Fifty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 31
SERMON XXXI.
Preached at Hanworth, to my Lord of Carlile, and his company, being the Earles of Northumberland, and Buckingham, &c. Aug. 25. 1622.
JOE 36. 25.
Every man may see it, man may behold it afar off.
THe words are the words of Elihu; Elihu was one of Iobs friends, and a meer naturall man: a man not captivated, not fettered, not enthralled, in any particular forme of Religion, as the Iewes were; a man not macerated with the feare of God; not infatuated with any preconceptions, which Nurses, or Godfathers, or Parents, or Church, or State had infused into him; not dejected, not suppled, not matured, not entendred, with crosses in this world, and so made apt to receive any impressions, or follow any opinions of other men, a meer naturall man; and in the meer use of meer naturall reason, this man sayes of God in his works, Every man may see it, Man may behold it afar off. It is the word of a naturall man; and the holy Ghost having canonized it, sanctified it, by inserting it into the booke of God, it is the word of God too. Saint Paul cites sometimes the words of secular Poets; and approves them; and then the words of those Poets, become the word of God; Elihu speakes, a naturall man, and God speakes, in canonizing his words; and therefore when we speake to godly men, we are sure to be believed, for God sayes it; if we were to speake to naturall men onelyonly, we might be believed, for Elihu, a naturall man, and wise in his generation, sayes it, that for God in his works, Every man may see it, man may behold it afar off.
Be pleased to admit,Divisio. and charge your memories with this distribution of the words; Let the parts be but two, so you will be pleased to stoop, and gather, or at least to open your hands to receive some more (I must not say flowers, for things of sweetnesse, and of delight grow not in my ground) but simples rather, and medicinall herbs; of which as there enter many into good cordials, so in this supreme cordiall, of bringing God into the eyes of man, that every man may see it, men may behold it afar off, there must necessarily arise many particulars to your consideration. I threaten you but with two parts; no farther tediousnesse; but I aske roome for divers branches; I can promise no more shortnesse. The first part is a discovery, a manifestation of God to man; though that be undeniably true,Psal. 18. 11. Posuit tenebra s latibulum, God hath made darknesse his secret place, yet it is as true, which proceeds from the same mouth, and the same pen, Amictus tanquam pallio, 104. 2.God covers himselfe with light as with a garment, he will be seene through his works: As we shall stand naked to one another, and not be ashamed of our scars, or morphews, in the sight of God, so God stands naked to the eyes of man, and is not ashamed of that humiliation, Every man may see it, man may behold it afar off. This proposition, this discovery, will be the first part; and the other will be a tacite answer, to a likely objection, is not God far off, and can man see at that distance? yes, he may. Man may behold that afar off. Every man may see it, man may behold it afar off.
God is the subject of both parts; God alone; one God. But in both parts there is a Trinity too; three branches in each part; for in each, there is an object, something to be apprehended; there is a meanes of apprehending it, it is to be seene; there is a person enabled to see it, Every man may see it, man may behold it afar off. But these three are not alike in each part; for in the first, that object is determined, limited; it is illud; it; God in his works. In the second, there is no object limited, for it is not illud, but there is more left to be seene; not onelyonly God in his works, as here below, but God in his glory above; Man may behold, but he does not offer to tell us what; there is an object, but another object. In the second there is a difference too, in the meanes of apprehending: It is but Casah in the first, it is Nibbat in the second; in that, every man may see, in the other, man may behold. And in the third, there is also a difference, the man, that may see God, is Adam; Adam is a man, made of earth, the weakest man, even in nature may see God; but the man that must behold afar off, is Enoch, and Enoch is homo aeger, a miserable man, a man that hath tasted affliction, and calamity, for that man lookes after God in the next world, and as he feeles God with a rod in his hand here, so he beholds God with a crown in his hand there. And of those sticks of sweet wood, of those drops of sweet gums, shall we make up this present sacrifice.
