is worthy of stoning but who shall cast them How ill would they become hands as guilty as her own What doe they but smite themselves who punish their own offences in other men Nothing is more unjust or absurd then for the beam to censure the moat the oven to upbraid the kiln It is a false and vagrant zeal that begins not first at home Well did our Saviour know how bitter and strong a pill he had given to these false Justiciaries and now he will take leisure to see how it wrought Whiles therefore he gives time to them to swallow it and put it over he returns to his old gesture of a seeming inadvertencie How sped the receit I do no see any one of them stand out with Christ and plead his own innocency and yet these men which is very remarkable placed the fulfilling or violation of the Law only in the outward act Their hearts misgave them that if they should have stood out in contestation with Christ he would have utterly shamed them by displaying their old and secret sins and have so convinced them by undeniable circumstances that they should never have clawed of the reproach And therefore when they heard it being convicted by their own conscience they went out one by one beginning at the eldest even unto the last There might seem to be some kinde of mannerly order in this guilty departure not all at once lest they should seem violently chased away by this charge of Christ now their slinking away one by one may seem to carry a shew of a deliberate and voluntary discession The eldest first The ancienter is fitter to give then take example and the yonger could think it no shame to follow the steps of a grave fore-man O wonderful power of Conscience Man can no more stand out against it then it can stand out against God The Almighty whose substitute is set in our bosome sets it on work to accuse It is no denying when that sayes we are guilty when that condemns us in vain are we acquitted by the world With what bravery did these Hypocrites come to set upon Christ with what triumph did they insult upon that guilty soul Now they are thunder-struck with their own Conscience and drop away confounded and well is he that can run away furthest from his own shame No wicked man needs to seek out of himself for a Judge Accuser Witness Tormentor No sooner do these Hypocrites hear of their sins from the mouth of Christ then they are gone Had they been sincerely touched with a true remorse they would have rather come to him upon their knees and have said Lord we know and finde that thou knowest our secret sins this argues thy Divine Omniscience Thou that art able to know our sins art able to remit them O pardon the iniquities of thy servants Thou that accusest us do thou also acquit us But now instead hereof they turn their back upon their Saviour and haste away An impenitent man cares not how little he hath either of the presence of God or of the mention of his sins O fools if ye could run away from God it were somewhat but whiles ye move in him what doe ye whither goe ye Ye may run from his Mercy ye cannot but run upon his Judgment Christ is left alone Alone in respect of these complainants not alone in respect of the multitude there yet stands the mournfull Adulteresse She might have gone forth with them no body constrained her to stay but that which sent them away stayed her Conscience She knew her guiltinesse was publickly accused and durst not be by her self denied as one that was therefore fastened there by her own guilty heart she stirs not till she may receive a dismission Our Saviour was not so busie in writing but that he read the while the guilt and absence of those accusers he that knew what they had done knew no less what they did what they would doe Yet as if the matter had been strange to him he lifts up himself and saies Woman where are thy accusers How well was this sinner to be left there Could she be in a safer place then before the Tribunal of a Saviour Might she have chosen her refuge whither should she rather have fled O happy we if when we are convinced in our selves of our sins we can set our selves before that Judge who is our surety our Advocate our Redeemer our ransome our peace Doubtlesse she stood doubtfull betwixt hope and fear Hope in that she saw her accusers gone Fear in that she knew what she had deserved and now whiles she trembles in exspectation of a sentence she hears Woman where are thy accusers Wherein our Saviour intends the satisfaction of all the hearers of all the beholders that they might apprehend the guiltiness and therefore the unfitness of the accusers and might well see there was no warrantable ground of his further proceeding against her Two things are necessary for the execution of a Malefactor Evidence Sentence the one from Witnesses the other from the Judge Our Saviour asks for both The accusation and proof must draw on the sentence the sentence must proceed upon the evidence of the proof Where are thy accusers hath no man condemned thee Had sentence passed legally upon the Adulteresse doubtlesse our Saviour would not have acquitted her For as he would not intrude upon others offices so he would not crosse or violate the justice done by others But now finding the coast clear he saies Neither do I condemn thee What Lord Dost thou then shew favour to foul offenders Art thou rather pleased that grosse sins should be blanched and sent away with a gentle connivency Far far be this from the perfection of thy Justice He that hence argues Adulteries not punishable by death let him argue the unlawfulness of dividing of inheritances because in the case of the two wrangling brethren thou saidst Who made me a divider of inheritances Thou declinedst the office thou didst not dislike the act either of parting lands or punishing offenders Neither was here any absolution of the woman from a sentence of death but a dismission of her from thy sentence which thou knewest not proper for thee to pronounce Herein hadst thou respect to thy calling and to the main purpose of thy coming into the world which was neither to be an arbiter of Civil Causes nor a judge of Criminal but a Saviour of mankinde not to destroy the Body but to save the Soul And this was thy care in this miserable Offender Goe and sin no more How much more doth it concern us to keep within the bounds of our vocation and not to dare to trench upon the functions of others How can we ever enough magnifie thy Mercy who takest no pleasure in the death of a sinner who so camest to save that thou challengest us of unkindness for being miserable Why will ye die O house of Israel But O Son of God though
