heart so hidden from others that lyes not open to the owner of it who can justly accuse himself of often making his seeming good actions causes of his own damnation whilest he even persecutes Almighty God under a pretext of serving him O sincerity of heart where art thou far from the lip that beggs it Matth. 14. v. 8. as now all Christians ought with the mother Church to do And in this case it fares with us as it did with those of whom we reade Esay 25.13 This people honours me with their lips while their heart is far off from me But could we by this hearty Prayer so convert our hearts to God as to obtain these two Vertues onely Devotion in our Wills and Sincerity in our Hearts we should need no other Ceremony to Saint us what ere were requisite besides to Canonize us nor is this Prayer lesse proper to the service of the day then to the mystery of our Lords Ascension though I confess the root of their connexions lies too deep for every one to finde it out at first but while Saint Peter bids us in his Epistle above all things love one another he sweetly tells us the non sincerity of our hearts is rooted there and that we cannot sincerely love God whom we do not see unless we do sincerely love each other with whom we daily do converse Again he tells us Charity covers a multitude of sins 1 Pet. 1. v. 22. as who should say whilest we pray for sincerity of heart we pray for charity and having that Vertue we not onely cover all our Vices but rise up with it as high as Heaven and then we speak as if we spake the words of God then we honour and serve God in all thingâ— with perfect devotion of our wills and sincerity of our hearts when we serve each other with such subjection as if in every Christian we had Christ to serve and this which is a more neer serving him even at the gates of Heaven where now he is and where we must always attend him for our happy entrance so soon as our willâ— are truly devoted and our hearts sincerely bent unto his service which then the Gospel of this day tells us they will be when taking them off from all terrene contents we set them upon an expectation of higher comforts of heavenly consolations from the Paraclete the Holy Ghost who is comming down upon us to give us all content indeed to testifie the truth of all our Saviours Doctrine and to give us grace not onely to bear patiently all severest persecutions but even to take content to dye for Jesus Christ who pleased to dye for us and not to be scandailzed when the wicked persecute the just under pretence of serving God therein since our Saviour did Apologize for them saying They knew not what they did when they butchered him upon the Altar of the Cross and since he further tells us by St. John to day the wicked will do the same to us we must remembring what he â—aid seek to conform our will to his and to serve him by our patient suffering greatest persecutions with all sincerity of heart which that we may perform we pray to day as above suitably to what our Pastors preach and can we by so praying do so too then are we risen high as heaven-gates with Jesus Christ The Epistle on Sunday within the Octaves of the Ascension 1 Pet. 4. v. 7 c. 7 And the end of all things shall approach Be wise therefore and watch in Prayers 8 But before all things having mutuall charity continuall among your selves because charity covereth the multitude of sins 9 Vsing hospitality one toward another without murmuring 10 Every one as he hath received grace ministring the same one toward another as good dispensers of the manifold grace of God 11 If any man speak as the words of God if any man minister as of the power which God admistreth That in all thingt God may be honoured by Jesus Christ The Explication 7 THe end of all shall come This doth not report to judgement but rather to the end of all those unlawfull pleasures which the Apostle found the Gentiles prone unto as beleeving that after death there was no more remaining to be said or done and consequently since they must have a total end by death both of body and soule they were resolved here to indulge unto themselves all they could and not to lose any pleasure they were able to purchase while they lived To these he sayes the end of all shall come meaning of all you can here delight in and yet you will finde there is not an end of your being by your death but as your actions while you live are lyable to the judgement and scanning of men so shall your souls when your bodies are dead be lyable to another manner of judgement so he bids them be wise and take onely lawful pleasures for they shall be called to an account of their unlawful ones when they least thinke of it who dyed in that heresie of Gentilisme believing the soule to be mortal as the body was But indeed the end which the Apostle here meanes is most properly that which is now actually come namely the last age of the world which is that of Christ and Christians as who should say the world hath stood now six ages compleat and is entered into the seventh which is the last The first age was from Adam to Noe and his flood The second from Noe to Abraham the third from Abraham to Moses the fourth from Moses to David the fifth from David to the captivity of Babylon the sixth from that captivity to Christs coming the seventh and last from Christ to the latter day of judgement whence Saint John 1. Epist C. 1. v. 15. Sayes Beloved this is the last houre and Saint Paul 1. ad Cor. 10. v. 11. These things are written for our correction in whom the worlds ends are found meaning six ages of the world are past in us and now the seventh age flowes away apace Be therefore saith Saint Peter alluding to this sense wise or prudent and so live every one of you now as if you were to close the actions of all the ages gone before you and to carry away a blessed Crown of glory with you if you make your selves secure of your happy end by leading a holy life so long as here you live For in every one of you the whole world hath an end since this is the last age of it and since it is the end that Crowns the worke he bids us be wise and watching pray that our end may be here holy to make our happiness endless in the life to come which is to have no end and here the Apostle mindful of his own error bids us take heed we fall not into the same who remembers he fell asleep when Jesus prayed in the garden and to that sleeping he imputes his revolting from his
