expositors as above because it was a thing unheard of that the dead should rise againe so that Faith is here recommended to us for the vertue which the Scribes and Pharises were too blame not to allow of at all but conceived good workes without faith were enough to save their soules as in like manner the Heretickes of this Time are equally too blame to think that faith alone is sufficient without good works whereas Catholikes are taught both are absolutely necessary and therefore Pray as above that we may retaine in our lives and manners that is to say in our good workes the faith we have in the Resurrection of our Lord. The Gospel St. Iohn c. 20. v. 19. c. 19 Therefore when it was late that day the first of the Sabbaths and the doores were shut where the Disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jewes Jesus came and stood in the midst and saith to them Peace be to you 20 And when he had said this he shewed them his hands and side The Disciples therefore were glad when they saw our Lord. 21 He said therefore to them againe Peace be to you As my Father hath sent me I doe also send you 22 When he said this he breathed upon them and he saith to them receive ye the Holy Ghost 23 Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them and whose you shall retaine they are retained 24 But Thomas one of the twelve who is called Didymus was not with them when Jesus came 25 The other Disciples therefore said to him we have seene our Lord. But he said to them unlesse I see in his hands the print of the nailes and put my Finger into the place of the nailes and put my hand into his side I will not beleeve 26 And after eight dayes againe his Disciples were within and Thomas with them Iesus commeth the doores being shut and stood in the midst and said peace be to you 27 Then saith he to Thomas put in thy finger hither and see my hands and bring hither thy hand and put it into my side and be not incredulous but faithfull 28 Thomas answered and said unto him my Lord and my God 29 Jesus saith to him because thou hast seen me Thomas thou hast beleeved Blessed are they that have not seene and have beleeved 30 Many other signes did Jesus in the sight of his Diseiples which are not written in this Book 31 And these are written that you may beleeve that Iesus Christ is the Son of God and that beleeving you may have life in his name The Explication 19. That this apparition of Christ was his first to his Apostles and to them for fear assembled all but Thomas together in a Chamber in Hierusalem is most undoubted by this Text which yet may seeme to clash with what the Angels said to the Maries as Saint Mark cap. 16. v. 7. reports in the close of last Sundayes Gospel For by that verse it seemes the Maries were to goe after the Apostles into Galilee as if they had been fled for feare from Hierusalem and as if Christ had promised his first apparition after his resurrection should be in Galilee but upon deliberate examine it will be found the Angell spake of that apparition in Galilee as the most celebrated because it was before so great a number as well of Disciples of Christ his friends as before his Apostles who were not onely his chosen servants and his friends also designed to be imployed in a higher service namely that of Apostolate So this considered there is no scruple of contradiction in the Evangelists if here we finde Saint Iohn say this apparition of Christ to his Apostles assembled ten of them together in Hierusalem was his first of all though afterwards they fled for fear into Galilee and had againe the honour to be present when Christ did there appeare to above five hundred at once as Saint Paul avoucheth 1 Cor. 15. v. 6. besides it is evident by the Text of this verse that this was Christ his first apparition to his Apostles because it was late that day namely on Easter day on Sunday the first of the Sabbath so called from the dignity it had to be made ever after the first day of the Christian week and so their Sabbath day as bringing them newes of the eternall rest which Christ his resurrection upon that day had purchased unto them and if we observe the story as Saint Iohn relates it there was reason why it should be late that day for first the Maries were to goe from the Tombe to the City then Mary Magdalene runing away before the rest seemes first to have met Peter and Iohn onely and comming back with or after them who run to the Tombe to see if it were true that Mary had told them and returning afterwards to get together their whole number of Apostles if they could though with seare of the Iewes to consult what was to be done by them and in the meane time Mary comming back to the Sepulchre and weeping there had the honour to have our Saviour appeare unto her and then to goe open mouth to the Apostles and to tell them she was not now to seek but had found her Lord and that he had told her he was to ascend to his heavenly Father so before all this was done the day must needs passe a pace away and therefore no marvell it was late when our Saviour appeared the doores being shut where the Disciples were gathered together probably in the same roome where Christ with them made his last Supper This place argues Christ may be in the Sacrament without extension of Parts as well as he could with his whole Body enter into the room where his Apostles were and had the doors close shut upon them for fear of the Jews whatsoever the Hereticks pretend to the contrary this being as strange a Penetration as the other is a Transubstantiation and a Celation or Covering the Order of his Corporeal Parts not amassed nor confounded one with another how ever not requiring such extension as is naturally requisite to their dimensions since it is as easie for God to keep his real Body under the Sacramental Species without commensuration to place as it was for him to pass with his whole Body thorough the walls without division made by his miraculous Penetration of their Parts being therefore they must grant this because his Apostle says it how can they with modesty deny the other which himselfe avouched when he said Take and eat this is my Body Mark cap. 14. v. 22. Luk. cap. 22. v. 19. and which his Apostles took and believed in the Sense that now the Roman Churches believes and defends it against all the opposers of that most sacred Truth But observe the first salute of our Saviour saying peace be to you which is to say all good betide you fear no more I have fought your battailes and bring you the tidings of a
