Church 3. That such as were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus should be called Christians I could acquiesce in this conjecture if it ascended higher that the Synod Apostolical confirmed it because it came from God I confess I have neither read nor heard that either Christ did leave the Tradition that it should be so with some of his Disciples or that an Angel proclaimed out of the clouds from Heaven or that it was imparted either by dream or revelation sent to any of the Prophets but since no man can challenge that he was the Founder of it I think it surpâ—sseth mortal Authority and therefore I leave the original of it to God It was only in the right of the Father in those times to give a name to his Child Zachary the Priest when he could not speak called for Writing-tables to give the name to John the Baptist and Christ himself having no Father on earth his Father gave him a name from Heaven Then why should not the Father of all that is called Father give that universal Name which belongs to his Children whom he hath regenerated by the Holy Ghost Put the Prophet Isaiah's authority to this reason and who can gainsay it Isa lxii 2. his scope is to extol Sion or the Church Evangelical says he The Gentiles shall see thy righteousness and all Kings thy glory and thou shalt be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name It were endless to rehearse how many Authors apply this to the Nomenclature of Christian And again Isa xliii 1. I have redeemed thee certainly that 's the voice of Christ I have called thee by my name thou art mine Who will doubt now but that I have reduced our Title to the true original Our Godfather is the Lord above Let me reduce it likewise to the exact time when it began it will be no lost labour This is granted at all hands it did not happen so soon as ever Christ ascended up we were not crowned in our Cradle Pamelius takes advantage at a place in Tertullian to hold that the word Christian began to spread abroad in the fifth year after our Saviours Ascension that is in the very latter end of the Reign of Tiberius but I had rather say that his Author Tertullian mentions it too early for this will quite confound the History of the Scripture The Centurion Cornelius was not converted till two years of that there must be a competent space of time for those tidings to come to Antioch and for the work of the Ministry after that to gain a great number of the Gentiles for Barnabas to be sent for to undertake for a better increase it follows after all this the most successful St. Paul was brought thither and he and Barnabas assembled themselves a whole year with the Church this is plain in the Context before and then the Disciples were first called Christians in Antioch I like not Pamelius his supputation then he is too forward Genebrard in his Chronology runs as much backward and allows sixteen years to be run out since the death of our Lord before the faithful had the honor to get this memorable Title he takes his aim at the Synod which Turrian speaks of that the Apostles could be assembled no sooner in a sacred Council at Antioch whereas Turrian claims no more for his Synod but that the Apostles established that which was illustrious long before during the pains that Paul and Barnabas did spend at Antioch Therefore I suppose that the most judicious Baronius is but a little under or over that it fell out in the tenth year after the Ascension the Believers at Antioch being Decimae Domini the Tyth of the Lord those that were gained to the Faith in the tenth year being a selected Portion and a peculiar Benediction fell upon them Yet I am content to let that pass rather than you should think that there is some necessary efficacy in the number I look more sted fastly upon another great occurrency in those days which made this tenth year the fulness of time and the Disciples so ripe to receive this name that it could not well be deferred any longer For when the Gentiles were made partakers of the common salvation as well as the Jews who had been strangers together so many Ages before there was still a distance between them or at least no perfect conjunction and it grew an hard Task to piece them because the Jews either out of weakness did still affect the Ceremonies of Moses or having been so long familiar with them did desire to dismiss them reverently at their parting but the Gentiles loved all inoffensive liberty which was not contrary to nature and chiefly could not endure to refrain from meats which in themselves were lawful This quarrel was not decided till the Apostles at a full Council took a course with it in the fifteenth chapter of this Book Nay Clemens in the 7. lib. Const c. 48. says That they of the Circumcision had one Bishop over them to wit Evodius in this very City of Antioch they of the Uncircumcision in the same place at the same time another Bishop over them Ignatius this is his report though Ignatius himself say no such matter but gives the preeminence to Evodius alone next after the Apostles some variance and unkindness there was that 's certain and the first means to unite both sides in a perfect peace was that the one should not have this name and the other that name but to denominate them all from our Saviour and to call them Christians Quis nominum reatus quae accusatio vocabulorum says Tertullian names are guilty of no crime you cannot accuse them of any harm With the pardon of that Holy Father it is far otherwise for it is never seen but that men are stiff in opposition and almost irreconcilable when they please themselves to be distinguished from others by the names of those Doctors whose opinions they cleave unto If it once grow to a difference of Titles that which was but friendly disquisition of argument at first it turns to Emulation Emulations improve to be Factions and Factions that would soon have broke up like a mist many Ages cannot dissolve them If you know any that have mens persons in admiration and love to be denominated from them as the Captains of the Lords Host they are no better than Felons in Divinity that have set fire on the Becons to put all in tumult and combustion whereas except themselves there are no Enemies in arms within the Church of God That impartiality and indifferency to truth which this happy Church of England hath maintained not turning the Scale either this way or that way for Luther or Calvin's sake or whomsoever else it hath given us the advantage to be most comely in Discipline most retentive of good antiquity most certain of fundamental truth and of all Churches in the World to have least disagreement
