had often heard from credible Witnesses it was too usual with the discontented at their Meetings to charge the Church of England with those consequences which they did terminis terminantibus deny as the making of indifferent Ceremonies to be Sacraments and in kneeling at Sacrament to worship the Bread and thereupon be so furious against that reverend posture as though Kneeling were Popery and Sitting Protestancy when the Pope himself ever Communicates sitting These things were only spoken to make our Church odious to ignorant people and being permitted must needs in time destroy our Foundations again and therefore he wished that as of old all Kings and other Christians subscribed to the Conciliary Decrees so now a Law might pass that all Justices of Peace should do so in England and then they would be more careful to punish the depravers of Church Orders In matter of Doctrine he embraced no private and singular opinions as many great men delight to do in vetere viâ novam semitam quaerentes says the Father but was in all points a perfect Protestant according to the Articles of the Church of England always accounting it a spice of pride and vanity to affect singularity in any opinions or Expositions of Scripture without great cause and withal very dangerous to affect precipices as Goats use when they may walk in plain paths In the Quinquarticular Controversie he was ever very moderate but being bred under Bishop Davenant and Dr. Ward in Cambridge was addicted to their Sentiments Bishop Vsher would say Davenant understood those Controversies better than ever any man did since St. Austin but He used to say he was sure he had three excellent men of his mind in this Controversie 1. Padre Paulo whose Letter is extant to Heinsius Anno 1604. 2. Thomas Aquinas 3. St. Austin but besides and above them all he believed in his conscience St. Paul was of the same mind likewise yet would profess withal he disliked no Arminian but such a one as reviled and defamed every one that was not so and would often commend Arminius himself for his excellent wit and parts but only tax his want of reading and knowledg in Antiquity and ever held it was the foolishest thing in the world to say the Arminians were Papists when so many Dominicans and Jansenists were no Arminians and so again to say the Anti-Arminians were Puritans or Presbyterians when Ward and Davenant and Prideaux and Brownrig were Anti-Arminians and also stout Champions for Episcopacy and Arminius himself was ever a Presbyterian and therefore much commended the moderation of our Church which made not any of these nice and doubtful Opinions the resolved Doctrin of the Church this he judg'd was the great fault of the Tridentine and late Westminster Assemblies But our Church was more ingenuous and left these dark and curious points to the several apprehensions of learned men and extended equal Communion to both There is another Controversie that hath been much vexed in our times concerning the case of Divorce and Marriage afterwards in which it is confessed our Bishop did dislike all those Churches or Polities that were facile to allow separation in Marriage and much more Marriage after yet allowed the question was intricate and such a one as the Pharisees sought to entangle our Saviour withal and that the Church of England had doctrinally determined neither way but for practice only judg'd it better that neither party should marry again after Divorce while the other liv'd and therefore in the Canons of Queen Elizabeth Anno 97 and in 107 Canon of King James Anno 1604. required Caution by sufficient Sureties to that purpose He condemned not other Churches that allowed it otherwise but prefer'd our own Caution before them and for this he wanted not many more reasons than were wrot in a hasty Letter to a Gentleman his Neighbour and published without leave after his death together with his own Answer but it is no credit to conquer the dead says the old Proverb While living He would urge for the indissolubleness of Wedlock the Authority of Divine Institution how God was pleased to make them Male and Female and first one and then two out of one and then again two to become one by a Divine Institution saying Whom God hath once joyned let no man put asunder 2. The Dignity of Marriage which represents the mystical Union that is betwixt Christ and his Church and His Union with our humane nature both which are indissoluble and perpetual 3. The excellency of that love that one ought to bear to the other in Marriage For this cause shall a man leave his Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife therefore it is a stronger relation then between Father and Son but the Son while his Father lives can never cease to be a Son much more while the Wife lives can the Husband cease to be an Husband 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall cleave to his Wife signifying a glutinous conjunction that will sooner break any where than be parted there 4. The manner of the conjunction one flesh that is according to the Hebrew Idiom one Man which supposes the Woman to be the Body and the Man to be the Soul so that none can part these but He alone that can part Soul and Body 5. And therefore though he conceived Eve did Adam a far greater injury than when a loathed Strumpet does defile the Bed of Marriage yet God nor Adam thought of no rupture in the case but God only pronounced her future sorrow in Conception indeed Paludanus and Navar Roman Casuists maintain if one party be indangered to be drawn into mortal sin by the other it is sufficient occasion to separate and therefore probably would have cited Eve into their Courts and proceeded accordingly against her but from the beginning it was not so 6. In the New Testament he observ'd our Saviour's answer seem'd strange to his own Disciples insomuch that they replied If the case were so it were better not marry at all which shews how they understood him 7. To be sure St. Paul would not allow it in a Bishop but strictly required him to be the Husband of one Wife that is having repudiated one to take no other without exception of any case 8. He was sure he had in the New Testament six places of his side to one against him one only carrying an outward face for it Matth. 19.9 Whosoever shall put away his Wife except it be for fornication and marrieth another committeth adultery But Matth. 5. 32. Mark 10.11 Luke 16.18 all sound another way Whosoever putteth away his Wife and marrieth another committeth adultery Rom. 7.2 The Woman that hath an Husband is bound as long as her Husband lives 1 Cor. 7.10 Let not the Wife depart from her Husband and if she depart let her remain unmarried and again the 27. verse Art thou bound to a Wife seek not to be loosed he held it safer
veritas displiceat seditiosa After his Majestie 's return and restauration of the Church of England he prayed for nothing more in this World than the downfal of Mahomet and the resurrection of the Greek Empire and Church again and would say he thought in his complexion and Religion both that he was the greatest Anti-Ottoman in Europe he was extremely afflicted for poor Hungary the Antimurale or Bulwark of Christendom in the last Invasion and consequently for the horrible division of Christians through the juglings of the Papacy for which reason he could not yet foresee which way possible they should unite under one General who might be able to put an Hook into the jaws of Mahomet and repulse the Grand Signior into Arabia again or to his Scythian Cottages and therefore he never hoped for this happy time till he saw the Papacy fall first which yet he hoped should never be brought to pass by those Infidels though he was very much affected with the words of Musculus spoken above a hundred years ago Ecclesia Sancti Petri sic aedificatur Romae ut ad plenum aedificata sit nunquam citiùsque destruenda sit a Turcis quà m ad finem structurae perducenda a Romanis He took the Pope to be an ill Member of Christendom yet would have no man desire the Devil should pull him down viz. the Turk or Goths and Vandals viz. German Anabaptists and Socinians for fear the change should be for the worse the Italians were a civil people and lovers of learning the Anabaptists of Germany more ignorant and bloudy far than they From this civility of his own temper he did not much love to fix the Title of Antichrist upon the Papacy yet believed that our learned Divines Mr. Mede and Dr. More especially had with that great learning in all kinds so charg'd this crime upon Him that he admired his Champions who daily scatter books of all other matters could permit their supreme Pontife to be so slander'd if it were not true and he thought it frivolous for them to write upon other controversies before they were able to clear themselves before all the world of this Capital one and which being true concluded all other crimes in it Though a reconciliation of all Christians were desireable yet he held it impossible to be effected as long as the Doctrines of their Churches Infallibility and the Popes Supremacy were so obstinately maintain'd The Pope was now become like a Blazing-star dreadful to all Potentates and Rulers and therefore whereas his two great Friends Bishop Vsher and Mr. Mede out of Apocalyptical Principles were of opinion that there would be a general Apostacy and Dagon set upon his feet again he could not believe it For he never feared Christian Princes would be so forsaken of their own understandings and other Counsellers as to resign their own Crowns to adorn a foreign Mitre especially when both Mr. Selden and Sir Robert Cotton had told him they could shew undoubted testimonies that all the Princes in Christendom envied Henry the Eighth's Act in this kind and would gladly have imitated him if they durst But this he imputed to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or want of Magnanimity in them who would not endeavour to recover their own rights in calling Councils presenting to Churches and other Flowers of their Crowns unjustly deteined from them by the See of Rome and therefore ever prayed the Kings of England might still retein their own just Supremacy without giving up their Regalia to any foreign Jurisdiction He thought the increase of Popery ought to be strictly watched not only for the perniciousness of the Tenents of their Heterodox Religion in themselves as being in his opinion Idolatrous and favouring of Rebellion but likewise for the cruelty and sanguinary minds of Papists themselves that whereas all Protestants express a charitable respect towards the souls and bodies of all Papists abhorring all bloudy Persecutions of them on the other side Designant nos oculis ad mortem Papists ever bear bloudy minds towards us and want nothing but power and opportunity to make as many Bonfires in England as they had done formerly and whereas in their excuse some say that the many late Treasons against their Princes were but the private Acts of some particular Papists then he wondred no Pope should ever think fit to send out his Bull to declare that he abhorred them or that none of their learned men should print books licensed by authority wherein they were renounced which he would have given a great deal of money to read The Bishop was an enemy to all separation from the Church of England of whatsoever Faction or Sect But their hypocrisie he thought superlative that allowed the Doctrine and yet would separate for mislike of the Discipline these mens impudence outwent all preceding Histories and he would challenge any to shew him in all Antiquity for 1500 years where any Christian withdrew from the Churches Communion much less rose up against lawful Governors for their imposition of indifferent matters or Ceremonies though in ancient times they imposed more than we do now All that were baptized were presented in White Garments which the Priest charged them to keep white and undefiled to the Coming of the Lord and they used not only the Sign of the Cross but praegustatio mellis lactis intimating that they were now brought to the Land of Canaan flowing with Milk and Honey Standing at Prayers was required upon all Lords-days between Easter and Whitsuntide and Prayer with their hands extended after the similitude of a Cross sometimes which must needs be very tedious and so many other things in St. Austin's time that his complaint is well known Tolerabilior erat Judaeorum conditio yet no Separate Churches were then set up for these things Truth is he thought the permission of Conventicles did shew great irresolution and unsatisfaction in the Truth administred great tentation to Shopkeepers and sedentary people to be tainted with errors and novelties of which the English temper is too receptive people being generally vain and whimsically sceptical and never to be satisfied like Him in the Talmud that would alwayes be questioning why the Sun rose in the East and set in the West to whom it was answered if it should do otherwise he would still complain to know the reason But above all he held we ought to become wise by former experience for Conventicles in Corporations were the Seminaries out of which the Warriours against the King and the Church came and therefore would much admire that if any man coin'd false money it was counted Treason if any man cheated a Pupil or an Orphan he was punisht or if he spread false News he was lyable to suffer for it but if any man publish'd false Divinity to the damnation of souls or perverting the minds of people from their obedience to their Governors there was little or no regard of it Beside he
SERVE GOD AND BE CHEAREFVLL THE RIGHT RD. FATHER IN GOD IOHN HACKET L D BISHOP OF LICH AND COVENT Aged 78 Dyed 28. Oct. 1670. W. Faithorne sculp His face this Icon shewes his pious wit These Sermons would you know him further yet your selfe must dye for Reader you must looke In Heau'n for what 's not of him in this Booke A CENTURY OF SERMONS Upon Several Remarkable Subjects PREACHED BY The Right Reverend FATHER in GOD JOHN HACKET LATE LORD BISHOP OF Lichfield and Coventry Published by THOMAS PLUME D. D. LONDON Printed by Andrew Clark for Robert Scott at the Princes Arms in Little Britain MDCLXXV TO His Most Sacred MAJESTY CHARLES II. By the Grace of GOD King of Great Britain France and Ireland Most Gracious and Dread Soveraign I Here present with all Humility to Your Royal Majesty a Bundle of Holy Frankincense and Myrrh hoping that Your Majesties great Piety will please to admit It among the many Rarities of Your Closet and at times seasonable into the more sacred recesses of your Mind and Soul It was the Compound of a late Reverend and Learned Prelate exalted by your Majesty to be the Intelligence to rule the Orb of Lichfield and Coventry Who in his ordinary attendance upon your Majesty your Royal Father and Grandfather had the Honour to preach more than Eighty times at Court and in This one Volume has comprized no less than a Whole Body of Divinity wherein the Great Mysteries of our Christian Faith are clearly explained all mens Duty towards God sincerely taught your Majesties Regal Authority strongly maintained the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church by Law established learnedly Vindicated Long may your Majesty peaceably retain your rightful Jurisdiction over this Church and State Long may there be in it such Religious and Learned Prelates placed by your Majesty in Higher Spheres free from Parity and Poverty And long may your Majesty continue like the Sun not onely to Irradiate the Stars of greater Magnitude above but also in due time to cast more Lustre upon the lesser Luminaries of the Church that they may shine more bright beneath And then as your Majesty like your Blessed Saviour was attended with an Happy Star at your Birth so your Majesty shall likewise with Him be attended by a Good Angel at your Death to translate your Majesty to that Crown of glory that fadeth not away Which is the perpetual prayer of Your MAJESTIES Most humble Supplicant and Dutiful Subject THOMAS PLUME A TABLE Directing to the TEXTS of SCRIPTURE handled in the following SERMONS XV Sermons upon our Blessed Saviours Incarnation I. UPon S. Luke ii 7. And she brought forth her first born Son and wrapped him in swadling clothes and laid him in a Manger because there was no room for them in the Inn page 1 II. Vpon S. Luke ii 8. And there were in the same Country Shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their Flock by night p. 10 III. Vpon S. Luke ii 9. And lo the Angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid p. 20 IV. Vpon S. Luke ii 10. And the Angel said unto them Fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people p. 30 V. Upon the same p. 40 VI. Vpon S. Luke ii 11. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord p. 50 VII Vpon S. Luke ii 13 14. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly Hoste praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will towards men p. 60 VIII Upon the same p. 70 IX Vpon S. Luke xi 27 28. A certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said unto him Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps which thou hast sucked But he said Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it p. 79 X. Vpon S. Luke ii 29 30. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation p. 88 XI Vpon S. Luke i. 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people p. 98 XII Vpon S. Luke i. 69. And hath raised up an horn of Salvation for us in the house of his servant David p. 109 XIII Vpon S. Matth. ii 1 2. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the dayes of Herod the King behold there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem Saying where is he that is born King of the Jews for we have seen his Star in the East and are come to worship him p. 118 XIV Upon the same p. 127 XV. Upon the same p. 136 VI Sermons upon the Baptism of our Saviour I. Vpon S. Matth. iii. 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him p. 147 II. Vpon S. Matth. iii. 14. But John forbad him saying I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me p. 157 III. Vpon S. Matth. iii. 14 15. And comest thou to me And Jesus answering said unto him Suffer it to be so now For thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness p. 166 IV. Vpon S. Matth. iii. 15 16. Then he suffered him And Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water p. 175 V. Vpon S. Matth. iii. 16. And loe the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him p. 184 VI. Vpon S. Matth. iii. 17. And loe a voice from heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased p. 193 XXI Sermons upon the Tentation of our Saviour I. Vpon S. Matth. iv 1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil p. 205 II. Upon the same p. 214 III. Upon the same p. 224 IV. Vpon S. Matth. iv 1 2. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil And when he had fasted forty dayes and forty nights he was afterwards an hungry p. 234 V. Upon the same p. 244 VI. Vpon S. Matth. iv 3. And when the Tempter came to him he said If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread p. 254 VII Upon the same p. 263 VIII Upon the same p. 273 IX Vpon S. Matth. iv 4. But he answered and said it is written Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God p. 282 X. Vpon S. Matth. iv 5. Then the Devil taketh him up into the holy City and setteth him on a pinacle of the Temple p. 292 XI Vpon S. Matth. iv 6. And saith unto him If thou be Son of God cast thy self down For it is written He shall give his
And though I am likely to do all this with very small Acumen and judgment yet I hope with true zeal and sincere affection to the glory of God and honour of the Church of England The Members of which Church have been reputed of all others the slackest to celebrate their own Worthies partly I conceive from the humility and modesty of their Principles and Education partly from the great multitude of incomparable Scholars therein to be commemorated that such labours would be almost infinite For which reason the Dypticks of the Ancient Church were likewise laid aside when Religion was setled and Christians grew numerous But yet if the Divines of the Church of England lived elsewhere we may well conjecture what Books the World should have had of their learning and piety For who sees not the many Volumes of Lives daily published by others wherein ample Commendations are given to idleness popularity and very ordinary deservings After an impartial reading thereof I cannot but think that our Own Church has far better Subjects and matter to write upon if we that survive wanted not ability or affection to maintain our own Cause and publish the Merits of our departed Worthies to the World Therefore out of Emulation partly and shame from a foolish Nation as St. Paul says but much more out of a profound sense of the Duty I owe to the Memory of this renowned Prelate and most of all out of hope of stimulating posterity to the imitation of the vertues of better times I have taken care to give the World this Account of our Author and not to permit his Books to be buried as it were in the Grave with his Body mortal and immortal to descend together into the same Land of oblivion Though it be no real Prerogative but an accidental and contingent thing How we are born after the flesh yet it is commendable to search into the Beginning and Causes of such things as we would throughly know and therefore the Extract and Parentage of learned and great men is usually enquired after in the first place John Hacket was born in the Parish of St. Martins in the Strand near Exeter House upon September 1. Anno Domini 1592. in the happy Reign of Queen Elizabeth of honest and virtuous Parents and of good reputation in that place his Father being then a Senior Burgess of Westminster and afterwards belonging to the Robes of Prince Henry descended from an antient Family in Scotland which reteins the Name to this day His Father and Mother were both true Protestants great lovers of the Church of England constant repairers to the Divine Prayers and Service thereof and would often bewail to their young Son after the coming in of their Countrymen with King James the seed of Fanaticism then laid in the scandalous neglect of the Publick Liturgy which all the Queens time was exceedingly frequented the people then resorting as devoutly to Prayers as they would afterwards to hear any famous Preacher about the Town And his aged Parents often observed to him that Religion towards God justice and love amongst Neighbours gradually declined with the disuse of our Publick Prayer In our Bishops opinion Parentage alone added little to any man no more than if we should commend the Stock of a Tree when we cannot commend the Fruit Mirari in trunco quod in fructu non teneas who held that the glory of our Forefathers reflected upon us was but Color intentionalis like the sparkling colour of wine upon fair Linnen or as the Sea-green and Purple in the Rainbow which are not real colours but meer shadows and reflections And that never was Pedegree so well set out as that of Noah These are the Generations of Noah Noah was a just man c. And in like manner our Blessed Saviour commends his Forerunner John Baptist not so much for his Honourable Descent and Miraculous Conception as for his pious and laborious Ministry in turning many to Righteousness This was agreeable to our Bishop's mind in comparison whereof he little valued all other Titles of Honour But in his discourse he would often give God thanks for the place he was born in viz. that he was born an Englishman and especially in the City of London He was indeed a great lover of his own Nation little England as he would term it the sweetest spot of all the Earth and say that the City of London was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very England of England Vrbs Vrbium and wish the Country were a little more sprinkled with her Flour for in his Travels he had discerned in places remote a Northern rigour and churlishness among our Villagers wanting that Southern sleekness that was usually found in Cities and great Towns the Metropolis especially And though there is no place but has in some Age been enlightned with some famous Luminary The Prophet Jonas was born in Galilee out of which said the Pharisees there arises no Prophet Yet withal it was observed in Scythia there was never born but one Philosopher but in Athens all were such So in all parts of England there have been learned men born but in London innumerable and therefore once in a pleasant discourse between Him and a learned Friend who were reckoning up the Country where many Scholars were born and could not presently tell what Countryman Mr. L. was the Bishop merrily said As the Rabbins believed when ever any great Prophet was named in Scripture and the place of his Birth not named that it was in Jerusalem so he would take it for granted by the like parity of reason since Mr. L's Country was unknown he must needs be born in London Yet in his judgment it was but a small lustre likewise that the Place where any Man was Teem'd could cast upon him but he ought rather to give Lustre to it for Places did not conciliate Honour to Men but Men to Places and that little Hippo was more ennobled by great St. Austin than great St. Austin by little Hippo. And therefore he never rejoyced so much for the City or Country wherein he was born as for the Churches sake wherein he was baptized and born again which of all others to his dying day he most loved and admired and accordingly he would often render hearty thanks to God that his Birth and Breeding was in a Reformed Church and of all others the most prudent and exact according to the Doctrine of holy Scripture and the Primitive Pattern that would neither continue in the Fulsom Superstitions of the Roman Church nor in Reforming be born down with the violent Torrent as some others were But from these lesser Circumstances of his Birth let us therefore proceed to those of his Education and Breeding which are far greater and do especially make the difference between one man and another For whereas all by Nature are born alike of the same corrupt Materials Education only like the Hand or Wheel of