words of the Prophet Isaias are above explicated in the Present tense for the reasons alledged yet they were fitly spoken in the future and prophetically too by Isaias when he foretold what Iohn should say to us in the present tense at his coming or else Isaias might begin with the Baptists voice to say of him prophetically I am the voice of one crying in the Wilderness prepare the wayes of our Lord. Though if in this future tense we allow even the Baptist also to speak it will not be unproper to him for however his principle Office be that of forerunner or pointer out of our Saviour to be the long expected Messias come at last now standing in the midst of them yet he may in a secondary respect be allowed the Title and Office of a Prophet also telling us for the future what will follow if we believe in Christ and cast our cares upon him namely that all shall goe well with us both in the outward and inward man since our Saviour avowes him to be a Prophet though not onely such but more his Fore-runner his humane Angel going before the face of his Divine Humanity to tell us that this Man-Divine Christ Iesus was true God as well as Man who came to redeem and save the whole world The Application 1. AS the Epistle so the Gospel to bids us prepare the way for Iesus his Nativity alluded to all over but clearly mentioned in the close of the Gospel while the Fore-runner of our Lord is set before our eyes to day giving Instructions how to demean our selves in the Sacrament of Confession whereunto the Baptisme of Pennance unto Remission of Sins preached by the Baptist here alludes 2. How that Confession shall be rightly made is told in the penultime or last Verse but one of the Gospell doe as the Exposition of it bids and it will be rightly done at least prepare for it now that you may performe it well at Christmas 3. Now that we may doe this see if the holy Church could frame a fitter Prayer than what She sayes to day If not Then say it as above and so confess there is an admirable Harmony between the Preaching and the Praying parts of holy Churches services On Sunday within the Octaves of the Nativity The Antiphon LUKE 1. ver 25. THe Child Jesus did profit in age and wisdome before God and Man Vers The word became Flesh Allelujah Resp And dwelt in us Alleluja NOte this Antiphon above being much to the same purpose with the 40. Verse of this Chapter which is the last in this dayes Gospel I doe not change it though differing a little from that because I find it thus appointed by the Church The Prayer OMnipotent Sempiternall God direct our actions in thy good pleasure that in the Name of thy Beloved Son we may deserve to abound in Good Works The Illustration HOly Church hath hitherto taught us in our Prayers to Court down God from Heaven and now he is come unto us little in Appearance great in Power an Infant amongst men see how this day our Prayer make Infants of us too such as know not which way to turn but are glad to beg directions of Almighty God that our Actions may be done according to his will and pleasure or rather that his holy will may be our actions for so the words of the Prayer import when we beg that God will direct our actions in his good pleasure as who should say if he so please they shall be well done nor can we indeed please him in our doings if he doe not please to doe well in us For our actions are more his than our own insomuch that when we love God or please him he rather loves and pleaseth himself in us than that we of our selves can love or please his Divine Majesty by any thing we are able to doe And thus we see how with our new-born Iesus we pray like Infants unable to help our selves and for this purpose both the Epistle and Gospel of the day run upon infantile actions the former shewing us that men by Adoption of Grace became new-born Babes of God who were before ancient slaves of the Devill and telling us further how infants must be nurtured and tutoured up even by their own servants as long as they are under age The latter relating how our infant Iesus was this day presented to his Heavenly Father in the Temple as the first gratefull present humane nature durst make a tender of to his offended Majesty in hope thereby to appease his wrath and so confident we are that this will be a present appeasing as well as pleasing that we have no sooner offered him up to his Heavenly Father then we grow bold not onely in the name of this his beloved you to beg we may doe well but presume to hope that in his Name we may even deserve to abound in good workes and with good reason because we acknowledge this infant of Time to be coequal and coeternal God with his Eternal Father and consequently what we doe in his Name since it is more principally done by him than us may merrit the reputation of being abundantly well done and thus we doing it also may deserve to abound in good Works even such as shall not want the happinesse of a plentiful reward of grace in this life and of glory in the next But so that all our desert or merit must be still in his Name as the Prayer professeth inconsequence to what was said upon the close of the two first Prayers in this Book The Epistle GAL. 4. ver 1. c. 1. ANd I say as long as the Heir is a little one he differeth nothing from a Servant although he be Lord of all 2. But is under Tutors and Governours untill the time limited of the Father 3. So we also when we were little ones were serving under the elements of the World 4. But when the fulness of time came God sent his Son made of a Woman made under the Law 5. That he might redeeme them that were under the Law that they might receive the Adoption of Sons 6. And because you are Sons God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father 7. Therefore now he is not a servant but a a son and if a son an heir also by God The Explication 1. ST Paul had in the precedent Chapter told the Galathians that the old Law of the Jews was a Paedagogue or Usher rather to the new Law of Christ and so was to cease when the new Law came This doctrine he follows now here closely saying The Jewes that were the chosen people of God his first begotten as it were and so his heirs were by all the help of their Lawes but as little ones in the sight of God that is as children or infants wanting maturity of yeares and ripenesse of judgement to govern themselves and thus were nothing different from servants