commanded to be made unless he had dominion over them that is unless he were Lord over them before they were made Rom. iv he calleth things that are not as things that are therefore he hath authority as a Lord over things that are not as much as over things that are The fair conclusion of it is the actual relation of the Creatures to his dominion began in time but their subjection to his will and power is for ever therefore God is the Lord from all eternity Whatsoever distinction may be put between these names yet when we praise God let us do as Zachary doth joyn them both together when we confess him let us do so likewise as Jonas did I am an Hebrew who worship the Lord God that made heaven and earth When we say our Belief let us do the same even as the Nicene Fathers did before us I believe in one God and in one Lord Jesus Christ And if you please your selves to distinguish accurately upon such Titles because St. Paul hath said that there be Gods many and Lords many let us distinguish between them and this supreme one the Lord God of Israel who is blessed for ever more Christ says the Scripture calleth them Gods to whom the word of God came Joh. x. 34. That Scripture is Psal lxxxii 6. I have said ye are Gods and ye are all the children of the most high From thence and from my Text you may state a profitable difference 1. Dixi I have said ye are Gods he hath said it and that made them so unless he had Godded them they had had no such pre-eminence What they have it is by entitling and nuncupation 2. Dixi Dii estis there are many of those Gods not only every Prince and Ruler chalengeth it by his Crown but every Christian hath his interest in it by adoption of filiation So I cited it from the mouth of our Saviour before the Scripture hath said they are Gods to whom the Word of God came 3. Estis ye are for a while ye are and after a while ye shall go from hence and be no more seen ye shall die like men but the true God abideth for ever 4. These heathen Semi-gods these that carry that badge upon earth shall not only die like men but like sinful men for it follows in the Psalm that when they fall God shall arise to judge the earth after they have judged they shall be judged upon it hereafter how they have judged But O man thou must not reply against the God of heaven his judgments are indisputable 5. The ever blessed God is praised in every thing that pertains unto him he is praised in all places of his dominion he is praised in all his works He hath done all things well say the people of Christ but among the actions of the best men Sunt bona sunt quaedam mediocria sunt mala plura Among some good there is much evil among some flourishing sprigs of praise there are divers dead boughs of frailty 6. These Nuncupative Gods preside over Civil Governments each of them is a golden head over his own Political body but Christ only is head of the whole Church from whence the whole body increaseth with the increase of God he alone is the Lord. And it is likewise upon some remarkable appropriation that the Psalmist says the Lord is his name he bears it certainly with many notorious marks of difference from all the Lordlings in the world First The dominion of man is joyned with some servitude in the Master for he that stands in need is a servant to his own necessities and the Master stands in need of the drudgery of the labouring man as much or more perhaps than that drudge stands in need of the wages of the Master But all our service is of no use or benefit to the King of heaven I said unto the Lord thou art my God my goods are nothing unto thee Psal xvi and therefore says St. Austin God did not make the world from all eternity to shew that he did not want the help of his Creature Secondly All things serve the Lord above nothing is hidden from the Scepter of his dominion but man in the highest Office upon earth is confined to a small scantling of authority he can command the body of his Vassal but not his soul He cannot command his Grass to grow or his Trees to bear or his Cattel to encrease or the weather to be seasonable But as the people said in admiration of the Miracles of the Son of God Who is this that commandeth the Winds and Seas and they obey him Thirdly All the Lordship upon earth is subalternate and dependant from a greater command Masters do that which is just unto your Servants knowing that you also have a Master in heaven Col. iv There is but one Lord and none but he that is responsive to no other the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Our Saviour though an unscrutable Abyssus of humility assumed that unto himself Ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for so I am Joh. xiii 13. Such a Lord to whom all the Sons of men do bow and obey Such a Lord that though he were Davids Son yet David in spirit calleth him Lord The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstoole Lord of all things by the Essence of his Godhead Lord of all things in his Manhood by the Hypostatical Union but by special interest Lord of all those whom he redeemed with his most precious bloud Lord God of Israel in which numbers as soon as ever he believed Thomas concluded himself saying My Lord and my God As we have the Humanity of Christ expressed in the two subsequent actions so we have as surely his Divinity set forth in these Titles the Lord God of Israel But that God that filleth the heaven of heavens and that Lord who hath stretcht out the line of his power over the whole earth he is Canton'd in this Text to a little Region of the earth but a Molehill in respect of the extent of his Majestie the Lord God of Israel It was not with Zachary the Priest in this elegant Canto as it useth to be with other Poets who out of affectation do strain their Poetry to make honourable mention of their own Country where there was neither cause nor merit But this holy Prophet had sufficient warrant from the Spirit which cannot err to nominate him the Patron of this people rather than of any other the God of Israel and that for two reasons Propter notitiam verbi propter promissiones seminis benedicti First The Oracles of the Scriptures were committed to them and God was not truly worshipped any where but in the Synagogues of the Hebrews and therefore says the Psalmist Notus Deus in Israele God is well known in Israel there they knew him that he was to be adored that he
