is indeed the highest article of our Faith the first and main principle of Christian Religion But to conclude this doctrine 20. See how the beginning of this verse tells besides this mystery what the Apostles were commanded to teach the world namely to do all whatsoever Christ commanded them to deliver as the Will of God that is to say as well to do good works as to believe aright and to professe that Faith which was preached unto them and how ever Luther and Calvin pretend the Church of Christ and the right administration of the Sacraments thereof and of the divine Services had failed for many hundred of years together before they arrogated to themselves a kind of new Apostolate forsooth yet it is from hence confidently asserted by the unanimous consent of all Catholick Doctours and Divines that there neither hath been hitherto nor ever shall be hereafter till the day of doom which is the consummation or end of the world any failure in the Church of Christ nor in Christ his perpetual assistance and presence with his ever visible Church insomuch that he is ever visibly present in his perpetual visible rulers of the Church and invisibly in his continual-assisting grace and hence it is evidently proved that albeit no successours of the Apostles had those ample prerogatives which they enjoyed yet their Ministery is so the same that the Apostles was as Christ is said even to perpetuate the Apostles in their successours and his presence with them in his presence with their followers and in his assisting them as constantly as he did assist their predecessours though perhaps not as amply nor as efficaciously at all times For how else can it be true that Christ said to his Apostles he would send them another Comforter that should assist them eternally not in their persons but in their successours to the worlds end For the same are the gifts of Christ and of the Holy Ghost as far forth as they are both one and the same God Nay more Christ is even visibly remaining with the Ministers of his Church in the holy Eucharist or B. Sacrament of the Altar his blessed body and bloud being exposed perpetually to the receiving and adoration of the people more he is visibly with us in his Priests who are his visible instruments to administer the Sacraments and offer sacrifice unto the sacred Deity for though the Priest be the instrumental yet Christ is the chief and principal Priest himself it being proper to him to be both Sacrifice and Sacrificant so as in seeing the accidents of bodies we are said consequently to see the things whose accidents we see in like manner by seeing the Sacramental species we may be said to see the Sacrament the body and bloud of Christ whose accidents they are after consecration though the same species before were the accidents of bread and wine To conclude we may as truly say Christ is visibly with his Church to the worlds end as we may say a mans soul is visibly in his body that is to say perceptibly so long as a man lives and hath motion for look what the soul is to the body the same Christ is to his Church so that as the soul is the bodies natural life Christ is the supernatural life of the soul believing in him and making her self by that belief a member of his Church for as the soul makes the body move so Christ makes his Church to do according to that of S. Paul Philipp 2. he worketh all in all according to the purpose of his own holy will and again he it is that gives a will to do good and a power to put that will in execution and to perfect by him what was undertaken for him as being to his honour and glory The Application 1. IT is no marvel that to day we hear inculcated to us an explicite act of Faith in the Front and body of this Gospel while Hope and Charity are onely recommended to us in the close thereof and that but implicitely neither notwithstanding as our design of piety is laid in this work Charity is the chief vertue to be practis'd from this day untill Advent This is I say no marvel the very name of the day requiring this preference to Faith and the nature of the Feast inforcing it besides for since the proper object of Love is Goodnesse seen or understood and since the Blessed Trinity is not here seen at all but by the light of Faith therefore all the understanding we can have of it on Earth is first to believe and next to love it according as the Gospel intimates where Jesus by the vertue of Plenipotentiality given him both in heaven and earth sends his Apostles first to Teach the whole world the mystery of the B. Trinity by Baptizing all Nations in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost and thereby obliging them to believe explicitely these Three distinct Persons are all but one simple and single God whereas he bids the said Apostles here at least but implicitely to hope in and to love the sacred Trinity in as much as he commands their Teaching all Nations to observe all his Commandments whatsoever which yet are not observeable but for pure love of the commander and for pure hope of his recompencing our obedience unto his commands Who so reads the Gospel will soon see this to be the whole scope thereof 2. What then remaines for further application but that by an actual confessing this true Faith we actually glorifie the eternal Trinity and that in the Power of each Divine Persons sacred Majesty namely in the Power of the Father creating us in the Power of the Son redeeming us in the Power of the Holy Ghost sayntifying of us we adore the Unity of these Three Persons Deity since none but God can create none but God can redeem and none but God can sayntifie a soul 3. O Happy Christians who by firmly believing this to be their obligation to the sacred Trinity can neither want motive enough for Love of God nor ground enough for Hope that by this Act of Faith they shall be defended from all Adversity since the true victrix over all our enemies is as St. John tells us 1 Ep. c. 5. our Faith which overcomes the world and consequently all Adversity Say now the Prayer above and see how patt it is to what we here are taught On the first Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Luk. 6.37 JVdge not that you be not judged for in what Judgement you Judge you shall be Judged saith our Lord. Vers Let my prayer O Lord be directed Resp Even as Incense before thee The Prayer O God the strength of those that hope in thee be propitiously present to our prayers and because without thee mortal infirmity is of no ability grant the assistance of thy grace that in doing what thou dost command we may please thee both in will and work The Illustration ALbeit this Sunday is
to exhaust the Epistles and Gospels of that day whereon they are appointed to be said but this I doe infer to be avouchable of that peculiar Prayer which here is set immediately after the Antiphon Responsory and Versicle of each respective Sunday which is ever the first Prayer in the Divine Service and which the Priest doth alwayes say with an addresse unto the People turning about to them and saying Dominus vobiscum Our Lord be with you meaning in your hearts that there you may sing forth his Praises which my lips are now going to pronounce in your names and in your behalfs True it is I have at the end of every part of this first Tome set out a Trinity of Prayers appropriated each to their respective dayes which I advise all those of this Sodality to say three times a day morning noon and night whereof this Prayer we call the Collect for the Reasons above is the first The second is that Prayer which is called the Secret being the very same the Priest then sayes when he hath turned himself unto the People saying Orate Fratres c. Brethren Pray that my Sacrifice and yours may bee acceptable to God the Father Almighty And this he doth immediatly after he hath made the Oblation or Offertory of the bread and wine which he is presently to consecrate into the body and bloud of Christ as his own and the peoples Sacrifice Not that it is therefore called the Secret because the people should not be privie to it being as they are remarkably concerned therein but that it represents the nature of our offerings to God to be rather hearty than heard of rather private then publike so far forth as they are ours though 't is most true that as the Priests they are to be made in open Churches upon open Altars yet with this respect that silence shall convey them to the heavenly Majesty rather than noise and so the Prayer that offers them is for this reason among others said softly by the Priest and thence is called the secret Whereas the Collects they are said aloud And however true it be that in the old Law the Priest went out of the Peoples sight from the sanctum or Holy into the sanctum sanctorum the holy of holiest for the Reasons alledged in the Exposition of the two first Verses on the Epistle upon Passion Sunday in the second part of this First Tome yet in the new Law which did abrogate the Ceremonies of the old Holy Church hath held it sufficient to maintain the Analogie between the sacrifices of both the Laws that the Priests of the new remaining still in the sight of the People shall go at least out of their hearing by saying some Prayers secretly though still in the Peoples behalf as if they were composing the controversies between grace and nature or mediating between God and his sinfull creatures by way of sacrifice the most powerfull of all mediations imaginable And hence it is to let the People know at least this secret Prayer is said in their names by the Priest in testimony of their offering up both by and with him the present sacrifice that I advise them joyntly with the Priest to say the self-same secret to the self-same end that prayer importing over an actuall oblation or offering to God The third Prayer which is called the Post-Communion I therefore also publish here in the end of this Book because it imports the peoples thanks-giving after the Communion thereby to shew that whereas then the Priest hath received actually in his own and their behalf so they have also received in Vote in wish or desire that they were also worthy to have actually received and this being a spirituall communion at the least I desire all the devotes of our sodality in thanks thereof to say this third prayer also with the Priest because immediatly before his saying it hee turns about and makes his application to the people as above by Dominus vobiscum Our Lord be with you And thus it is evident these Prayers are very proper for the People which are never said by the Priest but with addresse to them Now if any ask the Reason why I recommend this Trinity of Prayers to be said by our Sodality three times a day truly 't is because the sacrifice being a service to the sacred Trinity wherein God is acknowledged to have the sole command of life and death in his creatures therefore in honour of the three sacred Persons of the Blessed Trinitie I recommend this triple Repetition of this Trinity of Prayers as also further that thereby our sodality may partake of all the sacrifices which are daily made throughout the world not but that the morning is the proper time of this Homage but because 't is ever day in some part of the earth when 't is night with another and so by our saying these Prayers even at night we joyn in sacrifice to God with those who say the same prayers at the self-same time by day I could animate our Sodality farther yet to this Devotion by telling them what indulgences they may gain by this not that these are purchased by money as is objected by our adversaries but given gratis namely 15. dayes Pardon from Purgatory paines for every time they say any one of the Churches Prayers those I mean that are with publick authority avowed by our holy Mother to say nothing now of fifty dayes indulgence for every time they say their Primmer office which is not granted to their Manuall Prayers but I suffice my self with this that 't is the best of all Devotions in the world to praise the Blessed Trinity and even those that love to pray to Saints must know they do it best while with their holy Patrons they adore the Universall Patron of all the Saints The sacred and undivided Trinity To conclude in saying this Trinity of Prayers they doe not onely joyntly pray with the visible but also with the invisible Priest our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who even now in Heaven dayly says the self-same Prayers as often as the Priest officiating sayes them here on Earth because our Priests are but the Instrumentall Ministers of Sacrifice the Principall is our Saviour Jesus Christ himself who in memory of his once Bloudy Sacrifice offers up dayly an unbloudy one unto his Heavenly Father and so makes that to be with God a Renovation in a Mysticall way of his bitter Death and Passion which is with us a dayly Commemoration thereof for which purpose see the Secret on the ninth Sunday after Pentecost in the book of Prayers below See further Molina in his Golden work of Priest-hood where he cites a Torrent of Fathers to avow this verity And for avowment of Jesus Christ Vocally Praying even in Heaven for us by way at least of claiming what he hath already merited in our behalfs See Cornelius a Lapide upon Saint Paul Rom. 8. ver 34. who backs himself
