Fifty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 32
SERMON XXXII.
Preached to the Earl of Exeter, and his company, in his Chappell at Saint Iohns; 13. Iun. 1624.
APOC. 7. 9.
After this, I beheld, and loe, a great Multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the Throne, and before the Lambe, clothed with white robes, and Palmes in their hands.
WE shall have occasion by and by, to say something of the danger of Curiosity, and something of the danger of the broad way, in which, too many walk: we will not therefore fall into either of these faults, at first, we will not be over curious, nor we will not stray, nor cast our selves into that broad, and boundlesse way, by entring into those various, and manifold senses, which Expositors have multiplyed, in the handling of this place, and this part of this book; but we take the plainest way, and that in which, the best meet, and concur, that these words are spoken of the Ioyes, and Glory, reserved for them, who overcome the fraud, and the fury, the allurements, and the violences of Antichrist; in whom, in that name, and person of Antichrist, we consider all supplanters, and all seducers, all opposers of the kingdome of Christ, in us; for, as every man hath spontaneum daemonem, (as S. Chrysostome speakes) a devill of his own making, (which is, some customary, and habituall sin in him) so every man hath spontaneū Antichristum, an Antichrist of his own making, some objections in the weakness of his faith, some oppositions in the perverseness of his manners, against the kingdom of Christ in himself; & as, if God would suspend the devill, or slumber the devill a day, I am afraid we should be as ill that day, as if the devill were awake, and in action, so if those disputed, & problematical Antichrists, Eastern & Western Antichrist, Antichrist of Rome, and Antichrist of Constantinople, Turk and Pope, were removed out of the world, we should not for all that be delivered of Antichrist, that is, of that opposition to the kingdome of Christ, which is in our selvs. This part of the book of the Revelation, is literally, and primarily, the glorious victory of them, who, in the later end of the world, having stood out the persecutions of the Antichrist, enter into the triumph of heaven: And it extends it self to all, by way of fair accommodation, who after a battel with their own Antichrists, and victory over their owne enemies, are also made partakers of those triumphs, those joyes, those glories, of which S. Iohn, in this propheticall glasse, in this perspective of visions, saw A great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations &c.
We are then upon the contemplation of the joyes of heaven,Divisio: which are everlasting, & must we wring them into the discourse of an houre? of the glory of heaven which is intire, and must we divide it into parts? we must; we will; we doe; into two parts; first, the number, the great number of those that shall be saved; And then, the glorious qualities, which shall be imprinted on them, who are saved: first, that salvation is a more extensive thing, & more communicable, then sullen cloystrall, that have walled salvation in a monastery, or in an ermitage, take it to be; or then the over-valuers of their own purity, and righteousnesse, which have determined salvation in themselves, take it to be; for, It is a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations &c. And then, in the second place, salvation is the possession of such endowments, as naturally invite all, to the prosecution of that, which is exposed and offered to all; that we all labour here, that we may all stand hereafter, before the Throne, and before the Lambe, clothed in white robes &c.
In the first of these, we shall passe by these steps; first, we shall consider the sociablenesse, the communicablenesse of God himself, who gives us the earth, and offers us heaven, and desires to have his kingdome well peopled; he would have many, he would have all, he would have every one of them have all. And then, the first word of the text, (After this) will carry us to the consideration of that which was done before; which was, first, that they which were of this number, were sealed, and then they which were so sealed before, were a great number, one hundred forty four thousand; but they who were made partakers of all this after, were innumerable, After this I beheld a great multitude, which no man could number; And therefore we shall shut up that first part with this consideration, what sense, what interpretation may belong unto those places, where Christ says, that the way to heaven is narrow, and the gate straight: of these peeces we shall make up our first part; And for the particulars belonging to the second, we shall fitliest open them, then, when we come to the handling of them.
Our first step then in this first part,1 Part. is, the sociablenesse, the communicablenesse of God; He loves holy meetings, he loves the communion of Saints, the houshold of the faithfull: Deliciae ejus, says Solomon, his delight is to be with the Sons of men, and that the Sons of men should be with him: Religion is not a melancholy; the spirit of God is not a dampe; the Church is not a grave: it is a fold, it is an Arke, it is a net, it is a city, it is a kingdome, not onelyonly a house, but a house that hath many mansions in it: still it is a plurall thing, consisting of many: and very good grammarians amongst the Hebrews, have thought, and said, that that name, by which God notifies himself to the world, in the very beginning of Genesis, which is Elohim, as it is a plurall word there, so it hath no singular: they say we cannot name God, but plurally: so sociable, so communicable, so extensive, so derivative of himself, is God, and so manifold are the beames, and the emanations that flow out from him.