be to God on high because he hath made peace on earth Lord let me not be at war with my own heart though all the world should defie me and set themselves against me As a continual dripping of humors upon the lungs consumes the body so a continual disquieting of mind as if viols of anger from heaven were ready to be poured upon it breeds such an anxiety in the whole man that he will wish his whole substance were dissolved into nothing O thrice happy when God sends that serenity of favour into our thoughts and cogitations to make us truly say with David Turn again unto thy rest O my soul Psal cxvi 7. This is that peace which the world cannot give This is St. Paul's confidence against all opposers Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that justifieth When the Wise men askt Where is he that is born King of the Jews Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him So sore troubled that he would not spare poor inoffensive babes who could not offend him no not his own babes as some say who were the pillars of his family when he thrust his sword into them he digged into his own bowels No man is able to express what a discomfortable mutiny this wretch had within himself No plague like a wounded disturbed spirit whereas old Simeon that saw death at the door that felt one foot in the Grave was exhilerated for all that through the joy which he had in Christ and warbled that Swan-like Dirge over his own Grave Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Wherefore if there be any of you which have a conscience sorely wounded with horror and even tempted to despair which God forbid chide it with David out of that dreadful moode Why art thou so sad O my soul and why art thou so disquieted within me Hath not Christ said there is peace between God and thee and dost thou say there is enmity foolish heart shall I not rather believe the tidings which an Angel brings than that which thou dost suggest and doth not he say Peace on earth Whosoever will not be cheared up will not be comforted will not be established with hope from this sweet proclamation which the Ministers of Heaven sang unto the Shepherds it had been better for him that he had never been born nay I speak it with reverence to God and condemnation to such a one it had been better for him that Christ had never been born because he receives not the Son of God into his heart neither believes in his Redemption Many flagitious sins do make men as execrable before God as the devil himself but he that despairs of Gods mercies as if Christ would not keep his Covenant of peace with him I may truly pronounce it against him that he is even possessed with a devil O cast forth that evil Spirit and be resolved the Lord would never have sent his Angel to sing the Hymn of peace unto men but to revive our souls and to raise them up from dust and despair because he is gracious and favourable to all penitent sinners And thus you have heard that upon the occasion of this blessed Nativity of Christs the Angels have congratulated both heaven and earth as David foretold it Psal xcvi 11. Let the heavens rejoyce and let the earth be glad The congratulation to men on earth hath been unfolded in two members that there is peace above us which passeth all understanding and peace within us such as the world cannot give Thirdly It follows they sing and rejoyce for our sakes that there is peace without us and on every side a good way laid open to take away all Schisms strifes divisions debates and as Solomon says in his mystical Song the voice of the Turtle is heard in our land What a hurly burly was in the world before Christ made his Church one body out of all Languages and Nations They that professed the Law of Moses you know had no communication with those millions of millions that knew no Schoolmaster to teach them but the law of nature Among those few that were zealous of the Law the Jew forsook them of Israel of the ten Tribes for Rebels and Idolaters Among the Jews the Pharisee condemned the Sadducce for an Heretick Then the Samaritan had an antipathy both against Jew and Israelite and all these accounted of the Gentiles no other ways than as bond-slaves of the Devil Here was nothing but hate and defiance between one Sect and another over all the world until Christ broke down the wall of separation made of two one invited them all to embrace and to greet one another with an holy kiss Thus the Prophet Isaiah upon it Chap. xix 23. in his stately but dark eloquence In that day shall there be a high-way out of Egypt to Assyria and the Assyrians shall come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria and in that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria that is there shall be traffique and friendship and conversation together from one Nation to another over all the earth And indeed National feuds are the more odious and unchristian by how much Christ hath called all people to the sprinkling of the same water and to alike participation of his Body and Blood at the same table And it was well apprehended of one that God hath given unto men more excellent gifts in the skill of Navigation since his Son is born than ever they had before that he might shew the way how all the Kingdoms of the earth should be sociable together for Christ hath breathed his peace upon all the Kingdoms of the world Then I descend from generals to specials The Angels did not only see that our Saviour had built a wall of Charity as it were about the whole earth and made it one but that his Gospel is the love knot and band of agreement between one member and another in all particular persons It turns the hearts of the Fathers unto the Children and of the Children unto the Fathers it makes peace conjugal between man and wife for Marriage is a Mystery of Christ and his Church and the instance which the Apostle lays before us is how Christ loved his Church and laid down his life for it It attones variances between Neighbour and Neighbour for it calls upon us to forgive and put up injuries it non-suits many actions of trespass between man and man with St. Pauls sweet proposition to the Corinthians Why do ye not rather suffer wrong That jangling fellow in the Gospel that came to Jesus to give him authority for his contention Dic fratri ut mecum dividat Master bid my brother that he divide the inheritance with me our Lord put him off and would hear of no division Such motions did jar in the ear of him that was the God of reconciliation The Law of Moses either was or did seem to be vindicative an eye for an eye
