Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps whcih thou hast sucked But he said Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it THis is the Sons day and not the Mothers This is Christs own day and not Maries Therefore it is not for the Wombs sake but for the Fruit of the Womb not for the Paps of a mortal woman but for the Infants sake an immortal God that I have chosen this Text. A good Israelitess she was that magnified Christ on this manner though she was not spoken to yet her heart was full and she must speak for her joy would have stifled her if she had not uttered it If you mark the Context of the Chapter immediately before these words our Saviour had taught his Disciples to pray most divinely he had cast out devils most triumphantly he had answered the Calumniations of the Pharisees most rationally he had put on glorious apparel as the Psalmist says and girded himself with strength While these wonderful works were fresh in memory the Lord from on high could have sent Legions of Angels to magnifie his Son and to praise him with celestial Canticles But to strike the greater shame into the Pharisees that had blasphemed him he stirs up a woman a nameless one a poor Plebeian one not admitted near him she stood afar off and was fain to speak aloud to be heard Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps which thou hast sucked It was a free acclamation a sudden start a passion that came from her spirit ex tempore and that I may give Christ his full honour and attribute no more to the woman than is truth she prophesied in this saying of greater things than at that time she understood The Holy Ghost gave her the priviledge to be the tongue that delivered this Congratulation but it remains to us to lend it an heart that we may truly conceive it For the inward sense of it is the gladsom contents of this day blessed be the Father of all mercies for the Incarnation of his Son that he was made of a woman for our sakes and blessed are all mankind that he hath taken flesh of our flesh and that he is made partaker of our humane nature But because it would not prove our benefit that he was born for us unless he be born in us likewise by faith and obedience it follows to make our joy and crown complete yea rather blessed are they that hear c. The parts are as manifestly two as the two hands wherewith we handle First Blessedness offered to us in Christs Incarnation Secondly Blessedness made complete in our own application The woman begins the Text in the first part Christ finished in the second She said well for his Incarnation Blessed is the Womb that bare thee He makes it much better by stirrig us up to the use and fruit of it yea rather c. She blesseth Christ and Christ blesseth us she would have all felicity to rest in him he would have a share of felicity to be derived to us A pretty strife between a devout Creature and a merciful Creator between an humble Servant and a bountiful Master between a true faith that heaps all honour upon God and between a gracious God that heaps the treasures of his riches upon a true faith To begin with that which the woman said it must be considered two ways in a Litteral sense such as flesh and bloud revealed to her And in a Prophetical sense above her understanding such as the Spirit of God hath revealed to us Blessed is the Womb that bare thee And so it was indeed according to the Latitude of this womans natural understanding For first she knew at large that it was a blessed thing to be an Instrument or conveyance of any great good unto others Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber be blessed shall she be above women in the Tent Judg. v. 24. Shee had done her part to work deliverance for Israel And when Judith had sped in her adventure to cut off the head of Holofernes says Oziah Blessed art thou of the most high God above all the women upon earth Judith xiii 18. A good Messenger is called an happy and the feet of those are pronounced beautiful that bring glad tidings of peace It is a narrow and an abject conceit of some that think themselves fortunate and at the best when they receive and take in all that can be heapt upon them These men measure felicity backward for beatius est dare quam accipere it is more blessed to give than to receive Though that Maxim be not extant in any of the Evangelists St. Paul tells us upon his credit it was our Saviours The souls of them that are converted to true holiness shall bless the lips of the Priest the poor shall bless the liberal after Ages shall bless publick Spirits that do famous things and are provident for Posterity A Cistern that contains the waters poured into it is much inferiour to a Fountain that sends them forth It is nothing so laudible to be wrought upon as to work that which is honourable Even the Parents that have enricht the world with such as are ornaments unto it benediction reflects upon them for it because they are Conduit pipes of publick felicity Yet all those that have made others happy by their gifts and qualities had been for ever unhappy themselves if the Child that was born this day had not suckt the breasts of a Virgin O happy Parent whose Womb contained all the treasure that maintains the whole earth Somewhat she collineated at this meaning that said unto our Saviour Blessed c. And each Parent partakes in this reason that it is joy and honour to them to have a renowned Son and it may be this woman was partial to her own Sex that contented her self to speak of no more than the womb of the Mother In strict Divinity indeed her words are admirable for Christ had no Father according to the flesh but that is more than I collect out of St. Luke that she mentioned not his Father for that reason But in all humane births that prove successful and glorious the loyns of the Father are blessed as well as the womb of the Mother and the glory of children are their Fathers Prov. xvii 6. Yet in the next construction of mere natural capacity it was proper to say for his sake blessed is the womb because barrenness was a curse and fruitfulness of children a blessing They that propagate a faithful seed upon earth give the means to replenish heaven with Saints it is that wherein we exceed Angels to beget Sons and Daughters in our own likeness and to continue a Generation like our selves makes mankind by succession as incorruptible as the Angels God blessed all living Creatures mark that God blessed them and said unto them be fruitful and multiply Gen. i. 28. Though the Lord said
