nature Non agunt sed aguntur So in the act of renovation we are not fellow-workers but are led and carried whither the Spirit will And as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. viii 14. 4. We know divine mysteries best by negative expressions and therefore I go on fourthly that this immission of efficacious grace is no violent compulsion upon the will Compulsion I said was a word of hostility and not of favour When God doth his work in us throughly energetically that it shall not fail by a Catachresis it is called a coaction So it is said in the Parable to them that were sent to bring in the blind and the lame Cogite intrare compel them to come in I say this is a Catachresis so Prosper the great director of this way that I take Hanc abundantiorem gratiam ita credimus potentem ut negemus violentam We believe this eminent abundant grace worketh with great power but not with violent compulsion For because of those previous preparations I spake of which make us know and have some desire of heavenly things God saves no man against his will therefore it is no violent attraction for no man is ordinarily saved that hath positive repugnancy though in the momentary act of conversion he doth add no auxiliary co-operancy Nay so far is this most abundant benediction of the Spirit from offering coaction and force to the will that the will of a regenerate man doth instantly shew its complacency and turn it self to God This efficacious motion is infused from God and in the same moment exercised and put into act by man for to that end it was inspired by God that man should produce the act of believing and adhering to Christ This is an Altitude for faith to look upon Voluntas est subjectum istius volitionis causa suae volitionis in eodem instanti I think verily the not marking of this hath caused much debate that the will of man in the act of conversion is the subject upon which God works faith and it self the cause which doth produce the act of faith in the same instant They have my suffrage that say how these two cannot well be divided in time one from another Gods operation converting a sinner to be his Son and the act of believing in that man converting himself to God no object can be for a moment in the will but it must affect it one way or other but in order of nature Gods inspiration is first to be conceived and then mans embracing and assent Thus it appears the agitation of this divine motion is not by force and compulsion but with a sweet and fatherly attraction and the effect is no way rough and against nature but above it For to limit and determine the indifferency of the will is not the destruction of free will but the perfection witness the Saints and Angels who are confirmed in grace that they cannot sin If the Son make you free then are ye free indeed which is thus expounded by the Apostle Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. iii. 17. Fifthly I annex that the powerfulness of this converting grace is not well expressed when it is entitled but a moral perswasion The hearts of Kings and surely of all other men whose power is less free are in the hand of God and he inclineth them which way he will perswasions may labour upon the affections it is the scope of an Orator but the most flexanimous Rhetorician that ever spake cannot be said to have the hearts of his Auditors in his hands that is a phrase out of humane capacity What moral perswasion was there in this Christ called Peter and Andrew James and John and Mathew from the receit of custom and they left all and followed him Shew me any ground here for moral perswasion that is probable allegation of reason Not a word more spoken than follow me or perhaps I will make you fishers of men few words God knows But a mighty efficacious impression was secretly instilled into the heart there it was it must needs be that celestial irradiation which made them leave all to follow Christ whose outward appearance was most contemptible and his society according to the wisdom of the world most dangerous Perswasion can but propound an end and as every man is affected so he likes the end which is offered We that disperse the Word have the Office to perswade you to the Kingdom of heaven but God forbid he should bring us no further The Devil can suggest and perswade likewise and prevail above his Makers perswasions as it appears Gen. iii. therefore ascribe the honour due unto the Lord that his Spirit is more efficacious to produce good than Satan to produce evil therefore his work consists not in perswading but in governing and inclining the heart Finally To dispatch this Point I said this potent and infallible assistance of converting grace doth well consist with the Promises and Threatnings and Exhortations of holy Scripture There are other matters objected against this but at the last you will find all sticks at this knot For after some wrangling in the end it is confest God can restrain the liberty and indifferency of the will and make it bring forth what act he please and it must be allowed that the taking away that liberty to work either good or evil is not the destruction but the perfection of the will The angry question is Whether the removing away that liberty and indifferency from the will in the act of conversion can consist with this order that a man shall be commanded to convert himself to God upon the condition of eternal life and upon the commination of Hell fire Now I must tell you this was the very thing that Pelagius quarrelled St. Austin for saying Da Domine quod jubes jube quod vis Give me to do what thou commandest O Lord and then command what thou pleasest But take all my answers like grapes upon a cluster 1. They that make this objection know we are commanded to have the first grace of illumination and they acknowledge it is freely and merely wrought by God Why then do they stumble at converting grace that conversion should be commanded us and God altogether cause it and yet allow it in preparatory grace 2. Doth not the Scripture frame our tongue to speak thus Make you a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. xviii 31. there is a command I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you Ezek. xxxvi 26. there he doth execute in us what himself commanded It is to be magnified and admired not to be disputed of when God will work that good by his Spirit within us which he might in rigour without that extraordinary help exact of us 3. Whither will Divinity be tost about if this be not certain That our just and omnipotent Lord commands