Master of his honour but that the truth might be revealed if they would embrace it then he came most opportunely from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized of John St. Cyril gives this delightful similitude upon it John Baptist was the Lucifer or morning Star that ran his course before our Saviour Now as the Sun makes his approach in our Hemisphere before this Star is set in the West and obscures that lesser light with his own glory So Christ did not lie hid untill his fore-runner had done baptizing and were gone out of the world but when he shined most in the great opinion of all men then a greater than John advanceth himself and obscures him for ever How willingly how chearfully was the Baptist contented My joy says he is fulfilled that he must increase and I must decrease The word bodes no such thing as if he should decrease in sanctity or in the favour of God but it was his joy that he should grow less in the opinion of the world that the Church would begin to know the true Messias to be the Bridegroom and that he was no more than the Friend of the Bridegroom It is pretty which some observe how the birth of John fell out at Mid-summer when the days grow shorter and shorter Contrariwise the Nativity of Christ happens in that month when the Sun approacheth and the days grow longer and longer So the glory of John was in the waine and declined to less and less estimation in respect of Christ but he that is the brightness of the Fathers glory ascends higher and higher the earth shall know him more and more while the Sun and Moon endure Collect this observation to the use of your own life my beloved Decrescâ—t homo â—rescat Deus Let man be diminished and brought low let God arise and be exalted It was not a little decreasing that Paul stood upon but wisht himself Anathema for his brethren so God might be glorified And surely if the blessed Virgin and the Saints departed have any perceiving what religious honour is done unto them by some superstitious devotaries which belongs to none but to the Eternal Majesty on high I doubt not but it is their usual supplication O Lord take this honour from us and lay it upon thy self God raiseth up Prophets in his Church not to make them eminent but that himself may be magnified This no doubt was a rule well grounded in John Baptist whose heart was as humble as his Rayment and when it was bruted abroad that he was the Messias it vext his righteous soul and desired nothing more than that the true Lamb of God would appear that taketh away the sins of the world He had his wish when the Son of glory disclosed himself at Jordan Yet it was not an errour but rather a praise in John that he was taken for the best that ever lived because of his conspicuous Piety for Christ himself It was not a crime in Peter that such Saint-like reverence appear'd in him that Cornelius being astonisht fell down to worship him It was not to be blamed in Paul and Barnabas that they carried themselves among the Lycaonians above the ordinary condition of men insomuch that they called Paul Mercurius and Barnabas Iupiter St. Chrysostom extols them for it says he Let every Apostolical man imitate their sanctity that they may appear to be better than corruptible flesh and to live like Angels in this wicked world So Paul behaved himself among the Galathians that they received him as an Angel yea even as Christ Jesus But when it came to a foul mistake that the men of Lycaonia would have done sacrifice to them the Apostles were grievously offended they rent their cloaths and ran among the people declaring themselves to be men who came to teach the world that they must not rob God of his honour I am ashamed to read such bald excuses made for Francis the first Friâ—r of his order that he permitted some to fall down and do him divine adoration for they did not worship him but God that was in him Is that sufficient Then it had not been intollerable in Alexander to require divine honours to his person as he was Gods Vice-gerent in his Monarchy Yet one Hermolaus an heathen in the story of Curtius exprobrates him that he was violently made away because he would be worshipt as a God Some would defend the Frier forenamed by the example of Daniel Dan. ii 46. when he had expounded Nebuchadnezzars dream the King fell on his face and worshipt Daniel and commanded that they should offer an Oblation and sweet Odours unto him But doth Daniel any more than recite what was bidden to be done Do you find the Kings command was obeyed in this Certainly Daniel did never consent but forbad it and had other honours done unto him to sit in the Kings Gate and to be ruler of his Provinces Believe it therefore that man must not defile himself by touching Gods glory too much of that weigt lay upon Johns shoulders when he was taken to be the Christ and to take that opinion from the Creature to the Creator Then came our blessed Lord from Galilee to Jordan Thirdly This Adverb of time Then it points to the Age of Christ he began to be about thirty years of age Luk. iii. 23. Then and not before did this Star of brightness make his appearance Then came Jesus c. He was made like unto us in all things sin only excepted for else we can give no reason why he would stay to fulfil the perfect age of man before he would take in hand the work of his Mediatorship A decorum is usually kept among us that a man is not called to the administration of great business before his person carries some authority in it by the gravity of his years And therefore our blessed Saviour that his enemies might not calumniate or despise him for a novice put forth himself at that maturity of age which is commonly well allowed for manliness and wisdom Not that there wanted perfection and ability in him even in his swadling clouts and Cradle to do more than any mortal man could bring to pass far be it from us to conceit him otherwise The Union of the Godhead as soon as he was conceived in the womb gave him more power and understanding than ever inhabited in any other flesh And therefore the Prophet Jeremy speaking how he should be inclosed in a Virgins womb hath dropt out such a word that many of the Fathers catch hold of it for an Emphasis Jer. xxxi 22. A woman shall compass a man Circumdabit virâ—m non infantem though she bore an Infant yet in his Infant-age nothing was defective in him but did exceedingly super-abound all which could be required in man Therefore at twelve years of age he made all the Doctors of the Temple astonisht at the questions he propounded but from that time to the age of