victorious peace as who should say his coming hither was not upon his own account but ours So he tells them now his business is done their peace is made in Heaven and Earth 20. He shewed how they still remained perforated boared thorough as with the Nayles and Spear that had pierced them while he hung upon the Cross what more powerful Argument of the Truth of his resurrection what more convincing proof that it is a Piety for Christians to revere the memory of his Sacred wounds when the first thing he shewed to oblige us to love him after his resurrection were the Wounds he received for us in his bitter Death and Passion The joy which followed in the Disciples upon seeing these wounds was not that he had received them but that those notwithstanding and his Death to boot for the sins of mankinde they saw him propitious merciful sweet benigne unto them that they did not see him come to reproach their flight from him nor Peters denying of him but to comfort them to consolidate their Faith and in them the Faith of all Christians in this now undoubted Truth that as he became man was crucified dead and buried for satisfaction of our sins so now he arose from Death to Life to give all mankinde an assurance that the work of their redemption was finished and their salvation secured if they would themselves hence it was the Apostles were glad to see our Lord risen and alive to confirm all his former Doctrine maugre the Jews malice against him and their belief that they had put him to such a death as he was past all power of reviving 21. While he repeats peace to them again he shews the abundance of his goodness flowing still from himself and falling upon those he loves and further in testimony that these his Apostles were all in the rank of those he loved most behold he gives his own most ample commission which he had from his heavenly Father unto every one of them while he sends them in vertue of the same Commission to convert the whole world as he himself was sent first to redeem it and by vertue of his Passion to convert it also which yet he would not do to have the whole honour of it to himself but gives to his Apostles the happiness to be his instruments his cooperators thereunto as himself was the instrument of his heavenly Father to the same purpose and if we observe the force of our Saviours words in giving his commission of Apostolate to these his chosen Servants we shall finde he doth not onely give them the title and honour of being his Apostles but of being even so many Sons of God by commission not by nature while he sends them even as his Father sent him to supply what was wanting of his Passion as we have heard already explicated once or twice 22. And least being but men not God as he was they should fear to fail in the execution of this high Commission Lo by his breathing on them he seems to convert them into holy Spirits and if we may so say even to so many Hoâ—y Ghosts by Commission or Office not by Nature in giving the Holy Ghost unto them For as by Spiration of the Father and Son the Holy Ghost proceeded equal to both in Nature so by this Spiration of Christ upon his Apostles they became equal in Spirit to him sent as he was by his heavenly Father in similitude of office in-similitude of power because he was God as well as his Father in similitude of end to save the souls of men in similitude of works of miracles and lastly in similitude of Spirit of Love and of affection while their commission is given by way of his Holy and Divine Insufflation or Inspiration whence they were impowered even to dye for him as he was by the force of his own holy Spirit to dye for us and by this inspiration he shews that as God by breathing on Adam gave him natural Life so he by breathing on his Apostles gives them a supernatural one a life of Grace but we must note here the holy Ghost was not given them as they had it before in Baptism when they received justifying Grace and Grace rendring them grateful nor as it was afterward to be given them by way of plenitude containing the fulness when they were so confirmed in Grace as that probably they never sinned afterwards but as a thing here gratis given and limited to one special effect namely to that of remission of sins as is made evident by the words in the following Verse so here we may see gratuite grace may consist with the state of sin or power to absolve others sins may be in a Priest who is actually himself in sin Note also by this inspiration the same power of remitting sins was given to St. Thomas though absent as well as to those Apostles present as Numb 11. v. 26. we read the Spirit of Prophesie was given in like absence by Moses to Eldad and Medad for we do not see it repeated after when St. Thomas came in among them though some think it was then he received that power and not before Note also that by this ceremony of our Saviours breathing upon the Apostles holy Church is grounded in sufficient warrant to use such ceremonies as to her shall seem fit in Administration or Collation of Sacraments 23. How absurdly doth Calvin wrest this place to power of preaching rather then he will allow man power of remitting sins though it be given him by God himself This very corruption of so plain a place of Scripture argues how dangerous a thing it is for men to read and wrest it to their own sense since the Act of Preaching is Teaching and Exhorting the Act of forgiving sins is the Act of a judging Power besides all men may at all times be lawfully preacht unto be they in sin or out of sin but all cannot at all times be absolved from sin nor any indeed at any time but by Contrition Confession and Satisfaction either Actual or in Vote if opportunity be given It is therefore an Article of Faith that by these words our Saviour gave to the Apostles power to forgive sins however it may be disputed whether he had not before at his last Supper made them Priests when he said unto them as often as you shall do this that is as often as you shall Consecrate my Body and Blood or Eat and Drink them do it in remembrance of me Luk. 22. v. 19. because now whensoever Priests are Ordained it is done by their joynt prolation of the words of Consecration with the Bishop at Mass after he hath said unto them Receive ye power to offer Sacrifice and though here were given by Christ the Faculties of Absolving to the Apostles yet it doth not follow Priesthood was then given since to this day we see many Priests that have power to Sacrifice and yet have not leave to Administer
Parents will to have him lost If then beloved we see the piety of the B. Virgin Mother of God was short of that which must be our guide how can we hope with lesse than heavenly piety to render our actions our desires gratefull to his divine Majesty And who can now complain there wants connexion in this Prayer unto the other service of the day if any doe let him see how to comply with the heavenly piety of his Eternall Father Jesus was Thirty years together subject to his Temporall Mother and then we shall soon find out a way how to sweeten the sour of our humane actions by having no desire to any of them less than heavenly nor to doe them with less than heavenly piety The Epistle ROM 12. ver 1. c. 1. I Beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercy of God that you exhibite your bodies a living host holy pleasing God your reasonable service 2. And be not conformed to this world but he reformed in the newnesse of your mind that you may prove what the good and acceptable and perfect will of God is 3. For I say by the grace that is given me to all that are among you not to be more wise than behooveth to be wise but to be wise unto sobriety to every one as God hath divided the measure of Faith 4. For as in one body we have many members but all the members have not one action 5. So we being many are one body in Christ and each one anothers members The Explication 1. THe Apostle had in his former Chapter told them much of the mercies of Almighty God and shewed them how though the wicked were justly condemned yet even the Blessed were most mercifully saved hence by that mercy so much inculcated immediately before he now conjures them that as they had now received from him the rule of Faith so they would frame their manners their actions and lives according to that rule see what is said of this Rule in the next Sundayes Epistle Rom. 12. v. 6. But to the present Text wherein the Apostle here beseecheth them by the mercy so much above recommended to live good lives answerable to their rule of Faith and to exhibite their bodies by action as well as their souls by Faith a living host to God There are many who loose the literall sense of this place by contenting themselves with the divers and those excellent mysticall meanings thereof as first by saying our bodies are living when our lives are vertuous Secondly when we are charitable because charity is the life of all vertues Thirdly when we have received the Sacrament of Christ his Body and Bloud but in very deed the literall allusion here is to the antient bloudy Sacrifices both of Jews and Gentiles made of beasts dead bodies whereunto the daily unbloudy Sacrifice of the Evangelicall Lamb is diametrically opposite first of the living Body and bloud of Christ next of living chastized but not mortified bodies of Christians being as the Apostle adviseth offered up to the service of Almighty God since such chastizements leave the bodies living by a naturall life again they live by the spirituall life of good works done in obedience to their soules command for so operating besides by corporall mortification or pennance the body is made truly a living host because it is mortified alive by becoming subject to the command of the Spirit for all mortification is a kind of living death whilest it makes the body dye to concupiscence and live to grace but these our bodies must further be holy Sacrifices that is to say imployed in holy not prophane or impure works not worshipping Idols as the Gentiles did but God as befits good Christians not polluting their bodies with unchast actions but keeping them pure and undefiled for this purity is by the Apostle 1 Cor. 7 called sanctity and is such indeed Again this bodily host must be pleasing to God for it may be living and holy in it self and yet not pleasing to God if the offerer be displeasing since many there are who fast goe in pilgrimage to holy places doe other corporall pennances and yet not rectifying together their souls obliquities their passions of the mind are nothing pleasing to God Lastly he concludes exhorting that our offerings to God be seasoned with the salt of wisedome that is be alwayes a reasonable service not fond childish curious indiscreet or singular but such as we may ever render a reasonable account of even to God who will not allow of indiscretions for reasons though indeed the Apostle here alludes to the irrationall offerings among the Gentiles who made their Idols their Gods and dedicated their services to Stocks and Stones whereas he would have Christians be more reasonable and instead of dead beasts to offer their living bodies joyntly with the acts of their believing hoping and loving souls to be a perpetuall Sacrifice or service to God all their life time and thus the whole creature will become not a corporall not an irrationall but a spirituall and reasonable Sacrifice 2. The Apostle hath pleased to make a disjunctive recommends of this entire creature in way of Sacrifice to God while in the former verse he insisted cheifly on the corporall part of the creature which we are and so advised how to render our bodies a living Sacrifice to God but in this verse he tells us how to render our better part the soul of man an acceptable oblation to the divine Majesty and since Christian perfection consists as well in declining evill as in doing good therefore this verse begins with removing evill out of our way that so we may doe good which the Apostle understands when he bids us take heed we doe not conforme our actions to the course of this unconformable world and this we shall performe by avoiding the evill that we see in men for we shall then best shew that we doe not conforme unto sinfull men when we fly their company and avoid such actions as renders them sinners and having thus followed the negative part of this counsell we are the better prepared to put the positive part thereof in execution for by not conforming to the world we whose bodies are made up of the old worldly metall shall be reformed in the newnesse of our minds by setting them henceforward on heavenly which heretofore were imployed wholly upon earthly cogitations so the Apostle by bidding us not conform to this world did not mean to forbid us making use of it but not to figure our selves like unto it that is not to become vain proud idle and the like as the world is for so we make our selves figures of this world or variable as worldlings are whereas the Apostle desires us to avoid becoming mutable or transitory figures and wisheth us to become persisting formes rather which are of a permanent nature namely spirituall formes of Saints not worldly figures of men and here reformation imports in truth