for the value of the benefit would compel us to love our Redeemer better than our Maker So Bernard Plus nos ad charitatem excitat redemptio quam creatio Therefore God could not so dispose for our souls that occasion should be given to love an Angel or Saint better than himself the King of glory The Son that sits at his right hand is the Person in whom he is well pleased who thought it no robbery to be equal with God He alone was fit for this dispensation who by an exceeding mystery did receive and accept the Sacrifice of reconciliation as God offended in his divine nature and yet did offer up that Sacrifice to the divine nature being the Mediator God-Man The close of all is sweet like the rest that the Father is pleased in all things both in heaven and earth by the reconciliation of his Son Reconciliation is the knitting up of Friends into amity again and reducing them to concord that were enemies Then how can it fitly be said that God is reconciled with his Sons whom he loved from everlasting Says Beda to it Deus miro modo quando nos oderat diligebat He loved us according to that nature which he had made and hated us according to that sin which we had made Neither is the Father so said to be reconciled to us upon earth as if he loved us at any time now when before he did not Sed quia per hanc reconciliationem sublata est omnis odii causa says Aquinas but because by this act of reconciliation all cause of anger and displeasure was taken away I mean our sins were covered and the righteousness of Christ imputed to us And as the Angels minister to us so let me minister one speculation about them to the Text. God is pleased in Christ both with things in earth and with things in heaven No question but Christ is head of the Angels as well as of men for they as well as other members receive direction from Christ and are illuminated by him so that an influence is poured on them from Christ as members take from the head but as one distinguisheth judiciously Influens in Angelis non est finis incarnationis sed quiddam incarnationem consequens It was not put into the ends why he was incarnate to infuse vertue into the Angels but it is a gracious consequent which fell out upon it This perhaps will not be doubted of But how can it be said that he did reconcile unto himself things in heaven that is the Angels by the bloud of Christ They had never made any rupture with the friendship of God as men had and could they be reconciled Certainly the word Reconciliation properly taken is only agreeable to us who were Sons of wrath but are become elect and precious through Christ But Analogically it is truly said the Angels were reconciled in Christ because he obtained for them to be confirmed in grace and to be so established in the divine favour that it was impossible any breach or rupture should come between therefore this establishment in grace to them is the same that reconciliation to us That beatifical and glorious eternal life which the Angels have with God is a reward far above the merit of any Creature Therefore Angels are admitted into that glory not by condignity but as they challenge Christ for their head and themselves members of his triumphant body Paul therefore adjures Timothy before God and the elect Angels There is no election either of Angels or men but with respect unto Christ and the good Angels are called the Sons of God Job xxxviii not as begotten of him for Christ is the only natural Son as I have said before but because they are adopted through Christ therefore this is the beloved Son in whom with Men and Angels God is well pleased But to us especially this benefit is extended who were perfect enemies but being justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN XXI SERMONS UPON THE TENTATION OF OUR SAVIOUR THE FIRST SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 1. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the VVilderness to be tempted of the Devil I Have already entreated before you of many things concerning our Lord and Saviour his Incarnation Circumcision Adoration by the Wise-men about his Baptism in Jordan Let us not rest here but say as that devout man did unto him Luk. ix 57. Lord I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest Therefore I invite your attention to go with me into the Wilderness another passage of his pomp and victories and to see him tempted of the Devil In Num. xxi 14. a Book is mentioned which was called the wars of the Lord. Rupertus says very well that the whole Scripture will not unfitly bear that name Quid aliud continetur vel agitur in sacrâ Scripturâ nisi bellum certamen verbi ad destructionem peccati mortis What is contained and agitated throughout all the contents of that divine Book but Christ warring and striving to destroy sin and death And if the whole Scripture were summed up into one Chapter you might draw out this Verse for the Contents Gen. 3.15 I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between her seed and thy seed As if the Lord had said the Devil hath drawn my servants to consent to him Facti sunt socii consentanei rebellionis they are agreed like friends and have conspired in one rebellion against me but I will dissolve this friendship and turn it into hatred I will break this agreement and turn it into opposition I will divide them into an enmity that shall never be reconciled Three things I admire especially in the dispensation of Gods providence herein First We were his enemies rather than the Devils yet when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. v. 10. Secondly It is well for us that the Lord said ponam inimicitias he would make the quarrel between us and Satan break out into an open enmity It is an act of his most gracious wisdom to take away those weapons from the Devil wherein he was so cunning Leave the Devil to his wiles and deceipts and he goes away a conquerour proclaim him an open enemy and we have far more advantage against him Thirdly To the end this great Adversary might be beaten and vanquished to our hand our Saviour fought a combat with him in the Wilderness and overthrew him the narration of which great enterprise begins thus as I have read unto you Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil In the handling of which verse it will be worth the labour to insist upon these five things 1. Here is the hinge upon which all the story turns Christ was tempted 2. We must work somewhat out of the consideration of the Tempter the Devil 3. The
