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
best harmony with our best chearfulness from the example of Angels especially at this time for the Birth of our blessed Lord and Saviour c. THE EIGHTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION LUKE ii 14. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will towards men O Sing unto the Lord a new Song for he hath done marvelous things I will begin the New year from that portion of Davids Canticle Marvelous things they were you will all confess that the powerful God should be made a feeble Infant that a woman should bear him in her womb who supports the world and all the Creatures that are contained in it that the Eternal should be born who had no beginning never was the like heard or seen before therefore whatsoever was said of old will not agree to set it forth it must be a new Song of praise and thanksgiving to our God So is the Text which I have read before you It cometh to pass by the providence of God that St. Lukes Gospel is more chearful than all the rest and full of Musick So that he is well called by one not only the Evangelist but the Psalmist of the New Testament The Song of Zachary the Song of Maries Magnificat the Song of Simeon this Song of the Angels the Church is beholding to him for reciting them and to no other Penman of the holy Word St. Paul calls him Luke the Physician some of the Roman Church to serve their own Imagery delights out of some Histories unallowed call him Luke the Painter there is no conjecture for that out of the book of Scripture which cannot lye But I have more conjecture for my own opinion that he was Luke the Musician a man of divers gifts and qualities for the Prophets and Evangelists wrote the Scriptures by divine revelation yet always with a sweet tincture of their own abilities The stately eloquence of Isaiah shews his breeding St. Pauls Logical Arguments shew his Scholarship St. Peters facile Exhortations shew his zeal and plain Education Finally if I be not deceiv'd the repeating of so many celestial Hymns in St. Luke shew his musical art and affection Now the Spirit of the Church hath been ever so directed by God to take in all the Songs of the New Testament into its publick Service and Liturgie the Magnificat the Benedictus the Nunc Dimittis Thus it is not only with us but was so most anciently in all flourishing and well established Churches Neither is this Versicle of the Angels I mean my Text left out but it is referred to the chief part of our serving of God in the celebration of the holy Communion before we part from the Table of the Lord our Rubrique commands us to sing or say Glory be to God on high Indeed that Prayer as we have it is enlarged with many other pithy strains of devotion We praise thee we bless thee we worship thee we glorifie thee c. And such as have wrote of ancient Ceremonies say that Pope Telesphorus made up that excellent prayer of Laud and Thanksgiving beginning with my Text. Very ancient it is I am sure because I meet with it for the most part in those pieces which are called the Constitutions of Clemens and St. James his Liturgy But for the words which I handle I have great cause to judge that they were the most acceptable Prayer of the Primitive Church for St. Paul begins his Epistles with grace and peace be multiplied as much as to say peace on earth and good will towards men and the end of many clauses in his Epistles is that Doxology to God To whom be glory for evermore Amen I wonder that the words themselves are bended in and out with such curious divisions by many Divines for the Angel hath parted them into three several rests and I will not go about to mend his work and whereas Points are raised out of Grammatical constructions of the Verb whether they should be the Indicative or the Optative Mood it shall be all one to that way in which I will handle the parts for I will handle every of the three members three ways First As a Congratulation or thanksgiving Secondly By way of Prayer or Petition Thirdly By way of Doctrine and Instruction Thanksgiving unto God that his glory on high appeareth that peace doth flourish on earth and that he is pleased with men or make it a Prayer or Postulation that all glory may be given to God all safety to the earth and that an happy reconciliation may be begun with men Otherwise if it be a Sermon or Exhortation the sum is that God be magnified peace preserved a friendship with God endeavoured thus nothing shall be lost of this divine musical Embassage Glory be to God in the highest c. Now we cannot be to seek what is the sum of the first member Glory to God in the highest it must be thus the Angels glorifie God for sending Christ in the flesh to redeem mankind and they wish and pray that men may glorifie God in Christ and they teach us that Gods glory is to be sought before all things and so I proceed to explicate it before you If the Disciples be silent at what time it is fit to praise God the stones shall speak says our Saviour that 's ultimum refugium the last shift and refuge that the very dross of the earth if need were should not want a tongue to magnifie its Creator But it stirs up emulation and provokes us more when those that are far above us discharge the duty which we ought to execute rather than when those things which are much beneath us should give us example So my Text lets you see that if men be silent and set not forth the praise of the Lord the Angels will speak and give him glory It were a great shame for the Commons to be rude and irrespectful towards their King when the Nobles and Princes of the people are most dutiful and obsequious so when the Cherubins devote their Songs to extol the most High it were a beastly neglect in man a worm in respect of a Cherubin not to bear a part in that humble piety But to speak after the method of reason had it not been more proper for the Angels at this time to have proclaimed Christs Poverty than his Power his Infancy than his Majesty his Humility in the lowest rather than his glory in the highest If there wereany glory coming out of this work of the Incarnation it may seem we had it rather than our Saviour and he lost it But the piercing eye of those celestial Spirits could see abundant honour compassing Christ about where ignorant man could espy nothing but vileness and misery For first they celebrate the glory of Gods justice in sending his Son made of a woman and made under the Law to suffer for us that had sinned against the Law because that Justice would not receive man into favour
do all that God bids Give me a contented heart ready to endure all that God imposeth and then as thou shalt be an heir with Christ in the inheritance of heaven so thou shalt share with him in his sweetest title upon earth Thou art my beloved Son c. The last part of the Testimony comes now to my hand to be be dispatch'd that Christ is Filius complacentiae in whom and through whom the Father is well pleased O delicious words fit to be uttered by a voice from heaven and at the appearance of the Holy Gbost Partem aliquam venti Divum referatis ad aures We have delighted our hearts in the former Treatises to consider that from Servants we are become Sons from a People justly hated we are become beloved but to whom do we owe all this Surely as Mary and Martha said to Christ If thou hadst been here my brother Lazarus had not died So may we turn it and say if thou hadst not been here we had all died in our sins Therefore the voice points upon him that we may take notice how he is worth the knowing Hic est quem quaerimus hic est This is he that hath turned anger into reconciliation and enmity into peace As who should say I was once pleased at the making of the first Adam and I said all was very good for he was endued with original righteousness that he might have done all things well How much better am I pleased with the second Adam who hath done all things well and though it repented me afterward that I made man my Son yet now I am pleased with all that repent for my Sons sake Therefore thou art he for whose sake I will give heaven