Ruby and Saphir but the colour of the Diamond cannot be well called by any name there is a white gloss and a sparkling flame mixt together which shine fairly but render no constant colour So we cannot say what manner of shew the Rayment of our Saviour did make These two did concur to the composition of the beauty Candor lux A whiteness mixed with no shadow a light bedimmed with no darkness It was white and glistering says our Evangelist White as the light says St. Matthew And his face being bright as the Sun his rayment exceeding white as the snow says St. Mark these two make such a medley that no Painter can think how to ground a colour to resemble it Altera pars de coelo splendidior sole altera de terrâ candidior nive The Divine Nature of Christ is from heaven and that exceeds the very Sun in the heaven in brightness His Humane Nature is from the earth beneath and that did exceed the very snow upon the earth in whiteness They had more fancy than sure foundation for their doctrine that grounded upon this place how the bodies of the righteous when they are risen and stand at Gods right hand shall not abide naked but be overcast with a Regal Robe of excellency Neither will it help that they fetch a proof Rev. vi 11. that the souls under the Altar had white Robes given to adorn them to make the true interpretation of these things more passable First I will speak of the alteration in Christs Garment then of the candor and whiteness It is well known in holy Scripture that Christ is called our garment and that as many as are true members of the Church are called Christs Garment Gal. iii. 27. As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ There the Saviour of mankind is our Robe Now we read of the conversion of the Gentiles and their being gathered into the Church Isa xlix 18. Lift up thine eyes round about and behold all these gather themselves together and come unto thee As I live saith the Lord thou shalt surely cloath thee with them all as with an ornament As Charity useth to be painted full of young children some hanging upon her Arms some upon her Brests So the Son of God is love it self and all his Children lay fast hold upon him and hang about him as a Vesture covers the body these are his Garment which shall shine for his sake in the Kingdom of heaven for ever Cornelia the mother of the Gracchi was visited by a great Lady in Rome who came in a specious fashion with her Chains of Pearl and Ear rings and Jewels about her Cornelia expected till her Sons came home who demeaned themselves before her with awful dutie and fit obeysance and to these she points saying Hi sunt gemmae meae torques monilia mea These are my Jewels and my Pendants that adorn me At such a value Christ accounts all those that live in him by faith these are his Garment which is white and glistering and no Fuller upon Earth can make a thing so white no earthly felicity can be comparable with that heavenly glory Philosophers and Heathen Orators these are Fullers upon earth their wits are not able to reach to the imagination of that spiritual joy which Christ hath prepared for them that fear him And they that have a Pharisaical opinion to be justified by their own works these are Fullers upon earth that would make all clean by the Art of man Alas it lies not in our skill in our endeavours in our righteousness it is Christ that can present a Church all glorious not having spot or wrinkle he will set us as a Signet upon his arm and as a seal upon his right hand he will wear us as a robe of dignity and bedeck us with grace and glory so that no Fuller on earth can make a thing so white There are three things metaphorically called Garments in whose whiteness and purity consists the perfection of all our happiness Stola sanctitatis justificationis gloriae 1. Here is the fair Robe of sanctity and innocency in the first place as God says of some good ones in the Church of Sardis Rev. iii. 4. They have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white They had not defiled their Garments that is they had not spotted their Conscience with uncleanness Therefore the Primitive Church emblematically did stir up such as were baptized to righteousness and holiness of life by enjoyning them that Ceremony to wear white Garments at the time of their Baptism Accipe vestem candidam immaculatam quam perferas sine maculâ ante tribunal Domini says St. Ambrose Thou that comest to be made a Christian take this white unstained garment and keep it unspotted unto the day of the Lord. 2. There is the robe of Justification when God looks upon us not as we are in our selves but as we are cloathed with the merits of Jesus Christ Non est breve pallium it is no scanty short Cloak which will not come down to the foot but it reacheth over all from our conception to our death it is spread over all our sins both original and actual and hides all our deformities Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ O fair nuptial garment which will bring us into the Bride-chamber of the Bridegroom for ever 3. The robe of justification makes us fit to be invested with the robe of glory That eternal life which we desire and expect is moralized in the name of a white garment because such apparel was used among the Jews upon occasion of gladness The Wiseman commending a life which was always led in mirth and alacrity without lumpish austerity says he Let thy garments be always white and let thy head lack no oyntment And because the life of Angels and Saints shall be nothing but singing of Psalms and pleasance and festivity before God for evermore therefore the Angels appeared in long white garments in our Saviours Sepulchre Mark xvi 5. And to express that eternity of joy which we shall have in bliss Christ would not be transfigured without this circumstance that his rayment was white and glistering Albedo vitae puritatem splendor doctrinae eminentiam significat That Allusion shall be noted to conclude this Point whiteness commends a pure and an innocent life glistering commends the word of truth in the holy Scripture that it is as clear as the Sun at noon-day But it is not an outside of purity which will stand the trial before God Hypocrites may go in sheeps cloathing a fair and a clean nap may be upon their coat without when their inside is a ravening Wolf So Hereticks will parget their Doctrine over with plausible reasons I perhaps through the power of Satan they will shine with miracles but take heed you do not worship their Idol because it shines like Gold Haeretici falsa dogmata