such excellent things which we cannot attain to perform that we may be excited to pray unto him for succour with a vehement and a flagrant devotion 4. He commands and he fulfils and he rewards crowning his own gifts and no works of ours that glory may be ascribed to his name for evermore The Synodal Epistle of all the Affrican Bishops St. Austin being one of the Society encourages me that these answers are far more reasonable than the objection Jubet Deus homini ut velit sed Dominus in homine operatur velle jubet ut facias sed operatur facere He hath charged us to will that which is good but he effecteth that willingness in man he says Do and thou shalt live his grace enables thee to do and thou shalt live for ever Let this suffice to teach you how we are led by the Holy Spirit in converting grace and I think it most comfortable to put our hope in God and not in our selves Cursed is every one that putteth his trust in man Jer. xvii 5. To dispach all I will be brief in the fifth Point how we are led by subsequent grace and sanctification which co-operates and assists us after our conversion this is that truth wherein all dissensious parts conjoyn and accord That Voluntas liberata concurrit ad bonum opus eliciendum cum gratiâ divinâ the will of man having conquered the dominion of sin by converting grace is made free and then it freely conjoyns it self with Gods grace to produce a good effect Then it lies upon our own diligence never wanting the directing vertue of the Spirit to increase the good gifts of Sanctification by acts of often doing well then we do further and promote those holy inspirations to a plentiful or unplentiful increase This is not passively to be led by the Spirit but to walk in the Spirit as it is Gal. v. 16. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh In a word this distinction reacheth over all which can be said upon this matter There are some actions which principally concern the well being of a justified man without which regeneration cannot consist these are they the turning of the heart to God a true belief a faithful conclusion of our life in the fear of God and the peace of a good conscience justifying grace doth so attend the production of these actions that the Lord in his own good time makes us able for these things willing to do and actually to perfect those necessary parts of salvation Other works of obedience as to do this or that good to shun this or that evil all these especilly and particularly considered do not concur to our saving health as to the very making or marring of it In the practice of all these particular good instances the motions and conduct of the Spirit are never wanting to them that are regenerate more or less but sufficient to have kept them blameless in every particular but in many of these we sin often and are wanting to the co-operation of grace through our own stubbornness in the will and sensuality in the affections I will conclude You see how diversly we are led by the Spirit how many sundry ways we are assoiled from Sin and Satan by the direction and efficacy of grace The natural man is able of himself to bring forth no spiritual good work The Lord doth totally and with no assistance of vitiated nature bring forth the first good preparatory grace in the will From thenceforth unto conversion this previous preparatory grace is made effectual or uneffectual by mans free-will In the act of conversion and renovation wherein all the controversie about free-will is moved the Lord doth turn our heart unto himself the will for the act being the passive subject and at the same instant it is the cause of a good action in turning it self to God in subsequent grace unto the end of our life the will being made free from the dominion of sin works together with the motions of celestial inspiration This is the sum of all If any thing be delivered too briefly impute it to the compass of the time If any thing be hard to be conceived impute it to the deep discourse of the matter If any thing be defective in the discourse give Gods grace the glory of all and impute it to my infirmity THE FOURTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 1 2. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was afterwards an hungry MAny things were rightly applied by him that compared the success of the Children of Israel upon their entrance into the Land of Canaan with the circumstances of this combate between Christ and Satan 1. the Israelites were miraculously brought through the Red Sea so the first glorious Apparition of our Saviour which went immediately before this business was the Baptism which he received of John in Jordan 2. The Israelites pass from the Red Sea into a great and solitary Wilderness So our Saviour was led after his Baptism into the greatest Wilderness of Judaea a place uninhabited by man for he was with the wild beasts Mar. i. 13. Then the Israelites were in great distress for foot hungry and thirsty their soul fainted in them And Christ had nothing to eat in that place he fasted forty days and forty nights and was afterward an hungry 4. As the Israelites were pined with hunger so they had bloudy Wars with all the Nations of Canaan many a time have they fought against me might Israel then say So many a time did the Legions of Hell attempt me might our Lord and Saviour say yea many times did the powers of darkness compass me about but they have not prevailed against me On the one side here was first the Red Sea then a journey into the Wilderness then scarcity of Food then War and fighting So on the other side here was first a Baptism then a sequestring into the Wilderness then a long Fast and then a long conflict with the Prince of Devils Moreover the men of Israel did appear in that forlorn and despicable fashion before the Canaanites that they were much scorn'd and vilified so God provided we seemed in their sight but as Grashoppers said Caleb and Josuah this drew the Kings of Canaan forth to beat them back and so were overwhelmed in their own pride and cruelty Thus in all points did our Saviour deal with Satan the Eternal wisdom against the wisdom of the Serpent He flies into the Wilderness as one abandoned of the World there he continues in great necessity as one whom none would succour not a morsel of food supplied him by God or man Adversarium non virtutis jactatione sed infirmitatis ostentione provocat thus he provokes and draws Satan out against himself not by a boasting challenge but by the appearance of