to them who have deserved the nethermost Hell thou art he by whom I have ordained to execute my pleasure to save the world To whom therefore do we owe our Salvation Or what moved our Father which is in heaven to elect us to the fruition of his glory If you will have an answer both clear according to Scripture and befitting our own humility it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good pleasure of the Father whose will is the true and only cause that can be given for the happiness of all things that shall enjoy him who hath predestinated us to himself unto the adoption of Sons by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will Eph. i. 6. To ascribe our Election to any thing discerned in our selves as I apprehend it shakes the foundation of the Gospel which in every passage makes Salvation the free gift of God by grace in Christ But Christ is both the exemplary the final and the meritorious cause of our Salvation The exemplary for whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son Rom. viii 23. From whence Aquinas fetcheth it that Christ is the true Pattern by which we are predestinated respecting the manner by which we obtain that infinite good which is by mere grace For as the humane nature was united to the Godhead by no precedent merits so by his mere good pleasure without any thing precedent in us to attract him we shall be united to his glory 2. He is the final cause of our Election for to what end are we beloved To what end pluckt out of the jaws of Hell like a brand out of the fire But that he might be glorified among his Brethren God ordained his Son to be head of the Church and then he gave unto him a portion to be members of his body Wherefore the Church most aptly is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fulness of him that filleth all in all Eph. i. ult As if Christ had not esteemed his own glory to be full and perfect without us But 3. He must also be acknowledged the meritorious cause of our Salvation For God so loved the good of his Creature that he did not forget to see his own justice satisfied by the obedience and death of Christ which satisfaction the Father lookt upon as the meritorious cause that we should be ordained to adoption of Sons God lookt upon the ransom of this Sacrifice when he did predestinate us to Salvation which surely is the sense of this voice This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Therefore this clause of my Text was St. Pauls warrant for so much as he wrote to the Colossians Chap. i. 20. It pleased the Father to reconcile all things unto himself by him by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven The self-same three things which are considerable in my Text and not yet opened are here likewise in their proper notions 1. That peculiarly above other Persons of Trinity the Father is said to be pleased with us and the Father reconciled 2. That it is assigned to the Office of the Son by it self to please and reconcile 3. That the Father is pleased in all things both in heaven and earth by the reconciliation of the Son cursorily of each For the first still the Scripture speaks that the Sacrifice placatory was offered up to the Father that he might draw us to himself who were aliens and castaways When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. v. 10. Believe it that every sin is committed against the whole divine Majesty and as every person in Trinity was dishonoured in the offence so we have need of pacification with all in the reconcilement But that the Scripture makes us rather take notice how the Father is reconciled unto us there are two reasons One that the Father is the Fountain of all Divinity the first person in order against whom we sin yet we sin against all So the first Person in order that is reconciled unto us yet we are reconciled to all 2. Though every work belonging to the Church be the conjunct act of the Trinity yet there are proper Offices belonging to several Persons to make our conceit more methodical So we know it by the phrase of Scripture that it is proper to the Father to receive us into grace proper to the Son to pay the price of our redemption and proper to the Holy Ghost to seal it to our hearts and to beget assurance in us It follows secondly that it belongs to the Office of the Son to make us pleasing and to reconcile us to God There is no other name under heaven but his in which Salvation can be hoped for Acts iv 12. for should the Angels or should men be appointed to such an Office to knit us into amity again with God and to reduce us to that eternal concord who were become open enemies It could not be For Angels and men owe as much obedience for their own part as they could perform Neither ought it to be for it was not fit that man should owe his Redemption to any other than to whom he owed his Creation
resolution into his humane nature to fight with and to overthrow the tentations of the Devil I shall reach this doctrine unto you the better upon certain questions And first what needed this Preface of all other before this mighty work that he was guided by the Spirit What action throughout all his life did not deserve the same commendation A young Rhetorician dedicated an Oration to one Antalcidas What is the subject of your Oration quoth he Says the young Orator the praise of Hercules Fie man says Antalcidas what needless pains have you taken Who did ever dispraise Hercules So it may seem as redundant an expression to say that Christ was led by the Spirit at this time for through the grace of Union and the grace of Unction he was always conducted by the Spirit It is sufficient for answer to this that this was the first exploit of those that Christ did act to shew he was the Christ and the Mediator of God and man therefore this clause being prefixt to the formost of his actions is a title to all the rest he was led of the Spirit 2. It is not to be taken per modum inhaerentiae that he was now full of the Holy Ghost as if he had received a larger measure than he had before but by way of manifestation for the Spirit even now had visibly descended upon him in the shape of a Dove Semper fuit actus à spiritu sed jam maximè ejus vis apparuit the common gloss of the best Writers The Spirit did always lead him and dwel in him but now it did appear and put forth its strength I move another question be not offended that I move these hard things as it were by way of Catechism are the leadings of the Spirit of more sorts than one Yea these two are degrees one above another The first is general to all the Sons of God for they are all stirred up to faith and hope and good works by a divine illumination If ye be led by the Spirit then are ye not under the Law of the flesh Gal. v. 18. The second is special to the chiefest and principal Ministers of God as Kings Prophets and Apostles when Saul was anointed King over Israel the Lord gave him another heart his Spirit came upon him and he Prophesied So Christ our anointed Prophet prepared himself for a famous enterprize and he had the badge of Gods good liking The Spirit came upon him or he was led by the Spirit Suffer but one interrogatory more and it is this Did the Spirit thrust on Christ and as it were hale him with compulsion at this time So a man might hap to fall into that error by St. Marks words The Spirit driveth him into the Wilderness And the Vulgar Latine gives the same offence Luk. iv 1. Agebatur a spiritu he was pusht on by the Spirit For answer hard words are soon mollified by good construction The very Heathen could say Generosus est animus hominis magisque ducitur quà m trahitur Mans will is a free generous thing and had rather be led fairly than drawn forcibly Therefore the other Evangelists must be expounded by St. Matthew that the Spirit led him by illumination and propounding the will of his Father unto him not by violence and coaction So Cajetan Non vis significatur sed efficientia impulsus spiritus All was done by the efficacy and motion of the Spirit nothing by compulsion Some there are who care not what old Pillars of Divinity they pull down