posse says Tacitus That which may be repaid is well accepted of but some are so devillish that instead of good will they return hatred when they know they must die ingrateful So did this false Apostle who not contented to be an under confederate was Dux eorum says St. Peter Acts i. 16. the Ringleader the Captain of them that took Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says my Text He did lift up and exalt his power Magnificavit dolum says the Chaldee Paraphrase He did advance his treachery not like Dan An Adder in the path lurking to bite the horse heels to make the rider fall backward Gen. xlix 17. no such lurking Adder but as a flying Serpent magnificavit dolum he lift up his heel he triumphed in his ungodliness And yet will you know what interest he had in his Masters favour Comedebat panes meos he did eat of my bread If we follow the interpretation of the Gloss it is to be understood de buccellâ quam intinxerat Iesus of the sop which was dipt and given into his hands with this reproach To whom I give the sop he shall betray me John xiii 26. If we follow Cassiodor he says this bread is Doctrina in quâ spiritualiter epulamur Christs continual preaching and instruction which is the food of the soul So David repeating my Text in a Paraphrase p. 55. turns it thus We took sweet counsel together there was the trust and walked in the house of God as friends there was the bread which was eaten But if we follow St. Hierom and a list of Worthies after him it is to be understood of the blessed Sacrament Say it were the Sop and did you ever hear of a Conscience so feared up That durst be treacherous when he was branded with the suspicion Tu es homo Thou art the man Say it were the preaching of the Word and what Adder would have stopt his ears except this Serpent When that voice charm'd him so often at which the Angels are astonished and hide their faces Say it were the bread of the Celestial Communion and how stubborn was this unbeliever that could not relish how precious the body of Christ was before he did betray it Beloved I would that Judas were to be blamed alone But if we could consider what things the Lord hath done for our peace who is he among us all that hath not had his â—op that is some particular token some especial means Gods hand reaching out a good occasion unto us as well as unto Judas We have not the lively voice of the very Oracle but we have the Letter of the very Oracle and the true Prophets of the very Oracle reading the Law in the Congregation expounding faith and good works from the Pulpit giving to you all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the portion of your food And we cannot say but there is a Pot of Manna in the Ark the holy Supper provided at solemn Feasts heavenly meat dispensed in due season whereof we have been partakers Now if after particular warning a token best known to every mans conscience if after the Word preach'd if after the Sacrament of Christs own body we wax stubborn and rebellious as David charged Achitophel as Christ impeached Judas so will God endite thee Yea mine c. Had I not read of the poysoning of an Emperour with the Cup of the Eucharist and of a suspicion that a Pope was made away with the consecrated Host I should have thought that none had come to the Communion Table with a murderous heart but only Judas But now I have considered that to enter into conspiracies with the Sacrament set before them is as solemnly kept and as usual with the Jesuits as to tune Instruments before Musick I can give an instance for what I say in that execrable Powder Plot they that have transubstantiated the Wine into bloud and the Cake into raw flesh are fed for nothing but to prey upon the flesh of their enemies like Diomedes horses and to drink their bloud Tam bibit hoc avidè quà m bibit ante merum They are not beholding to the Devil for his temptation Mat. iv To turn stones into bread Let the Devil rather be beholding to them and learn how to turn bread into stone and brain there our familiars Melchisedech brought forth bread and wine for Abraham after the slaughter of his enemies if you would moralize it after the mortification of his sins but was ever such an holy Table spread to furnish any man to go out to battel to kill his Friends and Confederates I have not many words to speak against this violent sin the extinguisher of all grace and the shame of nature but I will speak home Whosoever frequents this Supper and beats out Plots upon this Table as upon the Anvile of malice like Judas like the Jesuits the root is Hell and the fruit is certain condemnation St. Austin in his twelfth Sermon upon St. John hath given me the hint to go one step further The good members of the Church says he are set forth in the person of St. Peter In Judae personâ reprobi the lost part the Reprobates are charactered in the person of Judas Wherefore there is great reason from hence to cry after collapsed Hereticks who renounce the Faith which once they professed in sincerity and to summon those discontented Runnagates who fall off from our Church to the glorious superstition of the Papacy with this compassionate verse Yea mine own familiar friends yea my Children that have suck'd my breasts have drawn bloud from me such upon whom I have laid hands of Ordination have broken the Covenant and smote me with the Palmes of their hands their Pen hath wounded me with bitter Motives Such as have eaten my bread and compassed my Communion board like Olive branches of peace round about my Table they have called me the Seed-plot of new Doctrine and the Mother of Sacriledge they have lift up their heel against me and kiss'd the proud feet of my Adversaries We have no such enemies against our peace no such slanderers of our Church no such forgers of Calumniations almost incredible as among those fugitives that have skulked to Rome and Downy to worship the Gods of the Groves As if they could not prove themselves to have forsaken us unless they had forsaken natural affection and the ingenuous colour of modesty Away with them rebellious tongues let them pack to other Kingdoms we are not afraid as Pyrrhus was that they who spoke evil of him at home would backbite him worse if they were banisht and sent abroad No I am glad there is Sea enough about the Island to purge away such filth from the shore retrimenta populi Let them who abide with us be more couragious like the remnant of Gideons army and be confident that although some which were harnessed and carried Bows have turned their backs from us in the day of battel yet by the hands of the