in the beauty of holiness few or none would break the publick Order and decent Customs of his Church but the whole Congregation generally rose and sate fell down or kneel'd and were uncovered together He liked Ceremony no where so well as in Gods House as little as you would in your own was his phrase but could by no means endure to see in this Complemental Age men ruder with God than with Men bow lowly and often to one another but never kneel to God He thought Superstition a less sin than Irreverence and Profaneness and held the want of Reverence in Religious Assemblies amongst the greatest sins of England and would prove it from many Histories that a careless and profane discharge of Gods Worship was a most sure Prognostick of Gods anger and that Peoples ruin When a Stranger Preached for him upon a Sunday he would often read the Prayers himself and with that reverence and devotion that was very moving to all his Auditors And upon Wednesdays and Fridays he would frequently do the like and thereby engaged many to resort better to them always assuring them God would soonest hear our Prayers in the Communion of Saints Sometimes when he had occasion to go into the City and saw slender Congregations at Prayer he would much wonder at his Countrymen that had so little love to holy Prayer but when he heard of any that would not go to Church to Prayer unless it were accompanied with a Sermon he would nor scruple to say he scarce thought them Christians and never deemed any Divine to be really famous and successful in his Preaching who could not prevail with his People to come frequently to Sacraments and Prayers He was a great lover of Psalmody and above all a great admirer of Davids Psalms so full of Divine Praises and of all Religious Mysteries great helps to Contemplation apt to beget a Divine Charity being a perfect supply for all our wants joyful to Angels grievous to Devils filling the heart with spiritual delights and a kind of representation of the Celestial felicity That he constantly call'd upon his People to be present at them and at all parts of the Churches Prayers remembring them that after our Blessed Saviour had cast our the Sheep and Oxen yet he still called His House the House of Prayer to shew that though those Sacrifices were at an end yet this should never end and therefore the Apostles themselves after his death resorted to the Temple at the Hours of Prayer He ever took great care to procure a grave and able Curate a Master of Arts at least for the instruction of the younger sort in the Church Catechism Visiting of the Sick Burial of the Dead Preaching of Funeral Sermons Christnings and Marriages These he generally left to the Curate for his Perquisits and better encouragement and would often complain that in great Parishes there was not competent maintenance to keep many Curats under the Parish Priest that might be able to live at the Altar and better discharge all private and domestick duties of piety sorrowing that herein Popish Countries were better provided for who had ten for one that wait at the Altar there more than we have among us and therefore though he would much recommend daily visiting of the Flock from house to house yet found it was impossible for one Minister to perform the Publick and Private Duties both Private Baptisms he would never countenance unless in Cases of necessity or some great convenience as being expresly contrary to the Constitutions of our Church and greatly derogatory to the dignity of the Sacrament to be dispensed in a Parlour or a Chamber and not with that Solemnity that our initiation into Gods Church required and therefore greatly commended the Lutherans who baptized none at home but the sick and the spurious Funeral Sermons though he rarely preached himself yet he defended them to be no Novelty brought in with the Reformation for John Fisher Bishop of Rochester hath one in Print for Henry the Seventh and in Edward the Sixth his time an Herse was set up in St. Pauls Church for King Francis the First of France and a Funeral Sermon likewise preached for him by Dr. Ridly Bishop of Rochester While he lived in this Parish he would give God thanks he got a good Temporal Estate Parishioners of all sorts were very kind and free to him divers Lords and Gentlemen several Judges and Lawyers of eminent quality were his constant Auditors whom he found like Zenas honest Lawyers conscientious to God and lovers of the Church of England and very friendly and bountiful to their Minister Sir Julius Caesar never heard him preach but he would send him a broad Piece and he did the like to others and he would often send a Dean or a Bishop a pair of Gloves because he would not hear Gods Word gratis Judge Jones never went to the Bench at the beginning of a Term but he fasted and prayed the day before and oftentimes got Dr. Hacket to come and pray with him This strict Judge condemned one for stealing a Common-Prayer Book out of his Church whom he could not save the Judge would by no means forgive him because of the sacredness of the place but accepted well of his Intercession and said he should prevail in another matter and when the Doctor saw he could not succeed he thanked the Judge for his severity Anno 1631 the Bishop of Lincoln made him Archdeacon of Bedford whither he ever after went once a year commonly the Week after Easter and made the Clergy a Speech upon some Controversial Head seasonable to those Times exhorting them to keep strictly to the Orders of the Church to all regular conformity to the Doctrine and Discipline by Law established without under or over doing asserting in his opinion that Puritanism lay on both sides whosoever did more than the Church commanded as well as less were guilty of it And that he only was a true Son of the Church that broke not the boundals of it either way About this time of King Charles the First 's Reign it was justly said Stupor mundi Clerus Anglicanus and whereas in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reformation Siquis's had been set up in St. Pauls If any man could understand Greek there was a Deanry for him if Latine a good Living but in the long Reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James the Clergy of the Reformed Church of England grew the most learned of the World for by the restlessnes of the Roman Priests they were trained up to Arms from their youth and by the Wisdom and Example of King James had wrote so many learned Tractates as had almost quite driven their Adversaries out of the Pit and forced them to yield the Field So that now we were only unhappy in our own differences at home But above all the Bishop admired that People should complain in those days for want of Preaching wherein lived
a scandalous Minister had confiscated his own authority of reprehending that in others which he was guilty of himself and that the Doctrin and Discipline of our Church could never have been so contemptible but for their sakes who with their ill lives and manners made all the threatnings of holy Scripture which they preached and all the Censures of the Church which they passed or denounced ridiculous and insignificant yet withal his Lordship ever gave the people warning not to despise the chastening of their Mother for no man can lightly esteem the power of the Keys upon earth and yet be well prepared in heart to receive the judgment of God in the World to come For better amendment of whatsoever was amiss his Lordship would like St. Austin and other antient Bishops frequently sit Judg in his Ecclesiastical Courts and hasten the dispatch of all Affairs and especially if there were any thing that concerned his Clergie would always be present at the hearing of those Causes that neither his Clergie nor any by them might be wronged when he went not in person to the Court he gave ready access at his own House to all who came to complain even the meanest people who were grieved with long and tedious Suits and after hearing what they could say would sometimes send for the Chancellour and Proctors on both sides and what he could not redress at home he would oftentimes go to Court and end there throwing out many Causes that had been long depending for trivial matters and would not suffer any Causes to be entred for defamatory words or trifles without his own knowledg first to the end they might be composed without much vexation to the parties by this means his Lordship created to himself much trouble which he valued not for the great good he did by it and though less profit came to the Officers of the Court yet were they also contented believing God would better bless them for taking onely those Fees which so conscientious a Judge was willing to allow After Ordination he seldom dismissed any whom he ordain'd without rare counsel To remember they were Ordain'd to Cures not to Sine Cures the Cure of Souls the greatest of all others and wish them every day to think of the invaluable dignity and seriousness thereof and therefore in all their Preachings to avoid lightness Quia Nugae in ore Sacerdotum sunt blasphemiae as likewise all ridiculous gestures and loud vociferations empty affectation of words and phrases without weighty and ponderous sense and significancy accounting that elegant words without solid matter were but perfum'd Nonsense and that there was infinite difference between plainness and rudeness They had a duty to discharge both to the wise and unwise and therefore must take care that the learned Auditor might still learn somewhat and the unlearned Auditor might understand not only some but all His charge was that in every thing we should retain this great Principle to offer to God the very Best we have whosoever builds God an House let them build it better than their own the Ornaments thereof should be fairer than our own our Sermons there superiour to our ordinary discourses or labours in any other kind arising not from extemporary sawciness but our studied and best industry and therefore ever warned them as St. Paul did Timothy though he had the gift of Prophecying still to attend to reading as Preaching and remember St. Paul himself would not preach without Books and therefore caused them to be brought after him in all his Travels and sometimes preached the same thing the next Sabbath-day and therefore probably kept Notes He conceived it small commendations to any to pour out faster than they took in and that indiligent and over-frequent Preaching beyond the Preacher's parts or what the people 's needs required was no advantage to learning or piety especially in the obvious way of Preaching altogether by Doctrin Reason and Vse which of all Expositors of Scripture Musculus first took up and was one great means to lay the Pulpit open to the prophanations of the late times such Preaching being oftentimes so poor and easie that every Justice of Peace his Clerk thought he could perform as well as his Minister whereas a good Preacher had need be skill'd in the whole Encyclopedy of Arts and Sciences Logick to divide the Word aright Rhetorick to perswade School Divinity to convince Gainsayers knowledge of many Tongues to understand Originals and learned Authors and above all he would recommend St. Hierom's counsel Discamus in Terris quorum scientia nobis perseverabit in Coelis for otherwise all kind of learning in a Minister without good Example and innocency of life was but a jewel of gold in a Swine's snout This was his constant advice to his Clergie at Ordinations and Visitations which he duly held every third year Visitation of Churches he would maintain was no Filia noctis started up in a night of darkness and Popery but an Apostolical Institution and practised afterwards by all the Primitive Fathers and Bishops Herein his Lordship would oftentimes be the Preacher himself so that in his first Visitation Anno 1665. in his Progress in Shropshire and at Stafford from the last of May to the fifteenth of June he preached eight times in the compass of those few dayes at Bridgnorth Salop Elsmere Wem Whitchurch Drayton Hodnet and Stafford and confirmed above five thousand persons whom he required not to be tumultuarily presented but with the preexamination of their several Ministers and was in all places most joyfully received So that when he put on his Episcopal Robes he put not off his Ministerial Labours no man had reason to say his Majesty by making him Bishop had spoiled a good Preacher as it was said of Frier Giles that the Pope had marr'd a painful Clerk by making him a powerful Cardinal nor was he like Julius the third of whom the Historian complains that he had been formerly a diligent man but when he came to the Popedom never minded his Study or the Affairs of the Church more Our Bishop on the other side professed he found as many cares in his Bishops Rochet as he believed Antigonus did in his Royal Purple and if it were not for the glory of God and good of his Church had rather throw it away than hang it about his shoulders St. Paul very well understood his Office when he called it a good work not to be discharged without painful study often preaching daily hearing and determining Cases of Conscience judging in Causes Ecclesiastical repairing or building of Churches These and so many other things beside he found to do at home that all absence seemed tedious and intolerable to him abroad so that he never slept out of his Bishoprick in many years nor was willingly absent from his Flock but upon extraordinary occasions as in Parliament c. and then would often request my Lord Chamberlain
for the Function What you will say was not Christ first published by poor lay Shepherds and afterward preached unto the world by Fisher-men and then his Resurrection testified by Mary Magdalen and other Women why do we debar them of that now which Christ vouchsaf'd them before I answer Relation is one thing Revelation is another to teach a Doctrine is one thing to testifie an act is another if Christ be born if he be risen again to declare this fact and story honest plain dealing Shepherds and silly Women were fittest instruments and most unlikely to deceive but in matters of Revelation yea or in matter of Doctrine it is otherwise Moses was a Shepherd but never undertook to teach Israel until God mark'd him out for the business and inspired him David was a Shepherd but undertook not to teach divine Psalms and instruct the Church until God instructed him The Apostles were Fishermen but never made the Doctors of the world until the Spirit lighted on them And they that can shew either lawful calling or revelation that the Spirit hath pointed them out let them prosper in the work that they undertake otherwise I must say for the instance of these Shepherds in my Text that they were but faithful relators and witnesses of what they had heard and seen but not Ministers of the Gospel of Christ Of their personality thus far now of their plurality that they were Pastores Shepherds in the Plural at least more than one As some Fathers compute the number of the Wisemen that came out of the East that they were three neither more nor less because three gifts were presented to the Child in his Cradle Gold Myrrhe and Frankincense so these audacious Textmen are bold to say that there were three Shepherds to whom the Angel came neither more nor less and what conjecture moves them to this opinion but because that heavenly Carol which was sung this day from above consists of three parts Glory to God Peace on Earth Good will towards men but whether two or whether twenty it is known only to the Holy Ghost This we read and no more Pastores in eadem regione they were Shepherds in the same Countrey It is a point of care indeed very circumspectly observed in the birth of Kings to have witnesses of good credit and report in the place Ne quis falsus pro vero Rege supponatur lest a supposititious Child should be jugled in for the Heir of the Crown So Shepherds were called to come to the place where they should find Mary and the Babe that the testimony of good men without exception might stand firm against all those that should oppose it And what testimony could be more valid and strong in every part let the Jews cavil as they will they which talk of that which is done afar off may easily be mistaken but these came from the nearest parts to Bethlehem even in the same Country 2. Active and experienced men are more dangerous to trust but the Education of Shepherds is without guile or devices 3. Do not tax their report that it was a sleepy apparition or a dream for my Text avoucheth they were watching over their flocks 4. Lest all the credit of the tidings should lean upon one mans voice Pastores many Shepherds and many Tongues would bear record that they saw in the City of David a Saviour which was Christ the Lord. Now began the Vine that is the Church to stretch forth her branches and all the Husbandmen that could be hir'd were called to labour in the Vineyard the time was when one single Dove returned into the Ark. One David sate alone like a Sparrow upon the house top One Elias that was zealous for the Lord wandred solitary by himself in the Wilderness now they did increase into troops and into multitudes Many wise men drew to Bethlehem to adore the Lord many Shepherds to visit him Peter and Andrew Philip and Nathanael James and John were called together the Church brought forth no less than twins at once to shew her fruitfulness a true sign that they belonged to the Land of Canaan when they hang together full and thick like the Grapes of Eschol in their clusters A lesson for them that affect singularity and think they are in tune when they sing discord flat against all the world He that is one by himself is little better than one beside himself and hath no more cause to boast then a Leper had who dwelt alone and was cast out of the Congregation of Israel Esto gutta in imbre grandinis make a drop in a shower that poures down from Heaven Christ accepts not of the testimony of one alone but of many Vni testi ne Catoni quidem standum a shaft divided from the Quiver may be knapt in sunder when it is in the bundel it is not easily broken I have done with their pluralities now I come to the two last circumstances concerning their office and diligence they watcht that 's not all but they watcht over their flocks that is the sum of all There are two sorts of persons noted for finding out Christ more eminently than others the Shepherds before all others after he was born and Mary Magdalen the first of all men and women as far as we read after his Resurrection The Shepherds were vouchsafed their blessing because they watcht by night Vigilaverunt multum a hard task if you consider the time of the year and Mary was so prosperous because she rose very early in the morning to seek her Lord Vigilavit multum It is hard to say whether ever she slept one wink for care and grief since the Passion of our Saviour and God knows who shall be the first that finds him at his second coming in Glory when he shall come also like a thief in the night but whosoever he be this I am sure of Vigilabit multum he must be none of them that sleep in gluttony that are heavy with surfeiting and drunkenness with chambering and wantonness he must watch or be fit to waken to find the Lord. The enemies of our soul are mighty and many in number our temptations steal upon us as closely as they that come to rob in a mist or in the dark of the night David you know chid with Abner because he watcht no better about Saul his Master The thing is not good that thou hast done as the Lord liveth you are worthy to die because you have not kept your Master the Lords anointed So shall we be rebuk'd if we do not set watch and guard about our soul we deserve to die because we neglected to sence our soul from the incursion of those evil thoughts that will destroy it Slothfulness and idleness are all one as if you took your ease and slept upon your bed it is Vigilantia somno similima a kind of watching that is no better than if you snorted like a sluggard He that will not waken
