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Moses; he saw the land of promise, but he entered not into it"; the Jews saw Christ, but embraced him not. Abraham saw his day, and rejoiced; they saw it, that is, they might have seen it, but winked at it. Luther says well, Judæi habuere jus mendicandi, The Jews had a license to beg, they had a breve, and might gather, they had a covenant, and might plead with God; but they did not; and therefore, though they were inexcusable for their neglect of the light of nature, and more inexcusable for resisting the light of the law, that they and we might be absolutely inexcusable, if we continued in darkness after that, God set up another light, the light of the Gospel, which is our third and last part, wrapped up in those first words of our text, By terrible things, in righteousness, wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation.

This word, Salvation, Jashang, is the root of the name of Jesus. In the beginning of the primitive church, when the followers of Christ left or discontinued their being called the disciples, and the faithful, and the brethren, and the professors, as they had been called before, and would bring the name of their founder, Christ Jesus, into more evidence and manifestation, yet they were not called by the name of Jesus, but from Christ; at Antioch first they were called Christians". For it is well distinguished 25, that the name of Jesus, as it signifies, a saviour, first contemplates God, and the Divine nature, (which only could save us) and then hath relation to man, and the human nature, without assuming of which, the Son of God could not have saved us that way, that God had proposed, the satisfaction of his justice; and then, the name of Christ, (as it signifies anointed, and appointed to a certain purpose, as to die for us) first contemplates man, and the human nature, which only could die, and then hath relation to God, and the divine nature. So that Jesus is God, and man in him; and Christ is man, and God in him. So the name Jesus seems to taste of more mystery, and more incomprehensibleness; and the name of Christ, of more humility, and appliableness.

And with this lower name, to be called Christians from Christ,

23 Deut. xxxiv. 1.

24 Acts xi. 26.

25 Bonaventura.

was the church of God contented; whereas a later race of men in the Roman church, will needs take their denomination from Jesus himself; but I know not whether they mean our Jesus or not. Josephus remembers two (at least) of that name, Jesus, that were infamous malefactors, and men of blood; and they may deduce themselves from such a Jesus. And a Jesuit 26 teaches us, that it is the common opinion, that Barrabas the murderer, was by his proper name called Jesus; that his name was Jesus Barrabas; and that therefore Pilate made that difference upon our Saviour, Jesus Nazarenus, This is Jesus of Nazareth, and not Jesus Barrabas; and from that Jesus, Jesus Barrabas, they may deduce themselves. And we know also, that that mischievous sorcerer, was called by that name, Bar-jesu2, The Son of Jesus. From which Jesus amongst these, they will make their extraction, let them choose. As amongst the Jesuits, the bloodiest of them all, (even to the drawing of the sacred blood of kings) is, by his name, Mariana; so all the rest of them, both in that respect, of sucking blood, and occasioning massacres, and other respects too, are rather Marianits than Jesuits, idolaters of the blessed Virgin Mary, than worshippers of Jesus.

28

We consist in the humility of the ancients; we are Christians, Jesus is merely a saviour, a name of mystery, Christ is anointed, a name of communication, of accommodation, of imitation; and so this name, the name of Christ, is Oleum effusum (as the spouse speaks) An ointment, a perfume poured out upon us, and we are Christians. In the name of Jesus, St. Paul abounded, but in the name of Christ more; for, (as a Jesuit gives us the account") he repeats the name of Jesus almost three hundred times, but the name of Christ more than four hundred, in his epistles. In this church then, which is gathered in the name of Christ, (though in the power and merit of Jesus) this light which we speak of, this knowledge of God, and means of salvation, is in the highest exaltation. In the state of nature, we consider this light, as the sun, to be risen at the Molucca, in the farthest East; in the state of the law, we consider it, as the sun come to Ormus, the first quadrant; but in the Gospel, to be come

20 Lorinus.

27 Acts xiii. 6.

28 Cant. i. 3.

29 Cornelius à lapide.

30 Eph. i. 10.

to the Canaries, the fortunate islands, the first meridian. Now, whatsoever is beyond this, is westward, towards a declination. If we will go farther than to be Christians, and those doctrines, which the whole Christian church hath ever believed, if we will be of Cephas, and of Apollos, if we will call ourselves, or endanger, and give occasion to others to call us from the names of men, papists, or Lutherans, or Calvinists, we depart from the true glory and serenity, from the lustre and splendour of this sun; this is Tabernaculum solis, here in the Christian church, God hath set a tabernacle for the sun; and, as in nature, man hath light enough to discern the principles of reason; so in the Christian church, (considered without subdivisions of names, and sects) a Christian hath light enough of all things necessary to salvation.