how apt passionate mindes are to take all occasions to renew their sorrow every Object affects them When she saw but the Chamber of her dead Brother straight she thinks there Lazarus was wont to lye and then she wept afresh when the Table There Lazarus was wont to sit and then new teares arise when the Garden There Lazarus had wont to walk and now again she weeps How much more do these friends suppose the Passions would be stirred with the sight of the Grave when she must needs think There is Lazarus O Saviour if the place of the very dead corps of our friend have power to draw our hearts thither and to affect us more deeply how should our hearts be drawn to and affected with Heaven where thou sittest at the right hand of thy Father There O thou which wert dead and art alive is thy body and thy Soul present and united to thy glorious Deity Thither O thither let our access be not to mourn there where is no place for sorrow but to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious and more and more to long for that thy beatifical presence Their indulgent love mistook Marie's errand their thoughts how kind soever were much too low whiles they supposed she went to a dead Brother she went to a living Saviour The world hath other conceits of the actions and carriage of the regenerate then are truely intended setting such constructions upon them as their own carnal reason suggests they think them dying when behold they live sorrowful when they are alwaies rejoycing poor whiles they make many rich How justly do we appeal from them as incompetent Judges and pity those misinterpretations which we cannot avoid Both the Sisters met Christ not both in one posture Mary is still noted as for more Passion so for more Devotion she that before sate at the feet of Jesus now falls at his feet That presence had wont to be familiar to her and not without some outward homeliness now it fetches her upon her knees in an awful veneration whether out of a reverend acknowledgment of the secret excellency and power of Christ or out of a dumb intimation of that suit concerning her dead Brother which she was afraid to utter The very gesture it self was supplicatory What position of body can be so fit for us when we make our address to our Saviour It is an irreligious unmannerliness for us to goe less Where the heart is affected with an awful acknowledgement of Majesty the body cannot but bow Even before all her neighbours of Jerusalem doth Mary thus fall down at the feet of Jesus so many witnesses as she had so many spies she had of that forbidden observance It was no less then Excommunication for any body to confess him yet good Mary not fearing the informations that might be given by those Jewish Gossips adores him and in her silent gesture saies as much as her Sister had spoken before Thou art the Christ the Son of God Those that would give Christ his right must not stand upon scrupulous fears Are we naturally timorous Why do we not fear the denial the exclusion of the Almighty Without shall be the fearfull Her humble prostration is seconded by a lamentable complaint Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died The Sisters are both in one mind both in one speech and both of them in one speech bewray both strength and infirmity strength of Faith in ascribing so much power to Christ that his presence could preserve from death infirmity in supposing the necessity of a presence for this purpose Why Mary could not thine Omnipotent Saviour as well in absence have commanded Lazarus to live Is his hand so short that he can doe nothing but by contaction If his Power were finite how could he have forbidden the seizure of death if infinite how could it be limited to place or hindered by distance It is a weakness of Faith to measure success by means and means by presence and to tye effects to both when we deal with an Almighty agent Finite causes work within their own sphere all places are equally near and all effects equally easie to the infinite O Saviour whiles thou now sittest gloriously in Heaven thou dost no less impart thy self unto us then if thou stoodst visibly by us then if we stood locally by thee no place can make difference of thy virtue and aid This was Mary's moan no motion no request sounded from her to her Saviour Her silent suit is returned with a mute answer no notice is taken of her error Oh that marvellous mercy that connives at our faulty infirmities All the reply that I hear of is a compassionate groan within himself O blessed Jesu thou that wert free from all sin wouldst not be free from strong affections Wisdome and Holiness should want much work if even vehement passions might not be quitted from offence Mary wept her tears drew on tears from her friends all their tears united drew groans from thee Even in thine Heaven thou dost no less pity our sorrows thy glory is free from groans but abounds with compassion and mercy if we be not sparing of our tears thou canst not be insensible of our sorrows How shall we imitate thee if like our looking-glass we do not answer tears and weep on them that weep upon us Lord thou knewest in absence that Lazarus was dead and dost thou not know where he was buried Surely thou wert further off when thou sawst and reportedst his death then thou wert from the grave thou inquiredst of thou that knewest all things yet askest what thou knowest Where have ye laid him Not out of need but out of will that as in thy sorrow so in thy question thou mightest depress thy self in the opinion of the beholders for the time that the glory of thine instant Miracle might be the greater the less it was exspected It had been all one to thy Omnipotence to have made a new Lazarus out of nothing or in that remoteness to have commanded Lazarus wheresoever he was to come forth but thou wert neither willing to work more miracle then was requisite nor yet unwilling to fix the minds of the people upon the exspectation of some marvellous thing that thou meantest to work and therefore askest Where have you laid him They are not more glad of the question then ready for the answer Come and see It was the manner of the Jews as likewise of those Egyptians among whom they had sojourned to lay up the dead bodies of their friends with great respect more cost was wont to be bestowed on some of their graves then on their houses as neither ashamed then nor unwilling to shew the decency of their sepulture they say Come and see More was hoped for from Christ then a mere view they meant and exspected that his eye should draw him on to some further action O Saviour whiles we desire our spiritual resuscitation how should we labour to
the need of Baptism John baptized without Christ within The more holy a man is the more sensible he is 〈◊〉 his unholiness No carnal man could have said I have need to be baptized of thee neither can he finde what he is the better for a little Font-water The sense of our wretchedness and the valuation of our spiritual helps is the best tryal of our regeneration Our Saviour doth not deny that either John hath need to be baptized of him or that it is strange that he should come to be baptized of John but he will needs thus far both honour John and disparage himself to be baptized of his Messenger He that would take flesh of the Virgin education from his Parents sustenance from his creatures will take Baptism from John It is the praise of his Mercy that he will stoop so low as to be beholden to his creatures which from him receive their Being and power both to take and give Yet no so much respect to John as obedience to his Father drew him to this point of humiliation Thus it behoves us to fulfill all righteousness The Counsels and Appointments of God are Righteousness it self There needs no other motive either to the servant or the Son then the knowledge of those righteous purposes This was enough to lead a faithful man through all difficulties and inconveniencies neither will it admit of any reply or any demur John yieldeth to this honour which his Saviour puts upon him in giving Baptism to the Authour of it He baptized others to the remission of their sins now he baptizes him by whom they