far from disobeying lawful authority, resist it not, calumniate it not, suspect it not; for there is a libelling in the ear, and a libelling in the heart, though it come not to the tongue or hands, to words, nor actions. If it be possible, saith the apostle, as much as in you lies, have peace with all men, with all kind of men. Obedience is the first commandment of the second table, and that never destroys the first table, of which the first commandment is, Keep thyself, that is, those that belong to thee and thy house, entire and upright in the worship of the true God, not only not to admit idols for gods, but not to admit idolatry in the worship of the true God. SERMON CLIII. PREACHED AT PAUL'S CROSS TO THE LORDS OF THE COUNCIL, [1616/1617 It being the Anniversary of the King's coming to the Crown, and his Majesty being then gone into Scotland. PROVERBS Xxii. 11. He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friend. THAT man that said it was possible to carve the faces of all good kings that ever were, in a cherry-stone, had a seditious, and a traitorous meaning in his words. And he that thought it a good description, a good character of good subjects, that they were populus natus ad servitutem, a people disposed to bear any slavish yoke, had a tyrannical meaning in his words. But in this text, as in one of those tables, in which, by changing the station, and the line, you use to see two pictures, you have a good picture of a good king, and of a good subject; for in one line, you see such a subject, as loves pureness of heart, and hath grace in his lips. In the other line, you see the king gracious, yea friendly to such a subject, He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friend. The sum of the words is, that God will make an honest man acceptable to the king, for some ability which he shall employ to the public. Him that proceeds sincerely in a lawful calling, God will bless and prosper, and he will seal this blessing to him, even with that which is his own seal, his own image, the favour of the king, He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friend. We will not be curious in placing these two pictures, nor considering which to consider first. As he that would vow a fast, till he had found in nature, whether the egg, or the hen were first in the world, might perchance starve himself; so that king, or that subject, which would forbear to do their several duties, till they had found which of them were most necessary to one another, might starve one another; for king and subjects are relatives, and cannot be considered in execution of their duties, but together. The greatest mystery in earth, or heaven, which is the Trinity is conveyed to our understanding, no other way, than so, as they have reference to one another by relation, as we say in the schools; for, God could not be a father without a son, nor the Holy Ghost Spiratus sine spirante. As in divinity, so in humanity too, relations constitute one another, king and subject come at once and together into consideration. Neither is it so pertinent a consideration, which of them was made for other's sake, as that they were both made for God's sake, and equally bound to advance his glory. Here in our text, we find the subject's picture first; and his marks are two; first, pureness of heart, that he be an honest man; and then grace of lips, that he be good for something; for, by this phrase, grace of lips, is expressed every ability, to do any office of society for the public good. The first of these, pureness of heart, he must love; the other, that is, grace of lips (that is, other abilities) he must have, but he must not be in love with them, nor over-value them. In the king's picture, the principal mark is, that he shall be friendly and gracious; but gracious to him that hath this grace of lips, to him that hath endeavoured, in some way, to be of use to the public; and not to him neither, for all the grace of his lips, for all his good parts, except he also love pureness of heart; but He that loveth pureness of heart (there is the foundation) for the grace of his lips (there is the upper building) the king shall be his friend. In the first then, which is this pureness of heart, we are to consider rem, sedem, et modum; what this pureness is, then where it is to be lodged and fixed, in the heart; and, after that, the way, and means by which this pureness of heart is acquired and preserved, which is implied and notified in that affection, wherewith this pureness of heart is to be embraced and entertained, which is love; for love is so noble, so sovereign an affection, as that it is due to very few things, and very few things worthy of it. Love is a possessory affection, it delivers over him that loves into the possession of that that he loves; it is a transmutatory affection, it changes him that loves, into the very nature of that that he loves, and he is nothing else. For the first, pureness itself; it is carried to a great height, for our imitation (God knows, too great for our imitation) when Christ bids us be perfect, even as our Father which is in heaven is perfect. As though it had not been perfectness enough, to be perfect, as the Son upon earth was perfect; he carries us higher, Be perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. The Son, upon earth, Christ Jesus, had all our infirmities and imperfections upon him, hunger, and weariness, and hearty sorrow to death, and that, which alone is