promise when he came to die for vsus, followed by some few poore Apostles, will not breake it when he shal come in glory with thousāds of Angels.
Neither did God onelyonly promise that Christ should come, but that all beleeuers should be saued by him. sIoh. 1. 12.As many as receiued him, to them gaue he power to be the sonnes of God, euen to them that beleeue on his Name. Misit filium, promisit in filio vitam. He sent his Sonne to vsus, and saluation with him. Wretched and desperate men that distrust this merciemercy! Whosoeuer beleeues, and is baptised, shall be saued. Whosoeuer; Qui se ipsum excipit, seipsum decipit. Did not God spare to send his promised sonne out of his bosome to death, and will hee to those that beleeue on him deny life? No; all his promises are Yea and Amen in Christ: may these also be Yea and Amen in our beleeuing hearts. A yeelding Deuill could say, Iesus I knew: yet some men are like that tempting deuill. Math. 4. Si filiu: Dei sis; If thou be the sonne of God. Si if; as if they doubted, whether he could or would saue them.
Is come.
There is a threefold Comming of Christ: according to the threefold difference of Time, Past, Present, Future. As tSer. 3. de Adventu Christi.Bernard.
Venit
Ad homines
In homines
Contra homines.
1. First for the time past, he came among men. Iohn. 1.
1. The word was made flesh, and dwelt among vsus. 2. For Ioh. 1. 14.the present, he comes into men; by his Spirit and grace. Reu. 3. I stand at the dore and knock, if any open vntounto me, Reu. 3. 20.I will come into him. 3. For the time to come, hee shall come against men. Rom. 2. At the day when God shall iudge Rom. 2. 16.the secrets of all hearts by Iesus Christ. Or as it is wittily obserued; the Sunne of righteousnesse appeareth in three Dr Boys. Post. Dom.signes: Leo, Virgo, Libra. 1. In the Law like a Lyon, roaring out terrible things with a voice not indurable. uExod. 20. 19.And they sayd to Moses, Speake thou with vsus, and we will heare: but let not God speake with vsus, least we die. 2. In the Gospell hee appeared in Virgo, an Infant borne of a virgin. Math. 1. 25. 3. At his last Audite hee shall appeare in Libra, weighing all our thoughts, words, and workes in a balance. xReu. 22. 12.Behold I come quickly & my reward is with me, to giuegive eueryevery man according as his worke shalbe.
Is come.
He was not fetched, not forced, sponte venit; of his owne accord he is come. aIoh. 10. 18.No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it downe of my selfe. bIn Mat. 26. 55.Ambrose on these words of Christ; Are ye come out against a theefe, with swords and staues to take me? Stultum est cum gladijs eum quarere, qui vltro se off…rt. It was superfluous folly to apprehend him with weapons, that willingly offered himselfe: to seeke him in the night by treason, as if he shunned the light, who was eueryevery day teaching publiquely in the Temple. Sed factum congruit tempori & personis: quia cùm essent tenebrae, in tenebroso tempore tenebrosum opus excercebant. The fact agrees to the time and Persons: they were darknesse, therefore they doe the worke of darknesse in a time of darknesse. Indeed hee prayes; Father, saue m…e from this houre: but withall hee corrects himselfe; Therefore came I to this houre.
But he is said to feare d…th. Hebr. 5. What is it to vsus Quòd timuit, that hee feared: nostrum est quòd sustinuit, that hee suffered. Christs nature must needs abhorre destructiue things: but his Rationall ouercame his Naturall will. Hee feared death. cLomb. 3. sent dist. 17.Ex affectu sensualitatis, not Ex affectu rationis. Hee eschewed it secundum se, but did vnderunder goe it propter aliud. Ex impetu naturae hee declined it; but ex imperio rationis; considering that either hee must come and die on earth, or wee all must goe and die in hell; and that the heads temporall death might procure the bodies eternall life; behold the Sonne of man is come. Neither was it necessary for him to louelove his paine, though hee so loued vsto suffer this paine. No man properly loues the rod that beats him, though hee loues for his soules good to be beaten. As Augustin sayd of crosses; dConfes. lib. 10. cap. 28.Tollerare iubemur non amare. Nemo quod tollerat amat, etsi tollerare amat. We are commanded to beare them, not to louelove them. No man that euen loues to suffer, loues that he suffers.