are remitted both to the Baptizer and to others No sooner is Christ baptized then he comes forth of the water The element is of force but during the use it turns common when that is past Neither is the water sooner powâ—ed on his head then the Heavens are opened and the Holy Ghost descendeth upon that head which was baptized The Heavens are never shut whiles either of the Sacraments is duly administred and received neither do the Heavens ever thus open without the descent of the Holy Ghost But now that the God of Heaven is baptized they open unto him which are opened to all the faithful by him and that Holy Ghost which proceeded from him together with the Father joyns with the Father in a sensible testimony of him that now the world might see what interest he had in the Heavens in the Father in the Holy Spirit and might expect nothing but Divine from the entrance of such a Mediatour Christ tempted NO sooner is Christ come out of the water of Baptism then he enters into the fire of Tentation No sooner is the Holy Spirit descended upon his head in the form of a Dove then he is led by the Spirit to be tempted No sooner doth God say This is my Son then Satan saies If thou be the Son of God It is not in the power either of the gift or seals of Grace to deliver us from the assaults of Satan they may have the force to repell evil suggestions they have none to prevent them yea the more we are ingaged unto God by our publick vows and his pledges of favour so much more busie and violent is the rage of that Evil one to encounter us We are no sooner stept forth into the field of God then he labours to wrest our weapons out of our hands or to turn them against us The voice from Heaven acknowledged Christ to be the Son of God This Divine Testimony did not allay the malice of Satan but exasperate it Now that venomous Serpent swels with inward poison and hasts to assail him whom God hath honoured from Heaven O God how should I look to escape the suggestions of that wicked one when the Son of thy love cannot be free when even grace it self draws on enmity That enmity that spared not to strike at the Head will he forbear the weakest and remotest limme Arm thou me therefore with an expectation of that evil I cannot avoid Make thou me as strong as he is malicious Say to my Soul also Thou art my Son and let Satan do his worst All the time of our Saviours obscurity I do not finde him set upon now that he looks forth to the publick execution of his Divine Office Satan bends his forces against him Our privacy perhaps may sit down in peace but never man did endevour a common good without opposition It is a sign that both the work is holy and the Agent faithful when we meet with strong affronts We have reason to be comforted with nothing so much as with resistance If we were not in a way to do good we should finde no rubs Satan hath no cause to molest his own and that whiles they goe about his own service He desires nothing more then to make us smooth paths to sinne but when we would turn our feet to Holinesse he blocks up the way with Tentations Who can wonder enough at the sawcinesse of that bold spirit that dares to set upon the Son of the ever-living God Who can wonder enough at thy meeknesse and patience O Saviour that wouldst be tempted He wanted not Malice and Presumption to assault thee thou wantedst not Humility to endure those assaults I should stand amazed at this voluntary dispensation of thine but that I see the susception of our Humane nature laies thee open to this condition It is necessarily incident to manhood to be liable to Tentations Thou wouldst not have put on flesh if thou hadst meant utterly to put off this consequence of our infirmity If the state of Innocence could have been any defence against evil motions the first Adam had not been tempted much lesse the second It is not the presenting of Tentations that can hurt us but their entertainment Ill counsel is the fault of the Giver not of the Refuser We cannot forbid lewd eyes to look in at our windows we may shut our doors against their entrance It is no lesse our praise to have resisted then Satans blame to suggest evil Yea O blessed Saviour how glorious was it for thee how happy for us that thou wert tempted Had not Satan tempted thee how shouldest thou have overcome Without blows there can be no victory no triumph How had thy power been manifested if no adversary had tried thee The first Adam was tempted and vanquished the second Adam to repay and repair that foile doth vanquish in being tempted Now have we not a Saviour and High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but such an once as was in all things tempted in like sort yet without sin How boldly therefore may we goe unto the Throne of grace that we may receive mercy and finde grace of help in time of need Yea this Duell was for us Now we see by this conflict of our Almighty Champion what manner of Adversary we have how he fights how he is resisted how overcome
us of the Devil and his Angels Messengers are inferiour to those that send them The seven Devils that entered into the swept and garnished house were worse then the former Neither can Principalities and Powers and Governours and Princes of the darkness of this World design others then several ranks of evil Angels There can be no being without some kind of order there can be no order in parity If we look up into Heaven there is The King of Gods The Lord of Lords higher then the highest If to the earth there are Monarchs Kings Princes Peeres people If we look down to Hell there is the Prince of Devils They labour for Confusion that call for Parity What should the Church doe with such a for me as is not exempliied in Heaven in Earth in Hell One Devil according to their supposition may be used to cast out another How far the command of one spirit over another may extend it is a secret of infernal state too deep for the inquiry of men The thing it self is apparent upon compact and precontracted composition one gives way to other for the common advantage As we see in the Common-wealth of Cheaters and Cut-purses one doth the fact another is feed to bring it out and to procure restitution both are of the trade both conspire to the fraud the actor falls not out with the revealer but divides with him that cunning spoil One malicious miscreant sets the Devil on work to the inflicting of disease or death another upon agreement for a further spiritual gain takes him off There is a Devil in both And if there seem more bodily favour there is no less spiritual danger in the latter In the one Satan wins the agent the suitor in the other It will be no cause of discord in Hell that one Devil gives ease to the body which another tormented that both may triumph in the gain of a Soul Oh God that any creature which bears thine Image should not abhorre to be beholding to the powers of Hell for aid for advice Is is not because there is not a God in Israel that men goe to inquire of the God of Ekron Can men be so sottish to think that the vowed enemie of their Souls can offer them a bait without an hook What evil is there in the City which the Lord hath not done what is there which he cannot as easily redress He wounds he heals again And if he will not It is the Lord let him doe what seems good in his eyes If he do not deliver us he will crown our faithfulness in a patient perseverance The