the morning break wilt me deny With execrations and with perjury Weak was th' attempt and impotent the hand That did my resolutions countermand While an impertinent Girl me kept in awe Who singly durst before the rabble draw How easily when the criminal does begin Does time engage him to grow bold in Sin Till what at first is but a single lye At the next act commences blasphemy Of all my Master's sufferings tho accurst Ill treated and contemn'd this was the worst Of only twelve Disciples one betray'd him Ten more deserted him and I deny'd him Leaving the Innocent to dye alone VVhile we deserv'd the crucifixion Thus down the stream I went and on had swom Forgetting Jesus and his Martyrdom Had not my dearest Saviour lookt about When the shrill voice advis'd me to go out The Cock that calls the early Lark to sing Mattens to th' praise of the eternal King All cheerfulness does from my Soul expel As if his voice had been my Passing-bell Had I a full swoln River in each eye I 'd mourn till I had wept the Fountains dry Can man be unconcern'd when God must dye Ingratitude is here a Prodigy But to assist thee were but to affront The Martyr Jesus does no seconds want Conquer by suffering and when thou art gone Carryed by brightest Angels to thy Throne Poor Peter arm'd with courage will defy The next temptation and thy Martyr dye Inverted on his Cross that there may be An humble difference betwixt him and thee GOOD-FRYDAY ON this day was the greatest act of Villany and injustice committed that ever the Sun beheld for on this day was the Son of God Crucified and therefore it is called the Paschal Solemnity of the Crucifixion the great and holy Preparation the day of the most holy Passion and the day on which our blessed Saviour suffered but this day also was the happiest time that ever mankind could enjoy or long for because our Redeemers sufferings were the cause of our freedom from Sin and Death and Hell and therefore we call it Good-Friday of old the Great Friday because it was the day on which the World received all that was good all that God could bestow or the World want in a dying Saviour who by his once offering of himself put an end to the numerous diverse and ineffectual Sacrifices required by the old Law On this day of the Week Adam was created cloathed with the Image of God and constituted the Lord of the World and on this day too sadly he fell and was driven out of Paradise but on this day also the same Adam and all his Children were redeemed and the sorrow for the Fall was out done by the joy of the Restoration and yet because the Sins of men were the only cause of our blessed Masters sufferings who knew no sin himself therefore ‡ Chrys to 5. p. 907. this day was indispensably made a day of Fasting through the whole Christian Church * Aug. cont Epist Fund c. 8. the Manichees being for this among many other their wicked practises condemn'd that they observed the day of the Martyrdom as they called it of their Master Manes but neglected the observation of Good-Friday and tho all the Lent was properly a Fast before Easter yet this day and the Saturday that followed it were called the ‖ Tert. â—d Vx l. 2. Cypr. Ep. 53. v. Chrys to 5. p. 940. solemn days before Easter i.e. the more eminent times of Fasting upon which days as our Saviour was Crucified and Buried so his Apostles who were then his Church were covered with sorrow and hid themselves for fear of Persecution and for this Reason it is called by the Germans Still-Friday and by the Saxons Long-Friday because the Fast was extended beyond the usual hour And as our Master lay three days in the Grave so did the Church think fit to Fast three days till the time of his Resurrection for if the Sun then lost its light and the Rocks were rent was there not greater reason that the Church of Christ his Spouse and his mystical Body should be concern'd at his Crucifixion And tho the blessed Eucharist were usually given on every day through the rest of the year yet on Good-Friday and the Great Saturday it was probably omitted From ⸫ De brat c. 14. Tertullian it is plain that they omitted the Kiss of Peace and Charity which was always given at the Sacrament and * Capit. Lothar l. 4. tit 46. l. 7. tit 371. in after Ages the celebration of the Eucharist was expresly forbidden And now in the Romish ‡ Durand Rat. l. 6. c. 72 77. Church they ring no Bells but knock with a Wooden Mallet on a Table-board to give notice of the hours of Prayer they omit several parts of the office particularly the Doxology and the Salutation The Lord be with you they read the Lesson of the New-Testament in a faint low voice and the Priest who reads the History of the Passion does it barefoot their Altars are hid for then there is no Sacrament celebrated and the Lights are put out to represent the obscurity of the night in which our blessed Saviour was apprehended and the