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A46817
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The life & death of S. Luke delivered in a sermon on S. Lukes day, before the University at Great S. Maries in Cambridge / by David Jenner ...
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Jenner, David, d. 1691.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing J660; ESTC R1625
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10,725
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44
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Mark before his Ordination Nor secondly may we without injury to his pious memory pass by his uncessant pains-taking and diligence in the Ministery For after once his clouds of fear were dissipated his doubts resolved and his spirit animated and steeled with courage he enters the list he fights the Lords Battles more Romano undauntedly and overlooking all worldly concerns as of less moment he makes the Preaching of the Gospel to be his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his chiefest concernment And thirdly most remarkable is his constancy Neither the frowns of adversity nor the smiles of fortune nor any Syrenical charms or allurements of prosperity could ever draw or court him off from his duty He is not like Lots Wife that he should look back nor to Demas that he should through an inordinate love of the World forsake Paul whose Son he was in the Faith No though all had forsaken him yet not Luke for Only Luke is with me In the Verses antecedent to the Text is laid down the apostasie and back-sliding of some who professed Christianity and in particular of Demas who had forsaken Paul being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 More a lover of Money than of God And as for Titus the necessitous affairs of the Church had caused him to hoise Sail and steer his Course unto Dalmatia The like Summons had Crescens into Galatia or rather Gallia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius supposeth So that only Luke is Pauls constant associate and companion forsaking all others he adheres close to Paul Omnia postponens Apostolum semper secutus est saith S. Ambrose And the Translator of Saint Jerome into Greek affirms That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke attended Paul in all his voyages until they both safely arrived at Rome the then Metropolis of the World and whilest Paul sojourned at Rome being detained there as a prisoner it is very probable as may be gathered out of Epiphanius that S. Luke left him there for a while and travelled with Crescens into France where our Author says he did make his chief residence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there Preached the Gospel But Gregory Nazianzen allotting unto every Apostle and Evangelist his several and proper Diocess gives unto Luke Achaia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But these things are disputable and therefore let us return back to Rome where whilest S. Luke was resident he spends part of his time in Writing for being commanded either by Peter or Paul or rather as Chemnitius believes by both he compiles the History of our Saviour which is called The Gospel of Luke and another Book intituled The Acts of the Holy Apostles Both he wrote in opposition unto those two grand Hereticks and Forgers of Falsities scil Merinthus and Cerinthus which latter held Christs Kingdom to be Earthly and full of carnal pleasures consisting in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meats Drinks and the like after the mode of the Turkish and Mahometan Terrestrial Kingdom yea he was so notoriously wicked as that S. John seeing him come into the Bath when he was bathing hastily ran out fearing lest he should tempt Providence to cause the Roof to fall down upon him or the Earth to open and swallow him up in case he should presume to stay and be in the same place with such an Heretick and Blasphemer as then Cerinthus was accounted Against these two Cerinthus and Merinthus it is said that Saint Luke wrote that so the Gospel in its purity and verity might be transmitted down to posterity whereas had Saint Luke lived in silence the Christian World would have been imposed upon and a false Gospel ushered in by these Hereticks instead of the true one as appears by a story S. Jerome quotes out of Tertullian in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastick Writers which is too long to be repeated here Moreover it is worth our noting that if S. Luke had desisted from writing then many excellent truths necessary to be known would have been concealed such as Peters miraculous Releasment out of Prison by the assistance of an Angel As also the Generation of John the Baptist the Angels Advent unto the Virgin Mary Elizabeths and Saint Maries Hymns the Angels appearing to the Shepherds the Doxology of the Heavenly Host Anna and Symeons Testimony of Christ the Parable of Dives and Lazarus of the Publican Zacheus the Crooked Woman of the Ten Lepers As also of the Pharisee and Publican going up to pray and of the unjust Judge who feared neither God nor Man Et alia multa sunt quae inveniri possunt à solo Lucâ dieta esse c. Irenaeus adversus Haereses Nor is this the only commendation of S. Luke That he hath thus communicated more to Posterity