Voluntarily hee yeelds himselfe; saluting Iudas by the name of Friend: Amice …r venis? He suffered not his followers to offend his enemies, nor commands the Angels to defend himselfe. eAmbr. in Mat 27. 40.O blind Iewes; was it impossible for him, de paruo slipite ligni descendere, qui descendit a coelorum altitudine? to come downe from a peice of wood, that came downe from heauē? Nunquid Non venit vt se liberaret, qui sub seruituto non erat; sed vt nos de seruitu… redimeret. Ambr. vbi supra.tua vincula illū possunt te…ere, quem c…li non possunt capere? Shall your bonds hold him, when the heauens could not containe him? He came not to deliuer himselfe, that was in freedome: but to deliuer vsus, that were in bondage.
Is come.
Is Christ come to vsus, and shall not wee come to him? Doth the Sonne of God come to the Sonnes of men, and doe the Sonnes of men scorne to come to the Sonne of God? Proud dust, wilt thou not meet thy maker? If any aske; fCant. 6. 1.Whether is thy beloued gone? that wee may seeke him with thee. The Church answers; gVer. 2.My beloued is gone downe into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather Lillies. You shall hauehave him in his Garden, the Congregation of the faithfull. Wheresoeuer a number is gathered together in his Name. Behold, Venit ad limina virtus, Manna lies at your thresholds; will you not goe forth and gather it? The Bridegrome is come, will you not make merrie with him? The nice piece of dust; like Idolatrous Ieroboam, cryes, the Church is too farre off, the iourney too long to Christ. Hee came all that long way from heauen to earth for vsus, and is a mile too tedious to goe to him? Goe too, sede, ede, perde; sit still, eate thy meate, and destroy thy selfe: who shall blame the iustice of thy condemnation.
But for vsus, let vsus leaue our pleasures, and goe to our Sauiour. Non sedeas sed cas, ni pereas per cas. Come a litle way to him, that came so farre to thee. Philip tells Nathanael, wee hauehave found the Messias: Nathanael obiects, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Ioh. 1. 48.Come and see, sayth Philip. And straitwayes Iesus saw Nathanael comming. Christ hath sent many Preachers to inuite vsus to saluation: Wee aske, Vbi, where: they say, Come and see: but we will not come; Christ cannot see vsus comming. Mundus, cura, caro; three mischieuous hindrers, we come not. Christ himselfe calls; yet gIoh. 5. 40.You will not come vntounto mee; that you might hauehave life. He comes amongst vsus, Christians; ad suos: hIoh. 1. 11.Hee came to his own…, and his owne receiued him not. Wee say of such things as are vnlike; they come not neere one another: many clothes lie on a heape together, yet because of their different colours, wee say they come not neare one to another. But of things that are alike, wee say they come nigh one another. Our comming neare to Christ is not in place, but in grace. Not in place; for so the wicked is neere to God. iPsal. 139. 7.Whether shall I flie from thy presence? But in grace and qualitie; being holy as he is holy. Indeed hee must first draw vsus before we can come. kCant.Draw mee: wee will runne after thee. Hee first drawes vsus by grace, then wee runne after him by repentance.
To seeke.
Hee is come: to what purpose? Ecce compassionem; to seeke. All the dayes of his flesh vponupon earth hee went about seeking soules. Hee went to Samaria to seeke the woman, to Bethany to seeke Mary, to Capernaum to seeke the Centurion, to Iericho to seeke Zacheus. O what is a man, and the Sonne of man, that the Sonne of God should thus hunt after him! Wee sought not him. lPsal. 10. 4.The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seeke after God. Behold, he seekes vsus. We would not call vponupon him, he sends Ambassadors to beseech vsus. m2. Cor. 5. 20.Wee pray you in Christs stead, be ye reconcised to God. Indeede we cannot seeke him, till he first find vsus. Oportuit viam inuenire errantes, errantes enim nequeunt inuenire viam. If the nIoh. 14. 6.Way had not found vsus, we should neuer hauehave found the Way. I oe his merciemercy: Non solum redeuntem suscipit, sed perditum quarit. How ioyfull will hee be to find vsus, that is thus carefull to seeke vsus!
