his enemies did but spit in his face and we being his friends throw him into the draught which of us deserveth the greatest damnation And 〈◊〉 him on the head 〈◊〉 into the head drove the 〈◊〉 into his holy head with bats and blows as Basiliades the Duke of Russia nail'd an Embassadours hat to his head upon some displeasure conceived against him At the taking of Heydelberg the Spaniards took Monsieur Mylius an ancient Minister and man of God and having abused his daughter before his 〈◊〉 they tied a small cord about his head which with truncheons they wreathed about till they squeezed out his brains The Monks of 〈◊〉 roasted the Minister of S. Germain till his eyes dropt out And the Spaniards suppose they shew the innocent Indians great favour when they do not for their pleasure whip them with cords scratch them with thorns and day by day drop their naked bodies with burning bacon So very a devil is one man to another Verse 31. Put his own raiment on him Gods hand was in this that all men seeing him to suffer in his own habit might acknowledge that it was very he and not another that suffered in his stead Mahomet in his Alchoran speaks very honourably of Christ except only in two things 1. He took up the Arrian heresie to deny his Deity 2. He denied that he was crucified but that some one was crucified for him But what saith S. Peter He his own self bare our sinnes in his own body on the tree c. 1 Pet. 2. 24. They led him away Quite out of the City Ut vera piaculavis victima 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro nobis fieret Heb. 13. 12 13. This was a mystery hardly understood by any of the faithfull afore Christ neither could we well have told what to make of it but that the 〈◊〉 hath there opened it to us by the instinct of the holy Ghost Let us therefore as he adviseth goe forth unto him without the camp bearing his reproach accounting it our crown as those Apostles did that rejoyced in their new dignity of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shame for Christs name It was their grace to be so disgraced Verse 32. They found a man of Cyrene A stranger coming out of the field towards Jerusalem meets with an unexpected 〈◊〉 and follows Christ which occasioned him to enquire into the cause and got him renown among the Saints In like sort the faithfull Christian a stranger upon earth comes out of the field of this world with his face set toward Sion and meets with many crosses by the way But all-while he follows Christ let him enquire into the cause and the issue shall be glorious Him they compelled to bear his crosse Not so much to ease Christ who fainted under the burden as to hasten the execution and to keep him alive till he came to it See the Note on Joh 19. 17. Verse 33. A place of a skull Here our thrice noble Conquerour would erect his trophies to encourage us to 〈◊〉 for him if God call us thereto in the most vile and loathsom places as also to assure us that his death is life to the dead Verse 34 They gave him vineger c. Cold comfort to a dying man but they did it in 〈◊〉 q. d. Thou art a King and must have generous wines Here 's for thee therefore See the Note on John 19. 29. It were happy if this vineger given our Saviour might melt our adamantine hearts into sorrow Verse 35. Parted his garments Let us likewise suffer with 〈◊〉 the spoiling of our goods c. Heb. 10. 34. yea the spoiling of our persons to have our clothes also taken and torn off 〈◊〉 backs Christ will say Bring forth the best robe ring c. If a Heathen could say when he saw a suddain shipwrack of all his wealth Well fortune I see thy intent thou wouldst have me be a Philosopher Should not a Christian conclude Surely Christ would have me look after heavenly that thus strips me of all earthly comforts Verse 36. They watched him there Lest haply he should get get away thence by a 〈◊〉 But his time of getting out of their hands was not yet come Here hung for a while that golden censer Christs body which through the holes that were made in it as thorow chinks or holes fumed forth a sweet savour in the nostrils of his heavenly Father Eph. 5. 2. such as draweth all men to him that have their senses exercised to discern good and evil Joh. 12. 32 Heb. 5. 14. Verse 37. This is Jesus the King of the Jews Pilate by a speciall providence of God intending nothing 〈◊〉 gives Christ a testimoniall and would not alter it though sollicited thereto He did it to be revenged on the Jews for their senslesse importunity to have him condemn an innocent and withall to put Christ to an open shame as a crucified King Like as that A theist Lucian blasphemously cals our Saviour The crucified cousener the modern Jews contemptuously call him in reference to his crosse The Woofe and the Warp And at the sack of Constantinople the Image of the Crucifix was set up by the insolent Turks and shot at with their arrows and afterwards in great 〈◊〉 carried about the Camp as it had been in procession those dead dogs railing and spitting at it and calling it The God of the Christians Ten thousand Martyrs were crucified in the Mount of Ararath under Adrian the 〈◊〉 crowned with thorns and thrust into the sides with sharp darts in contempt of Christ. Verse 38. Then were there two theeves So he was reckoned among the transgressours Isa. 53. 12. A sinner not by 〈◊〉 only for he bare the sinne of many ib. but by reputation also and therefore crucified in the midst as the worst of the three chief of sinners that we might have place in the midst of heavenly Angels in those walks of paradise Zach. 3. 7. The one of those two theeves went railing to hell his crucifixion being 〈◊〉 a typicall hell to him a trap-dore to eternall torment the other went repenting forth-right to heaven living long in a little time and by his praier making his crosse a Jacobs ladder whereby Angels descended to fetch up his soul. It is remarkable and to our purpose sutable that Rabus reporteth that when Leonard Caesar suffered Martyrdom at Rappa a little town in Bavaria a certain Priest that had by the law for some villainous act deserved death being led forth with him towards the place of execution cried out often Ego ne quidem dignus sum qui tibi in hac poena associer justo injustus I am not worthy to suffer with thee the just with the unjust Verse 39. Reviled him wagging their heads God took notice of Cains frowns Gen. 4. 6. Miriams mutterings Numb 12. 2. these mens noddings Rabshakeh's lofty looks Isa. 37. 23. 〈◊〉 lowrings Gen. 31. 2. and sets them upon
history One thing in the narration of his acts is very remarkable He placed forces in all the fenced cities yet is it not said thereupon that the fear of the Lord fell on the neighbour Nations But when he had established a preaching ministry in all the Cities then his enemies feared and made no warre Solidissima regiae politiae basis saith Paradinus est verum Dei cultum ubivis stabilire Alias quî potest aut Deus Reges beare a quibus negligitur aut populus fideliter colere qui de obsequio suo non recte instituitur The ordinances of God are the beauty and bulwark of a place and people And Jehosaphat begat Joram That lived undesired and died unlamented While he lived there was no use of him and when he died no misse of him no more then of the paring of the nails or sweeping of the house He lived wickedly and died wishedly as it is said of King Edwin And Joram begat Ozias Here Ahaziah Joash and Amaziah are written in the earth not once set down in the roll perhaps it was because they were imped in the wicked family of Ahab This Uzzias though a King yet he loved husbandry 2 Chron. 26. Thrift is the fuell of magnificence He was at length a leper yet still remained a King Infirmities may deform us they cannot dethrone us The English laws saith Camden pronounce that the crown once worne quite taketh away all defects whatsoever Sure it is that when God once crowns a man with his grace and favour that man is out of harms-way for ever Verse 9. And Ozias begat Joatham A pious Prince but not very prosperous Grace is not given to any as a target against outward affliction And Joatham begat Ahaz A sturdy stigmatick a branded rebell The more he was distressed the more he trespassed This is that Ahaz 2 Chron. 28. 