can we spend our time more profitably than to speak of time as it is to be referred and allotted to the glory of him that made all time But that I may leave no part of my Treatise naked but cover that which I shall run through with some portion of my Text I must put you to call to mind what I delivered in general in two Sermons that these words excel both in the Letter and in the Spirit In the Letter they are part of a Psalm which was sung for Davids sake and for that Festival which the People kept to God for his Inauguration when he was made King over Israel In the Spirit they reach to Christ as David in most of his Psalms had more regard to Christ than to himself and that with two interpretations By some the whole Age of the Gospel is entituled the day of Christ for through the Gospel the terrours of Sin and Death and Hell are broken and we are comforted on every side to rejoyce and be glad By others among all Evangelical days the Feast of the Resurrection is pickt out by way of eminency for never did the Sun shine upon any day wherein we had more cause to triumph and be joyful than when the Son of God having been crucified for our sins did rise from death the third day to conquer mortality and corruption that we might live forever These Points being dispatcht in their proper season what is left to be handled Two things of great moment Beloved First the Resurrection of Christ did not only sanctifie that one day wherein he rose but occasion was taken from thence to sanctifie the first day of every Week to the Lord because Christ rose on the first day Hence I am your debtor to shew how this and every Sunday is the day which the Lord hath made and we must rejoyce and be glad in it Secondly Forasmuch as an holy day was appointed that all Israel might worship Jehovah for that precious benefit that so good a King as David was reigned over them therefore the Ordination of Festival days to profess thanksgiving for the high and excellent works of God becometh the Church for so good a sanction and becometh the righteous to be joyful in them Then of the Lords day for our ordinary Assemblies in Gods House and of holy Festivals for our extraordinary Assemblies these are the matter of my ensuing Discourse which I will follow upon the touchstone of truth and for the benefit of your edification Concerning the day which we keep weekly in the name of the Lord I must speak of it two ways in reference to Gods making and our rejoycing in reference to the Divine Sanction and out Sanctification The Divine Sanction of the day must be traversed in four Points 1. What ground we have for keeping the Lords day in the fourth Commandment 2. What ground we have for it from the Resurrection of Christ 3. What ground we have for it in the Gospel from the Precept of Christ or his Apostles And 4. What ground we have for it from the practise of the Apostles and from the practise of the Church in all ages In this piece of a Sermon I will deliver you my mind upon this Controversie which now adays makes voluminous disputes First It is manifest that the Fourth Commandment hath another air and Constitution in it than the other Nine Those Nine being consonant to the light of natural reason so that they bind the Conscience without a Law-giver this is neither principle or necessary conclusion of natural reason in such a clear manner as that a judicious man shall be forced upon understanding the terms to yield assent unto it And I wonder that any one should stumble so grosly to say that it is natural Law to keep every seventh day that is the last day or the first day of the Week holy when the distribution of time into Weeks is arbitrary and not natural This Commandment therefore having a composition in it diverse from the rest it hath somewhat in it particular to the state of the Jewish Synagogue and somewhat that binds the Christian Church For it doth not stand for a Cypher in the two Tables at this time as if the force of it were expired but there is somewhat in it which is Moral and obligeth mankind unto the end of the world The enforcement of the seventh day in strict and Sabbatical rest is out of date as well as the rest of the Pedagogical Ordinances of Moses But there is this Kernel within the shell that holy Assemblies are for ever to be called together at fit and convenient times to praise the Lord nay further reason and gratitude cannot imagine a more fit and convenient time than the constant solemnizing of a Seventh day nay than the constant observation of this Seventh day the first day of the Week Therefore I determine that we ground the keeping of the Lords day upon the fourth Commandment not upon the Letter of it for that were Jewish but upon the natural equity or moral contents of it We recede from the Letter as much as can be for they rested and we work on their Sabbath but to rest on the seventh day and to work on the seventh day cannot flow out of the same Statute For the moral equity we give all diligence to obey it and he that rejects the Lords Day or violates it transgresseth the Fourth Commandment because though neither that day there mentioned nor the determination of a Seventh day is absolutely commanded yet it is deduced out of it by consequence It is enough to have general and common Rules for Ecclesiastical Orders of time and place under the liberty of the Gospel And God gives us the light of discretion to draw out special rules at what time in what place with what Decorum and Order to meet together and if the governance of this discretion be not observed the Spirit of the Lord is disobeyed The Lord hath not given over his interest in our time but that we must allot some days and hours to his Service as it were for the redemption of all our time which is due unto him Neither hath he given us a vagrant liberty to serve him when we will but the out-goings of the Morning and Evening must praise him and we must often throng together at solemn times to worship him To go further though the Commandment hath not prefixt us a day for it prefixt no definite day but the Sabbath to the Jews yet it hath given us light what ought to be done by way of prudent Constitution viz. that we of the Evangelical Kingdom should grievously sin if we did not voluntarily devote as much time to the honour of God as the Jews were bound to do And then since the Lord did enforce why that day was enjoyned to them it was the day wherein the Lord did rest from his work and it was most pious that they should remember the benefit
and Saviour was God from everlasting and by him the worlds were created his hands had made and fashioned every one of these malicious Jews when their substance was yet imperfect in their mothers womb shall he not disdain then as well as Sophocles to contest in judgment with his own Creatures Ask Job if it be fit for God to come in judgment like the Son of Man No let his patience speak for his humility His fasting forty days for his sobriety his miracles and healing the sick for his charity his cleansing of the Temple of buyers and sellers for his zeal to the House of God Let Judas speak before he goes to his own execution let the Wife of Pilate speak and her vision let the Ruler himself speake his conscience and if these be silent the stones shall speak but let Jesus hold his peace and taciturnity it self shall prove him a just person Indeed I have seen a great evil under the Sun I do honour our Courts of Justice for my part and the municipal Laws of the Realm but I cry out shame upon this fault that it is grown an art among pleaders to be a good Accuser He that can aggravate a crime well is in good hope to be a thriving Practiser Alas if Accusers were charitable Innocents should not need to pay so dear for learned Counsel to defend them That which might be dispatch'd by yea and nay is grown a volume and if it be wyre-drawn by Statute upon Statute it will fill five hundred sheets of Paper Brethren this ought not to be so for pity sake let it not be so costly a matter to be a just person The truth of the Lord says David Psal xii Is like Silver purified seven times in a furnace of fire But this