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A02804
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Ten sermons, preached vpon seuerall Sundayes and saints dayes 1 Vpon the Passion of our Blessed Savior. 2 Vpon his resurrection. 3 Vpon S. Peters Day. 4 Vpon S. Iohn the Baptists Day. 5 Vpon the Day of the blessed Innocents. 6 Vpon Palme Sunday. 7 and 8 Vpon the two first Sundays in Advent. 9 and 10 Vpon the parable of the Pharisee and publicane, Luke 18. Together with a sermon preached at the assises at Huntington. By P. Hausted Mr. in Arts, and curate at Vppingham in Rutland.
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Hausted, Peter, d. 1645.
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1636
(1636)
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STC 12937; ESTC S103930
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146,576
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277
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wee will suffer ye to goe to Hell in a Horse litter a fine easie pace without any rubs or molestations in your way we shall be accounted good and worthy men amongst yee but let us come once to shake off that basenesse of spirit and tell yee of the dangerous estate yee are in by reason of your sinnes as it was with Belshazzar in the 5. of Daniel at the sight of the hand-writing on the wall the fashion of your countenance presently is changed and your blood immediatly is up in armes as if yee could finde in your hearts were it in your power to dash that blood in the face of him who reproves yee although afterwards your cold hearts cried out for want of it But thus did not St. Peter we doe not reade that hee was angry because Christ put him in minde of his past sinnes we finde him sorrowfull indeed Peter was sory but the effect of his sorrow was excellent That is a good sorrow which begets a confession of Gods omniscience and such was St. Peters And so we are come to the 3 Third thing I observed in the Text. The effect of Peters sorrow Which is either nearer and is the answer of St. Peter Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee Or else farther off and that is Christs reply Iesus said unto him Feed my sheepe Lord thou knowest all things c. Doe men gather grapes of thornes or figges of thistles who would ever have looked for so faire a fruit from so bitter a tree If this be the fruit of sorrow Lord give us enough of that sorrow that we may confesse thy Wisedome thy Omnipotence But is it not every sorrow that will doe this No there is a sorrow unto vanity and there is a sorrow unto death from which Lord of thy mercy deliver us But it is the sorrow onely for our sinnes which is the tree upon which that goodly fruit doth grow I make hast to the last words which is the thing I chiefly aime at Iesus said unto him Feed my sheepe If thou dost love mee as thou professest thou dost expresse it then in feeding of my sheepe These words are mightily tumbled and tossed up and downe betwixt us and our adversaries the Papists For they of the Church of Rome doe suppose that this Text makes very strongly for the Popes supremacy who is as they boast St. Peters Successor sits in his Chaire retaining still the same authority and jurisdiction which Christ then gave to St. Peter Here be three branches in this Controversie 1 Whether our Saviour by speaking these words to St. Peter Feed my sheepe did conferr upon him any supreame or universall authority over the rest of the Apostles and over the Church militant 2 If so whether this Authority and Supremacie was onely personall limited and confined to the person of St. Peter with whom it died or whether successive to all his Successours 3 Or if both these whether St. Peter was ever at Rome and so the Bishops of Rome were his Successors Or if this be granted whether the Popes as they are now may be called S. Peters successors because although wee grant a personall succession yet wee deny a succession of Doctrine The old Doctrine that St. Peter established at Rome is much impaired and corrupted And to begin with the last That Peter was never at Rome or at least died not in the Bishopricke of Rome which is a thing they contend for strongly for otherwise they of Antioch might also boast themselves to be St. Peters successors for hee was Bishop there seven yeeres is a point mightily controverted and the Arguments which are brought for confirmation of the negative part I doe acknowledge doe make Bellarmine many times as great a Scholler as he was to awaken his best wits to answer them But the narrow limits of a Sermon will not suffer me to name them much lesse to urge them nor will we quarrell much for this For I confesse that I am much lead by the Authority of St. Ierom in his Booke of the famous men notwithstanding all the arguments to the contrary of Velenus Illyricus Calvin and the Centuries of the Magdeburgenses drawen either from Chronology and computation of yeares and raignes of Emperours Peter being as we finde in the fifth of the Acts present at the Councel holden at Ierusalem amongst the Apostles and Elders of the Church concerning the abolishing of Circumcision which Councell was holden upon the eighteenth yeare after Christs resurrection or whether they bee taken from the Scripture which I must needs acknowledge can bee at the best but confecturall and negative which are no good witnesses even in our Common-law against a deposed affirmative either from those Epistles which St. Paul wrote from Rome as to the Galatians the Ephesians the Colossians the Philâ—ppians the Hebrews in none of which doth St. Paul make any mention of St Peter Hee saith indeed in the last to the Colossians which was one of those Epistles he wrote from Rome that Aristarchus his fellow prisoner saluted them and Marcus sisters sonne to Barnabas and Iesus which was called Iustus and Epaphras but not a word of St. Peters saluting them Nor yet in that Epistle of his to the Romans which hee wrote from Corinth doth hee once remember St. Peter or desire at all to bee commended to him as yee may see in the last to the Romans Greet Aquila and Priscilla greet Andronicus greet Vrbanus salute Herodian and Rufus and Patrobas and Philologus and a great number more but not a word of saluting St. Peter Now say they it was not a likely thing that St. Paul should amongst all these friends of his so much neglect and sleight St. Peter as not to remember him at all if he had beene at Rome I doe confesse this reason hath some shew of probability in it but according to my apprehension these things are answered well enough by Bellarmine The words of St. Ierome are Englished these Simon Peter the sonne of Iohn of the Province of Galilee and village of Bethsaida brother to Andrew and chiefe of the Apostles after his being Bishop at Antioch and his preaching to the dispersed Iewes in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bâ—thynia in the second yeare of the Emperour Claudius went to Rome to beate downe the heresie of Simon Magus where hee remained in the Chatre of Priesthood twenty five yeares untill the last yeare of Nero who crucified him with his head downeward toward the earth which was it seemes his owne desire adjudging himselfe unworthy to die after the same manner that his Lord and Master did Thus farre St. Ierome And truely Master Calvin and the Centuries shall pardon me for I have great reason for many respects to beleeve St. Ierome before them Neither have the Papists got much by this grant by yeelding that Peter lived and died at Rome for before they can bring their Argument to any head they have two hard