by him that resteth Honourable Sir Your hugely devoted thrice humble and most commanded servant F. P. APPROBATIO IN signe hoc opus cui Titulus Sodalitas Christiana c. Tribus partibus comprehensum diligenter perlegi in quo nihil Fidei aut Pietati Catholicae adversum invenio quinimo est opus doctissimum Authore dignum necnon varia Eruditione adeo refertum ut Verbi Dei Praecones Auditores Factores facile addiscent unde dies praesertim Dominicos cum Christiana devotione impendant Et ex foelici etiam Sacrorum Textuum precum Leiturgicarum mutua adaptatione harmoniam ad Coelestia allicientem abunde experientur Dignissimum proinde judico ut in publicum prodeat Dabam in Collegio nostro Sancto Bonaventurae Sacro Duaci hoc 16 die Decembris milessimo sexcentissimo quinquagessimo primo Fr. Fran. a S. Clara. S. Th. Professor Emeritus ac Provinciae Minister The Approbation HAving diligently read and considered all the three Parts of this First Tome of the Christian Sodality Composed by F. P. And finding it not onely to have nothing in it dissonant to Faith or Christian Piety but on the contrary all things so apposite for the increasing of each as speakes the Author a great Master of both I cannot but judge it worthy to see the publike light whereby many may be both inlightned and inflamed to know and acknowledge the Head of this Sodality and so bee incorporated which is as I suppose the Authors ambition Given the 5 th of January 1652. by Henry Metham Auncient Bachelour and Professor of Divinity The Approbation I Have diligently perused and read over all the Three Parts of the Christian Sodality composed by F. P. wherein I find nothing contrary to Fayth or Piety but all things speaking the Author learned and elegant The Method and Designe of the whole Work is excellent the Illustrations all though new and beaten out by the Authors meditations yet most accute and happy The Explications all most grave and solid The Applications all most Pious and Patheticall The Prayers for each respective Sunday all most propper and apposite Be it therefore Printed as exceeding profitable both to Priest and People Given at Paris this first of Januaary 1652. old stile Iohn Lancaster Professor of Divinity Theolegall of England And Censurer of Books The first Part Of the FIRST TOME Errata In the Epistle Dedicatorie PAge 3. line 1. For Sacrifice read Sacrilege In the Preface Pa 4. l. ult add so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here imports a contraposition without an opposition p. 6. l. 14. for we r. me ibid. l. 24. for we r. me p. 25. l. 5. for ought we r. we ought p. 28. l. 24. for adopt r. adapt In the Book Numb 19. l. 18. r. gave it to the Jewes n. 21. l. 9. r. he makes us n. 45. l. 28. r. is in n. 43. l. 16. r. personality n. 47. l. 18. r. respect n. 50. l. 9. r. premizing n. ib. l. 24. r. those n. 51. l. 4. r. Tetrarch n. 72. l. 35. r. appearing n. 86. l. 1. r modestly n. 105. l. 16. r. act n. 109. l. 4. r. our n. 112. l. 5. r. apostolate n. 114. l. 7. r. recalling ib. l. 16. r. infirmity n. 122. l. 24. r. least one n. 124. l. 8. r. pashing n. 142. l. 1. r. no obligation n. 145. l. 15. r. love is n. 153. l. 7. r. one another n. 161. l. 27. r. faylings are n. ib. l. 28. r. as such n. 162. l. 1. r. explication n. 170. l. 6. r. as if n. 174. l. 28. r. that is to say n. 176. l. 31. r. that to glory n. 189. l. 5. r. of the rock n. 192. l. 23. r. that dilate n. 194. l. 11. r. ought n. 199. l. 26. for of our r. our n. 201. l 2 r. others n. 225. l. 16. add To tempt Job in another kind for another end n. 226. l. 30. r. administer n. 235. l. 30. r. the Text. n. 245. l. 9. r. Arcana n. 248. l. 2. r. but. n. 250. l. 9. r. when n. 253. l. 29. r. creatures n. 256. l. 10. r. not the so much n. 262. l. 20. for an r. a. n. 266. l. 18. r. O that we n. 269. for Tome r. Part. In the Prayers On second Sund. after Advent r. rayse on third Sund. af Adv. r. grace of thy on forth Sund. af Epiph. r. grant In Post Communions In the third Sunday after Epiphany for adopt r. adapt THE Key of the work BY WAY OF PREFACE TO ALL CHRISTIAN READERS WHen I first thought of writing for the Press I was over-prest with a multitude of difficulties as well about the Subject as about the Method and I could never be perswaded to set Pen to Paper before I had armed my self against the common obstacle in all Writers wayes That Books have their Fates from the Capacities of their Readers For I concluded 't was a labour lost to Write and to be laid aside as either not understood or not pleasing to the Reader So I resolved either to Write what might call the Reader aside to make him understand himself as well as me or else to spare my own labour of writing And because I knew no Subject had power enough to command the Reader but that which was of Divine Authority therefore I made choice of Holy Writ and of the Churches Prayers to write upon And finding nothing so common over all the world as a little Book consisting of these two subjects called the Primmer as being the Prime the first or Principle office of a Lay-Christian whereby he makes a demonstration of his dayly bounden duty towards Almighty God in that little abstract of the Breviary which is the Priest his larger Office I conceived nothing so worthy of my paines as to render that little Book intelligible sweet and easie to the People which I perceived was rather said by rote than understood Not that I believe this Primmer was published at first by holy Churches Order without a better Gloss than I can hope to make upon it now but that I conceive devouring time hath eaten out a world of Pious Works that were in being in the Primitive Church and amongst the rest some exposition of the Primmer made or by word of mouth from the Preachers in their Sermons or in their private exhortations by way of Catechisme or else expounded in some book on purpose written to that end as I write this For I cannot think our Pious and our Prudent Mother holy Church would issue out a book of dayly Duty as far above the peoples reach as Heaven is from Earth unlesse the Antiphons Versicles Responsories Prayers Hymnes Lessons and Psalmes thereof were made some way or other intelligible to the common world thus bid to pray Since therefore now I found no exposition of the Primmer extant and yet encountered with the Book in every bodies Pocket in many mens Hands in most mens Mouths that understood not what