wondrous darkness that attended his Crucifixion from whence the time is called Tenebrae or the days of darkness and in the Greek Church they by an Image represent our blessed Saviour's sufferings and his taking down from the Cross on this day also did the ‖ Constit Apost l. 5. c. 12 14. Primitive Church as does the Church of England pray for all Jews and Infidels c. in imitation of our dear Redeemer who wept over Jerusalem because they knew not the day of their Visitation and on the Cross prayed for his enemies The observation of the day was very * Orig. Cont. Cels l. 4. Ancient and I believe Apostolical By ‡ Eas Vit. Const l. 4. c. 18. p. 534. Constantine the Great it was commanded to be observed with as much respect as the Lord's-day The ⸫ Aug. Ep. 118. Fathers call this day the Saturday following and Easter day the Most holy three days of our Saviour's Crucifixion continuance in the Grave and Resurrection and sometimes the ‖ Chrys to 5. p. 940. Passover And in the †Conc. Tolet. 4. c. 6 7. Western Church on Good-Friday the Holy Priests were obliged to Preach to the people the Mysteries of Christ's sufferings all people except Children old and sick persons being bound under the penalty of being kept from the Lord's Table at Easter to tarry at Church and to Fast till the Priest toward evening with a loud voice did pronounce the publick Absolution that by such a testimony of their true repentance for their sins and by the assistance of the Priestly Absolution the people might be the better fitted to keep the Feast of Easter and to eat the Christian Passover * Theod. Lect. lib. 2. Collect. On this day
Reward from my Father that seeth in secret And tho on every day I give my God my earliest attendance yet on the days of my solemn Vows I bind my self to prevent the morning that in the beginning of the watches I may pour out my heart like water before the Lord. Thus every day will be a day of business and traffick and every night I shall be some steps nearer to my Fathers Palace The Collect. GRant Lord that when I serve thee in secret I may do it with a true and upright heart and that all my publick performances may be encouragements to others to love and praise and adore thee that I may pray fervently and thank thee heartily and read carefully and meditate seriously and fast humbly and live conscientiously all the days of my life in hopes at my death to be admitted into thy presence through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. I. Of the Obligations of Religion especially the Sacraments to Holiness WEre the Christian Religion to be judg'd of by the excellency of its Author and the purity of its Precepts by the wisdom of its contrivance and the usefulness of its designs it would need no other Credentials that it came down from Heaven and that its Original was from God But if we judg of it by the practices of its professors who under the mask of Piety allow themselves in all sorts of sensuality who scruple not to break all their Vows made to their Maker tho confirm'd and renew'd in the presence of Men and Angels and sealed by the most precious Body and Blood of the Son of God who call themselves Saints and yet live more irregularly than Brutes This very consideration is enough to encline a man to applaud the Morals of the Heathen World and to believe that either that body of holy Precepts is not the Gospel of the blessed Jesus or such men are not professors of it so strongly are the generality of Mankind in a loose and ungovernable Age bent towards Vice and Ruin Nor can it otherwise be expected when men put on the form of godliness in defiance to the power of it and think that the Redemption wrought out for them by Christ is only a deliverance to do all sort of abominations Nor can I give a better Reason why the Christian World are so degenerate from truth and holiness than that so few of us reflect on the Obligations of the Covenant that we have enter'd into with God tho so often and so solemnly acknowledged by us that we confidently lay claim to the Priviledges but never mind the Duties of Religion May our gracious God so mercifully forgive me and the rest of sinners our former neglect as we may resolve for the time to come to alter our course and put on more becoming Resolutions and faithfully make good what we have so solemnly promis'd our Redeemer For when I seriously and as becomes a Christian consider with my self the Relation which every baptized person hath to the Son of God and that that initiatory Sacrament was design'd as to free him from his share in Adam's sin so to engage to a life of Obedience to the Laws of our blessed Saviour and that therefore we are buried with him in baptism that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life reckoning our selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord I cannot but remember that among all those holy and