in the Reign of Edward the Sixth the name of Altar is throughout retained to comply with the Figurative phrase of good Antiquity and the next Edition of Liturgies to keep an wholsom form of words as St. Paul says and to give no place to misconstruction doth every where throughout call it the Lords Table And in the Injunctions of another blessed Prince whereas by order of Law Altars were to be removed and Tables placed for the ministration of the holy Communion it is said saving for Uniformity sake there was no matter of great moment so the Sacrament was duly and reverently celebrated and that the holy Table in every Church should be set in the place where the Altar stood We dare therefore and will speak according to Antiquity in the Figurative meaning of Antiquity calling it an Altar but lest the Supper of the Lord should be called the external and real crucifying of our Lord again we neither dare nor will speak after the sense of the Roman novelty to call it an Altar but we come to that holy Supper to be partakers of the Table of the Lord. These are not times to offer Sacrifice as Noah did and therefore not to build an Altar but only to commemorate that Sacrifice after which all true Sacrifices ceased and all properly called Altars fell to the ground And so much for the place which Noah sanctified he builded an Altar to the Lord. I am past the visible part of this good work I come now to the invisible part the life the soul of it And the Lord smelled a sweet savour What this delicate Odour and fragrancy was which the Sacrifice did exhale up to heaven I will not defraud you of it hereafter but I will defer it now and make my self room enough to speak of that quick sense which did apprehend this sweet Odour the Lord smelled a sweet savour A remnant or portion of living things had entred into the Ark to escape those were given unto the new World to multiply but Noah would be more severe against the sins of the World than the Lord was he would not spare so much as the merciful God had spared Nay the Lord thought it enough to overwhelm the iniquities of men with water but Noah presented Burnt-offerings on the Altar to confess that the wicked works of the World deserved likewise to be consumed with Fire A most depressing humility in the good Patriarch a most mortified Confession This won far upon the Lords compassion and changed the rugged brow of Justice into the smiles of mercy and benevolence It grieved him before that he had made man now he rejoyceth for the Remnant alive that he had preserved them As a Kingly Expositor said upon the Lords Prayer the most generous are the most gentle and a magnanimous courage is never vindicative of a wrong never retentive The time was but even now over that God had destroyed the whole World and see how placable he is from what a little pittance of true devotion he smelled a sweet savour Before the King of Ninivey had worn out his Sackcloth nay almost before he had put it on God saw their works and repented of the evil which he said he would do unto them and did it not Zachaeus did but profess to make restitution of all things ill-gotten and before he had made restitution of one peny says Christ this day yea Lord what if thou hadst said this minute is salvation come into thy house Nathan charged David with most bitter offences Lord keep us from the like David begins to reply I have sinned against the Lord it was but a beginning surely he would have said more but Nathan takes him off at a few words the Lord also hath taken away thy sin thou shalt not die It is accounted so great a matter to follow and sollicit Christ thrice together like she of Canaan that she had her Garland for it O woman great is thy faith Our loving Father will wait long for our Repentance but we shall not wait long for his Forgiveness As the Historian noted in Romulus that inveagled the Sabines with such courteous usage Quod eodem die hostes cives habuit in the Morning they came against him with hostility before Evening he had incorporated them all into his City So the Lord upon good tokens of their humiliation looked upon some in the Morning as excluses from the upper Jerusalem and presently he enroles their names in the Book of life Upon that mournful cry of David Have mercy upon me O Lord according to thy great goodness Thus Cassiodor Vox est quae nunquam discutitur sed tranquille semper auditur It is a voice which is never examined never suspended or delaid never deliberated upon it penetrates far it will be heard and it shall be answered It meets with Gods mercy as quick as a strong Perfume comes to the Nostril and therefore his complacency so ready to forgive is called smelling a sweet savour nay let me not forget that the Hebrew read it Odorem quietis the Lord smelled a savour of rest All sensible smells be it the Rose among the Flowers or Cassia among the Spices must be often put to the sense and often taken away to please it hold them long to the Nostril and they will prove faint and tedious Nullus odor sensibilis est odor quietis bodily sents are not sents of rest and quietness but to shew that our gracious Father is suddenly reconciled and long pleased very tenacious of his mercy our Sacrifice our Prayers our Alms all our Christian Offices are odores quietis their smell stays long with God they are an odour of rest he never loaths or disdains them O Lord thy placable compassions are exceeding sweet ten thousand times sweeter than the Sacrifice of Noah It should be thus with all that will follow Christ like Lord like Servants but it seems it is not David had no heart to stand to any bodies courtesie but the good God's O let me not fall into the hands of men We smother rancour in our breast like fire in touchwood or like fire in iron touch and you shall feel it burn though you cannot see it We are the Children of Eve and our great Mother you know was made of a stiff and a crooked rib we take after it too much We must be courted rather like Mistresses than Christians be wooed be presented be supplicated and after all this may be scarce obtain so much kindness as a merciful man would shew to his Beast Like the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa his humiliation he stood at doors three days barefoot for an apparition of his Holiness and the favour which all this patience and expectation procured was to stoop to the earth and to have his neck trode upon by Pope Alexander the Third a disdain which the Royal spirit of Alexander the Great did never put upon Darius Some do keep such long distance from this Doctrin that I may