It is a garden worthy of your walking in it: Come into it,Deus unus. but by the gate of nature: The naturall man had much to do, to conceive God: a God that should be but one God: and therefore scattered his thoughts upon a multiplicity of Gods: and he found it, (as he thought) reasonable, to think, that there should be a God of Iustice, a God of Wisedome, a God of Power, and so made the severall Attributes of God, severall Gods, and thought that one God might have enough to do, with the matters of Iustice, another with the causes that belonged to power, and so also, with the courts of Wisedome: the naturall man, as he cannot conceive a vacuity, that any thing should be empty, so he cannot conceive that any one thing, though that be a God, should fill all things: and therefore strays upon a pluralty of Gods, upon many Gods, though, in truth, (as Athanasius expresses it) ex multitudine numinum, nullitas numinum, he that constitutes many Gods destroys all God; for no God can be God, if he be not all-sufficient; yet naturally, (I mean in such nature, as our nature is) a man does not easily conceive God to be alone, to be but one; he thinks there should be company in the Godhead.
Bring it farther then so.3 Personae. A man that lies in the dregs of obscured, and vitiated nature, does not easily discern, unicum Deum, a God that should be alone, a God that should be but one God. Reason rectified, (rectified by the word of God) can discern this, this one God. But when by that means of the Scripture, he does apprehend Deum unicum, one God; does he finde that God alone? are there not three Persons, though there be but one God? 'Tis true the Romās mis-took infinitely, in making 300 Iupiters; Varro mis-took infinitely, in making, Deos terrestres, and Deos c…les…es, sub-lunary, and super-lunary, heavenly, and earthly Gods, and Deus marinos, and fluviatiles, Sea Gods, and River Gods, salt, and freshwater Gods, and Deos mares, and faeminas, he Gods, and she Gods, and (that he might be sure to take in all) Deos certos & incertos, Gods, which they were sure were Gods, & Gods wch might be Gods, for any thing they knew to the contrary. There is but one God; but yet was that one God ever alone? There were more generations (infinitely infinite) before the world was made, then there have been minutes, since it was made: all that while; there were no creasures; but yet was God alone, any one minute of al this? was there not alwais a Father and a Son, & a holy Ghost? And had not they, always an acquiescence in one another, an exercise of Affection, (as we may so say) a love, a delight, and a complacency towards one another? So, as that the Father could not be without the Son and the holy Ghost, so as neither Sonne, nor holy Ghost could be without the Father, nor without one another; God was from all eternity collected into one God, yet from all eternity he derived himselfe into three persons: God could not be so alone, but that there have been three persons, as long as there hath been one God.
Had God company enough of himselfe;Creatio. was he satisfied in the three Persons? We see he proceeded further; he came to a Creation; And as soon as he had made light, (which was his first Creature) he took a pleasure in it; he said it was good; he was glad of it; glad of the Sea, glad of the Earth, glad of the Sunne, and Moone, and Starres, and he said of every one, It is good; But when he had made All, peopled the whole world, brought all creatures together, then he was very glad, and then he said, not onelyonly, that it was good, but that it was very good: God was so far from being alone, as that he found not the fulnesse of being well, till all was made, till all Creatures met together, in an Host, as Moses calls it, then the good was extended into very good.
Did God satisfie himselfe with this visible and discernible world;Angeli. with all on earth, and all between that, and him? were those foure Monarchies, the foure Elements, and all the subjects of those foure Monarchies, (if all the foure Elements have Creatures) company enough for God? was that Heptarchie, the seven kingdomes of the seven Planets, conversation enough for him? Let every Starre in the firmament, be (so some take them to be) a severall world, was all this enough? we see, God drew persons nearer to him, then Sunne, or Moon, or Starres, or any thing, which is visible, and discernible to us, he created Angels; How many, how great? Arithmetique lacks numbers to to expresse them, proportion lacks Dimensions to figure them; so far was God from being alone.
And yet God had not shed himselfe far enough; he had the Leviathan, Homines.the Whale in the Sea, and Behemoth and the Elephant upon the land; and all these great heavenly bodies in the way, and Angels in their infinite numbers, and manifold offices, in heaven; But, because Angels, could not propagate, nor make more Angels, he enlarged his love, in making man, that so he might enjoy all natures at once, and have the nature of Angels, and the nature of earthly Creatures, in one Person. God would not be without man, nor he would not come single, not alone to the making of man; but it is Faciamas hominem, Let us, us, make man; God, in his whole counsail, in his whole Colledge, in his whole society, in the whole Trinity, makes man, in whom the whole nature of all the world should meet.