22. How many now adaies are humbled yet not humble Low but not lowly Qui nec fractis cervicibus inclinantur as Hieron complaineth quos multo facilius fregeris quam flexeris as another hath it These are like the 〈◊〉 called Monoceros who may be kild but not caught Plectimur a Deo saith Salvian nec flectimur tamen corripimur sed non corrigimur But if men harden their hearts against correction God will harden his hand and hasten their destruction Ahaz begat Hezekiah Who stands betwixt his father Ahaz and his sonne Manasseh as a lily between two thornes or as a Fuller between two 〈◊〉 or as that wretched Cardinall of Toledo in his preface before the Bible printed at Complutum in Spain said that he set the Vulgar Latine betwixt the Hebrew and Greek as Christ was set betwixt two theeves Here observe by the way that Judah had some enterchange of good Princes Israel none and that under religious Princes the people were ever religious as under wicked Princes wicked Most people will be of the Kings religion be it what it will be as the Melchites were of old and the Papists still if M. Rogers our Protomartyr in Q. Maries daies may be beleeved The Papists saith he apply themselves to the present state yea if the state should change ten times in the year they would ever be ready at hand to change with it and so follow the cry and rather utterly forsake God and be of no Religion then that they would forgoe lust or living for God or Religion Verse 10. And Ezechias begat Manasses Who degenerates into his grandfather Ahaz as the kernell of a well-fruited plant doth sometimes into that crab or willow which gave the originall to his stock This man was till converted as very a Nonsuch in Judah as Ahab was in Israel Yet no King of either Iudah or Israel reigned so long as he It was well for him that he lived so long to grow better As it had been better for Asa to have died sooner when he was in his prime But they are met in heaven I doubt not whither whether we come sooner or later happy are we And Manasses begat Amon Who followed his father in sin but not in repentance And thou his son ô Belshazzar hast not humbled thine heart though thou 〈◊〉 all this But hast lifted up thy self against the Lord c. It is a just presage and desert of ruine not to be warned This was a bloody Prince therefore lived not out half his daies Q. Maries raign was the shortest of any since the Conquest Richard the third onely excepted Yet she was non natur â sed 〈◊〉 arte ferox say some And Amon begat Iosias Of whom that is true that S. 〈◊〉 writes of another In brevi vitae 〈◊〉 virtutum multa replevit Or as M. Hooker speaketh of K. Edward 6. He departed soon but lived long for life consists in action In all these is the life of my spirit saith Hezekiah Isa. 38. 15 16. but the wanton widow is dead while she liveth 1 Tim. 5 6. That good King lived apace and died betime being 〈◊〉 Orbis as Titus was called and Mirabilia mundi as Otho having at his death as it is said of Titus one thing onely to repent of and that was his rash engaging himself in a needlesse quarrell to the losse of his life and the ruine of that state 〈◊〉 Epaminondas was once slain his countreymen were no longer famous for their valour and victories but for their cowardise and calamities When Augustine departed this world we feared saith one the worlds ruine and were ready to wish that either he had never been borne or never died When God took away Theodosius he took away with him almost all the peace of that Church and State So he did of this with Josiah that heavenly spark that plant of renown that precious Prince Qui Regum decus invenum flos spesque bonorum Deliciae saecli gloria gentis 〈◊〉 as Cardanus sang of our English Iofiah K. Edward the sixth Verse 11. And Iosias begat Iechonias Rob. Stephanus restoreth and rectifieth the text thus Iosias begat Iakin and his brethren and Iakin begat Iechanias For otherwise the middle fourteenth whereby S. Matthow reckoneth would want a man Iehoahaz younger brother to Iakin had after his fathers death stept into the Throne but was soon ejected 〈◊〉 prospers not Abimelechs head had stollen the crown and by a blow on his head he is 〈◊〉 at Shechem What got most of the Caesars by their hasty advancement nisi ut citius inter ficerentur As one hath it Notandum saith the Chronologer quod nullus Pontificum egregij aliquid a tempore Bonifacij tertij pro sedis Romanae tyrannide constituens diu supervixerit Quod huic Bonifacio accidit It is remarkable that no Pope of any note for activity in his office was long of life Verse 12. And after they were brought to Babyton This the Evangelist 〈◊〉 and rings often in the
to whom in prison it was said as he thought 〈◊〉 and go thy waies whereto when he gave no great heed at first the second time it was so said upon this as he fell to his praiers it was said the third time likewise to him which was half an houre after So he arising upon the same immediately a peece of the prison-wall fell down And as the officers came in at the outer-gate of the prison he leaping over the ditch escaped And in the way meeting a certain begger changed his coat with him and coming to the sea-shore where he found a vessel ready to go over was taken in and escaped the search which was straitly laid for him all the countrey over Verse 13. Behold the Angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream Angels cannot inlighten the minde or powerfully incline the will that 's proper to the holy Ghost to do but as 〈◊〉 and instruments of the holy Ghost they can insinuate themselves into the phantasie as here to Joseph stir up phantasmes of good things propound truth to the minde advise and perswade to it as Counsellours and inwardly instigate as it were by speaking and doing after a spirituall manner suggesting good thoughts as the apostate Angels do 〈◊〉 How oft had we 〈◊〉 had not these guardians hindered as Michael opposed Satan by removing occasions or casting in good instincts into us either asleep or awake c. Take the young childe and flee into AEgypt Perhaps thorow that terrible and roaring wildernesse of 〈◊〉 However this was a part of his passion for from his cratch to his crosse he 〈◊〉 many a little death all his life long And as it is said of that French King That he acted more wars then others ever saw so our Saviour suffered more miseries then we ever heard of Banished hē was betime to bring back his banished to Paradise that is above their proper countrey toward the which we groan and aspire as oft as we look towards Heaven waiting as with stretched out necks for the manifestation of the Sons of God and saying with Siseras mother Why is his chariot so long in coming why tarry the wheels of his charets Make haste my beloved and be like a Roe or young Hart upon the mountains of spices For Herod will seek the young childe to destroy him The 〈◊〉 in Herod Rev. 12. 4. So Rev. 2 10. The Devil shall cast some of you into prison c. Is the Devil become a Justicer to send men to prison by his imps and instruments such as Herod was that abuse their authority Satan exerciseth his malice against the Saints lending them his 7 heads to plot and his 10 horns to push but all in vain Psal 2 5. Verse 14. When he arose he took the young childe c. Whither God leads we must chearfully follow though he seem to lead us as he did Israel in the wildernesse in and out backwards and forwards as if we were treading in a maze although we were to go with him into those places pigris 〈◊〉 nulla campis Arbor aestiv â recreatur aur â Quod 〈◊〉 mundi nebulae malusque Jupiter urget And departed into Egypt A countrey for its fruitfullnesse and abundance anciently called publicum Orbis horreum the Worlds great granary or barn And to this day so far as the River waters they do but throw in the seed and have four rich harvests in lesse then four moneths saith a late traveller Hither fleeth the Son of God as to a sanctuary of safety And some say that at his coming thither all the Idols fell to the ground Sure it is that when the love of Christ once cometh into the heart all the idol-desires of the world and flesh fall to nothing Hosea 14. 8. Verse 15. And was there till the death of Herod Which was a matter of two or three years at least For Christ was born in the 32 of Herods raign fled when he was about two years old or soon after his birth as others are of opinion and returned not till Herod was dead after he had raigned 37 years That it might be fulfilled that was spoken c. When the old 〈◊〉 is cited in the New it is not only by way of accommodation but because it is the proper meaning of the places both in the type and in the truth Verse 16. Then Herod when he saw that he was mocked He had mocked them and yet takes it ill to be mocked of them to have his own measure He never takes notice of this that God usually maketh fools of his enemies lets them proceed that they may be frustrated and when they are gone to the utmost reach of their tedter pulls them back to their task with shame Was exceeding wroth and sent forth and 〈◊〉 In their anger they slew a man saith Jacob of his two sons Cursed be their anger for it was fierce c. Gen. 49. 