and a tooth for a tooth but the Gospel exhibiteth patience for wrongs received and benediction for injuries And indeed the charity of the Law was but partial as I may say it admonisheth fairly Levit. xix 18. Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self But this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or forgetting of all evil done unto them extended only to Israelites which was not the full and large duty but an epitome of Charity If aliens from their own stock had provok'd them though many years before there 's another lesson for it Deut. xxv 17. Remember what Amaleck did unto thee by the way when ye were come forth out of Egypt Such fruit grows upon the bramble of the Law not upon the Olive tree of the Gospel God forbid that we should keep a Register what Moab or Amaleck or what any adversary hath done unto us the peace which the Angels proclaimed forbids that after the beginning of the new year we should remember the enmities or discords that were occasion'd in the old whosoever nourishes old grudges and contentions when the heavens sing peace gives the lye unto the Angels Let your ear receive this with it that all other practises of Religion having not peace and perfect amity among them are but forms of godliness which deny the power thereof This is not far off to be proved but within the verge of the Text for it will not be regarded that you give glory to God on high if there be not peace below you must leave your gift upon the Altar your glory to God and go home for peace go and be reconciled to your brother and then you are a fit instrument to give God his honour Some are always wrangling for the glory of God as they pretend and care not which way peace goes on earth Every theological conclusion I say not Articles of Faith but disputable deductions not near the foundation of Faith must be maintain'd precisely as they apprehend it or they cry out that truth is violated further than can be endured Every ceremonial observation must be either taken off or discharg'd punctually as they score a line or else they contend bitterly that Gods Worship is abused All this while two things are quite forgotten First that there is a compass and latitude for mens wits and judgments to be diverse one from another and yet no unity to be broken All points touch not to the quick and in such things because every mans reason hath not the same kind of reach and notion there may be much variety of opinions without all dissention Secondly few lay it to their thoughts that to meet in agreement as far as possibly the conservation of truth will permit is far more acceptable to God than an inflexible pertinacy which is rather rigorous than pacificous There was much ado to settle the pure Doctrine of the Church in the first four hundred years but nothing avail'd more than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Fathers call it a condescending one to another making moderation the umpire of all strifes By these calm degrees God was more glorified among the Gentiles that were unconverted who perceived how the Christians kept the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace than if they had wrangled about every nicety and prosecuted every disagreement to an utter separation Peace on earth is a ready means that glory in the highest may not be scandalized And after all this that hath been said certainly the Angels meaning extends it self thus much further that the Child which was born in Bethlehem the Messias of the world would direct them in a way if men would be diligent to observe it that there should be no bloody Wars of seditious Princes in all the earth no Armies clattering together no rouling in blood it is his property to break the bow and knap the Spears in sunder and to burn the Chariots in the fire and it makes much that this is votum militare peace on earth comes from the mouth of Souldiers the Angels were arrayed like an host in battail when they preacht it as if military men could best tell the world what a blessed thing it is to have cessation from Wars and sweet agreement Our neighbour Kingdoms know the true rellish of this Doctrine who live in continual alarms losses destructions desolations alas their vintage is become not the blood of grapes but of men O 't is a most savage a very bruitish affection in them that are sick of the long continuance of peace and wish that Leagues and Truces were expired They are of another mind I warrant you that have felt the unutterable miseries of War for the space of fifteen years and more in their flourishing Empire without pause or respiration He that could certainly pronounce before them that they should enjoy the liberty of their conscience and no hostility should invade them they would receive him with as much gladness as the Shepherd heard the Angel say Glory he to God in the highest and on earth peace But the objection is ready to be cast in my way by every man I would it were not that all the divine inspirations of God have ensued plentifully upon Christs coming into the world but nothing less than peace Persecutions Massacres Contentions irreconcilable Wars these have entred in wheresoever the Gospel hath been taught and Jesus denied it not but said unto the twelve Think not that I come to send peace into the world I come not to send peace but a sword Mat. x. 34. Beloved opposition and war are not the right fruits of the Gospel no more than Ivy is the fruit of the Oak tree though it creep upon it But pre-supposing the malice and corruption of men the tidings of salvation though they exhort unto peace yet they will beget division for Satan reigns in the wicked and it makes him rage to hear celestial Doctrine preacht and that impiety which was asleep befere is roused up with the noise of the Gospel and grows tumultuous this is consequentiae necessitas non consequentis an accidental misfortune not a proper effect Yet very true that none is a greater adversary than our Saviour to some sorts of peace Pax Christi bellum indicit mundo voluptati carni demoni says Beda upon my Text The peace of Christ breaks the confederacy which sinners have in evil it defies the Devil and the vain pomp of the world it draws the sword against blasphemy and Idolatry it will not let a man be at quiet within himself when he is full of vicious concupiscence To make a Covenant with Hell as the Prophet speaks or to have any fellowship with the works of darkness as St. Paul speaks Illa mala pax est indigna hominibus bonae voluntatis that 's a pernicious peace and unworthy of those to whom that blessing belongs good will towards men
volume of thy book it is written of me that I should fulfill thy Law then said I loe I come 2. He fulfilled the Moral Law not only by giving it the right interpretation but by exact obedience whereupon he said Which of you can accuse me of sin 3. He gave life to the Ceremonies pointing to their true meaning as instead of the Circumcision of the flesh exhorting to the Circumcision of the heart 4. Whereas the judicial Law of the Jews did mention temporary and corporeal rewards and punishments Christ changed that stile of speech into spiritual and eternal No doubt but Christ did fulfil all righteousness for he came not to do his own will but the will of his Father his justice was multiformous in all the actions of his life from his Cratch to his Cross yet my Text says that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus by receiving Baptism by that one act fulfil all righteousness I know not one bad interpretation upon that Point which is rare among Expositors to be so divers in their judgments and yet all allowable One says it is meant quoad inchoationem justitiae that so it behoved him to begin the course of righteousness That was but one act of his humility but the first wherein he did manifest obedience So Baptism is the first step that we make into the Church of Christ therefore because light was the first thing that God made among his visible Creatures and Baptism is the first of his spiritual graces it hath ever been called in the Greek Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the illumination of a Christian it is the day of inauguration when we first claim right unto our title of the Kingdom because we are adopted the Sons of God Surely the ordinary gloss conceits the words otherwise but very profitably Righteousness is either Legal which consists in an exact obedience to all the Commandments of God Or else Evangelical which knows Salvation is not attained unto by the works of the Law but thus Repent and believe and thou shalt obtain remission of sins therefore Christ speaking in the person of us who are his members says to John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus must we fulfil all righteousness by calling upon men to repent and be baptized in the true faith and their sins shall be covered and blessed is that man or righteous is that man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin This was the Doctrine taught in the Church every where three hundred years past and more Omnis justitia impletur ex gratiâ All our righteousness is fulfilled through grace and not through works Ut nullus ex operibus neque ex arbitrio glorietur they are the words of the gloss to the end that none may boast of works or in the power of his own free will but acknowledge himself guilty of damnation and obnoxious to the dreadful justice of God let us fly to that grace which freely washeth away our sins Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness Chemnitius makes this apprehension of the Text. Christ did omit no means to reconcile us to his Father that we might be justified before him and this he brought to pass two principal ways 1. When he gave himself an Oblation upon the Cross to take away our sins 2. When he did institute the means and instruments to apply that meritorious satisfaction unto us on this wise therefore he did fulfil righteousness by sanctifying the Sacrament unto us which is the especial medium to apply the righteousness of faith to every one that shall be saved Another and the last sense of this word that likes me also consists in these terms By receiving this Sacrament of Baptism we are tied as far as we are able to fulfil all righteousness It behoveth them that profess the true Faith to keep themselves undefiled from the world and to be holy unto the Lord. As Rachel cried out to Jacob Give me children or else I die so a sincere faith cries out unto the conscience Let me bring forth good works or else I shall be a dying faith and altogether unprofitable Do we make void the Law through faith Says St. Paul God forbid yea we establish the Law Rom. iii. 31. So it appears how righteousness buds forth from Baptism our conscience being watred with the heavenly dew of that Sacrament it makes us fruitful with good works Sed in istôc nequaquam sunt omnia will some man say Will that serve instead of all righteousness For our Saviour saith Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness God gave the word great was the company of Interpreters and his Spirit is in them all You shall hear the several consolations which they pick out from hence 1. To be a perfect teacher and a perfect doer of Gods will these are Tabor and Hermon the two fruitful hills upon which the blessing of the Lord descends To be a Teacher and not to do well is very bad like Hophni and Phinehas those dissolute Priests who polluted the holy Sacrifice To do well and not to teach is laudable and good but it is not excellent for to be an instructer and a doer is a degree of perfection beyond it Omne tulit punctum it is more blessed to give instruction than to receive therefore our Saviour was abundant in both Praeivit in exemplo quod verbo docuit He did lead the way of obedience by example and afterward did preach it to the people Blessed is he therefore that is not only a teacher but a doer of the word this is to fulfil all righteousness 2. Suum cuique there are but three heads from whence all justice is distributed and they may be drawn out of this Baptism for by receiving Baptism we are obedient to the institution of God we provide a salutiferous medicine for our own soul and by letting our light shine before men we do edifie our brother But to render that which is due to God to our own soul to our brother is to be perfect in every line of justice therefore in the universality Christ might say thus he did fulfil all righteousness 3. Says St. Austin Quid est impleatur omnis justitia Impleatur omnis humilitas The Son of God had this meaning how he fulfilled all righteousness because he condescended to the lowest step of humility for there are these three fallings as I may say one lower than another To be subject to a Superiour and not to prefer himself before an equal is justitia sufficiens sufficient humility and no want To be subject to an equal and not to prefer himself before an inferiour is justitia abundans that is not only justice enough but large and abundant humility but to be subject to an inferiour yea the most mighty God to be subject in Baptism to his Creature this is justitia perfectissima most perfect lowliness none can submit it self more and thus indeed to make the pride of base man to blush who
answers it better fight single against Satan one to one in the Wilderness than fight against Satan and wicked men who will entice you to sin as fast as Satan Therefore let them take out my Lesson and eschew the frequent Societies of populous places who find the Contagion of pestilent multitudes rub some rust upon them and infect their integrity It is not the place but the corruptions of the place which the meditations of the Fathers gathered out of my Text do lead you to abandon therefore the words of our Saviour shall stand in the last place to shut up this Point Joh. xvii 15. I pray not that thou shouldst take them that is the Disciples out of the world but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil So much for the circumstance of the place My Sermon thus far hath been upon the Wilderness against the handling of the next Point it is fit to ask What went we forth into the Wilderness to see Why to behold Christ fasting before he fought with the Devil Though that is not all he did there for there is much more behind yet this is enough to make it worth our labour Esurivit panis sicut defecit via sicut vulnerata est sanitas sicut mortua est vita says St. Austin By the same wonderful dispensation that the way of life was weary health it self was wounded life it self died by the same dispensation the bread of life fasted and was afterwards an hungry A sanctified fast hath two religious ends in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul says 1. To chastise our own body and to take revenge upon it 2. To put it into a good temperature for the minds sake Neither of these causes could be set before Christ in this long fast for his Flesh had never rebelled against the Spirit neither was there any inordinateness in his natural constitution which could be corrected by temperance Some therefore hold an opinion that Christ went not into the Wilderness to fast that fell out so indeed and was a necessary accessory because there was no food to be had You know the people ran after Christ into these spacious fields to hear Christ preach and not to fast with him yet there they continued three days fasting and had nothing to eat until four thousands were fed miraculously with five loaves and two fishes In like manner Moses went not up into the Mount to fast but to receive the Tables and truly this opinion is not to be contemned for St. Mark remembers that he was in the Wilderness tempted of Satan and quite omits his fasting This is prest the more zealously by some and with sufficient probability to shew upon what weak foundation they build who fetch it from hence that Christ observed the fast of forty days on purpose to constitute a yearly Lent in the Church for ever or a Quadragesimal fast for if it were by accident that Christ fasted here that can be no constitution of his intendment Nor indeed did he appoint any such thing as I will shew in just time Yet I concur not in the main sentence with those Authors for it seems to me this was purposed by Christ to go into the Desart and spend his time in Prayer and Fasting Now was the conflict at hand now was the first institution and undertaking of the greatest matter in the world the salvation of mankind and could not begin with a better Praeludium than an extraordinary Fast In this I will be directed by the interlineal gloss Jejunat ut tentetur tentatur quia jejunat He did fast that he might provoke tentations against himself and he did provoke tentations because he fasted For the better explication of the causes why he was pleased to fast I will lay down the distinction of Christs will as I find it considered in the School three ways Sicut ratio est unibilis corpori sicut est omnino conformis Deitati ratione membrorum 1. The soul is united to the body and for that union sake the will desireth the good of the whole man 2. God and man were united in Christ into one person therefore his will was subject in all things to the divine Law and pleasure 3. He was the head of the body which is the Church and therefore his will did graciously affect the prosperity of his members In these three respects there are so many causes of moment why Jesus fasted 1. Because it is profitable to conserve the whole man against tentations 2. It was the divine pleasure to provoke the Devil to give the onset by macerating and enfeebling his body and Satans foil was the greater because he was the challenger 3. He had regard unto his members to avenge himself on the Tempter by the victory of temperance who brought sin into the world through our first Parents by the sin of Gluttony Other causes I leave behind for refutation First I say it gives us a lesson to fast and withdraw the ordinary sustenance from the body when we perceive our selves in likelihood to encounter some temptation King Jehosaphat had a great battle to fight with the Ammonites and before the conflict he set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a Fast throughout all Judah 2 Chron. xx 3. So did Esther when she undertook the great danger to go in to Ahasuerus against the Law to intercede for the deliverance of the whole Nation of the Jews she would not venture upon so great a peril unless all the Jews would fast three whole days before the Lord and neither eat nor drink Est iv 16. What should I say more out of many examples Ezra suspecting what great opposition he should find to re-edifie the Temple of the Lord he proclaimed a Fast that all the People might afflict themselves before God Ezra viii 21. And St. Basil a great Practiser of this doctrine as any was in the world which is better than a Teacher bid all his Scholars take it upon his word that Sobriety was the best Antidote in the world to expel the venom of the Devil This holy Father was so good a spiritual Physician that the Church had not a better since his time I think to prescribe a good diet for the soul Adam went out of Paradise with a full stomack poor Lazarus went fasting to heaven scarce fraught with the crums of the rich mans Table Moses did fast upon Sinah for forty days when he talked with God But the People who in the mean time did commit Idolatry sate down to eat and to drink and rose up to play Daniel refused the meat and drink allowed him from the Kings Table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to honour his temperance and fasting the very Lions into whose Den he was cast were taught to fast and hunger and not to eat up Daniel who was thrown before them to be a prey unto their teeth Thus far he If you ask me wherein we honour God in what part it
laugh with them that are merry but to make them voluptuous and exceed fly as low as you will and as high as you will Which alteration you shall find between that tentation which is past already and that which is now begun Then the Devil taketh him up into the holy City and setteth him on a Pinacle of the Temple In which words are to be noted four things Ordo Modus Locus communis Locus proprius First The order of these tentations that this is the immediate and next tentation to the former for then the Devil took him Secondly The manner is by assumption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he took him up 3. The more common place to which he took him it was to the holy City Jerusalem 4. Here is the peculiar and proper place he setteth him on a Pinacle of the Temple These are the parts of that Argument which at this time lies before us Now this is the reason why I make the order of these tentations one and the first part of the Text at this time because St. Luke puts this tentation in the last part which St. Matthew accounts the second and this which St. Matthew reckons for the second St. Luke refers it last For after Christ had refused the motion to make bread of stones it follows according to St. Luke The Devil took him up into an high Mountain and shewed him all the Kingdoms of the world in a moment of time but our Evangelist gives his Narration the accent of time Tunc assumpsit then he took him up into the holy City Because therefore St. Matthew shews the Connexion of order it is believed generally that he hath the perfect consequence of the story One says that in some old Copies of the Greeks St. Luke concurs passage by passage with St. Matthew Jansenius a learned Author it seems had found some such thing and I believe so had St. Ambrose for whereas he wrote Commentaries purposely upon St. Luke yet he keeps no other order but the self-same which is found in St. Matthew Howsoever this is no jar or contradiction between the holy Writers but a variety which begets many good Meditations when we think upon it First Aquinas did thus excogitate upon it Quandoque ex inani gloria venitur ad cupiditatem quandoque ex cupiditate ad inanem gloriam The tentation upon the Pinacle was directed to beget vain-glory the tentation upon the Mountain tended to beget immoderate coveting of worldly things Now for these two there is no choice in the precedency for sometimes vain-glory would support it self by coveting in excess and sometimes a covetous affection drives a man into the itch of glory Secondly All sins are not equal yet there are some capital sins that in several respects are of an equal deformity between themselves and then they take their turn in holy Scripture one interchangeably to be set before the other Murder and Adultery Adultery and Murder are flagrant crimes and in some comparisons one is the greater trespass against our brother in some comparisons the other Thou shalt do no murder thou shalt not commit adultery so Moses ranged them in the Law to the Jews Thou shalt not commit Adultery thou shalt not kill Rom. xiii 9. So St Paul disposeth them writing to the Gentiles Indeed in the Hebrew Murder is first forbidden for being is simply better than well-being but in the 70 Translation Adultery is first forbidden for comparatively well-being is better than being St. Matthew therefore following the Hebrew says Christ did thus rehearse the Commandments to the young man Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not commit Adultery Mat. xix 18. St. Luke following the 72. cites our Saviour saying to the same man Do not commit Adultery do not kill Luk. xviii 20. So Pride in some cases is worse than Covetousness and therefore our Evangelist entreats first upon the tentation to Pride in some cases Covetousness is worse than Pride and so the other Evangelist writes first of that tentation which instigated unto Covetousness Thirdly St. Luke laid those two tentations together which were commenced in the Wilderness and Mountains and then with less confusion to the Readers apprehension speaks of that which fell out in the City and upon the Temple Many times the Scripture by anticipation brings in the history of a thing before the precise time wherein it was done as Mat. xxvii In the description of our Saviours Passion this accident is brought in that many dead bodies of the Saints arose and appeared in the holy City to many and yet it came not to pass upon the Passion day but when Christ was risen from the dead This Maxim is of good direction to the wise that can understand it Ordo artificialis in narratione rerum saepe est utilior ad intelligendum quà m ordo naturalis To transpose things in an history artificially is many times better for our understanding than the plain natural order But this tentation as it is sorted in St. Matthew is well placed both by the natural truth of the history and by the artificial method of it And thus much briefly to make this Point even between these two most divine Evangelists I put on to the next thing which is most strange in this tentation and verily to be admired the manner of it to which Christ did submit himself it is by Assumption by carriage through the air Then the Devil taketh him up into the holy City It was a good Spirit which led him into the Wilderness to the exercises of Fasting and Prayer and Contemplation the very same which sate upon his head at Baptism in the shape of a Dove Now here is another Spirit retaining to the contrary faction who is ready not only to lead him but even to carry him through the Air to the most conspicuous Turret in all the City of Jerusalem Some of the ancient and pure stock of Writers were so loath to preach this Doctrine in the Church that Satan did bear up Christ between Heaven and Earth for fear of offending weak ones that they made other constructions of it which will no abide the test St. Cyprian expounds it as if all this had been done by Vision and Imagination But will Cyprian say that Christ was urged to cast himself down to the ground putativè not really but in imagination Or will he grant that our glorious Champion did vanquish his Adversary but in fancy and opinion Exilis esset Christi victoria Then Christ had but little to boast of and the Scripture would never have recorded this act as the most famous of all victories Beside these many other Interpreters in a more rational way confess this was a conflict truly and apparently fought and that the Devil really took him up Pedibus ductum non volantem he went along from the Wilderness up to the top of the Pinacle on his feet upon the Devils provocation And this opinion they maintain upon the meaning