that can turn stones into bread is it not as easie for him to turn hunger into satiety And had this been a good Angel as he was I believe the worst of the bad should he instruct Christ what to do Sus Minervam Who hath been the Counsellor of the Lord Says the Prophet Quid illi consilium tuum cui sua sufficit virtus What Spirit can teach him wisdom who giveth wisdom to the simple and hides these things from the wise and prudent Now argue if there be any thing but infidelity to ask such a sign for the Devils sake The working of a miracle is ever destinated to win some to the faith that were weak before or upon some other divine reason to promote Gods glory Where the Fathers glory could not be advanced by signs and wonders the Son kept his miracles to himself No sign was wrought before Herod though he did much desire it for his heart was set upon perverseness to withstand the power of God And Christ did not many mighty works in his own country because of their unbelief And so says St. Cyprian it had been against all rule and equity to have wrought a miracle in the Desart Coram inemandibili Diabolo before that Fiend of hell who is incorrigible and uncapable of faith He that can turn water into wine can turn stones into bread but the Devil is so obdurate in malice past all grace and repentance that the very stones in the street shall sooner confess that Jesus is the Christ than he will give glory to the Living God Chrysologus plays his part again upon this Point You that haunt the Wilderness to tempt the Son of God what would you do with a sign from heaven Cui nihil subvenit ad salutem cui totum restat ad paenam cui signa proficiunt ad ruinam Nothing will help thee nothing will resore thee All the good that is done in thy presence shall turn to thy punishment All the miracles that ever were wrought shall make for thine everlasting torment And so I have shewed whether the Tempter called for stones to be made bread for Christs sake or for his own sake every way it was unjust every way it was the note of Infidelity So far I have taught you from the first Point that the scope of this first temptation was the sin of Infidelity and from thence I have illustrated that above all other mischiefs Satan suggests deceitful perswasions that God careth not for us and labours to dissolve the confidence which we have in God Now this is the sum and head of the second general part of the Text that we must strive to take away the Devils I F this spirit of distrust and have affiance in Christ that we are the Sons of God And because this Doctrine comes all to one pass with that which is called certitude of Salvation a Doctrine which in my judgment is abused very often both by them which defend it too rigidly and by them that oppose it totally therefore I will institute a methodical tractate upon it in these five members 1. That the Holy Ghost doth beget a true and an humble assurance in many of the faithful touching the remission of their sins in this life 2. The Holy Ghost doth beget this assurance in them by causing them to examine what good fruits they have produced already from a lively faith and do resolve to produce thereafter 3. This comfortable assurance is not the formal act of justifying faith but an effect which follows it 4. This assurance is not alike in all that are regenerate nor at all times alike 5. No mortified humble Christian must despair or afflict his heart because scruples arise in his mind so that he cannot attain to a strong confidence or assurance in Christs mercies He that can attain but to a conjectural hope or some beginnings of gracious comfort shall be blessed before God who will not quench the smoaking flax And upon all these I will be very plain because it is a necessary Treatise for the weaker capacities You shall hear the first conclusion again and the proofs upon it That the Holy Ghost doth beget a true and an humble assurance in many of the faithful that their sins are remitted There are two degrees of justifying faith the one is a lively assent to the general promise of the Gospel that Christ came into the world to save all those that believe The other is the application of it to a mans self that he is thine and my Saviour By the former we are justified before God by the latter we are perswaded in our conscience and in some measure assured of our justification The former degree is the work of the Spirit regenerating us the latter is the Spirit of adoption sealing it to us after we have believed Every man is bound upon pain of damnation to have the first degree of faith to give assent to the Promise of the Gospel And the second degree may be attained unto out of the former and ought to be endeavoured for the great increase of our love and obedience to God and for our own most singular comfort yet it is not commanded to all the faithful upon pain of damnation Many times a true justifying faith but a weak and imperfect faith cannot get so far therefore I said the Holy Ghost did beget this assurance in some measure in many of the faithful I had said false if I had said in all And I called it you must mark an humble assurance for first it hath many quiverings and trepidations many symptomes of fear and trembling no rash and audacious presumption Secondly It grows out of the acknowledgment that for sundry iniquities we deserved the condemnation of the Law For they that feel not their misery will neglect their misery and never care to apply Christ unto themselves But the humble will seek the Lord and rejoyce in his saving health and then they have not only an intellectual but a fiducial assent to the Promises of the Gospel and that fiducia or assent doth arise out of the very nature of true faith yet I do not say that true faith in all that have it doth put forth this act as it ought and as it may but every faithful man hath such a foundation upon which he may build an actual assurance if he will rightly consider his own state to which God hath called him the Lords custody over him and the faithfulness of the divine Promises The efficient cause of this fiducial perswasion I said was the Holy Ghost and I am sure I have it from our Saviour Joh. 14.20 at that day that is after the sending of the Holy Ghost you shall know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you Can any thing be plainer Indeed general Promises are particularly applied by the Sacraments which seal unto us the bloud of Christ that it was shed for the sins of this and that