6 7. It is indeed the fury of the unclean spirit that old manslayer a very beast within the he art of a man a short 〈◊〉 as we see in Saul whom the Devil 〈◊〉 by this passion Ephes. 4. 17. in Lamech who slew a man in his 〈◊〉 and boasted of it as Alexander Phereus consecrated the Javeling wherewith he slew Polyphron in David who swore a great oath what he would do to Nabal by such a time And when Uzziah was smitten for his carting the Ark how untowardly spake he so did 〈◊〉 too as if the fault were in God doggs in a chafe 〈◊〉 bark at their own masters Lastly in Theodosius at Thessalonica where being enraged at the slaughter of certain Judges 〈◊〉 by sedition he did to death at hand of seven thousand men Anger begins in rashnesse abounds in transgression Prov. 29. 22. ends in repentance Jonathan therefore rose from the table in fierce anger 1 Sam. 20. 34. and to prevent further mischief went into the field to shoot And Ahashuerosh to slake the fire of his wrath conceived against Haman walked into his garden ere he pronounced any thing against him Esth. 7. 7. All the children His own son also which Augustus Caesar hearing of said It were better be Herods swine then his son So Philip King of France ventured his eldest son twice in the wars against those ancient Protestants the Albigenses at the siege of Tholouse And Philip K. of Spain 〈◊〉 his eldest son Charles to be murdered by the cruell 〈◊〉 because he seemed to favour Lutherans For which that mouth of blasphemy the Pope gave him this panegyr Non pepercit filio 〈◊〉 sed dedit pro nobis He spared not his own son but gave him up for us According to the time which he had diligently enquired Some thinke the wise men came before the Purification but 〈◊〉 will have it well-nigh two years after 〈◊〉 was curious in the search that
have amongst us not a few that give themselves up to Christ Quoad Sacramenti perceptionem by externall profession but when it comes once ad 〈◊〉 sanctificationem to 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 there they leave him in the open field forsaking their colours renouncing their baptisme and running away to the enemy Now for such there is but one law and it is Martiall law Heb. 10. 39. If any with draw or 〈◊〉 from his Captain as the military 〈◊〉 there used importeth he doth it to perdition he is even a son of perdition as 〈◊〉 who was 〈◊〉 indeed as well as Peter but better he had not As it had been better for him never to have been born so being born never to have been circumcised and thereby bound to the Law Unregenerate Israel is as 〈◊〉 Amos 9. 7. And it had been happy that font water had never been spilt on that face that is afterwards hatcht with impudent 〈◊〉 Ier. 3. 3 4. 5. Verse 7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadduces Two leading sects among the Jews but notable hypocrites yet pressing to the ordinances A Doeg may set his foot as far within the Sanctuary as a David and let him He may be caught as those catch-poles sent to apprehend our Saviour as Sauls messengers coming to Naioth were turned from 〈◊〉 to Prophets Come saith Latymer to the holy Assemblies though thou comest to 〈◊〉 for God perhaps may take thee napping He said unto them O generation of vipers Or adders which are outwardly specious inwardly poisonous so are all hypocrites a meer out-side but God will wash off their paint with rivers of brimstone Of the viper it is said that when he hath 〈◊〉 a man he makes haste to the water and drinks or dies for it So did these Pharisees to baptisme hoping by the 〈◊〉 done to avoid the wrath to come But a man 〈◊〉 goe to hell 〈◊〉 font-water on his face unlesse with the water of baptisme he have grace to quench the fiery darts of the devil as that holy virgin whereof Luther reports that she beat back Satans temptations with this only argument I am a Christian. The enemy quickly understood saith he the 〈◊〉 of baptisme and the value of that vow and fled from her There are that boast and bear themselves bold on their Christendome but hath not many a ship that hath been named Safe-guard and Good-speed miscarried at sea or fallen into the hands of pirates This generation of vipers conceited themselves to be Abrahams seed so doe many of the Serpents seed now adaies because of their baptisme but all in vain unlesse they walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham The old Serpent hath slung them neither is there any antidote for such but the flesh not of the biting viper but of the slain Messiah fore-shadowed by the brazen Serpent See Isa. 27. 1. God hath promised to break for us the Serpents head who hath so deeply set his lims in us yea with his sore and great and strong sword to punish Leviathan that piercing Serpent and to 〈◊〉 the dragon that is in the sea Who hath fore-warned you Who hath privily and under-hand as it were shewed you and set you in a course of avoiding the danger that hangs over your heads as by a twined threed The wrath of God is revealed from heaven and hell hath enlarged her self and even gapes for you who gave you an inkling thereof and sent you hither for help c From the wrath to come Called the damnation of hell Chap. 23. 23. which hath torments without end and past imagination For Who knoweth the power of thine anger saith David Even according to thy fear so is thy wrath That is as I conceive it Let a man fear thy wrath never so much he is sure to feel a fair deal more thereof then ever he could have feared When but a drop of Gods displeasure lights upon a poor soul in this present world What intolerable pain is it put to The spirit of a man may sustain his infirmity saith Solomon q. d. some sorry shift a man may make to rub thorow an outward affliction and to bear it off by head and shoulders But a wounded spirit who can bear q. d. the stoutest cannot possibly stand under it there 's no proportion between the back and the burden 〈◊〉 able to crush and crack the mightiest amongst us Iudas chose an halter rather then to endure it and well he might when as Iob with whom God was but in jest in comparison preferred strangling and any death before such a life But all this alas is but present wrath and nothing at all to the wrath to come A phrase of speech that involves and carries in it stings and horrours woe and alas flames of wrath and the worm that never dieth trembling and gnashing of teeth seas of vengeance rivers of brimstone unutterable and unsufferable tortures and torments We read of racking roasting hanging stoning putting men under harrows of iron and saws of iron scratching off their flesh with thorns of the wildernesse pulling their skins over their ears and other exquisite and unheard of miseries that men have here been put unto But what 's all this to the wrath to come not so much as a flea-biting as a prick with a pin or fillip with a finger no though a man should go thorow a thousand cruell deaths every hour his whole life thorowout Oh blesse and kisse that blessed Son of God that bore for us the brunt of this unsupportable wrath even Iesus that delivered us from the wrath to come 1 Thess. 1. 10. And shun sin that draws hell at the heels of it Is it nothing to lose an immortall soul to purchase an ever-living death Verse 8. Bring forth therefore fruits q. d. You cannot wash your hands in innocency wash them therefore in tears there 's no way to quench hell flames but by the tears of true repentance to prevent the wrath to come but by bearing those fruits of righteousnesse that are by Christ Jesus to the glory and praise of God Phil. 1. 11. Optima 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est nova vita saith Luther Which saying though condemned by Pope Leo is certainly an excellent 〈◊〉 Meet for repentance That weigh 〈◊〉 as much as repentance that may parallel and 〈◊〉 it to be right 〈◊〉 and evidence it to be a repentance never to be repented of There is no grace but hath a 〈◊〉 See therefore that your graces be of the right stamp an effectuall faith 〈◊〉 love patient hope c. as the Apostle hath it See that your performances and whole course be such as becomes repentance and may justifie it as may bear weight in the balance of the sanctuary and amount to as much as repentance comes to And 〈◊〉 your righteousnesses be but as a 〈◊〉 clout and your works at best if tried