wounds of God are better then the salves of Satan Was it possible that the wit of Envy could devise so high a slander Beelzebub was a God of the heathen therefore herein they accuse him for an Idolater Beelzebub was a Devil to the Jewes therefore they accuse him for a conjurer Beelzebub was the chief of Devils therefore they accuse him for on Arch-exorcist for the worst kinde of Magician Some professors of this black Art though their work be devilish yet they pretend to doe it in the name of Jesus and will presumptuously seem to doe that by command which is secretly transacted by agreement The Scribes accuse Christ of a direct compact with the Devil and suppose both a league and familiarity which by the Law of Moses in the very hand of a Saul was no other then deadly Yea so deep doth this wound reach that our Saviour searching it to the bottome findes no less in it then the sin against the Holy Ghost inferring hereupon that dreadful sentence of the irremissibleness of that sin unto death And if this horrible crimination were cast upon thee O Saviour in whom the Prince of this world found nothing what wonder is it if we thy sinful servants be branded on all sides with evil tongues Yea which is yet more how plain is it that these men forced their tongue to speak this slander against their own heart Else this Blasphemy had been onely against the Son of man not against the Holy Ghost but now that the searcher of hearts findes it to be no less then against the Blessed Spirit of God the spight must needs be obstinate their malice doth wilfully cross their conscience Envie never regards how true but how mischievous So it may gall or kill it cares little whether with truth or falshood For us Blessed are we when men revile us and say all manner of evil of us for the name of Chirst For them What reward shall be given to thee thou false tongue Even sharp arrows with hot burning coales yea those very coales of hell from which thou wert inkindled There was yet a third sort that went a mid-way betwixt wonder and censure These were not so malicious as to impute the miracle to a Satanical operation they confess it good but not enough and therefore urge Christ to a further proof Though thou hast cast out this dumb Devil yet this is no sufficient argument of thy Divine power We have yet seen nothing from thee like those antient Miracles of the times of our fore-fathers Joshuah caused the Sun to stand still Elias brought fire down from heaven Samuel astonish'd the people with thunder and rain in the midst of harvest If thou wouldst command our belief doe somewhat like to these The casting out of a Devil shews thee to have some power over Hell shew us now that thou hast no less power over Heaven There is a kinde of unreasonableness of desire and insatiableness in infidelity it never knows when it hath evidence enough This which the Jews overlooked was a more irrefragable demonstration of Divinity then that which they desired A Devil was more then a Meteor or a parcel of an element to cast out a Devil by command more then to command fire from Heaven Infidelity ever loves to be her own carver No son can be more like a father then these Jews to their progenitours in the desart that there might be no fear of degenerating into good they also of old tempted God in the Wilderness First they are weary of the Egyptian bondage and are ready to fall out with God and Moses for their stay in those fornaces By ten miraculous Plagues they are freed and going out of those confines the Egyptians follow them the Sea is before them now they are more afflicted with their liberty then their servitude The Sea yields way the Egyptians are drowned and now that they are safe on the other shore they tempt the Providence of God for water The Rock yields it them then no less for bread and meat God sends them Manna and Quailes they cry out of the food of Angels Their present enemies in the way are vanquished they whine at the men of measures in the heart of Canaan Nothing from God but Mercy nothing from them but Temptations Their true brood both in nature and in sin had abundant proofs of the
be insensible of so great an evil Where death hath once seized who can but doubt he will keep his hold No lesse hard was it not to grieve for the losse of an only Childe then not to fear the continuance of the cause of that grief In a perfect Faith there is no Fear by how much more we fear by so much lesse we believe Well are these two then coupled Fear not believe only O Saviour if thou didst not command us somewhat beyond Nature it were no thank to us to obey thee While the childe was alive to believe that it might recover it was no hard task but now that she was fully dead to believe she should live again was a work not easie for Jairus to apprehend though easie for thee to effect yet must that be believed else there is no capacity of so great a Mercy As Love so Faith is stronger then death making those bonds no other then as Sampson did his withes like threds of tow How much naturall impossibility is there in the return of these Bodies from the dust of their earth into which through many degrees of corruption they are at the last mouldred Fear not O my Soul believe onely it must it shall be done The sum of Jairus his first suit was for the Health not for the Resuscitation of his Daughter now that she was dead he would if he durst have been glad to have asked her Life And now behold our Saviour bids him expect both her Life and her Health Thy daughter shall be made whole alive from her death whole from her disease Thou didst not O Jairus thou daredst not ask so much as thou receivest How glad wouldest thou have been since this last news to have had thy Daughter alive though weak and sickly Now thou shalt receive her not living only but sound and vigorous Thou dost not O Saviour measure thy gifts by our petitions but by our wants and thine own mercies This work might have been as easily done by an absent command the Power of Christ was there whiles himself was away but he will goe personally to the place that he might be confessed the Author of so great a Miracle O Saviour thou lovest to goe to the house of mourning thy chief pleasure is the comfort of the afflicted What a confusion there is in worldly sorrow The mother shreeks the servants crie out the people make lamentation the minstrels howl and strike dolefully so as the eare might question whether the Ditty or the Instrument were more heavy If ever expressions of sorrow sound well it is when Death leads the quire Soon doth our Saviour charm this noise and turns these unseasonable mourners whether formal or serious out of doors Not that he dislikes Musick whether to condole or comfort but that he had life in his eye and would have them know that he held these Funeral ceremonies to be too early and long before their time Give place for the maid is not dead but sleepeth Had she been dead she had but slept now she was not dead but asleep because he meant this nap of death should be so short and her awakening so speedy Death and Sleep are alike to him who can cast whom he will into the sleep of Death and awake when and whom he pleaseth out of that deadly sleep Before the people and domesticks of Jairus held Jesus for a Prophet now they took him for a Dreamer Not dead but asleep They that came to mourn cannot now forbear to laugh Have we piped at so