Marium says the Consul Marius and so daunted his Executioner Thus then our Saviour had escaped their hands divinitatem publicando 2. Where were the Legions of Angels that did attend him That Host of Princes who solemnized his Nativity with peace on earth and good will towards men would have recanted and sung a song quite of another nature to guard him from his passion And thus our Saviour had escaped exercitum producendo Durandus tries his skill for a third reason thus corpus in se mortale ad immortalitatem perducendo If you ask what he means by it I will enlarge his mind Our bodies do decay and decline every day more and more unto corruption necessarily because it is past the cunning of any mortal man to know precisely to a crum of bread what nourishment is best to fulfil the place of that which decays daily in our body but as for Christ scivit in alimento quantum necesse fuit sumere ad restaurationem deperditi He having the treasures of all wisdom hidden in him needed not the advise of any man to instruct him how the decays of nature being justly repaired could preserve his mortal body in a sound constitution for everlasting Scotus thinks this reason too weak and so do I also For although Christ had this inspection to discern wholsom from unwholsom in all the works of nature yet consumption and dissolution would happen to his body from two things The first prejudice to his health would be impuritas alimenti the earth and all the fruits thereof yield not such strength and vertue as they did before the Floud of Noah Si Adam habuisset alimentum nostrum mortuus fuisset senio says the same Schoolman very boldly if Adam in his best estate had been fed with such meats as we are and none besides age had brought him to his Grave Again there is potentiae nutritivae debilitatio that gentle heat which gives warmth to the faculty of concoction would have gone out like a candle in the socket and therefore it stands for a conclusion in his Divinity that a medicinal intelligence of herbs and fruits and other viands had not drawn out our Saviours life unto immortality There is a fourth reason how Christ could have restrained all agony and passion from his body for ever and it is without exception Death in a reasonable creature is the wages of sin they are relatives secundum esse so that a man may say here is a sinner and therefore a dead man here is the Tomb of a dead man and therefore the Grave of a sinner The next conclusion cannot be parted from the former for if Sin and Death be acus filum if one do draw the other after it then there must be some miraculous disposition in that mans body who is no sinner but innocent as an Angel of light and yet obnoxious to death as a vile transgressor Where then lies the miracle in the substance of our Saviour why thus the whole Manhood was united to the whole Godhead in the Union hypostatical but the influence the grace and priviledg of the Divine nature was not diffused over the flesh nay it cast not the celestial beams upon all the parts of his Soul till after the resurrection but it shined only upon the superior faculties of the will and understanding The strength then of our Samson did lye in capite in the Divine nature which he would not use to immortalize his Body before the Resurrection Potuit relaxare influentiam divinae naturae ut in inferiorem portionem redundarâ—t sayes Biel. It was a miracle then that He could confine the influence of his Godhead for a time to the superior faculties of the Soul and I think you will confess that there was no miracle done by necessity or compulsion but upon this presumption that the flesh was left unassisted of the Divinity there follows a threefold necessity of his death and dissolution The first is called necessitas naturae nature would have dropt away when it grew mellow ripe according to the course of humane constitution The second is called necessitas coactionis supposing the malice of the Jews and his obedience to unjust Authority he must have suffered by necessity of compulsion The third is called necessitas finis a necessity of death lay upon him from Gods eternal Decree to accompass the happy end preordeined which is mans Redemption But what is the fruit of this Doctrine now where are the sheaves to fill our bosom you will say now I doubt it not that Christ had power to lay down his life and to take it up Then enlarge your hearts to receive St. Austins Meditation Amplius tenemur Christo quod liberè voluit pati quà m quòd necessario Our engagement had been less if Christ had suffered by absolute and imperious necessity but we praise our God the more we bless him we magnifie him we give thanks unto him with the greater affection because our Sacrifice is of choice and liberty But I pass from the consideration of the mighty power which was in our Saviour Had he rejoyced like a Giant to run his course what death could have seized upon him had our Samson awoke out of sleep and shook himself no fetters could have held him But if you will lay your ear to the sweetest harmony that ever was tuned ad aquae lene caput sacrae if you will give attention to the soft and still bubling from whence sprung all our salvation voluit in a word he would not plead his innocency before Pilat he would be offer'd up he would be crucified It is a memorable accident which Plutarch doth report of a Sacrifice in Lacedaemon The Priests were in great distress for an unspotted Beast to be slain Satan no doubt desiring to supply them with fuel to kindle their Idolatry an unspotted Heifer swam over the River and laid it self down before the Altar I know not the truth of this Story but sure I am that I know a Sacrifice which will fit the Parable For when wrath had faln upon Mankind throughout all Generations and a burnt-Offering was wanting to appease the Lord to the end that Isaac and the Sons of Promise and Election might escape the blow of death the chief Ram of the Flock vir gregis even Jesus Christ thrust his horns into the Thicket and entangled his strength in the guilt of our sins so Isaac was saved and the Ram was sacrificed Voluit would he suffer was there no remedy but to cut off the Head to save the Body had not Christ humbled himself so far as to the death of the Cross yet had not our Redemption been finished by the ignominy of his poor Nativity the lowliness of submission to his Parents the pang of his Fastings the horror of his Agony in the Garden might not all other reproaches have ransomed his life This curious Question the Schoolmen ask therefore let them resolve it First says Biel