And still our large, and our Communicable God,Christus. affected this association so, as that having three Persons in himselfe, and having Creatures of divers natures, and having collected all natures in man, who consisted of a spirituall nature, as well as a bodily, he would have one liker himselfe, then man was; And therefore he made Christ, God and Man, in one person, Creature and Creator together; One greater then the Seraphim, and yet lesse then a worme; Soveraigne to all nature, and yet subject to naturall infirmities; Lord of life, life, it selfe, and yet prisoner to Death; Before, and beyond all measures of Time, & Born at so many moneths, yet Circumcised at so many days, Crucified at so many years, Rose againe at so many Houres; How sure did God make himselfe of a companion in Christ, who united himselfe, in his godhead, so inseparably to him, as that that godhead left not that body, then when it lay dead in the grave, but staid with it then, as closely, as when he wrought his greatest miracles.
Beyond all this,Ecclesia. God having thus maried soule and body in one man, and man and God, in one Christ, he maries this Christ to the Church. Now, consider this Church in the Type and figure of the Church, the Arke; in the Arke there were more of every sort of cleane Creatures reserved,Gen. 7. 2. then of the uncleane; seven of those, for two of these: why should we feare, but that in the Church, there are more reserved for salvation then for destruction?Act. 2. 3. And into that room (which was not a Type of the Church, but the very Church it selfe) in which they all met upon whitsunday, the holy Ghost came so as that they were enabled, by the gift of tongues, to convay, and propagate, and derive God, (as they did) to every nation under heaven: so much does God delight in man, so much does God desire to unite and associate man unto him; and then, what shall disappoint, or frustrate Gods desires and intentions so farre, as that they should come to him, but singly, one by one, whom he cals, and wooes, and drawes by thousands, and by whole Congregations?
Be pleased to carry your considerations,Quàm citò. upon another testimony of Gods love to the society of man, which is, his dispatch in making this match, his speed in gathering and establishing this Church; for, forwardnesse is the best argument of love, and dilatory interruptions by the way, argue no great desire to the end; disguises before, are shrewd prophecies of jealousies after: But God made hast to the consummation of this Marriage,1. 6. between Christ and the Church. Such words as those to the Colosrians, (and such words, that is, words to such purpose, there are divers) The Gospell is come unto you, as it is into all the world; 13.And againe; It bringeth forth fruit, as it doth in you also; And so likewise, The Gospell which is preached to every creature which is under heaven; such words, I say, a very great part of the Antients have taken so literally, as thereupon to conclude, That in the life of the Apostles themselves, the Gospell was preached, and the Church established over all the world.
Now will you consider also, who did this, what persons? cunning and crafty persons are not the best instruments in great businesses,Quae Instrumenta. if those businesses be good, as well as great. Here God imployed such persons, as would not have perswaded a man, that grasse was green, that blood was red, if it had been denyed unto them: Persons that could not have bound up your understanding, with a Syllogisme, nor have entendred, or mollified it with a verse: Persons that had nothing but that which God himselfe calls the foolishnesse of preaching, to bring Philosophers that argued, Heretiques that wrangled, Lucians, and Iulians, men that whet their tongues, and men that whet their swords against God, to God.
Unbend not this bowe, Quae Doctrina.blacken not these holy thoughts, till you have considered, as well, as how soone, and by what persons, so to what Doctrine, God brought them. Wee aske but St. Augustins question, Quis tantam multitudinem, ad legem, carni & sanguini centrariam, induceret, nisi Deus? Who but God himselfe, would have drawn the world to a Religion so contrary to flesh and blood? Take but one piece of the Christian Religion, but one article of our faith, in the same Fathers mouth; Res incredibilis resurrectio; That this body should be eaten by fishes in the sea, and then those fishes eaten by other men, or that one man should be eaten by another man, and so become both one man, and then that for all this assimilation, and union, there should arise two men, at the resurrection, Res incredibilis, sayes he, this resurrection is an incredible thing, Sed magis incredibile, totum mundum credidisse rem tam incredibilem, That all the world should so soone believe a thing so incredible, is more incredible, then the thing it selfe. That any should believe any, is strange, but more that all such believe all, that appertains to Christianity. The Valentinians, and the Marcionites, pestilent Heretiques, grew to a great number, Sed vix duo vel tres, de iisdem, eadem docebant, says Irenaeus, scarce any two or three amongst them, were of one opinion. The Acatians, the Eunomians, and the Macedonians, omnes Arium parentem agnoscunt, sayes the same Father, they all call themselves Arians, but they had as many opinions, not onelyonly as names, but as persons. And that one Sect of Mahomet, Irenaeus.was quickly divided, and sub-divided into 70 sects. But so God loved the world, the society and company of good soules, ut quasi una Domus Mundus, the whole world was as one well governed house; similiter credunt quasi una anima, all beleeved the same things, as though they had all but one soule; Constanter praedicabant, quasi unum os, At the same houre there was a Sermon at Ierusalem, and a Sermon at Rome, and both so like, for fundamentall things, as if they had been preached out of one mouth.