custom is grown so chargable that the truth of an honest man must be purified seven times in Silver If we had less eloquence among pleaders and more plain dealing a just person might come before Magistrates either as our Saviour prepared his Apostles Care not what to say The Holy Ghost shall direct you in an answer or else the Judge might find the defendant to be innocent as Pilate did esteem our Saviour when he answered not to his Accusers but stood dumb before him But hear a second reason more forcible than the former from the unanimous consent of all the Fathers Christ held his peace when his just dealing was suspected before Pilate Ne passionem suam impediret Lest upon manifestation of his good life his Passion had been hindred And what would he not suffer suspicions infamies imputations rather than the work of our Redemption should become void Though he went leisurely on foot from one City to another to preach the Gospel yet he would needs ride to Jerusalem to suffer nay rather than his Cross should be left behind or come tardy after he would carry it part of the way upon his own shoulders unto Golgotha There passed but a little time from midnight to mid-day betwixt his Attachment his Arraignment and his Execution as if his feet had stood upon thorns until his head was crowned with them After the manner of men who expect verily to be gathered to their Fathers his Grave was provided before he was dead in Josephs Garden Why did he not take Judas to Mount Olivet Why did he not carry him with Peter and James and John and cast him into a dead slumber in the Garden nay mark the Commission which he had for his Enterprise fac citò do it quickly as if he had been sent like Ahimaaz to outrun the rest of the Servants and to be the first that should betray him I had like to have said Judas was not the only one that did betray him let me speak it with reverence did he not betray himself when he gave up his life saying Whom seek ye I am he Take all the lump together so forward of his journey so mindful of his Cross so hasty to dismiss Judas so well provided of a Grave who would not presume that he would suffer his back-biters to revile him and say nothing David made this Cause both a Psalm and a Prophesie a Psalm of remembrance and a Prophesie of wonder I held my tongue and spake nothing I kept silence yea even from good words but it was pain and grief unto me His heavenly tongue should it have pleased him to touch the string of defence and apologie would have made the Judges to license his life and to fall down and worship him the Servants would have said to their Masters as the High Priests did sometimes to their Servants when they were astonisht at his speech and words What are you also taken to say more than this had he but shed a few tears when they smote him on the head as Moses did in the Ark of Bulrushes some mild spirit as merciful as Pharaohs Daughter would have rescued his life from the power of the Enemy So I have given you two observations warrantable why so just a person should neglect to purge himself of his accusation First the Enditements were grosly slanderous and therefore he would not speak Secondly he would endure such contradiction of sinners as the Apostle speaks rather than purchase deliverance from the Cross to hinder our redemption The consideration hereof will bring forth two Sons more unto Jacob a double speculation arising from the former First that Jesus could have hindred these bloody passions But secondly out of endless compassion he had set us as a Seal upon his hand and as a Signet upon his right arm and love was strong to death Passus est quia voluit He would not hinder them Posse nolle nobile He could have hindered his death The Jews were so far from thinking that such a feeble man in outward appearance could deliver himself that they did not think when He was fast and nailed that God could deliver him He trusted in God let him deliver him if He will have him Insultando quod non fieret non credendo quod factum esset says St. Austin not supposing that God could rescue him but braving him with that which was impossible O fools and slow of heart this was not the unruly Sacrifice impotent to help it self bound with cords to the horns of the Altar but such a Prisoner as St. Paul was Act. xvi who might have sprung out of prison when the doors were opened by the Angel but yet contented himself in bonds without liberty or enlargement Give me leave to forespeak your attention and I will discourse unto you briefly in the conclusions of the Schoolmen how the humanity of our Saviour might have been exempted from death and passion First had it pleased him to discover his Glory as he did at the Transfiguration in Mount Tabor would He but charm the Jews from their furious outrage with one graceful word what Devil durst have laid hands upon him Tun ' homo audes occidere Caium
I would confess it impossible but to instance in the principal parts I will divide them into four quarters that you may see how the punishment of the Jews is proportionable to the injuries which they did unto out Lord 1. He was bound like a Malefactor and are not the Jews made Bond-slaves and Captives for ever 2. He was blinded that he might be buffeted and what is so blind as the heart of that Nation 3. He was spat upon and reviled they hated him without a cause And no people under the Sun every where more hated and disaffected Lastly He was murdered with the death of the Cross the death of malediction And according to their stubbornness and infidelity we can scarce say less in charity than that the death of malediction is faln upon them As the Prophet Amos said For three transgressions and for four I will not turn away my punishments from Israel because they sold the righteous for Silver and the poor for a pair of Shooes To be enthralled without Liberty to be blind without Light to be hated without Love to be condemned without Mercy thus I have quartered out the dismal sorrows of that Nation which spilt his bloud and speaking a word briefly of each part I will conclude this exercise First They bound the Messias and they themselves are Captives That Caesar whom they stood so much for before Pilate even he did pervert the Nation and destroy the Temple In Mount Olivet they did first lay hands upon Christ in Mount Olivet says Josephus the Roman Souldiers did first entrench themselves to besiege Hierusalem The unutterable misery of their City how it was taken and defaced is so common a story that I will not spend the time to rehearse it As the punishment of the Deluge was fifteen Cubits higher than the tallest Mountains of the earth so the punishment of that City was fifteen times greater than that mighty City Within the Walls the Famine was so great that it parched their bodies and dried up their living moisture that Children had not tears to weep over their dead Parents Nay the living had not strength enough to dig a grave to bury the dead Without the Walls their Prisoners were so paid with the same coin which they dealt unto our Saviour Ut spatium crucibus deesset corporibus cruces That the field did not afford room enough to set up so many Crosses or had there been space in the field there was not wood in the Mountains to make so many And do they not think the Cross of Christ did work in this affliction As Tertullian said to the Heathen you have sent offerings heretofore to the Temple you have bestowed gifts upon Jerusalem Nunquam nunc dominaturi nisi Deo in Christum deliquissent Nay says Josephus if the Sword of Titus had not cut them short their crimes were so unnatural and so desperate that the wrath of Sodom and Gomorrha had rained down upon them When that desolation shall come says the great Prophet whom they hanged on a tree you will call upon the Hills to cover you and the Mountains to fall upon you Sic in cavernis collibus se abscondiderunt says Beda they did lurk in Groats and Caves of the Rocks to avoid the Romans and so fulfilled the Prophesie ever since that black day O populus natus ad servitutem They have lost the remembrance of liberty They cannot say of any parcel