Imatges de pàgina
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as a not comer, or a not hearer, so I doubt not but the wisdom of the state weighs them in the same balance; For these three agree in one, says the text: that is, first they meet in one man, and then they testify the same thing, that is, integritatem Jesu, that Jesus is come to him in outward means, to save his soul. If his conscience find not this testimony, all these avail him nothing. If we remain vessels of anger, and of dishonour still, we are under the Va cobis hypocritis: Woe unto you hypocrites, that make clean only the outside of your cups and platters". That baptize, and wash your own, and your children's bodies, but not their minds with instructions. When we shall come to say Docuisti in plateis, We have heard thee preach in our streets3, we have continued our hearing of thy word, when we say Manducarimus coram te, We have eat in thy presence, at thy table, yea Manducavimus te, We have eaten thee thyself, yet for all this outward show of these three witnesses, of spirit, and water, and blood, preaching, and baptism and communion, we shall hear that fearful disclaiming from Christ Jesus, Nescio cos, I know not whence you are. But these witnesses he will always hear, if they testify for us, that Jesus is come unto us; for the Gospel, and the preaching thereof, is as the deed that conveys Jesus unto us; the water, the baptism, is as the seal, that assures it; and the blood, the sacrament, is the delivery of Christ into us; and this is integritas Jesu, the entire, and full possession of him.

To this purpose therefore, as we have found a trinity in heaven, and a trinity in earth, so we must make it up a trinity of trinities, and find a third trinity in ourselves. God created one trinity in us; (the observation, and the enumeration is St. Bernard's) which are those three faculties of our soul, the reason, the memory, the will; that trinity in us, by another trinity too, (by suggestion towards sin, by delight in sin, by consent to sin) is fallen into a third trinity; the memory into a weakness, that that comprehends not God, it glorifies him not for benefits received; the reason to a blindness, that that discerns not what is true; and the will to a perverseness, that that wishes not what is good; but the goodness of God by these three witnesses on earth regenerates, and re-establishes a new trinity in us, faith, and hope,

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and charity; thus far that devout man carries it; and if this new trinity, faith, hope, and charity, witness to us Integritatem Christi, all the work of Christ, if my faith testify to me, that Christ is sealed to my soul; and my hope testify, that at the resurrection I shall have a perfect fruition in soul, and body, of that glory which he purchased for every believer; and my charity testifies to the world, that I labour to make sure that salvation, by a good life, then there is a trinity of trinities, and the six are made nine witnesses: there are three in heaven that testify that this is done for all mankind, three in the church that testify, this may be done for me, and three in my soul, that testify, that all this is applied to me; and then the verdict, and the judgment must necessarily go for me. And beloved, this judgment will be grounded upon this entireness of Jesus, and therefore let me dismiss you with this note, that integritas is in continuitate, not in contignitate; it is not the touching upon a thing, nor the coming near to a thing, that makes it entire; a faggot, where the sticks touch, a piece of cloth, where the threads touch, is not entire; to come as near Christ as we can conveniently, to try how near we can bring two religions together, this is not to preserve integritatem Jesu: in a word, entireness excludes deficiency, and redundancy, and discontinuance; we preserve not entireness, if we preserve not the dignity of Christ, in his church, and in his discipline, and that excludes the defective Separatist; we do not preserve that entireness if we admit traditions, and additions of men, in an equality to the word of God, and that excludes the redundant papist; neither do we preserve the entireness, if we admit a discontinuance, a slumbering of our religion for a time, and that excludes the temporisers, the statist, the politician. And so, beloved, I recommend unto you integritatem Jesu, Jesus, and his truth, and his whole truth, and this whole truth, in your whole lives.

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SERMON LXXXVII.

PREACHED AT A CHRISTENING.

GALATIANS iii. 27.

For all ye that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.

THIS text is a reason of a reason; an argument of an argument; the proposition undertaken by the apostle to prove, is, That after faith is come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster', the law. The reason, by which he proves that, is: For ye are all the sons of God by faith, in Christ Jesus; and then the reason of that, is this text, For all ye that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.

Here then is the progress of a sanctified man, and here is his standing house; here is his journey, and his lodging; his way, and his end. The house, the lodging, the end of all is faith; for whatsoever is not of faith, is sin. To be sure that you are in the right way to that, you must find yourselves to be the sons of God; and you can prove that by no other way to yourselves, but because you are baptized into Christ.

