our bloods are upon him. This was a mercy to the militant church, that even the triumphant church wondered at it. They know not Christ, when he came up to heaven in red. Who is this that cometh in red garments? Wherefore is thy apparel red, like him that treadeth in the wine-press? They knew he went down in white, in entire innocency: and they wondered to see him return in red. But he satisfies them; calcari, you think I have trodden the wine-press, and you mistake it not: I have trodden the wine-press; and calcari solus, I have trodden it alone, all the redness, all the blood of the whole world is upon me. And as he adds, non vir de gentibus, of all people there was none with me, with me so, as to have any part in the merit; so, of all people there was none without me; without me so, as to be excluded by me, without their own fault, from the benefit of my merit. This redness he carried up to heaven: for, by the blood of his cross came peace, both to the things in earth, and the things in heaven. For that peccability, that possibility of sinning, which is in the nature of the angels of heaven, would break out into sin, but for that confirmation, which those angels have received in the blood of Christ. This redness he carried to heaven; and this redness he hath left upon earth, that all we miserable clods of carth, might be tempered with his blood; that in his blood exhibited in his holy and blessed sacrament, our long robes might be made white in the blood of the Lamb": that though our sins be robes, habits of sin; though long robes, habits of long continuance in sin: yet through that redness, which our sins have cast upon him, we might come to participate of that whiteness, that righteousness, which is his own. We, that is, all we; for, as to take us in, who are of low condition, and obscure station, a cloud is made white by his sitting upon it, he sate upon a white cloud, so to let the highest see, that they have no whiteness, but from him, he makes the throne white by sitting upon it. He sate upon a great white throne". It had not been great, if it had not been white. White is the colour of dilatation; goodness only enlarges the throne. It had not been white, if he had not sate upon it. That goodness only, which 27 Isaiah Lxiii. 1. 28 Colos. i. 20. 29 Rev. vii. 14. 31 Rev. xx. 11. consists in glorifying God, and God in Christ, and Christ in the sincerity of his truth, is true whiteness. God hath no redness in himself, no anger towards us, till he considers us as sinners. God casts no redness upon us; inflicts no necessity, no constraint of sinning upon us. We have dyed ourselves in sins, as red as scarlet: we have drowned ourselves in such a Red Sea. But as a garment, that were washed in the Red Sea, would come out white, (so wonderful works hath God done at the Red Sea, says David) so doth his whiteness work through our red, and makes this Adam, this red earth, calculum candidum, that white stone, that receives a new name, not Ish, not Enosh, not Gheber, no name that tastes of misery or of vanity; but that name, renewed, and manifested, which was imprinted upon us, in our clections, the sons of God; the irremovable, the undisinheritable sons of God. Be pleased to receive this note at parting, that there is macula alba, a spot, and yet white, as well as a red spot: a whiteness, that is an indication of a leprosy, as well as a redness. Wholepelagianism, to think nature alone sufficient; half-pelagianism, to think grace once received to be sufficient; super-pelagianism, to think our actions can bring God in debt to us, by merit, and supererogation, and catharism, imaginary purity, in canonizing ourselves, as present saints, and condemning all, that differ from us, as reprobates. All these are white spots, and have the colour of goodness; but are indications of leprosy. So is that that God threatens, Decorticatio ficus, et albi rami, that the fig-tree shall be barked, and the boughs thereof left white": to be left white without bark, was an indication of a speedy withering. Ostensa candescunt, et arescunt, says St. Gregory of that place, the bough that lies open without bark looks white, but perishes: The good works that are done openly to please men have their reward, says Christ, that is, shall never have reward. To pretend to do good, and not mean it; to do things, good in themselves, but not to good ends; to go towards good ends, but not by good ways; to make the deceiving of men, thine end; or the praise of men, thine end all this may have a whiteness, a colour of good: but all this, is a barking of the bough, and an indication of a mis32 Psalm cvi. 22. 33 Rev. ii. 17. 34 Levit. xiii. 35 Joel i. 7. chievous leprosy. There is no good whiteness, but a reflexion from Christ Jesus, in an humble acknowledgment that we have none of our own, and in a confident assurance, that in our worst estate we may be made partakers of his. We are all red earth. In Adam we would not, since Adam we could not, avoid sin, and the concomitants thereof, miseries; which we have called our west, our cloud, our darkness. But then we have a north that scatters these clouds, in the next word, ad imaginem; that we are made to another pattern, in another likeness, than our own. Faciamus hominem; so far are we gone, east, and west; which is half our compass, and all this day's voyage. For we are stuck upon the sand; and must stay another tide, and another gale for our north, and south. SERMON CX. PREACHED To the king, at the court. The Second Sermon on GENESIS i. 26. And God said, Let us make man, in our image, after our likeness. By fair occasion from these words, we proposed to you the whole