In our first part,1 Part. Illud. the manifestation of God to man, the first branch is the object, the limited object, illud, Optus.Every man may see it; what is that? That which was proposed in the verse immediately before, Remember that thou magnifie his worke which men behold; First, it is a worke, and therefore it is made, it hath an author, a creator; and then it is his worke, the worke of God, and therefore manifests him. It is a worke, a deliberate, not a casuall matter, this frame, this world. It is a worke, it was begun, and made up,Epipha. not an eternall matter, this frame, this world. Epiphanius sayes well, Omnis error à caecitate ad vanitatem; that's the progresse of error; every error begins in blindnesse, and ignorance, but proceeds, and ends, in absurdity, in frivolousnesse. If men had not put out the light of nature, they might discerne a creation in the world, that that was made, it is a worke; but when they do put out that light, and deny a creation, into what frivolous opinions they scatter themselves; what contradictory things, men that seeme constant, say; what childish, what ridiculous things, men that seeme grave, and sober fathers in Philosophy, say of this world? when they have said all, this one thing will destroy all, if the world be eternall, it is God; for whatsoever had no beginning, whatsoever needed nothing to give it a beeing, whatsoever was always of it selfe, is God. So that to build up their opinions in one part, they destroy it in another; and to overthrow our Hall, they build up our Chappell; by denying that the world was made, they imply, they confesse a God; for if it had no Creator, it is no Creature, it is God; so that they lose more then they gaine, and they seek damnation, unthriftily, and perish prodigally; they deny the Creation, left by the Creation, we should prove God, and their very deniall of a Creation, their making of the world eternall, constitutes it to be God. They deny any God, and then make a worse God.
This world then is a work, Opus ejus.a limited, a determined, a circumscribed work; and it is Opus ejus, his work, says Elihu there. But whose? Will you lay hold upon that? upon that, that Elihu onelyonly says, Remember his work, but names none? But two verses before, (with which this verse hath connexion) he does name God. But let the work be whose it will, whosoever be this He, this He must be God, whosoever gave the first beeing to Creatures, must be the Creator. If you will thinke, that Chance did it, and fortune, then fortune must be your God; and destiny must be your God, if you thinke destiny did it; and therefore you were as good attribute it to the right God, for a God it must have; if it be a work, it was made, if it be a Creature, there is a Creator; and if it be his work, that He, must be God, and there are no more Gods, but one. Every man hath a delight, and complacency in knowledge, and is ashamed of ignorance, even in booklearning: a man would have a Library pro supellectile; even for a part of furniture,Senec…. a man would read for Ornament: His house is not well furnished, he is not well furnished, without bookes. Many a man, who lets the Bible dust, and rust, because the Bible hath a kinde of majesty and prerogative, and command over a man; it will not be jested withall, it will not be disputed against; a man can very hardly devest the reverence, that appertaines to that book, and therefore he had rather deale with his fellowes, more humane Authors, that will hear reason, and not binde his faith; many a man can let the Fathers stand, because they write out of a pious credulity, and such anticipations, and preconceptions, as the Bible hath submitted them under, and captivated them to; But if thou let the Bible, and Fathers alone, and yet love bookes, what book (what kinde of book) canst thou take into thy hand, that proves not this world to be Opus, a work, made, and opus ejus, his work made by him, by God? Dost thou love learning, as it is expounded,Cicero. dilated, by Orators? The Father of Orators testifies, Nihil tam perspicuum, there is nothing so evident, as that there is a soveraigne power, that made, and governes all. Dost thou love learning, as it is contracted, brought to a quintessence, wrought to a spirit, by Philosophers? the eldest of all them in that whole book, Quod Deus latens, simul & patens est, testifies all that,Trismeg. and nothing but that, that as there is nothing so dark, so there is nothing so cleare, nothing so remote, nothing so neare us, as God. Dost thou love learning, as it is sweetned and set to musique by Poets? the King of the Poets testifies the same,Virgil. Mens agitat molem, & magno se corpore miscet; that is, a great, an universall spirit, that moves, a generall soule, that inanimates, and agitates every peece of this world. But Saint Paul is a more powerfull Orator, then Cicero, and he says, The invisible things of God, are seen by things which are made; and thereby man is made inexcuseable: Moses is an ancienter Philosopher, Rom. 1. 