Abraham and and the belly of hell 1. The godly man projects not sin as the wicked doth but is preoccupated by it against his generall purpose 2. He arts not the sin that he acts he sins not sinningly he is not transformed into sinnes image as the wicked are Mica 1. 5. His scum rests not in him he works that out by repentance that he committed with reluctance 3. He is the better for it afterwards His very sin when be wailed and disclaimed maketh him more heedfull of his waies more thankfull for a 〈◊〉 more mercifull to others more desirefull after the state of perfection c. Whence grew that paradox of M. Iohn Fox That his graces did him most hurt and his sinnes most good Whereas wicked men grow worse and worse Deceiving and being 〈◊〉 till at length by long trading in sin being hardened by the deceitfulnesse thereof they are utterly deprived of all even passive power of recovering themselves out of the devils snare which is a conformity to the devils condition This their covering therefore is too short Christs fan is in his hand to take out the precious from the vile and the Ministers of Christ must separate as the Priests of old did the clean from the unclean drive the chaff one way and the wheat another For what is the chaff to the wheat saith the Lord See this enjoyned them Isa. 3. 10 11. Zuinglius as in his publike lectures he would very sharply 〈◊〉 sinne so ever and anon he would come in with this proviso Probe vir haec nihil ad te This is nothing to thee thou godly man He knew that he could not beat the dogs but the children would be ready to cry whom therefore he comforted And he will thorowly purge his floor That is his Church called Gods threshing floor in Isaias because usually thresht by God with the flail of affliction That is one way whereby the Lord Christ doth purge his people and separate between the Sonne that he loves and the sin that he hates This he doth also by his Word and Spirit Sanctifying them by his truth 〈◊〉 Word is truth Joh. 17. And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are justified but ye are sanctified in the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God Thus Christ purgeth his floor here incoatively and in part hereafter thorowly and in all perfection In all which we may observe saith a Divine this difference between Christ and the tempter Christ hath his fan in his hand and he fanneth us the devil hath a sive in his hand and he sifteth us Now a fan 〈◊〉 out the worst and keepeth in the best a sive keepeth in the worst and casteth out the best Right so Christ and his trials purgeth chaff and corruption out of us and rourisheth and increaseth his graces in us Contrariwise the devil what 〈◊〉 soever is in us he confirmeth it what faith or other good thing soever he weakneth it But Christ hath praid for his though never so hard laid at that their faith fail not and giveth them in time of fanning to fall low at his feet as wheat when the wicked as light chaff are ready to flee in his 〈◊〉 as murmuring at their hard measure with those miscreants in the wildernesse And gather his wheat into the garner Mali in area nobiscum esse possunt in horreo non possunt The wicked may be with us in the floor they shall not in the garner for there shall in no wise 〈◊〉 into the City of the lamb any thing that defileth or that worketh abomination Heaven spewed out the Angels in the first act of their Apostacy and albeit the devil could scrue himself into Paradise yet no unclean person shall ever enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Without shall be doggs and evil-doers no dirty dogge doth trample on that golden pavement no 〈◊〉 is with that gold no chaff with that wheat but the spirits of just men made perfect amidst a panegynis of Angels and that glorious 〈◊〉 Heb. 12. 22. In the mean while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ego 〈◊〉 may every good soul say with that Father I am Gods wheat And although the wheat be as yet but in the ear or but in the blade yet when the fruit is ripe he will put in the sicle because the 〈◊〉 is come and gather his wheat into his barn into his garner It doth the husbandman good at heart to see his corn come forward though the harvest be not yet But will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire In reference to the custom of those countries which was to cast their chaff into the fire But this alas is another manner of fire then that A metaphoricall fire doubtlesse and differs from materiall fire 1. In respect of the violence for it is unspeakable 2. Of the durance for it is unquenchable 3. Of illumination for though it burn violently to their vexation 〈◊〉 it shines not to their comfort 4 Of operation for it consumes not what it burneth they ever fry but never die vivere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 death but 〈◊〉 it not as those Rev. 〈◊〉 A just 〈◊〉 of God upon them that they that once might have had life and 〈◊〉 not now would have death and cannot Verse 13. Then cometh Iesus from Galilee Our Saviour came far to seek his baptisme Let not us thinke much of any pains taken that we may 〈◊〉 of the Ordinances The Shunammite went ordinarily every Sabbath and new-moon on horsback to hear the Prophet The good people in Davids time passed 〈◊〉 the valley of Baca from strength to strength to see the face of God in Sion though but in that dark glasse of the ceremonies And in Daniels time they ran to and fro to increase knowledge In 〈◊〉 daies the inhabitants of one City went to 〈◊〉 saying Let 〈◊〉 go speedily to pray before the Lord and to 〈◊〉 the Lord of host I will go also Our Saviour took it ill that men came not as far to hear him as the Queen of Sheba did to hear 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 came as far to worship in the Temple And of our fore-fathers in K. Henry the eights time M. Fox 〈◊〉 thus To see 〈◊〉 travels earnest seeking burning zeal readings watchings sweet assemblies love concord godly living faithfull marrying with the faithfull may make us now in these our dayes of free profession to blush for shame George Eagles Martyr in Q. Maries daies for his great pains in travelling from place to place to confirm the brethren was sirnamed Trudge-over-the-world c. To be baptized of him Not for any need he had for he was a Lamb without blemish of naturall corruption and without spot of actuall transgression 1 Pet. 1. 19. but meerly for our benefit to sanctifie baptisme to us and
Lord arise and his enemies be 〈◊〉 But this is true of the whole word of God which is armour of proof against the devil Thous shalt worship the Lord thy God Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God saith Moses So Matth. 15. 9. with Isa. 29. 13. See Psal. 2. 11. Josh. 24 11. Heb. 12. 27. Solemon sets the 〈◊〉 of God as the basis and beginning of Gods work and worship in the beginning of his works And again in the end of them makes it the end and upshot of all For they that fear the Lord will keep his Covenant Psal. 103. 13 18. Yea they will work hard at it as afraid to be taken with their tasks undone Act. 10. 35. They will give him both the shell of outward adoration and the kernell of inward devotion truly without halting and totally without halfing truly both for matter and manner totally both for subject and object as David who did all the wils of God and with all his heart all the daies of his life The Gentiles could say that God must be worshipped 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either to our utmost or not at all And Plutarch compares our duty to a certain fish which eaten sparingly hurteth but being eaten up all is medicinable And him only shalt thou serve With inward worship as before with outward And so God only is to be served for it supposeth omniscience omnipresence and omnipotence which are in none else but God Sunt qui colendi verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dictum volunt eò quòd plerunque Dei hominumque cultus cum adulatione hypocrisi est conjunctus Sic à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gallicum nostrate flatter Sic adorare quidam dictum volunt ab ore tamet si mente magis quam ore vera fiat adoratio Quinetiam adorare antiquis idem fuit quod agere Verse 11. Then the devil left him If Christ command him away there 's no abiding for him Here he was foiled and quelled and as it were cast down and killed by Christ our Champion He came into the field like another Goliah cracking and calling craven but ere he went thence was made to hop headlesse as he First a terrour afterward a scorn as it was anciently said of those Chariots armed with sithes and hooks Henceforth therefore though we are ever to expect temptations till such time as we have gotten that great gulf between the devil 〈◊〉 us Luk. 16. 