word of the power of Christ which coupled again those parts divorced the soul and body not by breathing a new life into the body but by breathing out a loud voice Lazarus come forth Such as had been but banished their Country in the days of Caesar the Dictator and were restored again by the grace of Augustus and Antony were called Charonitae as if they had been wasted back again into this world when they were quite extinguished Those Roman Potentates would be esteemed Gods of another world that could unlock a man from the fetters of banishment needs then must he be greater than the Kings of the earth whose authority can break the bars of death and bring the Prisoners forth from the captivity of corruption The Scythians says Lucian swear by these two Idols as the Gods of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Wind and by the Sword Hic spirandi est autor ille mortis The one gives breath to live the other takes life away Now that which gives life and that which takes away life can be no less than a God say the very Scythians These heathen knew no more of Gods power than to give life and to take away life Had they known what it was to restore life again that would have been the chief power of divinity even in their estimation Majus est restituere quà m dare quantò miserius est perdidisse quà m omnino non accepisse It is more admirable to restore the soul again than to create it at the first because it is more miserable for the body to have lost a soul than never to have received it The great Clerks the Athenians could not tell what to make of the infinite power of the Resurrection It is pretty that St. Chrysostome observes upon them Acts xvii when Paul preached unto them and mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Resurrection of the dead they thought this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been a God the unknown God at whose Altar they did worship Evil men can abuse that which is good God can make good employment of that which is evil Death upon the first sin was named to be a punishment It is Meritoria in Martyribus and I may say Gloriosa in resurgentibus it is made an instrument of great reward unto the Martyrs and the passage to an Article of faith to believe in the Resurrection We call them that are dead in the Lord Abraham and Isaac and Jacob alas there are no such now Abraham dissolved into dust is no longer Abraham the soul cannot be called Abraham only the whole man both soul and body but so sted fastly do we trust the dead shall rise again Quod defunctorum animas nominibus suppositi appellamus says Thomas We speak of the dead as if they were now alive because they shall live again even as Christ spake to the corps of Lazarus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as to a Corps but as to one living not as to one that was dead but as to ears that could hear Lazarus come forth And it is well says the Father that among all the Corpses in the dust Christ pickt him out by name as who should say now I will have none but Lazarus to come forth others shall appear in their time otherwise all the Legions of the dead had come to light and stood thick upon the earth from the East unto the West Indeed the souls under the Altar cry our Quousque Domine fain would they stand before him like Enoch and Elias so eager they are and vehement instantly to have tongues to speak and hands to hold up and knees and heads to bow as if they were not contented that their days to come for those things were days of eternity We shall meet together all in the same Livery cloathed with bodies of youth according to the measure of our Saviours Age Eph. iv Alexander out of a surly Magnificence Soli Antipatro Phocioni salutem scripsit in Epistolis never wrote in the top of his Letters I wish you long life and prosperity but only to Phocion and Antipater But God will direct his voice to every member of his Church one summon shall call forth Abraham and Isaac and all the world which at this time begins for a relish of faith but with this person alone Lazarus come forth And thus much for the first thing wherein the power of his Divinity appeared Mortuus excitatur a dead Man was raised Now that Lazarus after four days was raised that he which was bound came forth of the Grave is discourse for some other time Thus much only in a word upon the present occasion The next thing that you shall read concerning Lazarus after he was raised is this he sate at Supper with our Saviour in the second verse of the next Chapter Why behold the Supper of the Lord there is the next place where you are to meet with Christ after you are risen from your sins and the preparation of this Table to replenish your hungry souls with grace is as great a testimony of our Saviours Divinity as to raise up Lazarus Tu das epulis accumbere Divum it is the highest power of God which he confers to his Church upon earth to give them leave to meet together before the food of Angels As Manna melted away with the Sun-rising and new store fell upon earth the next morning which is a kind of Resurrection so you that have quenched Gods Spirit that have melted away his grace and let it putrifie for want of good employment this is the Morning this is the Season to gather a new Omer full that you may cherish and increase your faith Which that you may do c. THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION JOHN xi 44. And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with Grave-cloaths and his face was bound about with a Napkin THis is an Easterday Text notwithstanding that the party intreated of is Lazarus for as John Baptist was born a little before the birth of Christ and John was the Forerunner of his Nativity so Lazarus rose from death but a little before Christ rose and was the Forerunner of his Resurrection The Jews Passover was nigh at hand so you shall read in the 55. verse of this Chapter certainly it was not long before Christ the true Paschal Lamb was offered upon the Cross that this Miracle was done Feriâ sextâ ante Dominicam de Passione says one the Friday before Passion Sunday which is nine days past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom he put them into admiration with this work before this great day of admiration came Nor have we a Praeludium only how our Saviour should conquer death in this Chapter but you shall resent and perceive some resurrection wrought upon every person that had interest in this story First the news of Lazarus death was brought unto Christ beyond