many Funerals and seen and lamented so many Corpses and cannot we distinguish betwixt Sleep and Death The eyes are set the breath is gone the limmes are stiffe and cold Who ever died if she do but sleep How easily may our Reason or Sense befool us in Divine matters Those that are competent Judges in natural things are ready to laugh God to scorn when he speaks beyond their compasse and are by him justly laughed to scorn for their unbelief Vain and faithlesse men as if that unlimited power of the Almighty could not make good his own word and turn either Sleep into Death or Death into Sleep at pleasure Ere many minutes they shall be ashamed of their errour and incredulity There were witnesses enough of her death there shall not be many of her restoring Three choice Disciples and the two Parents are only admitted to the view and testimony of this miraculous work The eyes of those incredulous scoffers were not worthy of this honour Our infidelity makes us incapable of the secret favours and the highest counsels of the Almighty What did these scorners think and say when they saw him putting the minstrels and people out of doors Doubtlesse the maid is but asleep the man fears lest the noise shall awake her we must speak and tread softly that we disquiet her not What will he and his Disciples doe the while Is it not to be feared they will startle her out of her rest Those that are shut out from the participation of God's counsels think all his words and projects no better then foolishnesse But art thou O Saviour ever the more discouraged by the derision and censure of these scornfull unbelievers Because fools jear thee dost thou forbear thy work Surely I do not perceive that thou heedest them save for contempt or carest more for their words then their silence It is enough that thine act shall soon honour thee and convince them He took her by the hand and called saying Maid arise and her spirit came again and she arose straightway How could that touch that Call be other then effectual He who made that hand touched it and he who shall once say Arise ye dead said now Maid arise Death cannot but obey him who is the Lord of life The Soul is ever equally in his hand who is the God of Spirits it cannot but goe and come at his command When he saies Maid arise the now-dissolved spirit knows his office his place and instantly reassumes that room which by his appointment it had left O Saviour if thou do but bid my Soul to arise from the death of Sin it cannot lie still if thou bid my Body to arise from the grave my Soul cannot but glance down from her Heaven and animate it In vain shall my sin or my grave offer to withhold me from thee The Maid revives not now to languish for a time upon her sick-bed and by some faint degrees to gather an insensible strength but at once she arises from her death and from her couch at once she puts off her fever with her dissolution she findes her life and her feet at once at once she findes her feet and her stomack He commanded to give her meat Omnipotency doth not use to goe the pace of Nature All God's immediate works are like himself perfect He that raised her supernaturally could have so fed her It was never the purpose of his Power to put ordinary
that all this while stopped that Gracious mouth thou speakest to him that cannot fear those faces he hath made he that hath charged us to confesse him cannot but confesse himself Jesus saith unto him Thou hast said There is a time to speak and a time to keep silence He that is the Wisdome of his Father hath here given us a pattern of both We may not so speak as to give advantage to cavils we may not be so silent as to betray the Truth Thou shalt have no more cause proud and insulting Caiaphas to complain of a speechlesse prisoner now thou shalt hear more then thou demandedst Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of Heaven There spake my Saviour the voice of God and not of man Hear now insolent High Priest and be confounded That Son of man whom thou seest is the Son of God whom thou canst not see That Son of man that Son of God that God and man whom thou now seest standing despicably before thy Consistorial seat in a base dejectednesse him shalt thou once with horrour and trembling see majestically sitting on the Throne of Heaven attended with thousand thousands of Angels and coming in the clouds to that dreadfull Judgment wherein thy self amongst other damned malefactors shalt be presented before that glorious tribunal of his and adjudged to thy just torments Goe now wretched Hypocrite and rend thy garments whiles in the mean time thou art worthy to have thy Soul rent from thy body for thy spightfull Blasphemy against the Son of God Onwards thy pretence is fair and such as cannot but receive applause from thy compacted crue What need have we of witnesses behold now ye have heard his Blasphemy What think ye And they answered and said He is guilty of death What heed is to be taken of mens judgment So light are they upon the balance that one dram of prejudice or forestalment turns the scales Who were these but the grave Benchers of Jerusalem the Synod of the choice Rabbies of Israel yet these passe sentence against the Lord of Life sentence of that death of his whereby if ever they shall be redeemed from the murder of their sentence O Saviour this is not the last time wherein thou hast received cruel dooms from them that professe Learning and Holiness What wonder is it if thy weak members suffer that which was indured by so perfect an head What care we to be judged by man's day when thou who art the Righteous Judge of the world wert thus misjudged by men Now is the fury of thy malignant enemies let loose upon thee what measure can be too hard for him that is denounced worthy of death Now those foul mouths defile thy Blessed Face with their impure spittle the venemous froth of their malice now those cruell hands are lifted up to buffet thy Sacred Cheeks now scorn and insultation triumphs over thine humble Patience Prophesie unto us thou Christ who it is that smote thee O dear Jesu what a beginning is here of a Passion There thou standst bound condemned spat upon buffetted derided by malicious sinners Thou art bound who camest to loose the bands of death thou art condemned whose sentence must acquit the world thou art spat upon that art fairer then the sons of men thou art buffeted in whose mouth was no guile thou art derided who art clothed with Glory and Majesty In the mean while how can I enough wonder at thy infinite Mercy who in the midst of all these wofull indignities couldst finde a time to cast thine eyes back upon thy frail and ingratefull Disciple and in whose gracious eare Peter's Cock sounded louder then all these reproaches O Saviour thou who in thine apprehension couldst forget all thy danger to correct and heal his over-lashing now in the heat of thy arraignment and condemnation canst forget thy own misery to reclaim his errour and by that seasonable glance of thine eye to strike his heart with a needfull remorse He that was lately so valiant to fight for thee now the next morning is so cowardly as to deny thee He shrinks at the voice of a Maid who was not daunted with the sight of a Band. O Peter had thy slip been sudden thy fall had been more easie Premonition aggravates thy offence that stone was foreshewed thee whereat thou stumbledst neither did thy