26. Yet fear none of those things that ye shall suffer Behold the devil shall by his imps and instruments cast 〈◊〉 of you not all into prison not into hell that ye may be tried not destroied and ye shall have tribulation ten daies so 〈◊〉 and no longer Be thou faithfull unto the death and I will 〈◊〉 thee a crown of life Satan can look for no Crown he is in perdition already His aim and endeavour is to draw us into the same condemnation This we escape if we resist stedfast in the faith for then he perceives Christ the chief Captain of our salvation to be there and therefore flees his presence ever since he felt his prowesse Chrysostom saith That by the Sacrament of the Lords Supper we are so armed against Satans temptations that he 〈◊〉 from us no otherwise then if we were so many leones ignem expuentes lions that spet fire It is not silly peoples defying the devil and spetting at his name that avails any thing for 〈◊〉 spet not low enough they spet him not out of their hearts yea they admit him thereinto by yeelding to his suggestions and are miserably foolish as if men should startle at the name of fire and yet not fear to be scorched with the flame thereof Our 〈◊〉 way is to run to Ithiel and Ucal as Agur did to Christ the Authour and finisher of our faith who here gave the devil such an inglorious 〈◊〉 trampled him in the mire triumphed over him and hath promised to tread him under our feet shortly Rom. 16. 20. And loe the Angels came and ministred unto him Perhaps food to 〈◊〉 body as once to Elias but certainly comfort to 〈◊〉 soul as to Jacob Hagar Daniel Zecharias Joseph Cornel us Paul c. Socrates and Theodoret tell us of one Theadorus a 〈◊〉 put to extream torments by Julian the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by him when he saw him unconquerable 〈◊〉 tels us that he met with this Martyr a long time after this triall and asked him Whether the pain he felt were not 〈◊〉 He 〈◊〉 That at first it was somewhat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after a while there seemed to stand by him a young man in 〈◊〉 who with a soft and comfortable handkerchief wiped off the sweat of his body which through extream pain and anguish was little 〈◊〉 then bloud and bad him Be of good chear Insomuch as that it was rather a punishment then a pleasure to him to be taken off the rack sith when the tormentours had done the Angel was gone And how many unspeakable comforts ministred the good Angels to the modern Martyrs in their prisons at the stake and in the fire Christ indeed was not comforted by them till the temptation was over but to us they minister many times in the hour of temptation They have power over the devils to restrain them and though invisibly and insensibly are as ready to help and comfort us as the evil Angels to tempt and trouble us else were not our protection equall to our danger and we could neither stand nor rise An Angel stood at Zecharies right hand Luk. 1. 11. as the devil did at Jehoshuahs Zech. 3. 1. to shew how ready and handy they are to defend and support the Saints It was as he was burning incense The Angels are busiest about us when we are in Gods work which to set forth the hangings of the Tabernacle of old were full of 〈◊〉 within and without He said unto him Fear not Zechary The blessed spirits though they doe not often vocally expresse it doe pity our humane frailties and secretly suggest comfort to us when we perceive it not Alway they stand looking on the face of God to receive commandments for the accomplishment of all designs for our good which they have no sooner received then they readily dispatch even with wearinesse of flight as Dan. 9. 〈◊〉 with so much swiftnesse as if they had wearied themselves with fleeing I read of a Frier that undertook to shew to the people a feather of the wing of the Angel Gabriel A plume of whose feathers it might better have become the Pope to send to 〈◊〉 the Irish Rebell then that plume of Phoenix-feathers he sent to honour and encourage him had his holinesse such command over Angels as they say he hath or did he not rather collude in one thing as that Frier did in another Verse 12. Now when Iesus heard that Iohn was cast into prison For Herodias his
themselves get their living by begging and subsist merrily upon alms Such beggars God hath alwaies about him Matth. 26. 11. And this the Poets hammered at when they feigned that Litae or praiers were the daughters of Jupiter and stood alwaies in his presence Lord I am hell but thou art heaven said Hooper I am a most hypocriticall wretch not worthy that the earth should bear me said Bradford I am the unmeetest man for this high office of suffering for Christ that ever was appointed to it said sincere Saunders Oh that my life and a thousand such wretches lives more saith John Carelesse Martyr in a letter to M. 〈◊〉 might go for yours Oh! Why doth God suffer me and such other Cater-pillars to live that can doe nothing but consume the alms of the Church and take away you so worthy a work-man and labourer in the Lords vineyard But woe be to our sins and great unthankfulnesse c. These were excellent paterns of this spirituall poverty which our Saviour here maketh the first and is indeed the first second and third of Christianity as that which teacheth men to finde out the best in God and the worst in themselves For their's is the kingdome of heaven Heaven is that true Macaria or the blessed Kingdom So the Island of Cyprus was anciently called for the abundance of commodities that it sendeth forth to other Countries of whom it craveth no help again Marcellinus to shew the fertility thereof saith That Cyprus aboundeth with such plenty of all things that without the help of any other forraign countrey it is of it self able to build a tall ship from the keel to the top-sail and so put it to sea furnisht of all things needfull And Sextus Rufus writing thereof saith Cyprus famosa divitijs paupertatem populi Rom ut occuparetur sollicitavit Cyprus famous for riches tempted the poor people of Rome to ceize upon it What marvell then if this Kingdome of heaven sollicite these poor in spirit to offer violence to it and to take it by force sith it is all made of gold Revel 21. yea search is made there thorow all the bowels of the earth to finde out all the precious treasure that could be had gold pearls and precious stones of all 〈◊〉 And what can these serve to only to shidow out the glory of the wals of the new Jerusalem and the gates and to pave the streets of that City Verse 4. Blessed are they that mourn For sinne with a funerall sorrow as the word signifieth such as is expressed by crying and weeping Luk. 6. 25. such as was that at Megiddo for the losse of good Josiah or as when a man mourns for his only sonne Zech. 12. 10. This is the work of the spirit of grace and of supplication for till the windes doe blow these waters cannot flow Psal. 147. 18. He convinceth the heart of sinne and makes it to become a very Hadadrimmon for deep-soaking sorrow upon the sight of him whom they have pierced When a man shall look upon his sinnes as the weapons and himself as the traitour that put to death the Lord of life this causeth that sorrow according to God that worketh repentance never to be repented of For they shall be comforted Besides the comfort they finde in their very sorrow for it is a sweet sign of a sanctified soul and seals a man up to the day of redemption Ezek. 9. 4. they lay up 〈◊〉 themselves thereby in store a good foundation of comfort against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternall life as the Apostle speaketh in another case 1 Tim. 6. 19. These April showres bring on May flowers they that here so we in tears shall reap in joy they that finde Christs feet a fountain to wash in may expect his side a fountain to bath in Oh how sweet a thing is it to stand weeping at the wounded feet of Jesus as that good woman did to water them with tears to dry them with sighes and to 〈◊〉 them with our mouths None but those that have felt it can tell the comfort of it The stranger meddleth not with this joy When our merry Greeks that laugh themselves fat and light a candle at the devil for lightsomenesse of heart hunting after it to hell and haunting for it ale-houses conventicles of good fellowship sinfull and unseasonable sports vain and waterish fooleries c. when these mirth-mongers I say that take pleasure in pleasure and jeer when they should fear with Lots sonnes-in-law shall be at a foul stand and not have whither to turn them Isa. 33. 