they said in saying it and thence grew bold to undervalue it to call it dry and barren Prayer in respect of other Books especially the Manuell consisting indeed of many Prayers derived from the Primmer but more abounding with a greater number made by private persons Pious enough no doubt yet not of such avowed authority as those who made the Primmer Prayers Hence it was I thought no subject fitter to be written on than that which should at once expound the holy Writ and Churches Prayers with all the other parts thereof contained in the Primmer both being so profound and so mysterious as they are Know therefore Christian Reader first The Antiphons are ever such as have report unto the present time or season of the year they are made proper to by holy Church Know secondly they ever are some part of holy Writ appointed by the like Authority or for Epistle or for Gospell of the Day Yet to know this is not enough unlesse you further know the meaning of the word it self that an Antiphon imports as much as a pre-toning of a Tune to follow not unlike the Birds recording in the winter time the tunes they chirp and sing aloud in the summer to the praise of their Creator And hence it is the Chorists or masters of the Quire where holy Office is ever sung in open Churches that allow this happy liberty come up unto the Canon who begins the Psalme and in a low Tone give the Tune to him who takes it thus then sings aloud and leads the Quire after him all singing out the Psalme in loudest voice which was Antiphonized as above pre-toned I mean recorded or pre-tuned by the Chorists first of all Now that you see these Antiphons end here with a Versicle and Responsory as they doe in every Primmer this argues all the Prayers and other parts of holy Churches Service that doe follow are exercises as well of Neighbourly as of Love Divine and that no jar ought to intercede in tempo all affaires between those who are tyed up to a harmony and concordancy in the spirituall duty of good Christians whilst we must be ever ready to answer with a Responsory him that begins with a Versicle to incite us to priase Almighty God and to give a testimony we are at peace with one another before we dare presume to make our joynt petition to the Heavenly Majesty for our own and our neighbours necessities in the following Prayer But of this more anon when we shall say who first prefixt the Antiphons before the Psalmes and Prayers Please gentle Reader onely here to know that hence it was I took the Rise of writing in the Method I observe throughout this Book For since I found the self-same Antiphons that here you have in English to be in all the Primmers of the world in all the severall languages that say this holy Office every day even in the Breviaries of the Priests I did conclude those Antiphons were as Pretonings to the tune of the Mysticall musick of the holy Church that was to follow then when such an Antiphon was read or to speak more plainly these Antiphons did seeme to point out what the Duty was that then we should be at Namely that all the Children of the Church should put in execution the practice of that Doctrine which the Preacher then delivered in the Pulpits when or that Antiphon or else some other part of holy Writ in that dayes service was the Preachers Text. And that we might doe this the better we thought the following Prayer was fitly given to petition grace to doe it Hence I inferred those Prayers must needs extend to more than yet the word Collecta or Collect did import for that betokens onely the collection of the peoples suffrages put into the mouth of the officiating Priest in his own and their behalfs and begging Grace that what the Preachers tell them is their present duty they may execute Religiously But further yet we thought this Prayer this Collect following such an Antiphon and being the open musick which every Christian was to make that day in the ears of the Heavenly Majesty while their hearts were to sing what their lips did say must also keep the Tune of that Antiphon speak I mean to God in the same sense and be as an Epitome or Abstract of the holy Text from whence that Antiphon was taken must be in fine a kind of summe or Quintessence of all the Preaching parts of that dayes Service and must from thence assume the name of Collect as if collecting up in few lines the larger Lessons of the holy Text both in the Epistle and Gospel of that day This I confesse seemed hugely consonant to reason and if it could be made appear would render sure the Prayers of holy Church extreamly proper to the Times and Dayes they were appointed for extreamly reverential extreamly gratefull to the People To see thereby the sweet connexion in all the parts of holy Churches Service This this Beloved is the hard attempt of all the following Book wherein how happy I shall be I know not yet before I hear you say you see it is in some proportion done By the Illustrations of the Prayers shewing how they allude unto how they exhaust indeed the holy Texts both of the Epistle and Gospell of the Day By the Explications of the Sacred Texts shewing how piously safe they are when rightly understood how dangerous when heretically wrested to a contrary sense than in themselves they bear And by the Applications not onely shewing us how to apply the whole Service of the day to our instructions but how to apply indeed our selves to God by a godlinesse of life made sweet and easie to us by the said Applications Now because this sweet connexion of Parts in holy Service is a Jewell rendring the Church extreamly Beautifull in the sight of her sacred Spouse even ravishing the eyes of Men and Angels therefore I shall desire the Reader not to huddle ore this Book as reading it for Recreation but purely for Devotion which yet will recreate the more by how much the lesse thereof is read at once by how much the oftner the Reader turnes to see and to compare the Parts reporting unto one another which generally they doe when in the Print you see the letter to vary the Character to change for ever then the changed letter in the Glosse is part of either Prayer or holy Text to which it doth report and whereunto the Reader shall doe well to turn before he doe proceed to further Lecture that so comparing one place to another he may see the simpathy between the parts compared and seeing this may praise Almighty God in the beauty of his beautifull Spouse the holy Church whose very daily service is a kind of picture of her lovelinesse in the sight of his Heavenly Majesty I doe not undertake to say that all the Churches Prayers are of so deep a sense as