And as this Doctrine,Durat adbue. so incredible in reason, was thus soone, and by these persons, thus uniformely preached over all the world, so shall it, as it doth, continue to the worlds end; which is another argument of Gods love to our company, and of his loathnesse to lose us. All Heresies, and the very names of the Heretiques, are so utterly perished in the world, as that if their memories were not preserved in those Fathers which have written against them, we could finde their names no where. Irenaeus, about one hundred and eighty yeers after Christ, may reckon about twenty heresies: Tertullian, twenty or thirty yeares after him, perchance twenty seven; and Epiphanius, some a hundred and fifty after him, sixty; and fifty yeare after that, St. Augustine some ninety: yet after all these, (and but a very few yeares, after Augustine) Theodoret sayes, that in his time, there was no one man alive, that held any of those heresies: That all those heresies should rot, being upheld by the sword, and that onelyonly the Christian Religion should grow up, being mowed down by the sword, That one graine of Corne should be cast away, and many eares grow out of that, (as Leo makes the comparison) That one man should be executed, because he was a Christian, and all that saw him executed, and the Executioner himself, should thereupon become Christians, (a case that fell out more then once, in the primitive Church) That as the flood threw down the Courts of Princes, and lifted up the Arke of God, so the effusion of Christian blood, should destroy heresies, and advance Christianity it self; this is argument abundantly enough, that God had a love to man, and a desire to draw man to his society, and in great numbers to bring them to salvation.
I will not dismisse you from this consideration,Reformatio. till you have brought it thus much nearer, as to remember a later testimony of Gods love to our company, in the reformation of Religion; A miracle scarce lesse, then the first propagation thereof, in the primitive Church. In how few yeares, did God make the number of learned …riters, the number of persons of all qualities, the number of Kings, in whose Dominions the reformed Religion was exercised, equall to the number of them, who adhered to the Roman Church?
And yet,Tu ipse. thou must not depart from this contemplation, till thou have made thy self an argument of all this; till thou have concluded out of this, that God hath made love to thy soule, thy weake soule, thy sick, and foule, and sinfull soule, That he hath written to thee, in all his Scriptures, sent Ambassage to thee, in all his preachers, presented thee, in all his temporall, and spirituall blessings, That he hath come to thee, even in actions of uncle annesse, in actions of unfaithfulnesse towards men, in actions of distrustfulnesse towards God, and hath checked thy conscience, and delivered thee from some sins, even then when thou wast ready to commit them, as all the rest, (That that God, who is but one in himselfe, is yet three persons, That those three, who were allsufficient to themselves, would yet make more, make Angels, make man, make a Christ, make him a Spouse, a Church, and first propagate that, by so weake men, in so hard a doctrine, and in so short a space, over all the world, and then reforme that Church againe, so soone, to such a heighth) as these, I say, are to all the world, so be thou thy self, and Gods exceeding goodnesse to thee, an argument, That that God who hath shewed himself so loath to lose thee, is certainly loath to lose any other soule; but as he communicates himself to us all here, so he would have us all partake of his joy, and glory hereafter; he that fils his Militant Church thus, would not have his Triumphant Church empty.