20.then Trismegistus; and his picture of God, is the Creation of the world. David is a better Poet then Virgil; and with David, Coeli enarrant, the heavens declare the glory of God; The power of oratory, in the force of pe…swasion, the strength of conclusions, in the pressing of Philosophy, the harmony of Poetry, in the sweetnesse of composition, never met in any man, so fully as in the Prophet Esay, nor in the Prophet Esay more, then where he says, Levate Oculos,40. 20. Lift up your eyes, on high, and behold who hath created these things; behold them, therefore, to know that they are created, and to know who is their creator. All other authors we distinguish by tomes, by parts, by volumes; but who knowes the volumes of this Author; how many volumes of Spheares involve one another, how many tomes of Gods Creatures there are? Hast thou not room, hast thou not money, hast thou not understanding, hast thou not leasure, for great volumes, for the bookes of heaven, (for the Mathematiques) nor for the books of Courts, (the Politiques) take but the Georgiques, the consideration of the Earth, a farme, a garden, nay seven foot of earth, a grave, and that will be book enough. Goel lower; every worme in the grave, lower, every weed upon the grave, is an abridgement of all; nay lock up all doores and windowes see nothing but thy selfe; nay let thy selfe be locked up in a close prison, that thou canst not see thy selfe, and doe but feel thy pulse; let thy pulse be intermitted, or stupefied, that thou feel not that, & doe but thinke, and a worme, a weed, thy selfe, thy pulse, thy thought, are all testimonies, that All, this All and all the parts thereof, are opus, a work made, and opus ejus, his work, made by God. He that made a Clock or an Organ, will be sure to ingrave his Me fecit, such a man made me; he that builds a faire house, takes it ill, if a passenger will not aske, whose house is it; he that bred up his Sonne to a capacity of noble employments, looks that the world should say, he had a wise and an honourable Father; Can any man look upon the frame of this world, and not say, there is a powerfull, upon the administration of this world, and not say, there is a wise and a just hand over it? Thus is the object, 'tis but Illud, the world; but such a world, as may well justifie Saint Hieromes translation, who renders it Illum; not onelyonly that every man may see it, the work, the world; but may see him; God in that work.
That's the object, Vid…re possunt.not onelyonly the work, but the workman, God in the work; and the meanes is, that man may see it; that is, by that spectacle, he may see God; what of God? how much of God? Is it his essence? D…and.For that, the resolution of the School is sufficient; Nulla visio naturalis in terris; no man can see God in this world, and live, but no man can see God in the next world, and dye, there visio is beatitudo, sight is salvation. Yet, Nulla visio corporalis in Coelis: These bodily eyes, even then, when they are glorified, shall not see the Essence of God: our mortal eyes do not see bodies here; they see no substance, they see onelyonly quantities, and dimensions; our glorified bodily eyes, shall see the glory shed out of God, but the very essence of God, those glorified bodily eyes shall not see: but the eyes of our soul, shall be so enlightned, as that they shal see God Sicuti est, even in his essence, which the best illumined & most sanctified men are very far from in this life. Now the sight of God in this text, is the knowledge of God, to see God, is but to know, that there is a God. And can man as a naturall man, doe that? See God so, as to know that there is a God? Can hee doe it? Nay can he chuse but doe it? The question hath divided the School; those two great,Boveriax so. 14. and well known families of the School, whom we call, Thomists, and Scotists: the first say, that this proposition, Deus est, is per se nota, evident in it selfe, and the others deny that. But yet they differ, but thus far, that Thomas thinks that it is so evident, that man cannot chuse but know it, though