no common Priviledge allowed to others that can be held too great for me in particular But lest the common Reader should be lost in this discourse that begs a School-prerogative I shall crave leave of the more learned to give unto the lesse intelligent examples of those three severall wayes how one thing is included in another As formally when the included doth denominate the includer So we say whiteness is in a wall that is white because whiteness is the form which gives the wall that denomination Virtually when effects are included in their causes as the Son in his Father as the greatest Tree or fairest fruit in the little seed thereof Eminentially when the creatures are contained in the Creator which last kind is the most excellent way of any thing being contained in another because the creature is more perfect in the Creator then any effect is in the virtuall cause thereof or any form in the subject which it denominates Or then indeed the creature is in it self where we find a world of imperfections though in God there can be none at all so to be eminentially contained in a thing is a more noble and excellent way of being included then either virtually or formally to be contained is And thus now and then wee shall find the Word of God to be as it were eminentially contained in the Churches prayers because in them the Holy Ghost seems to communicate himself most like himself most spiritually of all when by the spirit of prayer he opens the sense of the letter in the holy Writ And no marvell since our Saviour left his own sacred Word to the Exposition of the Holy Ghost who was sent on purpose to teach the world all truth upon all occasions of debate about the meaning of the Text. For as Christ is the word of his eternall Father so the Scripture is the word of Christ and so the prayers of Holy Church are the word of the Holy Ghost setting an eminentiall ground of harmonious musick unto the dayly descant of the Epistles and Gospels of the day since wee see the Antiphons commonly taken thence are still prefixt before the Prayer to shew how one reports unto the other Now if in this First Tome it happens here and there that some one Sundayes work bee longer then another yet there is not any so long which may not with much ease bee read in seven dayes and studyed diligently to thence to make the benefit of reading by a little meditation upon every Verse Nor have I suffered some of those Sundayes to passe much shorter then the rest namely those in the third Part of this Tome both because that Part alone containeth almost half the Sundayes in the year as also because I did there indeed begin this work in that brief way which afterwards I did inlarge because I was loath to lose so much sweetness of devotion as the larger Exposition of the Text affords And if any part shall prove lesse pleasant then other let me beseech the Reader to consider That as in Preachers there are three signall Faculties whereof any one renders the owner excellent Namely To teach To move To delight So it is in Books for these are all well written wherein some one at least of those three faculties throughout the Book appears either that of teaching what is true and solid Doctrine That of moving to amendment of our lives or that of delighting us with a sweet delivery of what is written whether it be by the eloquence of language or by the quaintness of conceit in which the Writer doth expresse his mind it imports not much and albeit I cannot boast of happiness in any one of these three faculties yet I will hope to have taken such advantage in the contriving of this Book that what is any where wanting in me will bee supplyed by the Authority of Texts both out of Holy Writ and out of the Expositors upon the same Thus having run over the parts of the Primmer whereunto I aim to adopt the whole work of these three Tomes intended thereupon I shall now desire the Reader to take such an account as I am able to give him of the Parts of this my present Book consisting of Antiphons Versicles Responsories Prayers Epistles and Gospels as for the Illustrations and Applications they being wholly mine the little that is already said thereof above is more then enough unlesse any thing I can doe were more considerable The Explications being all of them in substance though not in words the Fathers glosse upon the holy Text have their worth and authority in themselves more then I can add unto them Onely I desire the Reader to know I rather chose Cornelius à Lapide then any other Expositor both because he hath written largely upon all the Books of Holy Writ which do occur in the Churches Service throughout the year and because his Morals are more for my pious purpose then the other more literall Glosses would have been of more speculative Authors though withall he falls not short of the literal sense where it is requisite to follow it First therefore as to the Antiphons True it is they are now and then taken from some other Part of Holy Writ then commonly they use to be As for example That on the first Sunday of Advent is out of S. Luke Cap 1. v. 30. whereas the Epistle of that dayes service is taken from S. Paul Rom. 13. And the Gospel from S. Luke cap. 21. but the reason is that in this Antiphon the Church reports to the mystery of the Incarnation which must needs precede that of our Saviours Birth so here respect unto the Time or Season hath prevailed for omitting the usuall way of ordering the Antiphons before the Prayer and for the same reason the Anthiphon also on the Third Sunday of Advent varies in this manner to being taken out of Saint Luke cap. 1. v. 41. whereas the Gospel on that day is out of S. John cap. 1. v. 19. and so the prayer is answerable thereunto Thus for respect unto the Persons praying in those dayes as now the Church would have us do The Antiphon on the fourth Sunday of Advent alludes much to the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets manner of calling upon the Messias to come away after so long an expectation of him as four thousand years together hence that Antiphon is then taken as it were out of those ancient Patriarchs mouths rather then from the Epistle or Gospel of the day and therefore it is alwayes one of the seven great Os or exclamatory prayers of the holy Prophets groaning and crying out with an impatience of delay in the Messias our B. Saviour being born And these are the onely Three Antiphons in all the year that are not taken out of the Epistles and Gospels of the Divine Service proper to their day As for the Antiphon on Palme Sunday though it be not in that Gospell wihch I have here inserted in