of ground in the earth this is our field and our possession Of all the men upon the earth they are the only Nation under heaven that have neither portion in earth nor in heaven When the City was lost Adrian would never suffer them to return to see it unless it were to mourn and sorrow and then they must pay for it Sic qui sanguinem Christi vendunt jam suas lachrymas emunt They bargained for Christs bloud and they pay for their own tears Non est tutus Judaeus ad Ecclesiam confugiens says the Canon Law They only have no safety though they betake them to the protection of a Church Other men are Lords of that wealth which God hath bestowed upon them but they are Tributaries ad placitum spung'd every year as the necessity of the Prince requires Money can never prosper with them since they bought our Lord. Indeed Judas sold him the Jews did buy him and they gave him to Pilate and so the Gentile hath purchased him Other men can be avenged of the insolencies of their Adversaries and so every man lives in peace under his own Vine and under his own Fig-tree but they are never quiet for violence and outrages committed against their person Ideo Judaei pacem habere non possunt quia seditionum principem eligere maluerunt says Isidor How can they hope for rest who refused the Prince of peace and chose Barrabas the Prince of seditions The next Viol of vengeance is the gross darkness of their heart ever since they blinded our Saviour If Samson be blinded and put to scorn shall he not pluck down the Theater upon the Princes and upon the People If Elisha be scoft at shall he not call for Bears to devour the Children The Disciples forsook Christ and ran away at midnight this night you shall be offended at me In nocte scandalizantur says Origen and Peter plunged himself into that fearful denial ante gallicinium before the crowing of the Cock this betokened that they sinned out of ignorance and therefore were received into favour upon repentance But for the High Priests and Elders Mane facto consilium capiunt when it was morning they took counsel against Jesus Hoc est scientes peccant in lumine says that Author They sinned by broad day-light as it were against their own conscience and they that did so much abuse the light are cast into a long darkness for ever The miraculous Eclipse of the Sun says St. Hierom an Emblem of that blindness which should possess them was not over the whole Hemisphere of the world but only in Jury For neither Graecian Astronomer nor Arabian do speak of it Wanderers they were in the Wilderness about forty years wanderers they have been in their vain imaginations almost two thousand Then they were directed as the clouds went before them now they are guided by Vapours and Pillars of smoak After our Saviours Ascension eight years were spent when St. Matthew wrote his Gospel and yet even to that day they did report and believe that his Disciples stole him away by night What when the Souldiers slept If they were broad awake says St. Austin why would they suffer the body to be so conveyed If they were fast asleep which way came they to know the conveyance Beda takes this to be not a story but a Prophesie in the Gospel that the Jews shall be so hardened in unbelief that they shall give credence to that report for ever This it is to curse themselves with such an
betray me by the warning of the sop by rebuke and confusion Judas betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss though the treachery was permitted yet these were impediments though not such as would take place with a Reprobate Secondly God is no idle Spectator upon the actions of men whether good or bad where he permits the Devil to draw us into temptation his hand is not quite taken off from our sins but that he moderates our offences and that many ways as stopping our sins at such a quantity and excess that they shall go no further they that had power given them to kill Christ had not power to break his legs a bone of him could not be broken and the Lord sets other moments of time than the sinner casts about for himself as no man could lay hands on Christ yet the Pharisees fingers itcht at him because his hour was not yet come Therefore thirdly it must hang together with that which goes before that God disappoints a wicked man of that which he intends in his naughtiness and brings it about to his own glorious ends As Joseph said to his Brethren Ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good Gen. l. 20. Deus cogitavit id ipsum in bonum convertere Junius adds that unto it God did provide to convert it unto good Neither is our faith endangered hereupon to suspect God as the cause of sin because he draws his own ends out of evil that He may do and yet be no Author of sin but abhor it because He is Lord of those Creatures that sin and rebel against him and the Creature can no more exempt it self from his dominion because it is sinful then because it is sinful it will escape his Law or dissolve it self to nothing So then the antecedent Doctrin is summ'd up into this Thesis If you ask in these terms what was the cause of Christs death the answer is it was Gods Decree and eternal Statute for as much as He loved us with an everlasting love and would not spare his own Son to pull us out of destruction Again if you ask who was the cause that Christ was buffeted spot upon crowned with thorns crucified the answer is the Devil and his Instruments but when the Lord foresaw how their cruelty and blasphemy would abound his Counsel did direct moderate confine their sin and his loving kindness towards us that He might shew us plenteous redemption did permit it The ancient Fathers of the Church thought this the truest and most inoffensive conclusion to refer the injurious slaughter of Christ not to Gods ordination but to his permission You heard Leo's judgment before to whom St. Austin agrees The Jews enacted a sin which the righteous Lord did not compel them to do for no sin doth please him sed facturos esse praevidit quem nihil latuit but this was foreseen of him to whom nothing is concealed Yet St. Chrysostom more clearly that the scope of this part of St. Peters Sermon to the Jews is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was not their rage and violence which could have prevailed against Christ if God had not permitted it for as He did not command the evil Spirit to seduce Ahab and his flattering Prophets but the Devil offering himself and being most desirous to do that mischief God gave him leave and would not inhibit him so the Jews were not authorized or ordained or stirred up from God to shew that prodigious hatred to his Son but He yielded him up to their fury and did not deliver him therefore Christ did not say Father why hast thou given me up into their hands but my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Surely this is the scope of my Text and I believe they shoot wide from the mark that collect from hence that St. Peters meaning was either to excuse their heinous trespass or else to comfort their wounded conscience because Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God no all the comfort which was administred is vers 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins There is no comfort under the Sun no balm in the world for a miserable sinner but repent and believe that there is abundant mercy in the satisfaction of Christ Jesus and for excuse that little extenuation of their fact which could be made is chap. iii. ver 17. Ye desired a Murtherer and killed the Prince of Life but I wote that through ignorance you did it as did also your Rulers these are plain and divine Allegations and there is no colour to help the greatness of their sin either from the determinate counsel or from the foreknowledg of God not from the determinate counsel for they had not an eye in the crucifying of Christ to comply with Gods counsel but to satiate their own spleen and hatred for impious men may execute that which God is content should come to pass and yet they do nothing less than obey God for obedience is not grounded upon the thing done but upon the readiness and duty