to set up their new devises that hold that Christ did obey his Father and the Divine Law with so much liberty and freedom that it were no offence to say Christ could not have obeyed his Father not have kept the Law and so by consequent have sinned and whereas it is certain he did not sin they will neither allow that the Hypostatical Union was the cause of it O strange Theologie nor yet the grace of Unction wherewith he was anointed above his fellows O strange impudency Neither of these was fundamentum impeccabilitatis And all this to maintain that because he did merit by his obedience his will was not determined to do good but left indifferent to good or evil Away with this over audatious disputing Christ could not but fulfil all righteousness I must do the works of him that sent me Joh. iv 9. All good things conducible to the work of a Mediator were necessary to be done And it was necessary Gods will being declared that it should be fulfilled of Christ although he was not necessitated by a violent determination but moved willingly and obediently unto it by a certain perswasion Non necessitatus erat sed propter illud quod necessarium erat sponte motus says Abulensis The object propounded was necessary to be done of him though he accepted it with much alacrity and desire and no way driven by constrainment Therefore this was not like Peters case Another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not Joh. xxi 18. But the hand of the Lord was with him and carried him whither he liked himself Non invitus aut captus sed sponte liberè venit says St. Hierom He was not drawn on as if his own will drew back but rejoyced as a Giant to run his course To say no more but this Oblatus est quia voluit It was his own good will that he was slain for the sins of the world it was his own pleasure not to dread death and it was as much his own pleasure to grapple with tentations And so much for that question how the Spirit did lead him into the Wilderness You shall now be partakers of the third thing why this passage is inserted into the story that he was led up of the Spirit Good reasons are rather to be esteemed by their weight than their multitude take these few to content you 1. The Spirit is said to lead him because de did not run on blindfold but knew the task which he undertook he foresaw the difficulties that he would meet and weighed them in the balance of judgment and discretion Non ignarus sed consilio ducebatur says St. Ambrose The counsel of the Spirit did enlighten him to see what he had in hand Saul thought that David was but a fool-hardy Stripling and knew not what a perilous thing it was to fight with such a Giant as Goliah Thou art but a youth and he a man of War from his youth thou art not able to go against this Philistine But David shewed the reason of his confidence the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lion and out of the paw of the Bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine He had considered Gods mercies and protection therefore he was led by the Spirit into that noble action Beware to plod on like Balaam with our eyes shut never discerning what is
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
went out of Babylon to repair Hierusalem arose in the night and went their way Nehem. 2.12 And thirdly the great Redeemer who should pluck us out of the mire and draw us out of the bondage of Sin his fame is spread abroad when the Shepherds kept watch over their Flocks by night Nay almost no work of extraordinary worth and efficacy toward and after the time of the Passion but it fell out when darkness was upon the face of the earth To let his Birth alone and to say no more than my Text doth Excubarunt noctu the poor men heard of it that lay abroad in the night His Agony in the Garden took hold on him by night when the world was in a dead sleep his own Disciples drowsie and could not watch with him one hour He suffered when the Sun was darkned and the Stars gave no light Finally He arose out of the Sepulchre before any body was stirring in the morning What is the meaning of this Even to shew that we were dumb and still passives in all the work of our Redemption we slept and thought not of help and succour when it was plentifully supplied for our salvation when no soul awoke to think of blessing in the dark night of Ignorance Christ was born We are supine in our sins like men stretcht upon their bed when he sweat drops of bloud We regarded not his Passion when he suffered we were careless when he arose for our justification But of the time let this suffice to be spoken That which made up the fourth and fifth parts of my Text is concerning the persons they were Shepherds and they were many Shepherds so many as made a Plural number And there were in the same Country Shepherds c. The heathen make much ado and relate it not without admiration by what mean and almost despised persons the deep knowledge of Philosophy was first found out and brought to light As Protagoras earning his living by bearing burdens of wood and Cleanthes no better than a Gibeonite fain to draw water for his liberty Chrysippus and Epictetus mere vassals to great men for their maintenance yet these had the honour to find out the riches of knowledge for the recompence of their Poverty but the day shall come that these Philosophers will wonder that they found out no more than they did and be astonished that silly Shepherds were first deputed to find out one thing more needful than all the World beside even Jesus Christ Tiberius propounded his mind to the Senate of Rome that Christ the great Prophet in Jury should be had in the same honour with the other Gods which they worshipt in the Capitol The motion did not please them says Eusebius and this was all the fault because he was a God not of their own but of Tiberius invention So lest great men and Rulers of the earth should disdain at a Saviour which was not of their own discovery but found out by servants that kept their flocks I will make it good by reason that the Angel pickt out very choice persons for the business the Shepherds of the Field It is truly and modestly observed by Tolet Causa cur pastores visitantur est Dei beneplacitum multae autem congruentiae Why shepherds were visited by the Angel rather than men of another trade or calling and in particular why these Shepherds rather than all besides of the same Vocation no cause can be assign'd but the meer will and favour of God but his pleasure having done the deed much may be said to approve it why it is fit and convenient To be a Shepherd is a life of great servitude and poverty as Job says they spend their time desolate and solitary in the Wilderness and for vile company they are set with the dogs of the flocks and these were fit to be the first partakers of the Gospel because it is powerful in Spirit but base and contemptible according to the Flesh A sapientibus non quaerit testimonium qui parvulis se revelat he baulks the Pharises and Princes of the people and seeks the testimony of Shepherds because he reveals himself unto those that are lowly in their own eyes and poor in Spirit none more unlikely than they to do a message for Almighty God When Samuel came to Ishai and askt for his Sons that he might pick out the man whom the Lord had chosen Ishai presented the most likely as he thought indeed all but one There is one more says he in the field that keepeth sheep O says Samuel let that David be sent for from following the Ews great with young Surely thinks the Prophet because he hath been despised and neglected he is the man whom God hath in store to govern Israel Weak and impotent means are the fittest for the Lords choice that men of action and authority may not attribute that unto themselves which is only the doing of the Lord. Praevalet imperitia in rusticitate Pastorum says S. Austin When such ignaroes as these were sent abroad to tell in the City what they had heard and seen the world could not say they were enticed by Eloquence the enemies of the Faith could not say that crafty Philosophy got ground upon the simple but as