Let this teach vsus, not to hide our selues from him. Wretched men, guiltie of their owne eternall losse, that will not bee found of Christ when hee seekes them. How shall they at the last day o1. Ioh. 2. 28.stand with confidence before him, that at this day runne from him? If we will not be found to bee sanctified, wee cannot be found to be glorified. Paul pPhil. 3. 9.desires to be found in Christ: in Christ found, for without Christ euer lost qIoh. 17. 12.Those that thou gauest me, I hauehave kept; and none of them is lost, but the sonne of perdition. Woe to that man, when Christ shall returne with a Non inuentus. What can the shepheard doe but seeke? nolunt inueniri; they will not be found. What the charmer but charme? Nolunt incantari, they will not bee charmed. What the Sutour but wooe? nolunt desponsari, they will not bee espoused to Christ. What the Ambassador but beseech? Nolunt exorari they will not be intreated. What then remaines? rReu. 22. 11.He that will be vniust, let him bee vniust still: and hee that will bee filthy, let him bee filthy still. If wee will not be found of him when hee seekes vsus, hee will not bee found of vsus when wee seeke him. sProu. 1. 28.They shall seeke me early, but they shall not find me. Quaesitus contemnet, qui quarens contemnitur. Hee was despised when hee sought, and will despise when hee is sought to.
Three vicious sorts of men are here culpable. 1. Some sculke when Christ seekes. If there be any bush in Paradise. Adam will thrust his head into it. If there be any hole of pretence, Saul will there borough his rebellion. If Gehe…i can shadow his briberie with a lie, Elisha shall not find him. When the Sunne shines, euerie bird comes forth, onelyonly the owle will not bee found. These birds of darknesse cannot abide the light. tIoh. 3. 19.because their deeds are euill. Thus they play at All hid with God: but how foolishly! Like that beaste that hauing thrust his head in a bush, and seeing no body, thinkes no body sees him. But they shall find at last, that not holes of uReu. 6. 16.Mountaines, nor caues of rockes, can conceale them.
2. Others play at fast and loose with God: as a man behind a tree, one while seene, another while hid. In the day of prosperitie they are hidden; onelyonly in affliction they come out of their holes. As some beasts are driuen out of their boroughes by pouring in scalding water: or as Absolon fetch'd Ioab, by setting a2. Sam. 14. 30.on fire his Barley fields. These are found on the Sunday, but lost all the weeke. Like the Deuill, they stand among the Sonnes of God yet deuoure the seruants of God. As Saul at one time prophecied with the Prophets, and at Iob. 1.another time massacred them. Christ cals them to a banket of prosperitie, they cry Hîc sumus, We are here: but if Satan (in their opiniō) offer them better cheare; Tibi sumus, We are for thee.
3. Others being lost, and hearing the seekers voyce, goe further from him. These are Wolues, not sheepe. The sheepe heares his voice, and comes: the Wolfe heares it, and flies. The nearer saluation comes to them, the further they runne from it. Because England tenders them the Gospell, they will runne as farre as Rome for damnation.
Christ came to seeke the lost sheepe; Luk. 15. he found it, he layd it on his shoulders, and he reioyced. In his life he seekes the sinner till hee finde him. In his death hee layes him on his shoulders, bearing his sinnes in his bodie on the Crosse. In his resurrection he reioyced for him. In his ascension he opens the dores of heauen, & brings him home. Venit & invenit: hee comes to seeke, and he seekes to saue; which is the next poynt,
To saue.
