to a hearty allegiance, and just obedience, yet they must be subject, they must submit themselves whether they will or no, and though they will wish no good, yet they shall be able to do no harm. For the Holy Ghost declares this to be an exercise of power, of God's power, of the greatness of God's power, that his enemies submit themselves, though with a feigned obedience. PREACHED AT COURT, AND ELSEWHERE, UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. SERMON LXX. PREACHED AT WHITEHALL, APRIL 8, 1621. PROVERBS XXv. 16. Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it. THERE is a temporal unsatiableness of riches, and there is a spiritual unsatiableness of sin. The first covetousness, that of riches, the apostle calls the root of all evil, but the second covetousness, that of sin, is the fruit of all evil, for that is the treasure of God's wrath, as the apostle speaks, when he makes our former sins, the mother of future sins, and then our future sins the punishments of former. As though this world were too little to satisfy man, men are come to discover or imagine new worlds, several worlds in every planet; and as though our fathers heretofore, and we ourselves too, had been but dull and ignorant sinners, we think it belongs to us to perfect old inventions, and to sin in another height and excellency, than former times did, as though sin had had but a minority, and an infancy till now. Though the pride of the prince of Tyrus were ever in some tyrants, who says there, I am a god, and sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas, and am wiser than Daniel'; Yet there is a sea above these seas, a power above this power, a spiritual pride Ezek. xxviii. 2. above this temporal pride, one so much wiser than Daniel, as that he is as wise as the Holy Ghost. The world hath ever had levities and inconstancies, and the fool hath changed as the moon; the same men that have cried Hosanna, are ready to cry crucifige; but, as in Job's wife, in the same mouth, the same word was ambiguous, (whether it were bless God, or curse God, out of the word we cannot tell) so are the actions of men so ambiguous, as that we cannot conclude upon them; men come to our prayers here, and pray in their hearts here in this place, that God would induce another manner of prayer into this place; and so pray in the congregation, that God would not hear the prayers of the congregation; there hath always been ambiguity and equivocation in words, but now in actions, and almost every action will admit a diverse sense. And it was the prophet's complaint of old, You have multiplied your fornications, and yet are not satisfied3; but we wonder why the prophet should wonder at that, for the more we multiply temporally or spiritually, the less we are satisfied. Others have thought, that our souls sinned before they came into the world, and that therefore they are here as in a prison; but they are rather here as in a school; for if they had studied sin in another world before, they practise it here, if they have practised it before, they teach it now, they lead and induce others into sin. But this consideration of our insatiableness in sin, in my purpose I seposed for the end of this hour; but who knows whether your patience, that you will hear, or who knows whether yours, or my life, that you can hear, shall last to the end of this hour? And therefore it is an excusable anticipation, to have begun with this spiritual covetousness of sin, though our first payment be to be made in the literal sense of the text, a reprehension, and in it, a counsel, against our general insatiableness of the temporal things of this world. Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it. In which words, there being first a particular compellation, tu, hast thou found it? It remembers thee, that there be a great many, that have not found it, but lack that which thou aboundest in; and invenisti, thou hast not inherited it, nor merited it, thou 2 Eccles. xxvii. 11. 3 Ezek. xvi. 29. hast but found it; and for that which thou hast found, it is honey, sweetness, but it is but honey, which easily becomes choler, and gall, and bitterness. Such as it is, comede, thou mayest eat it, and eat it safely, it is not unwholesome; but comede sufficientiam, eat no more than is sufficient; and in that, let not the servant measure himself by his master, nor the subject by the king, nor the private man by the magistrate, but Comede sufficientiam tuam, Eat that which is sufficient for thee, for more than that will fill thee, over-fill thee; perchance not so full as thou wouldest be, yet certainly so full, as that there will be no room in thee for better things; and then thou wilt vomit, nay perchance thou must vomit, the malice and plots of others shall give thee a vomit, and such a vomit shall be evacuans, an exinanition, leave thee empty; and immundum, an uncleanness, leave thee in scorn and contempt; and periculosum, a danger, break a vein, a vein at the heart, break thy heart itself, that thou shalt never recover it. Hast thou found honey? eat so much, as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it. First then, for that compellation tu, hast thou found it? It is a word first of familiarity, and then a word of particularity. It is a degree of familiarity, that God hath notified himself to us in several persons; that he hath come so near to our comprehension, as to be