So far we consider the accessiblenesse,Sigillati. the communicablenesse, the conversation of our good, and gracious God to us, in the generall. There is a more speciall manner intimated, even in the first word of our Text, After this; After what? After he had seene the servants of God sealed; sealed: This seale seales the contract betweene God and Man: And then consider how generall this seale is: First, God sealed us, in imprinting his Image in our soules, and in the powers thereof, at our creation; and so, every man hath this seale, and he hath it, as soone as he hath a soule: The wax, the matter, is in his conception; the seale, the forme, is in his quickning, in his inanimation; as, in Adam, the waxe was that red earth, which he was made of, the seale was that soule, that breath of life, which God breathed into him. Where the Organs of the body are so indisposed, as that this soule cannot exercise her faculties, in that man, (as in naturall Idiots, or otherwise) there, there is a curtaine drawn over this Image, but yet there this Image is, the Image of God, is in the most naturall Idiot, as well as in the wisest of men: worldly men draw other pictures over this picture, other images over this image: The wanton man may paint beauty, the ambitious may paint honour, the covetous wealth, and so deface this image, but yet there this image is, and even in hell it selfe it will be, in him that goes down into hell: uri potest in gehenna, non exuri, sayes St. Bernard, The image of God may burne in hell, but as long as the soule remaines, that image remaines there too; And then, thou who wouldest not burne their picture, that loved thee, wilt thou betray the picture of the Maker, thy Saviour, thy Sanctifier, to the torments of hell? Amongst the manifold and perpetuall interpretations of that article, He descended into hell, this is a new one, that thou sen…est him to hell in thy soule: Christ had his Consummatum est, from the Iewes; he was able to say at last, All is finished, concerning them; shall he never have a Consummatum est from thee; never be at an end with thee? Never, if his Image must burne eternally in thy soule, when thou art dead, for everlasting generations.
Thus then we were sealed;… Christo. all sealed; all had his image in our creation, in the faculties of our soules: But then we were all sealed againe, sealed in our very flesh, our mortall flesh, when the image of the invisible God, Christ Iesus, the onelyonly Sonne of God, tooke our nature: for, as the Tyrant wished, that all mankinde were but one body, that he might behead all mankinde at a blow, so God tooke into his merciemercy, all mankinde in one person: As intirely, as all mankinde was in Adam, all mankinde was in Christ; and as the seale of the Serpent is in all, by originall sinne, so the seale of God, Christ Iesus, is on us all, by his assuming our nature. Christ Jesus tooke our souls, and our bodies, our whole nature; and as no Leper, no person, how infectiously soever he be diseased in his body, can say, surely Christ never tooke this body, this Leprosie, this pestilence, this rottennesse, so no Leprous soule must say, Christ never tooke this pride, this adultery, this murder upon himself; he sealed us all in soule and body, when he tooke both, and though both dye, the soule in sin daily, the body, in sicknesse, perchance this day, yet he shall afford a resurrection to both, to the soule here, to the body hereafter, for his seale is upon both.
These two seales then hath God set upon us all,In Baptisme. his Image in our soules, at our making, his Image, that is his Sonne, upon our bodies and soules, in his incarnation; And both these seales he hath set upon us, then when neither we our selves, nor any body else knew of it: He sets another seale upon us, when, though we know not of it, yet the world, the congregation does, in the Sacrament of Baptisme, when the seale of his Crosse, is a testimony, not that Christ was borne, (as the former seale was) but that also he dyed for us; there we receive that seale upon the forehead, that we should conforme our selves to him, who is so sealed to us. And after all these seales, he offers us another,C…. 8. 6. and another seale, Set me as a seale upon thy heart, and as a seale upon thine arme, says Christ to all us, in the person of the spouse; in the Heart, by a constant faith, in the Arme, by a declaratory works; for then are we sealed, and delivered, and witnessed; that's our full evidence, then have we made sure our salvation, when the works of a holy life, doe daily refresh the contract made with God there, at our Baptisme, and testifie to the Church, that we doe carefully remember, what the Church promised in our behalfe, at that time: for, otherwise beloved, without this seale upon the arme, that is, a stedfast proceeding in the works of a holy life, we may have received many of the other seales, and yet deface them all.Eph. 4. 30. Grieve not the holy Ghost, whereby you are sealed, unto the day of Redemption, says the Apostle: they were sealed, and yet might resist the Spirit, and grieve the Spirit, and quench the Spirit, if by a continuall watchfulnesse over their particular actions, they did not refresh those seales (formerly received in their Creation, in Christs incarnation, in their Baptisme, and in their beginnings of faith) to themselves, and plead them to the Church, and to the world, by such a declaration of a holy life. But these seales being so many, and so univesall, that argues still, that which we especially seek to establish, that is, the Accessiblenesse, the communicablenesse, the sociablenesse, the affection, (shall I say) the Ambition, that God hath, to have us all.
