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the beginning, this word casaph includes all that the heart can wish, or desire for though the application of the blood of Christ, now that is shed is to be wished by every sinner to his own soul, though the shedding of that blood might have been wished by the patriarchs, to whom God had revealed, that in the fulness of time it should be shed, at the second coming of Christ, and the Resurrection may be wished for, by us now, yet, if we take rem integram, if we take the matter at first, without any such revealing of God's purpose as he in his Scripture hath afforded us; so no man might have wished, or prayed, without a greater sin in that wish and in that prayer than all his former sins, that the Son of God might come down and die for his sins: if it could possibly have fallen into his imagination, that this might have been a way for his redemption; yet he ought not to have wished that way: neither might it, neither certainly did it ever fall within the desire of any despairing sinner, that thought, that the death of Christ appertained not to him, to wish that, God the Father, or God the Holy Ghost, would come down, and become man and shed his blood for him. The blood of Christ by which we are redeemed was not this casaph it was not res appetibilis, a thing that a sinner might, or could desire to be shed for him, though being shed, he must desire, that it may be applied to him. And hence it is that some of the fathers argue, that when the devil began to tempt Christ, he knew him not to be the Son of God for even to the devil himself, the blood of Christ could not be res appetibilis, a thing that deliberately he could have desired should have been shed. If the devil had considered, that the shedding of that blood, would have redeemed us, would he have hastened the shedding of that blood?

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He redeemed us then without money; and as he bought so he sells he paid no money, he asks no money: but he proclaims freely to all, Ho every one that thirsteth come to the waters, and ye that have no silver, come, buy, and eat; come, I say, buy wine, and milk, without silver, and without money". But you must come; and you must come to the market; to the magazine of his graces, his church; and you must buy, though you have no money: he paid obedience, and he asks obedience to himself, and his church,

19 Isaiah LV. 1.

at your hands. And then, as Joseph did to his brethren, he will give you your corn, and your money again; he will give you grace, and temporal blessings too: he will refresh and re-establish your natural faculties, and give you supernatural. He hath already done enough for all, even in his mercy, he was just; just to the devil himself: for as we had done, so he did; he gave himself; both to the first death, as long as it could hold him, and to the second death, as far as it could reach him. But though all this be already done, yet, to conclude, there is a particular circumstance of comfort, in this word, you shall be: that though the act of our redemption be past, the application is future: and in the elect and regenerate child of God, though his conscience tells him every day, that he sells away himself, yet his conscience shall tell him too, he shall be redeemed without money, he shall not perish finally: as we cannot carry our thoughts to so high a time, but that God elected us, before that, so we cannot continue our sins of infirmity so long, but that God will have mercy upon us after that I cannot name a time, when God's love began; it is eternal: I cannot imagine a time, when his mercy will end: it is perpetual.

SERMON CXLIII.

PREACHED at whiteHALL, APRIL 12, 1618,

GENESIS XXxii. 10.

I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.

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THIS text is in the midst of Jacob's prayer; and this prayer is in the midst of Jacob's preparation in the time of danger. His dangers were from persons near him, from his alliance, by marriage, and from his nearest kindred by blood. Laban, into whose house he had married, made advantages upon him, deluded him,

oppressed him, pursued him. And Esau his own brother lay now in his way, when he was returning from Mesopotamia to Canaan, from his father-in-law, to his natural father, from Laban, to Isaac. He had sent messengers to try his brother's disposition towards him; they returned with relation of great preparation that Esau made to come forth towards him, but whether in hostile or friendly manner, they could inform nothing. Then was Jacob greatly afraid, and sore troubled, but not so afraid, nor so troubled, as that he was stupefied, or negligent in providing against the imminent dangers. First then he makes as sure as he can at home; he disposes his troops, and his cattle so, as that, if his brother should come hostilely, he might do least harm. And he provides as well as he could that he should not come hostilely, he sends him presents, and he sends him respective and ceremonious messages. He neglects not the strengthening of himself, that so he might make his peace when he were able to sustain a war; he neglects not the removing of all occasions, that might submit him to a war: and in the midst of these two important and necessary cares, love of peace, and provision for war, his chief recourse is to God; to him he prays; and he prays to him first, as he was (as we may say) Deus familiaris, A God to his family, and race, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac; and as a God, from whom this familiarity did not take away the reverence; for he adds there presently the great name of Jehovah, the Lord he presents to him his obedience to his commandment, thou saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, he presents to him his confidence in his promises, Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed, as the sand of the sea; and upon these grounds and inducements, he comes to the formal prayer, Erue me, I pray thee deliver me from the hand of my brother; and he prays for others as well as himself; for I fear he will smite me, and the mothers upon the children: he solicits God for all that are committed to him. And as in the midst of danger, he came to preparation, and in the midst of his preparations, he came to this prayer, so in the midst of this prayer, he comes to this humble and grateful consideration, that God had been already more bountiful unto him than he could have proposed to his