storm at sea we are minded of the many dangers sin hath brought upon us so by the check Christ gave to his Apostles wee are taught in dangers to recurr to Faith in him who never failes to succour firm believers in their greatest tribulations 2. As in stormes your Marrinâ—â—s cast veâ—-board their heaviest lading and commodities to save the ship from sinking so in affliction at the least we shall doe well to lighten the vessels of our soulâ— by casting over-board those heavie burdens of most grievous sins which many times in calmnesse of our mindes we dare to carry with us 3. We may piously presume our Saviour never sleeps but unto souls remiss and then doth wake again immediatly when they affrighted at the danger they are in by the least close of his all-seeing eyes I doe call upon him for his succour by their instant prayer Such as the Church to day doth use to teach us how to pray in time of Danger On the Fifth Sunday after the EPIPHANIE The Antiphon MAT. 13. ver 30. GAther first the darnell and bind it together in bundles to be burnt but the wheat gather into my barne saith our Lord. Vers Let my prayer c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer KEepe we beseech the O Lord thy family in continuall piety that resting on the onely hope of heavenly grace it may ever by thy protection be defended The Illustration SEe how this day we are taught to pray as in the Epistle and Gospel we are taught to doe to live all together as one family of God in continual piety resting on the onely hope of heavenly grace for our protection and defence Yes thus to day we pray and to this purpose holy Church doth this day preach for the whole Epistle is upon uniting us all in one affection towards another and exhorting us that whatsoever we doe in word or work all things be done in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ And the Gospel commanding in the Parable of Corne and Cockle that even under pretence of good and bad we make no separation amongst our selves but live and continue lovingly together leaving it to God the master of the family to sever what he likes not from that which pleaseth his divine majestie and this to shew how perfectly we must be all as one amongst our selves all in continuall piety all resting on the hope of heavenly grace all relying upon God to protect and defend us not squaring out our own courses but resting in that which is appointed us by the Master of our family And see while in this prayer Holy Church calleth us all one family we ought to live in peace with all the world and not to graspe from our neighbour as if he and we were of two houses but to esteem him as a domesticke with us as one that eares at the same table of Christ who feeds us commonly with heavenly grace and oftentimes with his own sacred body and bloud the fountaine of grace it self O could we once come to doe as in this prayer we beg we may what an united family of Christians should we be How of divers members should we grow into one perfect body each proportioned to the will and pleasure of our head Christ Jesus How ill doe we then fall into divisions as if our hands would cut off our armes about disputes of divers Interests whereas all our relation is to one master all our hope of preferment must come from him and that hope must be radicated in the proportion of such heavenly grace as he pleaseth to give us so if in him our hopes be rightly fixed they wil bring us all to one happy end he in whom wâ— hope protecting and defending us so much the better by how much the more our hope in him is the firmer and by how much the lesse we are solcitous who neither can do nor with so well unto our selves as God doth for us The Epistle COL 3. ver 12. c. 12. PVt ye on therefore as the Elect of God holy and beloved the bowells of mercy benignity humility modesty patience 13 Supporting one another and pardoning one another if any have a quarrell against any man as also our Lord hath pardoned us so you also 14. But above all these things have Charity which is the band of perfection 15 And let the peace of Christ exult in your hearts wherein also you are called in one body and be thankful 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly in all wisdome teaching and admonishing your own selves with psalmes hymnes and spiritual Canticles in grace singing in your hearts to God 17. All whatsoever you doe in word or work all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God and the Father by him The Explication 12. THE Apostle began this Chapter with telling the Colossians that as they were dead in Christ whilst Christ dyed for them so if they meant to rise with Christ from the grave of their sin they must look upward and seek from hence forward such things as were to be found in heaven not what was common upon earth as before they had done and when he had bid them Cast off the old man Colos 3. vers 9. now in this verse he begins to tell them how to vest themselves anew with ornaments fit for the spiritual and inward man and that they may doe this with more alacrity the Apostle bids them doe it under the confidence that they are now the elect and chosen of God his holy and beloved people mâ—de so by the lavacrum or cleansing of his sacred bloud shed for them and least they might doubt of this he had in the immediate verses before told them they were now in Christ a new creature that though formerly the Jewes were the onely favourites and chosen people of God yet in Christ both Jewes and Gentiles Slave or Free-man all were alike if they did all equally believe in Jesus the Messias and Saviour of them all who had chosen them not onely to Grace but to Glory and this incouragement premised he bids them now put on the bowels of mercy benignity humility modesty patience Virtues not heard of among the Iewes who had hardned their hearts against God who had inhumanely butchered his sacred Sonne who proudly aymed at nothing but worldly pompe who immodestly reviled Iesus to his face who like furies would have stoned and at last tore in pieces their Lord and Saviour so far thâ—y were from patient hearing him tell them Truth not were the Gentiles or Barbarians men of any Vertue at all but either superstitious or savage people so these Colossians being people of no better extract by nature hee had need tell them what Bowels what affections of heart they were by Grace at least to have what inward Vertues what outward deportment 13. As for example supporting one another a thing unheard of by those who aimed at nothing more than
suites unto the rest of this dayes service also because all these were figures of our Baptisme in Christ of our being fed with the Manna of his Blessed Body and with the drink of his precious Bloud and lest it should be with us as the Epistle ends by telling us it was with the Children of Israel in the greater part of whom God was not well pâ—eased because they requited those signall favours with their murmurings ingratitude and other hainous crimes therefore holy Church this Day with more than ordinary reason bids us all pray as guilty it seemes of like ingratitude that we who for our sinnes are justly punished for the glory of Gods Name may be mercifully delivered from the same that so having prayed away Sin the cause we may be quit of the effect our just punishment for Sin And this for the onely reason whereupon we can hope it meerly to glorifie the Name of God who if for his own glory he should not forgive us could have no title or motive from us to doe it and for that cause this Prayer doth presse him home for Mercy when it mindes him of his own Glory in the being mercifull as being indeed the end for which he made mankinde that by him he might be glorified and fill up the places of the collapsed Angels The Epistle 1 COR. 9. ver 24. c. and Chap. 10. ver 1. c. 24. KNow you not that they that run in a race all run indeed but one receiveth the price so run that you may obtain 25. And every one that striveth for maistery refraineth himself from all things and they certes that they may receive a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible 26. I therefore so run not as it were at an uncertain thing so I fight not as it were beating the aire 27. But I chastise my Body and bring it into servitude lest perhaps when I have preached to others my self become reprobate Chap. 10.1 For I will not have you ignorant Brethren that our Fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the Sea 2. And all in Moses were baptized in the cloud and in the Sea 3. And all did eat the same Spiritual food 4. Aad all drunk the same Spirituall drink and they drunk of the Spirituall Rock that followed them and the Rock was Christ 5. But in the more part of them God was not well pleased The Explication 24. THE Apostle had in the foregoing verses spoken of his disinterested evangelizing without the least mixture of sordid gaine for his so doing but meerly out of zeale to Soules and love to God and in this verse he similifies between an Evangelizer and one that runs a race having first stated his businesse that the Evangelizer must be a man voyd of all proper Interest or ends ayming onely at Gods honour and the salvation of Soules so to this purpose he tels us first litterally of Evangelizers that though all of them doe runne yet it seemes not alwaies all with one ayme or end not for one and the same prise some for true zeale and they win the race others for self interest and they though continually running yet loose the match because they runne by the bowe not by the string they would fayne carry with them the compasse of their own desires and yet think to get heaven too so they take perhaps more paines and yet to lesse indeed to no purpose Mystically the Apostle meanes the same of the lay-people who all pretend to runne for the prize of heaven but he that is to say such onely winne it who runne right on and make no Maeanderous circles of mixed ends which retard their speed And that he meanes not onely one person but all such as runne equally that is to their utmost all for one pure simple and impermixed end the following words avow when he saies so runne yee that yee may obtaine that yee may winne the race the prize the kingdome of heaven the Crown of Glory Here he speaks in the plurall number to shew that heaven is not reserved onely for the best of Christians but that every good Christian may by running reach it but then he must be alwaies running as continually racers are since the least interpaulation or intermission of running is to cast