than the rest of the Evangelists but also we may add one Flower more to the Garland of his praise to wit this That he hath not only done all well but also all so excellently as that Res gestas non narrare quà m suis coloribus depictas omnium oculis praeponere videtur he hath so exactly delineated and as it were to the life painted out the History of our Saviour and the Acts of the Apostles as that Apud multos Pictoris nomen obtinuit by many he was called The Painter From whence some did phancy that the Images of our Blessed Saviour and of the Virgin Mary were by S. Luke first Limned and Painted out the which two said Images some superstitious persons pretend to have kept unto the days of Irenaeus Hitherto we have beheld this Bright Planet running his race thorough the Christian Orb illuminating the dark corners of the Heathen World with those Beams of Evangelical Light which he had borrowed from the great Luminary of Heaven and Earth even from Jesus Christ the Fountain of Light Hitherto we have seen him shine gloriously even as the Sun in his full Meridian But now to show the mutability of all created Beings this shining Planet is at length totally eclipsed by the interposition of the Opace Dark Body of Death And no wonder for when a Man hath labored hard all day and finished his work it is but reasonable that at night he should go to rest And this leads us to speak a word of his Death which was 1. Timely 2. Natural 1. Timely for when the Sun had run his Annual course Fourscore and four times over his hoary-head as S. Jerome reports he then and not before is mowed down by the impartial Sythe of Death and as a Sheaf of Corn fully ripened richly laden he is carried by the Harvest-Men the Good Angels into Christs Barn 2. Secondly As his Death was timely in good old age so it was kindly and natural not violent Nothing but the multitude of years a burden too heavy for spent and fainting Nature bows down his aged head He is not carried up to Heaven in the Fiery Chariot of Martyrdom but rather the old cracked Vessel of his Body springing a Leak suffers Shipwrack and is lost in the midst of an Ocean of Humors incident unto Old Age where as his ever Blessed Soul the Passenger within swims safe through the Waves and Billows of this troublesome VVorld unto the happy Land of Canaan and is lodged in Abrahams bosome for evermore And what now remains but that we attend the Corps of this deceased Saint unto his Grave which is in Ephesus for there he was buried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophylact informs us But S. Jerome makes Achaia and Isidorus Bythinia to be the Stage on which Death acted this Tragedy and cut asunder the Thred of his Life Whether this or that opinion be truest we will no longer dispute only in this we are assured that they all agree to wit That S. Luke was twice Interred and had two honorable Funerals The first was immediately after his Death the second was in the time of Constantine who in the twentieth year of His Reign did out of honor to S. Luke take up his Bones together with the Bones of the Apostle S. Andrew and Timothy and caused them to be carried as were Josephs unto Canaan so theirs unto Constantinople 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Where 〈…〉 nobly Interred them and then left them to rest until the last Trumpet shall sound and summon all Flesh to appear at Gods Tribunal where shall be rendred unto every Man according unto the works of his own hands And now that we may be healed of all our Spiritual Diseases and so live on Earth as that we may hereafter live in Glory and there with S. Luke and the whole Quire of Heaven sing forth to all Eternity the Hallelujahs and Praises of our Creator let us devoutly pray in the words of our Church and say Almighty God! who calledst S. Luke the Physitian whose praise is in the Gospel to be a Physitian of the Soul May it please Thee by the wholesome Medicines of his Doctriâ—◠〈…〉 of our Souls through thâ—… 〈…〉 Christ our Lord. Amen Gloria Deo FINIS
it is humbly conceived Truth cannot consist with this conjecture in as much as it is evident That either S. Luke did not exist in our Saviours time or if he did yet that he never had the happiness to see him in the Flesh nor ever was he an eye-witness unto to any of his Miracles the which certainly he would have been had he been one of the Seventy But what need we dispute this matter any further seeing himself hath decided it in the Negative in his Prologue to Theophilus S. Luk. 1.1 Others ascribe his Conversion unto the powerful Ministry of S. Peter who whilest Bishop of Antioch had Luke for one say they of his Catechumens which were some times adult as well as young persons and instructed him in the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith Hence it is that S. Basil Orat. 25. calls Luke the Disciple or Scholar of Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But the third opinion seems to be the truest and it is that of Tertullian in his Fourth Book against Marcion which Heretick endeavored to invalidate the Gospel of Saint Luke There our Author maintains That Luke was after our Saviour and most of the Apostles Certè tantò posterior quantò posterioris Apostoli sectator Pauli sine dubio c. Tertul. in Marcion And in the following words he intitles Paul to be Illuminator