beneficial Precepts which he hath blest the World with that is none of the least in advantage and usefulness that injoins me to do as he did in remembrance of his Passion the great cause of our redemption and happiness and encourages me to frequent communicating because as often as I do eat that bread and drink that cup so often do I show forth the Lords death till he come so often do I call to mind my old promises of obedience and conformity to the divine prescription and enter into new engagements to love and adore my Saviour How eagerly therefore ought my soul to pursue after and to embrace all Opportunities of coming to that holy Table where God exhibits himself Happy are those Servants of his who stand continually before him and keep themselves always in that frame of mind that fits and encourages them to communicate every day Happy are those men who only want Occasions but are never defective in intention or preparation who are never without the Wedding Garment nor without Oyl in their Lamps How did our dear Saviour long to institute the Sacrament * Luke 22.15 with desire did he desire to eat the passeover at the close of which the Eucharist was celebrated before he suffered And shouldst not thou my soul as earnestly long to receive it Were this Sacrament like that of Baptism not to be re-iterated or but once only in my life to be received and that just before my death with what ardors of mind should I wish to be dissolv'd that I might thus also be with my Saviour And must the Blessing because it is common be for that Reason cheap Is the bread of Heaven become contemptible because it may be my daily food But remember O my soul it is not enough to approach this Venerable Altar unless thy Repentance be sincere thy Sorrow hearty thy Resolutions unalterable thy Piety flaming and thine Alms generous My preparations should be the same with those of dying persons not of those who have lived loosly all their days in hopes to make their faint desires of Heaven when the pleasures of the Earth have deserted them to pass for true love to those joys but of those who all their lives long have been crucified to the world My care ought to be so to approach Gods Table on Earth as if I were the next moment to be carried by Angels to eat bread with him in his Kingdom It is true I am too sensible that this is more easily talkt of than done that when the good Man is acting the Priest and sacrificing himself to God then Satan is at his right hand perplexing him And I have sadly experimented how difficult it is to deny my self to put off the Old Man and to crucifie my transgressions But is it not O my soul much more sad and difficult more uneasie and distracting to be confin'd to utter darkness and to endure the tortures of Hell in a remediless Eternity To argue from a present state of ease is a shortness of discourse that is not to be allowed Were I never so passionately bent to gratifie an unreasonable Lust I doubt not but I should be afraid to proceed did any man but threaten me with immediate death if I should pursue my unlawful design And ought I not with greater Reason to forbear when that God who can neither lie nor deceive threatens me with everlasting damnation Am I afraid of the
the only Region of Rest For I may be secure in the love of the world but I can never be safe but in the love of Jesus This divine Vertue is always content when it is in trouble it is not distrest when under the greatest perplexities it is far from despair when it is persecuted it is never forsaken of its God or its hopes and when it is wounded it cannot be slain for it always carries about with it the marks of a dying Redeemer and desires to know nothing but Christ and him crucified that it may die to the world 3. According to what a man loves so is his denomination in this world and so shall his judgment be in another We call a man Covetous from his love of money and Voluptuous from his love of Pleasure and Envious from his love of Revenge and so also we call a man a Christian from his love to God and his Neighbour For on those two hang all the law and the prophets And in the proceedings of the last day a man shall be examined not what he hath known nor what he hath believed not what he hath hop'd nor what he hath talkt of but what he hath loved and accordingly the love of the World shall damn the sinner while the love of Heaven makes the Saint happy Now this love can never be compleat unless it reflect upon God my Neighbours and mine Enemies and be particularly conversant with the Offices of Religion The Collect. For the 14th Sund. after Trin. ALmighty and Everlasting God! give unto me and to all thy people the increase of Faith Hope and Charity and that we may obtain that which thou dost promise make us to love that which thou dost command through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. X. Of the Love