considered not only as an universal, and infinite God, but as a father, and as a son, and opened himself unto us in these notions, Tu Pater, Tu Fili, Thou O Father, and Thou O Son, have mercy upon us. A constable, or beadle will not be spoke to so, to be thou'd, and any person in the Trinity, the whole Trinity together is content with it; take God altogether, and at highest, Tu altissimus, Thou Lord art most high for evermore*; take him from before any beginning, Tu à seculo, Thy throne is established of old, and thou art from everlasting; take him from beyond all ending, Tu autem permanes, Thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end". In which, we go not about to condemn, or correct the civil manner of giving different titles, to different ranks of men; but to note the slipperiness of our times, where titles flow into one 4 * Psalm xcii. 8. 5 Psalm xciii. 2. 6 Psalm cii. 27. another, and lose their distinctions; when as the elements are condensed into one another, air condensed into water, and that into earth, so an obsequious flatterer, shall condense a yeoman into a worshipful person, and the worshipful into honourable, and so that which duly was intended for distinction, shall occasion confusion. But that which we purpose, in noting this tu, is rather the singularity, the particularity, than the familiarity; that the Holy Ghost in this collects man, abridges man, sums up man in an unity, in the consideration of one, of himself. Oportet hominem fieri unum, Man must grow in his consideration, till he be but one man, one individual man. If he consider himself in humanitate, in the whole mankind, a glorious creature, an immortal soul, he shall see this immortal soul, as well in goats at the left hand, as in sheep at the right hand of Christ, at the resurrection; men on both sides: if he consider himself in qualitate, in his quality, in his calling, he shall hear many then plead their prophetavimus, we have prophecied, and their ejecimus, we have exorcised', and their virtutes fecimus, we have done wonders, and all in thy name, and yet receive that answer, Nunquam cognovi, I do not know you now, I never did know you'. Oportet unum fieri, he must consider himself In individuo, That one man, not that man in nature, not that man in calling, but that man in actions. Origen makes this use of those words, as he found them, Erat vir unus, There was one man, (which was Elkanah) he adds, Nomen ejus possessio Dei, This one man, says he, was, in his name, God's possession; Nam quem dæmones possident, non unus sed multi, For he whom the devil possesses, not one. The same sinner is not the same thing; still he clambers in his ambitious purposes, there he is an eagle; and yet lies still grovelling, and trodden upon at any greater man's threshold, there he is a worm. He swells to all that are under him, there he is a full sea; and his dog that is above him, may wade over him, there he is a shallow, an empty river. In the compass of a few days, he neighs like a horse in the rage of his lust over all the city, and groans in a corner of the city, in an hospital. A sinner is as many men, as he hath vices; he that is 7 Clem. Alex. Matt. vii. 22. 10 8 The folio edition has "exercised." Elkanah, Possessio Dei, Possessed by God, and in possession of God, he is Unus homo, One and the same man. And when God calls upon man so particularly, he intends him some particular good. It is St. Hierome's note, That when God in the Scriptures speaks of divers things in the singular number, it is ever in things of grace; and it is St. Augustine's note, that when he speaks of any one thing in the plural number, it is of heavy and sorrowful things; as Jephtha was buried In civitatibus Gilead“, In the cities, but he had but one grave; and so that is, they made Aureos vitulos, golden calves, when it was but one calf. When God's voice comes to thee in this text, in particular, tu, hast thou found, he would have thee remember, how many seek and have sought, with tears, with sweat, with blood, and lack that, that thou aboundest in. That whereas his evidence to them whom he loves not, in the next world, shall be, esurivi, I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat1; and his proceeding with them whom he loves not in this world, is, si esuriero, If I be hungry, I will not tell thee 13, I will not awaken thee, not remember thy conscience wherein thou mayest do me a service; he does call upon thee in particular, and ask thee, nonne tu, hast thou not fortune enough, to let fall some crumbs upon him that starves? and nonne tu, hast not thou favour enough, to shed some beams upon him that is frozen in disgrace? There is a squint eye, that looks side-long; to look upon riches, and honour, on the left hand, and long life here, on the right, is a squint eye. There is a squint eye, that looks upwards and downwards; to look after God and mammon, is a squint eye. There are squint eyes, that look upon one another; to look upon one's own beauty, or wisdom, or power, is a squint eye. The direct look is to look inward upon thine own conscience; not with Nebuchadnezzar, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty'? But with David, Quid retribuam? for if thou look upon them with a clear eye, thou wilt see, that though thou hast them, thou hast but found them, which is our next step. 11 Judg. xii. 7. 12 Matt. xxv. 42. 13 Psalm L. 12, 14 Dan. iv. 30. |