14. Gods mourners shall be able to dwell with devouring fire with everlasting burnings to stand before the sonne of man at his second comming Yea as the lower the ebbe the higher the tide so the lower any hath descended in humiliation the higher shall he ascend then in his exaltation Those that have helped to fill Christs bottle with tears Christ shall then fill their bottle as once he did Hagars with the water of life He looked back upon the weeping women comforted them that would not vouchsafe a loving look or a word to Pilate or the Priests Not long before that he told his Disciples Ye shall indeed be sorrowfull but your sorrow shall be turned into joy And further addeth A woman when she is in travell hath sorrow c. comparing sorrow for sinne to that of a travelling woman 1. For bitternesse and sharpnesse for the time throws of the new birth 2. For utility and benefit it tendeth to the bringing a man-childe forth into the world 3. For the hope and expectation that is in it not only of an end but also of fruit this makes joy in the midst of sorrows 4. There is a certain time set for both and a sure succession as of day after night and of fair weather after foul Mourning lasteth but till morning Though I fall I shall arise though I sit in darknesse the Lord shall give me light saith the Church Jabes was more honourable then his brethren saith the Text for his mother bare him with sorrow and called his name Jabes that is sorrowfull But when he called upon the God of Israel and said Oh that thou wouldst blesse me indeed and enlarge my coast c. God granted him that which he requested And so he will all such Israelites indeed as ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward going and weeping as they goe to seek the Lord their God he shall wipe all tears from their eyes as nurses 〈◊〉 from their babes that cry after them and enlarge not their coasts as Jabes but their hearts which is better yea he shall grant them their requests as him So that as Hannah when she had praid and Eli for her she looked no more sad yea as David when he came before God in a woe-case many times yet when
every true Ionathan and Samson and makes them never to thirst again after the worlds tastlesse fooleries Like as his mouth will not water after homely provision that hath lately tasted of delicate sustenance They shall be satisfied Because true desires are the breathings of a broken heart which God will not despise He poureth not the oil of his grace but into broken vessels For indeed whole vessels are full vessels and so this precious liquour would run over and be spilt on the ground There may be some faint desires as of wishers and woulders even in hell-mouth as Balaam desired to die the death of the righteous but liked not to live their life Pilate desired to know what is truth but staid not to know it That faint Chapman in the Gospel that cheapen'd heaven of our Saviour but was loth to goe to the price of it These were but fits and flashes and they came to nothing Carnall men care not to seek whom yet they desire to finde saith Bernard Fain they would have Christ but care not to make after him as Herod had of a long time desired to see our Saviour but never stirred out of doors to come where he was Luk. 22. But now The desire of the righteous that shall be satisfied as Solomon hath it that shall be well filled as beasts are after a good bait as 〈◊〉 Saviours word here signifieth Desires as they must be ardent and violent such as will take no nay or be set down with silence or sad answers whence it is that desire and zeal goe together 2 Cor. 7. 11. So if they be right they are ever seconded with endeavour after the thing desired Hence the Apostle contents not himself to say that if there be first a willing minde God accepts c. 2 Cor. 8. 12. but presently adds Now perform the doing of it that as there was a readinesse to will so there may be a performance also that is a sincere endeavour to perform as a thirsty man will not long for drink only but labour after it or a covetous man wish for wealth but strives to compasse it And thus to 〈◊〉 is to attain thus to will is to work thus to desire is to doe the will of our heavenly father who accepts of pence for pounds of mites for millions and accounts us as as good as we wish to be He hath also promised To fill the hungry with good things to rain down righteousnesse on the dry and parched ground to fulfill the desires of them that fear him So that it is but our asking and his giving our opening the mouth and he will fill it our hungring and his feeding our thirsting and his watering our open hand and his open heart The oil failed not till the vessels failed neither are we staitned in God till in our own bowels Dear wife saith Lawrence Saunders the Martyr riches I have none to leave behinde wherewith to endow you after the worldly manner but that treasure of tasting how sweet Christ is to hungry consciences whereof I thank my Christ I doe feel part and would feel more that I bequeath unto you and to the rest of my beloved in Christ to retain the same in sense of heart alwaies Pray pray I am merry and I trust I shall be maugre the teeth of all the devils in hell I utterly refuse my self and resign me to my Christ in whom I know I shall be strong as he seeth needfull Verse 7. Blessed are the mercifull They that from a compassionate heart melting with sense of Gods everlasting mercy to it self and yerning over the miseries of others extend and exercise spirituall and corporall mercy The former which teacheth a man to warn the unruly comfort the feeble-minded support the weak be patient toward all men c. The School-men thus Consule castiga solare remitte 〈◊〉 ora usually excels and exceeds the later which stirs a man up to feed the hungry clothe the naked visit the sick c. Vifito poto cibo redimo tego colligo condo 1. In the nature of the gift which is more noble 2. In the object the soul which is more illustrious 3. In the manner which is 〈◊〉 as being spirituall 4. In the kinde which is more heavenly as that which aimes at our brothers 〈◊〉 salvation And 〈◊〉 way the poorest may be plentifull and enrich the 〈◊〉 with spirituall alms As also the other way something must be done by all the Candidates of true 〈◊〉 They that labour with their hands must have something 〈◊〉 give to him that needeth be it but two mites nay a cup of cold water it shall be graciously accepted from a sincere heart and certainly rewarded And here the poor Macedonians may shame and many times doe the rich Corinthians that have a price in their hands but not a heart to use it For it is the love and 〈◊〉 the lack of money that makes men churls and misers And hence it is that the richer men are many times the harder as Dives being herein like children who when they have their mouths 〈◊〉 and both hands full yet will rather spoil 〈◊〉 then give any away But doe men give to Gods poor Or doe they not rather lend it to the Lord who turns pay-master to such Doe 〈◊〉 not lay it out for him or rather lay it up for themselves The safest chest is the poor mans box Make you friends with the Mammon of unrighteousnesse God hath purposely branded riches with 〈◊〉 infamous adjunct that we might not over-love them that 〈◊〉 ye fail they 〈◊〉 receive you into everlasting 〈◊〉 that is either the Angels or the poor or thy well-emploied wealth shall let thee into heaven Only thou must draw forth not thy sheaf alone but thy soul also to the hungry 〈◊〉 bowels of mercy as our Saviour did Matth. 15. 32. to bleed in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wounds and be deeply and tenderly affected in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is better then alms For when one gives an alms 〈◊〉 gives something without himself but by compassion we 〈◊〉 another by somewhat 〈◊〉 and from 〈◊〉 selves And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly the mercy to which mercy is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to boot For they shall obtain mercy Misericordiam 〈◊〉 mercodem Mercy not wages it being a mercy and not a duty in God to render unto every man according to his works Psal. 62. 12. how much more according to his own works in us 〈◊〉 mercy he shall be sure of that sheweth mercy to those in misery His soul shall be like a watered garden The liberall soul shall be made fat saith Solomon and he that watereth shall be watered also himself Or as Kimchi expounds it He shall be a sweet and seasonable showre to himself and others His body also shall be fat and fair-liking Thy health shall spring forth speedily and thy bones shall be made fat Isa.