of God I Tremble when I read that sentence * 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be Anathema Maranatha And yet it is but just that the Punishment should be proportion'd to the Offence and that that man should be hated by his Maker who hath no affection for his Saviour in whom there is nothing wanting that may endear him to our Respects and our Love 1. There is in him the greatest Perfection and the most admirable Excellencies Can I with patience behold the Miser condemn himself to the Mines for the sake of his Mammon and a bigotted Devoto use wonderful Abstinences and submit to great austerities only to serve his desires of Applause Can I every day see how the lovers of Pleasure and Revenge wilfully make themselves dismal spectacles of Ruin and Desolation and be all the while unconcern'd and take no delight to please my adorable Redeemer and save my own soul * Wis 13.3 c. If men being delighted with the beauties of the Heavenly Host took them to be Gods let them know how much better the Lord of them is For the first Author of Beauty hath created them and by the beauty and greatness of the Creatures proportionably is the Maker of them seen But it is too sadly found true that the love of the world grows to a prodigious stature of a sudden while the love of God and Holiness is pincht in its Infancy and starv'd in its Swath-bands It is a Plant which seldom meets with a fit Soil and when it grows up can never be brought to maturity without the constant beams of the Sun of Righteousness a plentiful portion of the dew of Heaven and a great care to preserve and cherish it 2. I ought to love my Saviour because I have the greatest Obligations to him For his love to me brought him from Heaven to Earth from a Throne to a Cross and thence into Hell for my Redemption Greater love than this hath no man shown than that he should lay down his life for his friend said the compassionate Jesus And is there no higher degree no nobler instance of love O my infallible Master Yes certainly thine was when thou wert content to die for thine Enemies Many waters could not quench it and it was stronger than death Now if the love of an undone world conquer'd God's Anger made him suspend his Justice and degrade his Son should not the love of God much rather engage me to conquer my Lusts Could I die O my best Friend a thousand times over for thee yet should I not love thee according to thy deservings But this is our great folly and the cause of all our miseries we are set on fire under the Pole and we freeze under the Aequinoctial the world makes us passionate Lovers while the Son of God cannot 3. To love God is the most natural and easie of all Recompences Shouldest thou Lord now require from me the burthensom Attendances and the expensive Sacrifices that were injoin'd under the Old Law I could have no Reason to complain but to love thee sincerely is the cheapest of Returns For when my bodily weakness or infirmities will not suffer me to fast or watch or wear sackcloath and my poverty hinders my giving Alms yet I am never so poor never so weak but I can love and tho perhaps I cannot hear every day nor pray every hour nor communicate every week yet nothing hinders but that I may love my God every moment and that will bring me to Eternity 4. The Love of God is the Fountain of acceptable Obedience and proportionable to my Love to God is my Zeal and my Devotion my Resolution and my Piety and when once these Ardors cool every thing that is good languishes and decays To be affrighted threatned and compell'd to serve my Master is a dishonour to my Christian performances and fullies all their Beauties but it is a Sacrifice that God is well-pleased with when the Offering is brought freely and offered chearfully and sent up in flames to Heaven being offered on the Altar of Love For Jesus is the Author of salvation to those only who so love him and the Grace of God is only with them who love his Son in sincerity 5. A due Reflection upon this Sacrament is a great encouragement to love him who instituted it for by it we are made one Body of which our blessed Saviour is the Head And therefore among other Rites that intimated this Union it was the ancient use nor is it yet prohibited in our Church but left to discretion to mingle Water with the Wine in the holy Chalice to testifie the Mystical Union that is betwixt Christ and his Church For as Water and Wine mix and incorporate so are the faithful Communicants made the same body with the Son of God For in the Opinion of * Cypr. Epist 63. Euseb Emis Hom. 5. de Pasch c. the Ancients the Wine is the Figure of our Redeemer's Blood and the Water of the many Nations purchas'd by it Besides all which it is further considerable that of worldly things a man may love what he shall never enjoy or