Lucae The Converter of Luke for so Pammelius interprets that phrase and seconds it with this reason Quòd fidei lumen Lucae insinuerat c. because Paul instrumentally had conveyed the light of Faith and sound Religion into the dark and blind understanding of Luke who before was alienated from the Life of God by reason of that Cimmerian darkness ignorance and spiritual blindness that was in him naturally but now by the safe convoy of S. Pauls Doctrine he is entred into the marvellous Liberty of the Children of God So then you may now behold S. Luke as a Tree transplanted by Gods own hand into a better Soyl and therefore let us go and see what Fruit he brings forth Is he a barren fruitless Fig-tree Verily no such matter for Plantae translatio est plantae perfectio according to the Herbalists Maxim This our new Convert is as full of Christian works as of words do we but narrowly observe him and we shall ever find him Remis incumbentem diligent in the practice of Religion As he professeth Christ so he lives Christ He is not like some late Enthusiasts who talk much of Religion and have their mouths full of Divine Seraphick Discourses but they are vox praeterea nihil only an empty sound little or nothing of Works of Charity and true Piety appearing in the whole current of their lives Such as these are the Trees full of Blossoms without Fruit that are reserved to cursing These are they who pretend to a newer Light than is revealed in the Gospel and to a new way of greater purity and sanctity than ever yet was found out But in their lives and actions are as full of black spots as others These are they who as so many Drones in the Hive of Gods Church only buz and make a noise but bring in no Honey nor bring forth any Fruit meet for repentance no ways beautifying and adorning the Gospel which they profess with holy circumspect lives and conversations Such as these open the mouths of Turks and Pagans to blaspheme and scandalize Christianity it self But God be praised it is otherwise with our Evangelist S. Luke for no sooner does he know his duty but does it and adds double diligence to work out his salvation with fear and trembling We no where read that he ever was idle for whilest an Heathen he spent the Golden Sands of his fleeting time in doing good to the Bodies of Men and when a Christian he is not come to a quietus est nor does he sue for a Writ of Ease but moving in an higher sphere doubles his diligence and spends his precious minutes in doing good not only to the Bodies but also to the Souls of Men So that with the one hand like the charitable and tender-hearted Samaritan he pours Oyl into the wounds of the distressed Levites and with the other he applies the Balm of Gilead and many rich Evangelical Salvoes to the Plague-sores of Mens hearts He does not vainly boast of his Faith as the Gnosticks of old saying I have Faith but demonstrates the same by his good Works for he well knows that although good Works are not a sufficient ground for Confidence nor a sure foundation for Faith yet they are certain evidences of it As S. Jam. 2.18 I will shew thee my faith by my works And S. Bernard Bona opera sunt spei quaedam seminaria charitatis incentiva non fiduciae fundamenta c. Comfort may be increased by good works though not built upon them they do manifest an interest in Christ though not merit any Clemens Alexandrinus hath noted well that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. By grace we are saved but not without good works and therefore S. Luke does wisely joyn Faith and Works together for Works without Faith are of no value and Faith without Works is dead being alone S. Jam. 2.20 He is well advised that happiness is not intailed upon the knowledge of our Masters will but on the doing of the same If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them S. Joh. 13.17 Herein he directly treads in those blessed steps and walks in that narrow path of holiness which his Saviour had chalked out for him And as Christ so he was famous for works of Piety and true Charity nay to raise our encomium of him a little higher This our Evangelist had by his holy exemplary life in his Christian station acquired unto himself such renown and honor as that his fame ecchoed throughout the Christian World Witness Ignatius in his Epistle unto the Ephesians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Further note we that S. Luke spent his time after his Conversion chiefly in 1. The Ministry 2. Or in Writing 1. First in doing the work of an Evangelist giving himself wholly to the fulfilling that his Ministery which he had received Though by the way we cannot forget his modest unwillingness at the first to take upon him so great so weighty an office as is the Ministerial Function Such was his Christian humility and self-denial as that he was hardly perswaded to put his hand to Gods Plough But yet let none think that this his aversness did spring from a desire to live in idleness and to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof for he was not ignorant that the sloathful servant was to be beaten with many stripes but rather impute it unto an holy jealousie of his own insufficiency which without doubt was the only obstacle and remora in his way to holy Orders The same unwillingness we read in Isidorus to have been in S.