thence retrive that sweet connexion we are at a seeming losse of and shall conclude the key we want to open this connexion lyes hidden in the preamble of this Prayer in the very courtship we use when we call upon God as moderating at once heavenly and earthly Things that is making the earthly obedient to his will when he pleaseth to have them suitable to those that are heavenly Things Thus water by the heavenly will of God became this day wine thus all the materiall parts of this dayes service became as it were immateriall that is to say spirituall Thus the Temporall gifts mentioned in the Epistle of Prophecy Ministery Teaching Exhorting Ruling Mercy Love Joy Hope Patience Prayer Almes Hospitality Vnanimity and Humility are made spirituall in being ordained to a spirituall end by conformity in us earthly creatures to the will of our Creator which is effected by vertue of that moderation God hath set between heaven and earth when he so moderates humane minds and actions as they become subservient to his heavenly will Thus carnall pleasure between man and wife is in them limited by Gods holy grace moderating the excesse and intemperance in that pleasure which indeed carnall men commit but spirituall men avoid God moderating fleshly appetites in them so as they shall not intrench upon spirituall duties but give way to serving God though with abridgement of their own delights and this is done when Saint Pauls counsell is followed Let those that have wives be as if they had none 1 Cor. c. 7. v. 29. when God Almighties service so requires as when attending first to prayer they afterwards return to the same corporall pleasure they forsook to pray and this is called a spirituall continence even in the bed of incontinency not as that term imports sin but as it argues lesse perfection than virginity or absolute containing from all corporall commixture but further and more prodigiously yet this miraculous moderation between heavenly and earthly Things is seen when married people have liberty allowed them for their due and seasonable mutuall pleasures with one another and yet withall at the same instant they have a limit set them beyond which they must not passe but like to flowing Seas must ebbe just at their own bounds and fall to the low-water of a non-temptation towards any other carnall pleasure than between themselves Here I say if ever more eminently than other it doth appear God moderates heavenly and earthly Things at once for here is a kind of continuall miracle betwâ—en man and wife when Saint Pauls counsell is followed as above and since the Story of this dayes Gospel runs upon a marriage and the Prayer concludes with begging peace here is the grant of that petition when man and wife thus moderated live happily together not defrauding one another here is further that peace granted to all sorts of Christians when they apply the Temporall gifts recited in the Epistle to spirituall to heavenly ends and when in the prayer we say Grant us thy peace in our dayes it is no lesse than the peace of that God who at once moderates heavenly and earthly things which we demand Now if any would dive further into that peace let them look back to the seventh verse in the Epistle on the Third Sunday of Advent and to the Explication thereof There they shall see how ravishing how plentifull a peace it is And having thus wrought out our design of connexion here where it was so seeming hard at first but now to flowing from every part like honey from the Combes of this dayes Epistle and Gospel upon the bread of the Prayer let us never despair of as good successe all the year along nor can there be a sweeter Prayer than this thus glossed and in this sense reiterated as often as we find reluctancy in us between nature and grace For then thus to call upon God as moderatour between heaven and earth is to quell all rebellion of nature against grace which God grant we may doe by praying as above The Epistle ROM 12. ver 6. c. 6. ANd having gifts according to the grace that is given us different either prophecy according to the rule of Faith 7. Or ministery in ministring or he that teacheth in doctrine 8. He that exhorteth in exhorting he that giveth in simplicity he that ruleth in carefulnesse he that sheweth mercy in cheerfulnesse 9. Love without simulation hating evill cleaving to good 10. Loving the charity of the Brotherhood one toward another with honour preventing one another 11. In carefulnesse not sloathfull in spirit fervent serving our Lord. 12. Rejoycing in hope patient in tribulation instant in prayer 13. Communicating to the necessities of the Saints pursuing hospitality 14. Blesse them that persecute you Blesse and Curse not 15. To rejoyce with them that rejoyce to weep with them that weep 16. Being of one mind one towards another not minding high things but consenting to the humble The Explication IN regard there was reference made to this place on Sunday last concerning the rule of Faith therefore we shall here take hold of the last part of this verse first and having premised what is peculiarly necessary upon this which is hugely controversiall we shall then proceed in our wonted manner for expounding the rest of the Text. We are therefore here to note That by the Rule of Faith is not understood onely the Apostles Creed branched into twelve Articles as we have received it from age to age but a set Form of life delivered by word of mouth unto the People by the Apostles who had first held Counsels about it amongst themselves and stood resolved all their teaching should be conformable thereunto And this Rule is not as Hereticks will have it the holy Scripture written by the Apostles for this Rule was made long before any Scripture was written and it was never delivered abroad but by word of mouth in their preaching and exhortations so it is properly called the Apostolicall Tradition which is yet even unto this very day the Rule of Faith to the whole Catholick Church to the Decrees of all Councels to the sense or exposition of the holy Scriptures and consequently Scripture cannot be as Hereticks pretend the sole Rule of Faith though true it is there must be nothing nor is there any thing at all in holy Writ contrary to this Rule or Apostolicall Tradition which was much larger than the written Word and therefore it ever was and still is even to the sacred Word a kind of Rule or Test to try it by since before the Apostles issued out their written books of Scripture those books were examined by this Rule of Faith which was framed by common consent of the whole number or Colledge of Apostles whereas all of them did not write nay two onely of the twelve were Evangelists or Writers of the Gospels for Saint Mark and Saint Luke the other two Evangelists were not dignified with the stile