any opportunity of doing good when it is offered to him For who can expect that his Saviour should give him the dainties of his Table who denies his crumbs to his necessitous brother Nay the Ancients rather than suffer the poor to want thought it no Sacriledg to sell the Church plate for their Relief And St. Caesarius when he died made no other Will but this I bequeath all that I am worth to the use of the poor and St. Paulinus Bishop of Nola sold himself into captivity to redeem the son of a distrest Widow There is no way but this to make Freinds of the Mammon of Unrighteousness nor is there any likelier method to restore us to God's Love and Favour Mercy ard Truth are the Image of God And * Chrysost To. 4. Hom. 13. in 1 Tim. p. 302. tho the Heathens define a man to be a Rational Creature and capable of Knowledg the Scripture defines him otherwise when it tells us that the merciful person is only a man and that there is nothing so venerable in Nature as the Almoner The Collect. For Quinquages Sunday O Lord who hast taught us that all our doings without Charity are nothing worth pour into my heart that most excellent Gift of Charity the very Bond of Peace and of all Vertues without which whosoever lives is counted dead before thee Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ his sake Amen CHAP. XV. Of Love to my Enemies BUT it is not enough for me to love the brethren and to do good to the Houshold of Faith I must also love my Enemies and do good to them who intend my Ruin For if ye only love them who love you what reward have ye Matth. 5.44 c. do not even the Publicans the same And if you salute the brethren only what do you more than others do not even the Publicans so Be ye therefore perfect be ye merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful for be makes his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust Our blessed Saviour therefore says to me and to all his Disciples Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven This is the perfection of Vertue this the glory of our Christian profession and herein do the Laws of our blessed Master out do all other Schemes of Morality * Vid. Tert. ad Scapul Athenag Legat. c. Nor could either Jew or Gentile approach to so sublime a degree of compassion which is truly Evangelical and a Lesson only learnt in the School of Christ And therefore the Confessor at Alexandria whom Cassianus mentions answered like himself when his Heathen Adversaries pursued him with all sort of Contumely and Reproaches and at last disdainfully ask'd him What Miracle did your Master Christ ever do When he made this Return It is no mean Miracle that he hath wrought in me that I can tamely hear your Reproaches and not be concern'd at the Injury that I can suffer you to revile me and can at the same time bless and speak well of you At this Sacrament I commemorate the Death of my Redeemer who died for his Enemies and offer'd his Merits to those who crucified him as well as to those who oblig'd him And this is that particular Accomplishment of the Divinity that is proposed to our imitation For whereas an attempt to be like God in Power and Majesty degraded Lucifer and his confederate Angels and Resolves to attain to the degree of wisdom which the Creator possesses banish'd Adam and undid his posterity the transcribing the copy of the divine goodness and compassion will re-instate the world into a better Paradise and give men the place which the Fallen Spirits deserted Nay many times an act of mercy proves successful beyond expectation and delivers an Adversary not only from temporal wants but from eternal horrors And I may make a Convert of that Enemy whom I pity and relieve And if to know the art of true Charity be a greater priviledg than to be crown'd with the Majesty of Kings then to convert a soul is a nobler Alms than to give a Million of money to the stock of the poor And it is very remarkable that our Saviour hath not only made this duty of forgiving Injuries * Mat. 6.12 14 15. a necessary and indispensible qualification to fit me for the receiving of God's pardon but seems to imply that upon one act of Obstinacy one Refusal to obey this Injunction my former sins that have already been forgiven me shall be brought again to remembrance and be the cause of my condemnation For when in the * Mat. 18.27 34. Parable ten thousand Talents were remitted to the disabled Servant by his Lord and the Obligation cancell'd yet when the same Servant dealt unmercifully with his Fellow servant his Lord delivered him to the Tormentors till he should pay all that was due to him And so shall our Heavenly Father do to us if we from our hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses And for this Reason I cannot but think it a commendable custom in the Greek Church in which during the celebration of this Office not only the Deacon who assists begs pardon of the consecrating Priest as St. Chrysostome's Liturgy injoins * Smyth 