: good which is not only good to Joseph, who was no partaker in the evil, but good even to them, who meant nothing but evil. And therefore, as Origen said, Etsi novum, Though it be strangely said, yet I say it, that God's anger is good; so says St. Augustine, Audeo dicere, Though it be boldly said, yet I must say it, Utile esse cadere in aliquod manifestum peccatum, Many sinners would never have been saved, if they had not committed some greater sin at last, than before; for the punishment of that sin hath brought them to a remorse of all their other sins formerly neglected. If neither of these will serve my turn, neither that sin is nothing in itself, and therefore not put upon me by God, nor that my sin, having occasioned my repentance, hath done me good, and established me in a better state with God, than I was in before that sin, yet this shall fully rectify me, and assure my consolation, that in a pious sense I may say, Christ Jesus is the sinner, and not I. For, though in the two and twentieth session of the Council of Basil, that proposition were condemned as scandalous, in the mouth of a bishop of Nazareth, Augustinus de Roma, Christus quotidie peccat, That Christ does sin every day, yet Gregory Nazianzen expresses the same intention, in equivalent terms, when he says, Quamdiu inobediens ego, tamdiu, quantum ad me attinet, inobediens Christus: As long as I sin, for so much as concerns me, me, who am incorporated in Christ, me, who by my true repentance have discharged myself upon Christ, Christ is the sinner, even in the sight, and justice of his Father, and not I. And as this consideration, that the goodness of God, in Christ, is thus spread upon all persons, and all actions, takes me off from my aptness to misinterpret other men's actions, not to be hasty to call indifferent things, sins, not to call hardness of access in great persons, pride, not to call sociableness of conversation in women, prostitution, not to call accommodation of civil businesses in states, prevarication, or dereliction and abandoning of God, and toleration of religion; as it takes me off from this misinterpreting of others; so, for myself, it puts me upon an ability, to chide, and yet to cheer my soul, with those words of David, O my soul, why art thou so sad? why art thou so disquieted within me? Since 16 Gen. Li. 20. sin is nothing, no such thing as is forced upon thee by God, by which thy damnation should be inevitable, or thy reconciliation impossible, since of what nature soever sin be in itself, thy sins being truly repented, have advanced, and improved thy state in the favour of God, since thy sin, being by that repentance discharged upon Christ, Christ is now the sinner, and not thou, O my soul, why art thou so sad? why art thou disquieted within me? And this consideration of God's goodness, thus derived upon me, and made mine in Christ, ratifies and establishes such a holy confidence in me, as that all the moral constancy in the world, is but a bulrush, to this bulwark; and therefore, we end all, with that historical, but yet useful note, that that Duke of Burgundy, who was surnamed Carolus Audax, Charles the Bold, was son to that duke, who was surnamed Bonus, the Good Duke: a good one produced a bold one: true confidence proceeds only out of true goodness: for, The wicked shall fly, when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion". This constancy, and this confidence, and upon this ground, holy courage in a holy fear of him, Almighty God infuse and imprint in you all, for his Son Christ Jesus' sake. And to this glorious Son of God, &c. SERMON XV. PREACHED AT WHITEHALL, MARCH 3, 1619. AMOS V. 18. Woe unto you, that desire the day of the Lord: what have ye to do with it? the day of the Lord is darkness and not light. For the presenting of the woes and judgments of God, denounced by the prophets against Judah and Israel, and the extending and applying them to others, involved in the same sins as Judah and Israel were, Solomon seems to have given us somewhat a clear 17 Prov. xxviii. 1. direction: Reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee, rebuke a wise man and he will love thee'. But how if the wise man and this scorner be all in one man, all one person? If the wise man of this world be come to take St. Paul so literally as his word, as to think scornfully that preaching is indeed but the foolishness of preaching, and that as the church is within the state, so preaching is a part of state government, flexible to the present occasions of time, appliable to the present dispositions of men? This fell upon this prophet in this prophecy, Amasias the priest of Bethel informed the king that Amos meddled with matters of state, and that the land was not able to bear his words, and to Amos himself he says, Eat thy bread in some other place, but prophecy here no more, for this is the king's chapel, and the king's court; Amos replies, I was no prophet nor the son of a prophet, but in an other course, and the Lord took me and said unto me, Go and prophecy to my people1. Though we find no Amasiah, no mis-interpreting priest here, (we are far from that, because we are far from having a Jeroboam to our king as he had, easy to give ear, easy to give credit to false informations) yet every man that comes with God's message hither, brings a little Amasiah of his own, in his own bosom, a little whisperer in his own heart that tells him, this is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court, and these woes and judgments, and the denouncers and proclaimers of them are not so acceptable here. But