of them and behold Angels came and ministred unto him From this note or preface of attention I pass on to their person that came to minister unto Christ and they are Angels As the Philistins stood on a Mountain on the one side and Israel on a Mountain on the other side and there was a Valley between them from whence both the Armies might behold their two Champions David and Goliah fight it out So I dispute not against their conjecture that say the good Angels stood gazing from one prospect and the bad Angels from another to mark which way the Victory of this Duel would incline between Christ and Satan On the good Angels part this is certain we are put to no trial by our enemies visible or invisible but they come gladly to the speed of it and look upon us both with compassion and admiration We are made a spectacle unto the world and to Angels and to men says St. Paul As the Heathen did flock in multitudes to the Theaters to see the Christians cast unto wild beasts to be eaten which was no little part of their persecution that their enemies fed their eyes in sport with their misery So the blessed powers of heaven came to behold the same spectacle to compassionate that cruelty and to fortifie the sufferance of the Saints And if they can be content to be present at the skirmishes of the Scholars can it be supposed they would be away at this time when the Master of the fence was to play his Prize Beloved to put this further sometimes the Angels gave attendance to Moses Law and the Law it self was delivered by a Mediator in the hands of Angels But their study and delight was such in the Gospel of Christ that they gave all diligence to learn and understand it in all the mysteries St. Paul says that he was a Minister to preach the grace of God and to teach the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ says he To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Eph. iii. 10. A most observable Text of Scripture that the Angels of heaven are the learneder for noting those passages which are taught touching the Mysteries of our salvation in this Church on earth And St. Chrysostom the loudest Trumpet of that Apostles glory among all the Fathers cries out See if Paul be not an Evangelist as well unto Angels as unto men This is marvellous and not to be admitted as if the good Angels knew not the Incarnation of Christ before and the calling of the Gentiles For how could they be ignorant of those divine Lessons which were so obvious and common in all the Prophets Admitting then that the whole substance of that Doctrine was known unto them long before yet many circumstances were revealed unto them by the actions and passions of the Church in after-time What then Was Paul or are we able to explain any thing for the better capacity of Angels No certainly Non addiscunt per Ecclesiam docentem sed per ea quae geruntur in Ecclesiâ Those principal intellectual spirits do not profit by the preaching of our Ministry but by things managed experimentally in the Church which were not so clear in Prophesie or speculation as when time revealed them They knew that Christ should bruise the Serpents head but when they saw it actually performed in repelling the three antecedent temptations then the mystery of God was made known unto them experimentally by the Church Those significations of the Gospel which the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven even those things the Angels desire to look into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stoop down and look into as Peter and John stoopt to look into the Sepulchre that is bowed down in humility to look into the great mystery of the Resurrection They are not inanes speculatores fond and curious gazers but most observant and most humble learners they will stoop unto the knowledge of the wisdom of God And that the Angels did note and pry into all things which our Saviour did in the dispensation of his Mediatorship the posture of the Cherubins upon the Ark is no unsignificant Figure Says God The faces of the Cherubins shall be toward the mercy seat Exod. xxv 20. As if the Angels did never cast their eye off from Christ our Propitiator from the Mercy Seat but did continually desire him in the fulness of time to have mercy upon Sion So I have made it known that such diligent attendants who listned faithfully to all the occurrencies of the Gospel must needs be at hand when Christ had ended his combate vvith the Devil And so ready at hand that it is noted these Angels are not said to descend from heaven as if they had been far off in another world but to come and minister which betokens a near attendance They came and ministred unto him And now Satan sees more by the event by this officious service of the Angels than he could extort by all his temptations Homo est quem ipse tentat Deus cui ab Angelis ministratur He must be a man that suffered such temptations but he must be a God that had such Ministers Christ came not to be ministred unto but to minister Mat. xx 28. That is in St. Pauls words He took upon him the form of a servant Phil. ii 7. For the very form of a man is the form of a servant Yet this servant thinks it no robbery to be equal with that God to whom all the powers in heaven and in earth do bow and obey But wherefore came the Angels now Do they come to bring assistance when the Devil was vanquished and had left our Saviour This were as the Adagie goes Post bellum auxilium Choraebus brought succours to the Siege of Troy when the fray was ended They miss of the right intention that think the Angels came for this end It was not to strengthen him against his enemy that was beaten and vanquished but to minister and stand before him for these reasons First possibly to spread a Table for him in the Wilderness and bring him meat because he had now fasted forty days and forty nights without intermission Not as if he could not be supplied without their provision but it was his pleasure they should attend upon his diet to let his enemy see there was another way to feed his body than to make stones of bread And this was it it may be that plurally many Angels came to minister unto him Had they been required barely to provide him necessaries one Angel could have brought enough of sustenance to give one man a meal but because this was intended not for any necessary relief towards his person but to shew his excellency above those heavenly hosts Behold a multitude stood round about him and Angels came and ministred unto him Secondly they might come to comfort him after
Altar you see the strength and mightiness of his power in the Goats that he bore the similitude of sinful flesh in the Ram his Principality that he governed the Flock in the Lamb his meekness and innocency but before the Law this in my Text is the first by name which the Fathers took notice of as a type of the Sacrifice upon the Cross Quis in ariete figuratus nisi Christus spinis Judaicis coronatus of this Type St. Austin is bold to say this Ram in the Thicket was but a rellish and pregustation of him that was compelled to weare a Crown of thorns It is the first praise that Pliny gives to this harmless Creature Magna huic pecori gratia in placamentis Deorum among other attonements it was very gracious to please and pacifie the divine powers how could Idolaters confess so much unless with Caiaphas they prophesied and knew not what they said Indeed we can say omnis huic pecori gratia in placamentis Domini All our attonement all our reconciliation all our pardon it rests upon the head of this Oblation the principal of the Flock Who can think upon the innocence of the Sheep and not remember this spotless Sacrifice without sin Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth 1 Pet. ii 22. Non Petrus erat qui haec dixit adulatus Magistro sed Esaias praedixit says Cyril Peter did not say this of himself to flatter his Master he had it from an Evangelical Prophet Isaiah foretold it under the name of an innocent sheep led unto the slaughter The Pharisees called him Carpenter in disgrace but they could not call him Sinner Clamant habet damonium non Clamant habet peccatum they cry out he had a Devil and yet their tongue would not let them say there was a fault in him Our Saviour proclaimes it Quis vestrum Which amongst you doth accuse me of sin Again who can think upon the meekness of the sheep and not remember this Sacrifice that was led dumb before the Shearer Moses was meek yet he commanded that the Adulteress should be put to death Christ was meeker his sentence was clemency every jot Joh. viii Go and sin no more Moses was meek yet he brought Mandatum lapideum a stony Law to the People Christ was meeker and turned those stones into bread at his last Supper he set before them Mandatum triticeum Take and eat in remembrance of me At his Baptism a Dove sat upon his head Columba super agnum a Dove upon a Lamb meekness upon meekness What heart could be more intenerated and mollified than that which prayed for his Persecutors Yet once more let me speak who can think upon the profitableness of the Sheep and not remember this Sacrifice that did yield commodity both in life and death He liv'd in innocency of life for our imitation he suffered in the bitterness of death for our redemption ut afferret remedium in passione mortis ut praeberet exemplum in innoecntiâ vitae says Leo Innoceny Meekness Utility all do correspond that the Angel should take one of the Flock rather than any other Beast to prefigure the Sufferings of Christ And we must not omit that among all the Flock the Ram was cull'd out to be substituted for Isaac propter masculam virtutem never was there more need of a masculine courage and a spirit heroick than to tolerate and endure so much as our Saviour did this day stripes and strokes blasphemies and buffetings thorns and nails to drink up all the bitterness of the Cup to fight with God himself and his wrath in that Agony in the Garden every vein of the body vented bloud quia de toto corpore id est de Ecclesiâ emanaturae sunt passiones martyrum says Prosper because the Martyrs should suffer in every part of his Body which is the Church Such a Samson we had need of that could break the green wit hs and snap the cords in sunder Such a Lion we had need of sprung from the Tribe of Judah and it falls out I know not whether by art or by arbitrary imposition that the Latin word Aries for a Ram comes from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Lion come to his growth and vigour I am sure he that is the Ram in my Text is likewise the strong Lion of the Tribe of Judah Very appertinent is that which I find related in Ortelius concerning the Christian King of the Abyssens that he gives for his Crest a Lion holding a Cross in his paw notifying that Christ stuck to his Passion and his Cross with that power and fortitude like a Lion that no tentation nor Devil nor infirmity could pluck him from it An Angel came to strengthen him says St. Luke I pray you did the Ram give back then was the Lion frighted did weakness creep upon him not so but because in the very gall of affliction he had strength and courage therefore he did merit to be strengthened by the ministery of Angels For example in this Militant state of the Church they that couragiously endure their trial at length shall not want Divine consolation This Exposition likes me best which ascribes all masculine courage to the Ram which was caught in the Thicket Ecce aries behold a Ram why John Baptist makes him younger above a thousand years after Ecce Agnus Dei behold the Lamb of God Nay in one mystical verse Gen. xlix 9. Judah is called a Lions Whelp and a strong Lion and an old Lion great diversity of age in so few words I must say of these places as St. Austin did reconciling the Prophesies of Esay and Jeremiah To us a Child is born says Esay Mulier circumdabit virum says Jeremiah A woman shall compass a man and both speak of Christ Why time says the Father doth not make him older than he was before the beginning of the world sed insinuant ei nunquam defuisse virtutem but if the Child be call'd a man it is to insinuate that full strength and perfection was alwayes in him Now you have seen the thing which was bestowed upon Abraham The Wife of Manoah could say if the Lord were pleased to kill them he would not accept a Burnt-offering at their hands neither would he have told them of a Son to be born much more may I say if the Lord were not pleased with Abraham and his Seed he would not have given us a Burnt-offering nor told us of him that was to come in the ends of the World as it is in the first mark which is upon this Ram He is Aries post eum Abraham saw a Ram behind him For long it was indeed long after Abrahams days that the manifestation of this Shadow was revealed in the death of Christ My father says Isaac in the 7. verse of this Chapter behold the Fire and the Wood but where is the Lamb Isaac spake of no more than the present
from thee and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth But St. Paul doth not use to obscure plain Doctrin with strange Poetical Phrases and Estius hath requited Beza with another place out of the Psalms to confirm my Doctrin Psal lxiii 9. Those that seek my Soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth that is the enemies of the innocent should go into the place of the damned The other Testimony of Scripture for I will press no more is Psal xvi 10. and rehearsed by St. Peter in this Chapter Thou shalt not leave my Soul in hell c. What pains some men have taken to no fruitful end that I know to make these words bear any sense rather than that which is literal no man that marks their diligence must deny but the Soul in divers Authors is taken for the Body and Hell for the Grave and so they patch it up Thou wilt not leave my life in the Sepulcher but why should literal Scripture be so eluded St. Austins rule is that when the literal sense of the Text sounds somewhat that is sinful or impossible then discreet and learned Interpretations must mollifie the letter but it is not to be suffered where good divinity is conteined in the letter as there is in this the meaning is as no flesh in the Sepulcher was ever free from corruption but only Christs so no Soul in Hell was ever supported and assisted by God and not forsaken but only Christs So Fulgentius most divinely anima immunis à peccato non erat subdenda supplicio carnem sine peccato non debuit vitiare corruptio Christs Soul knowing no sin went not to Hell to pay any debt of punishment for an innocent could not be obnoxious to those flames and torments and his Body never executing any evil act could not be tainted with corruption and putrefaction Is it not therefore consonant to reason to stick to the letter of Scripture when it bears an Orthodox exposition of faith and whether we say that Christ being free among the dead to walk whither he would his Soul being separated in death first shewed it self to the Saints in Joy to their exceeding comfort then to the Unbelievers in Hell to their woe and confusion or whether we say He descended that such as believed may never be thrust into that infernal Prison or rather that He brought his triumph over death with him before the face of Hell and brought those unruly spirits under his yoke entred upon the strong mans house and spoiled his house as it is in the Parable Matth. xii All these ways are agreeable to Gods word and to be admitted without contention Thus far upon Scripture attended by reason Indeed Stapleton says that two Articles of the Creed are not to be found in Scripture this of Christs descent in to Hell the other of the Catholick Church I confess in his sense they are not to be found in Scripture but in ours they are But last of all attend what light the very Creed it self will give to the confirmation of this Doctrin The ground that a learned Father of our own Church lays I take to be most rational Thus take these words properly and not figuratively as it is fit in a short abstract of faith next let them have a sense different in matter from all other Articles or else they were a superfluous repetition then let every Article keep a true consequent order of time one after another or else it would make a strange confusion and all other Expositions will give place Some of the Romish and some of our own part have taught that when Christ was crucified he susteined the pains of Hell but observe against them how this Article should come in most preposterously after his death and burial which was in time before Others make this sense of it that he was dead and deteined in death others to be no more but that he was buried but according to these opinions there shall neither be property of phrase nor difference of matter in this Article from them that went before To be dead and buried are as plain speeches as be in all the Creed and should these be explained by an enigmatical Phrase to descend into Hell rather to obscure than to explain the former Observe how our Church of England hath differenced it from death and burial art 3. As Christ died for us and was buried so also it is believed mark that 's another point that He went down into Hell And the thirtieth Article of the Church of Ireland doth not satisfie me that this line is in one comma I know not whether by the negligence of the Printer He was buried and descended into Hell I cannot come to the third part of my Text and I have done as much as the time will permit upon the second only let me add let weak capacities be no ways discomforted though they cannot explicitly understand the meaning of this controverted Article of the Creed Christs descending into Hell they must believe that Christ vanquished the Devil for our sakes that 's necessary both for their comfort and salvation And all Articles of Faith are not equally necessary and fundamental Gregory Valenza and many others I think not imprudently hold that the main and necessary points for unlearned simple people to believe are the great works of God remembred in the principal Feasts of the year Christs Nativity his Passion Resurrection Ascension into Heaven and the coming of the Holy Ghost And though this Article of the Descent into Hell contein an excellent mystery of Faith yet it comes not near the excellent knowledg and use of the former Suarez the Jesuit writes confidently that if by an Article of Faith we understand a Truth which all faithful people are bound explicitly to believe so he did not think it necessary to reckon it among the Articles of Faith The Nicene Creed in our Common-prayer Book hath left it out Ruffinus says that after 400 years it came into the Latin Church and like enough for St. Austin expounds the Creed five times and Chrysologus of Ravenna ann 440. six times and never glance it For that Creed called the Apostles was not so drawn up by the Apostles for ought we can find in good antiquity but called so because it conteins the sum of all Apostolical Doctrin one part of it was laid too after another and this I believe was the last addition of all Therefore it is a main arm of faith that Christ loosed the sorrows of death and a Truth it is no doubt though not of such prime consequence that He descended into Hell to loose those sorrows for our liberty but the main Pillar of Faith is the first Comma of my Text that God raised up Jesus from death and it was impossible He should be holden of it AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION JOHN xi 43. And when he had thus spoken he cried with a