ones self behind and therefore by so running is here meant running with all speed possible since when we doe all we can unlesse God reward our uttermost endeavours with adding spirituall wings to our leaden heels we shall come short Hence it is S. Austine saies very well Not to goe forward in virtue is to goe backward So S. Bernard too Epist 254. therefore if to advance be to runne not to runne is to loose ground and in the same place he brings in a similitude of Jacobs ladder whereon there was no angel at all stood still but every one was in perpetuall motion either upwards or downwards The ascending Angels importing the blessed soules and the descending the damned whence it is that not to rise in virtue is to fall to vice shewing there is no finall medium between good and bad between heaven and hell 25. Here the Apostle alludes to his own refraining all sinister or propper interest in his Evangelizing least they might retard his speed in that race he was running for his crown of Glory as Racers refraine from all such meats as doe obstruct or shorten their wind and feed upon those things as dilate the lungs or lengthen wind which is of greatest use for Coursers and thus he doth to confound those sordid Soules who will abridge themselves here of many pleasures and delights meerely to gaine the temporall reward of popular applause and yet will not refraine the least of their sensualities to gaine the eternall reward of praise from God and Angels but if we shall gather one principle which will serve to all purposes in this kind let us here fix our eyes upon temperance as most conducing to healthy and vigorous soules as takeing away all lustfull humours and supplying us with chast spirits that render our soules sound agil active and victorious 26. See how prettily S. Paul compares sinister ends in Gods service to men at cuffs with the ayre or running at hazard whether they shall win or loose that is by mixing humane with divine ends by rayling at the world and the devill as if they were our onely enemies and yet pampering the body which is indeed mans greatest adversary in regard neither of the other two can hurt us if we be sure the body be subdued Because we are not tempted as angels by pure intellectual motives but by sensual or corporeall ones 27. And that this was the Apostles sence in the verse above see how he now speakes in clear termes to the same purpose saying I chastize my body and bring it into servitude as if that were indeed the maine enemy a man had and truely so it is for nothing saith Aristotle enters into
the soule or understanding but first it must passe the sentinels of our outward sences and they if loyall will keep out all sinne whatsoever but if corrupted or treacherous to their sovereigne the soule then they welcome any traytour sent by the world or the devill to surprize their Prince and indeed all resistance to forreigne enemies is vayne if we first subdue not our domestick foe our own bodies by forcing them to obey the commands of reason for unlâ—sse we bring them first to this obedience all our resistance to sinne is like artilery let flye at crowes in the ayre when an army of daring men are ready to run into the mouthes of our Cannon and might be taken off if levelld at whilest our bullets fly in vaine above their heads by a mismounting our Artillery that is to say by roaring and crying out against the distantiall world and devill when indeed the flesh is the storming foe that scales our walls unresisted at the same time we pretend a maine resistance to our mightiest foes this fond way of fight the Apostle tells us of when he shewes his own close guard to be the safer defence namely the chastizement of his own body and if we aske what that chastizement imports we shall find it to be not onely a correction or slight rebuke but an absolute subduing or captivating of it to the soules command by fasting prayer and other corporall austerities as haire-shirts disciplines or worse tormenting instruments such as holy men have taught us the wholsome use of upon all notable occasions of temptations or dangers to the soule nay these meanes the Apostle used amidst his greatest spirituall labours least as he sayd while he preached to others he might himself become reprobate by the assault of pride or vain-glory how much more then oght those to mortifie their bodies who do not wast them in spirituall indeavours as S Paul did but above all how fondly do Hereticks shake off the use of corporal mortifications the exercise of good works under pretence of Faith alone to be sufficient when the greatest master of Spirit in the world S. Paul dares not hold himself by Faith secure without good works much lesse did he boast as they doe of a revelation that he should be saved noe nor relye upon his being confirmed in grace but wrought his salvation with feare and trembling which did accompany his hope not his presumption thereof Heare Saint Ambrose how he speaks against hereticks opposing this doctrine and practise of Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Vercellan Church I hear saith this Doctor-Father some men say there is no merit of abstinence and that those are mad who chastize their bodies to make them subject to their soules which certainly Saint Paul had never done if he had held it to be madnesse To the same effect all the rest of the Fathers abound with like sentences which for brevity sake I omit to transcribe but not to admonish the Christian reader of especially the hereticks whom it most concernes I say not who they be least I offend persons while I onely oppose their errors cut of charity to them and zeale of their soules salvation Cap. 10. vers 1. Here the Apostle seems to divert from the Corinthians to the Jewes but indeed makes this seeming diversion an approach to them againe whilest he puts them in mind that it is not onely Faith with Abraham nor to be baptized with Christians will suffice to get the goale of heaven unlesse we run continually thither upon the speed of our perpetuall good works for saith he I will not have you ignorant that our Fathers namely the children of the Synagogue the Israelites wanted not Faith nor the figurative Baptisme of the cloud and the red Sea types of our true Baptisme yet because they did murmur at God and sinne in the desart deserting thereby the necessary adjunct of good works to merit their arrivall at the land of promise of six hundred thousand onely two men Joshua and Caleb did arrive at and enter the said land In like manner Christians be they never so firme in their Faith never so deepely dipt in the true Baptisme of the red sea of Christs passion unlesse they hold on the speed of good works while they are running the race to the heavenly Canaanâ— they shall never enter that heavenly land of promise which is the price they runne for But we are here to note how Calvin corrupts this place of S. Paul saying the Jewes received no lesse the truth and substance of Christ and his benefits in their umbratile and figurative Sacraments onely than we Christians do in our reall Sacraments which are the true substance of the Jewish shadowes For the Apostle doth not say they and we eat all one meate but that all they among themselves did eat of the figurative body of Christ the Manna in their desart raining down upon them and drank of his figurative bloud the waters flowing out of the rock strucken by Moses as a Type of the bloud and water the matter of our truer meates issuing out of our Saviours side peirced by Longinus as Jesus hung upon the crosse The cloud here mentioned is that we read of Exod. 13. shadowing them in the day from the scorching Sun and shining like fire to guide them in their nightly marches through the desarts as prodigious a thing as was the division of the red-sea by the switch of Moses his wand as he marched on before them 2. Note this verse doth not assert the Jewes to have been baptized in Moses as in a signe of their beliefe in the Mosaick Law but that by this precedent miraculous kind of Baptisme they were induced afterwards to believe in the â—aw of Moses so in this the figure differs from the thing figured for though this their umbratil Baptisme previous to their Faith be a Type of our true Baptisme yet our Faith in Christ is precedent thereto whereas the Jewish Faith was consequent to their shadow of baptisme And whereas the divided sea stood as two brasse walls to secure the children of Israel a dry passage through the wet element of the waves yet joyned againe to overwhelme the Aegyptian forces that presumed to persecute the children of God so the red sea of Christs passion divides it self to secure the children of grace but closeth to drown the children of the devill originall sinne in infants originall and actuall too in the adult being those who are at years of discretion As therefore our Baptisme is the thing praefigured by this divided sea so Christ is by Moses so the holy Ghost by the cloud cooling the scorching sun of concupiscence in us and inlightening our darkned soules by his holy Grace 3. We were told in the exposition of the first verse of this Chapter that they did all eat the same figurative food onely with us that is Manna wich was a figure of Christs body our spiritual food in the Sacrament of
the holy Altar not his reall body as we doe so the true sence of this place is that as they all did eat one figurative bread and had one faith in God so doe we but yet as their faith and food did not carry them all to Canaan so will not faith alone carâ—y us to heaven without good works 4. This verse is harder than the former in regard it will not be easy to shew how they drank of that rock that followed them unlesse we allow they drank of Christs bloud as well as we now doe since Christ is truely the rock that did follow them or came after them and issued out his pretious bloud for us really to drink againe Christ was a spiritual rock as here is said not a reall rock of stone for the true understanding therefore of this place we must know by spirituall rock is here understood a mysticall or typicall rock and such was the reall and naturall rock out of which Moses commanded water with a stroak of his rod and yet that reall rock was but a mystery type or figure of Christ and so in regard of that mystery is called here spirituall because it did praefigure the rock of Christ some therefore say with the Hebrewes that this rock did miraculously follow the children of Israel even to the land of Promise grounded in that text Numb 21. ver 16. Others conceive this to be verified by the water of the rock following the children of Israel at least till they came where plenty of more water was others think following them is veryfied by the obedience the rock shewed to issue out water once at Moses command so by follow they understand obey but this falls short of the gramatticall signification of the word follow so the true and genuine sence of the Apostle is that this rock as it was a type of Christ so the following of this rock is typicall and not reall Spiritual and not naturall as who should say Christ who corporally followed them many yeares after did spiritually now follow them that is in his sacred Deity or as he was God not man marched with them from the beginning to the end and so by his providence still supplyed them with water which was in effect to make the rock follow them so here Christ his divinity was the thing signified by the water out of the rock which did represent the same and to clear this sence the Apostle sayes in plaine termes the spirituall rock here meant by the material or natural rock was Christ Those are his words But the rock was Christ as who should say what we mean by this spirituall rock following them was Christ his divinity for his humanity was not then in being when spiritually he did follow them nor doth it urge against this truth what is further objected they did drink of this rock but the rock they drâ—nk of was the materiall rock therefore that material rock was not onely a type of the spirituall but was truely the spirituall rock since as the drink was materiall water so the rock must be the maâ—eriall rock for it is answered the water they drank was typicall because it was a figure of Christs Deity and so the materiality of both rock and water hinder not the spirituality of