hopes or to his wishes, I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.

First then this part of the prayer, hath in it, that which is the centre and basis, and establishment of all true prayers, a disclaiming of merit; for when a man pretends merit, it is so far from a prayer, as that it is rather a challenge, an increpation, an exprobration of his slackness, to whom we speak that he gives us not without asking: I am not worthy, says Jacob. But yet though Jacob confess humbly this unworthiness in himself, yet he does not say that he is, or was nothing at all, in respect of these benefits, it is not Nihil sum, but, katon, parvus sum, impar sum; Man is no such thing as can invite God to work upon him, but he is such a thing, as nothing else is capable of his working but man. It is not much that he is; but something he is: but parvus sum, præ omnibus, præ singulis; whether I take myself altogether, thus grown up in honour, in office, in estate, or whether I take myself in pieces, and consider every step, that thy mighty hand hath led me; I am not worthy of all these, nor of any of these degrees; not of the least of these. Not whether I consider thy mercies, which are the promises that God makes to us at first, out of his mere gracious goodness, or whether I consider thy truth, the assuredness of those promises, to which he hath been pleased to bind himself; non sum dignus, not whether we consider this truth, and fidelity of God in spe, in our own hope, and confident, and patient expectation, that they shall be performed unto us, or whether we consider them in re, in our thankfulness, and experience, as truths already performed unto us; the truth which thou hast showed, for all these mercies, and all these truths, all these promises, and all these performances, as they found no title at all in me to them at first, so they imprint no other title in me by being come, but to make me his servant, to use them to his glory. I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. And then for a second part, all this consideration Jacob seals with a reason, for; it is not a fashional compli

ment with God, it is not a sad and melancholic dejection, and undervaluing of himself; but he assigns his particular reason, and that is, what his former state was, what his present state is. I came over Jordan, he was forced to leave his country; and he came over it but with a staff, in a poor and ill-provided manner; and with his staff, no assistance but his own. And he returns again, there is his first comfort; and he returns now; now that God had spoken to him before he set out, and now that God had revealed to him an army of angels in his assistance, and now that God had increased his temporal state so far, as that he was become two bands, so that though he should lose much, yet he had much left.

In benefits that pass from men of higher rank, to persons of lower condition, it is not the way to get them, to ground the request upon our own merit; merit implies an obligation, that we have laid upon them; and that implies a debt. And a petition for a due debt is an affront; it is not so much a petition delivered as a writ served upon him, to call him to answer his unjust detaining of a just debt. Thus it is amongst men between whom there may be true merit; but toward God there can be none; and therefore much more their boldness to proceed with him upon pretence of merit. Et de Deo, non tanquam ac benefico largitore, sed tanquam de tardo debitore cogitare; That if we come not to our ends, and preferment quickly, we should give over considering God as a gracious, and free giver in his time, and begin to consider him as a slack paymaster, and ill debtor, because he pays not at our time. No man was worthy to be bidden to the supper; but those that were bidden, were not worthy'; that invitation made them not worthy. No spark of worth in us, before God call us; but that first grace of his, doth not presently make us worthy. If we love Christ a little and allow him his share, but love father and mother more, if we renounce all other love, we are not ambitious, but yet would live quiet, without troubles, without crosses, if we take not up our cross, or if we take it, and sink under it, if we do not follow, or if we follow a wrong guide, bear our afflictions with the stupidity of a stoic, or with

Matt. xxii. 8.

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* Matt. xiii. 37.

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