Septuagint Translation marrs all when it renders it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was taken up as it were into Heaven There is no such diminution of as it were in the sacred Text He went up to heaven sayes the Original That could not be the Element of Air which is sometimes called Heaven for the Air is rather the Seat of Satan who is called the Prince of the Air than of the Blessed from thence come turbulencies and winds and tempests but they are at rest from all labour and unquietness Nor can it be meant of that Heaven of the lower Orbs for then they should be hurried about every day with the swift motion of the Spheres from East to Occident Where then could Elias be reposed but in the Heaven of happiness in the tranquillity of Abraham's bosom as Dathan and Abiram were swallowed alive into Hell so Enoch and Elias were lifted up alive into Heaven Heaven is taken two wayes both for the place and for the state and condition of it and both wayes I have good ground to say that Elias was in body among the spirits of the Kings and Patriarchs and Prophets and just men who are dead in the love of God and all they went to Heaven locally as to their place and to Heaven figuratively that is to joy and happiness Which I oppose to the adverse and very erroneous opinion maintained by the Schoolmen among the Pontificians that the spirits of just men which departed before Christs ascension into Heaven were reclused into a receptacle call'd Limbus Patrum which was the verge or fringe of Hell where they suffered no pain but sustained a temporal loss having not as yet admittance into the Courts of the House of our God How unconsonant is this to our Saviour's words Many shall come from the East and from the West and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the Kingdom of God How unlike to that Phrase of David Lord who shall ascend into thy holy hill how unagreeing to the title of Abrahams bosom wherein Lazarus was in a long distance from the gulf of sorrow But to go one step further and no more at this time did not Christ by his ascension open a passage to the Souls of the blessed to draw nearer to God in the highest heavens than ever before yes verily I believe it and I am compelled to maintain it by St. Pauls Doctrine Heb. ix 8. The way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing that is while the Law of Moses did endure Their Souls departing were at rest in Heaven in the hand of God no way obtruded near the confines of Hell as the Schoolmen taught who either could not or would not discern a medium between the Limbus of Hell and the highest Heaven They lived by the same faith that we do though not with the same evidence and fulness that we have therefore their Souls departing had a dimension of happiness allotted for them yet not with that fulness of joy which now they have nor perhaps with that measure and proportion which they and we shall have hereafter Beloved remember and consider Heaven is so large and spacious that it is fit to admit divers Quarterings and Mansions in it the Arch-angels Throne the Angels Palace the blessed seats of the faithful since Christs ascension the Refrigerium of the faithful before his ascension a Tabernacle allotted for Enock and Elias all these might be several yet Heaven big enough to make room for all In my Fathers house there are many mansions says Christ that went before us to prepare a place And To thee O blessed Saviour c. THE THIRD SERMON UPON The Transfiguration LUKE ix 31 32. Who appeared in glory and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Hierusalem But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep and when they were awake they saw his glory and the two men that stood with him WHen I compare many parcels of Sacred Scripture and many fictions of the Heathen together which are of great similitude I perceive that Satan intended to discredit the holy Writ by devising Fables so like to the sacred truth I do verily think their Deucalion and his floud was taken from the story of our Noah and his Deluge Their Hippolytus refusing the tentations of Phedra and yet accused by her for a Rape is our Joseph after the same manner impeached by his lustful Mistress Their Hercules is our Joshuah Their Bellerophon carrying Letters to cut his own throat is our Vrias so betrayed by David Their Nisus of Megara and his fatal purple hair cut off by Scylla is our Sampson and his locks cut off by Dalilah So their infamous transmutations of their Gods into Bulls and Swans and a thousand lying shapes were publisht by the Devil to make the Transfiguration of our Saviour suspected Shame upon such gross Figments which can no way darken the manifold light of the Gospel so palpably counterfeit that they need no refutation As Irenaeus passed his censure upon them Victoria est sententiae vestrae manifestatio it was victory enough to the Christian cause to tell and relate their absurd opinions But in reference to the Metamorphoses of those Idol Gods St. Peter justifies the truth of our Saviours Transfiguration thus We have not cunningly devised Fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eye witnesses of his Majesty 2. Pet. i. 16. The Heathen write how their Gods were changed upon earth but to their shame and ignominy The Son of God was changed miraculously upon earth but into a body of resplendent glory When God was come down to men upon earth the Heaven did seem to come down upon earth to God When the Greek Emperour John Palaeologus was drawn into Italy by Pope Eugenius the forth to be present in the Florentine Council the City of Venice entertained him so magnificently with their Streets all guilded and their Boats and Galleys as rich as their Streets that the Greeks in astonishment at the bravery cried out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Earth was become a Heaven for that day I have met with no parcel of a Story in my reading more fit to be applied to this occasion When Mount Thabor did harbour our Lord and our Lord did glister with beatifical brightness and the Saints above did come thither in their Princely array and the very clouds did look more white than Lillies and the voice of the Father spake more pleasing than the sweetest Musick This is my well beloved Son I may justly cry out the Earth was become an Heaven for that day All things else in the Gospel are intermixed with much humility this one Treatise lifts up my stile and makes me say Paulò majora canamus This piece which I spred before you is nothing but Triumph and Majesty and Glory Unto these words which