such alas as are very scandalous dispense them The Carpenters may make an Ark for Noah though themselves were drowned in the Floud An Iron Seal can imprint a stamp as well as one of Gold The Seed may come up and do well though the hand were leprous that sowed it Be comforted therefore that although such as Hophni and Phinehas are unworthy of their Ephod that make the Offerings of the Lord to be abhorred yet the High Priest Jesus is present not for the workmans sake but for the works sake at those Ordinances which himself hath constituted I have now dispatcht the two great Limbs of this Miracle the distribution and the sub-distribution the Givers principal and less principal I will touch upon the Receivers and then no more And first Their posture they sate down is not put for a Cipher into this business to portend nothing neither did Christ use to command any thing in vain but in the verse before my Text he bids the Disciples make the men sit down and they did so And that did intimate a great branch of their Pastoral dignity I think To break the Loaves and Fishes among them was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to feed the Lambs an act issuing from their power of order but to make them sit down was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and betokened their power of jurisdiction And happy were they that being appointed by their Lord to look to good order to make the men sit down did light upon those that were so willing and ready to do as they were bidden no replications or non-conformity I warrant you among them all but instantly they sate down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties Mar. vi 40. And they that sat down with so much obedience to eat this bread would have kneeled with no less obedience if they had been appointed to eat the bread of life But wherefore did they take their places in ranks thus upon the grass You cannot impute the Spirit of Prophesie unto them that they could guess what would follow Me thinks some Jesuit should say that this is even the same which they call by that inauspicious term blind obedience When a Novice surrenders up his judgment to the will of his Superiour and examines not the quality of the thing which is enjoyned but with undiscoursed allegeance stoops to the Authority of him that commands If he be bidden to water a dead stake in a hedge or set his shoulders to remove a Castle or tell the number of the Stars he undertakes it obsequiousness hath devoured his judgment and he controverts nothing that is commanded though he sees no reason for it The more Ideot he to extinguish the light which God hath given to his soul and to follow frail men in their dark paths who may lead him into precipices of confusion For to pierce no farther into this mystery of iniquity than into the instances I named even now Shall any man be excused before God that spends his time in trifles to no use He that will require an account of idle words will he not require it of idle and vain actions Doubtless he that allows a mortal man an absolute soveraignty over his understanding to stoop to any thing he bids him do without examination of the fact puts him into that priviledge which is due to God alone Therefore these that sate down in my Text are not of that Livery with those blind obedients They received a Precept in Christs name to whom they owed the Abnegation of their own Judgment and they put themselves into that order which he appointed They had seen the proof of his Power so often that they durst not dis-believe but it they waited patiently they should see the glory of God in his mighty works Their eyes were fastened upon him and though they saw nothing to feed so many ranks of men yet now they were confident they should not be dismissed without a taste of his liberality We furnish our Tables usually and then sit down but these did first sit down with nothing before them and afterward Christ did furnish the Table O how the unbelieving Pharisees would have jeared them if they had sate down and got no sustenance as they expected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Homer it is an ignominious thing to wait long and be sent away with nothing but the hope of a good man is never fruitless it never makes ashamed for since these sate down with such patience and obsequiousness they had as much as they would As David says The meek shall eat and be satisfied they shall praise the Lord Psal xxii 26. It is St. Hilaries conjecture that this food which enlarged strangely first in Christs hand and then in the Disciples multiplied the third time in the hands of all that received it It is true which that Father says that then as many as were present might discern the Miracle the better and it holds with reason that the bread should stretch out bigger according as one mans appetite was sharper than another I will not contend for this that every one in the ordinary throng should be so happy as to promote a miracle For Jesus I know and the Disciples I know but who are ye This I shall obtain without contention that they had as much as they would Look upon the number of the men about five thousand the Women and Children mentioned indefinitely as if they were numberless and all these had refection to content them with that which one glutton would easily have devoured O stupendious the old scoff was that there were no Friars among them there were of all Ages Vigours and Complexions and yet no lack Nay says St. Austin Panes sufficiunt homines deficiunt They gave over to eat before the bread gave over to increase and as Pliny said of them that got much by Trajan their own modesty circumscribed their desires not his benignity so these that sate down did leave to feed before God did leave to give The Wine which Christ supplied at Cana in Galilee it was not modicum but enough to feast a Prince Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy says the Apostle 1 Tim. vi 17. And though the quantity of his gift be ample yet the quality is more than it for it makes the appetite acquiesce and lie still that it asks no more All that have store in abundance are not content with their share all that are filled to the brim do not think it sufficient But the condition of this meat which Christ blessed was That they were all filled and they had as much as they would Therefore when you meet with such as are well pleased to have their honours stay at a growth and to wax no higher to have their riches hoopt within a moderate size and to swell no bigger you may say they have eat some of God Almighties Loaf they have as much as they would But when you light upon such and they are not hard to