Type or Figure in them both To conclude the Allegory of this place holds thus Christ was this rock who was therefore sayd strucken by Moses because the Iewes were of the Mosaicall Synagogue who struck Christ to death by the Rod of the holy Crosse the bloud of which rock was satiating drink to the true believers and was water of contradiction to the Incredulous Iewes who will not believe in his deity and misbelieving hereticks that deny the reality of his blessed body and bloud in the Sacrament of the holy Altar by whose virtue we are carried through the desart of this world into the heavenly Land of Promise nor will it follow that therefore these words of Christ saying this is my body are to be understood as hereticks pretend This is a figure of my body as here we say this is a spiritual rock that signifies This is a figure of a spiritual rock because Christ doth not say this is a figure of my body or this is my body spiritually meant no but this is my body absolutely and really the same which shall be crucified for your sinns upon the crosse as it was indeed not onely figuratively but really besides the sixth verse of this Chapter cleares all doubt of this point saying in expresse termes These things were done as in a figure to us so here is a plaine profession of a figurative speech in the Apostle we find none such of any figurative speech of Christ when he said This is my body 5. This fifth verse confirmes what was said before That Faith alone without good works was not enough to bring the children of Israel into the Land of Promise and consequently much more are good works necessary to bring us to heaven lest as the greatest part of the Hebrew people perished in the desart so the greatest part of Christians be damned if they lead not lives answerable to their Faith and Religion The Application 1. FRom the first Sunday in Advent to the Nativity of our Saviour the Churches service represents the senility or decrepit age of Judaism weary of old expectation and longing for the coming of new hopes in Jesus Christ Yet to shew the Jews were dear to God he gave them a happy period a glorious Catastrophy in John the Baptist 2. From the Nativity to this Septuagesima Sunday the Holy Church hath fed us with the admirable doctrine of out Infantile Christianity beginning with the Infant Jesus and teaching us how to walk religiously as so many Infants and children of grace 3. From this day to the end of Lent the service runs upon another strain minding us of the forfeiture of our first Father Adam made of that Repose and Rest he was created in and of the toil and labour hee drew upon himself and his whole Posterity by his disobedience so the vicility or perfect man-hood of humane nature is the state wee are now taught to perfect And therefore this Epistle brings us into the school of vertue to day neither as decrepid men nor as new born Infants but as active youths all running of a race to win the Prize of heaven and this to verifie the curse imposed on our Father Adam of eating his bread in the sweat of his brows So that toyl and labour is wee see most justly inflicted on us for the punishment of sin and all the rest we can hope for must be by the meer mercy of our Lord who yet is ready to give us an eternall Rest in the next life for a short race here for a little labour taken to glorifie God by loving our own souls Say then beloved the Prayer above as the fittest Petition for the performance of our present
Tables of the Law and the Cherubins of Glory above this overshadowing the propitiatory and the Apostle told them this way of Sacrificing should last till the time of correction that is untill the first comming of Christ into this world who should correct this manner of proceeding and take away those legall rites and ceremonies by putting in their place a spiritual Sacrifice and worshipping of God not that it is to be understood the old being corrected should stand but be abrogated by command of Christ as we say ill manners are corrected in youth not by remaining in the young man but by being taken away by good behavior and by vertue correcting his former vices so the Apostle having told the Hebrewes thus much of the old way of Sacrificing begins in this verse to shew how Christ assisting taking upon him the office of High Priest of the new law and of the good things to come thereby distinguished the fruits of his Sacrifice from those of the High Priest in the old Law who by assisting officiating at the Tabernacle obtained onely present and temporall benefits but Christ was an High Priest obtaining the good things to come Spirituall and Heavenly things as here remission of sins graces and vertues and in the next world glory blisse and everlasting life and this by entering to keep the Analogy between the old way of officiating and the new first a more ample and perfect Tabernacle that is as some say by his Divinity entering our humanity as others by his entering his Virgin Mothers wombe but the most genuine sence is by his entering into his Church Militant becoming the first member of it as it was framed in the Idaea of his Heavenly Father For so it was not a work of humane hands of flesh and blood or of this creation of creatures making but was indeed the Tabernacle of God the first Sanctum Holy through which he was to passe by the vale of the Crosse into the second Tabernacle Sancta Sanctorum the holy of Holies his Church triumphant the Kingdome of Heaven nor was it necessary for Christ to prepare his way from his outward Tabernacle his Church Militant to his inward his Church triumphant by the bloud of Goates for his own sins since he had none and the blood of a Calfe for the sins of the people as in the old Law the High Priests did once a yeare that by Sprinkling the Sancta Sanctorum with this blood they might render God more propitious to themselves and the people no he shed once for all mankinde his own most sacred bloud and dying on the Crosse he entered the holy of holies the kingdome of heaven whereby he found for us eternal redemption so copious an one indeed as needed not be repeated by his dying any more for us then once though in the old Law the bloody Sacrifice of the High Priests were annuall because the power of that bloud they shed was weak and could not plead for long mercy whereas Christs blood prevaileth for eternall and that by being shed but once 13. It was the ceremony of the old Law Num. 19. first to shed the blood of Goats Oxen and Heifers and then burning the Beasts to keep the ashes and putting them into living so they called fountaine water and Sprinkling the people with them to declare they should by that aspersion after Sun-set not before be reputed sanctifyed corporally cleane and be admitted into the company of the faithfull as formerly which was a figure of the blood of Christ issuing out of his earthly body to be a reall purgation of sin out of our Souls and not onely of our corporal impurity it was also the ground whence holy Church useth aspersion with holy water wherin is mixed Salt insteed of those burnt-ashes Note it is well said here this ceremony was but to the cleansing of the flâ—sh for it only did declare their bodies who were thus sprinkled should be esteemed cleane and pure though before polluted by the touch of a dead carcasse a leper or otherwise and this cleansing was then called sanctifying as in this text it is 14. It is indeed great reason the blood of Christ who was God as well as man inspired by the instinct of his own Deity and by the speciall instigation of the Holy Ghost to offer up his life as an unspotted Sacrifice to God the Father for our sins should have much more force to purge our Soules from sins that is from dead works then the blood of beasts had to cleanse mens bodies and Sin is not unfitly called a dead work because it not onely defileth our Soule worse then the touch of a dead carcasse did their bodies of the old Law but even kils them too and yet by the blood of Christ they are both purged and revived so as to be able to waite upon the living God before whom no dead Soul that is to say no Soule in deadly Sin can give any attendance at all it being unfit that the Fountaine of life should be attended on by the ougly countenance of death 15. He is therefore truly the Mediator because he did partake of the nature of both extreames that is of God offended and of man offending and so death being a mean which is to say man dying in Christ God was satisfied not onely for the Sins of those who live under the Law of grace but as is specially noted here in this verse for the Sins of those under the former Law of Moses which was the former Testament here specified and of those also under the Law of nature quoniam copiosa erat apud eum redemptio because redemption with him is plentifull and since he took humane nature it was not out of the Spheare of his activity to satisfie for all mankind to whom that nature is common by those called are understood here the elected for those onely are effectually called to the participation of the promise of eternal inheritance of being eternally heirs of God and coheires of Christ and this inheritance is called a promise because it was the pact of God the Father with his Sacred Son that if he would once dye to satisfie divine justice for mans Sins those whom he should call that is effectually single out or elect for eternall salvation should receive the same by vertue of promise from God the Father to his Sacred Sonne whence their salvation is called the promise of eternal inheritance and in this regard Saint Paul speaking of himselfe as of one thus effectually called or elected said that he having done what was required of him had reposed for him in heaven a Crown of Justice not as due to his work but as due to the promises God the Father in Pauls behalfe made to his Sacred Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and the like promise we account is made in the behalfe of all those whom Christ hath elected to his eternal inheritance not that it is a thing man can
the Sacrament of Pennance though even when they are made Priests they receive Power to Absolve the Bishop saying Receive ye power to remit sins unless it be in case of necessity as in the hour of Death or that they are sure the penitent be not in mortal sin though it be also strongly argued that the very jurisdiction of remitting sins is essential to the Order of Priesthood as his power of Consecration or Sacrificing is and may validly as before God though not lawfully as to men be executed without special faculty for that purpose hence also it is matter of Faith that the Sacrament of Confession was at the same time instituted by Christ for the Priest cannot forgive sins unless he know them and know them he cannot unless they be confessed unto him nor can he tell what to remit what to retaine unless by the confession of the Penitent he finde cause for his so doing nor is the power of retaining sins a meer negation of absolution thereof but it is a positive Declaration that they doe not deserve pardon and more that if they repent not they deserve damnation which is too positive a thing to consist in a pure negation of absolution 24. Some will have St. Thomas called Didymus as signifying that he was a Twin-born joyntly with some other Brother or Sister as Esau and Jacob were and for this purpose the Expositours upon the Eleventh chap. of Saint John v. 16. say he argued himself to be a Twin of Grace with Christ and the rest of his Apostles when he said Let us all go and dye with our master because it is noted to be usual in Twins to love each other most dearly though sometimes it happen otherwise yet very rarely as in Jacob and Esau it did But others will have him in this place called Didymus as this word signifies various wavering or inconstant because he did now declare himself to doubt of the resurrection though he were told it by the Apostles for certain after that Christ had as above appeared to ten of them if he had not also before heard it from the Maries who some say brought news of it to all the eleven Apostles assembled together in the room where they last supped with Christ and where they in a kinde of faint hope expected his rising again according to his promise though it seems onely two of them Peter and John ran immediately to his Sepulchre with the Maries leaving the other nine behinde in expectation of the Truth and Thomas in the interim more diffident of this Truth then the rest that remained went out from amongst them Whether to take his flight for fear of the Jews or whether to ask testimony of Christs enemies the souldiers watching at the Sepulchre rather then to trust the relation of his friends be these reasons real or conjectural onely certain it is he was absent when Christ came first and as certain that after the Apostles had seen him he would as little believe them as the Maries who first brought news he was risen again and for this cause he may be here stiled Didymus as it imports various or doubting 25. See in this Act of St. Thomas four several sins Incredulity Pertinacy Pride Irreverence the first in preferring the test of Sense before that of Authority for point of Faith the second requiring so many Particulars and Proofs by diverse Senses the third presuming he deserved more condescending of Christ to him then had been to the rest of his Brethren the last in daring to make his own Finger the Judge whether Christ were God or not which is a work of the Finger of God of the Holy Ghost not of Man or of Flesh and Blood for if he might touch his wounds it seems he would then and not till then believe he was risen and consequently that he was God so from First to Last we see here a Proof of all these several sins in this one Act of the incredulous Apostle 26. 