we must have our own Amos, as well as our Amasias, this answer to this suggestion, I was no prophet, and the Lord took me and bad me prophesy. . What shall I do ? And besides, since the woe in this text is not St. John's aroe, his iterated, his multiplied aroe, Va, co, te habitantibus terram 3. a woe of desolation upon the whole world (for God loves this world, as the work of his own hands, as the subject of his providence, as the scene of his glory, as the garden-plot that is watered by the blood of his Son :) since the woe in this text, is not Esay' woe, Væ genti peccatrici1, an increpation and commination upor our whole nation (for God hath not come so near to any nation and dealt so well with any nation as with ours :) since the woe in this text is not Ezekiel's woe, Væ civitati sanguinum3, an impu tation of injustice or oppression, and consequently of a malediction laid upon the whole city (for God hath carried his woes upon other cities, Va Chorasin, ca Bethsaida; God hath laid his heavy hand of war and other calamities upon other cities, that this city might see herself and her calamities long before in that glass, and so avoid them :) since the woe in this text, is not the prophet's other woe, Væ domui, not a woe upon any family (for when any man in his family comes to Joshua's protestation, As for me and my house we will serve the Lord', the Lord comes to his protestation, I will show mercy to thee and thy house for a thousand generations :) since the woe in this text, is not Esay's woe again, Væ coronæ, (for, the same prophet tells us of what affection they are, that they are idolaters, persons inclined to an idolatrous and superstitious religion, and fret themselves, and curse the king and their God; we know that the prophet's Væ corone in that place is Væ coronæ superbiæ3, and the crown and height of pride is in him, who hath set himself above all that is called God. Christian princes know that if their crowns were but so as they seem (all gold) they should be but so much the heavier for being all gold; but they are but crowns of thorns gilded, specious cares, glorious troubles, and therefore no subject of pride :) to contract this, since the woe in this text, is no state woe, nor church woe, for it is not Ezekiel's Væ pastoribus insipientibus, which cannot feed their flock, nor Jeremy's Væ pastoribus disperdentibus", Woe unto those lazy shepherds, which do not feed their flock but suffer them to scatter: since the woe in this text is not a woe upon the whole world, nor upon the whole nation, nor upon the whole city, nor upon any whole family, nor upon any whole rank or calling of men, when I have asked with Solomon, Cui re"? To whom belongs this woe? I must answer with St. Paul, Væ mihi13, Woe unto me if I do not tell to whom it belongs. And therefore since in spiritual things especially charity begins with itself, I shall transfer this te from myself, by laying it upon them, whom your own conscience shall find it to belong unto; Væ desiderantibus diem Domini; Woe be unto them that desire the day of the Lord, &c. Ezek. xLiv. 6. 12 7 Jos. xxiv. 15. Isaiah xxviii. 1. 12 Prov. xxiii. 19. 9 Isaiah viii. 11. 13 1 Cor. ix. 16. But yet if these words can be narrow in respect of persons, it is strange, for in respect of the sins that they are directed upon, they have a great compass, they reach from that high sin of presumption, and contempt, and deriding the day of the Lord, the judgments of God, and they pass through the sin of hypocrisy, when we make shift to make the world, and to make ourselves believe that we are in good case towards God, and would be glad that the day of the Lord, the day of judgment would come now; and then they come down to the deepest sin, the sin of desperation, of an unnatural valuing of this life, when overwhelmed with the burden of other sins, or with God's punishment for them; men grow to a murmuring weariness of this life, and to an impatient desire, and perchance to a practice of their own ends; in the first acceptation, the day of the Lord is the day of his judgments and afflictions in this life; in the second, the day of the Lord is the day of the general judgment; and in the third, the day of the Lord, is that crepusculum, that twilight between the two lives, or rather that meridies noctis, as the poet calls it, that noon of night, the hour of our death and transmigration out of this world. And if any desire any of these days of the Lord, out of any of these indispositions, out of presumption, out of hypocrisy, out of desperation, he falls within the compass of this text, and from him we cannot take off this va desiderantibus. First then the prophet directs himself most literally upon the first sin of presumption. They were come to say, that in truth whatsoever the prophet declaimed in the streets, there was no such thing as dies Domini, any purpose in God to bring such heavy judgments upon them; to the prophets themselves they were come to say, You yourselves live parched and macerated in a starved and penurious fortune, and therefore you cry out that all we must die of famine too, you yourselves have not a foot of land among all the tribes, and therefore you cry out that all the tribes must be carried into another land in captivity. That which you call the day of the Lord is come upon you, beggary, and nakedness, and hunger, contempt, and affliction, and imprisonment is come upon you, and therefore you will needs extend this day upon the whole state, but desideramus, we would fain see any such thing come to pass, we would fain see God go about to cle |