fault as if God did esteem himself contemned when any that bore his image was vilified by us So that in the balance of Christian perfection any the least sinne of anger is veniall the expression of it in ill terms as Raca is doubtfull and worthy of Councill whether veniall or mortall any notable expression as fool is doubtlesse mortall and so damnable if it be so expressed as that thereby we really desire to exasperate and provoke our neighbour to indignation against us for if in jest 't is otherwise if it be to such persons as we may jest withall but if to our betters there such jests are odious and not to be used by any means 24 25. These verses close up the difference of perfection between the Pharisaicall and Christian Laws the former taught that by sacrifice and oblations at the Altar into the hands of the Priest all their sinnes were expiated whether they made satisfaction to the parties offended and injured by them or not This our Saviour beats down and forbids us to hope for pardon from him by any our sacrifices or approchings to the Altar and to Priests unlesse we make our selves worthy to partake of our own offerings to God by a previous justice done unto the world unlesse having abused thy brother by Raca or fool as above thou first ask him pardon much more must we do justice if the injustice hath been yet greater The reason of this is that justice is alwayes of necessity sacrifice many times of devotion onely Where note this doctrine of our Saviour is not onely as some pretend a counsell but indeed a precept because reconciliation is necessary by way of precept sacrifice not alwayes so and because God is never reconciled to us whilest our neighbour is justly offended at us Note this precept obligeth onely when with discretion it can be fulfilled when without scandall amongst other obstacles so that you may receive though you have given a private offence to one absent without going from the Altar to ask pardon provided you resolve to do it when you meet the offended and be actually then sorry for it yes you may in such case receive and are not bound to discover your guilt to others but without this internall sorrow and purpose of a reall externall satisfaction in time and place convenient there is no offering sacrifice to God at lesse danger then of sacriledge in pretending a pledge of peace for such is a sacrifice where God sees there is no peace at all The Application 1. BY the drift of this Gospel it will appear I made no streined application of the prayer above unto the genuine sense of the Epistle for what else is the whole scope of this Gospel which must ever be the same with the Epistle but a putting out of the Ignis fatuus of the feigned saintity of Judaisme by the true fire of Christian charity much as the sun-beams falling on the dimmer light of brightest fire seem to extinguish it and make the flames thereof invisible 2. The Scribes and Pharisees forbidding murder under the servile fear of humane judgement unto death was in regard of true Religion like the dimme light of fire placed in the beams of the Meridian sun The Sonne of justice Jesus Christ forbidding murder not so much for fear of death as for fear of putting out the fire of charity to God and to our neighbour and of taking in our hands the Glow-worm of wrath and anger a passion that seems to have a flame indeed but 't is a flame of hypocrisie of Ignis fatuus of folly-fire onely not of reall virtue 3. To conclude see how the Gospel strikes it yet more home when even the seeming flame of sacrifice and offering at the Altar is a cheat to charity is a Pharisaicall but not a Christian duty of Religion unlesse we light the lamp of brotherly love withall unlesse we be at peace with one another we cannot hope to have a peace with God O beloved who so short-sighted now as not to see appearing saintity is nothing worth unlesse it be as reall as it seems to be Philosophy teacheth us this lesson of Christianity A thing is good when it is made so by the integrity of its cause good every way so is it with a Christian he is good to God when he is made so by beeing also good unto his neighbour but he cannot be so while he offers sacrifice to God with his hand and to the devil with his heart at the same time such is our receiving the blessed Sacrament before we are perfectly reconciled to all the world it is not the visible good action of receiving that makes a good Christian unlesse his invisible good intention make him so that is unlesse he privately forgive all the world and resolve at least publickly to do it when first he meets with any man that he hath odds withall So still we see the reality of our goodnesse consists more in the invisibility then in the outward apparence of it and for this