of the will in doing beside was there any Law that commanded the High-Priests to crucifie our Saviour for God doth ever reveal his will in some Law No such Law I am sure therefore no obedience in this bloudy work of the Jews For no man can be said to obey that doth not know the will of the Lord neither doth direct his actions by the Rule of any Commandment And what had they to do with Gods secret counsel They had not the least glimpse of it Therefore my Text chargeth them home Ye have taken him and by wicked hands have crucified and slain him It is an error to amaze a man that reads it in the Popes Canon Law that because it was the counsel of the holy Trinity and the obedience of Christ to humble himself unto death even unto the death of the Cross therefore the Jews had sinned deadly if they had not crucified him It was well rejoyn'd by one that he wondred how the dumb and dead Paper did not stand up refusing to take that ink wherewith such an abominable blasphemy should be printed whereby the immaculate Lamb of God in whom there was no sin is affirmed to be justly and worthily condemned But will the fore-knowledge of God and that permission which followed it plead any part of their pardon Nothing less his fore-knowledge compels no man into the way of perdition God fore-sees iniquity in us because we will be evil but we are not made evil because he foresees it There have been always some in the world whom the Devil hath blinded with pernicious error making them dream of inevitable Fate and Destiny chiefly knitting this fallacy to fool themselves that Gods fore-sight cannot be deceived therefore such sins as he foresaw they would fall into are not to be declined St. Austin reprehended one of his Colledge
Paul and when we do those things which Nature her self is asham'd at and blusheth then we are dead the second day 3. God gave us a Law by Moses for the spark which he had kindled in nature was almost put out and it was time to dig that into stone which was worn out in flesh and he that violates the Law of Moses is dead the third day 4. Sin is grown strong by the Law Precept upon Precept made us the worse corruption in the soul is like an ill affected body it desires that most which is forbidden And therefore Christ gave us Legem Evangelii a short Lesson Repent and believe which is called the Law of the Gospel and if we violate that Law it is the fourth day of death and we begin to stink in the Sepulcher What an hard task hath Christ what a troublesome work have we put him to to diminish the power of original sin to rectifie the impairs and decays of Nature to satisfie for the Law but above all to mollifie a stony heart that will not believe to quicken an unrepentant heart this is dignus vindice nodus Martha and Mary sent to Christ when their Brother was sick to come and help now he had more need of Christ quatriduanus est this is the Parable of a sinner that will not believe the Gospel Help Lord and raise us up for who else can do it but the Lord Five Miracles you shall meet with in this Gospel of St. John four of which are recorded by no other Evangelist every one is greater than another but this is the Master-piece The first was turning of Water into Wine at Cana in Galilee Christ at the first conversion makes us quite other men than we were before cold water becoms warm and chearful wine 2. Follows the scourging of the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple that signifies contrition and compunction of the heart when theevish fancies such as steal away our soul are cashiered from the holy place 3. A man was healed at Bethesda that had been sick of an infirmity 38 years Custom in sin and want of devotion is a sore languishing sickness it is more to cure them than to cast the den of theeves out of the Temple 4. A man born blind was restored to his sight he that languished 38 years had enjoyed health before but he that was born blind was never better and it exceeded all the rest to dispel ignorance and blindness quando synteresis extincta est when the light of the conscience was quite put out But fifthly what talk we of sickness or blindness the dead man the Graves Tenant for four dayes dead by original sin dead by imperfection of nature dead by disobedience to the Law dead by unbelief and want of faith in Christ dead four days is raised up Tollite lapidem says Christ away with the stone removete legis pondus gratiam praedicate away with the burden that lies heavy upon him preach grace and remission of sins unto him and he shall live Behold another Moral of the same Authors in the Sermons de tempore if they be St. Austins Sin when it is made very sinful grows up by four degrees titillatione consensu facto consuetudine 1. By delighting in the suggestions of sin not but that suggestions of sin are sin but I speak of the growth of sin and not the root 2. By consenting to those delights 3. By committing the evil whereunto we consented 4. By continuing in the custom of delight and consent and committing evil Delight is the rotting of the seed in the ground Consent is the blade Commission of evil is the grown fruit Custom is the root that fastens it to the ground the seed may quickly be pickt up the blade may be blasted the fruit may be cut down but the root lies deep hidden you must plow and turn up the earth and dig deep before you can get it out In the 3 former parts the waves of ungodliness are coming up but custom is the inundation of iniquity the stream that goes over our head It was said of one Mandrabulus that the Oracle of Apollo pronounced against him that he grew worse and worse For out of a thankful mind for all his happiness received the first year he offered up a Gold Cup he repented him of his cost and the next year it was a Cup of Silver yet he thought he was too bountiful and the third year it was a Boul of Wood the fourth year he thought he had been thankful enough and gave just nothing Now says Apollo is Mandrabulus as bad as He can be So the heart which pleaseth it self with vicious cogitations is much corrupted yet God may still have the better part The heart that makes a bargain with Satan to do injustice is half the Devil 's yet the Body is not defiled with the act The body also may be an instrument of uncleanness then the heart is even lost and gone yet it may detest the fact and return unto the Lord. But when custom hath as it were sealed the Covenant to the Devil and delivered up the Deed the case is very desperate all the heart is in the enemies hand Lazarus is under a Grave-stone four days Difficilè surgit quem moles malae consuetudinis premit he will hardly swim above water again that is cast into the bottom of the Gulf with a Milstone of evil custom about his neck Yet Christ can quicken him as he did Lazarus I do not deny it but let no man treasure up sin as it were to prepare himself to repent of such a mass of iniquities but let no man dispair of that repentance if frailty have overtaken him If you feel your self incline to presume of repentance says St. Austin oppose against it the uncertain hour of death if you feel your self incline to despair of repentance oppose against it the abundance of grace Moderation is the best When sin doth post from delight to consent from consent to act from act to custom yet after four days says Christ Lazarus come forth So much of that circumstance Lazarus quatriduanus that being four days dead he was raised up to life It follows to be considered Lazarus ligatus he was bound hand and foot with grave-cloaths and his face with a Napkin He was laid like a pledge in the grave and bound for security Christ was willing to release him some bonds he cancelled himself and some he left to be untied by others As for the bonds of death God did bind them and unloose them as for the bonds of the grave-cloaths let them unknit them that made the knot God did unty that which God bound let men unty their own work and then they are sure there can be no deceit As if our Saviour had said I know you will say of Lazarus as you did of the man born blind This is not he Will you deny it But here is your own