from godly sorrow and repentance It knows not the way to sit down and to be dejected to the earth and yet to none else but such will our Saviour say Friend go up higher Another observation on this Point is that when sorrows came hudling upon Nehemiah and fell as thick as hail he sate down which is an evidence of patience that he submitted himself under the hand of the Lord. It is our modern phrase to express the humour of a man who struggles to repel an injury that he will not sit down by it But this servant of the Lord in my Text had no quarrel against the providence of his Maker let the cup of judgment be never so bitter which he was to drink he was quiet and sate down He knew we are all as clay in the hand of the Potter and shall the Vessel say to him that framed it what makest thou Gods judgments are wonderful and unsearchable sometimes they are never unjust And what fruit can the stubborn reap by endeavouring to break their chains What hath it ever profited them to challenge the Lord in the bitterness of their discontent What have they got by cursing murmuring and repining no other than to make the furnace of tribulation seven times hotter As it is best for the Child and for the Mother when the birth stays the due time before it be born So let us not struggle and toss about to ease our selves in a time of infelicity our redress will be most facile and fair when the Lord bringeth it to pass at his good pleasure If you think to be delivered sooner by quarrelling violence commotion it will prove an abortive remedy If you long to have things better when they are ill tarry for the Lord sit down and mourn be humble obedient keep a good conscience girt Nehemiahs patience unto you sit down and be still A third instruction upon this Point is that to sit down is to muse and to consider sadly of that which is brought before us So Nehemiah sate down to call his soul to counsel he intermitted all worldly business and composed himself to think of the Judgments of God It is well that the Royal Piety hath called us together to day upon so good an occasion Here is a Senate of Gods Servants gathered together in this holy place and in all other houses of God throughout this Realm Now we are set to it to call our ways to remembrance to revolve in our mind both every one a part how far we have corrupted our ways And likewise have taken this pause of time and sequestred our selves from all secular affairs to take a considerate view upon the sins of the Kingdom how near we are in all likelihood to relapse into some great troubles because the fear of the Lord is not much conspicuous among any sorts of men Are our Peers and Nobles renowned for their advancement and protection of true honour and vertue as their great Ancestors have been Sit down and think upon it The Reverend Sages of the Law are their minds set upon righteousness And do they judge the thing that is right with courage and integrity Sit down and think upon it The portion and Tribe of God the holy Clergy do they remember or can they forget how they were lately trodden down reviled and cast out of all they had for twenty years And doth it stir us up to be burning and shining lights more than ever And to double our diligence now in Prayer in Preaching and administring the holy Sacraments Sit down and think upon it For the Gentry are they not addicted to waste and riot Do they not crowd themselves into our enlarged Suburbs where they have no Calling but to emulate one another in excess of feminine Pride and rude debauchery Sit down and think upon it As for what concerns the great City not to rub it with salt and Satyrs is it not as palpable as Gods light that it did poison the whole Land with Rebellion and still infects it with Gaudiness Gluttony Whoredoms and Falshoods Sit down and think upon it Do the Country Villages deserve the old commendations of simplicity and innocency But how ignorant are they in the knowledge of Salvation How unthankful to God in all seasons How hath Satan bewitched them of late years into dissolute lives and drunkenness Sit down and think upon it I pass over many things in silence as not fit for publication Now though I have shewn you an Ocean of ungodliness breaking in upon us who almost unless such an extraordinary day as this doth spur them on who doth consider it and muse upon it with a leisurable sorrow The most will shake their heads at it and give it a shrug and then they are at their furthest There is all the regard they have when the sins of an whole Nation look as if they were white for harvest It is too tedious for them to sit down to cast up a sollicitous account to survey the parcels of our crimes to cast them up into a total sum as much as is possible This is too long labour for them who are very busie a doing nothing They will sit down as the Israelites did to eat and to drink and rise up to play Whereas the beginning of true repentance is to allot some time day by day for considering our own works seriously and the criminal faults of the whole Land Grant some good hours for the serious understanding of those things and run not away lightly from such holy thoughts but possess Nehemiahs room sit down and ponder the Judgments of the Lord. It follows in the second branch of his penitential carriage that the sins and desolation of Jerusalem wrought upon him so far that he wept Perhaps some sturdy spirit will say Mulier quid ploras Woman what ailest thou to weep A manly courage thinks shame of it Nay Infans quid ploras It is childish as some conceive to put the finger into the eye Indeed Quid potest infans nisi plorare How can a Child help it self when it is offended but by crying But when our heavenly Father is offended it is a sweet sign of grace to demean our selves like Children and cry Except you become as little children you cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven Mat. xviii 3. Nay says David I have brought my soul low like a weaned Child Psal cxxxi 2. and yet he no coward He became as a Child and not such a one as hath the breast and is still but a weaned Child taken from the comforts and lullabies of the Nurse and then you know it will burst into tears True repentance you see abhors all stubbornness and obstinate resolutions it abates its fortitude it melts in the sight of God Is not this much more religious than to have Nerves of Adamant and an heart of brass A stomach that is insensible of the divine wrath is a symptome of madness and not of courage There is