of Apostolate though they were all Preachers of the Gospel according still to this Rule of Faith kept close amongst themselves And indeed the Evangelists writ their Gospels rather upon Emergencies than upon any design or command they had from Christ so to doe but incountring with Heresies they did beat them down not onely by preaching but even by writing as since the Doctours and Fathers of the Church have done in all ages yet this difference there is betwen the Apostles and the Fathers writings that the former are more magisteriall more oracular more authoritative than the latter for however we attribute much to any one Father yet if another Father write contrary we regulate our selves then by the consent of Fathers whereas it is not so in any of the Evangelists writings or any Canonicall part of Scripture every book every chapter every sentence every word every letter thereof is sacred and of uncontrouled undoubted indeed of sacred Authority both by reason of the Authors prerogative Apostolate and of the speciall instinct they had from the Holy Ghost to write upon such occasions as to them occurred Now to our usuall gloss upon the Text In these Three first verses of the Epistle the Apostle enumerates the gifts proper to Church-men according to this rule of Faith From the ninth verse forwards he recounts what even the lay-people ought to beg of God for the embellishment or measure of Faith according to the rule thereof concerning all faithfull Believers whatsoever and though many take prophecy for a common gift bestowed as well upon the Laicks as upon Ecclesiasticall persons yet in this place the Apostle takes it strictly as appertaining to their prophetick by which is understood their preaching and teaching Function 6. For we read in holy Writ where the Ministery or Diaconate was set apart by the Apostles as hindring them from teaching and preaching and conferred on Deacons assigned specially for that purpose Non est equum It is not reason say the Apostles Acts 6. v. 2 that we leave the word of God and serve Tables Consider therefore Brethren seven men of you of good Testimony full of the Holy Ghost and wisdome whom we may appoint over this Businesse But we will be instant in prayer and the ministery of the word The like division is made 1 Tim. 3. where under the name of Bishops he includes Pastors and Preists too under the name of Deacons he includes all Church-Officers below them too So under the stile of prophecies he includes two sorts of Preists Apostles and Bishops as also Pastors and Preachers which are Priests and those that by office take care of souls and that of Deacons we shall likewise see divided anon Note here by faith is not onely understood an absolute Article of faith but a perfect understanding the sence of the divine word bee it written or delivered from the Apostles by word of mouth and this Faith is that which is recounted as a gratuit or free gift of the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. v. 9 To another is given Faith in the same spirit so he sayes here the Apostles and others had the gift of prophecie as a measure of their Faith that is to explicate the sacred word according to the rule of faith so none could use this gift to vent any their own brain-sick fictions but onely thereby to illustrate the rule of Faith left unto the Church by Iesus Christ and conserved as a sacred Tradition amongst the Apostles whilst they lived and so handed over from age to age unto the Church untill the worlds end S Ambrose will have this gift of prophecie or as the Apostle here means of Teaching to be such as renders the Preacher able to deliver high mysteries of Faith according to the measure of every true Christians capacity or understanding and indeed prophecy is here taken properly for a gift of teaching according to the exact rule of Faith even when the deepest Mysteries are agitated or the hardest places of Scripture are controverted Now by this and what we said last Sunday when the third verse of this 12th Chapter to the Romans was expounded we see the difference between the measure and the rule of Faith 7. By Ministery is here understood as above the Diaconat either as it imports the office it self or the execution thereof as shall be more at large expressed in the next verse Suffice it here to know the office is taken for an externall duty of charity and that as well corporall as spirituall whereas Doctorat or prophecie imported onely the spirituall exhibition of charity by Teaching Preaching or the like but the gift of Prophecie or Doctorate hath two branches The one is of strict solid and Magisterial doctrine according to the measure and rule of Faith a gift not imparted to every man but rarely to some few and that is here insisted upon only The other is of exhorting as followes 8. This seems a gift that allowes a liberty to the Preacher of perswading to truth by any lawfull art or meanes of Rhetorick and eloquence to draw the hearer to a content as well as a consent of what is delivered So that this exhortation is properly that which Pastours are to mix with their administration of the Sacraments and doctrinall points in their Sermons that the people may thereby be raised up as well to Acts of Love perfecting their will as to Knowledge perfecting their understanding And in this place the Apostle adviseth all men thus gifted to make use thereof according to the measure and rule of faith not to bury such their talents without profiting others thereby since here is a reduplication importing an actuall use of this Talent saying He that exhorts in exhorting let him use his talent As who should say Hee that is gifted to exhortation let him make actuall use of that gift But we are further to note in this Verse the Apostle explicates clearly the office of a Deacon or Diaconate which is Tripartite The First is that of Almes The next that of Government The third that of Hospitality for tending sick persons To the perfection of Alms he requires Simplicity such as gives purely for charity without self-interest and gives liberally upon all occasions of exigence not reserving for the future when there is a present want but confiding in Gods providence for what is to come without any sinister end such as theirs is who give alms to tempt the poor to sin But chiefly this Simplicity consists in a contradistinction against duplicity or fraud and against distinction of persons as some use to doe giving rather to one than another in equall necessity out of a partiality of respect to this body rather than to that as to an allie or acquaintance before a stranger a good or an ill natured man or the like which is against true Simplicity for God is no accepter of persons Acts 10.38 To the perfection of government the Apostle requires carefulness sollicitude and vigilance