he resist it; The other thinks, in it selfe, it is but so evident, as that a man may know it, if he imploy his naturall faculties, without going any farther;Viderunt. thus much, indeed, thus little, they differ. Now the holy Ghost is the God of Peace, and doth so far reconcile these two, in this text, as that first in our reading, it is, That man may see God; and that Scotus does not deny; but in the Originall, in the Hebrew, it is Casu, and Casu is, viderunt: not, every man may, but every man hath seen God: Though it goe not absolutely, so far, as Thomas, every man must, no man can chuse but see God, yet it goes so far further then Scotus, (who ends in every man may) as that it says, every man hath seen God. So that our labour never lies in this, to prove to any man, that he may see God, but onelyonly to remember him that he hath seen God: not to make him beleeve that there is a God, but to make him see, that he does beleeve it. Quid habes, quod non accepisti? And hast thou received any thing and not seen, not known him that gave it? Who hath infused comfort into thee, into thy distresses? Thine own Morall constancy? Who infused that? Who hath imprinted terrors in thee? A dampe in thine owne heart? Who imprinted it? Sweare to me now that thou beleevest not in God, and before midnight, thou wilt tell God, that thou dost; Miserable distemper! not to see God in the light, and see him in the darke: not to see him at noon, and see him fearfully at midnight: not to see, where we all see him, in the Congregation, and to see him with terror, in the Suburbs of despaire, in the solitary chamber.
Man may, Omnis home.sayes Scotus, man must, he cannot chuse, sayes Thomas, man hath seen God, sayes the holy Ghost. Man, that is, every man; and that's our last branch in this first part. The inexcusablenesse goes over man, Rom. 1. 20.over all men: Because they would not see invisible things in visible, they are inexcusable, all. Death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.5. 12. All sinners, all dead. Is Gods right hand shorter then his left? his mercy shrunk, and his justice stretched? no certainly; certainly every man may see him. Man cannot hide himselfe from God; God does not hide himselfe from man: not from any man. Col-Adam, Omnis home; even in that low name, that lowest acceptation of man, as he is but derived from earth, as he is but earth, he may see God. We have divers names for man in Hebrew, at least foure; This that makes him but earth, Adam, is the meanest, and yet Col-Adam, Every man may see God. David cals us to the contemplation of the heavens,38. 31. Coeli enarrant, and Iob to the contemplation of the firmament, of the Pleiades, and Orion, and Arcturus, and the ordinances of heaven; but it is not onelyonly the Mathematician, that sees God, Demini terra, the earth is the Lords, and all that dwell therein; all,Psal. 107. 23. in all corners of the earth, may see him. David tels us, They that go down to the sea, in ships, they see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep: but it is not onelyonly the Mariner,Luk. 9. 62. the discoverer, that discovers God: but he that puts his hand to the plough, and looks not back, may see God there. Let him be filius terra, the sonne of the earth, without noble extraction, without knowne place, of uncertaine parents, (even Melchisedeck was so) Let him be filius percussionis, the sonne of affliction, a man that hath inward heavy sentences, and heavy executions of the law; Let him be filius mortis, Deut. 25. 2.the sonne of death (as Saul said to Ionathan of David) a man designed to dye;1 Sam. 20. 31. nay let him be filius Belial, Deut. 13. 13.the sonne of iniquity, and of everlasting perdition, there is no lownesse, no naturall, no spirituall dejection so low, but that that low man may see God. Let him be filius terrae, the sonne of the earth, and of no body else, let him be Dominus terrae, Lord of the earth, busied upon the earth, and nothing else, let him be hospes terrae, a guest, a tenant, an inmate of the earth, halfe of him in the earth, and the rest no where else, this poore man, this worldly man, this dying man, may see God. To end this, you can place the spheare in no position, in no station, in which the earth can eclipse the Sun; you can place this clod of earth, man, in no ignorance, in no melancholy, in no oppression, in no sinne, but that he may, but that he does see God. The Marrigold opens to the Sunne, though it have no tongue to say so, the Atheist does see God, though he have not grace to confesse it.