the Devil chose a Serpent a wise creature above all the Beasts of the field and all that are in the water to destroy the world by subtlety so Christ chose Shepherds out of the Field and Fishermen out of the Water as the chief means to repair the world by innocency and simplicity 1 Cor. 1.26 Brethren says St. Paul you see your calling for so Erasmus will read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present tense because the thing was open to all mens knowledge and perspicuous but what did they see so plainly not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but foolish things were chosen to confound the wise c. Two things are to be drawn from hence first that we distort not the Scripture as if it pronounced nothing but confusion to the rulers of the earth let not the honourable person hang down his head as if power and wisdom and noble blood and dignity were causes of rejection before God no beloved Isaiah foretold that Kings should be nursing Fathers and Queens should be nursing Mothers of the Church but it is often seen that the benignity of nature and the liberality of fortune are made impediments to a better life and therefore Nobles and Princes are more frequently threatned with judgment I adjoyn moreover that the Scriptures speak more flatly against illustrious Magistrates than the common sort for if God had left it to men whose tongues are prostituted to flattery they had scarce been told that their abominable sins would bring damnation 2. The comfort of the poor is never to be forgotten in this point the servile life of a poor Shepherd is as fortunate as great exaltation when it
answers it better fight single against Satan one to one in the Wilderness than fight against Satan and wicked men who will entice you to sin as fast as Satan Therefore let them take out my Lesson and eschew the frequent Societies of populous places who find the Contagion of pestilent multitudes rub some rust upon them and infect their integrity It is not the place but the corruptions of the place which the meditations of the Fathers gathered out of my Text do lead you to abandon therefore the words of our Saviour shall stand in the last place to shut up this Point Joh. xvii 15. I pray not that thou shouldst take them that is the Disciples out of the world but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil So much for the circumstance of the place My Sermon thus far hath been upon the Wilderness against the handling of the next Point it is fit to ask What went we forth into the Wilderness to see Why to behold Christ fasting before he fought with the Devil Though that is not all he did there for there is much more behind yet this is enough to make it worth our labour Esurivit panis sicut defecit via sicut vulnerata est sanitas sicut mortua est vita says St. Austin By the same wonderful dispensation that the way of life was weary health it self was wounded life it self died by the same dispensation the bread of life fasted and was afterwards an hungry A sanctified fast hath two religious ends in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul says 1. To chastise our own body and to take revenge upon it 2. To put it into a good temperature for the minds sake Neither of these causes could be set before Christ in this long fast for his Flesh had never rebelled against the Spirit neither was there any inordinateness in his natural constitution which could be corrected by temperance Some therefore hold an opinion that Christ went not into the Wilderness to fast that fell out so indeed and was a necessary accessory because there was no food to be had You know the people ran after Christ into these spacious fields to hear Christ preach and not to fast with him yet there they continued three days fasting and had nothing to eat until four thousands were fed miraculously with five loaves and two fishes In like manner Moses went not up into the Mount to fast but to receive the Tables and truly this opinion is not to be contemned for St. Mark remembers that he was in the Wilderness tempted of Satan and quite omits his fasting This is prest the more zealously by some and with sufficient probability to shew upon what weak foundation they build who fetch it from hence that Christ observed the fast of forty days on purpose to constitute a yearly Lent in the Church for ever or a Quadragesimal fast for if it were by accident that Christ fasted here that can be no constitution of his intendment Nor indeed did he appoint any such thing as I will shew in just time Yet I concur not in the main sentence with those Authors for it seems to me this was purposed by Christ to go into the Desart and spend his time in Prayer and Fasting Now was the conflict at hand now was the first institution and undertaking of the greatest matter in the world the salvation of mankind and could not begin with a better Praeludium than an extraordinary Fast In this I will be directed by the interlineal gloss Jejunat ut tentetur tentatur quia jejunat He did fast that he might provoke tentations against himself and he did provoke tentations because he fasted For the better explication of the causes why he was pleased to fast I will lay down the distinction of Christs will as I find it considered in the School three ways Sicut ratio est unibilis corpori sicut est omnino conformis Deitati ratione membrorum 1. The soul is united to the body and for that union sake the will desireth the good of the whole man 2. God and man were united in Christ into one person therefore his will was subject in all things to the divine Law and pleasure 3. He was the head of the body which is the Church and therefore his will did graciously affect the prosperity of his members In these three respects there are so many causes of moment why Jesus fasted 1. Because it is profitable to conserve the whole man against tentations 2. It was the divine pleasure to provoke the Devil to give the onset by macerating and enfeebling his body and Satans foil was the greater because he was the challenger 3. He had regard unto his members to avenge himself on the Tempter by the victory of temperance who brought sin into the world through our first Parents by the sin of Gluttony Other causes I leave behind for refutation First I say it gives us a lesson to fast and withdraw the ordinary sustenance from the body when we perceive our selves in likelihood to encounter some temptation King Jehosaphat had a great battle to fight with the Ammonites and before the conflict he set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a Fast throughout all Judah 2 Chron. xx 3. So did Esther when she undertook the great danger to go in to Ahasuerus against the Law to intercede for the deliverance of the whole Nation of the Jews she would not venture upon so great a peril unless all the Jews would fast three whole days before the Lord and neither eat nor drink Est iv 16. What should I say more out of many examples Ezra suspecting what great opposition he should find to re-edifie the Temple of the Lord he proclaimed a Fast that all the People might afflict themselves before God Ezra viii 21. And St. Basil a great Practiser of this doctrine as any was in the world which is better than a Teacher bid all his Scholars take it upon his word that Sobriety was the best Antidote in the world to expel the venom of the Devil This holy Father was so good a spiritual Physician that the Church had not a better since his time I think to prescribe a good diet for the soul Adam went out of Paradise with a full stomack poor Lazarus went fasting to heaven scarce fraught with the crums of the rich mans Table Moses did fast upon Sinah for forty days when he talked with God But the People who in the mean time did commit Idolatry sate down to eat and to drink and rose up to play Daniel refused the meat and drink allowed him from the Kings Table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to honour his temperance and fasting the very Lions into whose Den he was cast were taught to fast and hunger and not to eat up Daniel who was thrown before them to be a prey unto their teeth Thus far he If you ask me wherein we honour God in what part it