cause Holy Church in her prayer upon this dayes Gospel begs an affection to the Invisible God to the yet unseen good things which he hath promised as if all we see were nothing worth in comparison of things invisible which we are promised On the sixth Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Mark 8. v. 2. I Have pitty on the multitude for that behold they have now attended me three dayes neither have they what to eat and if I shall dismisse them fasting they will faint in the way Vers Let my prayer O Lord c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer O God of virtues to whom all belongs that is best ingraft in our breasts the love of thy holy name and grant in us the increase of Religion that thou mayest nourish those things which are good and being so nourished maintain them by the practice of piety The Illustration HOw properly do we to day petition that the love of Gods holy name may be ingrafted in us who are as the Epistle tells us baptized in that holy name and in virtue of the said Baptisme are not onely dead but even buried with Christ to sinne and raised to a newnesse of life by a new resurrection with him into a state of grace How singularly home doth the next petition of the prayer come to all the rest of the Epistle when we beg in the second place the increase of Religion in us whereby we do truely live to God in Christ Jesus as in the close of the Epistle we are said to do How excellently also doth the third petition of the prayer exhaust the whole Gospel of this day whilest it begs a nourishment in us of those things that are good when the said Gospel runnes all upon miraculous food and nourishment which our Saviour gave to day unto four thousand persons that had constantly followed him for three dayes together in the wildernesse This nourishment beloved is dully
to find him in Hierusalem at some of his kindreds houses whither they had given him leave to goe Some will say the Blessed Virgin was afraid her Son had lost himself though she knew him to be God for since she saw him cover his Deity and proceed as a childe in other things those of this opinion will have her to conceive he might to conceal his Divinity the better being gone from them seem to misse his right way as children usually doe in such cases out of their freinds or parents sights but others make her fear more rationall that do think it was grounded upon a doubt lest her temporall Sonne might by order of his heavenly Father leave her and choose to live elsewhere which did a little trouble even her resigned motherly heart as much as nature might work upon grace without sin and this perhaps might be the very truth of their after declared sorrow verse 48. for having lost him 46. After Three dayes is here spoken in the same sense as Saint Luke verse 21. said after eight dayes were gone Iesus was circumcised meaning in the morning of the eight day but then begun The like is of Christ his resurrection after Three dayes that is to say the first minute of the third day So after Three dayes here imports on the morning of the third day The first being understood of the night they missed him at the Inne a dayes journey from Ierusalem The second of the day spent in their return to the City and the third when after they had first called at their freinds houses in the Town as they passed through it and missing him there they went to the Temple whether to pray and make Acts of resignation for his losse or in hope to find him there we know not but if we allow a mixture of both it may stand with good proportion to the strife betwixt nature and grace in this world Be it how it will they found him in the Temple on the third day in the morning and there Sitting in the midst of the Doctors both hearing what they did say and asking what they could say to his Interrogatories not such as discovered his Deitie yet deeper than could be expected from his youthful yeares but vve are heere to note that upon all occasions of distresse the Temple is to be our refuge as being the proper House of God vvho is not to be supposed absent from thence at any time because no other place is so fit for his Divine presence and therefore though he be every vvhere in some kind or other yet he is alwaies to all effects and purposes there His asking the Doctours vvas all about the praedictions of the Messias citing to them places to this effect even to their admiration he being a child as that now the Scepter was passed from the Jews that is from Judah to Herod an alien born That the time of Daniels seventy weeks was expired Dan. 9.24 and all the other Oracles of the Prophets about the coming of the Messias all which were notions above the reach of a child and therefore the Doctors knowing all to be true that hee asked stood in admiration of him and delighted in his company And though Jesus be here said to ask rather than to teach yet Origen sayes well It flowes from the same fountain of wisedome to ask pertinently and teach profoundly for a Question rightly asked often rectifies a formerly erroneous judgement 47. Whence we see in this Verse it is said They all were astonished at his wisedome and the prudence of his answers namely to such questions as he gave them occasion to ask him and from hence they said among themselves Who is this child like to be when he writes man that is already thus versed in holy Writ in deepest points of erudition though we all know him to bee a poor Carpenters son and one whose parents poverty cannot give him the Education of the Schools 48. They were his parents of whom it is here said They