's Acc. of the Greek Church p. 143. but the Priest who consecrates takes care to reconcile himself before he approaches the Altar and the assisting Priests also bow toward the people as an instance of their begging forgiveness if they have offended any one there present After which every Lay Communicant immediately before he receives says aloud Christians forgive to which the Congregation answers God shall forgive you And in the Primitive Church the Deacon was bound to say aloud Let no man who is not in perfect Charity dare to approach this Table And the better to demonstrate the Churches Resolutions in this case as Easter was the most solemn time of giving the Eucharist so in the foregoing week on Maundy Thursday the Penitents were solemnly admitted to Communion For whereas on that day the blessed Sacrament was always administred because that was the day on which it was instituted * Innocent Ep. 1. ad Decent cap. 7. Ambr. li. 5. Ep. 33. so on that day also were the Church-censures remitted because on that day our Holy Saviour delivered himself into the hands of the Jews for our Redemption the * Conc. Carthag 4. Can. 80 82. Penitents being brought up to the Altar before which they kneeled and being reconciled by the Imposition of the Priests hands were afterward communicated All which were Instances of the Church's Charity and an excellent Rule how we ought also to demean our selves toward our Enemies I therefore think my self bound
of the Synagogue would not in this particular be singular and therefore are apt to believe * Mat. 14 26. that the Hymn which he sung before he went out to the Mount of Olives was the great Hallel But if it were not the same it was doubtless some Laud to the Almighty as for all his Benefits so particularly for his Sacraments And this is highly worth consideration that when Jesus sung this Hymn it was the Eve to his cruel and unparallel'd Tragedy that the Man of Sorrows who all his life long did eat the bread of affliction and quench his thirst with his tears having the Cross in view sung an Hymn 'T was a dismal and affrighting Evening But God gives the good man songs in the night while the sinner is astonish'd with the Terrors of a disturb'd Conscience And as this Joy agrees to the Custom of the Synagogue and our Master's practice so it properly corresponds with the intention of the Institution For tho Thanksgiving be but a part of the Office yet because the denomination is given from that which is most eminent the whole Service is called the Eucharist by the ‡ 1 Cor. 10.16 Apostle because ‖ Cabasil Expos Liturg. cap. 52. when we communicate we have greater cause to rejoice than to supplicate For when we are made partakers of these Mysteries we have received many more favours than we want For of the things that we want some we cannot yet attain unto as the incorruptibility of our bodies and our translation to Heaven Some we have forfeited by our frequent Relapses as the Gifts of the Holy Ghost our Health and our Riches So that were we as pious as we ought there would be even in this world no need of supplications all our Offerings would be Eucharists and Praises But our sloth and our negligence are the causes of our needs Do we beg Remission of our sins Was not that given us in Baptism And how came we but by our own fault to need it again Do we want Heaven Does not the Scripture tell us the Kingdom of Heaven is within us And were we not made Sons of God in the Laver of Regeneration And if Sons then Heirs Why then do we so pray Because we have forfeited that Estate and deserve to be disinherited and to be made of Sons Servants And do we want Temporal Blessings We should first seek the Kingdom of God and all these Things would be added When we are fit to communicate with God our Wants are inconsiderable and our greatest Employment in the duties of Religion is to celebrate his Condescention to admire his Goodness and Patience and to adore his Majesty and therefore the Hymn which the Ancients sung at the Celebration of these Mysteries was by some called ‖ Dionys Ar. Eccl Hier. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy Eucharist because it comprehended in it self the commemoration of those holy Gifts that descend from God and seemed to include all the particulars of that Office nor did the Primitive * Constit Ap. li. 5. c. 13. Just M. apol 2. c. Church ever receive this Blessed Sacrament but they had their Psalms and Forms of Thanksgiving for if every worldly Blessing deserved its Remembrance and an acknowledgment how much more were they bound to praise God for spiritual Blessings in heavenly places and to this day the ‡ Olear Itiner li. 5. p. 279. Armenian Church think they cannot communicate aright unless they have not only vocal but Instrumental Musick and they plead for the usage that while our Blessed Saviour prayed in the Mountain the Angels