Now how is this extensivenesse declared here,Ante. in our text? It is declared in the great number of those who were sealed, both before, and after; to the consideration of both which, we are invited, by this phrase, which beginnes the text, After this: for, before that Iohn saw this, there were one hundred forty foure thousand sealed; Is that then, (that one hundred forty foure thousand) intended for a small number? If it had been so, it would rather have been said, of such a Tribe but twelve thousand, and but twelve thousand of such a Tribe; but God as expressing a joy, that there were so many, repeats his number of twelve thousand, twelve times over, of Iuda twelve thousand, of Levi twelve thousand, and twelve thousand of every Tribe. So that then, we may justly take this number of twelve and twelve thousand, for an indefinite, and uncertain number; and as Saint Augustine does, wheresoever he finds that number of twelve, (as the twelve Thrones, where the Saints shall judge the world, and divers such) we may take that number of twelve, and twelve, pro universitate salvandorum, that that number signifies, all those who shall be saved. If we should take the number to be a certaine and exact number, so many, and no more, yet this number hath relation to the Iews onelyonly; And of the Iews, it is true, that there is so long a time of their exclusion, so few of them doe come in, since Christ came into the world, as that we may, with Saint Augustine, 22. 17.interpret that place of Genesis, where Abrahams seed is compared both to the Starres of heaven, and to the dust of the earth, that the Stars of heaven signifie those that shall be saved in heaven, and the dust of the earth, those that perish; and the dust of the earth may be more then the Stars of heaven; though (by the way) there are an infinite number of Stars more then we can distinguish, and so, by Gods grace, there may be an infinite number of soules saved, more then those, of whose salvation, we discerne the ways, and the meanes. Let us embrace the way which God hath given us, which is, the knowledge of his Sonne, Christ Iesus: what other way God may take with others, how he wtought upon Iob, and Naaman, and such others as were not in the Covenant, let us not inquire too curiously, determine too peremptorily, pronounce too uncharitably: God be blessed, for his declaring his good-wil towards us, & his will be done his way upon others. Truly, even those places, which are ordinarily understood of the pa… city of the Iews, that shall be saved, will receive a charitable interpretation, and extension. God says,3. 17. in Ieremy, I will take you, one out of a City, & two out of a family; yet he says, he wil do this therefore, because he is married to them; so that this seems to be an act of his love; And therefore, I had rather take it, that God would take a particular care of them, one by one, 27. 12.then that he would take in but one and one: As it is in that place of Esay, In that day ye shall be gathered one by one, o yee children of Israel; that is, in the day of Christ, of his comming to and toward Judgement; Howsoever they come in but thinly yet, by the way,Rom. 11. 1. yet the Apostle pleads in their behalfe thus, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. At this present, 5.says he, there is a Remnant; then when they had newly crucified Christ, God had a care of them. God hath given them the spirit of slumber, 8.says he also; it is but a slumber, not a death, not a dead sleep. Have they stumbled that they should fall? Fall utterly? God forbid. But says he, as concerning the Gospell, they are enemies, for your sakes; (that is, that room might be made for you the Gentiles) but, as touching election, they are beloved for their Fathers sakes; that is, they have interest by an ancient title, which God will never disannull. And therefore a great part, of the ancient, and later men too, doe interpret divers passages of Saint Paul, of a generall salvation of the Iews, that all shall be effectually wrought upon, to salvation, before the second comming of Christ. I end this, concerning the Iews, with this note, that in all these Tribes, which yeelded to this sealing, twelve thousand a peece, the Tribe of Dan is left out, it is not said, that any were sealed of the Tribe of Dan; many have enquired the reason, and satisfied themselves over easily with this, that because Antichrist was to come of that Tribe, that Tribe is forsaken. It is true, that very many of the Fathers, Irenaeus, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory, (and more then these) have thought so, that Antichrist must be of that Tribe; but yet for all that profession, which they make in the Roman Church, Tostat.of adhering to the Fathers, one amongst them, says, Incertum, be the Fathers as clear, and as unanimous as they will in it, it is a very uncertain, a very disputable thing; and another says, fabulosum est, be the Fathers as earnest, as they will, it is but a poeticall and a fabulous thing,Oleast. that Antichrist must come of the Tribe of Dan. But he that hath most of the workes of Antichrist upon him, of any person in the world now, is thus far of the Tribe of Dan; Dan signifies Iudgement; And he will needs be the Judge of all faith, and of all actions too, and so severe a Judge, as to give an irrevocable Judgement of Damnation, upon all that agree not with them, in all points. Certainly this Tribe of Dan, that is, of such uncharitable Judges of all other men, that will afford no salvation to any but themselves, are in the greatest danger to be left out, at this generall seale; nothing hinders our own salvation more, then to deny salvation, to all but our selves.