also thinks to elude the Scripture with a distinction that his holy Mother did first see him on this day non ad confirmationem dubii sed ad consolationem gaudii not to confirm her faith so he appeared first to Mary Magdalen who wavered and distrusted but no fill her with gladness If these things were so why did not the Book of God explain them if these things be not so why do they pretend Tradition without authority The truth is Gerardus a learned Lutheran hath taught us with more likelihood than ever any before how some unwary Clerks stumbled upon this error Epiphanius in his 68 Heres against the Marsalians lapsing in memory alleageth the words of Christ Touch me not to be spoken to his Mother when he first rose from the dead which indeed were spoken to Mary Magdalen and from hence came the misprision that he appeared first to his Mother when he rose from the dead Not out of desire to quarrel any thing that might justly concern the honour of the Blessed Virgin but for truths sake I have vindicated this Scripture that Christ first appeared to Mary Magdalen she saw his resurrection in the first bud and not only as others did in the blown flower You might have imagined this favour would have faln upon his Apostles or upon Joseph of Arimathea the Lord of the Soil where he first appeared but he was first found of her that first sought him especially he came first to her who gave greatest attendance to meet with him She brought a company of women with her to the Tomb before the Sun rose they were all vanisht but her self She fetcht Peter and John they came and lookt in and shrunk away Their going away commends her staying behind she held out to the last till at last her joy was fulfilled Reason good that those that run longest in the race should be first rewarded Our patience I fear is not so firm and stedfast as hers was if we have not every thing we ask for at the first we think our zeal is prejudiced and we utterly give over as if God were not our King on whom we waited but our Servant that must come at the first call Whereas you shall never speed with a twitch and be gon but with importunity and pertinacy The Kingdom of Heaven is gotten by violence and the violent take it by force But beside as all note it was her great love to Christ that made her partaker of the first-fruits of his glory a love that hath great perfection in it in contraries in the hardiness of her courage and in the softness of her mourning In the hardiness of her courage for do you know upon what pikes she run to stay so long at the Sepulcher of our Lord. As Thomas noted into what danger our Saviour embarked himself when he told his Disciples Lazarus is dead and we will go unto him Let us also go and die with him says Thomas So there were Souldiers abroad to watch the Sepulcher Spies in every corner from the High-Priests to mark who did confess and honour our Saviour to go to his Tomb much more to stay at it was in effect to say let us go and die with him we care not for our lives But true love esteems it sweet to suffer for his sake to whose memory their affection is constantly devoted And she that was thus magnanimous to die for him was a true woman in compassion and wept exceedingly because his body was lost They were tears mistaken as most tears are unless we weep for our sins As one says well our life is full of false sorrows and false joys we laugh when we have no cause to be merry and we weep when we have no cause to be sad So Mary laments that Christs body was not in the Sepulcher which truly known was the greatest cause of rejoycing that ever the world had No mans injury had brought that to pass but his own power and glory yet certainly her weeping was reputed as an office of love and zeal because she did it ignorantly out of a pious intention and we are all so addicted to profuse mirth that God doth seldom make a bad construction of mourning But alass how often do we lose God by sin through our own default which is the worst taking away of all and yet we afflict not our heart at the mischance we grieve not for it O weep for the light of that grace which we often lose and the day-spring of comfort will rise again in our consciences But it may be for all this Christ would not first have appeared to her after he was risen but that she was one out of whom in times past he had cast out seven Devils To the letter of the words be thus much said before I come to make application out of them the story runs concerning this Party that she had led a very wicked and a scandalous life for which she suffered this judgment from the Lord and very deservedly that she was made a prey to the Devil and seven evil spirits entred into her possest her wrackt her and tormented her But if seven evil spirits should take up their quarter in every Strumpet in these days wherein they abound I think their would not be Devils enough in Hell to furnish them I know that some who dip their Pen too much in allegories expound it not as if the very Devils themselves but as if the seven deadly sins had taken up their seat in her This is wrong for Luke viii 2. we find that there were with Christ certain women that had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities among whom was Mary Magdalen out of whom went seven devils Therefore it is not to be gainsaid but she was really dispossessed of seven infernal spirits that had entred into her Upon the account of this benefit she began to turn her heart to the fear of the Lord and grew up from grace to grace till no Disciple of her sex was more godly in her profession more servent in love more sincere in amendment of life Now out of all the Train that believed in the Name of the Lord he chose this convertita whom he had so mightily raised up to newness of life from the power of Satan I say he selected such an one to appear first unto her that the Church might know that such humble sinners as were partakers of his greatest mercy should also be partakers of his greatest glory And let every conscience which hath been opprest with the burden of iniquity refresh it self with this hope that our Redeemer liveth to gather those unto him whose iniquities have been many but they are washed clean in his bloud and are buried in his Grave As you have those comfortable words sounded in your ears before the receiving of the Lords Supper Come unto me all ye that are weary c. But thus Christ did as it were celebrate the resurrection of the body from
world and therefore Dulia a petty Worship will serve for them to cross this absurdity I confess that God is honourable alike as in one Appellation so in another but our eternal happiness is granted unto us by this Appellation more than any other But when as Samuel came to anoint one of the Sons of Jessai for a King Eliab was beautiful in his eyes and so was Abinadab and so was Shammah but God would have the Horn of Oyl poured only upon the head of David So let every tongue confess that the names of Jehovah Elohim Immanuel and Christ are reverend and glorious and worthy that our knees should stoop unto them as low as Earth and our lips carry them as high as Heaven But Peter hath wrought Miracles by the Name of Jesus and Paul hath preach'd glorious things of the Name of Jesus therefore my Soul and Body shall be prostrate to that Name especially which is wonderful and holy The neglect of this is an undutiful omission yet I reckon it not in the place of the greatest sins But the greatest reproach and dishonour which the Name of God doth suffer is in the mouth of the Swearer and Blasphemer that is the Tongue whereof St. James speaks that is set on fire from Hell Yea and Nay the trial of all truth is accounted in this dissolute Age precise and simple communication What God is he that you swear by so often Is it not he that gave you breath and can stop your breath at a moment Whose Bloud is that you swear by Even that Bloud which should wash away your sins is unto you an occasion of more pollution Whose Wounds are these you swear by Even those Wounds wherein you should bury your sins make them live unto condemnation as St. Hierom said Ipse aer constupratur