came down and entertain'd him with such sort of Musick and tho this be an ungrounded Tradition yet Antiquity was agreed that the Angels were present at the Celebration of this Sacrifice and that when the o Gr. Nyss To. 1. p. 957. Church sung Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth the Seraphim sung with them and that they attended on these Representations of our Saviour as they did upon his Person For it was also an ‖ Hippolyt in Ps 42. apud Theodorit dialog 2. Euseb Epist ad Constant Imp. in act Conc. Nic. 2. act 6. Col. 493. Jul. Firmic p. 48. Ambros de his qui initiant c. 7. c. undisputed tradition among them That when the great Conqueror of Death and Hell was ascending to His Father's Right Hand the Holy Angels which attended him on Earth followed him with Songs of Praise and Triumph and spake to their Brethren the Angels in Heaven in the Words of the inspired Psalmist Ps 24.7 c. according to the Translation of the Septuagint then in use Lift up your gates O ye Princes and be ye life up ye everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in To which the Heavenly Angels sollicitous to enquire who it was that came with so much Authority to demand the opening of the Gates of that Palace because no man to that day had ever entered into the Holy of Holies answered Who is this King of Glory To whom the return was presently made It is the Lord strong and mighty even the Lord mighty in Battel and after that all the Heavenly Host joined Consort and did sing with one Voice Lift up your heads O ye Princes and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the King of Glory shall come in And if those bright Spirits were so transported at the sight of the victorious Jesus should not my Soul be much more engaged to break out into Exclamations and Rejoicings and to imitate the Harmony of the admiring Angels And for this Reason when the Church at Easter had remembred the Resurrection of Christ and strengthned themselves with the Sacrament that they might be able to walk in his steps every day between that Festival and VVhitsuntide was a day of rejoicing every day of the fifty was a Sunday say ‖ Tert. de coron c. 3. Ambr. in Luc. li. 8. c. 17. Marx. Taurin Homil. 61. the Fathers nor did they on any of those days so much as stoop to kneel at their Prayers nor do we in our Church ever fast the Eves of the Feasts that then happen * Except before Ascention day only in this interval we humble our selves in the Rogation Week which was introduc't upon extraordinary occasion and necessity or rather as I think was transferred to this season from some other time of the Year And so sensible was the Church of the infinite Benificence of God that in the fourth and fifth Centuries several Monasteries were erected societies of devout Persons whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men who never slept because some or other of the Fraternity was always in the House of God singing his Praises and celebrating his Bounty But why should I want the Encouragements to adore my Redeemer which Angels and Saints afford me The Heathens guided only by the Dictates of Nature entertained every little secular
Providence his poverty never deprest him his disgraces never ruffled his quiet nor can honours and pomp make him proud and insolent But that which made no impression on the Son of God made a very deep one upon the Pharisees for envy is a busie and restless Vice they when they saw they could not curb the multitude would have put our Saviour upon checking and repressing them for as the covetous man cannot endure a discourse of voluntary poverty nor the lascivious person a lecture of Chastity as you raise the passion of the Oppressor when you preach to him the Laws of Justice and inflame the froward and the cruel when you urge him to forgive Injuries and to love his Enemies so to the proud and ambitious nothing is so killing a sight as another mans Honour But Jesus tells them the meeting was not procured by craft nor were the people flattered much less affrighted into the combination the Oblation of Thanksgiving was voluntary and an accomplishment of a prophecy God now intending out of the mouths of babes and sucklings to perfect praise for Virtue makes it self admirers where ever it goes and should these people hold their peace the very stones would cry out and who dares check the Holy Spirit and fight against God But what need of all this complaint have patience O ye Rulers of the Jews and the people will answer your desires such is the vanity of all worldly fruitions they who to day cry Hosannah shall in a few days cry louder Crucifie him Crucifie him Now they sing Blessed is the King that cometh in the Name of the Lord and anon We have no other King but Caesar Now they spread their Garments in the way but then they shall strip him of his own raiment Now they bless and cry Master but