wondred seeing him Set a child amongst the Doctors gratefull and acceptable to them all What his mother seems here to say unto him in a chiding manner was not so but in a reverentiall way of admiration as who should say Sweet child why hast thou so done to leave us and not tell us of it these are mysteries beyond my poor capacity that ask to instruct my self not to rebuke thee who art though my child yet withall my God And for this reason it is probable shee asked this question privately not before the company who might conceive it a reprehension Again see her modesty who was the sole parent of Iesus yet she prefers Joseph before her self saying Thy Father and I sorrowing did seek Thee Morally thus wee may apply this place to bee a rule to our souls seeking out grace lost by sin or even with grace venially offending God First going to the Church there searching into our faults then finding them weeping to say O my God Why hast thou served me thus why hast thou withdrawn thy self from me and permitted me to fall into thy offence all the amends I can make is to say I have sought thee out lamenting my losse of Thee Sweet Jesu grant mee whilst I live never more to lose the blessed comfort of thy sacred sight and presence thus or to this effect may wee Morallize upon this place 49. These words of our Saviour were not spoken in a reprehensive but rather in a re-minding way as who should say doe you not remember that I am to bee imployed in those things which are my Fathers pleasure Here he shews them since it was revealed to them hee was God as well as man they ought not to wonder as they had done what was become of him because they knew as God he could not be lost and that as God he was not to ask their leave for his actions since some of them were to be such as did neither depend on their wills nor on their powers to inable him thereunto And these actions the Greek Divines tell us are properly Theandrick that is to say in one word Divehumane actions or those of God become man and for this cause he sayes to his earthly Parents Doe you not know that I am to be imployed in my heavenly Fathers will Or that the actions which are proper to me as God and man as Messias and Redeemer of the world must be regulated according to his pleasure who is my onely Father since as from him I took my Divine Nature so in order to him I am to direct those actions which have their force and source from Deity though they seem performed by humanity And we have a kind of similitude of such actions even amongst pure creatures for however a King be in the line of nature subject to his mother yet in the line of government hee is her superiour and soveraign much after this sort was it with Christ in this occasion
like reason Charity is benigne because as it gives us fortitude to resist impediments in our way to do well so it gives us mildnesse affability and sweetnes towards the persons who oppose our doing well Againe Charity is not aemulous or envying at other mens good as if what did goe to another went from us No she looks not upon any thing as mine and thine but upon all as Gods Insomuch that Saint Gregorie iâ— his fifth Homily upon the Gospels sayes elegantly and excellently well Whatsoever we covet in this world we envy our Neighbours having that Hence it is that Charity chils while Covetousnesse doth grow warm and contrarywise where Charity reigneth there covetousnesse is exiled from the Court moreover Charity dealeth not perversely or peevishly with any body because such a proceeding would destroy both her patience and benignity above asserted 5. It is not without reason the Expositors have diversly interpreted this place some saying not to be ambitious imports not to be immodest others not to be sordid but what seemes perhaps least and yet is most proper others say it signifies not to be bashful or rather indeed not to be shamed and upon the matter all these are one and the same for shame is here taken as a blush of guilt not of grace as who should say for any man immodestly to arrogate unto himself honour and esteeme when no man can deserve the title of true honour or for any man to be so sordid as to take delight in earthly things is to conclude himself guilty of so much basenesse as when discovered betrayes it self with a blush of shame and confusion as contrariwise for any man being contemned reviled or scorned by others to blush or be ashamed at the disgrace thereof argues he thinks himself injured or undervalued which is a token of huge pride of high ambition in him whereas true Charity would teach him to glory rather than otherwise in such occasions that he were held worthy to take off part of that indignity was layd upon our Saviour which was indeed due to sinfull man that instead of confessing his demerits glories as if all respect esteem and honour were due to him which is high ambition and a thing contrary to Charity and for the same reason the Apostle tels us as we must not be ambitious of more than is our due so true Charity forbids us even to seek our owne telling us we have no title of property to any thing at all but our sinnes which are the onely things we can lay clayme unto as owners of hence he adds Charity is never provoked to anger because anger argues an apprehension of an injury received and those who are truly Charitable ought to esteem themselves the most contemptible things in nature capable of nothing but neglect from others as a condigne punishment for the continuall neglect of their own duty to God whereunto if we can happily arrive then will follow that which the