warning more adde to thy guilt then thine own fore-resolution How didst thou vow though thou shouldst die with thy Master not to deny him Hadst thou said nothing but answered with a trembling silence thy shame had been the lesse Good purposes when they are not held do so far turn enemies to the entertainer of them as that they help to double both his sin and punishment Yet a single denial had been but easie thine I fear to speak it was lined with swearing and execration Whence then oh whence was this so vehement and peremptory disclamation of so gracious a Master What such danger had attended thy profession of his attendance One of thy fellows was known to the high-priest for a Follower of Jesus yet he not onely came himself into that open Hall in view of the Bench but treated with the Maid that kept the door to let thee in also She knew him what he was and could therefore speak to thee as brought in by his mediation Art not thou also one of this mans Disciples Thou also supposes the first acknowledged such yet what crime what danger was urged upon that noted Disciple What could have been more to thee Was it that thy heart misgave thee thou mightest be called to account for Malchus It was no thank to thee that that eare was healed neither did there want those that would think how near that eare was to the head Doubtlesse that busie fellow himself was not far off and his fellows and kinsmen would have been apt enough to follow thee besides thy Discipleship upon a bloodshed a riot a rescue Thy conscience hath made thee thus unduly timorous and now to be sure to avoid the imputation of that affray thou renouncest all knowledge of him in whose cause thou foughtest Howsoever the sin was hainous I tremble at such a Fall of so great an Apostle It was thou O Peter that buffetedst thy Master more then those Jews it was to thee that he turned the cheek from them as to view him by whom he most smarted he felt thee afar off and answered thee with a look such a look as was able to kill and revive at once Thou hast wounded me maiest thou now say O my Saviour thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes that one Eye of thy Mercy hath wounded my heart with a deep remorse for my grievous sin with an indignation at my unthankfulnesse that one glance of thine hath resolved me into the tears of sorrow and contrition Oh that mine eyes were fountains and my cheeks channels that
one sinner how much more when a world of sinners is perfectly ransomed from death and restored to Salvation Certainly if but one or two appeared all rejoyced all triumphed Neither could they but be herein sensible of their own happy advantage who by thy mediation are confirmed in their glorious estate since thou by the blood of thy Cross and power of thy Resurrection hast reconciled things not in earth onely but in Heaven But above all other the Love of thee their God and Saviour must needs heighten their joy and make thy Glory theirs It is their perpetual work to praise thee how much more now when such an occasion was offered as never had been since the world began never could be after when thou the God of Spirits hadst vanquished all the spiritual powers of darkness when thou the Lord of Life hadst conquered death for thee and all thine so as they may now boldly insult over their last enemy O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Certainly if Heaven can be capable of an increase of joy and felicity never had those Blessed Spirits so great a cause of triumph and gratulation as in this day of thy glorious Resurrection How much more O dear Jesu should we men whose flesh thou didst assume unite revive for whose sake and in whose stead thou didst vouchsafe to suffer and die whose arrerages thou payedst in death and acquittedst in thy Resurrection whose Souls are discharged whose Bodies shall be raised by the power of thy rising how much more should we think we have cause to be over-joyed with the happy memory of this great work of thy Divine Power and unconceiveable Mercy Lo now how weak soever I am in my self yet in the confidence of this victorious Resurrection of my Saviour I dare boldly challenge and defie you O all ye adverse Powers Doe the worst ye can to my Soul in despight of you it shall be safe Is it Sin that threats me Behold this Resurrection of my Redeemer publishes my discharge My Surety was arrested and cast into the prison of his Grave had not the utmost farthing of mine arrerages been paid he could not have come forth He is come forth the Summe is fully satisfied What danger can there be of a discharged Debt Is it the Wrath of God Wherefore is that but for sin If my sin be defraied that quarrel is at an end and if my Saviour suffered it for me how can I fear to suffer it in my self That infinite Justice hates to be twice paid He is risen therefore he hath satisfied Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen Is it Death it self Lo my Saviour that overcame death by dying hath triumph'd over him in his Resurrection How can I now fear a conquered enemy What harm is there in the Serpent but for his sting The sting of death is sin that is pulled out by my powerful Redeemer it cannot now hurt me it may refresh me to carry this cool Snake in my bosome O then my dear Saviour I bless thee for thy Death but I bless thee more for thy Resurrection That was a work of wonderful Humility of infinite Mercy this was a work of infinite Power In that was humane Weakness in this Divine Omnipotence In that thou didst die for our sins in this thou didst rise again for our Justification And now how am I conformable to thee if when thou art risen I lie still in the grave of my Corruptions How am I a lim of thy body if whiles thou hast that perfect dominion over death death hath dominion over me if whiles thou art alive and glorious I lie rotting in the dust of death I know the locomotive faculty is in the Head by the power of the Resurrection of thee our Head all we thy Members cannot but be raised As the earth cannot hold my body from thee in the day of the Second Resurrection so cannot sin withhold my Soul from thee in the First How am I thine if I be not risen and if I be risen with thee why do I not seek the things above where thou sittest at the right hand of God The Vault or Cave which Joseph had hewn out of the rock was large capable of no less then ten persons upon the mouth of it Eastward was that great stone rolled within it at the right hand in the North part of the Cave was hewn out a receptacle for the body three handfuls high from the pavement and a stone was accordingly fitted for the cover of that Grave Into this Cave the good Women finding the stone rolled away descended to seek the body of Christ and in it saw the Angels This was the Goal to which Peter and John ran finding the spoils of death the grave cloaths wrapped up and the napkin that was about the head folded up together and laid in a place by it self and as they came in haste so they return'd with wonder I marvel not at your speed O ye blessed Disciples if upon the report of the Women ye ran yea flew upon the wings of zeal to see what was become of your Master Ye had wont to walk familiarly together in the attendance of your Lord now society is forgotten and as for a wager each tries the speed of his legs and with neglect of other vies who shall be first at the Tomb. Who would not but