with mourning I wept and chastened my self with fasting says David A pensive mind will seldom have a hungry stomach True sorrow will make a man forget to eat his bread Some will not deny that there is an harmony between Fasting and Mourning not to be broken but they cannot abide to come under the penance of Fasting and then they shut mourning out of doors because it wants its Mate But the Libertine maunders Fasting what is that to the advantage of Repentance The Kingdom of Heaven is not meat and drink If we eat we are not the worse and if we eat not we are not the better And what God hath given us freely why is our liberty abridged that we may not use it when we will I answer None is more firmly enfeoffed of any thing than the Husband is of the Wife and the Wife of the Husband And yet they may keep asunder with consent for a time that they may give themselves to Fasting and Prayer 1 Cor. vii 5. So the Lord hath given us the earth and the fulness of it but it is expedient sometimes as on this day to abstain from meats that the Spirit may be the stronger to work by the subjection of the body It is a means both upon the extraordinariness of it to make us look exactly into the bottom of our conscience as also to elevate the mind and to make it more capable of heavenly thoughts As we see it in St. Peter he fasted and fell into a trance and saw that Vision happy for us the calling of the Gentiles Act. x. So Daniel eat no pleasant bread nor drank Wine for three weeks and he was the better composed for those Prophetical Revelations which were imparted to him Dan. x. 2. It is not the bare abstinence from meats take it alone by it self that pleaseth God but as it is in conjunction with other holy duties as to dispose the body to Chastity and to heighten up the mind to the contemplation of heavenly things That you may know the right Fast from the wrong there are three to one in whom there is no profit at all Jejunat justus mendicus hypocritá parcus says the old verse 1. The Hypocrite abstains from meats and looks sadly not that he may cast himself down before God but that he may exalt his name among men 2. The Niggard fasts and torments his body to spare his Purse 3. The poor man fasts because he hath not wherewithal to relieve his hunger These are not within the compass of Religion But fourthly the devour man fasts to give his soul the true bias of penance and mourning and to testifie before heaven and earth that nothing shall comfort him but the mercy of God whom he hath offended I will come to particularise in the Sphere of our Nation First if there were no other sin among us but woe and alas we abound with a great deal more but if we had no other fault yet the strange intolerable luxury brought in in these consuming days the great mystery of Cookery utterly unknown to the laudable hospitality of our fore-fathers this wanton aromatical Ambergriece-diet what should I call it Doth it not deserve to be expiated by a Publick Fast Doth it not require that we should set aside all manner of food for one day till Even As good men and temperate were ashamed to eat for necessity because costly Palats are so profusely lavish in superfluity Let us confess and declare in act that we deserve not that which God hath given us let us subscribe by this humiliation that we have forfeited that right and dominion which we had in the Creatures and that we are not worthy so much as to gather up the Crums under our Masters Table Secondly We dwell in a Land upon which the heaven doth cast its most propitious influence it is the true Ganaan of the Western world flowing with so much plenty that I have oftner heard it grumbled at that it brought forth too much than that it brought forth too little Either it brings forth all manner of store or all manner of store by commodious Navigation is brought into it Ex te provenient vel aliunde tibi And how unthankful have we been for this most bounteous sustenance How slack in our acknowledgment that God hath opened the windows of heaven to rain down plenty upon us Is it not fit therefore that we should do justice upon our selves forbear and touch no more food untill we have sanctified a Fast and made an attonement for our ingratitude and press'd it upon our selves to be more thankful Thirdly The poor and needy have been neglected by us They have been almost famished when we have surfeited and they have wanted that which the rich mens Dogs have devoured O therefore chastise your bodies with hunger at this once that you may avenge the injuries which you have done to the poor upon your own flesh Cornelius the Centurton fasted and gave Alms whereupon says St. Austin Cornelius when himself fasted fed others who had no meat that their replenishing might make his Fast the more acceptable to God So this day you must feed the poor out of your own bellies and whatsoever you spare from your meal spend it on them and you shall feed your Saviour in them And as â—asting is a pious occasion thereby to ask pardon of God for our Gluttony our unthankfulness to God our hard heartedness to the poor so fourthly I would it might work some good amendment upon our most scandalous drunkenness I proâ—eâ—s I have little hope that that sin is corrigible among us For I believe verily I make my account right that we spend three hundred Cups of Wine in these days in this Kingdom for one that was spent when I was a Child Therefore â—o dehort from this debauchery I shall but put new wine into old bottels religious instruction before old unreclaimable Drunkards These bottels are stopt and will never receive my Doctrine They had rather be Swine than Men Horse-leeches that are always sucking at corruption He that cares not by over quaffing himself to lose his reason the most precious thing that is in the soul of man he is so drowned in intemperance that till he hates that Vice and casts it off he deceives himself if he thinks he can set any true valuation upon the grace of God But O that this holy Fast might reclaim those in this most conspicuous place or the whole Kingdom who are prone to be overwhelmed in the dead Sea of drink That you would fear least God should take you away when you are so pitifully overtaken That you would remember how they who enflame themselves with Wine now shall hereafter want a drop of water to cool their tongues in hell fire Yet for all those who forget themselves in that or in any other manner we keep this Publick Fast to remember God in their behalf Publicum jejunium est solemnis professio reatus they