instead of purifying our intentions of honouring as we ought to do one onely God when even under that pretence by the contagion of factious doctrine we Idolize to as many devils as mislead us in the wayes of faction and division For prevention whereof holy Church fitly prayes as above that our intentions may be purified by the unity thereof by intending Gods honour only in those services that are pretended done for Gods sake and not our own interest On the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Matth. 9. v. 7. THe sick then of the palsie took up his bed in which he lay magnifying God and all the people which beheld it gave praise to God Vers Let my prayer c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer LEt O Lord the operation of thy mercy direct our hearts because without thee wee cannot please thee The Illustration IF any man doubt what is meant by the operation of our Lords mercy mentioned in this prayer S. Paul in the first verse of this daies Epistle will tell him it is the actual grace of God which the Apostle alwayes gives thanks for as being the cause of the Corinthians conversion of their being enriched in all things appertaining to Christian religion so as to want nothing but the revelation of Christ in glory whom already they beheld in grace as also of their perseverance without crime till the day of doom in that belief unto which by this grace they had been called This is the summ of the Epistle and undoubtedly this is the sense of the prayer begging that as by the operation of Christ his mercy the Corinthians became Christians so we that are by the same meanes of the same profession may by the same help have our hearts directed by the operation of our Saviours mercy towards us by the encrease of his grace within us And indeed that encrease is also properly the operation of his mercy too for the first gift thereof was rather the exhibition then the operation of his holy grace and yet to us it seems like an operation of it too within his own bowels and so as we said above the exhibition of it in our eyes is as the effect of his mercie upon himself but the encrease thereof is the operation of it upon us to whom it is exhibited so by the exhibition of this grace we become children of God and by the encrease thereof we grow to be his champions to live his Saints and die his Martyrs rather then renounce the Faith of Christ Thus we see the first clause of this Prayer hath exhausted the whole Epistle of the day Now that the Gospel should be by the close thereof exhausted too would seem strange if already stranger mysteries had not appeared in the mysterious prayers of holy Church And certain it was for the depth of their spirit that S. Gregory the great collects them all together into a book intituled of Sacraments that is to say of Mysteries as in the preface of this book was hinted not that the stile of Churches prayers is other then plain and easie but that the depth of their meaning is prodigious We have examples in the simple stile of Thomas à Kempis authour of the following of Christ the plainest and the deepest book that ever was written next to holy Writ the fullest of common places and yet the most home to every mans particular that reads it So it is with the Churches prayers they are in words simple and facil but in sense such as the deepest understanding may not be able to sound the bottome of them For instance see how the whole story of the Gospel is wound off by the onely close of this daies prayer if yet the former clause thereof were not appropriable thereunto For what imports the pressing into Jesus presence of the paralytick and those who from the houses top did drop him down into the room where Jesus was when they found not entrance any other way but an infinite faith they had of being cured by the least touch of his sacred person and this to satisfie our selves with the letter of the story not recurring as we might to the mystery thereof What I say means this passage else then a remonstrance of this paralyticks faith in Jesus Christ And who doth not see the close of this prayer excellently well allude to faith since we read that without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 Do not we Christians then implicitely beg if not the gift which we have already at least the encrease of faith when we end this prayer with confessing We cannot without God please his Divine Majestie that is to say as without the gift of faith we can be no Christians at all so without the encrease thereof through the operation of Christ his mercy in us we cannot become good Christians such as by works of charity still encrease our faith in Jesus Christ and by that encrease deserve with the paralytick as well the remission of our sins as the cure of corporal diseases since without such remission we cannot please Almighty God and without him no such remission can be had that is without his mercy operate first upon him to pardon us and then upon us when pardoned to offend no more not that this operation of Gods mercy upon himself is any new act but ever is ever was and will be one and the same act in him seeming new to us by the new effects it produceth in us So every way is it an undoubted truth that without him we can no wayes please him And thus do we still adjust the prayers of holy Church unto the other service of the day The Epistle 1 Cor. 1. v. 4. 4 I give thanks to my God alwayes for you for the grace of God that is given you in Christ Jesus 5 That in all things you may be rich in him in all utterance and in all knowledge 6 As the testimony of Christ is confirmed in you 7 So that nothing is wanting to you in any grace expecting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ 8 Who also will confirm you unto the end without crime in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ The Explication 4. IN these words S. Paul gives thanks to God incessant for the grace of Christ which was given to the Corinthians who thereby were made Christians An excellent lesson and ought to be frequently practised by us to acknowledge that our perseverance is a continuation of our vocation to Christianity 5. In all things appertaining to your religion Rich in him rich by him that doth enrich you every hour by preserving you in the same vocation he hath called you unto In all utterance in all your words whereby is preached this faith In all knowledge in all true spiritual understanding the doctrine of Christ as who should say I thank God that hath by mine and by Apollo's preaching afforded you all understanding and true sense
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