allow God a seventh day for sanctification so much is divine in the fourth Commandment and what seventh day but the same which Christ sanctified in his Resurrection which is the new Creation of the World the same which the Scriptures point at the same which the Church hath constantly kept in all successions Salve festa dies toto venerabilis anno says Lactantius and Origen says that Manna did begin to fall down about the Tents of the Israelites the first day of the Week and in the same day you are bound to bring your Omer to gather Spiritual Manna in your holy Assemblies that your Soul may eat and be satisfied When the Proconsuls of several Provinces enquired who were Christians to punish them you shall find in the Acts of the Martyrs this was their Question to descry them Dominicam servâsti What do you keep the Lords Day The good man being persecuted answers Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian and cannot intermit it Do we differ from the Jews then in nothing but exchanging day for day Yes Beloved as in sanctifying Gods name we are to go beyond them because the Spirit is given to us in more abundant measure than it was to them so in nice Points of rest and cessation from all bodily labour and exercise we are not tied so strictly as they were I wonder from whom they had their Doctrine that teach the contrary I know they will not say they had it from the Fathers I know they cannot say it justly I appeal to the best lights of this latter Age. Out of the French Reformed Churches I cite Beza Thus he The keeping of the Lords day is an Apostolical and a divine Tradition yet so that we are not tied he means by Gods Law to observe the Judaical cessation from all kind of work for to observe the Judaical rest were to change the day and not the Judaism Imperial Laws made by Constantine and other godly Princes did first interdict that no open and usual buying and selling or other Merchandise should be used for it is fit for the better sanctifying of the day that we should sequester worldly affairs and be altogether vacant to God Thus far he Out of the German Reformed Churches I will cite Paraeus This is his Argument Who first approves that the Lords day is to be kept with a decent cessation from manual labours and that it is very scandalous to pollute it with usual secular affairs but if any will run further to impose upon Christians the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish rest in their Sabbath thus he convinceth them The observation of the Jewish rest was figurative and typical and all those figures of truth were to be kept under pain of severe judgment because the figure was the pledge and Protestation of the truth which should come to pass now there being no such figurative dependence upon the sanctification of the Lords day we are tied only to such rest as shall adorn and beautifie our Worship of God upon that day I mean both our Morning and Evening Sacrifice Beware therefore to be a Jew in opinion but beware to be a dissolute Libertine in practice Violate not this day nor any the like in the whole year with Negligence Idleness Luxurious Pastimes or Riot give thy body rest that the soul may be more busie in the holy work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rest which is not imployed in the fear of God is the Mother of all wickedness I cannot end this Point better than with those words of St. Basil Let me adventure with your patience upon the next Point and I will defer the handling of the last That which I mean only to speak of is Mary Magdalens expedition her restless diligence her watchfulness without all sloath She came early when it was yet dark Every hour seemed seven to this pious Matron till she came to the body of Christ the Sabbath of the Jews was but now ended and she had much ado to refrain coming before it was done The Stars of the night had not yet run their courses when she set forth toward the Monument for it is probable she kept the Sabbath at her own Town and she dwelt at Bethany two miles from Jerusalem yet by Sun-rising when it was yet dark she was come to the Sepulcher a journey of two miles and had brought her Spices with her She had no sleep I believe fell upon her eyes for thinking of her Saviour I am sure she had no leisure to paint her face to powder her hair or to dress her self with finical curiosity We had divers I confess that came early this morning to the holy Sacrament when it was yet dark I praise them for it We have others that seldom or never find the way to Church till the Afternoon you may know by their vain Attire trickt up in Print what they were doing all the Morning At last we have their company scarce with half a thought to please God but with their whole heart to be praised of fools and to please such wanton and adulterous eyes that gaze upon them What a coil is here with this carion flesh Ye are but painted Sepulchers full of rotten bones and not worthy to come with Mary to the Sepulcher of Christ much less to come to the Communion of his body and bloud O proud mortality they that make their Looking-glass all the Text which they take out in the Morning little think that the Grave may be the Pew in the Church wherein they shall be placed before Evening Now they walk abroad so strong with sweet smells that they are able to perfume a Sepulcher with Spices in less than four days all this delicacy may turn to stink and rottenness Come early to the Sepulcher that is think of death in your young blossoming years how suddenly ye may be cut off then leave to fashion your selves after this French or that Italian dressing and spin a poor shrowding sheet which may wrap you up in the earth against the day of the Resurrection I hasten Was it yet dark when Mary came when St. Mark says punctually it was at the rising of the Sun What an intricate case some have made of this objection which is nothing in it self For the Evangelist doth not mean it was so dark that the women could not see about them for then all they reported would be taken to be fancy and not a known truth But the Sun newly rising some obscurity of darkness remains in some places especially it might be so about a Monument which was cut of a Rock in the Earth and the Monument in a Garden where shady trees do not suddenly admit light and the Garden perhaps lying under an Hill and compassed about with a Wall some dusky darkness may incloud such a place early in the Morning They shoot wide therefore that expound the darkness figuratively that the Scriptures were not opened as yet how
the dead and the resurrection of the soul from sin in this interview between himself and Mary Magdalen All men shall be restored to life good and bad for the Son of God redeemed the whole nature of man this day from the corruption of the Grave and the Devil did utterly loose jus mortis the dominion of death because our Saviour being an Innocent was put to death over whom he had no dominion But the glory of Christs victory was to conquer two at once Hell and Death So the Prophet Hosea cries out in form of triumph O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory and from his own voice Revel i. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead behold I am alive for evermore and have the keys of Hell and of Death So in his own person he shewed that he had conquered Death in the person of Mary Magdalen that he had conquered Hell Beloved this great day is Christs Festival and it is the Holiday of every penitent sinner because first he appeared to such an one to Mary Magdalen For our sakes both the Keys are turn'd and for our sakes both the Gates are opened that our bodies may escape the curse of corruption and that our souls may be delivered from the judgment of Hell through Jesus Christ the first fruits of the dead and that first appeared to an humble Convert AMEN THE EIGHTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MAT xxviii 9 10. And as they went to tell his Disciples behold Jesus met them saying all hail and they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him Then said Jesus unto them be not afraid go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee and there shall they see me YOU may call to your remembrance that my subject upon Easter-day the last year was How Christ was first seen after he rose again from the dead of one whom he had raised before from the death of sin he appeared first to Mary Magdalen And in this Text other women have the next turn to see him appear in order of story That Sex it is apparent had the honour of the day in the first and second bout that the power of God might be seen in the weaker Vessels The women brought sweet Spices to embalm his body and they encounter that which was sweeter than all the Spices in the world the Vision of the Lord who came forth from the dark places of the dead to life again There is not the weakest capacity among you but must needs observe that the relations of these things are very diversly set down in the four Evangelists And there is not the learnedst capacity among men that can distinctly unfold how they should be reconciled I suppose the Primitive Church I mean the Disciples that were taught by the Apostles and other Scholars taught by them were informed of the true Exposition how every thing hapned in its order but the tradition is lost And they who boast they have kept the Traditions of the Church faithfully are not able to give us a clear rule how to refer these confusions to a certain order St. Paul 1 Cor. xv rehearseth sundry ways how Christ was seen of many after he rose from the dead yet he utterly omits how he was seen of these devout women St. John Chap. xx speaks of the famous interview between our Saviour and Mary Magdalen and no more Our Evangelist in the beginning of this Chapter mentions Mary Magdalen and the other Mary that is the Mother of Zebedees children he goes no further St. Mark quotes another woman that is Salome St. Luke names also one Joanna she was the Wife of Chusa Herods Steward and indefinitely he folds it up that there were other women whose particular cognisance is not revealed And divers things are related divers ways of these which may be reconciled as divers ways without jar or contradiction The stiffest knot in the dissention is that although St. Luke and St. Mark record how the Angels appeared to the women and spake unto them of Christs rising yet they do not say that Christ was seen of them St. Mark relates that he was seen of Mary Magdalen So doth St. John they go no further St. Matthew holds him to Mary Magdalen and to one other Mary that is all Yet he involves at large that as the women not those women only went to bring tidings to the Apostles of what they had seen and heard Christ did meet them by the way For the perplexity of these Narrations some do argue that none of the women saw him this day risen from the dead but Mary Magdalen and that when this Scripture says that he did appear to the women plurally yet it is a Synechdoche speaking that of many which was verified but in one for but one saw him instead of all her companions This is not so probable for it would work better if this truth were manifested by a multitude of Witnesses Others also consider that Mary Magdalen saw him alone and was controuled at that time not to touch him therefore it must be another Apparition when divers women did touch him and worship him Some say therefore that in a very little compass of time Mary Magdalen saw him twice this day unless there were two Mary Magdalens as St. Ambrose would have it first alone and then immediately with her Consorts Yet that seems not so congruous I can say no more against it that two Apparitions should be granted to her in a few moments Therefore without any pertinacy in rejecting the conjectures of others I conceive this second Apparition of Christ which we have in hand to be made to Mary the Mother of James Joanna and Salom with other devout women of Galilee when Mary Magdalen was lately departed from them to tell her errand to the Disciples Laying my ground upon that opinion I deduct these parts out of the Text First I will treat upon it what proceeded from the women Secondly what proceeded from Christ Touching the women again I will handle first what they did before they saw Christ secondly what they did after they had seen him Before they saw him they went to tell his Disciples somewhat After they had seen him 1. They came to him 2. They held him by the feet 3. They worshipped him That which belongs to Christ is contained in his Action and his Words His Action is thus expressed Behold Jesus met them His Words are first a Salutation All Hail 2. A Consolation Be not afraid 3. A Commission Go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee 4. A Promise There they shall see me These are the several talents which God hath committed to me in this and now I will employ them for my Masters profit The women before they had seen our Saviour went to tell his Disciples that must be our beginning They went and went to and fro sundry times upon this occasion It could not choose but be observed by the eyes
mind but unless we intermix the solemn Service of God at those times and spend some hours with godly profit in the Church it is but the Feast of Fools or perhaps worse the Feast of Epicures So the Prophet mentions some Swinish Carousers that thought they did solemnize their Kings Day in a jovial manner with drinking healths till they lost their wit and their health In the day of our King the Princes made him sick with flagons of wine Hos vii 5. Such Tospots celebrate a Feast to the use of the Devil and not to the Glory of God But it was unto that Glory that this Song and this Day which is chanted and this Joy which is so chearfully profest are all dedicated This is the Day which the Lord hath made c. But how hard a thing it is to draw men and women with their good will to Church for some have stretcht all their wits and their learning to defie our Church because it hath appointed Holidays for solemn occasions of Prayer and Thanksgiving and the greatest part of the Kingdom not out of opposition but out of negligence and slothfulness doth omit the due observation which belongs unto them You give your selves over at such times to cessation from work it may be to Sports and Games and Interludes the Fields shall be all day full of loose persons and the House of the Lord empty It is true that rest from labour becoms an Holiday yet the very vacation from labour is not simply pleasing to God but the better to follow Religious Service and beware to confound rest and idleness as if they were all one they are idle whom the painfulness of action causeth to avoid that labour whereunto God and Nature bindeth them they rest that either cease from their work when they have brought it to perfection or else give over a meaner labour because a better and more worthy is to be undertaken therefore though some part of an Holiday is indulged to put gladness into the life of them that are toiled with continual work yet the substantial character of the day is to meet together in our Religious Convocations and to adore the Name of the Lord. I shall not be able at this fag end of the hour to traverse this point as I would some satisfaction I will give you now God willing and defer that which remains to a more spacious occasion My Doctrin which I lay down is this that it is lawful for any Church to celebrate what Feasts it will so all be done with order and edification And I say more that every Church ought to set apart Solemn Times to remember annually the extraordinary works of God though such designed and determinate Days are not commanded in Holy scripture And I put to this moreover that God doth accept what the Church in due consideration doth voluntarily consecrate to Religious use I will put two parts of my Proposition together that this was lawful to be done and that it ought to be done Nature did teach the Heathen God taught the Jews and Christ by his own practice while he was upon earth taught us that to meet at Extraordinary Times for the celebration of Excellent Things was just and righteous One doth eloquently and very truly commend the various fruit of keeping such Sacred Times in this full Encomiasticon Festival days are the Splendour and outward Dignity of our Religion forcible Witnesses of ancient truth agnizing of great Benefits received Provocations to the Exercises of Piety Shadows of our endless felicity in Heaven First I will begin at the last of these That there must be great consolation in the due keeping of an Holiday if you rightly understand it because it represents the joy which is laid up for us in the Kingdom of Heaven and it is a most comfortable expectation when the very outward countenance of that which we are about on Earth doth prefigure after a sort that which we tend unto in the everlasting Habitations Bear but this in mind that the Rubrick days in the Almanack do prefigure that celestial condition wherein being mixed with Angels we shall sing Haleluia to the Lamb for evermore having no worldly toil or vexation to distract us and this would make us most chearful to bear a part in a solemn Congregation The Kingdom of Heaven was but darkly revealed to the Jews in the Old Testament and yet to bear in mind the glory which is laid up for the Godly they devoted a portion of every Day to the Divine Service in the Morning and Evening Sacrifice a portion of every Week upon the Sabbath a portion of every Moneth upon the New Moon a portion of every Season of the Year the Passover in the Spring the Feast of Pentecost in the Summer the Feast of Tabernacles in the Autumn and in latter Ages the Feast of Dedication in the Winter Every seventh Year was a Solemn Year for the Cessation of all Plowing and Sowing and that 's a contracted Age Every Fiftieth Year was most solemn for the memorizing of the Grand Jubilee and that 's a long protracted Age. If they did so often represent their longing to be at rest in heavenly places much more doth it concern us under the Gospel who are nearer neighbours than they to that future glory Secondly such gandy dayes are most meet for the agnizing of great benefits received I esteem the more of this reason because it is St. Austins Ne volumine temporum ingrata obreperet oblivio by Festival Solemnities and set Days we dedicate and sanctifie to God the memory or his chief benefits lest unthankfulness and forgetfulness should creep upon us in the course of time Nor is it enough to remember some notable favour upon one day and no more with great pomp and splendor for the revolution of time will obscure that as if it had never been the constant habit of doing well is not gotten without the custom of doing well without an iteration of holy Duties Beside such as are weak and tottering in faith might imagin that we did set no high price upon the Nativity of our Lord upon his Passion his Resurrection his Ascension and upon the Coming of the Holy Ghost if we did not extol him for them with some outward and eminent acts of glory Thirdly the principal Articles of Faith are nailed fast to our memory by clothing great Feasts with some transcendent tokens of joy and holiness At the Feast of Christmas every simple body is put in mind that Christ took our nature upon him and was born of a pure Virgin On Good Friday even Babes and Children are taught that he died upon the Cross to redeem us from eternal death Easterday proclaims it that our Saviour rose again in his own Body from the Grave and will raise up our Flesh at the last day to be like his own glorious Body Ascension day or Holy Thursday rememorates every year that He is gone up into Heaven to
many Ages that went before you I see a spectacle to be commiserated in this old Fabrick before mine eyes O that God would stir up many Nehemiahs among you to re-edifie his Temples and Churches which are decaied and impoverished Hearken to another Proposition In the Republick of the Jews in the Fiftieth year the year of Jubilee the Land which was sold away from any Tribe returned again to the Tribe and to his Family that sold it You see and I hope do pity it at least into how many Tribes the portion of the Church is divided how many Impropriations have almost laid waste the dwelling places of God God stir up a religious heart in many of you to imitate those Worthies who have bequeathed of their Wealth to regain unto the Tribe of Levi that which was so sinfully alienated from them Fifty and fifty years and more to them are run out and still our Inheritance is in the hand of Srangers and there will remain unless by your bounty you will repossess the Church again in those holy demeans which by divine right belong unto it It is worth your knowledge to give you notice how riches came first into the world says Abulensis in his question upon Genesis Cain and Abel and Seth burnt whole burnt-offerings in the open field upon the floor of the earth unto the Lord the great fire of those Sacrifices melted Gold and Silver in the veines of the earth lying near unto the Superficies and purged it from dross as in a refining Furnace which being congealed men found out the use of it and how precious it was and so by this mans conjecture Riches were first found out by doing Honour unto God and is it not most natural to repay them back again for Gods honour and to expect a better recompence The Text I confess doth most properly touch upon the Cleargy themselves upon the Priests of God Honorantes Honorabo they may claim it especially as their due for I told you the Message was delivered by an Angel to Eli the High Priest and to his Sons who had succeeded him in the Priesthood if they had been righteous Let the Sons of Aaron especially praise the Lord with the two Silver Trumpets Verbo vita their painful doctrine and their pious and peaceable life and then if all other honour fail they shall be thrice honoured when the Archangel shall call them out of the Grave with his Trumpet to the Resurrection of the Just If you will see an honourable Priest indeed read the Ninth Chapter of Ecclesiasticus It is the praise of Simon the Son of Onias What a declaration is there What a Description of his glory Beyond all the Eloquence that ever I met with in humane Oratory if the delight of the Subject do not deceive my judgment Such Honour in his Robes when he was cloathed with the perfection of Glory such Majesty in the manner of his Sacrificing such shouting with the Musick of the Temple how the High Priest stretcht his hands over the Congregation and gave them the blessing of the Lord with his lips then how the People bowed their face to the ground and worshipped the Lord lastly how Simon himself was honoured in the Congregation shining like a Rainbow in a cloud of dew They that will please themselves let them read it and learn both what it is for the Bishop to ravish the People with devotion and for the people to return all reverence and honour to the Bishop I know this Doctrine is against the stomach of a troublesom Faction in the Church If God and the King should give Honour unto his Priests every day they would grudge against it every hour No Honour or Lordship for that Coat say they as if because our Saviour called the Disciples the Salt of the earth we must be all set like the Salt at the lower end of the Table If Joseph were honoured in the sight of all the Egyptians that laid up food in Pharaohs Granary shall no honourable place belong unto them that lay up spiritual food in the Temple for the people of the Lord Can you turn this Text and say it was not preach'd to Eli Them that Honour me I will Honour Let me answer one Objection and so I will end this first part What is this that God saith Honorantes Honorabo he will Honour his Saints when such as have filled the Commonwealth with outcries and the Church with abominations are Rulers and Potentates in every Age When the rich Glutton is cloathed with Purple and fine Linnen every day they that make this complaint let them turn about and look where they are in Earth or in Heaven One asked Aesop why the Weeds grew faster than the Flowers in his Garden says the wise man Quia terra est horum Noverca illorum Mater The Earth is own-Mother to my Weeds and Stepmother to my Flowers So says Christ to his Disciples Doth the World hate you And no marvel you are not of the World your Conversation is in Heaven But will you have a Paradox indeed God never gave honours to a wicked and pestilent person Why but how came he to have them Is not all Honour from God Yes but they were not given to him Dati sunt Avo Proavoque dati seris nepotibus says Seneca they were given to the good Grandfathers or Forefathers that used them well or they are prepared for the Sons or Nephews who will use them better hereafter Mamercus Scaurus was a known Adulterer and yet the Romans chose him Consul not intending to give him Honour but forsooth his Father had been an excellent Senator Et indigne fert populus Romanus sobolem ejus jacere they were loth to disgrace his dissolute Son And surely God will much more respect the thousand Generations of them that love him and keep his Commandments for the honours which a dangerous person hath are not his own they are hatcht for the Children yet unborn that the promise may coextend only to the just Them that honour me I will honour All this while we have been in the first part of Pharaohs Dream among the goodly Kine and in a golden Harvest now we come to the second to the lank ears of Corn to the ill-favoured Cattle to those that cast Gods honour behind their backs till he cast them away into utter darkness for so says the other member of the Text They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed Theodoret in his Ecclesiastical History having discoursed briefly upon the life of Julian the Apostate brake off abruptly and would not speak of his Successor the Christian Emperour Jovinian till he had begun a new Book and a new Treatise it were a great Trespass says he to write their Acts and Monuments upon the same Paper So I affected this method I confess to spin a new Web as it were and to frame a new discourse when I came to them who are the contemners of Gods