have tried masteries with you in this case and have made light touches of the earth to have held paces with you Your desire was equal but John is the yonger his lims are more nimble his breath more free he first looks into the Sepulcher but Peter goes down first O happy competition who shall be more zealous in the enquiry after Christ Ye saw enough to amaze you not enough to settle your Faith How well might you have thought Our Master is not subduced but risen Had he been taken away by others hands this fine linen had not been left behinde Had he not himself risen from this bed of earth he had not thus wrapped up his night-cloaths and laid them sorted by themselves What can we doubt when he foretold us he would rise O Blessed Jesu how wilt thou pardon our errours how should we pardon and pity the errours of each other in lesser occasions whenas yet thy prime and dearest Disciples after so much Divine instruction knew not the Scriptures that thou must rise again from the dead They went away more astonished then confident more full of wonder as yet then of belief There is more strength of zeal where it takes in the weaker Sex Those holy Women as they came first so they staid last especially devout Mary Magdalene stands still at the mouth of the Cave weeping Well might those tears have been spared if her Knowledge had been answerable to her Affection her Faith to her Fervour Withall as our eye will be where we love she stoops and looks down
let thine enemies perish O Lord. These Bulls are seconded with their own brood the Calves of the people Who are they but those which follow and make up the herd the credulous seduced multitude which not out of choice but example join in opposition to God Silly calves they go whither their dams lead them to the field or to the slaughter-house Blinde obedience is their best guide Are they bidden to adore a God which they know the baker made they fall down upon their knees and thump their breasts as beating the heart that will not enough believe in that pastry-Deity Are they bidden to goe on pilgrimage to a Chappel that is a greater pilgrim then themselves that hath four several times removed it self and changed stations as Turselline considently they must goe and adore those wandring walls Are they bidden to forswear their Allegiance and to take armes against their Lawful and native Soveraign they rush into the battel without either fear or wit though for the aide of a sure enemy which would make them all as he threatned in Eighty eight alike good Protestants Very calves of the people whose simplicity were a fitter subject for pity then their fury can be of malice were it not that their power is wont to be imployed to the no small prejudice of the cause of God And would it boot ought to spend time in perswading these Calves that they are such to lay before them the shame of their ignorance and stupidity Hear now this O foolish people and without understanding which have eyes and see not which have eares and hear not Jer. 5. 20. How long will ye suffer your selves to be befooled and beslaved with the tyranny of Superstition God hath made you men why will ye abide men to make you vitulos populorum the calves of the people We must leave you as ye are but we will not leave praying for your happy change that God would consecrate you to himself as the calves of his altar that ye may be offered up to him an holy lively reasonable acceptable sacrifice in your blessed Conversion Amen The last and worst title of these enemies is The people that delight in warre Warre is to the State as Ignis and Ferrum the Knife and the Searing-iron to the body the last and most desperate remedy alwaies evill if sometimes necessary it is not for pleasure it is for need It must needs be a cruel heart that delights in warre He that well considers the fearful effects of warre the direption of goods the vastation of Countries the sacking and burning of Cities the murdering of men ravishing of women weltring of the horse and rider in their mingled blood the shrieks and horror of the dying the ghastly rage of the killing the hellish and tumultuous confusion of all things and shall see the streets and fields strewed with carkasses the chanels running with streams of blood the houses and Churches flaming and in a word all the woful tyrannies of death will think the heathen Poets had reason to devise Warre sent up from Hell ushered and heralded by the most pestilent of all the Furies every of whose haires were so many snakes and adders to affright and sting the world withall Little pleasure can there be in such a spectacle It is a true observation of St. Chrysostome that warre to any Nation is as a tempest to the Sea tossing and clashing of the waves together And fain would I hear of that Mariner that takes delight in a Storm The executioners of peaceable Justice are wont to be hateful no man abides to consort with a publick Headsman and what metal then shall we think those men made of who delight in cutting of throats and joy to be the furious executioners of a martial vengeance where besides the horror of the act the event is doubtful The dice of Warre run still upon hazard David could send this message to Joab The sword devoures at randome so and such 2 Sam. 11. 25. Victory is not more sweet then uncertain And what man can love to perish It is true that Warre is a thing that should not but must be neither is it other then an unavoidable act of vindicative Justice an useful enemy an harsh friend such an enemy as we cannot want such a friend as we entertain upon force not upon choice because we must not because we would It challenges admittance if it be just and it is never just but where it is necessary if it must it ought to be Where those three things which Aquinas requires to a lawful warre are met Supreme Authority a warrantable Cause a just Intention a Supreme Authority in commanding it a warrantable Cause in undertaking it a just Intention in executing it it is no other then Bellum Domini Gods warre God made it God owns it God blesses it What talk I of the good Centurion the very Angels of God are thus Heavenly souldiers The wise Lacedamonians had no other statues of their Deities but armed Yea what speak I of these Puppets the true God rejoyces in no title more then of the Lord of Hoasts In these cases say now Blessed be the Lord who teaches my hands to warre and my fingers to fight But if Ambition of enlarging the bounds of dominion Covetousness of rich booties emulation of a rival Greatness shall unsheath our swords now every blow is Murder Wo to those hands that are thus imbrued in blood Wo to those Tyrants that are the authors of this lavish effusion every drop whereof shall once be required of their guilty Souls God thinks he cannot give a worse Epithet to those whom he would brand for death then Wicked and blood-thirsty men David might not be allowed to build God an House because he had a bloody hand the cause was holy yet the colour offends How hateful must those needs be to the God of Mercies that delight in Blood the true brood of him that is the man-slayer from the beginning There are strange diets of men as of other creatures whereof there are some that naturally feed on poison and fatten with it and it may be there are Cannibals that finde mans blood sweet yet I think it would be hard to finde a man that will profess to place his felicity in a cruel hazard So doth he that delights in warre and if no man for shame will be known to doe simply and directly so yet in effect men bewray this disposition if they be first osores pacis haters of peace as the Psalmist calls them Ps 120. 7. stubbornly repelling the fair motions and meet conditions thereof if secondly they take up slight and unjust causes of warre as it is noted by Suetonius of Julius Caesar which this Iland had experience of that he would refrain from no occasion of warre if never so unjust contrary to the better temper and resolution of wiser Romans then himself who would rather save one Subject then kill a thousand Enemies if thirdly they