from your holy Mothers Lacte gypsum miscet as the old Proverb is the World is a Stepmother whose Milk is infected with poison no redress for such but as it was said of the Shunamites Child when he complained of his head Take the Child unto his Mother as St. Peter exhorts desire the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby the end of it is to grow and encrease not to stand at a stay true Piety never thinks so well of it self as if it needed no augmentation that 's Pharisaical hypocrisie He that gets nothing loseth much he that doth not add to his talent will forfeit it and lose it Says Bernard did not all the Angels which Jacob saw upon the Ladder that reached up to Heaven either ascend or descend Inter ascensum descensum inter profectum defectum nullum est medium There is no medium between proficiency deficiency between going backward or forward Either you are continually mending in all parts of Religion by the fatness of this milk or you will consume away like a shriveled Changeling But the Nurse will not be wanting in suppeditating milk if you are not wanting to your self in the wholsom concoction And now to end this Point I pronounce unto you that you can expect no greater miricle from God than to have such a Mother and such a Nurse First Were you not dead in Adam and then this Mother took you into her womb and brought you forth alive most stupendious Nay must you not die unto sin and be crucified to the world before you could be born again Quid difficilius cognitione quà m ut homo nascatur moriendo says St. Austin And what is the effect of her nourishment but continually to draw you from death to life Et amplius est suscitare semper victurum quà m suscitare iterum moriturum says he Was it miraculous in Elias or in the Apostles to raise the dead unto life that should die again How much greater is it to raise them unto life that shall never This benefit begins with the Church as our Mother and continues with us through her Ministry as our Nurse This is that Jerusalem whis is the Mother of us all Thus far I have drawn out before you the blessing of the Mother upon those whom she brings forth now while this benefit is fresh in our memory it is good time to shew what obedience the Children do owe to this Mother That is to her Laws to her Censures to her Determinations To her Laws of outward Order to her Censures of Discipline to her Determinations of Faith For the first to tread lightly in their steps that have gone before me Prudence and Reason find out what is fit for the well reigling and comly demeanour of them that are knit together in any body And when authority is joyned unto it and imposeth it it is a Law There must be an Order agreed upon touching our manner of union and living together in Commonwealths And grave and well-governed men are most nice to see those fashions of order inviolably observed And is not this equally to be heeded nay much more in our Ecclesiastical Oeconomy For the persons to whom we associate our selves in the Church are not only holy men but God and Angels Shall we not have Laws of agreement to go all one way and to do the same thing in Rites and Ceremonies Can there be such that would not be ashamed to see distraction and confusion in the holy Sanctuary Is there any possibility of drawing a Congregation together without Rules and Advertisements to proceed thus and thus in the administration of the Lords Service And for those Rites which are in force among us hath not this Church proceeded with most sanctified moderation to ease Christian people of that superfluity whereof they complained at the extirpation of Popery and to retain such only as were most expedient and carry no shadow of scandal but to them that are hot and contentious Since we must have Orders of Decency his wits are broken that thinks otherwise why not these which are established and to which your consent is included by reason of them that were Agents in your behalf and present at their confirmation for we were alive in our Predecessors and our Successors shall live in us It skills not what Vtopia some have framed in their own heads In positive Laws mens private fancies must give way to the higher judgment of the Church which is in authority a Mother over them And do not say you are an obedient Child since you do that which your heavenly Father requires why not also what your spiritual Mother requires Since the one bids nothing repugnant to the other I hope there is none in this Climate but explodes the Anabaptists opinion that all Christian Liberty is lost if any Laws be imposed upon the people but the Gospel of Jesus Christ Beside what is required for order and good carriage in the Church God hath given the power to settle it What is done is done by his leave and by that light of Nature and Reason given to frame such Constitutions and therefore do not prevaricate as if God were not disobeyed in that obstinacy which conforms not It is commendable and necessary for every man single to profess the substance of true Religion contained in the Scriptures But it is also required at their hands to observe the Circumstances and Decencies of it comprehended in positive Laws when they are in society with others It was in a Circumstance and a Ceremony that St. Paul checks the Corinthians What despise ye the Church of God 1 Cor. xi 22. You cannot call Jerusalem your Mother with a sober reverence if you decline her Piety and Authority in Constitutions indifferent Secondly The power and the wisdom of the Church meeting together must use the rod though unwillingly towards them that must be made examples to others by shame and punishment For such as will not be softned with love and the Spirit of meekness Shall I come to you with a rod says the Apostle Dread the anger of your Mother provoke not her displeasure to smite you with Abstentions Anathemaes Excommunications Remember how the incestuous person was swallowed up with desperation when her Censure was upon him If Esau lift up his voice and wept when he had not the blessing of his Father what sorrow will it beget in a Child that is not past feeling or leadenly stupid to have the curse of his Mother The ancient forms of humble Penants used by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are so disused that their custom will seem strange to be repeated When they were sequestred from the Prayers and Sacraments of the holy Church for scandalous and flagitious actions they cast themselves down before the entrance of the Church groveled upon the ground full of tears and lamentations and besought every Christian that passed by