We have past through our first part,2 Part. and the three branches of that; The object, God in his works, and the faculty that apprehends, seeing, that is knowing, and the person indued with the faculty, every man, even Adam. In our second part, which is a tacite answer to a likely objection, (Is not God in the highest heaven, afar off? yes; but man may see afar off) we have the same three branches too, and yet not the same; the same object, God, but in another manifestation, then in his worke, in glory; the same faculty, seeing, but with other manner of eyes, glorified eyes; the same person, man, but not man, as he is Adam, a meere naturall and earthly man, but man, as he is Enosh, who by having tasted Gods corrections, or by having considered the miseries of this world, is prepared for the joy and glory of the next. And in this part we will begin with the person, man; Man may behold it afar off.
How different are the wayes of God,Enosh. from the ways of man? the eyes of God from the eyes of man? and the wayes, and eyes of a godly man, from the eyes, and wayes of a man of this world? We looke still upon high persons, and after high places, and from those heights, we thinke, we see far; but he that will see this object, must lye low; it is best discerned in the dark, in a heavy, and a calamitous fortune. The naturall way is upward; I can better know a man upon the top of a steeple, then if he were halfe that depth in a well; but yet for higher objects, I can better see the stars of heaven, in the bottome of a well, then if I stood upon the highest steeple upon earth. If I twist a cable of infinite fadomes in length, if there be no ship to ride by it, nor anchor to hold by it, what use is there of it? If Mannor thrust Mannor, and title flow into title, and bags powre out into chests, if I have no anchor, (faith in Christ) if I have not a ship to carry to a haven, (a soule to save) what's my long cable to me? If I adde number to number, a span, a mile long, if at the end of all that long line of numbers, there be nothing that notes, pounds, or crownes, or shillings, what's that long number, but so many millions of millions of nothing? If my span of life become a mile of life, my penny a pound, my pint a gallon, my acre a sheere; yet if there be nothing of the next world at the end, so much peace of conscience, so much joy, so much glory, still all is but nothing multiplied, and that is still nothing at all. 'Tis the end that qualifies all; and what kinde of man I shall be at my end, upon my death-bed, what trembling hands, and what lost legs, what deafe eares, and what gummy eyes, I shall have then, I know; and the nearer I come to that disposition, in my life, (the more mortified I am) the better I am disposed to see this object, future glory. God made the Sun, and Moon, and Stars, glorious lights for man to see by; but mans infirmity requires spectacles; and affliction does that office. Gods meaning was, that by the sun-shine of prosperity, and by the beames of honour, and temporall blessings, a man should see farre into him; but I know not how he is come to need spectacles; scarse any man sees much in this matter, till affliction shew it him. God made the ballance even; riches may show God, and poverty may show God; let the two Testaments, the old and the new, be the ballance, and so they are even; the blessednesse of the old Testament runs all upon temporall blessings, and worldly riches; Blessed in the city, and in the field; blessed in the fruit of thy cattell, and of thy wombe; In the new Testament utterly otherwise; Blessed are the poore, Blessed are they that mourne, Blessed are they that are persecuted, and reviled; but the blessednesse of the old Testament, temporall blessings, are temporary, as the old Testament was; that's expir'd. The blessednesse of the Gospell, is as the Gospell, everlasting: and therfore the low way is the best way; adversity will be the best way to see God by. I speake not of meere beggery, of having nothing; but of having lesse then we had; the losse of some of that possession, or honour, or wealth, or health, which we had, conduces more to this sight of God, then the additions of any of these. Extreme want may put a man out of his way to God, as far as abundance and superfluity; as we say in civill things, the midde men aise the Subsidy, not the great men, nor the beggers; so the middle men see farthest into God, and serve him best; not the abounding,Prov. 30. 