his Story of the Jesuits affairs makes his Protoplast Ignatius Loiola to be so fortunate in carrying all the substance of the Scripture in his mind that had the Scriptures been utterly lost a thing perchance which he wisht for Ignatius could have delivered all points of faith without book I would you were all as truly such as Orlandine fain'd and imagin'd him to be I would you were such as that Antonius of Padua who by those that admired his cunning in the Scriptures was called Arca Testamenti the Ark wherein the Law of God was laid up to be kept I would you would make them your inheritance as David did Thy testimonies have I claimed as mine inheritance for ever Like righteous Naboth though Ahab and Jezebel the Devil and the flesh would extort that Inheritance from you sooner die than part with it but when you are so oblivious and forgetful of all holy things Gods blessings your own repentance and the sweet relish of the Scriptures is it not a sign that you despise the Lord Thirdly contempt is seen in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to take it to heart not to be wounded with compassion when Sion is wasted and Gods honour is trampled under feet Like Gallio the Deputy in the 18. of the Acts that professed he sat in judgment to take up discords of civil peace but if a controversie come before him about the Law of God let it be right or wrong he would not meddle with it But Lot was grieved and afflicted with the filthy conversation of the Sodomites 2 Pet. ii 7. though Persecutions of bloud be not upon our land and O Lord be gracious still and for ever to keep them from us yet a righteous man suffers some persecution in his soul when filthy conversation jets about before his eyes Phineas was inflam'd with zeal to see Adultery in the Congregation and slew both Zimri and the Moabitess Num. 25. Ezekias rent his Garments and put on sackcloth when he heard the blasphemy of Rabshekah against the living God Horror hath taken hold on me says David because of the wicked that forsake thy Law Psal cxix 53. there is not such a Sacrifice offered up unto God says St. Ambrose as a zealous conscience that is eaten up as it were and consumed because the fear of God is imminish'd among the Sons of men nay says he take away zeal for Gods honour and you take away the office the excellency nay the very nature and substance of an Angel Old Polycarpus went always right with the true Doctrine of the Church but because Hereticks grated his ears with their unsavoury opinions he cries out Deus bone in quae tempora me reservasti at haec audiam Good Lord why do I live to hear such pestilent speeches against thy glory Beloved upon these your Festival days of pomp and ostentation give ear a little to the calamities which the Protestant Church doth suffer at this day under the hands of Tirants that do not love the purity of our Gospel Our Brethren that suffer the least share of their fury are threatned and besieged a most Valiant and Illustrious King through the covetousness and mutiny of his own Forces much weakned and dejected the florishing Inheritance of the Rhene quite rent away from the true and ancient Possessors Can O can you forget when the Tribe of Benjamin was as it were quite cut off with the edg of the sword that the Eleven Tribes remaining came to the House of the Lord and abode there till Evening and lift up their voices and wept sore and said O Lord God of Israel why is this come to pass in Israel that there should be to day one Tribe lacking in Israel The Country Palatine was a strong Pillar to uphold the happy proceedings of the Reformed Churches our Confederacy is now much weakned in that damage Away with Sports and Revels and gaudy Pastimes a Tribe it wanting this day in Israel let us mourn for it in our Prayers and engage our fortunes for it in the field He that doth not condole for the great blow given to the Church doth he not slight the miseries of Sion and depise the Lord Hearken now to the fourth sign of scorn and contempt which consists in this to speak ill of those things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who are precious to God and of high esteem as when Hezekiah called the brasen Serpent Nehushtan a lump of Brass which the people did superstitiously adore it is manifest that Hezekiah did despise the vanity of the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the saying is speak that which may be lucky and fortunate both to your selves and others let the Praises of God and his Saints be in your mouths the Lord delights to have their names exalted and magnified See what a commemoration S. Paul hath made of the faithful departed Heb. xi he passeth not over one without some Encomium of his zeal and piety nay our Saviour gave Mary Magdalen his blessing that wheresoever the Gospel was preached in all the world it should be reported to her honour what costly ointment she had poured upon his head and should we be so froward as some are to put down the solemn Holy-daies which are allotted to the memory of the Evangelists and Apostles upon whose foundation I mean their doctrin and not their person the Church is built throughout the world I fear that God would be offended at us and impute it to our disdain that we despised him because we grew weary to revive the memory of his Saints Many are willing that Bartholomew or any other Apostle should hold a Fair in the City for the quick uttering of Wares and Merchandize but they would not have the Church opened upon a solemn day for St. Bartholomews My Brethren both may be well done but the last of the two much better than the other for I hope you will know St. Bartholomew was a Churchman and not a Merchant Another fault there is let it lye upon the score of private persons and not upon the whole Church The adoration which the Church of Rome ascribes to the Blessed Virgin Mary the Invocation of Saints which they maintain St. Peters Supremacy and the Popes Succession in his person which they defend as their life these opinions are false and superstitious but none of those noble persons have therefore deserved ill at your hands that in the heat of the controversy we should insult over St. Peters faults or make havock of the Reliques of the Saints or speak slightly of that incomparable vessel the Virgin Mary and mince her title of Blessed when the sacred Hymn says that all generations shall call her blessed leave this to the railing Jew who in disdain calls our Saviour not Ben Mariam the Son of Mary but Ben Aariam the Son of her that is vile as smoak As for such backbiters of the glorious Children of God like as the smoak vanisheth so shall
Altar it is an indignity second to none and God doth greatly disdain at it if his Churches beg your liberality for their reparation beg they must by a Brief and that impudently or else they shall lie in the dust but when they do crave your help pour in plentifully into the Corban He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly If his Priests plead for the due and true portion that belongs unto the Altar do not construe Divinity so much amiss as if the Doctrine concerned their profit only but did nothing pertain to inform your just dealing Your voluntary benevolences though they be large and bountiful shall excuse no man of Sacriledge where that which is due is pinch'd and impaired He that wrongs the Altar I mean the Church in Shillings nay in Pence that are due to it they are not his Pounds of benevolence shall make him an honest man in the sight of God Do not flatter your selves in what you are not and let me tell you the truth one of your poor Farmers that occupies under you but one hundred pound Land by year in the Country pays as much to the Church Demeans by due as five nay as ten wealthy Landlords in the City And yet you think your selves the best pay masters to the Church but no man of understanding believes you He is called a wise Steward in the Gospel but his deeds were the actions of a Reprobate that bad his Masters Debtors set down fifty for one hundred and fourscore for another I should be this unjust Steward my self if I should not tell you justly and faithfully what you owe to my Master in Heaven they have more cunning than faithfulness that teach you how to strike off part of the Sum. And yet I beseech you mark one passage in the unjust Steward He doth not come with Quid dabis How doth your mind stand for a benevolence What are you pleased to give my Master But Quid debes What do you owe my Master Pay your Debts first and talk of your Supererogation afterwards as if you should stop the free passage of a Spring and then think to recompence the Owner with a Glass of Rose-water Such a kindness it is to stop the rights of Gods Ministers and then think to make them amends with some contribution of courtesie O let not this fair object of your manifold charity before mine eyes be blemish'd with Sacriledge for when the Sacrifice is withdrawn from the Altar is it not a great sign that God is despised So much of that general Point drawn out into the several branches Ignominia indigna a disdain much undeserved that God should be despised in the opinion of Man The upshot of all that I have to say is in that which follows ignominia dignissima a scorn and disdain justly deserved that the abusers of Gods Glory shall be set at naught in his eyes They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed Mercy and Justice are in all the works of the Lord. Behold the sweetness of Mercy in two things gathered out of that which is before us 1. The order of these parts will insinuate it unto us for promise doth go before minacie the affection of love before the destruction of anger Them that Honour me I will Honour God begins at that end where there is a reward in the right hand They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed that is the conclusion the last refuge upon which he is thrust with vengeance in the left Mount Gerizim is the first hill that God mentions Deu. xxvii the Mountain upon which Levi and his fellow Tribes should bless Israel Mount Ebal is prepared in the next place the Mountain upon which Dan and his fellow Tribes should curse the People Behold I set before you this day life and death blessing and cursing Deut. xxx 19. As Medicine is the first offer of Chyrurgery Amputation of the putrified part is the last and desperate help that Art doth administer 2. God will Honour the Good he takes it upon him that benediction is his proper act It is set down passively and no otherwise that the wicked shall be lightly esteemed Come you blessed of my Father Mat. xxv Benediction is from God Go ye cursed says Christ in his anger cursed by your own sins cursed by the malice of the Devil he doth not say cursed of my Father Surely somewhat is in it that God will never take the act of Malediction upon himself Isa xxviii 21. The fury of his wrath he calls alienum opus his strange work his strange act that he will perform Non est opus Dei perdere quos creavit says Lyra. It is a strange work and comes as it were unwillingly unto God to destroy those whom he hath made And therefore we have it in a Prayer of our Liturgy especially against the visitation of the woful Pestilence God whose nature and property is â—ver to have mercy and forgive Peregrinum opus est ut puniat qui Salvator est says St. Hierom upon the forenamed place it is an improper work for him to curse who is the Author of blessing for him to destroy who is the Saviour of the world for him to put any man to light estimation from whom proceedeth all honour and glory And as Mercy gives a sweet relish to this Text so Justice is no less conspicuous for here is a punishment so proportioned to the fault committed as if God had studied to retaliate may I express it as we do barbarously in a Vulgar Proverb Qui meccat mockabitur he that despiseth me shall be despised You do well know Adonibezecks confession his Thumbs and Toes were cut off as seventy Kings having their Thumbs and Toes cut off gathered meat under his Table as I have done so God hath requited me says the Tyrant So might Pharaoh and Egypt have confessed that as they did exercise cruelty upon the Infants of Israel so the Angel slew all their First-born in a night As the Seed of the Righteous was cast into the water to be drowned so Pharaoh and all his Hest were drowned in the Red Sea So Charles the Ninth of France who publish'd himself to be the Author of that bloudy Massacre committed upon many thousand innocent Protestants in the Streets of Paris bloud was his end in great quantity says the famous Annalist of our Island sanguinis profluvio inter longos graves dolores expiravit the bloud could not be stanched which gushed out from many parts of his body and so after long and grievous torments he gave up the Ghost An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth bloud for bloud Children for Children drowning for drowning ignominy for ignominy this is the retaliation of true Justice They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed Where is the advancement of the Proud Where is their honour that would be noble and yet tush at the true nobility of Vertue and Religion Like as I have
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
Enoch for our Lesson that is his Text Letter upon which he flourisheth Enoch is his Antesignanus his Standard-bearer that leads Noah and Abraham and many others after him and the same that he offers to the Corinthians I commend to you Such a Patriarch that the Holy Ghost hath made a great difference between him and other men For it is the method of the Scripture to record the lives and deaths of the Saints but upon this Person the stile alters he was a priviledged man from death which is the common condition of all that are born of woman and Moses speaks of his double life he could not speak of his death his life of grace and his life of glory Ambulavit cum Deo or coram Deo he walked with God that is the Summary Collection how he lived the life of grace And Non apparuit coram hominibus He was not for God took him there is the Miracle how he was wrapt up into glory In the dividing of the parts I will put no more upon my text than it was made to bear and two Points I am sure upon which only I will insist are the very bowels of it First the Integrity of Enoch Secondly his Immortality First how uncorrupt he was in his ways and Enoch walked with God Secondly that he suffered no corruption in the body He was not for God took him In the one member is how he used this world the other how he enjoy'd a better The one of faith the other of fruition The one for our imitation the other for our consolation And first your patient attention how uncorrupt he was in his ways And Enoch walked with God In a good Picture every Limb nay every shadow of it is worthy to be looked upon and in the story of such a Patriarch as Enoch was every word that breaths upon his name is sweet and memorable Now in holy Scripture or in those books which are contiguous to holy Scripture four things are remembred of him which will make him better understood in both parts of this Verse St. Jude in the fourteenth verse of his Epistle sets two marks upon him first in his Genealogy he was the seventh from Adam Secondly in his divine knowledge he Prophesied The Son of Syrach also in his rehearsal of famous men hath given him two additions more the one that his vertue was most communicable He was an example of repentance to all Generations Eccl. xliv 16. The other that his vertue was most unparallel'd or inimitable Vpon the earth was no man created like Enoch Chap. xlix 14. I will dispatch these with a running hand First to be the seventh from Adam what if that was no more than to be the fourth or fifth or any other number For it is a general Rule there is no prerogative to be born after the flesh But God rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had made and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work therefore some Writers must needs fall upon this observation as indeed divers have noted it that Enoch the man of the seventh Generation was taken away to rest with God which bids us labour in the works of mercy and repentance all the six days of this life and after those days like Enoch the seventh from Adam we shall be translated into peace and tranquility for ever Some others go farther a little more curiously than certainly the Patriarchs for six descents all died and were turned into earth again Enoch the seventh from Adam was carried away from the world and saw not death So death shall reign through six Ages of the world Septimâ immortalitas vigebit in the seventh Age corruption shall be done away and immortality shall take place for ever Such mysteries as these are but Speculations that tangle us but plainly and directly this priviledge came to Enoch because he was the seventh from Adam that he lived most happily in a brave society of wise men it was no rude or barbarous Age as if he alone had pleased God for five of his Forefathers in a right line were then living five the brightest Lamps of the Church when the Lord translated him A happy thing it is to be well taught by any single wisdom but there is more affiance in a number of Counsellors Enoch the seventh from Adam had no less than six renowned Patriarchs to go in and out before him in the fear of the Lord. 2. To be born in such a descent is an accidental thing a contingency But the next note upon him is that he had a Prophetical illumination Enoch the seventh from Adam Prophesied All the Sons of Adam in the good Race of Seth whose names are filed in this Chapter were Heads of the People Lawgivers Priests of the most high God Noah more eminently than the rest a Preacher of righteousness in St. Peters phrase yet Enoch stands by himself alone for a Prophet And no marvel if we hear no tidings of his Prophesie till St. Jude divulged it in the last Epistle but one of all the Scripture it seems to me that it stands there in the fittest place because it is a Prophesie that concerns neither the first nor the middle Age but the very end of the world Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that were ungodly The heavens and earth were but in their first beginnings men and women did but begin to multiply yet that divinity was preached in those early days Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of Saints to judge the world the expectation of that coming draws nearer to us than it did to them how much more should we prepare to see that with our eyes which they did but hear with their ears And to double our watchfulness and attention as much as the Ages of the world since Enochs time have passed on and multiplied Enoch prophesied that which Jude hath made Canonical Scripture This hath troubled some to dispute it whether ever he wrote such books as were once in the Canon of the Scripture I hold the Negative for though he were a Prophet and had inspirations yet Scripture is not only given by inspiration of God but such inspiration as is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction of righteousness Such Oracles were deposited by God with his Church and never suffered to perish How will it appear but St. Jude received those words by tradition Or quoted them as he found them cited in some other Author It were shame such antiquity should scape both Josephus and Philo who never mention it But at last some falsary no man can guess him authored a most vain Book upon Enoch Origen who perused it gives us a taste of it in his last Homily upon Numbers that it was stuft with secrets of Philosophy about the motions of the Heavens
people was and we seek a Country in the heavens What are five Loaves and two Fishes the poor pittances of Nature to procure us felicity Some say send them to the next Village for succour to the intercession of Saints and Angels No sweet Saviour but as the eyes of a servant look unto the hands of his Master so our soul waits upon thee until thou have mercy upon us Nor did our Saviour distribute his Largess only to stop the gap of necessity For had they been runnagates David doth award them to be unpitied Let them continue in scarceness but flagrante ptetate when their hearts were set upon zeal and their ears attentive by the space of an whole day to hear the Doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven then this Miracle falls out as a reward of their Piety For even as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Feasts of Charity were wont to be celebrated among the Christians in the Primitive Church immediately after the divine Mysteries had been solemnized So when these Jews had lent their patience to a good Sermon I am sure for never man spake like him by his enemies confession the close of it was that they eat bread together joyfully with singleness of heart And I do not amiss to say that this diligence to hear and learn did attract his love to do this for them for did they importune him by Prayer Did any one among so many beseech him to shew his power and pity them no but they had done enough to open his bowels though they held their peace for first seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added unto you Hallow his name advance his Kingdom and do his will and that which follows comes in by course you cannot fail of your daily bread In this Assembly that sanctified the whole day in the Desart to wait on Christ you may imagine there were sundry of them that lived by their sweat and labour from hand to mouth Will not these be much damnified by their godliness The night was come they had earned nothing by their labour they may go home and starve yea nothing less they that had committed themselves to his providence like the fowls of the air shall fair as well as the fowls of the air For the Lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that fear the Lord do want no good thing Psal xxxiv 10. The Apostles not long before this accident in my Text were sent abroad without Scrip without provision without change of raiment Lacked you any thing says our Saviour the Heathen could not say that the Christians were the poorer for not working the seventh day your Trade is increasing while your shop is shut up on Holidays if you serve the Lord. Godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. iv 8. We had Brethren in diebus illis in those noble times that came near to the Apostles who durst urge the Lord upon his word in the face of Infidels that the soul of the righteous should not famish In the year 176 Marcus Aurelius was ready to give battel to the Marcomans but the day was so hot and the drought so sore that his Army fainted and could not strike a stroke The Christians that served under him to shew the glory of their great Master Jesus the Son of God joyned their Prayers together and instantly obtained so much rain as refreshed all the Roman Legions and so much thunder as consumed the Marcomans with fire and lightening I make not the Doctors of the Church my Authors for it but Dion Cassius an Heathen confesseth the accident and Xiphiline another of the same ascribes it to the Christians and that Legion which consisted of Christians was called from hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thundring Legion long after The blessings of the Lord they are not viscata beneficia they do not hang in his fingers like birdlime when his Children need them but they drop like an Honeycomb without straining But men are so apt to object against this as if they stretcht their wits to make God a liar they will tell you that they have known and heard of righteous men that have been forsaken and destitute Digito terebrare Salinum contentus perages si cum Jove vivere tentas Poverty ever was and will be the obloquy of honesty Neither is bread to the wise nor riches to men of understanding nor favour to men of skill Eccles ix 11. Well the knot is soon untied if you do not over-reckon with God and extend his word to a greater proportion of temporal blessings than he hath promised There is a Son that grudged at his Father Luke xv quia nusquam haedum dedisset he had never given him a Kid to make merry with his friends Must every one that is a Son look for a Kid and for enough wherewith he may be merry and voluptuous no no if you have pabulum latibulum any thing to stay hunger and a Cave to put your head in God is not in your debt and you may do as well as they that have the Kid for life is oftner lost by surfeiting than by starving Every Levite that serves faithfully at the Altar must not think to wear a Mitre like Aaron as St. Hierom speaks of Praetextatus that would be baptized and become a Christian if he might be Bishop of Rome All men must not look to be requited like Valentinian that refused the Tribune-ship of Julian upon condition of Idolatry and became an Emperor They that gape for so much tenter Gods promise to the stretch of their own greediness First They seek dominion and wealth and think the Kingdom of Heaven will come into the vantage Miserable souls that do not fear lest their dignity should be their total recompence and all that ever they shall have for their service They that put themselves upon Gods providence as these men did in the Desart they shall not want but remember then that they must accept of barley loaves for current payment Peter and John had neither silver nor gold yet they had food and raiment and for the most part the most fortunate are they that be no such Camels but they may pass through the eye of the needle I will work out of the point but this little more these five hundred men that waited upon Christ had kept their Fast to the full Canonical time they had eat nothing until night therefore he distributes the loaves dissolves their fast and would not suffer them to continue it any longer than might do them good A man in the fervour of his desire will pursue that he desires so hard as he will quite forget his meat so Esau felt no hunger when he was in the chase a hunting but as soon as that was over he longed for meat upon any terms so during the whole day that our Saviour
