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
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
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