bodie nor with our substance He shall have neither our goods nor our knee but likely we put it off He shall have our soul why this is only to give God his thirds as a reverend Father saies to compound like Bankrupts and give him two parts less than we owe him and yet we look for ten thousand times more than He owes us We have some that are to be suspected for a kind of Sadduces among us that believe no resurrection of the body else they would never palter with discipline but be more forward in the prostration and worship of the bodie than the Church could be to command them Some have given a great blow to this duty by harping upon the bare words of S. John and not digesting the true meaning of his Text Joh. iv 23. The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth Mark the occasion why this was spoken and the words precedent The woman of Samaria moved a doubt whether God was to be worshipped at Jerusalem as the Jews taught or at Mount Girizin as the Samaritans taught Now the Samaritans worshipt God falsely they worshipt they knew not what says Christ The Jews held strictly to Moses Law and observ'd figures and shadows of things to come which were all to give place and vanish upon the incarnation of our Lord. Now it is easie to discern the substance of our Saviours answer what it is to serve God in spirit and truth Truth is opposed to the false superstition of the Samaritans Spirit is opposed to the Jewish figures and sacrifices And Christ tells the woman God will neither be served any more after the Samaritan way or Jewish way but after the newness of the Gospel The hour cometh and now is when ye shall neither worship the Father in this Mountain nor at Jerusalem but they shall worship him in spirit and truth Do these words exempt the worship of the body nothing less The word spirit is not taken there for the soul divided from the body signifying only an internal act of the spirit but for all manner of virtuous actions as well external as internal which proceed from the grace of the Holy Spirit being acceptable to God because the Holy Spirit brings them forth not because they are figures of things to come I will sing with the spirit says St. Paul 1 Cor. xiv 15. and yet singing is a bodily action He did worship in spirit when he said For this cause bow I my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Ephes iii. to come to a point Remember therefore how we adore God in spirit when we adore him with those outward gestures of the body to which we are stirred up by the Spirit of truth And so much of the first member of my Text which I laid out to be handled by it self the Lord God is to be worshipped The next duty is the other Pillar of Religion which upholds the Church of the Elect the Lord God is to be served By worship you know already we understand all humble outward devotion and reverence Now by service you must conceive the inward conformity of the heart to all duty and obedience The will of the Lord is revealed to us two manner of ways Either as he doth promise us blessings and benefits and assures us great rewards in the Kingdom of heaven Or as he doth stipulate and covenant with us what we shall do to obtain his favour In the former respect as he hath given us the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth most liberally and as he doth promise greater fruits of his mercy most graciously we fall down and worship him for his benefits but as he doth condition with us to do somewhat for his sake that he may leave a blessing with us we serve him faithfully and bind our inward faculties our soul and our mind to be prompt and ready to execute all obedience That you may the better compose your hearts to attend Gods will in all things and to serve him I will supply your knowledge with these few motives following First There is no other Lord beside our God properly called 1 Cor. viii Though there be that are called Gods as there be Gods many and Lords many that is by opinion and nuncupation but to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him And again Eph. v. 4. One Lord one Faith one Baptism one God who is above all and through all and in you all Super omnes dominio per omnes providentiâ in omnibus justificatione Above all by his Dominion through all by his Providence in all by sanctifying us with his grace and justifying us from sin He that is subject to none inferiour to none independent of himself in all his power He may well be called a Lord and such a Lord deserves to be served Petty Magistrates hold of Princes favours and Kings hold their tenure under God Therefore some of the Roman Emperours having the perceivance that they could command nothing absolutely if he that sate above the heavens did stop it they would not be called Domini because themselves were servants in relation to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords therefore their circumscribed power did not answer the title When the Scripture brings in the most High the saying is Haec dicit Dominus Thus saith the Lord. If we would examine this after the stile of man you would say Lord of what Why universal Lord without any particular designment Specifications to be Lords of this or that are earthly phrases are notes of minority Attalus the Martyr was askt what name that Lord had whom he served Says he Qui plures sunt nominibus discernuntur qui autem unus est non indiget nomine Where there are many Lords they must be distinguish'd by their properties but what need that Lord a name for distinction who is the only Ruler by himself without any equal or partner in his dominion now since we must serve for sin hath brought servitude into the world whom would a man choose to serve but that only Lord to whose sheave all other sheaves do bend and who only hath authority Secondly In all service you will consider in what state and place it puts you Do so in this and spare not But let St. Peter be the Judge 1 Epist ii 9. Ye are a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people There is royalty in the very service Cui servire est regnare To do him service is a Kingly Ministry Nay there is more in one of our Church Collects in one Line of it than in the most Augustious title of a King God whose service is perfect freedom A King may be so much subject to naughty passions as he shall be in vile thraldom to his own sensualities and so
his own mouth and Oracle any mortal man to build a place for him but the most conspicuous Prophet and the most conspicuous King in all Israel Moses for the Tabernacle and Solomon for the Temple and therefore Peter asked no ignoble office from Christ when he would be appointed from him to make him a Tabernacle If thou wilt let us make here three Tabernacles he asked his leave Matt. xvii 4. Of that humble submission I will speak a word by and by one thing calls me to consider it first that here is an infallible note of a large and a vehement love affectus sine mensurâ propriarum virium an affection which never measured how it could perform that to which it offered true love doth not consider how it shall be able to finish that which it undertakes we undertake to renounce the Devil and all his works to keep all the Commandments which all our frailties will not permit but love adventures to try what it can do and therefore love is called the fulfilling of the Law Mary Magdalen came to enbalm our Saviour's body in the Sepulcher and never thought till she was hard by that there was a stone upon the Sepulcher which she could not roll away when Christ was risen and she took him for the Gardner Sir says she If thou hast born him hence tel me where thou hast laid him and I will take him away Why a dead body useth to be born by four strong men to the ground and this had need of more help when his body was wrapt up with an hundred pound weight of sweet spices yet out of more confidence than strength she said she would bring his corps again into the Grave So Peter and his helpers would raise up three Tabernacles in Mount Thabor having