compass of man's voyage, from his launching forth in this world, to his anchoring in the next; from his hoising sail here, to his striking sail there. In which compass we designed to you his four quarters; first, his east, where he must begin, the fundamental knowledge of the Trinity, (for, that we found to be the specification, and distinctive character of a Christian) where, though that be so, we showed you also, why we were not called Trinitarians, but Christians: and we showed you, the advantage, that man hath, in laying hold upon God, in these several notions; that the prodigal son hath an indulgent Father; that the decayed father hath an abundant Son; that the dejected spirit hath a Spirit of comfort, to fly to in heaven. And, as we showed you from St. Paul, that it was an atheism to be no Christian, (without God, says he, as long as without Christ) so we lamented the slackness of Christians, that they did not seriously, and parti cularly, consider the persons of the Trinity, and especially the Holy Ghost, in their particular actions. And then we came to that consideration, whether this doctrine were established, or directly insinuated, in this plural word of our text, Faciamus, Let us, us make man: and we found that doctrine, to be here, and here first of any place in the Bible. And finding God to speak in the plural, we accepted (for a time) that interpretation, which some had made thereof; that God spake in the person of a Sovereign Prince; and therefore (as they do) in the plural, we. And thereby having established reverence to princes, we claimed in God's behalf the same reverence to him: that men would demean themselves here, when God is spoken to in prayer, as reverently, as when they speak to the king. But after this, we found God to speak here, not only as our king; but as our maker; as God himself; and God in council, faciamus: and we applied thereunto, the difference of our respect to a person of that honourable rank, when we came before him at the council table, and when we came to him at his own table: and thereby advanced the seriousness of this consideration, God in the Trinity. And farther we sailed not, with that our eastern wind. Our west we considered in the next word, hominem; that though we were made by the whole Trinity, yet the whole Trinity made us but men, and men, in this name of our text, Adam; and Adam is but earth, and that is our west, our declination, our sunset. We passed over the four names, by which man is ordinarily expressed in the Scriptures; and we found necessary misery in three of them; and possible, nay likely misery in the fourth, in the best name. We insisted upon the name of our text, Adam, earth; and had some use of these notes; first, that if I were but earth, God was pleased to be the potter; if I but a sheep, he a shepherd; if I but a cottage, he a builder. So he work upon me, let me be what he will. We noted that God made us earth, not air, not fire: that man hath bodily, and worldly duties to perform; and is not all spirit in this life. Devotion, is his soul; but he hath a body of discretion, and usefulness to invest in some calling. We noted too, that in being earth, we are equal. We tried that equality, first in the root, in Adam; there if any man will be nobler earth than I, he must have more original sin than VOL. IV. 2 L I: for that was all Adam's patrimony, all that he could give. And we tried this equality in another furnace, in the grave; where there is no means to distinguish royal from plebeian, nor Catholic from heretical dust. And lastly we noted, that this our earth, was red earth: and considered in what respect it was red, even in God's hands, but found that in the blood-redness of sin, God had no hand: but sin, and destruction for sin, was wholly from ourselves: which consideration, we ended with this, that there was macula alba, a white spot of leprosy, as well, as a red; and we found the over-valuation of our own purity, and the uncharitable condemnation of all that differ from us, to be that white spot. And so far we sailed, with that western wind. And are come to our third point in this our compass, our north. In this point, the north, we place our first comfort. The north is not always the comfortablest clime: nor is the north always a type of happiness in the Scriptures. Many times God threatens storms from the north. But even in those northern storms, we consider that action, that they scatter, they dissipate those clouds, which were gathered, and so induce a serenity and so, fair weather comes from the north'. And that is the use which we : have of the north in this place. The consideration of our west, our low estate; that we are but earth, but red earth, dyed red by ourselves and that imaginary white, which appears so to us, is but a white of leprosy. This west enwraps us in heavy clouds of murmuring, in this life; that we cannot live so freely as beasts do; and in clouds of desperation for the next life; that we cannot die so absolutely as beasts do, we die all our lives, and yet we live after our deaths. These are our clouds; and then the north shakes these clouds. The north wind driveth away the rain, says Solomon. There is a north in our text, that drives all those tears from our eyes. Christ calls upon the north, as well as the south, to blow upon his garden3, and to diffuse the perfumes thereof. Adversity, as well as prosperity, opens the bounty of God unto us; and oftentimes better. But that is not the benefit of the north in our present consideration. But this is it, that first our sun sets in the west. The eastern dignity, which 1 Job xxxvii. 12. Prov, xxv. 23. 3 Cant. iv. 16. |