27. But behold Christ who dyed to redeem us from sin and from the penalty thereof did not after his death disdain to condescend much unto sinners when for this Apostles sake sinning as he did he not onely appears but gives the very redundant Proofs that this incredulous Apostle had required Note that by after eight days is not here understood the ninth day after Easter but the Octave day thereof this very Sunday for it seems Christ by his rising upon Sunday not on the Jewish Sabbath declared he was resolved to make the Christian Sabbath differing from that of the Jews and so the Apostles being again on the next Sunday after Easter assembled to shew they were ready to practice what Christ was pleased to ordain the celebrating a new Christian Sabbath by joynt and publique assembly in Prayer since here they were assembled on that new Sabbath for that end and since Christ by his second apparition upon the new Sabbath confirms his former purpose of altering the Old See the manner of his Second appearing like the First in all points even in the pledge of peace to sinful Thomas among the rest to shew his indefatigability in reclaiming men from sin by all sweet means though withal he did this favour to St. Thomas with regard to the confirmation of all the world in this mystery of his resurrection By this offering nay making Thomas touch his sacred Wounds he cured the Wound of Infidelity in the Apostles soul and shewed him he was God as well as Man that was proved in the Corporal touch of Thomas this in the Spiritual of Christ touching the Apostles soul while he told him for Christ knew his thoughts how they had suggested to his tongue those sinful expressions of his infidelity and though some doubt whether the Apostle did really touch Christ first because Christ said not unto him touch but see my hands and feet as also because Christs Body was then Glorious and as impalpable as it was impassible yet it is out of all doubt he did really touch his sacred Wounds because Christ said bring hither thy finger and see my hands that is by touching of them see they are flesh and blood no phantasm and again put thy whole hand into my side so it is more consonant unto Christian Piety and Truth to think Christ dispensed with the impassibility of his glorious Body making it palpable without being possible for proof of this mystery then that the Apostle did not nor could not touch Christ his Glorious Body again for this very touch the hand of Saint Thomas is kept to this day in Rome together with the Holy Cross of Christ with the Title over his Cross with the Nail and Crown of Thorns to shew there is more reverence due unto his hand upon the Title of this Sacred touch then to other Reliques of Saints 28. And upon this touch it was that the Apostle cryed out my Lord my God I see now and to my confusion too late
any one man or woman whatsoever that so whom they cannot edifie by their words at least they may by their example by misreports he alludes here to the censure which the Gentiles made of all Christians for wicked and lewd men because they found a Sect of Christians called the Gnosticks who were originally descended from Christians that did indeed live wickedly and defended their errors with obstinacy again they held Christians to be Cannibals and eaters of mans flesh because in the Sacrament they received the Body and Blood of Christ and upon which gross mistake Christians were persecuted almost three hundred years by those who hearing of the thing did not understand the mystery Now there is nothing indeed that so beats down ill reports of men as to see their good works for when those are considered God is presently glorified because those works proclaime God to be within the men that do them By the day of visitation is here understood literally the examine of those false reports before Judges as then Plinius a Gentile was a Judge in those days mystically when by comparing your good deeds with the bad ones of your Detractors that day of such examine may glorifie God by the conversion of the wicked lastly when notwithstanding you suffer upon false accusations even death it self that the wicked finding how strong God is in the just may be converted upon this day of visitation to the just who dyes temporally himself that others may live to God eternally 13. This Illative therefore is aptly taken up after the precedent Exhortation For it was a calumny then laid upon the Christians by the Infidels that they as Subjects and Children of God were exempt from all obedience to man And the Apostle brings in this subjection here as one part of perfect conversation and good life in Christians and to shew how little this misreport against Christians was the Apostolical Doctrine see here the head of the Apostles commands a subjection so large that he will have it extend to all from all men as part of the Christian Doctrine that is to all Superiours over all men of what Religion soever to shew that none are and ought to be more truly obedient and humble then Christians who obey not onely Superiours but Equals and Inferiours too as St. Paul Galat. 5.13 exhorts by charity of the Spirit serving one another Note by humane creature is here understood men as it were made by men or created by men Superiours who were before but Equals For as creation strictly taken gives being out of nothing so in a large sence and here it is thus meant creation of a king makes him to have a moral Being which before he had not The like is of all Superiority Political and to make this subjection the more acceptable he bids it be for Gods sake because though men choose men for Governours yet God so ordains that man by man shall be governed and therefore it is an act of Religion to be obedient to man in power as to Gods appointed vicegerent and hence it was that Lycurgus fained he had his Laws dictated to him by the Gods next we are to look upon Princes as Gods Images by St. Pauls advise saying who resisteth power resisteth the ordination of God and for resisting acquires to himself damnation Rom. 13.2 Again it is by God Kings and other Magistrates rule Prov. 8.15 as who should say the obedience we pay to man ought to be in testimony of our obedience to God setting man over us and requiring testimonies of our Love to him by obedience to his vicegerents that Christians obeying Infidels may gain them to an obedience unto Gods commands Finally that Princes so command as they remember themselves to be Gods Subjects however mens Superiours and this is to obey for Gods sake 14. See here obedience to Captains or any other Magistrates is commanded as to men sent by the Kings or States to govern by punishing the bad and praising the good for hence the Good receive praise when Malefactors are punished for offending them and when they will rather suffer unjustly the oppressing of the wicked then do unjustly or become themselves unjust 15. This Verse encourageth all men to be good when the wicked have nothing left to say for their excuse why they are not good because they see other men good before their eyes and that God hath given grace to the good for a confusion to the bad in not following the like grace which God gives sufficient to make all men good that will follow the instinct thereof by unwise men are here understood wicked men by ignorance is here meant affected rather then real ignorance such as men pretend when they seek excuses for their sins 16. As free that is to say being truly free not onely being like free men and by freedom is here understood immunity from any subjection to sin not from subjection to men who are lawful Superiors for to claim exemption from such subjection were to make malice a cloak of Vertue by pretending more liberty then God allows his Servants who are never more their own masters then when they serve him best for to serve God is truly to raign over all iniquity that would inslave mankinde 17. This alludes to that of St. Paul Rom. 12.10 with honour preventing one another though by honour is here understood all good offices of Charity which while we do to Christians we shew that in them we do truly love and honour Christ by fraternity is meant the men who are all true brothers in one faith to God who were in those dayes distinguished by their fraternities and living as children of one God all together in one brotherhood By the fear of God he means here filial not servile fear such fear as consists with freedom and doth not make men slaves By honouring the king understand not onely external but internal honour such as is best paid by Prayer for the Kings prosperity as who should say it cannot be happy to the people if it be unhappy with the King or State under whom they live 18. In this Verse the Apostle descends to the obedience which Servants ought to pay their Masters as well as that which Subjects pay their Princes to shew he meant to recommend all kinde of subjection as well as duty to Princes By all fear is understood fear of fault fear of punishments fear of scandal in fine all kinde of fear of all offence whatsoever as knowing we cannot offend our masters without offending God be our masters what they will good or bad men we are not subject to their Vices but to their power here is also meant though they be of ferent Religions as well as of different Dispositions 19. By thank is here understood thank-worthy or doing a thing that is so notable an effect of grace as shews it can have no other root to spring from so by Grace is here truly meant Glory or Praise as who