all, mortality, death itself. And, though he were innocence itself, and knew no sin, yet there was no sin that he knew not, for, all our sins were his. He was not only made man, and by taking (by admitting, though not by commiting) our sins, as well as our nature, sinful man; but he was made sin for our sakes. And therefore, though he say of himself, Sicut ego, Keep my commandments, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, yet still he refers all originally to the Father; and because he was under our infirmities and our iniquities, he never says (though he might well have said so) Sicut ego, Be pure, be perfect as I am perfect and pure, but Sicut Pater, Be pure as your Father in heaven is pure. Hand to hand with the Father, Christ disclaims himself, disavows himself, Non sicut ego, Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt, O Father. We are 1 Matt. v. 48. 2 John xv. 10. 3 Matt. xxvi. 39. not referred for the pattern of our purity (though we might be safely) to him that came from heaven, the Son, but to him which is in heaven, the Father. Nor to the sun which is in heaven (the sun, that is, the pure fountain of all natural light) nor to the angels which are in heaven, though they be pure in their nature, and refined by a continual emanation of the beams of glory upon them, from the face of God, but the Father which is in heaven is made the pattern of our purity; that so, when we see the exact purity, which we should aim at, and labour for, we might the more seriously lament, and the more studiously endeavour the amendment of that extreme and enormous foulness and impurity, in which we who should be pure, as our Father which is in heaven is pure, exceed the dog that turns to his own vomit again; and the sow, that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire". Yet there is no foulness so foul, so inexcusable in the eyes of God, nor that shall so much aggravate our condemnation, as a false affectation, and an hypocrical counterfeiting of this purity. There is a pureness, a cleanness imagined (rather dreamed of) in the Roman church, by which (as their words are) the soul is abstracted, not only a passionibus, but a phantasmatibus, not only from passions, and perturbations, but from the ordinary way of coming to know anything; The soul (say they) of men so purified, understands no longer, per phantasmata rerum corporalium; not by having anything presented by the phantasy to the senses, and so to the understanding, but altogether by a familiar conversation with God, and an immediate revelation from God; whereas Christ himself contented himself with the ordinary way; he was hungry, and a fig-tree presented itself to him upon the way, and he went to it to eat. This is that pureness in the Roman church, by which the founder of the last order amongst them, Philip Nerius, had not only utterly emptied his heart of the world, but had filled it too full of God, for, so (say they) he was fain to cry sometimes, Recede a me Domine, O Lord, go further from me, and let me have a less portion of thee. But who would be loath to sink, by being over freighted with God, or loath to over-set, by having so much of that wind, the breath 5 Matt. xxi. 20. 4 2 Pet. ii. 22. presence of God, is hell; Fruition of his presence of the Spirit of God? Privation of the a diminution of it, is a step toward it. is heaven; and shall any man be afraid of having too much heaven, too much God? There are many among them, that are over laden, oppressed with bishoprics and abbeys, and yet they can bear it and never cry, Retrahe Domine, Domine resume, O Lord withdraw from me, resume to thyself some of these superabundances; and shall we think any of them to be so over freighted and surcharged with the presence, and with the grace of God, as to be put to his Recede Domine, O Lord withdraw thyself, and lessen thy grace towards me? This pureness is not in their heart, but in their phantasy. We read in the ecclesiastic story of such a kind of affectation of singularity, very early in the primitive church. We find two sorts of false puritans then; the Catharists, and the Cathari. The Catharists thought no creatures of God pure, and therefore they brought in strange ceremonial purifications of those creatures. In which error, they of the Roman church succeed them, in a great part, in their exorcisms, and consecrations; particularly in the greatest matter of all, in the sacraments. For the Catharists in the sacrament of the body and blood of our Saviour, thought not the bread pure, except it were purified by the aspersion of something issuing from the body of man, not fit to be named here; and so, in the Roman church, they induced a use of another excrement in the other sacrament, they must have spittle in the sacrament of baptism. For, in those words of Tertullian, In baptismo dæmones respuimus, In baptism we renounce the devil, they will admit no other interpretation of the respuimus; but that respuere, is sputo detestari, that we can drive the devil away, no way, but by spitting at him; their predecessors in this, the Catharists, thought no creatures pure, and therefore purified them, by abominable and detestable ways. The second sort of primitive puritans, the Cathari, they thought no men pure but themselves, and themselves they thought so pure, as to have no sin; and that therefore they might and so did, leave out, as an impertinent clause in the Lord's prayer, that 6 Durantius de citib. 1. i. 19 n. 39. |