for the profit of my Soul rather than upon all the eloquence and wit in the world There is more to be learnt by meditating upon his Passion seriously and devoutly one day than by ripping up all other needless questions through the whole year Si Christum discis satis est si caetera nescis Si Christum nescis nihil est si caetera discis Says the Old Verse If you have learnt Christ crucified for thy sins do not bewail thy ignorance simple Soul though thou knowest no more if thou hast not learnt his sufferings and that with his stripes thou art healed bewail thy knowledg great Master of Arts and Sciences though except that one thing thou hast learned all And what though you fix your speculations upon Christ himself yet all is in vain that you can preach of Christ until you set your notions afloat upon his blood and sail down to this out of all that he was crucified for our transgressions If you be not enemies to his Cross you will easily agree with the truth of the whole Gospel if you do not agree with his Cross as with the only cause by which we obtain salvation you will be an enemy to all the truth of the Gospel Turn this key right that we are justified from our sins by his blood shedding and all is open wrench the door with any other key as if we would pick open the lock of Heaven gates with our own sufferings and righteousness and all is shut Surely St. Paul did pattern his preaching by this Copy of Moses and Elias 1 Cor. ii 2. I determined not to know any thing among you saving Jesus Christ and him crucified Secondly Yes indeed this was fit communication for Paul to impart nothing else to the Corinthians who did abound with the Greek Philosophy and eloquence and it sorted the better to speak of nothing but the sorrows of our Lord while fears and persecutions and death did daily environ them but in my next Observation it shall appear that this discourse was well chosen rather than any other at the Transfiguration of glory here was nothing upon the Mountain but celestial joy and in the height of this joy no other talk to entertain the time but about a Cross and about a woful tribulation If our sorrow be not enlightned with some joy it will turn to a melancholick desperation so if our joy be not dampt with the sadness and seriousness of some sorrow it will fly out into excess and presumption The Graecians did not allow their frisking Lydian Musick to be playd without the gravity of the Dorique Instruments which they called in one name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So David tun'd this mixture upon his Harp Psal ii 11. Serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce unto him with reverence Surely Peter and the other Apostles thought they were past all the bitter storms and frowns of the world where the place whereon they stood was more bedeckt with beauty than ever they had read of Paradice as if God had rained down Heaven upon Earth their mind was filled with this saying and their lips in the next verse spake nothing less Give us the Kingdom which is prepared for us give us the fruition of thy glory Nay hold and take this before Priùs de calice cogitate quà m de regno Drink of my cup before you reign in my Kingdom hear Moses and Elias preach of my Cross before you be enthronized among the Elders to sing praises unto the Lamb for evermore But was this a gratulatory Oration fit for the Prophets to make to Christ in the brightness of his Excellency did He love to hear of this above any thing that He should die an ignominious death at Jerusalem yes it was as the most pleasant thing to our Saviour and none so acceptable to be spoken of When a poor woman annointed his head with ointment in the house of Simon the Leper he defends her for it against the indignation of his Disciples says He In that she poured this ointment on my body she did it for my Burial I have a Baptism to be baptized with and how I am straitned till it be accomplished Luke xii 50. never was such haste made to any place as he made to Mount Calvarie there past but a little time from midnight to midday betwixt his Attachment his Arraignment and his Execution as if his feet had stood upon thorns until his head were crowned with them The content he took in those torments is thus laid forth in St. Paul who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross Heb. xii 2. A certain Author makes an elegant comparison between that triumph when Christ rode upon an Ass to Jerusalem and between this triumph of the Transfiguration on Mount Thabor Infesto palmarum illacrymat considerans mala nostra in hoc festo mirabiliter exultat recolens mala sua Though he was then received with Palm branches and shoutings yet he wept upon Jerusalem to consider their sins at this Feast he is all glorious and rejoyceth for our sakes to hear the commemoration of his own sorrows And thirdly it must not be forgotten how Moses and Elias were those chosen Orators which spake of his decease that he should accomplish at Jerusalem all that was mystical in the Types and Shadows of Moses Law all that was darkly delivered in the deep style of the Prophets concerning this passion is explained against the teeth of the Jews Moses and Elias came to interpret themselves Moses say the Fathers saw what medicine and healing was in the cross when he lift up the brazen Serpent in the Wilderness to cure the people that were stung and wounded and Prudentius in a sweet versifying way that Moses learnt how all spiritual foes Death Satan Sin and Hell should be vanquisht by the Cross when by the stretching out of his hands the Amalekites were destroyed in Battel by the Children of Israel Passis in altum brachiis sublimis Amalech premit crucis quod instar tum fuit Again they make the same Commentation upon Elias that he laid his body upon the Childs body his hands upon the Childs hands which he brought to life again even as Christ did stretch himself out upon the Cross and hath quickned us being dead in our sins having forgiven us all our trespasses Colos ii 13. and not us only who have been born since the time that his blood was actually shed but all those who lived with the Fathers under the Law and from the beginning of the world who did believe to escape eternal death by the blood of that Sacrifice which should be offered up upon the Tree of malediction A strange Medicament that the drops of this sacred bloud should cure so many millions before it self was extant If an Herbalast say he will make a Panacaea a rare juice of salutiferous roots the next year can it cure this Spring yet the Remedy of the Cross