Apostle concludes this verse withall of Charity never thinking ill for if she never be angry probably she never thinks of revenge because she never esteemes her self hurt by any body but her self as believing she is rather in fault to deserve injury than that any body else can do her wrong where note what is here said of Charity is meant of the person who is truely Charitable 6. As it is an evident signe of ill will or hatred in us to another when we rejoyce to see him injured which must needs include some third mans iniquity exercised on him and so to rejoyce at the injury done is to be partaker of the delight w h the third party takes in his iniquity or doing ill in like manner it is a token of good will or true Charity not to rejoyce in such iniquity for contraries are ever best descerned by juxta-position or being set together and wehn the Apostle saies Charity rejoyceth in Truth he meanes by Truth in this place probity goodnesse justice as the opposites to injury which as it must not be rejoyced at so the contrary virtue to that vice ought to be a cause of our Joyes 7. See how Charity here makes her self an arched bridge for all men to trample over how she crys out to all men lay your loades on me it is onely I that am the pack-horse of malice my duty is to bear away the burden of sinne from mount Calvary where all the load was laid on Jesus come beloved bring away from thence apace your burdens heap them on my arched shoulders who am made for no other end than pressure and to be opprest As you can do your selves no greater pleasure than to lighten your own burdens so you can no wayes oblige me more than to adde plummets to my weights for as a Palme tree deprest I grow the better do what you please to me I believe you mean me no hurt because I know you can doe me none if I doe it not unto my self therefore doubt not of my misconstruing your actions I will believe the best of them such as are not apparent sinnes as of your angers I will hold my self the cause I will think your punishing of me is your particular care towards me your fatherly chastizing my undutifull behaviour both to my God and you and thus Charity believes all in the Apostles sence whence consequently she hopeth all in the same sence that is her own amendment upon the just chastizement she received from others who she perswades her self were Gods Ministers of Justice to change her eternall punishment due unto her into temporall pennances imposed upon her by Gods Vice-gerents and in this hope she grounds her bearing all things patiently here will bring her to a crown of glory in the next world For if she stands thus perswaded she cannot think she beares to much here and so the Apostle saith she beareth all things wherewith he ends the sixteen conditions as above expressed requisite to perfect Charity 8. From hence he proceeds to the end of this Chapter declaring the excellency of Charity in it self as more durable than all other virtues even than the other two Theologicall since Faith in heaven shall cease and be changed into vision inconsistent with the obscurity of Faith and hope shall vanish as exchanged for fruition incompatible with hope which being a desire of having must needs vanish when all is had that can be wisht or desired And hence it is that hereticks ground ill their heresie saying a man once in grace that is in perfect charity can never sinne because here the Apostle saith Charity never failes but the true meaning of this sentence is Charity of her selfe never failes however by sinne she may be here extinguished or which is equivalent Charity is never wearied never tyred never exhausted by doing good to others even to our enemies whereas Faith is often shaâ—en and lost Hope is many times lessened and quite gone when we see our expectations faile us what
meant a servile one neither such as servants are in towards their Masters but a filial one such as Children are in towards their Parents For then we best fear Christ when we love him most so by the fear of Christ is here understood also the love of him which makes us subject our selves to those superiours whom he hath placed over us Note lastly though superiours may and must bear a commanding hand outwardly over their Subjects yet they may and must to be perfect be even subject that is think themselves inferiour to their own Subjects in the sight of God as if God were better pleased with the Subjects obedience then with the superiours commands for this latent subjection is compatible even with open superiority and in this sense the Apostles words requiring all perfection in both parties may exhort to an absolute mutual subjection unto one another in the fear of Christ The Application 1. SAint Paul in the three first Verses of this Epistle exhorts the Ephesians to a wary and wise walking because the dayes are evil And least they should not understand what he meant by this he concludes those are wary and wise steps which are made according to the will of God In the fourth Verse he dehorts from Drunkenness and Riots but allows Repletion with the spirit In the three last Verses he shews evident signes of spiritual repletion as singing forth the praises of God and giving him thanks in the Name of his sacred Son who hath set us in so sweet a way of government as that our subjection to one another is without all fear but that of offending Jesus Christ 2. What can our charity cull out of this but that she ought to day so warily so wisely to walk as if she were passing some narrow stony Lane full of Thorns so that every step she made must be with hazard