So that our happiness is now at that height, and so much are we preferred before the Jews, that whereas the chiefest happiness of the Jews was to have the law, (for without the law they could not have known sin, and the law was their schoolmaster to find out Christ) we are admitted to that degree of perfection, that we are got above the law; it was their happiness to have had the law, but it is ours, not to need it: they had the benefit of a guide, to direct them, but we are at our journey's end; they had a schoolmaster to lead them to Christ; but we have proceeded so far, as that we are in possession of Christ. The law of Moses therefore binds us not at all, as it is his law; whatsoever binds a Christian, in that law, would have bound him, though there had been no law given to Moses. The ceremonial part of that law, which was in the institution, mortale, (it was mortal, it

1 Ver. 25.

might die) and by Christ's determination of those typical things, mortuum (it did die) now also mortiferum, (deadly) so that it is sin to draw any part of that law into a necessity of observation; because the necessary admission of any type, or figure, implies a confession, that that which was signified, or figured, is not yet come; so that that law, and Christ cannot consist together. The judicial law of Moses, was certainly the most absolute, and perfect law of government, which could have been given to that people, for whom it was given; but yet to think, that all states are bound to observe those laws, because God gave them, hath no more ground, than that all men are bound to go clothed in beasts' skins, because God apparelled Adam and Eve in that fashion.

And for the moral part of that law, and the abridgement of that moral part, the decalogue, that begun not to have force and efficacy then, when God writ it in the tables, but was always, and always shall be written in the hearts of men; and though God of his goodness, was pleased to give that declaration of it, and that provocation to it, by so writing it, yet if he had not written it, or if (which is impossible) that writing could perish, yet that moral law, those commandments, would bind us, that are Christians, after the expiration of that law, which was Moses' law, as it did (de jure) bind all those which lived, before any written law was. So that he that will perfectly understand, what appertains to his duty, in any of the Ten Commandments, he must not consider that law with any limitation, as it was given to the Jews, but consider what he would have done, if he lived before the tables had been written. For certainly, even in the commandment of the Sabbath, which was accompanied with so many ceremonies amongst the Jews, that part only is moral, which had bound us, though that commandment had never been given; and he that performs that part, keeps the Sabbath; the ceremonial part of it, is not only not necessary; but when it is done with an opinion of necessity, it is erroneous, and sinful. For neither that commandment, nor any other of the ten, began to bind them, when they were written, nor doth bind now, except it bound before that.

Thus far then we are directed by this text, (which is as far as we can go in this life) to prove to ourselves, that we have faith,

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we must prove, that we need not the law; to prove cipation, and liberty, we must prove, that we are the sons of God; to prove that ingrafting, and that adoption, we must prove, that we have put on Christ Jesus; and to prove that apparelling of ourselves, our proof is, that we are baptized into him.

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All proofs must either arrest, and determine in some things confessed, and agreed upon, or else they proceed in infinitum. That which the apostle takes to be that which is granted on all sides, and which none can deny, is this, that to be baptized is to put on Christ and this putting on of Christ, doth so far carry us to that infinitissimum, to God himself, that we are thereby made semen Dei, the seed of God; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom2; and we are translated even into the nature of God, by his precious promises we are made partakers of the divine nature; yea, we are discharged of all bodily, and earthly incumbrances, and we are made all spirit, yea the spirit of God himself, He that is joined to the Lord, is one spirit with him. All this we have, if we do put on Christ and we do put on Christ, if wo be baptized into him. These then are the two actions which we are now to consider: To be washed.

Baptizari,
Induere,

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To be clothed.

Induere, is to cover so far, as that covering can reach; a hat covers the head; a glove the hand; and other garments, more; but Christ, when he is put on, covers us all. If we have weak heads, shallow brains, either a silence, and a reservedness, which make the fool and the wise equal, or the good interpretation of friends, which put good constructions upon all that we say, or the dignity of authority, and some great place, which we hold, which puts an opinion in the people, that we are wise, or else we had never been brought thither, these cover our heads, and hide any defect in them. If we have foul hands, we can cover them, with excuses; if they be foul with usurious extortion, we can put on a glove, an excuse, and say, He that borrowed my money, got more by it than I that lent it; if, with bribery in an office, we can cover it and say, He that knew, that I bought my

2 Matt. xiii. 38.

3 2 Pet. i. 4.

1 Cor. vi. 17.

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