ness, (and so do I you) I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God, that ye give up your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable serving of God: now a reasonable service is that which in reason we are bound to do, and which in reason we think would most glorify him, in contemplation of whom that service is done; and that is done especially, when by a holy and exemplar life, we draw others to the love and obedience of the same Gospel which we profess: for then have we declared this true and faithful saying, this Gospel to have been worthy of all acceptation, when we have looked upon it by our reason, embraced it by our faith, and declared it by our good works; and all these considerations arose out of that which at the beginning we called radicem, the root of this Gospel, the word, the Scripture, the tree itself, the body of the Gospel, that is the coming of Christ, and the reason of his coming, to save sinners; and then the fruit of this Gospel, that humility, by which the apostle confesseth himself to be the greatest sinner, we reserve for another exercise.

SERMON CXLV.

A SECOND SERMON PREACHED AT WHITEHALL,

APRIL 19, 1618.

1 TIMOTHY i. 15.

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of which I am the chiefest.

We have considered heretofore that which appertained to the root, and all the circumstances thereof. That which belongs to the tree itself, what this acceptable Gospel is, That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; and then, that which appertains to the fruit of this Gospel, the humility of the apostle, in applying it to himself, Quorum ego, Of which sinners I am the chiefest, we reserved for this time. In the first of these, that which we call the tree, the body of this Gospel, there are three

branches; first an advent, a coming; and secondly, the person that came; and lastly, the work for which he came. And in the first of these, we shall make these steps; first, that it is a new coming of a person who was not here before, at least, not in that manner as he comes now, venit, he came; and secondly, that this coming is in act, not only in decree; so he was come and slain ib initio, from all eternity, in God's purpose of our salvation; nor come only in promise, so he came wrapped up in the first promise of a Messiah; in paradise, in that ipse conteret, He shall bruise the serpent's head; nor come only in the often renewing of that promise to Abraham, In semine tuo, In thy seed shall all nations be blessed, nor only in the ratification and refreshing of that promise to Judah, Donec Silo, Till Silo come; and to David, In solio tuo, The sceptre shall not depart; nor as he came in the prophets, in Isaiah's virgo concipiet, That he should come of a virgin, nor in Michah's Et tu Bethlem, That he should come out of that town; but this is a historical, not a prophetical, an actual not a promissory coming; it is a coming already executed; venit, came, he is come. And then thirdly, Venit in mundum, He came into the world, into the whole world, so that by his purpose first extends to all the nations of the world, and then it shall extend to thee in particular, who art a part of this world, he is come into the world, and into thee. From hence, we shall descend to our second branch to the considerations of the person that comes; and he is, first Christus, in which one name we find first his capacity to reconcile God and man, because he is a mixed person, uniting both in himself; and we find also his commission to work this reconciliation, because he is Christus, an anointed person, appointed by that unction, to that purpose; and thirdly, we find him to be Jesus, that is, actually a Saviour; that as we had first his capacity and his commission in the name of Christ, so we might have the execution of this commission in the name of Jesus. And then lastly, in the last branch of this part, we shall see the work itself, Venit salvare, He came to save; it is not offerre, to offer it to them whom he did intend it to, but he came really and truly to save; it was not to show a land of promise to Moses, and then say, there it is, but thou shalt never come at it; it was not to show us salvation, and then say there

he

it is, in baptism it is, in preaching, and in the other sacrament, it is; but soft, there is a decree of predestination against thee, and thou shalt have none of it; but Venit salvare, He came to save; and whom? Sinners. Those, who the more they acknowledge themselves to be so, the nearer they are to this salvation.

First then for the advent, this coming of Christ, we have a rule reasonable general in the school, Missio in divinis est novo modo operatio, Then is any person of the Trinity said to be sent, or to come, when they work in any place, or in any person in another manner or measure than they did before; yet that rule doth not reach home, to the expressing of all comings of the persons of the Trinity: the second person came more pretentially than so, more than in an extraordinary working and energy, and execution of his power, if it be rightly apprehended by those fathers, who in many of those angels which appeared to the patriarchs, and whose service God used in delivering Israel out of Egypt, and in giving the law in Sinai, to be the Son of God himself to have been present, and many things to have been attributed to the angels in those histories, which were done by the Son of God, not only working, but present in that place, at that time. So also the Holy Ghost came more presentially than so, more than by an extraordinary extension of his power, when he came presentially and personally in the dove, to seal John's baptism upon Christ. But yet, though those presential1 comings of Christ as an angel in the Old Testament, and this coming of the Holy Ghost in a dove in the New, were more than ordinary comings, and more than extraordinary workings too, yet they were all far short of this coming of the Son of God in this text: for it could never be said properly in any of those cases, that that or that angel, was the Son of God, the second person, or that that dove was the Holy Ghost, or the third person of the Trinity; but in this advent, which we have in hand here, it is truly and properly said, this Man is God, this son of Mary is the Son of God, this carpenter's son, is that very God that made the world. He came so to us, as that he became us, not only by a new and more powerful working in us, but by assuming our nature upon himself.