neither Workmens tools nor materials nor skill I think in that Trade yet he would dispatch a Building instantly that he would to receive his Lord and those two Gloriosoes that were with him if Christ let him alone what unartificial work he would have made But true love strides over all impossibilities nihil erubescit nisi nomen difficultatis it would be ashamed of it self to think any thing were difficult You see his aim was above his skill and will it fully excuse him to say all was out of love never lay it upon that love Christ loves well but if it be love that is right and considerate says a most accurate Father of our own Church St. Paul commends love on this wise 1 Cor. xiii 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nihil perperam facit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not behave it self unseemly keeps decorum forgets not what belongs to duty and decency then the Lord accepts it Love may and doth forget it self otherwhile and then the Heathen mans saying is true importunus amor parum distat a simultate he that loves God inconsiderately and perversely is a kind of enemy Peter thought let him work and then there they would stay and all should be happy whereas there can be no true happiness where there is so much as faciamus any bodily work Though there was a fault yet love makes it but a diminutive error in him and as in every Evangelists relation we may read his love so in St. Matthew his obedience if thou wilt let us make three Tabernacles and well remembred of him that Christ said I came from Heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me Joh. vi so though Peter thought himself in Heaven yet he must not do his own will but the will of the Lord Nay if it were not for doing our own will against his there would be nothing but Heaven Cesset propria voluntas infernus non erit says Bernard Give up your own will to the will of the Lord into his hands and direction and there would be no Hell in the world The chief part of our wisdom is not to lean upon our own wisdom Let his will guide all that cannot deceive us whose will it was to suffer death upon the Cross because our own will had destroyed us A Client will refer his Cause to the direction of his Counsel a Builder the Fabrique of his House to a Master of Architecture the Lord will plead our cause against them that strive against us the Lord will build up the decayed places of Jerusalem and make us polished stones for his own Temple except the Lord build the house their labour is but lost that build it si tu faciamus not our will but thy will be done if thou wilt let us make c. This makes for the Apostles defence but there is some coliquintida in all things that man can do or say for as Peter consulted with God so he consulted also with his own fancy But in spiritual things says the Apostle I consulted not with flesh and blood Galat. i. 16. Here is Peter holding God in one hand and his own carnal imagination in another and indeed this was not to ask if Christ would such a thing but to tempt him to be willing to that which was scandalous and inglorious to his Majesty say the Apostles Acts i. Lord wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom unto Israel Their question may seem to be submissive but it was not there was venom in those fair words for they would have him willing to establish a temporal Soveraignty in Israel I will conclude this first part with an exact rule of St. Pauls Be ye not unwise but understand what the will of the Lord is Ephes v. 17. So much for the Builders faciamus let us make I proceed to the Fabrique or Building tria Tabernacula three Tabernacles either Booths compacted of arms of trees lopt off from the trunck called attegias by the Old Latins or pleasant Arbors of living boughs which are writhed in arch-wise over head and every sprig close twisted in to fence off the weather called arbuscula topiaria the best Shelters to receive these great persons that the poor man could think of whether the Mountain could afford them or no we have no evidence to make it appear that was never thought of when he spoke it for he was so surpriz'd with joy that he had no leisure to recollect himself but herein his zeal was very generous he would fain build another world and never see this again Quem seculi hujus illecebrosa non caperent gratia resurrectionis allexit says St. Ambrose though the provocations of this world could not intangle Peter yet he was catcht with that fair sight how God will honour us in the Resurrection there he would build there he would fain set his rest to dwell in a Tabernacle made of boughs and bushes with Christ and Moses and Elias affected him better than to enjoy a Palace in this sinful World Exilium in Pompeii causâ est tanquam patria says a Roman that a man could not miss his native Country that endured banishment
beat strong upon Elias his ear the whole Camp of the Aramites ran away when they did but think they heard a noise the figure of a mans hand dampt King Belshazzar a Whip of small cords shaken in our Saviours hand made the Mony-changers overturn their Tables for haste and run out of the Temple 2 Macch. iv the Author of that History says that the Lord made the Clouds in the air appear like a great Battail and like horse-men fighting to the terror of Jerusalem it is an easie thing therefore for him that dwells above to make a little Cloud seem a terrible spectacle And this which shook the Disciples had some extraordinary qualities in it to strike the outward senses with amazement it had not the conditions of a natural Meteor for it had much more brightness than any other part of the air it was a Cloud that rid close upon the earth and was not exalted as they use to be into the higher parts of the air it was framed like some beauteous Chamber to receive the Son of God in Majesty together with Moses and Elias it was dissolved at an instant as soon as ever this apparition was dispatcht This was enough then to cause astonishment that the finger of God was in this Cloud above the ordinary course of nature Now there is not the least empty Cloud which the wind blows about but the Lord appoints it for some end and service much more you will allow there were manifold causes for the sending of this Cloud and the judgments of the skilful conceit them to be these First the Lord did shew that He could frame a better piece of Architecture of a sudden than Peter could imagin to build he spake of three Tabernacles which would be long in piecing together God in a moment creates one Cloud to receive them all better than an hundred Tabernacles Such a one as Moses and the Israelites had in the Wilderness to shadow them against all offence Such things the Heathen did drive at in their Poetical Fictions but I am sure the Lord is able to pitch a Cloud between his chosen and their enemies that the hand of violence shall not touch them neither shall any evil come nigh their dwelling Trust in the Lord in the time of danger if ever our foes should rise up against us and say though we are not within the fence of strong Walls and Bulwarks yet if thou O God of Hosts will cast but a thin Cloud between us and our enemies we shall be safe under thy wings until their tyranny be over-past Secondly a Cloud did interpose it self to qualify the Object of the Transfiguration and to make it fit for the Disciples to behold it the Cloud indeed was very bright yet it was dark and opacous in respect of Christs body which did exceed the very light of the Sun Which St. Chysostom proves that I may add somewhat more than I have said before to this purpose in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his face was compared to shine as the Sun yet sayes he the Disciples bewray how it did exceed that example for they never fell down for fear to see the light of the Sun but they fell down to see the light of his body Therefore this Cloud did cast it self between as if Christ would put a Veil upon his face that their weak sight might the better behold him In this life we must look through a Cloud we must expect to see him as in a Glass darkly