8. not the wanting man. Solomon prayes against both; against riches, and against poverty too; but yet not as though the danger were equall, if the words be well considered; the danger of his poverty is, lest he steale, and take the Name of God in vaine; that is, forsweare the theft; a great fault, two great faults; but these two amount not to that one, which arises out of abundance, Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say,Hierome. Who is the Lord? And that Proverb, that Solomon speaks of, Saint Hierome cals not, paupertatem, but mendicitatem; and that is often indeed, the mother and nurse of many enormous mischiefs.Bernard. Saint Bernard takes the word, poverty, in that place, but he multiplies it, Paupertates ne dederis, Give me not, O Lord, a double poverty; poverty indeed, and poverty in opinion; poverty, and a murmurning with my poverty; for that also is the mother,Phil. 4. 12. and nurse of many enormous mischiefs.Chrysost. I know how to abound, and how to want; It is the harder worke, ferre abundantiam; aboundance is a burden, want is but a weaknesse; and it is a greater torment, to be pressed under a great weight, then to lye bed-rid. To end this, the person in our Text is Enosh, man; but not every man, as before, Adam; but that man upon whom Gods hand hath been in the losse of something, that he had before. As the body of man is mellowed in the grave, and made fit for glory in the resurrection, so the minde of man by suffering is suppled; Adam is made Enosh; and he may see.
The person is the same,Intuebitur. and yet changed; man, but another kinde of man; The means of apprehending is the same, and yet changed too, seeing, but another kinde of seeing. This man, thus disposed, thus matured, thus mellowed, thus suppled, thus entendred by Gods easie corrections, he whom God hath not left to himself, nor yet put him beyond himself, not fulfilled all, but yet not frustrated all his desires neither, laid his hand upon him, so as to keep him downe from swelling up against him, but yet so too, as to keep him up, from sinking, or falling from him, that man, that Enosh may see the hand of God, and take God by the hand, and bid him welcome, and finde a rich, and a sweet advantage in that correction; it is a seeing of God, not as before, in his works abroad, but in his working upon himself, at home. Such a man God strikes so, as that when he strikes, he strikes fire, and lights him a candle, to see his presence by; we doe not finde that Iob came to his Dominus dedit, to his confession, The Lord giveth, till he came to the Dominus abstulit; to the sense of Gods taking away, not to expresse his sense of Gods blessings to him, till he felt his corrections upon him; and then they came together, Dominus dedit, and abstulit, The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Darknesse is that, by which the holy Ghost himselfe hath chosen to expresse hell; hell is darknesse; and the way to it, to hell, is Excacation in this life, blindnesse in our spirituall eyes. Eternall life hereafter is Visio Dei, the sight of God, and the way to that here, is to see God here: and the eye-salve for that is, to be crossed in our desires in this world, by the hand of God. When Christ presents things necessary for his service, he proposes them thus; this is his Inventary; Gold against poverty, white clothes against nakednesse, Apo 3. 18.and collyrium, eye-salve to see by. Now for the two first he bids us buy them; buy-gold, buy clothes, that is, labour, endeavour to get thm; he does not say, buy the eye-salve, that is, affliction; no man is to thrust himselfe into unnecessary dangers, or persecutions, and call his indiscretion Martyrdome; It is to be presumed, that every man, how high or how abundant soever, hath eye salve enough, affliction and crosses enough, if he do apply them: and therefore Christ does not say, buy them; hunt after them, expose thy selfe to them; but he sayes onelyonly, Anoynt thy eyes with them, I will give thee the physick, (crosses and calamities here) do thou apply them according to the nature of the medicine, and to the purpose of the physitian, and by them thou shalt see God.