Provinces to runne through two difficult businesses to prove The first of which is as I told yee when I branched the queâ—stion that the authority of St. Peter above the other Apostles is hereditary and derived to his Successors and next which will bee the hardest of all to prove that St. Peter had any such Supremacy given him So that although wee yeeld that St. Peter was Bishop of Rome and that all the Popes have beene and are his lawfull Successours and grant farther that these lawfull successours of St. Peter have the very same authority and supremacy derived upon them which their Predecessour had before given him by Christ Yet for all this they have done nothing for hee who is heire ex toto asse of the whole inheritance of his father can be but heire of his whole inheritance hee can possesse no more then his father left him Now we denie that St. Peter had any such Supremacy given him and they can inherit no more Supremacy then hee had to bestow upon them But they will prove it they say out of this Text. Our Saviour saith here to Saint Peter alone and that in the presence of other of the Apostles Feede my Sheepe He doth not say to Iohn Feede my Sheepe nor to Andrew nor to Thomas Feede my Sheepe but onely to Peter The whole charge is laid upon him But did I call it a charge or burthen O no say they this word Feede doth not onely signifie a charge or burthen but it also implies a dominion and soveraignty and for this they runne to Homer who calls King Agameâ—non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sheepheard or the Ruler of the people But it seemes they are hardly put to it that they are forced to runne to a blinde Heathen Poet for an interpretation of Christs meaning A man might suppose that Saint Augustine should tell them a great deale better what kinde of feeding is here understood who upon this very Text hath these words What else is meant by this Lovest thou mee Feede my Sheepe then if Christ had said If thou lovest mee thinke not of feeding thy selfe but of feeding my Sheepe and feede them as my Sheepe not as thine owne so feede them that thou mayest seeke my honour and profit in feeding them and not thine owne But let us say as we cannot deny that this word feede doth also expresse a kinde of rule and government over the Sheepe yet this makes no more for Saint Peter then for the rest of the Apostles to whom our Saviour gives the same charge and office though in other words in the 16. of St. Marke Goe into all the world and Preach the Gospell to every creature And this to whom Not to Peter onely but to the eleven He appeared to the eleven as they sate together saith the Text and said unto them Goe into all the world c. And doe but observe what Saint Augustine saith not onely concerning this but also of that other place in which they have a greater confidence then in this in the 16. of Saint Mathew Wherein our Saviour upon that confession of Saint Peter Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God tells him that he will give to him the keyes of the Kingdome of heaven so that whatsoever he looses on earth shall be loosed in heaven and whatsoever he bindes on earth shall be bound in heaven O the Popes have a great minde to be the onely heires to Saint Peter of these words but they are not so hasty to lay any claime to that other speech of our Saviours to Peter following in the same Chapter Get thee behinde mee Satan because thou understandest not the things that be of God but the things that be of men St. Augustines words are these in his 118. Tractate upon Saint Iohns Gospell writing upon the seamelesse coate of Christ which the Souldiers cast lots for and did not divide Omnes interrogati solus Petrus respondet c. That question Whom say yee that I am was saith the Father propounded to them all but onely Peter answered for them Hee was the mouth of the rest of the Apostles and therefore Christ saith to Peter in the name of them all To thee will I give the keyes of the Kingdom of heaven And marke the words well Tibi dabo claves regni coelorum tanquam ligandi solvendi solus acceperit potestatem cuÌ„ illud unios pro omnibus dixerit hoc cum omnibus tanquam personam gerens ipsius unitatis acceperit As if saith S. Aug. Peter had received the power of binding and loosing alone when as hee both answered for them all and received the power for them all The words are as cleare as the Sunne God forbid that I should goe about any way to disparage or under value this holy Apostle No wee will willingly give him the honour that is due to him And indeed hee had a kinde of personall preheminence above the rest of his fellowes and that by reason of his age his faith his valour his love towards his Master Concerning his faith wee finde that so great that he adventured himselfe to walke upon the face of the Sea to meete his Lord when all his fellowes stood trembling in the Ship and thought themselves scarcely secure there And although hee had almost sunke in the action yet this makes nothing against him for it argued a great Faith in that hee durst put himselfe within the danger of sinking And to give yee an answer to our Saviours words in the 14. of Saint Mathew when taking Peter by the hand he saith unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O thou of little saith wherefore doest thou feare Our Saviour doth not call him here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O thou of no faith But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O thou of little faith And it is true his faith was but litle if we make it looke towards the love power of Christ who had the windâ— and the Sea and all creatures at his command and whose love was as great as his power Peters faith indeed if it regards this was but a little faith But if wee make it respect the no faith of his fellowes in this businesse in comparison to them it may be called a great saith Then for his love and valour we see that it was only he amongst them who durst draw his sword in his Masters quarrell If yee object his deniall to mee I answer that that makes for the courage of St. Peter For in that he denied his Lord he was more valiant then all his fellowes nor is this my conceit alone but St. Augustines in one of his Sermons de tempore hee was not affraid to come so neere even to denie him The Shepheard was smitten and all the Sheepe were scattered all the rest of the Disciples as soone as Christ was apprehended forsooke him presently as if they had never knowne any such man but Peter although it was afarre off yet