So then, still roll thy ways upon God, gather upon him nearer and nearer; for all these are emanations of lights from him, that he might be found, and seen, and known by thee. The looking upon God, by the first light of nature, is to catechise and examine thyself, whether thou do govern and employ thy natural faculties to his glory; whether thou do shut thine eyes at a temptation, stop thine ears at a blasphemy upon God, or a defamation upon thy neighbour; and withhold thy hand from blood and bribes, and thy feet from fellowship in sin. The looking upon God, by the second light, the light of the law, is to discern by that, that God hath always had a peculiar people of his own, and gathered them, and contained them in his worship, by certain visible, sensible ordinances and institutions, sacraments, and sacrifices, and ritual ceremonies, and to argue and conclude out of God's former proceedings with them, his greatness and his goodness towards the present world. And then, to see God by that last and best light, the light of the Christian church, is, to be content with so much of God, as God hath revealed of himself to his church; and (as it is expressed here) to hear him answer thee, By terrible things in righteousness; for that he does, as he is the God of our salvation, that is, as he works in the Christian church; which is our last consideration; By terrible, &c.

In this consideration, (God's proceeding with us in the Chris

31 1 Cor. i. xii.

VOL. III.

32 Psalm xix. 4.

P

tian church) this observation meets us first, That God's conversation with us there, is called an answering; (he shall answer us) now if we look that God should answer us, we must say something to God; and our way of speaking to God, is by petition, by prayer. If we present no petition, if we pray not, we can look for no answer, for we ask none. Esaias is very bold, (saith St. Paul) when he says, That God was found of them that sought him not, and made manifest to them that asked not after him; yet though it were boldly said, it was truly said; so early, and so powerful is God's preventing grace towards us. So it is a very ordinary phrase amongst the prophets, God answered, and said thus, and thus, when the prophet had asked nothing of God. But here we are upon God's proceeding with man in the Christian church; and so, God answers not, but to our petitions, to our prayers. In a sermon, God speaks to the congregation, but he answers only that soul, that hath been with him at prayers before. A man may pray in the street, in the fields, in a fair; but it is a more acceptable and more effectual prayer, when we shut our doors, and observe our stationary hours for private prayer in our chamber; and in our chamber, when we pray upon our knees, than in our beds. But the greatest power of all, is in the public prayer of the congregation.

It is a good remembrance that Damascene gives, Non quia gentes quædam faciunt, à nobis linquenda; we must not forbear things only therefore, because the Gentiles, or the Jews used them. The Gentiles, particularly the Romans, (before they were Christians) had a set service, a prescribed form of common prayer in their temples; and they had a particular officer in that state, who was conditor precum, that made their collects, and prayers upon emergent occasions; and omni lustro, every five years, there was a review, and an alteration in their prayers, and the state of things was presumed to have received so much change in that time, as that it was fit to change some of their prayers and collects. It must not therefore seem strange, that at the first, there were certain collects appointed in our church; nor that others, upon just occasion, be added.

God's blessing here, in the Christian church, (for to that we

33 Rom. x. 20.

limit this consideration) is, that here he will answer us; therefore, here we must ask; here, our asking is our communion at prayer: and therefore they that undervalue, or neglect the prayers of the church, have not that title to the benefit of the sermon; for though God do speak in the sermon, yet he answers, that is, applies himself by his spirit, only to them, who have prayed to him before. If they have joined in prayer, they have their interest, and shall feel their consolation in all the promises of the gospel, shed upon the congregation, in the sermon. Have you asked by prayer, Is there no balm in Gilead? He answers you by me, Yes, there is balm; He was wounded by your transgressions, and with his stripes you are healed; his blood is your balm, his sacrament is your Gilead. Have you asked by prayer, is there no smith in Israel? No means to discharge myself of my fetters, and chains, of my temporal, and spiritual encumbrances? God answers thee, yes, there is; he bids you but look about, and you shall find yourself in Peter's case; The angel of the Lord present, a light shining, and his chains falling off": all your manacles locked upon the hands, all your chains loaded upon the legs, all your stripes numbered upon the back of Christ Jesus. You have said in your prayers here, (Lord, from whom all good counsels do proceed) and God answers you from hence, The angel of the great council shall dwell with you, and direct you. You have said in your prayers, Lighten our darkness, and God answers you by me, (as he did his former people by Isaiah) The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory". Petition God at prayers, and God shall answer all your petitions at the sermon. There we begin, (if we will make profit of a sermon) at prayers; and thither we return again, (if we have made profit by a sermon) in due time, to prayers. For, that is St. Augustine's holy circle", in which he walks from prayers to the sermon, and from the sermon, next day to prayers again. Invocat te fides mea, says he to God; here I stand or kneel in thy presence, and in the power of faith, to pray to thee. But where had I this faith, that makes my prayer acceptable? Dedisti mihi per ministerium prædicatoris; I had it at the sermon, I had it, saith he, by the ministery of the

34 Isaiah Liii. 5.
37 Isaiah LX. 19.

35 1 Sam. xiii. 19.

36 Acts 12. 7.

38 Confes. 1. i. c. 1.

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