'Folio edition, "pretential."-ED.

It is a perplexed question in the school, (and truly the balance in those of the middle age, very even) whether if Adam had not sinned, the Son of God had come into the world, and taken our nature and our flesh upon him. Out of the infinite testimonies of the abundant love of God to man many concluded, that howsoever, though Adam had not sinned, God would have dignified the nature of man in the highest degree, that that nature was any ways capable of: and since it appears now, (because that hath been done) that the nature of man was capable of such assuming, by the Son of God, they argue, that God would have done this, though Adam had not sinned. He had not come, say they, ut medicus, if man had not contracted that infectious sickness by Adam's sin; Christ had not come in the nature of a physician, to recover him; Non ut Redemptor say they, if man had not forfeited his interest and state in heaven by Adam's sin; Christ had not come in the nature of a Redeemer, but ut frater, ut Dominus, ad nobilitandum genus humanus, out of a brotherly love, and out of a royal favour, to exalt that nature which he did love, and to impart and convey to us a greater and nobler state, than we had in our creation in such a respect, and to such a purpose, he should have But since they themselves who follow that opinion come to say, that that is the more subtle opinion, and the more agreeable to man's reason, (because man willingly embraces, and pursues anything that conduces to the dignifying of his own nature) but that the other opinion, that Christ had not come, if our sins had not occasioned his coming, is magis conformis Scripturis et magis honorat Deum, is more agreeable to the Scriptures, and derives more honour upon God: we cannot err, if we keep with the Scriptures, and in the way that leads to God's glory, and so say with St. Augustine, Si homo non periisset, Filius hominis non venisset, If man could have been saved otherwise, the Son of God had not come in this manner: or if that may be interpreted of his coming to suffer only, we may enlarge it with Leo, Creatura non fieret qui Creator mundi, He who was Creator of the world, had never become a creature in the world, if our sins had not drawn him to it. It is usefully said by Aquinas, Deus ordinavit futura, ut futura erant: God hath appointed all future things to be, but to be so as they are, that is, necessary

come.

things necessarily, and contingent things contingently; a solute things absolutely, and conditional things conditionally; he hath decreed my salvation, but that salvation in Christ; he had decreed Christ's coming into this world, but a coming to save sinners. And therefore it is a frivolous interrogatory, a lost question, an impertinent article, to inquire what God would have done if Adam had stood. But Adam is fallen, and we in him; and therefore though we may piously wish with St. Augustine, Utinam non fuisset miseria ne ista misericordia esset necessaria, I would man had not been so miserable, as to put God to this way of mercy; yet since our sins had induced this misery upon us, and this necessity (if we may so say) upon God, let us change all our disputation into thanksgiving, and all our utrums, and quares, and quandos of the school, to the Benedictus, and Hallelujahs and Hosannahs of the church; blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath visited and redeemed his people: blessed that he would come at all, which was our first, and blessed that he is come already, which is our second consideration; venit, he came, he is come.

As in the former branch, the Gentiles the heathens are our adversaries, they deny the venit, that a Messiah is to come at all; so in this, the Jews are our enemies, they confess the veniet, a future coming, but they deny the venit that this Messiah is come yet. In that language in which God spoke to man there is such an assurance intimated, that whatsoever God promises shall be performed; that in that language ordinarily in the prophets, the times are confounded, and when God is intended to purpose or to promise anything in the future, it is very often expressed in the time past; that which God means to do, he is said to have done; future, and present, and past is all one with God: but yet to man it is much more, that Christ is come, than that he would come; not but that they who apprehended faithfully his future coming, had the same salvation as we, but they could not so easily apprehend it as we: God did not present so many handles to take hold of him in that promise, that he would come, as in the performance, that he was come. They had most of these handles that lived with him, and saw him, and heard him; but we that come after, have more than they which were before them, we have more in the history than they had in the prophets.