Ecce Pietatem, Behold his goodnesse. Herod sought Christ ad interitum, to kill him: Christ seekes vsus ad salutem, to saue vsus. b1. Tim. 1. 15.This is a faithfull saying, and worthy of all acceptation: that Iesus Christ came into the world to saue sinners. Yeeld to be found, if thou wilt yeeld to be saued. There is nothing but good meant thee in this seeking. Vidimus & testamur, &c. c1. Ioh. 4. 14.We hauehave seene, and doe testifie, that the Father sent the Sonne to be the Sauiour of the world. The Fishermens riddle was, Those we could not find we kept, those we found we lost. But Christes course is otherwise: Whom he finds he saues; whom he finds not are lost for euer. It was a Poeticall speech; Amare & sapere vix conceditur dijs. To louelove and to bee wise seldome meete. They are met in Christ: he did louelove vsus, suscepit naturam he became man: he was wise, occîdit peccatum, he killed sinne. In louelove he seekes vsus, in wisedome he saues vsus: here was Amare & sapere. This sweet and comfortable note I must leaue to your meditations: my speech must end his sauing, though of his saluation there be no end. Paruum est seruare bonos: it is a small thing to saue those that are in no danger of spilling; therefore lastly looke to the Obiect;
The lost.
There Ecce Potestatem, behold his power. He is that dLuk. 11. 22.]strongest man, that vnbound vsus from the fetters of sin and Sathan. Fortissimus; for caetera excellit, caetera expellit: he excels the rest, he expels the rest. He had need be powerfull, that redeemes so weake man from the hands of so strong enemies. Magnus venit medicus, quia magnus iacebat aegrotus. The whole world was sicke: there had need be a great Physician, for there was a great Patient. Loe where wretchednes lies at the foot of Goodnesse; ecce miserum ante misericordem. What but infinite Miserie should be the fit obiect of infinite MercieMercy!
Here was then the purpose of Christs comming; to seeke the lost, to recall wanderers, to heale the sicke, to cleanse the Leprous, to reuiue the dead, to saue sinners. He eMath. 9. 13. Luke 15.came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He leaues the nintie nine in the Wildernesse, to seeke the lost sheepe. Whether it bee meant of the iust Angels in Heauen; as Ambrose, Chrysostome, Hilary, Euthymius thinke. Or those that thought thēselues iust, as Bucer and Ludolphus; the Scribes and Pharises, that presumed they needed no repentance. He embraceth Publicans and sinners, that confesse themselues sicke, and lacking a Physician; sinfull wretches, and needing a Sauiour.
Those worldlings in the Gospell hauehave better cheare at home; what care they for Christs supper? It is the dry ground that thinkes well of raine, the hungry soule that is glad of sustenance. The merciemercy of God falls most welcome on the broken spirit. They that feele themselues miserable, and that they stand in need of eueryevery droppe of his sauing bloud, to those it runnes fresh and sweet. They that feele themselues lost, are found. They are least of all lost, that thinke themselues most lost: they are nearest to their health, that are most sensible of their sicknesse. These hee seekes, these he saues: to these fPostil. cathol con. 2. dom. 1. Aduent.Nascens se dedit in socium, con…escens in cibum, moriens in pretium, regnans in praemium. In his birth he became their companion, in his life their food, in his death their redemption, in his glory their Saluation.
Lost; but where was man lost? There are diuerse loosing places.
1. A garden of delights: and there the first man lost himselfe, and all vsus: in a Garden therefore our Sauiour found vsus againe. We were Lost in a garden of rest, we are found in a garden of trouble. The serpent could neuer take the hare, (he was too light footed for him) till hee found him sleeping in a garden of sweet flowers, vnderunder which the serpent lay hidden. Whilst man not onelyonly surfeits on pleasures, but sleepes in them, Satan that old serpent wounds him to death.