glory Thirdly He distributed to the Disciples and assumed them into the same works which himself did save only in the work of our Redemption but when he was acting that part either they fell asleep or run away as when he was laid hold upon to be crucified it was an exploit above a mortal man to assist it and would admit of no associate I have trodden the Wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me Isa lxiii 3. But the power of doing Miracles was communicated unto them for the edifying of the body of the Saints and that before a great Congregation where there were many witnesses that there was such virtue given to men as if Christ had said before them all these are they that shall work signs and wonders in my Name when I am gone to Heaven These are they indeed but to do such mighty things was an Heritage which they could bequeath again to their Sons and to their Sons Sons in all descending Generations As a Conqueror enters it may be in triumph into a City which he hath taken but when the Solemnity of the triumph is over a plain working-day fashion serves for after so the Gospel entred with triumph into the World by the power and pomp of Miracles overtopping all false Religions and captivating all imaginations but would you have Christianity to hold on its triumph when it hath vanquished both Judaism and Idolatry 1600 years ago Not so but as there is a time to every purpose under Heaven so there was a time to glorify God by Signs and Wonders and a time to believe though Signs are ceased But now was the season to communicate some share of that mighty vertue to the Apostles as well to prepare them to know their office as to prepare the People to know that those were the Dispensers of the Mysteries of God Lastly the Disciples received the Blessing immediately from Christ and they went between Him and the People to feed them with bread to teach us that it is for his Saints sake that the earth hath plenty of all things It was not unto them which murmured that God gave water of the rock but unto Moses that cried unto him It was to Elias that God gave rain after three years drought and not unto Ahab Forget not therefore which way all temporal Blessings come about There are holy and mortified men among us that spend the greatest part of their life in penance and devotion these make intercession for you that your Table may be furnished and though they do not give it you with their hand as the Disciples did in our present business they give it you with their Prayers when others revel it and waste their stock in vanity these grovel upon the earth with their bended knees that the Lord would not be angry As St. Austin said to such a purpose Quando ipsi laetantur nos pro illis gemimus when others pamper their genius with marrow and fatness these do macerate themselves with abstinence to avert famine from the Land A devout man whose zeal is free from faction and his heart clear from malice that drives not his private prosperity but every day spends some Canonical hours most strictly for publick blessings it may be hath nothing himself and yet procures all as the Apostles took bread from Christ not for themselves but to give away to the multitude or if some little came to their share they enjoyed it not without the envy of those that were the better for their benefit For when they had distributed their Masters Maundy once and again to so many folk yet they grudged them that which a Nest of Sparrows would make bold with when they pluckt a few ears of corn and rub'd them in their hands Well the World will never reform this ingratitude and yet the Lord doth not repent him that his Saints are so precious in his sight that they obtein riches health and peace for those that hate them and persecute them Such a poor Widow as Anna that continued in Prayers and Fastings day and night in the Temple in part Cesar did owe the prosperity of his Crown unto her the People were beholding to her that they had their Traffick the Priests that they had the exercise of their Religion they of the City that they had their health they of the Country that they had their Harvest May be there were Blasphemers Extortioners Adulterers that were filled with this Feast which Christ made so it shall be while good and bad are intermingled every where But do you mark it Christ committed the bread at the first breaking to the hands of the Disciples for faithful and good men are the Conduit-pipes of all the Blessings which the earth receiveth from the Father of mercies to whom be glory for evermore AMEN THE THIRD SERMON UPON JOHN vi 11. He distributed to the Disciples and the Disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the Fishes as much as they would IT will not be denied but if I share this Miracle between those that had their finger in it two parts to speak with the least must be given to Christ If therefore there be double as much in Christs act that be distributed to the Disciples as there is in their act who distributed to them that were set down it was as due required to put the Bucket twice into the Well to draw waters from the former and with half that labour uno pede stans that is at this once and no more to dispatch the latter And now I shall put it unto you that this Miracle is come down as low as it could descend The divine incomprehensible nature was the Origen of it and therefore Christ used that Ceremony when he took the Loaves into his hand to look up to heaven Our Saviours Humane Nature was the next Vessel into which the grace of the Almighty was poured for the Father had given all things into his hand Joh. xiii 3. The next and underneath his feet were the Apostles they had their Power and Commission from him As the Father sent me so send I you Joh. xx The last of all to whom the Apostles communicate their gift are the People and there the gift abides The Dove that is the Holy Spirit doth use to fetch this compass about before he lights O glorious Hierarchy O most beautiful degrees of strength and Majesty O golden Chain whose uppermost Link is fastned to the highest heaven and the nethermost part toucheth the lowest earth Thus doth our blessedness descend step by step from the Father to the Son from the Son to the Disciples and from the Disciples to all those that are nourished with the words of Truth and of good Doctrine 1 Tim. iv 6. So then we hold of God as the Author of all Grace of Christ as the head of the Body which is his Church of the Apostles and their Successors as his subordinate Ministers And
produce in Europe When their Wonders are done so far from home it is a sign they would be trusted but not hazard examination 4. Where the Holy Ghost came down from Heaven it was fit that the Soil just under that Zenith should be the Cradle of the Church to receive its infancy Christ commanded his Disciples to tarry at Jerusalem till they were endued with power from above Act. i. 4. He would not send his Souldiers abroad unarm'd to fight his Battels the Spirit of Grace is medulla Ecclesiae the Pith the Marrow of it Our strength without it is but like that of dead bones where it descends plentifully there riseth up a Church to Christ And here the Apostles had it not inchoativè but cumulativè they were abundantly filled with it because they were to empty it out to all Nations Out of these Premises I proceed to the Conclusion Jerusalem was Ecclesia Primitivorum The Church of the First-born the Apostles the eldest Sons of their Mother did teach the first Alphabet of Christianity there and therefore by way of gratitude to so great a Benefactress the Catholick Church by way of Metonymy Causa pro causato will never be ashamed to be called Jerusalem Every Kingdom upon due right must bear a reverend respect to them from whom they received their happy conversion Some had the first knowledge of Salvation from Rome some from Constantinople some from Antioch some from France some from England but all from Jerusalem And yet none of these are to domineer over the faith of their Brethren They that have begotten us in Christ may teach another Gospel in the revolution of Ages than the Gospel of Christ and then are we bound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to labour to reduce them into the right way above all others who were the Parents of Religion It is a blessing sorted out to some whereof David speaks Thou hast made me wiser than my Teachers Jerusalem that drank the luke-warm bloud from Christs side and had the Prerogative of pure Doctrine without all mixture of insincerity it had a Bishop in the whirl of times John the Predecessor of Prailius who was an Origenist and a suspected Pelagian another of its Pastors was Gerontius a confessed Eutychian and divers others it had that were leavened with heretical contagion None would concur with these unless they would put out their eyes to wander for company because they were the chief Fathers of the City of God Imagine therefore that Alcasar the Jesuit had all tâ—at he could ask that the new Jerusalem that came from heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband was the Church of Rome yet his Reader must be very courteous that will admit that Exposition give them this moreover that Isaiah meant it Chap. lx 3. The Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising No proper name is specified there But what if it were Rome Although the seventy two and their own Vulgar Latine have added the word Jerusalem unto it Above all suppose it were possible to consist with my Text that it were the Roman Church which was opposed to Hagar the Bond-woman that these were her Epithets to be above and free and the Mother of us all which had it been Tu es Petrus had never been planted in the fore-front of their argument nor had it been their Dromedary ridden and jaded upon all Controversies this had been their Achilles in which they had boasted themselves invincible But if all this garnish had been the true beauty of that Church it would afford us no more than to meditate upon the Prophets question with wonder and commiseration How is the faithful City become an harlot The true Church upon earth is a Tabernacle portable hither and thither easily devolved from place to place When Abraham looked for a City that had foundations he expected it in heaven and not in earth Heb. xi I know what is ready to be caught hold of from hence by some and much good do them with it that the Church is compared here to no ignoble handful of people which a man must grope for in the dark but to an illustrious Commonweal famously known and conspicuous in a glorious manner to all the world Yet with their leave this Jerusalem which St. Paul prefers was in those days like a Pearl in the shell orient in it self but hidden from the world overspread with a multitude of gainsayers ten thousand Adversaries and ten thousand more to one Orthodox believer As the Historian says of C. Marius brought so low in his fortune that he hid himself from pursuers of Sylla in the flags of a fenny ditch Quis eum fuisse tum consulem aut futurum credere Who would have thought he had been Consul or should ever live to be Consul again So when the Apostles and a few persons more met in an upper Chamber at the feast of Pentecost who would have took them to be the Kingdom of God upon earth and none but they Or who would have divined that such as they begot in the truth should spread into all quarters as the Stars for multitude It is the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes The Mountain of the Lord hath been notorious and a clear object unto innumerous eyes upon the top of the Mountains But is there any such promise that her outward splendour should be constant and her felicity perpetual Nay rather are we not threatned with such times when it shall be rare to find faith upon the earth with large Apostacies with flying away into the Wilderness with the Saints dispersed into private Corners Grant that this should be for one hard brunt and no more Dato non concesso yet if the small number of right Believers may be compelled at any time to exercise their Religion in private the reason falls which some do pertinaciously allege that the Church must be always well known over the greatest part of the Earth because her Doctrines and Traditions must be fair and open to all them that will come unto her to seek salvation or else such as continue in ignorance are excusable if sometimes it may be obscured by misery their mouth is stopt for making that objection and we are assured that the conversion of Unbelievers is not so plentifully brought to pass by the populous association of men professing faith and godliness as by the inward impulsion of the spirit where the Labourers pains do hit successfully by the hidden will of God But if the quarrel went no further than that the Church is a Jerusalem always well known and visible in some measure of manifestation it might quickly be compounded a Congregation there hath been ever since the Apostles whose report might come to the ears of natural men though their profession of supernatural verities was known only to spiritual men in this latitude we may believe upon historical faith that the City upon an hill was never
being of our nature and yet I will tell you a vitious filthy sinner doth so ill become the name of a man that there is far more congruity between him and a Beast he is more Swine or Tyger or Fox or locust than man he is not four-footed but he is bruitish hearted in his inward parts he hath put off humanity But if repentance shall restore him out of this bestial conversation if God shall set good men at his right hand that by strength of reason force of perswasion timeliness of admonition yea or by sharpness of correction shall make him feel and know the beauty of an honest life he is redintegrated in the powers and faculties of a man which he had quite lost So that our being in the austerity of Philosophy is connexed with our well-being No good man and by consequent no not a man till he be governed by the Principality of reason civil Education and the conditement of Vertue is such a Parent as reposeth a vile person a transformed Monster into the proper line of his own Praedicament it makes him Man Not to flutter in the air as it were any longer with Paradoxes impious Catives I confess shall stand for men for they shall suffer the curses and punishment of men in Hell-fire What is it therefore which Jerusalem adds unto us that she is called our Mother why the renovation of the mind or the new man created after God in righteousness and true holiness And as the Birthright which Jacob obteined from Esau was instead of another birth unto Jacob so when such as were vessels of wrath became Heirs of the Promise by Baptism and the Ministry of the Church is not this a Mother that gives them a better life than they had before The Love of God is our life Faith conceives us Hope brings us forth Charity feeds us with her breasts Obedience wraps us in swadling bands and knowledg brings us up God doth inhabit our mind and understanding as the Soul doth inspire the Body As Abram was turned into Abraham and Simon into Peter when they pleased the Lord so take any one that is regenerate and chang'd from his vain conversation though his shape and substance continue as it was before yet the Angels that rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner behold him with their celestial eyes not as the same but as another Creature And no wonder if he become another object in the sight of Heaven the reasonable Soul is that which constitutes the natural man but Faith being superadded a better spirit possesseth him and Christ is the form of a Christian It is St. Paul's Phrase ver 19. of this Chapter My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you As Ananias travel'd and earned for a Child till Christ was formed in Paul so Paul travel'd and had the sorrows of a Mother when â—he brings forth in the anxiousness of his heart till Christ was formed in the Galatians First the Church brought him forth then he laboured abundantly and assisted the Church to bring forth others The true solution of the old Riddle Mater me genuit eadem mox gignitur ex me the Son of Grace is begotten of this Mother and afterward filling up a place in the Communion of Saints he is reckoned into the collective Body which is called Jerusalem our Mother But a late Writer puts in his judgment very well I think how far the Motherhood of the Church intends to make us Children of Adoption it travels in birth that by her work Christ may be formed in us The Members of our fleshly body are formed in our Mothers Womb by her natural faculties she can go further for the absolution of the work that is the inhabitation of the Soul is the act of God so the Church doth the part of a Mother it propounds repentance discloseth the mysteries of faith perswades us with the expectation of a great reward in Heaven offers us the use of both the salutiferous Sacraments thus a new fashion a new Creature even the form of Christ doth creep upon us but the life by which we live it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it comes from without from above from the inspiration of the spirit of Christ But without that efformation or effigeation in the Womb of the Mother never expect the vivification or information of the Holy Ghost a Doctrin best known in those trivial words of St. Austin he cannot have God for his Father that will not have the Church for his Mother Ascribe the top of the blessing to him from whom every good gift especially those which are supernatural descends Of his own good will He begat us with the word of truth Jam. 1.18 His good will moved him to pity us his vertue and power went out from him to beget us and his truth which shined in our hearts was the instrumental cause to convert us Carry it along with you therefore that the invisible Father that is in Heaven works by the visible Mother the Church that is on Earth As Eve was the Mother of all living so she is the Mother of all believing Crescite multiplicamini is spoken to one as well as to the other both were ordeined in their several sorts for that blessing increase and multiply Therefore St. James hath conjoyned the Word of Truth to the Will of God both are mixed together to regenerate a pious people And although some have been too nice in expounding the Phrase Of his own will he begat us with the word of truth not with the words of truth in the plural as if our salvation were effected by pronouncing one word as when first we were made Members of Christ by saying I baptize thee and when we have sinned and return again to the Lord by saying I absolve thee yet be it briefly or largely it is the word spoken and preached by the Church which gives us this heavenly feature to be the holy ones of God Briefly the Mother that doth beget us is the Church Militant but the Mother to whose filiation and inheritance we aspire is the Church Triumphant It is true that in relation to Christ the Church is his Body and all we are his Members and in that reference it doth not make the Elect Servants of God but rather it is compounded of those Servants for properly the Body is not the Mother of the Members the Members are not the effect of the Body but they constitute the Body as integral parts And so Solomon hath more aptly given it honour in those delicious Metaphors of a Bundle of Myrrh a Cluster of Grapes and a Pomegranat which I think is the best resemblance a Pomgranat contains many kernels under one Coat so many thousands of Disciples are under the covering of Christ 2. As many kernels are in the small Pomegranat as in the great so the Graces of Christ are in the little Churches as in the more spacious 3. As