Our translation carries this word no farther in this part of the Text, then the other in the former; There it was, every man may see; here it is, man, that is, this man may behold. But as we showed you, that the former was in the originall Casu, viderunt, every man, (let him say what he will to the contrary) yet he hath seen God, so in this part, the word in the originall, is Iabbit, and that is videbit, in the future, he shall see, This sight of God is not in him, naturally, that we can be sure he hath seen him, but it is reserved to the future; let him be thus wrought upon by Gods hand, and videbit, in the future, he shall see. Now, you remember what designes the future; he shall see; is a note of the future, and so is, he will see. This man, this Enosh, thus moulded, thus kneaded, by the hand of God, he shall see God, he shall (in a manner) whether he will or no, a holy, and a heavenly violence shall be offered him, it shall not be in the power of the world, the flesh or the devill, to blind him, he shall see God; and then he will see God, his will shall be inclined, and disposed to it, and every first beame of Gods grace, every influence of the Spirit of God, shall open his eyes; God shall be so jealous of him, as that he shall see God, he shall be so watchfull upon God, and his motions, as that he will see him.
And more then see him; for Iabbit, is Intuebitur, he will behold him, contemplate God, ruminate, meditate upon God. Man sees best in the light, but meditates best in the darke; for our sight of God, it is enough, that God gives the light of nature; to behold him so, as to fixe upon him in meditation, God benights us, or eclipses us, or casts a cloud of medicinall afflictions, and wholsome corrections upon us. Naturally we dwell longer upon the consideration of God, when we see the Sun eclipsed, then when we see it rise, we passe by that as an ordinary thing; and so in our afflictions we stand, and looke upon God, and we behold him. A man may see God, and forget that ever he saw him;Mat. 25. 44. When saw we thee hungry, or naked, or sick, or in prison, say those mercilesse men; they forgot; but Christ remembers that they did see him, but not behold him, see him, and looke off, see him so as aggravated their sin, more then if they had never seene him. But that man, who through his owne red glasse, can see Christ, in that colour too, through his own miseries, can see Christ Jesus in his blood, that through the calumnies that have been put upon himselfe, can see the revilings that were multiplyed upon Christ, that in his own imprisonment, can see Christ in the grave, and in his owne enlargement, Christ in his resurrection, this man, this Enosh, beholds God, and he beholds him é longinquo, which is another step in this branch, he sees him afar off.
Now this seeing afar off, E longinqu….is not a phrase of diminution, a circumstance of extenuation, as though it were lesse, to see God afar off, and more to see him neerer. This far off, is far from that; it is a power of seeing him so, as wheresoever I am, or wheresoever God is, I can see him at any distance. Being established in my foundation upon God, being built up by faith, in that notion of God, in which he hath manifested himselfe to me in his Sonne, being mounted, and raised by dwelling in his Church, being made like unto him, in suffering, as he suffered, I can see round about me, even to the Horizon, and beyond it, I can see both Hemispheres at once, God in this, and God in the next world too. I can see him, in the Zenith, in the highest point, and see how he works upon Pharaoh, on the Throne, and I can see him in the Nadir, in the lowest dejection, and see how he workes upon Ioseph in the prison; I can see him in the East, see how mercifully he brought the Christian Religion amongst us, and see him in the West, see how justly he might remove that againe, and leave us to our own inventions; I can see him in the South, in a warme, and in the North, in a frosty fortune: I can see him in all angles, in all postures; Abraham saw God coming to him, as he fate at the doore of his Tent;…. 18. 1. and though (as the Text sayes there) God stood by him, (yet sayes the Text too) Abraham ran to meet God; I can see God in the visitation of his Spirit come to me; and when he is so, he is already in me; but I must run out to meet him; that is, labour to hold him there, and to advance that manifestation of himselfe in me. Abraham saw God comming; Moses saw God going, his glory passing by; he saw posteriora,Exod. 33. 23. his hinder parts; so I can see God in the memory of his blessings formerly conferred upon me; And Moses saw him too, in a burning bush, in thornes and fire: And had I no other light, but the fire of a pile of faggots, in that light I could see his light, I could see himselfe. Let me be the man of this Text, this Enosh, Lam. 3. 1.to say with Ieremy, I am the man that hath seene affliction, by the rod of his wrath, Let me have had this third concoction, that as I am Adam, a man of earth, (wrought upon that wheele) and, as I am a Christian, a vessell in his house, a member of his Church (wrought upon that wheele) so let me be vir dolorum, a man of affliction, a vessell baked in that furnace, fitted by Gods proportion, and dosis of his corrections, to make a right use of his corrections, and I can see God, E longinquo, afar off, I can see him writing downe my name in the booke of life, before I was borne, and I can see him giving his Angels, The Angell of the great Counsell, Christ Jesus himselfe, and his spirit, charge of my preservation, all the way, and of my transmigration upon my death-bed, and that is E longinquo, from before I was, to after I shall be no more.