2. A wildernesse is a place able to loose vsus: and that's this world, a wide and wilde forrest; many lost in it. Wee read of a rich man, Luk. 12. that lost himselfe in one corner of this wildernesse, his very barnes: strange, to be lost in a barne. And yet how many loose themselues in a lesse roome, their Counting house! The vsurer hath there lost his soule, and no man can find it. It is so long wrapped vp among his bonds, till Satan take the forfeit. The depopulator takes a larger field to loose his soule in; and to make sure worke, that grace may neuer find it, he hedges and ditches it in.
3. Another loosing place is a Labyrinth or Maze. In the Orchard of this world the God of it hath made a Labyrinth; which St. Iohn describes. g1. Epist. 2. 16.The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The entrance hereinto is easie; as you hauehave seene in that Embleme of Suretiship, the Horne: a man goes gently in at the Butte end, but comes hardly out at the Buckall: the comming forth is difficult. It is so full of crooked meanders, windings, and turnings, out of one sinne into another; from consent to delight, from delight to custome, from custome to impenitencie: that in this Labyrinth men soone grow to a maze, and know not how to be extricated. Labyrinthus, quasi labor intus: the wicked hWised. 5. 7.wearie themselues in the wayes of destruction.
Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. Haec tr…a pro trino Numine mundus habet. This is the trinitie the world worships.
Lust of the flesh. The adulterer looseth himselfe in the forbidden bed. Inter mammillas perditur: he is lost betweene the brests of a Harlot. He that seekes for him, must (as the Pursuivant for the Seminary) not forbeare the Mistresses bed to find him.
Lust of the eyes. Ahab casts a couetous eye at Naboths vineyard. Dauid a lustfull eye at Bathsheba. The eye is the pulse of the soule: as Physicians iudge of the heart by the pulse, so wee by the eye. A rolling eye, a rouing heart. The good eye keepes minute-time, and strikes when i… should: the lustfull crotchet-time, and so puts all out of tune.
Pride hath lost as many, as any her fellow Deuils. They say, shee was borne in heauen, and being cast downe wandred vponupon earth, where a woman tooke her in; and there shee hath dwelt euer since. Indeed Esay 3. the shop of pride is the womans wardrobe: in this wardrobe many soules both of women and men too are lost. The common studie is new fashions; but it is an ill fashion thus to loose the soule.
If we would get out of this maze, we must (as God warned the iMath. 2. 12.Wisemen) depart another way. Out of lust we must wind forth by Chastitie, out of couetousnesse by Charitie, out of Pride by Humilitie. Penitence is the clew to guide vsus forth: howsoeuer wee came in, we must goe out by Repentance.
4. A fourth loosing place is the multitude of new and strange wayes: wherein men wander, as Saul after his Asses, and are lost. There is a way to Rome, a way to Amsterdam: a way to the sillinesse of ignorance, a way to the fullennesse of arrogancie. None of all these is the way to Sion. In the multitude of wayes multitude of soules loose themselues.
5. Lastly some are lost in the darke vault of ignorance; applauding themselues in their blindnes, and like Bats refusing the Sun-shine. They hauehave an kAct. 17. 23.Altar, but it is Ignoto Deo, to an vnknowne God. Like the Hoast of the King of Syria, they are blind, and lost betwixt l2. King. 6. 19Dothan and Samaria. They may grope (as the Sodomites) for the dore of heauen: but let not the Pope make them beleeue, that they can find it blind-fold. Ignorance is not Gods Starre-chamber of light; but the Deuils vault of darkenes. By that doctrine Antichrist fils hell, and his owne coffers. The light that must bring vsus out, is Iesus Christ: mIoh. 1. 9.Which lighteth eueryevery man that commeth into the world. And his nPsal. 119. 105Word is a la…pe vntounto our feet, and a light vntounto our pathes.
Thus you see, there are many places to be lost in; but one way to be found; and that is this; The Sonne of man is come to seeke and to saue that was lost. O Iesus turne our wandring steps into the narrow way of righteousnesse. Come to vsus that we may be sought, seeke vsus that we may be found, find vsus that we may be saued, saue vsus that we may be blessed; and blesse thy name for euer.
Amen.