This then which was done before, Christiani.though it concerne but the Iews, was in a great number, and was a great argument, of Gods sociable application of himselfe to man, but that which was after, was more, A great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations &c. Gods mercy was not confined, nor determined upon the Iews; Other sheep have I, which are not of this fold, says Christ, them also I must bring in: I must; it is expressed, not onelyonly as an act of his good will, but of that eternall decree, to which, he had, at the making thereof, submitted himself: I must bring them; who are they? Many shall come from the east,Mat. 8. 11. and from the west, and shall sit downe with Abraham, Isacc, and Iacob, in the kingdom of heaven; from the Eastern Church, and from the WesterN Church too, from the Greek Church, and from the Latine too, and, (by Gods grace) from them that pray not in Latine too, from every Church, (so it be truly, and fundamentally a Church) Many shall come; How many? a multitude that no man can number: For,23. 12… the new Ierusalem, in the Revelation, (which is heaven) hath twelve gates, three to every corner of the world; so that no place can be a stranger, or lacke accesse to it: Nay, it hath (says that Text) twelve foundations, Other foundation can no man lay, then that which is layd, Christ Iesus: But that first foundation-stone being kept, though it be not hewed, nor layd alike in every place, though Christ be not preached, nor presented in the same manner, for outward Ceremonies, or for problematicall opinions, yet the foundation may remaine one, though it be, in such a sort, varied; and men may come in at any of the twelve gates, and rest upon any of the twelve foundations, for they are all gates, and foundations of one and the same Ierusalem; and they that enter, are a multitude that no man can number.
If then there be this sociable,Via angusta. this applyable nature in God, this large and open entrance for man, why does Christ call it a straite gate, and a narrow way? Not that it is strait in it self,Mat. 7. 13. but that we think it so, and, indeed, we make it so. Christ is the gate, and every wound of his admits the whole world. The Church is the gate; And in omnem terram, Psal. 119. 96.says David, she hath opened her mouth, and her voice is gone over all the world. His word is the gate; And, thy Commandement is exceeding broad, says David too; His word and his light reaches to all cases, and all distresses. Lata porta Diabolus; saith Saint Chrysostome, The Devill is a broad gate; but he tells us how he came to be so, Mon magnitudine potestatis extensus, sed superbiae licentia dilatatus; not that God put such a power into his hands, at first, as that we might not have resisted him, but that he hath usurp'd upon us, and we have given way to his usurpations: so, says that Father, Angusta porta Christus, Christ is a narrow gate, but he tels us also wherein, and in what respect, Non parvitate potestatis exiguus, sed humilitatis ratione collectus; Christ is not a narrow gate, so as that the greatest man may not come in, but called narrow, because he fits himselfe to the least child, to the simplest soule, that will come in: not so strait, as that all may not enter, but so strait as that there can come in but one at once, for he that will not forsake Father and Mother, and wife, and children for him, cannot enter in. Therefore we call the Devils way broad, because men walke in that, with all their equipage, all their sumpters, all their state, all their sinnes; and therefore we call Christs way strait, because a man must strippe himselfe of all inordinate affections, of all desires of ill getting, and of all possessions that are ill gotten. In a word, it is not strait to a mans selfe, but if a man will carry his sinfull company, his sinfull affections with him, and his sinfull possessions, it is strait, for then he hath made himselfe a Camel, and to a Camel Heaven gate is as a needles eye: But it is better comming into heaven with one eye,Mat. 18. 9. then into hell with two; Better comming into heaven without Master, or Mistresse,Esac. 6…. 11. then into hell for over-humouring of either. There, The gates are not shut all day; says the Prophet, and, there is no night there; And here, if we shut the doore, yet Christ stands at the doore and knocks; Apoc. 3.Be but content to open thy doore, be but content to let him open it, and he will enter, and be but thou content to enter into his, content to be led in by his preaching, content to be drawn in by his benefits, content to be forced in by his corrections, and he will open his: since thy God would have dyed for thee, if there had been no man born but thou, never imagine, that he who lets in multitudes, which no man can number, of all Nations, &c. would ever shut out thee, but labour to enter there;August. ubi non intrat inimicus, ubi non exit amicus, where never any that hates thee, shall get to thee, nor any that loves thee, part from thee.