Pilate that when he found no cause of dislike among all the slanderous tongues in Jerusalem he alone would speak well of Christ It was a word better placed than that of Phocion who praised a lewd person with this excuse that good men did not need commendation The Devil was a murderer from the beginning for indeed in the beginning of time he was a Slanderer Non qui ferro sed qui verbo malefico interficit homicida est says St. Austin He that takes away a mans good name is a Man-slayer as he that takes away my life This same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bear true witness of all mens actions I wonder it is no more in request it is the thriftiest vertue that you can entertain In rewards of Gold and Silver what we give away we want our selves but in giving good words and in making good report of other mens deeds we do not diminish our own fame but increase it To come nearer to the cause in hand How did our Saviours righteousness appear unto Pilate that such good words came out of the mouth of a Roman who was a stranger to Christ There is scarce any talk of him in the Gospel before this Chapter Why surely you will say for a Prisoner to justifie himself the way is to clear his Enditement and accusations before the Magistrate Now the Adversary did cast in four Crimes against the life of Jesus One before Caiaphas Mar. xxvi that he would destroy the Temple 2. That they found him perverting the Nation 3. That he forbad to give tribute unto Caesar 4. That he said openly he was Christ a King These three Allegations are together Luk. xxiii 2. and none but those three brought before Pilate You know now the Bill of Enditement What satisfaction did the Prisoner give I pray you Did you ever read of his Answer No not a word came out of his lips Silentium habuit pro advocato Bare silence was his Advocate Fortè verebuntur filium says the King in the Gospel Fortè peradventure What doth any such word of doubting make in the mouth of God But the Lord would not seem to determine that any would be so malicious to kill filium complacentiae the innocent Son in whom he was well pleased His slanders were so notorious that he held his peace and was pronounced innocent Now you are not afraid I am sure that I should hold you too long with multiplying many words in our Saviours behalf Christ thought it needless to say oft and therefore I may spare much pains in that Point in so Christian an Auditory For method sake and the direction of your memory thus I will proceed first to lay down two reasons why our Saviour would stand dumb in the question of his integrity Secondly I will draw a short defence against the four calumniations of the Jews not that our Saviour needs it For I tell you he would not move his lips to make an Apology but for your use and instruction For the first of these The silence of Christ in a matter that concerned his life it was not well interpreted by any man for want of the illumination of the holy Spirit Is he beside himself thinks Peter standing in the High Priests Hall Can he say nothing to his Accusers And because he spoke so little Peter would speak too much thrice he denied him and forswore him And is this the great Prophet of Galilee Thinks Herod who preacheth in every Synagogue not like the Scribes and Pharisees but with power and authority Surely he may teach Fishermen but when he comes before Tetrachs and Princes he is quite daunted and out of countenance But as the Fathers do Comment ingeniously upon the place he dropt a word or two before Caiaphas and Pilate but he did utterly seal up his lips before Herod Quia vocem ejus abstulerat How should he speak before him who had taken away his voice For what was John Baptist but the voice of Christ Doth he despise my Authority thinks Pilate Doth he esteem me not fit to command in the Seat of Justice that he doth reply to no Interrogatory but such as like him Vbi respondet pastor est ubi tacet agnus When he did lift up his heavenly voice then he took upon him the person of a Shepherd that fed his flock when he held his peace then he carried himself as that Ecce agnus that remarkable Lamb of the Flock which stood dumb before the Shearers Thus Peter and Herod and Pilate all were scandalized therefore I come prepared to contest against the World by a double reason how expedient it was for this just Person to hold his peace The first is this Ambiunt defendi qui timent vinci Let them defend themselves who can be convicted his life could not be tainted with any suspicion his works were clear from all imperfection Then what need an Advocate Susanna tacuit vicit Susanna stood impeached between the two lascivious Elders that had tempted her she did not beat the Tribunal and call to heaven and earth for witness of her innocency this had not become her Virgin modesty but standing dumb in her righteousness God did plead her cause by the mouth of Daniel The very Romans gave that respect to an approved man Q. Metellus that the whole Bench forbad him to take his oath in a controversie to be debated lest they should seem to distrust so reverend a Citizen So for these crimes wherewith our Saviour was impleaded Non confirmat tacendo sed despicit non refellendo says the Gloss His silence was not a sign of consent but an argument of untainted integrity And Pilate himself did peep into this mystery For as it hapned to a Client of Rhodes in Plutarch that the Advocate of the contrary side spared not to defame him and cast out his Cause as unworthy of the Court but the Judge all the while sate still and said nothing Non refert quid ille loquatur sed quid ille taceat says the Rhodian It makes not against my Cause that the Advocate rails but it makes much for me that the Judge holds his peace So Pilate did not weigh objections by the malicious out-cries of the Jews but by the generous and inoffensive silence of the Son of God Sophocles in his elder years was accused by his Sons for doating and mispending his goods to the impoverishment of their Inheritance What defence doth the Father make Contest before the Areopagites with his own Children Nothing less he knew the awful authority of a Father and would not stoop so low as to prove and send a cause with those whom he had begotten but sends his Tragedy called Oedipus Colinaeus the work of his gray hairs to be read over before the Judges Hoc non est opus delirantis hominis that was not the work of a doating man there was but that one acclamation heard and so he was absolved In like manner our Lord