There remaines a word more;Objection. 'Tis scarce well said; for there remaines not a word more. There is not another word, and yet there is another branch in the Text. This man, (not every man, as before) this Enosh, (not every Adam as before) he sees not onelyonly as before, but he beholds afarre off; and so farre we are gone; but what beholds he afarre off? That the Text tels us not. Before there was an illud, Every man may see that, aske what is that, and I can tell you, I have told you out of the coherence of the Text, It is Gods workes, manifesting himselfe even to the naturall man. But this man, this Enosh, raised by his dejection, rectified by humiliation, may behold, what? here is no illud, no such word as that, no object limited, and therefore it is that which no eye hath seene, nor eare heard, nor heart of man conceived, it is God in the glory, and assembly of his immortall Saints in heaven. How many times go we to Comedies, to Masques, to places of great and noble resort, nay even to Church onelyonly to see the company? If I had no other errand to heaven, but the communion of Saints, the fellowship of the faithfull, Lo see that flock of Lambs, Innocent, unbaptized children, recompensed with the twice-baptized Martyrs, (baptized in water, and baptized in their owne blood) and that middle sort, the children baptized in blood, and not in the water, that rescued Christ Jesus, by their death, under Herod; to see the Prophets and the Evangelists, and not know one from the other, by their writings, for they all write the same things (for prophecy is but antidated Gospell, and Gospell but postdated prophecy;) to see holy Matrons saved by the bearing, and bringing up of children, and holy Virgins, saved by restoring their bodies in the integrity, that they received them, sit all upon one seate; to see Princes, and Subjects crowned all with one crowne, and rich and poore inherit one portion; to see this scene, this Court, this Church, this Catholique Church, not onelyonly Easterne and Westerne, but Militant and Triumphant Church, all in one roome together, to see this Communion of Saints, this fellowship of the faithfull, is worth all the paynes, that that sight costs us in this world.
But then to see the head of this Church, the Sunne, that shed all these beames, the God of glory face to face, to see him sicuti est, as he is, to know him, at cognitus, as I am knowne, what darke, and inglorious fortune would I not passe thorow, to come to that light, and that glory? How then hath God doubled his mercies upon those persons to whom he hath afforded two great lights, a Sunne to rule their day, honour and prosperity, and a Moone to rule their night, humiliation and adversity, to whom he hath given both Types, in themselves, to see this future glory by, that is, Titles and places of honour in this world, and spectacles in themselves to see this glory by afflictions, and crosses in this world. And therefore since God gives both these no where so plentifully, as in Courts the place of Honour, and the place of Crosses too, the place of rising and the place of falling too, you, you especially, who by having your station there, in the Court it selfe, are in the Court exemplified, and copied in your owne noble house, you that have seen God characterized in his Types, in titles of greatnesse, you that have beheld God presented in his spectacle of Crosses and afflictions, the daily bread of Courts, Blesse ye the Lord; praise him, and magnifie him for ever, and declare the wondrous workes that he hath done for the Sonnes of men; for certainly many woes, and invincible darknesse attend those, to whom neither the hand of God in his works, nor the hand of God upon themselves, neither the greatnesse of this world, nor the cr…sses of this world, can manifest God; for what picture of God would they have, that will neither have him in great, nor litle?