58. 10 11. Or if he be sick the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing he will make all his bed in his sicknes As he did for that faithfull and 〈◊〉 Preacher of Gods Word while he lived M. 〈◊〉 Whately Pastour of Banbury whom for honours sake I here name the most 〈◊〉 Minister to the poor I thinke saith a learned Gentleman that knew him thorowly in England of his means He abounded in works of mercy saith another grave Divine that wrote his life he set apart and expended for the space of many years for good uses the tenth part of his yearly commings in both out of his temporall and 〈◊〉 means of maintenance A rare example And God was not behinde hand with him for in his sicknesse he could comfort himself with that precious promise Psal. 41. 1 3. Blessed is he that considereth the poor Qui praeoccupat vocem petituri saith Austin that prevents the poor mans cry as he did for he devised liberall things seeking out to finde objects of his mercy and not staying many times till they were offered Therefore by liberall things 〈◊〉 stood as God had promised his estate as himself often testified prospered the better after he took that course above-mentioned For in the next place not getting but giving is the way to wealth as the 〈◊〉 found it whose barrell had no bottome and as Solomon 〈◊〉 it Eccles. 11. 1. The mercy of God crowneth our beneficence with the blessing of store 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be exalted with honour and thou 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 Say not then How shall our own doe hereafter Is not mercy as sure a grain as vanity Is God like to break Is not your Creatour your Creditour Hath not he undertaken for you and yours How sped Mephibosheth and Chimham for the kindenesse their fathers shewed to distressed David Were they not plentifully provided for And did not the Kenites that were born many ages after 〈◊〉 's death receive life from his dust and favour from his hospitality 1 Sam. 15. 6. Verse 8. Blessed are the pure in heart That wash their 〈◊〉 from wickednesse that they may be saved Jer. 4. 14. Not their hands only with Pilate but their inwards as there How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee These however the world censure them for every fool hath a bolt to shoot at that purity which yet they 〈◊〉 and pray for are the Lords darlings that purifie themselves in some truth of resemblance as God is pure Pura Deus mens est purâ vult mente vocari Et puras jussit pondus habere preces He will take up in a poor but it must be a pure heart in a 〈◊〉 but it must be a cleanly house in a low but not in a 〈◊〉 lodging Gods Spirit loves to lie clean Now the heart of man is the most unclean and loathsome thing in the world a den of dragons a dungeon of darknesse a stie and stable of all foul lusts cage of unclean and ravenous birds The Embassadours of the Councel of Constance being sent to Pope Benedict the 〈◊〉 when he laying his hand upon his heart said Hic est Arca 〈◊〉 Here is Noahs Ark they tartly and truly replied In Noahs Ark were few men but many beasts intimating that there were seven abominations in that heart wherein he would have them to believe were lodg'd all the laws of right and religion This is true of every mothers childe of us The naturall heart is 〈◊〉 throne he filleth it from corner to corner Act 5. 3. he sits abrood upon it and hatcheth all noisome and loathsome lusts Ephes. 2. 2. There as in the sea is that Leviathan and there are creeping things innumerable crawling bugs and baggage vermine Now as many as shall see God to their comfort must cleanse 〈◊〉 from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit and perfect 〈◊〉 sse in the fear of God This is the mighty work of the holy Spirit which therefore we 〈◊〉 pray and strive for beseeching God to break the heavens and come down yea to break open the prison doors of our hearts by his Spirit and to cleanse this 〈◊〉 stable He comes as a mighty rushing winde and blows away those litters of lusts as once the East-winde of God did all the locusts of AEgypt into the red Sea And this done he blows upon Gods garden the heart and causeth the spices thereof so to flow forth that Christ saith I am come into my garden my sister my spouse I have gathered my myrrhe with my spice Cant. 5. 1. For they shall see God Here in a measure and as they are able hereafter in all fullnesse and perfection they shall see as they are seen Here as in a glasse 〈◊〉 or as an old man thorow spectacles but there face to face Happier herein then Solomons servants for a greater then Solomon is here A good man is like a good Angel ever beholding the face of God He looketh upon them with singular complacency and they upon him to their infinite 〈◊〉 He seeth no iniquity in them they no indignation in him He looketh upon them in the face of Christ And although no man hath seen God at any time yet God who commanded the light to shine out of darkenesse hath shined in our hearts saith the Apostle to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Pure glasse or crystall hath light comming thorow not so stone iron or other grosser bodies In like sort the pure in heart see God he shines thorow them And as the pearl by the beams of the Sun becomes bright and radiant as the Sun it self so we all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord 〈◊〉 transformed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. Verse 9. Blessed are the peace-makers There are that like Salamanders live alwaies in the fire and like Trouts love to swim against the stream that with Phocion thinke it a goodly thing to dissent from others and like Sampsons foxes or Solomons fool carry about and cast abroad fire-brands as if the world were made of nothing but discords as Democritus imagined But as St John speaketh in another case these are not of the Father but of the world He maketh great reckoning of a meek and quiet 〈◊〉 because it is like to his own minde which is never stirred nor moved but remaineth still the same to all eternity He loves those that keep the staffe of binders unbroken Zech. 11. 7 14. that hold the unity of the spirit and advance the bond of peace among others as much as may be The wicked are apt as dogs to enter tear and woorry one another and although there be not a disagreement in hell being but the place of retribution and not of action yet on earth
became a bitter enemy to the truth that he had profesled 1 Tim. 1. 19 20. 4. 14 15. Faelix 〈◊〉 an Anabaptist of 〈◊〉 being put to death for his obstinacy and ill practices at Tigure praised God that had called him to the sealing up of his truth with his blood was animated to constancy by his mother and brother and ended his life with these words Lord into thy hands I commend my spirit What could any hearty Hooper trusty Taylour or sincere 〈◊〉 have said or done more in such a case It is not then the suffering but the suffering for righteousnesse sake that proveth a man 〈◊〉 and entitleth him to heaven The Philistims died by the fall of the house as well as Samson sed diver so fine ac fato as one saith Christ and the theeves were in the same condemnation Similis paena sed aissimilis causa saith Austin their punishment was all alike but not their cause Baltasar 〈◊〉 the Burgundian that slew the Prince of Orange 1584. Iun. 30. endured very grievous torments But it was pertinacy in him rather then patience stupidity of sense not a solidity of faith a wretchlesse disposition not a confident resolution Therefore no heaven followed upon it because he suffered not as a Martyr but as a malefactour For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Surely if there be any way to heaven on horseback it is by the crosse said that Martyr that was hasting thither in a fiery charet The Turks account all them whom the Christians kill in battell Mahometan Saints and Martyrs assigning them a very high place in Paradise In some parts of the West-Indies there is an opinion in grosse that the soul is immortall and that there is a life after this life where beyond certain hills they know not where those that died in defence of their countrey should remain after death in much blessednesse which opinion made them very valiant in their fights Should not the assarance of Heaven make us valiant for the truth should we not suffer with joy the spoiling of our goods yea the losse of our lives for life eternall should we not look up to the recompence of reward to Christ the authour and finisher of our faith who stands over us in the encounter as once over Stephen with a Crown on his head and another in his hand and saith Vincenti Dabo to him that overcommeth will I give this Surely this son of David will shortly remove us from the ashes of our forlorn 〈◊〉 to the Hebron of our peace and glory This son of Jesse will give every one of us not fields and vineyards but Crowns Scepters Kingdoms glories beauties c. The expectation of this blessed day this nightlesse day as one calleth it must as it did with Davids souldiers all the time of their banishment digest all our sorrows and make us in the midst of miseries for Christ to over-abound exceedingly with joy as Paul did Q. Elizabeths government was so much the more happy and welcome because it 〈◊〉 upon the stormy times of Q Mary She came as a fresh spring after a sharpe winter and brought the ship of England from a troublous and tempestuous sea to a safe and quiet harbour So will the Lord Christ do for all his persecuted people Ye see said Bilney the Martyr and they were his last words to one that exhorted him to be constant and take his death patiently ye see saith he when the mariner is entred his ship to sail on the troublous sea how he for a while is tossed in the billows of the same but yet in hope that he shall once come to the quiet haven he beareth in better comfort the troubles that he feeleth So am I now towards this sayling and whatsoever storms I shall feel yet shortly after shall my ship be in the haven as I doubt not thereof by the grace of God c. Lo this was that that held the good mans head above water the hope of Heaven And so