foreknowledg of God Now that the righteous God in whom such counsel and such foreknowledg do reside should deliver up his most innocent Son and our dear Saviour unto death that 's a mystery to be weighed with modesty the Text says positively God did deliver him yet we know there is no injustice in the Most High therefore this scruple is worth the scanning First of all it is an harsh and offensive speech that some use who perhaps mean well that God did appoint and preordain Judas to betray his Lord and the Jews to crucifie him and the reasons which they use to excuse the Phrase as if God thereby were not made the Author of sin seem to me to want sufficiency Zuinglius says justo non est lex posita you can set God no Law therefore whatsoever you attribute unto him is no sin because sin is the violation of a Law Beloved there are some things which cannot consist with Gods glory and that 's an eternal Law as we may call it observed by God to do nothing against his glory He cannot ly He cannot deny himself thus the scripture speaketh And Abraham talking face to face with God says he God forbid that the Judg of all the world should do unjustly Would thou punish the righteous with the wicked as who should say that were to thwart the eternal Law which must not be infringed This lays the opinion of Zwinglius flat There is another pretence from very venerable Authors that God purposeth and ordaineth the same act which man executeth but man hath an evil end in it so it becomes iniquity to him whereas God intends a pious end and therefore concurs not to mans iniquity and they give a fair instance of their meaning out of my Text. Christ was delivered of his Father to save the World that was the merciful and gracious work which was God's destination but he was delivered of the Devil to make the Jews guilty of his death of Judas for lucre sake of the Priests and Pharisees for envy of Pilate for fear the scope of Pilate of the Jews of Judas was extremely distorted so they became guilty of a mighty sin in the same work wherein God was righteous This will not down with me I confess for safe Divinity for first it favours that opinion of some Libertines too much that it is no crime but praise-worthy to do evil that good may come of it Secondly it cannot be shifted according to this opinion me-thinks but that God ordains man to fall into that act wherein he cannot choose but have a bad intention and most diverse from the good purpose of God And it is but a lame leg to hold up an halting cause to interpose that God can work good out of evil and bring light out of darkness therefore though He preordains evil He will wind it up well to his own glory for surely they do not think of God as they ought that He is all pure and holy that think sin must be referred to God either as an efficient cause of it or predestinately as a deficient cause to declare his honor Why God stands not in need of our good works to set forth his praise O my God my goods are nothing unto thee says the Psalmist much less doth he want our sins and our transgressions to make him glorious Thus I have premised that they have not my consent that say that God ordained or decreed that Judas should betray our Lord and that the Jews should blaspheme him and despitefully entreat him thus rather I would propound it to you in a far safer way as I conceive God did not decree those criminous actions of Judas Herod Pilate c. but He did decree the Passion of Christ and did settle it in his sixt and eternal counsel that he should shed his bloud as a Propitiation for the World actio displicuit passio grata suit I am led along with the judgment of Leo the Great in this point Thus he Did the iniquity of them that persecuted Christ arise out of Gods Counsel and Decree and that heinous treason worse than all villainy Did the hand of Divine preparation arm them to it this must not once be imagined of that supreme justice that governs all things Multum diversum multumque contrarium est id quod in Judaeorum malignitate est praecognitum quod in Christi passione est dispositum that is there is great dissimilitude between these two how God foresaw the malignancy of the Jews but it was his own disposing and ordination that Christ should suffer therefore it comes to this sense He was delivered to death simply without addition of a death procured by sin through the determinate counsel of his Father but the conspiracy and envy and bloudy outcries that concurr'd in his death the foreknowledg of God did apprehend it would be carried with that violence and decreed to suffer it Non inde processit voluntas interficiendi unde moriendi says the same Father God did not will after the same manner to have his Son die and to have him barbarously crucified To allot him unto death was very just because that Lamb of God did take upon him the iniquity of us all and Leo adds that God could have commanded some holy Prophet to have sacrificed Christ before him even as He commanded Abraham to offer up his only Son Isaac and the Lord of life and death might have permitted Abraham to strike the stroke without impiety but to allot him to such a death wherein factious Enemies delighted themselves in his pains that cannot consist with such a God as hates the least impurity But my Text you will say declines it not but that both his death and his deliverance into the hands of the Jews that is the manner of his death both of them were ordained of God and so they were but with this correction of the proposition omnia vel ordinata sunt à Deo ut fiunt vel ordinatum non impedire quò minus fiant all that is good is ordained of God that it shall be and all beside that is evil is ordained of God that it shall be suffered to be and in those things which are to be referred to permission I mean all the works of the Devil I do not exclude the determinate counsel of God nay it must necessarily be present at it Quicquid permittit Deus consultò volens permittit there is Justice and Wisdom and Counsel from above imployed about those things wherein God is highly displeased For first no sinner in the world can say he was so permitted to enter into sin that no impediments were cast in his way to avert him some illumination he had some instruction to draw him back some remorse of conscience though not in such measure as did infallibly prevail upon his crooked will Even Judas himself was deterred from his Satanical proceedings by the prediction of his Masters mouth one of you shall