from your holy Mothers Lacte gypsum miscet as the old Proverb is the World is a Stepmother whose Milk is infected with poison no redress for such but as it was said of the Shunamites Child when he complained of his head Take the Child unto his Mother as St. Peter exhorts desire the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby the end of it is to grow and encrease not to stand at a stay true Piety never thinks so well of it self as if it needed no augmentation that 's Pharisaical hypocrisie He that gets nothing loseth much he that doth not add to his talent will forfeit it and lose it Says Bernard did not all the Angels which Jacob saw upon the Ladder that reached up to Heaven either ascend or descend Inter ascensum descensum inter profectum defectum nullum est medium There is no medium between proficiency deficiency between going backward or forward Either you are continually mending in all parts of Religion by the fatness of this milk or you will consume away like a shriveled Changeling But the Nurse will not be wanting in suppeditating milk if you are not wanting to your self in the wholsom concoction And now to end this Point I pronounce unto you that you can expect no greater miricle from God than to have such a Mother and such a Nurse First Were you not dead in Adam and then this Mother took you into her womb and brought you forth alive most stupendious Nay must you not die unto sin and be crucified to the world before you could be born again Quid difficilius cognitione quà m ut homo nascatur moriendo says St. Austin And what is the effect of her nourishment but continually to draw you from death to life Et amplius est suscitare semper victurum quà m suscitare iterum moriturum says he Was it miraculous in Elias or in the Apostles to raise the dead unto life that should die again How much greater is it to raise them unto life that shall never This benefit begins with the Church as our Mother and continues with us through her Ministry as our Nurse This is that Jerusalem whis is the Mother of us all Thus far I have drawn out before you the blessing of the Mother upon those whom she brings forth now while this benefit is fresh in our memory it is good time to shew what obedience the Children do owe to this Mother That is to her Laws to her Censures to her Determinations To her Laws of outward Order to her Censures of Discipline to her Determinations of Faith For the first to tread lightly in their steps that have gone before me Prudence and Reason find out what is fit for the well reigling and comly demeanour of them that are knit together in any body And when authority is joyned unto it and imposeth it it is a Law There must be an Order agreed upon touching our manner of union and living together in Commonwealths And grave and well-governed men are most nice to see those fashions of order inviolably observed And is not this equally to be heeded nay much more in our Ecclesiastical Oeconomy For the persons to whom we associate our selves in the Church are not only holy men but God and Angels Shall we not have Laws of agreement to go all one way and to do the same thing in Rites and Ceremonies Can there be such that would not be ashamed to see distraction and confusion in the holy Sanctuary Is there any possibility of drawing a Congregation together without Rules and Advertisements to proceed thus and thus in the administration of the Lords Service And for those Rites which are in force among us hath not this Church proceeded with most sanctified moderation to ease Christian people of that superfluity whereof they complained at the extirpation of Popery and to retain such only as were most expedient and carry no shadow of scandal but to them that are hot and contentious Since we must have Orders of Decency his wits are broken that thinks otherwise why not these which are established and to which your consent is included by reason of them that were Agents in your behalf and present at their confirmation for we were alive in our Predecessors and our Successors shall live in us It skills not what Vtopia some have framed in their own heads In positive Laws mens private fancies must give way to the higher judgment of the Church which is in authority a Mother over them And do not say you are an obedient Child since you do that which your heavenly Father requires why not also what your spiritual Mother requires Since the one bids nothing repugnant to the other I hope there is none in this Climate but explodes the Anabaptists opinion that all Christian Liberty is lost if any Laws be imposed upon the people but the Gospel of Jesus Christ Beside what is required for order and good carriage in the Church God hath given the power to settle it What is done is done by his leave and by that light of Nature and Reason given to frame such Constitutions and therefore do not prevaricate as if God were not disobeyed in that obstinacy which conforms not It is commendable and necessary for every man single to profess the substance of true Religion contained in the Scriptures But it is also required at their hands to observe the Circumstances and Decencies of it comprehended in positive Laws when they are in society with others It was in a Circumstance and a Ceremony that St. Paul checks the Corinthians What despise ye the Church of God 1 Cor. xi 22. You cannot call Jerusalem your Mother with a sober reverence if you decline her Piety and Authority in Constitutions indifferent Secondly The power and the wisdom of the Church meeting together must use the rod though unwillingly towards them that must be made examples to others by shame and punishment For such as will not be softned with love and the Spirit of meekness Shall I come to you with a rod says the Apostle Dread the anger of your Mother provoke not her displeasure to smite you with Abstentions Anathemaes Excommunications Remember how the incestuous person was swallowed up with desperation when her Censure was upon him If Esau lift up his voice and wept when he had not the blessing of his Father what sorrow will it beget in a Child that is not past feeling or leadenly stupid to have the curse of his Mother The ancient forms of humble Penants used by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are so disused that their custom will seem strange to be repeated When they were sequestred from the Prayers and Sacraments of the holy Church for scandalous and flagitious actions they cast themselves down before the entrance of the Church groveled upon the ground full of tears and lamentations and besought every Christian that passed by