hereafter we shall see him face to face Mark the infirmity of mans nature in this sinful corruptible condition and let us learn humility it was not enough that Peter John and James were not transformed in the Mount as Christ was no nor as Moses and Elias were our vile flesh is not receptive of such celestial excellency but to abase them and us further a shady Cloud opposed it self before their eyes because we are not fit nor worthy to behold such pure happiness in these days of vanity Such knowledg is too excellent for me says David I cannot attain unto it Thirdly this Cloud was set up for a Land-mark to limit curiosity and to drive men off from approaching too near to pry into the Divine secrets where God sets up a Cloud it is a manifest sign that those are our bounds and we must not break them As when the Lord came down upon Mount Sinah it was full of smoak and vapour that his Majesty might be concealed in those thick mists and none of the people no not so much as a Beast durst come nearer under pain of death What a becoming thing it is to look no further into Gods secrets than he hath given us eyes to see and when there is a mystery which the wisest God hath given no charge to search into it to say I see a Cloud between me and this secret and I must go no further The Devil himself doth not envy us knowledg but he doth envy us obedience The ancient Apostolical Creed consists of twelve Articles to be believed as they are commonly divided Pope Pius the fourth made them twelve four and twenty such as they are and if we want more mysteries of faith and knowledg to work upon I doubt not but Satan would allow us a thousand But as the Romanists who have twelve Articles of Creed more than we yet have one Commandment less for the second is quite left out of their Portresses and Breviaries no nor the least mention of it made in the Expositions of the great Schoolman Aquinas so the restless wit of man runs presumptuously upon all uncouth paths of knowledg which he should not tread but he keeps off from the Law and Good Works as if there were a Cloud say I between them nay as if there were a Lion in the way and so there is but it is that Lion which goes about night and day seeking whom he may devour But as our Proverb is of speculative men that dare enquire into any thing though it be never so much above their capacity that they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sore aloft in the air and talk in the clouds so the Apostle intimates that they are not wise unto sobriety and being drunk with curious knowledg as the Jews very falsly said the Apostles were with new wine they must needs stumble and fall Fourthly and I am sure this reason searcheth the true cause of the Cloud as near as any God the Father in the Old Testament was wont to utter his voice out of the thick clouds of the air and so he continues his holy will in the Gospel and therefore prepared this Cloud to preach from thence the words which follow This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him It was thus when he spake unto Moses himself Exod. xxiv 16. the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai and the Cloud covered it six days and the seventh day
like an Angel of light One most perspicuous instance is Mar. i. 24. The unclean spirit exclaims against Christ Jesus of Nazareth what have we to do with thee No Not with God that created them that was a lie of malice Art thou come to torment us There was a touch of Prophesie I know thou art the holy one of God that was as true as Gospel You shall have just these three parts now in Pilates Apology Mendacium de seipso verum testimonium de Christo Prophetiam de populo 1. I am innocent of this bloud that was false 2. He confesseth Christ to be a just person that was true 3. He threatens the people that if that just person died the vengeance should light upon their head vos videbitis that was a Prophesie Every man is his own flatterer else Pilate had not thought himself an innocent God will be cleared by every mans conscience else Pilate had not preached for our Saviours righteousness But how easie a thing it is to discern and protest against other mens faults Else Pilate had not Prophesied We take account of our own imperfections as it were at midnight when there is no light to discover us then we run into error and plead that we are innocent We see God in his works as by a dim candle and confession of truth will be extorted from us that He is a just person But we behold the crimes of those men that walk about us as at noon day and in the clear Sun-shine and then we Prophesie vos videbitis you that are sinners shall be punished Here is as very a Riddle as the old Sphinx made of three divers forms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the fore-part a Lyar in the next a true one in the third a Prophet and all these three in my Text I am innocent of the bloud c. I begin with Pilate in the first member of his speech the untruth which he tells in his own behalf I am innocent A vice which had been fitter for the meanest of the people than for the Ruler of Jury the supreme Deputy for the Roman Empire For truth as Synesius doth define it it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as who should say that a word truly spoken is a Gentleman born falshood and lying are but beggarly begotten But this is the wisdom of the World whatsoever we can coin for our own reputation it is not falshood but the strein of an Orator And as the Optiques do determine that in the composition of all colours there is lucidum and opacum one part which shines and makes a lustre to the eye another part dark and gross which casts a shadow so there is such an ingredient of two qualities in the actions of men lucidum and opacum some black deformity which is concealed somewhat that glisters and shews fair to the outward appearance Alas that is it which puts us into a good opinion of our selves that is it which prompted Pilates tongue to say before the people I am innocent Every disease says Hippocrates is the more dangerous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when our face is so much changed that our friends cannot know us But who is in so bad a case as that man who is so desperately diseased that he doth not know himself St. Austin hath mark'd out two examples especially for this purpose First the young man in the Gospel that talk'd of keeping all the Commandments was bad to follow Christ and did not Matthaeus peccator sequutus est vocantem Matthew the Publican that sold and bought sin and could not deny that it was a trade of iniquity he left all to attend our Saviour when he was called Secondly He doth compare St. Peter with himself there was a Peter that thought his fellows might be faint hearted and run away but for his own part he knew his courage was stronger than all tentation but there is another Peter or the same Peter of another mind who was ashamed to shew his face and went out and wept bitterly and of the twain he was the true Apostle Salubrius sibi displicuit Petrus quando flevit quà m sibi placuit quando praesumsit Wretched was that Peter who did presume upon himself happy was that Peter who did dislike and bewail his own infirmities Are you well advised upon how many nice Points innocency doth stand that dare advouch your own integrity First I am guilty of all the sins which I do not hate in another The Church of Pergamos did not deny the faith but God took up this quarrel against them That they did not hate the Doctrine of Balaam and the Nicolaitans Again I am guilty of all those sins which I do not rebuke in another Qui tacet consentire videtur the judgment hereof fell upon Eli and his house for ever Again I am guilty of every sin wherein I gave way to the lewdness of another and did not restrain it The Kings of Judah when they did not cut down the Groves and demolish the Images which they themselves did not worship yet their memory is Taxed that their heart was not perfect before the Lord because they were not zealous to cut off iniquity Now put all these together these nice observations of an upright