of a trip or stumble if not of salling too or at least of running a thorn into her foot and crippling her self And such she may presume the passage is when either the stone of scandall lies in her way or the briar of vainglory in her own actions that are good and laudable for in such occasions she must first by prayer indeavour to understand the will of God which never allows of scandalizing others under the fairest pretext that can be made of doing good He that says Wo be to the world from scandals knew it was not onely the ruine of him that gave it but of all that took it And when we read that to God alone is due all honour and glory we are forbid to arrogate either of them to our selves for that were to set up a Pew or seat for the Devil in the Quier of Jesus Christ and to sing the Dirge of our own damnation instead of praising and glorifying God for having done that good work in us which he is ready to crown with our salvation if we shall religiously ascribe all praise to him all blame to our selves To conclude then we are rightly subject to man according to the will of God when we dare displease the first to please the last saying with the Apostle If I should yet seek to please men I were not the servant of God meaning in those things onely where man commands against the will of God 3. But holy Church is not content to point us out our way to tell us what we are to do she further is solicitous to beg of God that he will give us grace to do as we are taught and this she begs to day so artificially as if she hop'd to prevent all sin by asking pardon for it ere it were committed under pretence that God would never suffer right believers to be other then faithfull lovers too exact performers of his holy will so far as in them lay Yet because our Beings are forc'd out of the Nothing that we were before God made us Be therefore all our actions so far as they are ours tend to the Nothing that we were for which cause holy Church gives it for granted all we do must needs be Nothing for so we may well call sin and therefore without scruple she begs a pardon for mistreading even in her most wary walking she begs a peace before the war be made to shew she makes a war against her will at least while she sins of frailty not of malice and thence petitions that being by the grace of God purg'd from the guilt of all offence she may serve his divine Majesty securely with a contented soul such as freed from fear of any thing but sin and flying that can like the early Lark rise from the earth singing the praises of Almighty God Say now the Prayer above and see if it import not full as much as this The Gospel Iohn 4. v. 46. c. 46 And there was a certain Lord whose Son was sick at Capharnaam 47 And having heard that Jesus came from Jury into Galilee he went to him and desired him that he would come down and heal his Son for he began to die 48 Jesus therefore said to him unless you see signes and wonders you believe not 49 The Lord saith to him Lord come down before that my Son die 50 Jesus said to him go thy Son liveth the man believed the word that Jesus said to him and went 51 And as he was going down his servants met him and they brought word saying that his Son lived 52 He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he was amended and they said to him that yesterday at the seventh hour the Feaver left him 53 The father therefore knew that it was in the same hour wherein Jesus said to him thy Son liveth and himself believed and his whole house The Explication 46. SAint Irenaeus will have the Centurion of whom Saint Matthew speaks in his eighth Chapter to be this Lord whom here Saint John mentions but it is more probable to be another because that Centurion did believe by the motive of this precedent cure and seeing Christ ready to go to his servant stopt him and said he needed not give himself the trouble of that labour but it would suffice if he did command the cure by a word of his mouth Matth. 8.8 whereas this Lord presseth Christ to go Again that Centurion asked the cure of a Palsie this Lord of a Feaver That Christ going and almost coming near him cured this he did not go unto nor stir towards Hence this must needs be a different cure from that and was indeed precedent to it as we said above 47. Note this Lord went from Capharnaam to Cana in Galilee fourteen Leagues off out of the fame he had heard of Christ his great cures but not believing this was done by any other then humane means he asked him rather as a famous Doctour then as otherwise qualified to come unto his son and cure him or if he did believe he could cure by touching the diseased yet he did not
however purchased once by Christ for us but we losing our right to them by sin cannot too often petition for their recovery Lastly because by Prayer we exercise the noblest Acts of Vertue Faith Hope and Charity the first believing God can do all things the next hoping he will do all we can desire the last loving him as a Father of whom we ask all supplyes both for our selves and others as to his own adopted sons 28. Here our Saviour alludes not onely to his temporal generation by his heavenly Fathers commanding him into the Womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary but to his eternal Generation also whereby he was from the beginning begotten coeternal and coequal God to his heavenly Father so that as his coming into this world was his going as we may say out of his Fathers bosom to seek lost man in the Wilderness of our Earth in like manner his leaving this world was his return with man found in his