the same childe was first cause of pain so he is cause of comfort the like of Christ dying and rising again Sixthly both joys are excessive Great whereas they take away all sense of Sorrow So here the Passion of Christ is in this Parable supposed to be the labour or travail of the Apostles dolorous as a womans in childe-bearing and his Resurrection is supposed to be as the Birth of a Son to them after so hard a labour as they were in whilest all the world jeered and scorned them for hoping after so impossible a comfort as it was thought when the Apostle calls it a scandal to the Jews and to the Gentiles a folly St. Augustine is so acute upon this place as to say Christ compared the Apostles sorrow for his Passion to the pains of a woman in labour of a Boy and not of a Girl because those are the greatest labours of women and again he makes a special remark that the Text saith here the Mother forgets her pains not because a Boy is born but a man one that is to be the Support and Prop of her house when her self can no longer live for saith St. Augustine Christ was as it were born by his Resurrection to the World not as a Childe but as a Man conquering Death winning eternal Glory to himself and to all his Posterity to all Saints of Heaven who are the Children of his Grace 22. This Verse applies all the rest by way of Repetition to the Senses as above while it tells the Apostles this shall be their Case about him this their Grief at his Death this their Joy at his Resurrection like the travail and comfort of a woman first in labour then delivered of a Son But when he adds this Close That their joy no man shall take from them he means neither in this world nor in the next for such shall be their joy to see Christ risen who was dead that even the menace of Death to themselvcs shall be comfortable out of their assurance to share with Christ in the joy of his Resurrection if they partake with him in the pains of Death by dying for his sake Whence St. Paul boasting said who shall part us from the Love of God Nakedness the Sword Persecution Rom. 8.35 No no the love of Christ and hope of Heaven are comforts above all afflictions whatsoever whence we reade of the Apostles that they went rejoycing from the bench of the Iudges because they were held worthy to suffer contumely for the name of Iesus Act. 5.41 And this to shew that no man could takâ— away that joy which God gave them as the Text above hath told us The Application 1. IT is worthy our observation that amongst so many passages as were between Christ and his Apostles after his Resurrection this days Gospel is taken out of Saint Iohn Evangelist his Story of our Saviours Actions reporting what he said to his Apostles immediately before his Death For we see the Expositors upon the first Verse of this Gospel tell us all that is here said alludes to the Death Passion and Resurrection of our Lord as well as to his Ascension and to the coming of the Holy Ghost Then certainly our Mother Church reads us this Lesson to day with intention to draw from us such like Acts of Faith as our Saviour desired the Apostles should make when he told them he was shortly to dye and shortly to rise again 2. And since this Parable aims at raising consolation in the Apostles hearts out of the disconsolate Death and Passion of their Lord and Master by vertue of the Faith they had in his future Resurrection after his Death Assuredly it is now our parts that are Christians to make the Cross of Christ our chief content the Death of our Saviour the onely hope we have to live and his Resurrection the ground of our Faith that by vertue of his Blessed and Incorrupted Body risen from his Grave our corrupted flesh and blood shall rise again and be made partakers of those heavenly Joys which he hath prepared for all that do firmly believe in him and live according to the Rules of Christian belief 3. Note that amongst those Rules a Principal one is read unto us this day of believing firmly that all the sorrows this world can afford us are not able to rob us of the future joys prepared for us in Heaven if from erring Infidels we become right believing Christians and live according to the light of Truth The Faith of Jesus Christ that is if we do such Actions in Vertue of that Faith as We pray to day we may do say then the Prayer and see how pat it is to this Doctrine of the Church On the fourth Sunday after Easter The Antiphon Joh. 16. v. 5. I Go to him that sent me but because I have spoken these things unto you sorrow hath filled your hearts Alleluja Vers Tarry with us O Lord Alleluja Resp For night draweth on Alleluja The Prayer O God who makest the mindes of thy faithful to be of one accord grant unto thy people that they may love what thou commandest and desire what thou doest promise that amongst worldly varieties there we may fix our hearts where are true joys The Illustration O Beloved what a Prayer is here what an elevated language doth the holy Ghost speak in to day behold hold a whole Sermon in a few lines what preacher needeth other Text then this Prayer to dilate upon even till the day of Judgement shall I speak a big word upon this Prayer be it but with us as this day we pray and we are even with God himself at our journeys end and why should we despair thereof since in vain we are bid to pray for this if it were not by Prayer to be obtained beg it then beloved on your often bended knees beg it earnestly fervently heartily and doubt not but it will be granted for God doth not feed us with fond hopes of what he will not grant if we so a k it as we ought But stay how comes it that with so much plenty of Spirit we finde to day so little seeming connexion with the Epistle and Gospel which yet I am confident will prove both as it were eminentially contained in this admirable Prayer And first observe how suitable it is for holy Church to pray thus when we are now in the time that Jesus Christ prepared his Apostles to be content to leave him or at least that he should leave them How often did he command them resignation on all occasions to the will of Almighty God was not this the very form of his Prayer Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Matth. 6.10 Hence the Church begs to day that we who believe in Christ may live all of one minde and since it is morally impossible so many men should be consenting all in one therefore we see the prayer gives that to God saying it is he
be reall and not verball onely to be operative not idle or lazy for here the tongue is opposed to truth as dissimulation to sincerity and the word to the work as empty air to a purse full of money or as froth is to beer or wine To conclude hence we are taught further that we must not onely be effectually charitable but also we are bound to be affectionately so for it little avails to give alms unlesse we also love the poor whom we relieve and therefore love them because we relieve Christ in them and unlesse we give thus we sell our selves for popular applause by giving away our substance to purchase the empty air the shadows of vain commends and so lose a divine blessing as to the children of God to get a morall one as to be esteemed humane fathers of the world The Application 1. HItherto it hath appeared how exactly holy Church recommends unto us the practise of charity and truely this dayes Epistle confirms us in the same practise while it runnes wholly upon the subject of love so high that it seems to exceed even the last sundayes act of charity commanding then to love our enemies because now it exhorts us to do more then love them when v. 16. it invites to die for them also if need be which yet a true love of enemies involves as our Saviour did for us to shew his love unto us 2. And least we should pretend to love and not do it really see how the master of this Art S. John Evangelist in the last verse of this Epistle bids us take heed we do not feign the part we ought to act in earnest for he tells us 't is not enough to say we love unlesse we do it too no he obligeth us to love in deed to love in truth lest we seem to mock Almighty God by giving out we mean to act the best part of his sacred sonne his loving unto death those he pretended once to love according to that of the Evangelist Christ when he loved his people he loved them to his end that is he died for love of them 3. Hence we may safely say those are unworthy of the gift of love who have not in their hearts and eyes the holy fear of God as truely those can never have who dare to mock his sacred sonne by their dissembling love that is not reall No Christians no we are not yet in heaven where we cannot erre here we must carry fear before our eyes lest losing it we lose our labours too for without this holy fear we cannot work out our salvation nor can we hope to please his heavenly majesty unlesse we fear his power who is as well our Governour as our God and as we must love his Deity so we must fear his Government Whence it is holy Church most properly prayes to day as above The Gospel Luke 14. v. 16. c. 16. But he said to him A certain man made a great supper and called many 17. And he sent his servant at the houre of supper to say to the invited That they should come because now all things are ready 18. And they began all at once to make excuse The first said to him I have bought a farm and I must needâ— go forth and see it I pray thee hold me excused 19. And another said I have bought five yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them I pray thee hold me excused 20. And another said I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come 21. And the servant returning told these things unto his Lord. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant Go forth quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and the poor and feeble and blind and lame bring in hither 22. And the servant said Lord it is done as thou didst command and yet there is place 23. And the Lord said to the servant Go forth into the wayes and hedges and compell them to enter that my house may be filled 24. But I say to you that none of those men that were called shall taste of my supper The Explication 16. THis parable is almost the same that was mentioned Mat. 22.2 only there in a different way time and place as under the name of a dinner and here it is brought in under the name of a supper And there are divers senses made upon this supper Some call it a parable of the Incarnation life and death of Christ and thus S. Matthew seems to take it calling it a dinner as to the Church militant and a supper to the Church triumphant Others apply this parable unto the Blessed Sacrament and those make God the Father master of this feast his sacred Sonne the feast it self made of his blessed body and bloud and in favour of this opinion the holy Church at this time reads this Gospel as alluding to the flowing feast of Corpus Christi But yet for all that the literall sense of this Gospel alludes to the last supper of heavenly glory for that is the true supper which ends the laborious day time and begins eternall rest that never shall have end so though many may be cast out of doors after the dinner of the Church militant yet none can be cast out after they once enter to this triumphant supper And for that cause the most genuine sense of this place alludes as S. Gregory saith hom 36. to the society of eternall sweetnesse and glory Where note that great signifies here all the degrees of greatnesse such a supper as none could be greater either for the rarity of the dainties and banquets thereof or for the splendour and duration of it whereof S. Paul 1. Cor. 2. v. 9. sayes Eye hath not seen nor hath ear heard neither hath it ascended into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love him And to this supper he called many by many are here understood no lesse then even all the Jews who were the true Church and people of God and were called by the Patriarchs and Prophets by John the Baptist by Christ himself while he lived amongst them 17. But by his servants whom he sent are properly meant the Apostles left by him to convert these Jews as well as other nations And by the bower of supper here mentioned is understood the resurrection of our Saviour for then and not till then were all things ready for this great supper of glory because then he brought with him from his grave a multitude of blessed souls who therefore were in Paradise as he promised the thief to be that very day he died because they were in his impassible presence that is to say when he was pleased to allow his body the benefit of all the gifts due to glorious bodies so though they were not in the finall place of eternall rest untill they did ascend with him to heaven yet they were set at the table of glory with him and were carried