then they shall curse and despise him such is all Secular Pomp and Humane Applause it depends upon popular Breatu which when it turns like the Wind it blows back again and carries away all that before it brought Upon foresight of this sad sinful Change see the Marks of a deep Sorrow on the Face of Christ amidst all the Acclamations and other Testimonies of Publick Joy Jesus the Prince of Peace was now at the foot of the Mount of Olives the Emblem of peace in view of Jerusalem whose name implies the Vision of Peace and yet he knowing their sins and foreknowing God's Judgments could not forbear Tears and the terrible denunciation of the Divine Vengeance upon that City that was now become the sink of all wickedness and yet this weeping was but the Prologue to the mightier grief of his upon the Cross to which no sorrow could be compared when he offered up Prayers and Supplications to his and our Father with strong Crys and Tears and was heard for that his Piety Now he mourns only the fate of one City of one People but then he wept over and dyed for the sins of the whole World of Disobedient and desperate Wretches who doted upon ruin all the Honour that could be given him all the Grandeur that could surround him gave him no Pleasure in this Triumphant Entry while he saw the end of his designed death frustrated and a whole Nation obstinate to be undone when the Son of God was most willing and most busie to save them Every Drop was of more Value than a Pearl and the Streams that ran down his Sacred cheeks more precious than those Waters which bring down Gold from the neighbouring Mountains And does my Saviour weep and can I dare to indulge to immoderate Laughter Can I rejoice when he is covered with Sorrows Or live in sensuality when the chastisement of my peace is upon him God forbid Now therefore O my Soul contemplate thy Saviour in all his Offices in his Triumphs he shows himself a Prince in his Mourning over Jerusalem he acts the part of a Priest whose Office it is to weep over and atone for the sins of the People and how does he declare himself to be a Prophet when he foretels the precise time of the ruin of the Jewish Nation before the present Generation should pass away In this disconsolate plight does our endearing Redeemer draw nigh to Jerusalem and to let the world know that his Kingdom is not of this world he balks the direct way over the Brook Kedron to the fortress of Zion and diverting passes through the Sheepgate which led to the House of God he goes not up to the Palace of the High-Priest nor to the Court of the Roman Governour but immediately hastens to the Temple to teach us to begin every Action with God and to love the place where his Honour dwells more than all the Tents of ungodliness to love the Gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob and to assure us that he who would meet God comfortably must enquire for him in his Temple For where should I seek for thee O my dear Saviour where should I find thee but in thy Father's House The Temple is thy Palace and the Chair of Moses thy Throne thence thou didst baffle the Doctors and from thence didst thou dispence the Oracles of Heaven to the world rescuing the Doctrines of Religion from the Traditions and the Duties of it from the evil practices of the Pharisees and to demonstrate that thy complaint of them was not without cause thence didst thou drive the buyers and sellers such was thy Zeal for the Habitation of God when the Lord came to his Holy Temple and who could stand before thee when thou didst thus appear like a Refiner's Fire and like Fuller's Soap Thus when Reformation is begun at the house of God there is great hope that the rest of the City will easily be reform'd At this Visitation Jesus beheld all Things not for Curiosity but to see what was amiss and needed amendment he lookt into all the Corners of the Temple and diligently attended to all the performances of the Priests in their several stations how they kept up the Reputation of Religion how exactly they performed all their Service a fit Employment for the great High Priest and Bishop of Souls But why all this Severity Why the Buyers and Sellers banisht VVhy the Money-changers Banks overthrown Were not the Jews obliged to come Three times a Year to Jerusalem And when they came were they to come empty Now to bring with them from the remotest parts of Judea Sheep and Oxen and the first fruits of their Cattel VVine and Oyl with orther Offerings was very troublesom and to dispose of those things in kind in the Countrey and turning them into Money to buy the like at Jerusalem was not only reasonable but agreable to the Divine Command and for this purpose had the Jews their Markets and Banks Deut. 14.24 25. in or near their Temples as the Gentiles also had Now the Practice having the countenance of a Law and tending so much to the ease of the People and