scelestis vocibus that ribald obscene talk did adulterate the air So I may say of Oaths that are vomited up from the superfluity of sin Ipse aer profanatur scelestis vocibus the Air is prophaned and unhallowed by abusing the Name of God Lord to what an excess this windy airy sin of Swearing is come to I think for one reason the Devil may be called the Prince of the Air because he is the Prince of such blasphemous language And so much for the Honour due to the Name of God But secondly to Honour his Name and to disobey his Word is to imitate those disloyal Subjects of the Emperour Maximilian they called Maximilian scornfully Regem Regum a King of Kings it was because the Nobles that were under him lived like Kings without subjection or obedience Or it is to make such a God to our selves as the Church of Rome makes Bishops in the East the one is called Bishop of Antioch another called Bishop of Jerusalem and Title enough they have if that would maintain them but nothing else Keep your Masters Commandments and love his Ordinances to do them and then God is Honoured Concerning Obedience read and observe the life and death of Saul he would sacrifice to God and that of the fattest Cattel among all the Flocks of the Amalekites Why this was Honour one would think No it was not juxta Verbum Domini according to the word which was brought unto him by the mouth of Samuel and God prefers Obedience before Sacrifice This is the reason says Aquine in Sacrifice we offer up the flesh of a beast but in Obedience we offer up our own will unto God The Jews did so much esteem the killing Letter of the Law that they wore it as the chief ornament of their Vesture in the Fringe of their Garments as Frontlets before their eyes and about the wrists of their hands mark but that before their eyes for meditation about their arms for practise and execution There is a rule in Physick says a learned Bishop Per brachium fit judicium de corde The Veins come from the heart to the hand and there Physicians take their Crisis by their Pulse and motion So it is in Divinity you must make conscience of your knowledge by your practice and obey the word David held the word of God super mille pondo auri argenti above thousands of Gold and Silver Solomon esteemed the Law to be as bright as the Sun in the Firmament Praeceptum Domini lucidum illuminans oculos You have heard of Idolaters that have worshipped the Sun and Moon Much more let true Believers reverence the Law of God which is brighter than the Sun in the Firmament for so Elias thought and he covered his face with a Mantle as soon as ever the Lord spake as if the voice of the Lord were eyes sufficient to see by and he needed not the eyes of this body But far above Kings and Prophets and all the Sons of men the holy Angels are so ready to do Gods will that you shall scarce once read in Scripture that they were bid to go of Gods Errand but before you could say Do this they were gone to dispatch the Lords Employment Surely as it was a great abasement for the Word which was God to be united to the flesh of man so it is a great Honour for man who is but flesh to be united in obedience to the Word of God To contract my self in this Point Remember what manner of Law it is that we should obey St. Paul says it is sancta justa bona holy in respect of God that gave it just toward all men in civil commerce good for our selves to live in peace and safety What yoke then is more easie than the yoke of that Law which is holy and just and good Now in the third place as the Air which we hear sounding in our ears by concretion says Philosophy becomes clear water and may be seen so the Word of God which we hear preached unto the Ear in the holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper becomes verbum visibile a visible word in wine and water Honour one and honour the other for though they be twain in the administration yet in effect they are but one and the same one in application of our Saviours merits and the mercies of God one in fruit and efficacy to wash away our sins and to cleanse our Soul For as the bright Constellation which we call the Morning and Evening Star is one and the same So Christ in Baptism is the Morning light which illuminates Infants anon after they peep into the world and Christ in his Last Supper is the Evening Star Vltimum viaticum a light to shew every man the right way out of the world that is going to Heaven As one said of Prayer that it was due unto God when we rise and when we go to bed as a Morning and an Evening Sacrifice and therefore it might be called Clavis diei sera noctis the Key to open the day and the Bolt to lock in the night So I may say of the two Sacraments that they
especially overtop the Mountains and his voice delighteth to shake the Cedars of Libanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. says Plutarch Among Mariners not one that dies a quiet death among ten but among evil Kings not one among ten thousand As their life is infectious unto many so is their doom dreadful unto many and that is the second reason why he was smitten Thirdly The people were not altogether free from chastisement I am sure not free from terrour in Herods castigation Look now upon him that was your Idol look ye Sidonians upon the empty cloud which you did blow into the air nay above the heavens with the breath of your mouth How is it vanished and come to nothing Imagine Beloved with what astonishment the whole Assembly was dissolved if their Consciences were not as full of Worms as Herod's body Fourthly Says St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To enlarge the Fathers meaning Clemency and Justice when they meet together attend how they may punish few and save many Vt poena ad paucos metus ad omnes perveniret Wherefore judge in your own reason if Herod had been spared and a great Assembly punished they all were sure to perish he perchance might be amended but if Herod suffer the Malediction one man feels the smart and the whole Assembly may repent and be saved Fifthly and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the same Father Let the Rabble go home in peace for this time they were not all white for harvest upon that day but behold the end Where is Caesarea now Or who almost knows the Sidonian They have learnt to know by dear experience that Thunder and Judgment is the Voice of God and not an Eloquent Oration The Sum and Doctrine of this Point is thus much First It is dangerous for a Magistrate it is certain Judgment for men whom God hath blessed with honourable and plentiful fortunes to defile themselves with scandalous vices You have Plenty in your Houses What need you to be unjust Your State is able to subsist by it self What need you to flatter You may have Families and Wives and Children Why should you be Adulterers Your Provision is not scanty Why do you eat and drink in excess as if they were things which you had not daily It is not for Princes to drink Wine that is not unto Drunkenness says the Prophesie of Lemuel which his Mother taught him A nullo periculo fortuna principum longiùs abest quà m ab humilitate The worst thing which happens to a magnificent life is that it is not obnoxious unto humility Secondly It is no less dangerous when a whole Kingdom and City or any collected multitude set their face against heaven Judgment may seem to have forgot them as these Sidonians departed safely in my Text but in time the Lord will root out such a Nation Well then when the flattering Assembly had deserved a vengeance Herod only carries it to his grave What shall I say As the Child that threw a stick at the dog which barked at him and hit his Mother-in-law who had long afflicted him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I meant the Dog but it is well as it is says the Child so that Princes may see they have no priviledge to be flattered whatsoever the People deserved Gods judgment fell not amiss upon Herod and he was smitten Tantus periit the second thing follows Tantus à tanto he was smitten by an Angel of the Lord. If these men says Moses concerning Core Dathan and Abiram If these