We have but ended our first part,2 Part. The assurance which we have from Gods manner of proceeding, that Religion is not a sullen, but a cheerfull Philosophy, and salvation not cast into a corner, but displayed as the Sunne, over all. That which we called at first, our second part, must not be a Part, admit it for a Conclusion; It is that, and beyond that; It is beyond our Conclusion, for it is our everlasting endowment in heaven: and if I had kept minutes enough for it, who should have given me words for it? I will but paraphrase the words of the Text, and so leave you in that, which, I hope, is your gallery to heaven, your own meditations: The words are, You shall stand before the Throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white Fobes, and palms in their hands.
First,Stabunt. stabitis, you shall stand; which is not, that you shall not sit, for the Saints shall sit & judg the world; & they shall sit at the right hand of God… It is not, that you shall not sit, nor that you shall not lie, for you shall lye in Abraham bosom: But yet you shal stand, that is, you shall stand sure, you shall never fall, you shall stand, but yet you shall but stand, that is, remaine in a continuall disposition and readinesse to serve God, and to minister to him. And therefore account no abundance, no height, no birth, no place here, to exempt you from standing and labouring in the service of God, since even your glorious state in heaven is but a station, but a standing in readinesse to doe his will, and not a posture of idlenesse: you shall stand, that is, stand sure, but you shall but stand, that is, still be bound to the service of God.
Stabitis ante Thronum; Ante Thronum.you shall stand, and stand before the Throne; Here in the militant Church, you stand, but you stand in the porch, there, in the triumphant, you shall stand in Sancto sanctorum, in the Quire, and the Altar. Here you stand, but you stand upon Ice, perchance in high and therefore in slippery places; And at the judgement you shall stand, but stand at the barre; But when you stand before the Throne, you stand, (as it is also added in this place) before the Lamb: Ante Agnum.who having not opened his mouth, to save his owne fleece, when he was in the shearers hand, nor to save his own life, when he was in the slaughterers hand, will much lesse open his mouth to any repentant sinners condemnation, or upbrayd you with your former crucifyings of him, in this world, after he hath nailed those sinnes to that crosse, to which those sinnes nayled him.
You shall stand amicti stolis, Stolis.(for so it follows) covered with Robes, that is, covered all over: not with Adams fragmentary raggs of fig-leafes, nor with the halfe-garments of Davids servants: Though you have often offered God halfe-confessions, and halferepentances, yet if you come at last, to stand before the Lambe, his fleece covers all; hee shall not cover the sinnes of your youth, and leave the sinnes of your age open to his justice, nor cover your sinfull actions, and leave your sinfull words and thoughts open to justice, nor cover your own personall sinnes, and leave the sinnes of your Fathers before you, or the sinnes of others, whose sins your tentations produced and begot, open to justice; but as he hath enwrapped the whole world in one garment, the firmament, & so cloathed that part of the earth, which is under our feet, as gloriously as this, which we live, and build upon: so those sinnes which we have hidden from the world, and from our own consciences, and utterly forgotten, either his grace shall enable us, to recollect, and to repent in particular, or (we having used that holy diligence, to examine our consciences so) he shall wrap up even those sinnes, which we have forgot, and cover all, with that garment of his own righteousnesse, which leaves no foulnesse, no nakednesse open.
You shall be covered with Robes,Albis. All over; and with white Robes; That as the Angels wondred at Christ coming into heaven,Esa. 93. 2. in his Ascension, Wherefore art thou red in thine Apparell, and thy garments like him that treadeth the wine fat? They wondred how innocence it selfe should become red, so shall those Angels wonder at thy coming thither, and say, Wherefore art thou white in thine apparell? they shall wonder how sinne it selfe shall be clothed in innocence.
And in thy hand shall be a palm, which is the last of the endowments specifyed here. After the waters of bitternesse, Palma.they came to seventy (to innumerable) palmes; even the bitter waters were sweetned, with another wood cast in: The wood of the Crosse of Christ Jesus,Exod. 15. 23. refreshes all teares, and sweetnes all bitternesse, even in this life: but after these bitter waters, which God shall wipe from all our eies, we come, to the seventy, to the seventy thousand palms; infinite seales, infinite testimonies, infinite extensions, infinite durations of infinite glory: Go in, beloved, and raise your own contemplations, to a height worthy of this glory; and chide me for so lame an expressing of so perfect a state, and when the abundant spirit of God hath given you some measure, of conceiving that glory here, Almighty God give you, and me, and all, a reall expressing of it, by making us actuall possessors of that Kingdome, which his Sonne, our Saviour Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. Amen.