up sitting at this feast into the great presence-chamber of the sacred Trinity the Empyreall heaven and after his Ascension his servants the Apostles went round about the world to invite more and to tell them the great supper of glory was now ready for all that would go to it such way as thâ—se inviters would lead them namely in the high rode of professing and observing the faith and law of Christ 18. By all excusing themselves is here literally understood the Jewish nation whose eye was no further bent upon religion then as they expected a Messias that should make them all rich so grosly they understood the heavenly riches promised by the Messias as they believed them to be temporall estates And therefore here the first excuse is made by plea of necessity to looke after worldly wealth represented by the purchased village which was said to be newly bought by him that was content to sell the kingdom of heaven for a patch of earth But Saint Gregory hom 36. in Evang. notes the ill manners of this civility when the excusant sayes I pray thee have me excused for he calls it pride in the action though it seems humility in the voyce because he disdained heaven and preferred earth 19. The second excuse insists upon an other notable addiction of the Jewes to worldly wealth namely their huge great stocks they gloried in upon their grounds which we read Abraham Isaack Jacob and Job abounded in and which were looked on as the greatest blessings God could give so in regard of earthly stocks of Cattle they contemned the greater stock of Glory in the next world But St. Gregory in the place last cited will have these five yoak of oxen allude to our five senses distracting us from all heavenly objects 20. St. Gregory cited as above understands this place of carnall sinne the greatest impediment between a soul and glory of all others for here the excuser askes no pardon but boldly sayes he cannot come it seems he that could not wish he were able was wholly unable as well as he was absolutely unwilling while he did not say he would come another time as the former excuses might import but absolutely professed he could not come he had sure as little will as power and therefore he might have added he neither could nor would Though others more favourably say this place alludes onely to the excessive use of the lawfull marriage-bed which then is used in excesse when it is made a pretence to hinder us from the service of Almighty God And S. Ambrose expresseth much to this sense in few words saying The love of earthly things is like a birdlime upon the spirituall wings of our souls hindring her flight up to heaven But S. Augustine applies these three excuses to the three things that include all sorts of worldly pelf concupiscence of the flesh concupiscence of the eye and pride of life The first excuse reports to the pride that man had to see himself Lord of a Mannour The second to concupiscence of the eye to see a rich stock of cattell cover his grounds The third to concupiscence of the flesh that made this his excuse from going to heaven as if he did not hope for greater pleasure there and indeed riches and pleasure are the chief impediments mortalls have between them and eternall blisse 21. This place of the Parable alludes to Christ speaking of himself as servant to his heavenly Father and telling him the Rich men of the Jewes were all so transported with the love of the world as they gave no ear to the invitation of the eternal word calling them to everlasting rest and glory and that then his Father bid him apply himself to the poorer sort of Jewes which to effect was done when S. Matthew Chap. 21. 31. sayes to the Pharisees Scribes Doctours and high Priests rejecting Christ The Publicanes and whores shall go before you in the Kingdome of God as also the last shall be first and the first the last Others think this verified in the choyce Christ made of Fisher-men for his Apostles and of other poor Mechanicks rather then of Scribes and Pharisees as 1 Cor. 1.27 God chose the infirm things of this world to confound all the strength thereof and fooles to confound wise men and this to encourage the most contemptible creatures on the earth to aym at as great riches as heaven can afford if they live according to the rule and law of Christ 22. And here our Saviour urgeth his heavenly Father since all the poor people amongst the Jewes are not able to fill up the Court of heaven that as yet there may be more invited and then he went aside from the Jewes to the Samaritans and Gentiles converting them and so inviting of them to his heavenly Glory which is the Supper here spoken of 23. But we are here to note that Christ looked upon these Gentiles in respect of his beloved people the Jewes as he would do upon men that have no poor beeings in Townes or Villages but are forced to shelter themselves under the banks on high wayes and to covet the loane of hedges for their shelter from winds and weather and therefore being himself after his resurrection to ascend to heaven he sent his Apostles over all the world to find out such poor Gentiles as these who in respect of the Jewes were not held worthy in Gods sight to be esteemed as Masters of Townes Villages or houses but were like vagabonds yet these not filling heaven neither see how he makes provision for relapsed Christians also as men equally miserable with such vagabonds and those he will have by Ecclesiastical censures nay by penal lawes to be even compelled or forced to return to their belief again which yet is not a course used to any but revolted Christians such as once were in the lap of the true Church by holy Baptisme and they indeed as having once been children and Subjects of the mother Church of Christ may upon revolt be compelled back again whereas Pagans Jewes or Infidels cannot be thus forced by penal lawes but must in a sweet way be gained to a right belief through perswasion not compulsion 24. This verse is onely the excluding those from eternal glory who being invited to it will not leave temporal riches and pleasures to purchase the Kingdome of heaven but willingly wallow in the mire of worldly wealth rather then they will leave that to enjoy eternal felicity and glory The Application 1. AS this Gospel in the sense of the Expositours alludes to the Blessed Sacrament whose Feast is now flowing so is it fit we should observe therein such lessons as we are bound to learn and put in execution for our more worthy receiving which we may for brevity sake reduce to two the one a reverential awe or holy fear of unworthinesse the other a fervent act of love and charity because in this Sacrament is not onely the body and bloud of
so have their names written in the book of life are predestinate and cannot choose but be saved But this is farre from the genuine sense of the Apostle who had before so much inculcated perseverance in good works as in this Epistle we have heard his meaning therefore must be that those who by Baptisme are first adopted children of God and by a holy life preserve their favour in the sight of God are at last written in the book of glory as at first they were in the book of grace as who should say he did exhort them that were first innocents to be at last Saints and so deserve to be finally inrolled Commanders of the heavenly Militia after they had been once listed souldiers of the militant Church of Christ The Application 1. THe doctrine of sincerity last Sunday inculcated is this day prosecuted by S. Paul to the Philippians and lest they should misunderstand him he tells them plainly he requires as sincere a Christianity in them as they found to be in himself while he makes his own rule of life their pattern and example to follow him by and doth not fear to fright them from their onely nominall Christianity by declaring those to be enemies to the Crosse of Christ who do not really sincerely take up the same and carry it as well as they pretend to do it who have not their conversation in heaven while they presume to hope their bodies shall go thither though their souls be wallowing here in the mire of flesh and bloud Finally lest they should be deterr'd from following S. Pauls Rule out of a despair of arriving to his perfection in Christianity which in those dayes was and still should be Synonyma with saintity he exhorts them at least to follow the examples of the two virtuous Matrones here set before their eyes Euodia and Syntiche as also those of his sincere companion though not an Apostle and of the rest of his Coadjutors in the propagation of the faith of Christ 2. Yes yes beloved 't is a holy sincerity that now our charity must bring along with her to her journeys end and therefore no marvell 't is two dayes together inculcated by holy Church nor can there be a greater sincerity then that to day before our eyes that of the Primitive Church and consequently that is it we should endeavour now to have indeed and not to fain for as we glory to be Christian Catholicks so we should endeavour to be as sincerely such as they from whom we are descended 3. And for as much as holy Church knows rightly well there is no saintity on earth free from iniquity no sincerity that is not waited on by some hypocrisie or other therefore while she preacheth perfection she prudently prayes for absolution especially now that she draws to the close of her annuall piety now that she brings her charity towards her journeys end lest vanity runne away with part of her holy labours For that is the safest step to saintity which tramples on iniquity treads it under foot those stand firmest in the grace of God that are alwayes begging new favours by asking pardon for old offences and they shew sincerity of their love to God who desire to cancell all their obligations to the devil who are not content with pardon for their guilt of sinne unlesse they may be loosened from the bands thereof from their affections unto sinne And for as much as charity is taught to march out of the field of this life with such a sincerity with such a sincere desire of saintity Therefore holy Church brings her towards her journeyes end now praying for it as above The Gospel Mat. 9. v. 18. c. 18 As he was speaking this unto them behold a certain Governour approched and adored him saying Lord my daughter is even now dead but come lay thy hand upon her and she shall live 19 And Jesus rising up followed him and his disciples 20 And behold a woman which was troubled with an issue of bloud twelve years came behind him and touched the hemme of his garment 21 For she said within her self If I shall touch onely his garment I shall be safe 22 But Jesus turning and seeing her said have a good heart daughter thy faith hath made thee safe And the woman became whole from that hour 23 And when Jesus was come into the house of the Governour and saw minstrels and the multitude keeping a stirre he said 24 Depart for the wench is not dead but sleepeth And they laughed him to scorn 25 And when the multitude was put forth he entred in and held her hand and the maid arose 26 And this bruit went forth into all that countrey The Explication 18. THat is as he was giving a reason why his disciples did not fast so rigorously as those of John the Baptist did and as also the Pharisees were wont to do which were onely voluntary and not legall fasts Then came in this Governour who was a chief officer in the Synagogue called Jairus which signifies Illuminatour or teacher of the people By Adoration is here literally meant falling at Christs feet which yet he did not do before news was brought him by his servants that now his daughter was dead lo then he believes firmly and in testimony thereof prostrates himself and in the very manner of his language saying now my daughter is dead he blames his not believing and asking help sooner but to make amends for his not hoping Christ could cure his sick daughter he invites him to go home and revive her though she now were dead not that he doubted but his power at a distance would suffice but that he had heard Christ was accustomed to touch those whom he healed in Capharnaam and this was on the sea coast of Galilee not farre from the same town famous for Christ his miracles 19. That this is the genuine sense of the verse above is gathered the rather from Christ his going immediately to undertake the cure even after the same manner namely by a touch of his sacred hand for we do not hear any rebuke given to Jairus for want of Faith but Christ resting satisfied his belief was full resolved to give him full satisfaction to his Faith and hope by reviving as was desired his dead daughter taking his disciples as witnesses to this his gracious condescending and working this miracle Yet this notwithstanding the Centurions Faith was above this of Jairus who onely asked a word saying Mat. 8.8 speak the word onely and held himself not worthy the honour of Christ his entring his house 20 21. 22. Note this woman was a Gentile and it wants not mystery to have the twelve yeares of her diseases continuation upon her here made mention of in regard it alludes to the twelve years age of Jairus daughter whom Christ was going to raise from death to life and thereby gives us to understand Christ by his ordaining to do those two miracles at