sacred Person into the same paternal bosom which he came out of 29. This argues he had answered now home to all their doubts and interrogatories by telling them he was the Son of God who came from him to them and was to return from them to him again this was cleer naked and simple Truth no Proverb no Riddle no Parable at all unto them 30. Now that thou hast by this Answer told us cleerly what thy meaning was by a while we should see thee and again a while after and we should not see thee again and this not as asked by us but as onely revolved in our thoughts whereunto thou hast now answered compleatly and while thou doest answer to the thought thou doest convince us thou art from God and comest out from him since he onely can come into and search all the corners of our hearts where thou hast been and found we would but durst not at first ask thee what thy meaning was by that Riddle of a while you shall and after a while you shall not see me because I go to my Father in this therefore we believe thou art God that thou needest not be asked to tell us what we think what we wish or would have since without asking thou canst tell us all and give us more then we can receive this alone were there no other would suffice for argument sufficient to prove thou comest so from God as thou art also God thy self The Application 1. NO marvel this Gospel insists so much upon ordering the Apostles whom to pray unto and how to pray since it is pointed out for Rogation that is to say for Praying week and since it is also appointed for concluding the Doctrine of Faith in the Resurrection and Deity of Jesus Christ by beginning the practice of our Hope which is best exercised in our Prayer For however all the forty days between the Resurrection and Ascension were dedicated by our Saviour to settle the Apostles and others in a right belief of Christian Doctrine yet we never till now did hear the Apostles declare the work was done and that they were satisfied and settled in their Faith of Christ his being truly the Son of God which yet they now profess in plain tearms saying Now thou speakest plainly this we believe that thou camest forth from God and art his eternal Son that did become man wert born hast suffered and dyed for our sins art risen from the dead art to ascend too unto thy heavenly Father and art thence to send us the holy Ghost to be our continual Comforter Teacher and Governour 2. Say then beloved since the work of Faith is finished by their own confession who were so hard of belief what remain but that we proceed to the next thing required of a Christian which is to Hope for the promises made by Jesus Christ in whom we have so much reason now fitmly to believe and since Hope as was said above is best exercised by Prayer let us now make it our whole imployment from this day forward until the coming of the holy Ghost to pray in such sort as by our best Master we are here directed that is to say to pray in his Name and how we shall do that the Expositors above have told us excellently well and that at large so t is but looking back to know it 3. To conclude since all our Prayer must be accompanied with Faith as Saint James hath taught us Cap. 1. saying If any man want for example wisdom and the like is of all other exigences let him ask it of God but let him ask in Faith not any ways faultering since I say this Gospel mentions Faith with Prayer See now beloved whether the Church to day do not most properly begg this Faith concomitant to her Hope or Prayer when calling upon God as the Fountain whence all good proceeds she prays as above That first her understanding may be rectified which is the work of Faith residing there and that next her Will may be ready to do what Faith and Reason dictate to be done and this by the gift of Hope infused for perfection of the Will by captivating it to Reason elevated by the gift of Faith as our Christian Doctrine tels us On Sunday within the Octaves of Ascension The Antiphon Joh. 16. v. 4. I Have spoken these things unto you that when the hour shall come you may remember them for that I spake them unto you Alleluja Vers Our Lord in Heaven Alleluja Resp Hath prepared his Seat Alleluja The Prayer OMnipotent Eternal God grant us ever to have our wills devoted and our hearts sincerely bent unto the service of thy Divine Majesty The Illustration NO marvel if the river of the Resurrection end in the speer of a Fountain rising upward through the Conduite pipe of our Blessed Lords Ascension and follow him to Heavens gates since we see waters how low soever they fall will mount again as high as their first Fountain is thus Jesus being the Head-spring of all Devotion carries our lumpish souls along with him as high as Heaven now he is seated there Hence Holy Church to day requires that though our Saviour hath left us we do not yet leave him but follow him how high soever he goes and how follow him with a forcible speer of Piety such as may shew his will and ours are one whilest our hearts are sincerely bent unto his service even as the Blessed Spirits are that sing perpetual Hymns of Praise to his heavenly Majesty and lest we fail of doing this see how to day we pray that we may do it beseeching God to grant our wills may be devoted and our heaâ—ts sincerely bent to the service of his Divine Majesty O! could we but reflect upon the Obligations we have indeed to serve him with sincere hearts we should never swerve from doing this under a thousand fond presumptions of our serving God whilest yet we seek nothing but our own wills and not his service nor is there any