the old Greek Proverb goes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in every Pomgranat there are some corrupt kernels so there are some wicked ones in every Church 4. As the seeds of the Pomegranat are of a bloudy colour so the Robes of the Apostles and others the best kernels of the Church were red in the bloud of Martyrdom but made white in the bloud of the Lamb. The sum is in the whole Pomgranat in the lump we are the Body of Christ but take us one by one and consider us as sometimes we were darkness and now light in the Lord and that this fire was kindled in us all from the Altar of Christ Jesus and by them that minister at it so Jerusalem which is above is the Mother of us all For the most proper work of a Mother is to bring forth Children and the most proper work of a good Mother is to bring them up And because of these two Solomon in the same Canticle hath used this appellation which my Text doth I will bring thee into the House of my Mother that is the Church And though he were the greatest King one of them that ever the Earth saw yet it is no disparagement to him to call that his Mother which God calls his Spouse I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and faithfulness Hos ii 19. The Bridegroom hath taken this Bride unto him and their Offspring are multiplied and happy are those and none but they who are the legitimate Children of this sacred Marriage The Font of Baptism is the Womb of the Church the Spirit that moves upon the waters to sanctify them is the Father and from these two are brought forth the Sons of the Most High that shall dwell in glory for evermore And because of this indissoluble connexion between the Holy Ghost and this Spouse who is always present with it St. Austin notes that she must not only be a fruitful Mother in abundance of issue but also a pure Virgin because she knows none other Husband Ecclesia virgo est parit Mariam imitatur quae Dominum peperit the Church is both a Virgin and a Mother like the Mother of our Lord although a Mother yet of unquestioned virginity St. Ambrose runs more division upon the same string on this sort Sancta Ecclesia immaculata coit◠foecunda part◠virgo est castitate mater prole the holy Catholick Church keeps her Bed immaculate and yet her Offspring is innumerous a Mother by perpetual propagation and yet a Virgin by perpetual chastity Parit nos non dolore membrorum sed gaudio Angelorum nutrit nos non corporis lacte sed Apostolorum she is delivered of us with no pain or sorrow but with the joy of the Angels in Heaven she feeds us not with the breasts of a woman but the Milk of the Apostles which is better than Nectar to the Soul and the Manna that comes down from Heaven It is yet more admirable what God hath wrought upon this Jerusalem by demonstration of the Spirit and of power We are the dispersions of the Gentiles that are now the People of the Lord we were as a Strumpet that went a whoring after Idols and God hath betrothed this Church unto him and made it an unpolluted Virgin I deny not but lament it that there are some Christian stations affected towards Idolatry which renews the infamy of our ancient whoredoms But whatsoever our Mother is now our Grandmother was chaste and pure in Hegesippus dayes Take it in that sincerity of practice and Doctrin and then you may see the mighty works of Christ to turn an Harlot into a Virgin and a Virgin into a Mother Magna est sponsae singularis dignitas meretricem invenit virginem fecit says St. Austin this is the great and singular dignity of the Bride which hath prepared her self to meet the Bridegroom that comes from Heaven he hath changed her whoredom into virginity and multiplied her virginity into foecundity that she is the Mother of us all You see the Mother through whose Ministery every Christian is born again of water and of the Holy Spirt neque parcit unigenito pro sic genito the Father did not spare his only begotten Son that we might be thus begotten But is there no more that belongs to a Mother than to bring forth yes says Clemens Alexandrinus and I quote him because he speaks of the Church every thing that brings forth is obliged by nature to supply nourishment unto that which it brings forth I am not so rigid but I will grant that in cases of weakness and divers accidental indispositions that which nature doth ordinarily urge and provide for may be dispensed but this rule is born with every Female that which is so fruitful as to be a Mother should be so careful as to be a Nurse And so is the Church Not only Moses the Law-giver carried the People of Promise as a nursing Father carrieth his Child Num. xi 12. by tenderness by ordering their steps by breeding them in good Precepts and Laws but the Apostles were much more laborious to feed the Christian Proselytes with the Word of life that they might grow up from grace to grace unto the stature of perfect righteousness I have fed you with Milk says St. Paul to the newly converted Corinthians 1 Cor. iii. 2. and he suppeditated stronger meat to them that could digest it And for all manner of sweetness and forbearance he behaved himself gently among the Thessalonians as a Nurse cherisheth her Children 1 Thes ii 7. Every Rule and Doctrin which is delivered sincerely and in truth is Milk to those that thirst to drink of the Well of salvation Honey and Milk are under thy tongue says Solomon speaking of this Mother and Nurse Cant. iv xi Milk is a pleasant food so is the Gospel to them that have a spiritual taste there is no Aloes or bitterness in it but to them that have a carnal palat It is Antalcidas his answer in Plutarch to one that asked how he might speak that which might be accepted says he Si loquaris jucundissima praestes utilissima if you will deliver that which is most pleasant and season it with that which is most profitable so that which is sucked from the Breasts of this Parent arrides the taste with sweetness and it is as profitable as sweet and called Milk because it is a most growing nourishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Naturalists as they were accounted plain and innocent above all other People so they did excel for health and magnitude of body Be admonished therefore that such Christians as wax not better and better take some other thing for their nourishment than the Milk of the Church which doth not prosper in them If you do not grow and add virtue to virtue you have chosen a Nurse with dry breasts and whose complexion is diverse