men die the common death of all men if they be visited after the visitation of all men then the Lord hath not sent me Strange Wickednesses procure strange kinds of Death If the Earth will not avenge them the Angel of the Lord will come down and fight Do the Trees of Paradise deserve to have a Cherubin set before them with a flaming Sword And shall not all the Host of heaven stand about the Majesty of the Most High and see the honour of his name preserved But there is a controversie whether this Angel were not one of the evil Spirits now commanded to inflict a disease upon Herods bowels For say they it were as great a torture for the Devil to punish Herod for Pride as for Herod to suffer it because it calls their own sin to remembrance for which they are fettered in chains of darkness And Josephus gave the occasion to this opinion augmenting the story of Herods death with this circumstance that an Owl at this very moment perched upon the silken strings of his Canopy which the King took to be a Presage of his death and was no doubt a tenour substituted by Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Homer says a Bird of fatal Praediction and such a one is said to have affronted Innocent the Third as he was declaring his own Title in the Council of Lateran For my part I am not averse to believe Josephus in this part of the Story because in all other points he doth follow the Evangelist And the sight of some uncouth Creature is able to put an evil Conscience into a perplexity worse than death Every thing is dismal to a guilty mind like Archimedes his Engines dreadful to the Romans if a Timber-log or Cable-rope did but shew it self upon the Walls of Syracusa But though the relation of the Owl be true the Spirit of God would not mention it in holy Scripture lest it should encrease our ignorance who are superstitions to be afraid of the crossings and apparitions of beasts and such other casualties Let it be then that this evil Vision affrighted Herod yet it is more likely that the Angel was one of the blessed which smote him that he died For although the good Angels are sometimes called evil ones ab effectu as the Psalmist says of the Israelites that God sent evil Angels among them yet the unclean Spirits are never stiled by this honourable compellation to be called the Angels of the Lord. And give me leave to please my self a little in this conjecture God would not permit vengeance of death to be executed against a King by any power inferiour to an Angel of light It is the priviledge of their Unction their immediate subjection to God alone which exempts them from the hand of all other authority yea from the fury of infernal Spirits Wherefore the Jesuits own tender conscience which is as soft as Flint dare not say that a King is obnoxious to death till some unnatural Sentence of deposition go before Which resembles methinks the very first passage in Aristophanes You dare not strike me says Charion the Servant having a Crown upon my head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says his Master I will first take your Crown from you so first the Jesuits lay down rules of Arts to depose Princes and then their Devil ships say that you may use them as you will Well though Herod deserved the worst
Visions that he could take no notice for the present that he lived or had a body but his Spirit was quite abstracted from the senses and lifted up to converse with supernatural speculations Now to sum up this Point touching the modus how John saw the souls of the blessed you shall hear how St. Austin made no scruple of the like case The Angel appeared to Joseph in a dream How did Joseph see an Angel when his eyes were shut Nay rather says the Father how could he have seen an Angel if his eyes had been open So the more the senses of this Prophet were bound up the less communication he had with his mortal nature the more capable he was to see the secrets of God It were no digression at all to tell you at large in this place that St. John was not every body when he saw the Mysteries of the Ages to come in an holy trance Examine him from the time that he was the beloved Disciple while his Master Jesus Christ was upon the earth behold him in his other cognizances that he was an unspotted Virgin a patient Confessor An Evangelist that sored higher than his fellows an Eagle in his Gospel but a Dove in his Epistles where every line is enchased with Jewels of love the aged Patriarch who had long survived all the Apostles the Oracle that resolved all the Churches in their Controversies Finally that supereminent man that left not his like behind him and since his days his equal did never rise up after him Put all this together and mark what a sanctified Vessel this was to see the souls under the Altar and all those things which the Angel told him should come to pass in the days to come What wretch can think himself so prepared as he was to receive these Prophetical graces of God With how many favours of God is a Vision qualified to make it a perfect illumination Let it deter any one that is not possessed with the spirit of Arrogance to think that he is possessed with the spirit of Divination Quia videre non possumus audiamus says St. Austin There is no hope that we vile sinners should see such Visions it is our blessedness that we hear of them What laughter doth it give our Adversaries that this caution is not observed among us we had proof of it lately and almost year by year every hair-brain'd Schismatick that out of pride thinks himself more holy than others fancies that he is a Prophet These filthy dreamers presume they have learnt all that the Scriptures can teach them and therefore like apt Scholars they must be promoted to an higher Form to learn supernal Revelations As the Romanists are excessive in forging lies for their Saints sakes so these are excessive in forging lies for their own sakes both are liars both are Legendaries It was a gift which St. Austin says his Mother Monica had that she could distinguish inter Deum revelantem animam somniantem she knew when God gave her a supernatural inspiration in her sleep and when it was but a common dream By what mark or token could she do this Nay none at all Nescio quo sapore quem verbis explicare non poterat she could not express by what relish of the soul she made a difference between them Of whom have our modern Wizzards it is too good a name if I do not put frentique to it I say of whom have these phrentique persons learnt the trick of Divination Since they that were Prophets upon earth could not teach another how to be a Prophet If St. John knew how he saw this Theory in heaven it was his priviledge alone or with some very few more But God doth not carve a Prophet out of every Christian And so much de modo videndi which is the first Point Take the object now to your attention which he saw an object too subtil to be discerned by a bodily creature but disclosed to this Apostle in his Rapture in the excellency of Revelation he saw the souls of the blessed in heaven It could not out of Tertullians mind as I told you before but that he thought the soul when it was separated from the body had some bodily figure and dimension in it Those polite heathen men indeed whom he had perused did speak grosly in the point as if the Soul after it left this world did flit about the Elysian fields in the form of a thin cloud witness that fancy of the best Poets Infelix simulacrum atque ipsius umbra Creüsae And it is no injustice to excuse such Authors for though the substance of the Soul be incorporeal yet it is impossible for one of us to conceive a Spirit or an Angel but by the help of some corporeal Idea it is a true Metaphysical rule Nihil intelligimus in hôc statu sine verbo materiali in intellectu we understand every thing in this life by some material expression within our selves yet we are able by the undeniable proofs of Art to transcend the narrowness of our own fancy and to affirm that the soul cannot choose but be immaterial that it is not circumscriptive in any place though it have a determined and defined subsistence But this