heart and then let Pilate tell me who was innocent Leucatius a Roman well reputed of would needs stand in defence against the City that all his actions had been unblameable in every circumstance But I will never sit Judge in this cause says Fimbria whom he chose for the Umpire Quia justitia innumerabilibus officiis continetur For justice contains so many duties that it is hard to number them but to observe them all impossible Indeed the Heathen were so modest in this Point that in all the Language of Greece that rich and copious Tongue there is not one word which is proper for Innocency To say truth says Tertullian what should they do with the word in their mouth and want the matter in their heart which it signifies Quid si nos solum innocentes sumus Innocency such as the world can afford it is among Christians or no where Who is the man then that would put on the white Robe of a Saint and cast it over his crimson sins Let him first as it useth to be draw out his life with o Pencil in black colours and confess his iniquities What soul is that which like a chaste Virgin would become the Spouse of Christ Nec magis alba velit quà m det natura videri as the Poet speaks Let her lay no complement to that beauty or deformity which God hath afforded her And he that thinks himself less than the greatest sinner shall not be so great as the least Saint in the Kingdom of heaven But let no man deceive himself as if a confession of course would serve the turn such as we say by rote perchance at the beginning of our Morning and Evening Service There is not such an
served under Decius the Emperour in Affrica banished hundreds of Christians out of Affrica threatning death unto them if they returned Divers of them did creep in secretly giving reason that they came to comfort their Brethren and to strengthen them in the faith St. Cyprian writes to them out of Prison to exile themselves again and to return no more else if they suffered they should be reputed not for Martyrs but for Malefactors I will not load them with envy though it be true that many of their Tenebrioes crept into England with damnable intentions make the best they can of their own actions St. Cyprian says if banisht men will enter into a Realm against the Law they shall die as Malefactors It is the Cause and not the Punishment that makes a Martyr What more trivial If a Virgin choose to die rather than to be ravished she is slain for the Word of If a good man be ruined rather than give his assistance to the ruine of an innocent it is for the Word of God c. But if he be brought to the Stake for confessing there are no Gods made with hands and that Jesus Christ God and man is the Saviour of all that believe if he stand to it and will not flinch for any terrour that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hold his Testimony then he is slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony of the Lamb as the Dragon fought with them that kept the Commandments of God and had the Testimony of Jesus Christ meaning such as were holy and faithful very godly in their works very Orthodox in their belief This is that mixture of sweet Spices in whose exhalation a Martyr becomes an odour of a sweet savour unto the Lord. They were victimae altaris and thymiamata altaris Sacrifices slain upon the Altar of burnt-offerings and therefore became sweet Spices offered up upon the Altar of Incense which shall be the conclusion of this Point and the beginning of the next where the Apostle did behold those Saints that had exchanged their lives to glorifie God under the Altar And where doth St. John mean Where about is that Every curious itching ear will be more attentive to it than to any instruction that can be raised out of the Text A Traveller that asks his way if many of the Country Folk be present at his question it is ten to one but they will diversifie in their opinions and set him in so many ways that he shall never be wiser for their direction So I have consulted with more than a few Expositors to learn where I may find this Altar and not miss of it one points this way another that way Et incertior sum multò quà m dudum Among their variety of directions I know not which way to move Cosmography is a very easie part of learning to design the confines or distances of City from City Kingdom from Kingdom But it is one of the most difficult tasks in Divinity to understand the several quarterings and Mansion-places of heaven I confess I have no skill in Ouranography But to cut off all Proem I will be brief in my relation what is said to it and more brief in my determination The discordious opinions may be drawn to three heads some mean by the Altar an allotted place some relate it to the condition of their body some refer it to the state and condition of their Spirit Whosoever give the words a local meaning that the Souls were under the Altar they all agree in this that it imports that the Saints are kept back awhile from the uppermost part of Heaven where the Angels do offer up Praises continually upon the Altar of Incense which is next to the Holy of Holies and they that have not the nearest access to the Vision of God in form of Prophetical speech may be said to be under the Altar Some who pitcht upon this Interpretation had such fumes in their heads that they did not see the light Tertullian conceived that their Mansion was an earthly Paradise whither Enoch and Elias are translated Origen you may be sure hath some roaving excursion it is thus that the souls of the Faithful are put to School in some secret places before they go to heaven where they are purified from ignorance by degrees and then exalted Victorinus Afer a better Rhetorician than a Divine thinks that to be under the Altar is as if the souls were under the earth in some ample and pleasant regions like the Elysian Fields All these are humane Phantasies and I slip them aside But the most beaten rode to this purpose is that the souls of the Martyrs have a remuneration for their labours and sufferings past but not a consummation of that glory which shall be revealed unto them a share in Heaven but not a possession in the highest Heaven In atriis non in domo They are kept a loof off from the perfect Vision of God in the fulness of time they shall see him face to face Which is Bernards meaning when he says the blessed that are under the Altar because they are admitted to see the Humane Nature of Christ and not the Divine Not so as if totally they did see nothing of the Divine Nature but because they see it with less perspicacity than they shall hereafter so St. Ambrose and St. Hilary close with him And St. Chrysostom upon the Eleventh to the Hebrews Praeveniunt nos in certaminibus non praevenient in coronis they have fought a good fight before us but they shall not be crowned before us not because our Resurrection shall be at once the words will not bear it and the body is but the Robe which we shall put on the glory with which we shall be filled brim full that is the Crown which we shall wear in our Fathers Kingdom I know this is much distasteful to the Prelates of the Florentine and Tridentine Councils who have defined that the pure Souls in heaven enjoy the clearest Vision of God before the day of Judgment and want nothing to their integral happiness but the resuscitation of their bodies It may be so as they will have it But I am contented to say their state is Heaven and will go no further Neither can I see cause why the Churches of Christ should dissent if one say without pervicacious obstinacy the Spirits of righteous men are in the highest Heaven and another will say nothing peremptorily but that they are in Heaven indeed and do live with the Lord. Malo timidus esse quà m temerarius The Conclusion now is thus much That if this be granted for a Local Posture that the Souls are under the Altar there is nothing against Analogy of Faith to say they are in the outward Rooms of Heaven and stay there in expectation of more abundant glory Secondly Some relate this to the condition of their bodies And the Jesuits Ribera and à Lapide will have no