keep this Fast And let me tell you we do not keep the same time that our Saviour did The learnedst Calculators of time ascribe his Baptism to the sixth of January immediately he began his fast which continued to the middle of February For the most part we begin our Lent where he ended but many times later Ecclesiae consuetudo roboravit that is the answer the custom of the Church hath so confirmed it So the observation hath descended to us from hand to hand and our own Church treading in the steps of pure antiquity hath admitted it Beloved the days of the year which are of especial observance are either days of joy or days of fasting and sorrow The chief day of joy is that wherein Christ rose from the dead and it appears that the Apostles appointed it for the solemnity of Christian meetings weekly and called it the Lords day but God left it indifferent to the Church to appoint themselves their own days of fasting and mourning and repentance for we owe all our gladness to God but we owe all our griefs and sorrow to our selves And indeed Fasts are things to be dispensed with to sundry persons and upon divers occasions therefore Almighty God left these things to the discretion of Authority in particular places A great tyranny is exercised in this matter when the Roman Church which is but one particular of the whole will prescribe Laws of abstinence from meats to all other Churches The lesser Churches indeed for uniformity sake were wont to have a respectful regard to the Ceremonies and Adiaphorous Rites which Imperial Cities and Patriarchal Sees did follow Not I say as if the richer and mightier Church did or could bind the smaller to the prestation of her customs but because in things honest and without exception it was meet that the noblest places should be rather imitated than descend to imitate others But O the advantages that Pride will take courtesie in a while was turn'd to necessity and the Roman Bishops did dare to challenge all Churches for Heretical that do not profess uniformity with them in all Fasts and Ceremonies But all the Inke in Italy is not enough to blot out the Canon of the Council of Chalcedon consisting of six hundred Bishops that the Churches of Constantinople because the Emperours kept their chief Palace there should have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal Priviledges with the Church of Rome And it is a Story known to all Divines when Monacha St. Austins Mother came to Millain St. Ambrose kept Institutions of Fasts divers from the Church of Rome and was never quarrelled for it Look among all the reasons of the Fathers which perswaded the fast of forty days I find not one that says itwas expedient to be kept because so it seemed good to the Roman Pontifical Authority The Institution depends upon a custom received from one to another in particular Churches A Constitution it is then propagated unto us from age to age The next quaere is whether it be a lawful Constitution That is whether the Church hath power to make Laws for appointed times and qualities of Fasting That the Magistrate may bid a Fast according to the convenience of some seasonable occasion it finds no contradiction unless perhaps some Anabaptistical fury doth oppose it So did Ezra so did Esther so did the King of Nineveh so says Joel Proclaime a Fast call a solemn assembly and in all occasions of woe and calamity to forget our food for a time and to intend nothing but spiritual exercise I know no Christian Church in the world but doth practice it But admit there be no extraordinary woe apparently like to fall upon us either by Sword Famine or Pestilence may not certain times and revolutions of the year challenge an abstinence and parsimony in our diet if the Church will have it so as Friday in every week some Saints Eves in every Month the Ember Fast as we call it every Quarter the Lenten abstinence and prohibition of some meats every year I have said enough before the Primitive Antiquity was very constant and regular in these observations de facto now I will refer you to the proofs of holy Scripture that it may be done de jure Zach. vii 5. There it appears that for the space of seventy years while the Children of Israel were in Captivity in all that space as the year turn'd about they did solemnize Fasts in the Fifth and in the Seventh Month not by Gods Law we find no such Precept but by their own Ecclesiastical Ordinances When ye fasted in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years did ye at all fast unto me even unto me Their hypocrisie is blamed because they did not humble themselves before the Lord as they ought but the Ordinance was irreprovable The next stone that I will move is that Text Luk. v. 33. The Disciples of John complain that they fasted and the Pharisees fasted but the Disciples of Christ did not fast What Fast is this which they object unto him For it can be no Statute of Gods Laws Who would have kept it sooner than Christ and his Disciples For he came to fulfil the Law and not to break it It could be no Fast of private devotion for it had been most injurious to cavil with Christ for pretermitting their private Fasts it follows therefore that they were Fasts publickly kept enacted by the Synagogue observed not only by the Pharisees but by godly men Johns Disciples Only Christ did dispense with his train because the Children of the Bride-chamber were not to mourn while the Bridegroom was with them and to shew that he was above the Synagogue Moreover it is very strongly probable that all the Jews were bound by their own rules and by no other to fast upon every Sabbath until the sixth hour of the day Josephus their own Historian testifies so much the Gentiles among whom they lived did deride them for it and the Scripture gives us some light for it Neh. viii 3. The ears of all the people were attentive to the Law from morning until noon-day and at the twelfth verse they were dismissed and went to meat But our judicious Hooker argues very learnedly upon Mat. xii 1. Christ walking through the fields the Disciples pluckt the Ears of Corn The Pharisees challenge them for doing that which was not lawful to be done on the Sabbath day The bodily labour to rub the Corn was no such great trespass that it should offend them wherefore nothing could displease them but the breaking of the Fast before the sixth hour and our Saviours answer doth apologize not for their bodily labour not for making bold with another mans Corn it was no theft for the detriment was not valuable but he defends them that they satisfied their hunger by the example of David when he eat the holy bread And thus the Scripture approves the Doctrine which I teach that it is lawful for the
Supreme Magistrate of the Church to proclaime observations both for convenient seasons and for ordinary times of fasting I find indeed that one Aerius by name cried out for Christian liberty and pretended that Canonical Fasts were unjust thraldom but I find that the Church remitted none of her Discipline for all his clamour and he was counted but an Heretick for his labour But is it lawful not only to ordain a time of abstinence but also during that space to turn our ordinary food into another species and quality It is For that you may see what power the Church hath the first Canon that ever the Apostles made in the face of a publick Council was an ordination to inhibit the Brethren from meats offered to Idols and from bloud and from things strangled A temporary Canon it was to last for the space while the Jews took offence at the Gentiles converted unto the Faith but after the scandal was taken away the force of the Canon ceased witness one Text for all 1 Cor. viii 8. for in all appearance the worst of those meats forbidden was that which was offered to Idols yet St. Paul when he wrote that Epistle says it was lawful for a man to eat that meat offered to an Idol so he did not eat it with the conscience of an Idol Well then the Church did frame an injunction to make all men refrain from certain meats for a time As for this exception against some kind of diet for forty days which is called the quality of Fasting to say the troth the conscionable Writers of the Church of Rome will confess it is nothing less than a Fast properly taken Be it so that Flesh yields the most copious nourishment yet the greater sort of men are better pleased with the delicacies of Fish choice of Wines suckets and Electuaries it can be no Fast to replenish a mans self with these not only for necessity but even to flatter his Palate and to give his appetite satiety therefore even these things according to the intent of the Church should be taken with greater parsimony and abstinence than we do at other times And then I will shew it was impossible for the Church to take better care for the avoidance of gluttony than to appoint order for the quality of diet for no proportion can be set down in a general form and direction for the special quantity what every man should take for the space of forty days for a little pittance is a great meal to some queasie stomachs and a great allowance again would be too little to keep others in health who are of strong and sudden concoction Consider this reason and it will satisfie you for what cause your diet is moderated for forty days in the quality of our meat and not in the quantity Daniel fasted but half a Lent but three weeks and he inhibited himself for that space not to taste of Flesh or Wine In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks I eat no pleasant bread neither came Flesh or Wine into my mouth neither did I anoint my self at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled Dan. x. 2. Howsoever to close this Point obedience single by it self is better than fasting for fasting is reduced to the vertue of temperance obedience to the vertue of justice giving honour to whom honour belongeth and of all the cardinal vertues Justice is the fairest and the principal A lawful Constitution I have proved it but because many things are lawful which are not expedient it remains to be sifted and nothing remains but it whether it be a laudable appointment Certainly it is laudable in a very great degree both to rectifie our appetite in the concupiscible and in the irascible part In the concupiscible to abate our inclination toward the pleasure of our Palate and make us abstinent In the irascible to curb our lawless stubbornness and make us obedient Seneca an Heathen did perceive there was some defect in their Government that the people were not prohibited some kind of food for a time to make them know their subjection to the Magistrate Nullis animalibus nisi ex fastidio pax est says he The Creatures can never be at rest and quiet any time of the year when the Laws will have it so but when we loath them and we aim at temperance by our own palate and stomach not by the Law of the Magistrate Remember how directly you tread in the steps of Adam and follow the first sin that ever he committed if you set more by the pleasure of your Palate than by the duty of obedience St. Austin conceived this benefit would redound by that partial abstinence Qui ista vitamus quae aliquando licent imprimis peccata fugimus quae omnino non licent We that for a while deny our selves those things which are lawful will be the better prepared to shun iniquity which is altogether unlawful I omit one thing for in this copious subject I must make an Epitome not a full Treatise I omit I say the enumeration of all Political Emoluments those are in every mans tongue and knowledge to maintain Fishing to enrich the imployment of Mariners to inure us to hardness in the times of peace if Wars should exercise us abroad or at home to spare every young thing in the Spring of the year and to preserve the multiplication of the beasts of the field these things are commonly dictated from the bar of the Civil Governour But will you know the spiritual advantages Why we appease Gods wrath by humiliation and dejecting our selves for the sins of the whole year which we committed before It is a special time destined to sweep away the filth of the whole house for as in Moses Law Lev. xvi 30. All the people once a year did afflict themselves for expiation of their common sins so it is good to have a publick time allotted to deprecate the Divine Wrath that it may not fall upon the whole Nation Again all the Writers of all Ages cannot be deceived and all confess with one mouth that a moderation of diet especially continued for some considerable time of temperance must needs abate the violence of voluptuousness and luxury And because we see it in the examples of Peter and Daniel and many more in Scripture that Fasting doth elevate the mind and make it more capable of spiritual thoughts therefore it is well ordained that the most notable Fast in the year should go before the great Anniversary Communion of Easter I know some will say divers of the Reformed Churches have disused this ceremony to profess an abstinence in the quality of their meats for forty days They can best answer for themselves and do answer that their people if they retained that use would be seduced with Superstition But for our parts we have more cause to fear a pound of Gluttony than a dram of Superstition and more reason they should conform to us than we
needless exceptions as they hear would hiss at themselves But what charge can be worse and yet a true one that their very Prayers not seldom are Serpents and of the hissing Dialect exposing those they pray for to the ill opinion of their Auditors And when they speak to God they traduce man Is this to lift up holy hands without wrath 1 Tim. ii 8. Would not such hissing throats be silenced Not so will their well-willers say for they are diligent and profitable in their Ministry But what is the Church the better nay is it not the worse if Satan stamps his figure upon the finest mettal and to say a man hath all the Ornaments of a Preacher but a peaceable spirit is like the praise that Tacitus gives to Poppaea Sabina That she had all tbe Ornaments of a brave Lady but an honest mind Praeter honestum animum Perhaps my Doctrin will not scape hissing for this point but this is plain dealing and the Serpent is subtle That 's the fift note The Devil is a beguiler and the Master of the School he hath entailed a cunning craftiness to the mystery of iniquity Then why should not mischievous plotting be as hateful to us as a Basilisk as odious as Satan Wo be to those who have their sharpness of wit from no better Prompter that have no measure in their dissimulation no trust in their word no fidelity in their oath no distinction of causes or persons whom they ruine I do not altogether blame the Turks if it be true that they repute natural fools to be Saints I am sure they are Saints in comparison of such cunning Gipsies But a good Christian is a compound out of the better part of two qualities Rom. xvi 19. Wise to that which is good and simple concerning evil This is right inoffensiveness tempered with intelligence the simplicity of the Dove mitigating the wiliness of the Serpent To say all in a little Foul actions are supported by forgery and stratagems vertue by sage knowledg the City of Satan is for malevolence the City of God for providence the one is a Machiavel the other a Solomon Subtlety is the web and snare of the Spider but his substance is poison so is the Serpents Take it either with David Adders poison is under their lips Psal clx 3. Or with St. Paul That their word eats as doth a canker The venom of pernicious Doctrin is the most fatal cup of death The worst fraud is to poison the conscience with a deadly drink For of all pestilent contagions the worst is that which infects the spirits The greatest trust between man and man is the trust of giving counsel then what can be more scandalous than to be unfaithful in a trust of the greatest concernment It is not making over a crackt title in the sale of Lands nor turning over light and adulterate money in payment nor thrusting bad wares into the hand of a Chapman Those are shuffling dishonest tricks But in the other the ignorant committed his soul unto thee and thou didst betray it He gave thee the custody of his strongest Fort to keep for him and thou betrayedst it to the power of the enemy Christ came into the World to seek and to save that which was lost and the empoisoner hath done his part to lose that Soul which Christ would have saved He laid a stumbling block before a Disciple who should have been eyes to the blind And cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way Deut. xxvii 18. Now the conclusion of all is to pray that the Serpent Man may be taken away from us thereby the Canker-worm that spoileth flieth away Nahum iii. 15. We are assured that Moses prays for all his Israel And it is the office of him or them that have great interest in God to bless others with their prayers All must do their part all are concerned The greater Saints may prevail with God one by one others had need to meet by hundreds and thousands in great Congregations that every single mans prayer may be a drop in a shower Keep set and appointed times for that purpose for to pray only when you are at leisure is to give God the worst of the day your spare and idle time Pray with the Church which will teach you words that will meet with all your necessities Be not in love with your own conceits Make not a Form for Moses and as if without that you would leave the Communion of Saints And let the People joyn together with the Priest in sweet returns and answers to fill up the work with a Quire of voices If any one would refer all to the lip of one single mouth and says there is no benefit to interpose the suffrages of the Congregation he is he and I am I shall he perswade me that his is best when I feel the contrary in my own heart Do not others know better than he what they are sensible of in the motions of their own spirit But the season of Lent calls for Fasting to be joyned with Prayer And St. Ambrose says lib. 6. Hexam c. 4. that if a Serpent suck up the fasting spittle of a man it is mortal to it Finally pray and look up to Christ the brazen Serpent Lift up your Prayer on high higher than Satan the Prince of the Air. Get the upper ground of him it is a good advantage against an Enemy Maxim Taurin says of Simon Magus let the Story be of what credit you please that having made himself as it were sails to hover in the air St. Peter ascended higher with his Prayers and threw him headlong down Ante pervenit justa petitio quà m iniqua praesumptio So dart your Prayers out of strong zeal to enter into Heaven and say From all the Serpents of this evil Age from all Sedition and privy Conspiracy from all false Doctrin and Heresie good Lord deliver us AMEN A SERMON UPON JOSHUAH xxii 26. And that man perished not alone in his iniquity AND that man was Achan the Son of Zera that did commit a Trespass in stealing the accursed Spoils of Jericho I hope you make not dainty of the Story it is famous in the seventh of Joshuah How easily we have found him out All Israel on a time were quite to seek and seriously enquired for such a man Joshuah rent his cloaths and lamented to know his name and now if we read the first line of this verse he is discovered Though his iniquity was as close as Hell though he durst trust nothing but the dull earth with the secret of his sin yet Babes and Children learn it now in their Paedagogy that iste the man pointed at no less unhappy in his punishment than unjust in his crime was Achan the Son of Zerah that perished c. Let us enter into these words not without our demurest thoughts and holy reverence for what place of the Church is more beautiful than the
Altar And what service of the King is so honourable as an Embassie And which attribute of God is more noble than his justice Now an Altar and an Embassage appertain to the occasion of this Text and the justice of God to the Exposition There was an Altar set up by Gad and Reuben and half Manasseh a great one to see to in the tenth verse a pattern of the Lords own Altar in the 28. which was as strange in those days when all the light of the Church moved but in one Sphere as to see a Parelius or a second Sun in the Firmament This new devotion of theirs kindled a jealousie in the Ten Tribes that possessed the Land of Canaan beyond the River Jordan and after some advice to reform the Church they stumble upon these two ways First to pluck down the Altar was the like done no where Never in our Land First pluck down the Churches and then reform the Religion Next that there might be hands enough to pluck it down all Israel meet at Shiloh to fight it out Another strange course I pray observe it to try the truth not in Moses chair but in the field and He should carry the day whose Sword was sharpest and brethren would sacrifice brethren upon their own Altar for Idolatry Yet this hath a fair shew and seems to be like the renouned justice of Timoleon that redeemed his Brother taken captive in his Country quarrel whom he slew soon after with his own hands for usurping tyranny But to be slow to wrath is to make haste to heaven and sometimes a soft word breaks not down Altars but the very bones says Solomon St. Peter cut off but one silly servants ear with Ecce duo gladii but when Jesus spake it overturned them to the ground every man and Miscreant So this holy Nation send Phinehas the Son of Eleazar and Ten Princes more the flower of the Nobility to play the Orators before it come to bloudshed and make this the close of the Message to leave the most moving affection behind it that the Idolatry of two Tribes and more would envenom all the children of Israel round about since the trespass of one man was the ruine of God knows how many Did not Achan the Son of Zerah trespass and wrath fell on all the Congregation of Israel and that man perished c. Beloved now we know the man that bears the burden of the Text and that Altar which was blameless and innocent one poor distinction broke up all the Army it was an Altar of Witness and not of Sacrifice And you have seen the Embassie presenting and prevailing for Peace and true Religion A word or two to shew what is meant by non solus he perished not alone There are divers stories of Gods vengeance in that word built one above another as may easily be discerned if I resolve all the Text into Achans Funerals First here is a grave digged and that is iniquity So speaks the Kingly Prophet effodit puteum he digged a Pit that is says another Prophet he plowed iniquity Secondly see the corps of Achan first oppressed with stones and then consumed to ashes for he was both stoned and burnt the one representing a Sepulchre and the other the dismal fire of Hell this is that man perishing But not alone his Children were the sad mourners that followed their Father and died with him both root and branches Nor these only but thirty six Israelites slain and offered up to the vengeance of God inferiae Achanis as I may term them after the heathen phrase And give me leave to go on to make a miserable pomp his Cattel went along to be sacrificed bellator equus even all he had as if his Oxen had jogged the Ark of God they are consumed in fire Lastly you are here beloved to look on and judge of such a spectacle to decline the trespass that for your part and God grant it be so He may perish alone in his iniquity Lego historiam ne fiam historia Where could I alledge Scripture so wonderful to shew the mystery of Gods justice least we speak unadvisedly with our lips why art thou so wrath with the sheep of thy Pasture Non nostrum onus our shoulders were not made to bear our Fathers sins As Lipsius embraced the reproof of Scaliger saying Te judice placebit paenè ipsum damnari so we must not only kiss the Son lest he be angry but even kiss the very anger of the Son He was figured to be the Serpent that stung the Israelites but it was a brazen Serpent Serpens sine veneno no poison no rancor of malice in him Judicia Dei occulta esse possunt injusta esse non possunt says St. Austin Strike once upon this rock of justice and I dare promise a fountain will issue out from thence of fear and reverence not to provoke the Lord by sins and trespasses for if He threaten shall He seem as one that mocks Shall the Infant put his finger upon the hole of the Cockatrice Wherefore to make this our use and fruit of hearing at this time First to adore the flaming Sword of justice Secondly to shun the stroak the wages of ungodliness First that the Tombs of sinners may be Altars of Gods righteousness and then that the zeal of God may be dreadful unto man let these be the parts of this discourse First We must put the cause formost the cause of all the wrath that follows and that both general it is iniquity and with an instance his iniquity Then follows the subject not only answering to each part of the cause man and that man but a subject it is ex abundanti you would think as if mischief had been kindled like piles of wild-fire for it spreads about to strangers and home-born to the reasonable and to the dumb nay to the quick and dead that man not alone is a troop of them which were consumed Thirdly here is an affection brought in by the cause you wot of before into this plentiful subject alas let us not call it an Affection let us use no Art it is perishing The Cause Iniquity the Subject Achan but not alone the Affection that he perished you see I have made a demonstration of the Text. Now let not any man make it a fallacy to deceive his own soul doth not the cause deserve severe arraignment Then blaspheme not as the wicked do He seeketh an occasion to punish Cruda est cicatrix criminum oletque ut antrum Tartari says the Divine Prudentius in the subject Did one hair of an innocent person fall to the ground Then murmur not against God turn thy wrath upon the sinners and the heathen which have not known his name But is it too much to perish for all this Was the chastisement beyond measure Then let us say we are vexed and sore smitten then indignation lieth hard upon us like Rehoboams Scorpions Remember how the