Devils and that which Dionysius said to Novatus Any thing must rather be born then that we should rend the Church of God Far far was it from our thoughts to teare the seamless coat or with this precious Oile of Truth to break the Churches head We found just faults else let us be guilty of this disturbance If now Choler unjustly exasperated with an wholesome reprehension have broken forth into a furious persecution of the gainsayers the sin is not ours if we have defended our innocence with blows the sin is not ours Let us never prosper in our good Cause if all the water of Tyber can wash off the blood of many thousand Christian Souls that hath been shed in this quarrel from the hands of the Romish Prelacie Surely as it was observed of olde that none of the Tribe of Levi were the professed followers of our Saviour so it is too easy to observe that of late times this Tribe hath exercised the bitterest enmity upon the followers of Christ Suppose we had offended in the undiscreet managing of a just reproof it is a true rule of Erasmus that generous spirits would be reclaimed by teaching not by compulsion and as Alipius wisely to his Augustine Heed must be taken lest whiles we labour to redress a doubtful complaint we make greater wounds then we find Oh how happy had it been for Gods Church if this care had found any place in the hearts of her Governours who regarding more the entire preservation of their own Honour then Truth and Peace were all in the harsh language of warre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 smite kill burn persecute Had they been but half so charitable to their modern reprovers as they profess they are to the fore-going how had the Church florished in an uninterrupted Unity In the old Catholick Writers say they we bear with many Errours we extenuate and excuse them we finde shifts to put them off and devise some commodious senses for them Guiltiness which is the ground of this favour works the quite contrary courses against us Alas how are our Writings racked and wrested to envious senses how misconstrued how perverted and made to speak odiously on purpose to work distast to enlarge quarrel to draw on the deepest censures Wo is me this cruel uncharitableness is it that hath brought this miserable calamity upon distracted Christendome Surely as the ashes of the burning Mountain Vesuvius being dispersed far and wide bred a grievous Pestilence in the Regions round about so the ashes that flie from these unkindly flames of discord have bred a woful infection and death of Souls through the whole Christian world CHAP. IV. The Church of Rome guilty of this Schisme IT is confessed by the President of the Tridentine Council that the depravation of the discipline and manners of the Romane Church was the chief cause and original of these dissentions Let us cast our eyes upon the Doctrine and we shall no less finde the guilt of this fearful Schism to fall heavily upon the same heads For first to lay a sure ground Nothing can be more plain then that the Romane is a particular Church as the Fathers of Basil well distinguish it not the universal though we take in the Churches of her subordination or correspondence This truth we might make good by authority if our very senses did not save us the labour Secondly No particular Church to say nothing of the universal since the Apostolick times can have power to make a Fundamental point of Faith It may explain or declare it cannot create Articles Thirdly Onely an errour against a point of Faith is Heresie Fourthly Those Points wherein we differ from the Romanists are they which onely the Church of Rome hath made Fundamental and of Faith Fifthly The Reformed therefore being by that Church illegally condemned for those Points are not Hereticks He is is properly an Heretick saith Hosius who being convicted in his own judgment doth of his own accord cast himself out of the Church For us we are neither convicted in our own judgment nor in the lawful judgment of others we have not willingly cast our selves out of the Church but however we are said to be violently ejected by the undue sentence of malice hold our selves close to the bosome of the true Spouse of Christ never to be removed as far therefore from Heresie as Charity is from our Censurers Only we stand convicted by the doom of good Pope Boniface or Sylvester Prierius Quicunque non c. Whosoever doth not rely himself upon the Doctrine of the Romane Church and of the Bishop of Rome as the infallible rule of Faith from which even the Scripture it self receives her force he is an Heretick Whence follows that the Church of Rome condemning and ejecting those for Hereticks which are not is the Authour of this woful breach in the Church of God I shall therefore I hope abundantly satisfie all wise and indifferent Readers if I shall shew that those Points which we refuse and oppose are no other then such as by the confessions of ingenuous Authors of the Roman part have been besides their inward falsities manifest upstarts lately obtruded upon the Church such as our ancient Progenitours in many hundreds of successions either knew not or received not into their Belief and yet both lived and dyed worthy Christians Surely it was but a just speech of S. Bernard and that which might become the mouth of any Pope or Council Ego si peregrinum c. If I shall offer to bring in any strange opinion it is my sin It was the wise Ordinance of the Thurians as Diodorus Siculus reports that he who would bring in any new Law amongst them to the prejudice of the old should come with an Halter about his neck into the assembly and there either make good his project or dy For however in humane constitutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the later orders are stronger then the former yet in Divinity Primum verum The first is true as Tertullian's rule is the old way is the good way according to the Prophet Here we hold us and because we dare not make more Articles then our Creeds nor more sins then our Ten Commandements we are indignely cast out Let us therefore address our selves roundly to our promised task and make good the Novelty and Unreasonableness of those Points we have rejected Out of too many Controversies disputed betwixt us we select only some principal and out of infinite varieties of evidence some few irrefragable testimonies CHAP. V. The Newness of the Article of Justification by inherent Righteousness TO begin with Justification The Tridentine Fathers in their seven moneths debating of this point have so cunningly set their words that the Errour which they would establish might seem to be either hid or shifted yet at the last they so far declare themselves as to