is no time to Philosophize and our Saviours words will carry it clear without the help of Humane Arguments Handle me and see a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have Luk. xxiv 39 which is thus in effect there is no corporeity in a Spirit And the Sixth general Council held against the Monothelites hath these weighty words Nascitur Deus humano corpore animam rationalem incorpoream habens The Son of God had an humane body with a reasonable and incorporeal soul I dismiss that Point it shall not hold you longer There are those that doubt it in their heart or at least they live as if they doubted it whether their soul hath a second state in reversion after this life Can there be any exception against such a Witness as St. John that was taken up into heaven to relate the truth to all Generations upon earth Why he saw the souls of the Saints in a triumphant and immortal condition after they were uncloathed of the body There cannot be an Apparition of that which had ceased to be that were a delusion Not one natural Writer that had a sound brain but maintained that the soul did survive the body and that it was at best liberty when it was released from the prison of the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle that the Mind or Spirit can subsist by it self not mixt with any composition not affected with passions They could not search far enough why it should be so they never discovered that the dissolution of the soul from the body was brought into the world after Adam was created for the punishment of sin but their dim Candle gave them light to see that the soul was
apt to be separated I suppose an Epicure may lose his conscience in a mist for a little while and dispute it like a Galenist that the soul is nothing else but the temperature of the first qualities and so in death extinguished but can you imagine that the Spirit it self doth not often give him the lie and say within his breast you do me wrong I am immortal Verily I believe that they that put it off doubtingly and would be uncontrouled in their voluptuousness it may be it is not so are often tormented with the other part of the opinion it may be it is so If you will hear this truth upheld out of holy Scripture there is no resistance or cavillation against it Because I will not tie my self to every Text which chimes that way I will choose compendiously where others have made choice before me The Sadduces being stiff opposers against the separated existence of the Spirit and yet commending themselves in the Holy Patriarchs from whose Loyns they descended our Saviour selected that Scripture above all other to convict them which would catch them in their own net I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living How was God the God of Abraham unless he lived And in what did Abraham live but in his soul which was divorced from the body Irenaeus admires that any one should doubt of the souls perseverance after death since the enarration is so â—lear that the rich man saw Lazarus in joys when himself was tormented St. Hierom sets his rest upon those words Mat. x. 22. Fear not them that kill the body but are not able to kill the soul St. Austin recommends the words of Stephen to nick the Point without all contradiction Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Si animus moriturus esset causae nihil foret cur animum potiùs quà m corpus commendaret Aquinas against the Gentiles lays his strength upon that place of St. Paul 2 Cor. v. 8. We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with God One quotation were enough then how forcible are all these together He must be a beast in understanding that knows not that the souls of good men are Angels in reversion There are others that profess so much faith that the soul hath a state of happiness in reversion to those that die in the favour of God But that it comes not to any gust of this happiness till the end of the World For the soul say they falls asleep when the body perisheth that is it dies together with the body and when the flesh shall be quickned again and gathered out of the dust then the soul shall live again when both it and the body shall be exalted in the Resurrection I do not create Monsters to fight with all St. Austin found such Hereticks in his days he calls them Arabians who taught it every where that the Soul had no being after death till in the consummation of the World they both obtained together a joyful Resurrection Nay these Tares were sown long before St. Austin lived Irenaeus took the pains to root them up in his Age and he confutes them out of my Text says he how did St. John see the souls of the Martyrs who had been slain for the Testimony of Christ if the Soul should cease to be till the final Resurrection And if a Caviller shall say it doth not cease to be but it lies quiet and senseless in a trance Irenaeus blunts the point of that objection because in the next verse they desire vengeance for their bloud that was shed but principally because in the eleventh verse they are clad in white garments which are cognizances of their joy and glory and doubtless they wear them not sleeping but waking And do not think that I rake in the ashes of ancient Heresies that are quite forgotten For the Anabaptists in their Theses Printed at Cracovia Anno 1568 have this position We deny that any Soul hath a separated being after death that was a devise invented by the Papists to maintain Invocation of Saints and Purgatory this is Popery trimly reformed and according to that Proverb of the Jews they cast out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of Devils And even at this day a new Generation of Vipers risen up at Racovia in Polonia do pledge the Anabaptists in the same cup namely that there is a futurition of glory for the soul when the whole Fabrick of man shall be redintegrated again in the Resurrection but they profess they cannot tell whether in the mean time there be any such thing extant as a separated soul yet St. Paul says he desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ And yet Christ told the good Thief that day he should be with him in Paradise And yet the Souls of just men departed do follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes Rev. xiv 4. These instances are more perswasive I am sure than that which they pretend that the Just do rest from their labours What rest in Gods name do they dream of They are not in a profound trance without motion or action as Adam was cast into a deep sleep when Eve was taken out of his side but it is a rest when the Spirit doth acquiesce in the Vision of God as David said Turn again unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath rewarded thee There are some that I must afford a little Patronage who are accused to lean to the Anabaptists in their opinion that do nothing less It was allowed for 1400 years as a Problem wherein Christians without breach of charity might have Latitude to dissent granting that the soul after the dissolution from the body was received into the joys of heaven whether it be not sequestred in some distance from the highest heaven where the invisible God doth chiefly reign in Power and Majesty till the whole Body of the Saints be accomplished It is well known what way St. Bernard took Nec sancti sine plebe nec spiritus sine carne That such as die before us shall not see the Beatifical Vision of the holy Trinity without us nor without their own body and that an integral Beatitude is not given but to an integral person And Calvin hath taken his freedom to be of the same mind says he Christ himself only is entred into the supreme Sanctuary of Heaven Et solus populi eminus in atrio residentis vota ad Deum defert and he alone commends the Petitions of the Saints to his Father whose Spirits attend in the outward Courts Those over-awing Fathers of the Florentine and Tridentine Councils have defined it indeed as an irrefragable Article of Faith that the Saints enjoy the most perfect Vision of God immediately after death What is that to us who will not lose our moderation in indifferent points for their