it did many others whom it were easie to instance Elizabeth Cooper Martyr being condemned and at the stake with Simon Miller when the fire came unto her she a little shranke thereat crying once ha When Simon heard the same he put his hand behind him toward her and willed her to be strong and of good chear For good sister said 〈◊〉 we shall have a joyfull and sweet supper Whereat she being strengthned stood as still and as quiet as one most glad to finish that good course Now I take my leave of you writeth William Tims Martyr in a letter to a friend of his a little before his death till we meet in Heaven And hie you after I have tarried a great 〈◊〉 for you And seeing you be so long in making ready I will tarry no longer for you You shall finde me merrily 〈◊〉 Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth at my journies end c. And I cannot here let slip that golden 〈◊〉 wherewith those 40 Martyrs mentioned by St Basil comforted one another when they were cast out naked all night in the winter and were to be burned the next morrow Sharpe is the winter said they but sweet is Paradice painfull is the frost but joyfull the fruition that followeth it Wait but a while and the Patriarks 〈◊〉 shall cherish us After one night we shall lay hold upon eternall life Let our 〈◊〉 feel the fire for a season that we may for ever walke arm in arm with Angels let our hands fall off that they may for ever be lifted up to the praise of the Almighty c. Verse 11. Blesse are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of 〈◊〉 against you falsly for my sake There are tongue-smiters as well as hand-smiters such as maligne and molest Gods dearest children as well with their virulent tongues as violent hands Such as will revile you saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 and upbraid you with your profession hit you in teeth with your God as they dealt by David and that went as a murthering weapon to his soul and 〈◊〉 your precisenesse and 〈◊〉 in your dish This is the force of the first word Further they shall persecute you eagerly pursue and follow you hot-foot as the hunter doth his prey The word betokeneth a keen and eager pursuit of any other whether by law or by the sword whether by word or deed For 〈◊〉 also are persecutours as Ismael and for such shall be arraigned Jude 15. And cruell mockings and scourgings are set together by the Authour to the Hebrews as much of a kinde chap. 11. 35. Especially when as it follows in the text they shall say all manner of evil against you call you all to peeces and thinke the worst word in their bellies too good for you This is collaterall blasphemy blasphemy in the second table
the fire at Uxbridge so did George Carpenter the Bavarian Martyr so did Wolfgang us Schuh a Germane when he entred into the place heaped up with fagots and wood he sang Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi in domum Domini ibimus Two Austin Monks at Bruxelles anno 1523. the first among the Lutherans that suffered for religion being fastened to the stake to be burnt sang Te Deum and the Creed Others clapt their hands in the flames in token of triumph as Hawks and Smith and five Martyrs burnt together by Bonner Bainham at the stake and in the midst of the flame which had half consumed his arms and his legs spake these words O ye Papists behold ye look for miracles here you may see a miracle For in this fire I feel no more pain then if I were in a bed of down but it is to me as a bed of roses Now what was it else whereby these Worthies of whom the world was not worthy quenched the violence of the fire and out of weaknesse were made strong Was it not by their heroicall and impregnable faith causing them to endure as seeing him that is invisible and having respect as Moses to the recompence of reward Heb. 11. 26 27. For great is your reward in heaven God is a liberall pay-master and no small things can fall from so great a hand as his Oh that joy ô my God when shall I be with thee said a dying Peer of this Realm So great is that joy that we are said to enter into it it is too full to enter into us Elias when he was to enter into it feared not the fiery charrets that came to fetch him but through desire of those heavenly happinesses waxed bold against those terrible things Atque hoc in carne adhuc vivens it is S. B 〈◊〉 observation and this he did whiles he was as yet in the flesh For he 〈◊〉 oculum in metam which was Ludovicus Vives his Motto his eye upon the mark He prest forward toward the high prize with Paul and looking thorow the terrour of the fire saw heaven beyond it and this made him so valiant so violent for the Kingdome A Dutch Martyr feeling the flame to come to his beard Ah said he what a small pain is this to be compared to the glory to come Hellen Stirk a 〈◊〉 woman to her husband at the place of execution spoke thus Husband rejoyce for we have lived together many joyfull daies but this day in which we must die ought to be most joyfull to us both because we must have joy for ever Therefore I will not bid you good night for we 〈◊〉 suddenly meet within the Kingdome of heaven The subscription of Mistresse Anne Askew to her 〈◊〉 was this Written by me Anne Askew that neither wisheth for death nor feareth his might and as merry as one that is bound toward heaven Oh how my heart leapeth for joy said M. Philpot that I am so near the apprehension of eternall life God forgive me mine 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of so great 〈◊〉 I have 〈◊〉 much joy of the reward prepared for me most wretched sinner that though I be in place of darknesse and mourning yet I cannot lament but both night and day am so joyfull as though under no crosse at all yea in all the daies of my life I was never so merry the Name of the Lord be praised therefore for ever and ever and he pardon mine unthankfulnesse The world wondereth saith he in another place how we can be so merry in such extreme misery but our God is omnipotent which turneth misery into felicity Believe me there is no such joy in the world as the people of Christ have under the crosse I speak by experience c. To this joy all other being compared are but mournings all delights sorrows all sweetnesse sowre all beauty filth and finally all things counted pleasant are 〈◊〉 Great then we see is their reward in earth that suffer for Christ they have heaven afore-hand they rejoyce in tribulation with joy unspeakable and glorious they have an exuberancy of joy such as no good can match no evil over-match For though I tell you said M. Philpot in a letter to the Congregation that I am in hell in the judgement of this world yet 〈◊〉 I feel in the same the consolation of heaven And this lothsome and horrible prison is as pleasant to me as the walks in the Garden in the Kings bench What will it be then when they shall have crowns on their heads and palms in their hands when they shall come to that generall Assembly 〈◊〉 12. 23. and have all the Court of heaven to meet and entertain them When they shall follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth Revel 14. 4. and have places given them to walk among those that stand by Zech. 3. 7. that is among the Seraphims as the Chaldee Paraphrast expoundeth it among the Angels of heaven Alusively to the walks and galleries that were about the Temple Majora certamina majora sequuntur praemia saith Tertullian Quisquis volens 〈◊〉 famae meae nolens addit mercedi meae saith Augustine The more we suffer with and for Christ the more glory we shall have with and from Christ. For so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Your betters sped no better Strange not therefore at it start not for it Persecution hath ever been the Saints portion How early did Martyrdome come into the world The first man that died died for religion And although Cain be 〈◊〉 to his place yet I would he were not still alive in his sons and successours who hate their brethren because they are more righteous Et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rubentem circumferunt as one speaketh 〈◊〉 that is not to be wished or at least it is Magis optabile quam opinabile that ever a Prophet shall want a persecutour while there is a busie devil and a malicious world The Leopard 〈◊〉 said so to hate man that he sleeth upon his very picture and 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 doth the devil and his imps God and his image The Tigre is said to be enraged with the smell of sweet odours so are the wicked of the world with the fragrancy of Gods graces Noah rose up and condemned them by his contrary 〈◊〉 and therefore under-went a world of calamities Puritan Lot was an eye-sore to the sinfull Sodomites and is cast out as it were by an ostracisme His father Haran the brother of Abraham died before his father Terah in Ur of the Caldees The Hebrews tell us that he was cruelly burnt by the Caldees because he would not worship the fire which they had made their god How 〈◊〉 was Moses made as 〈◊〉 among the Romans to plead for his life And although Davids innocency triumphed in
diffused But be ye blamelesse and harmlesse the sonnes of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation as the Baptist was among whom ye shine as lights in the world as those great lights the Sun and Moon so the word signifieth so that they that speak evil of you may be judged as 〈◊〉 as those Atlantes that curse the rising Sun because it scorcheth them Be as thestarres at least which are said to affect these inferiour bodies by their influence motion and light So good Ministers as fixed starres in the Churches firmament by the influence of their lips feed by the regular motion of their lives confirm and by the light of both inlighten many And with such orient starres this Church of ours blessed be God like a bright skie in a clear evening sparkleth and is bespangled though not in every part yet in every zone and quarter of it A City that is set on a hill cannot be hid As that City that 's mounted on seven hills Roma Radix Omnium Malorum and cannot be hid but is apparently discerned and discried to be that great City Babylon So Augustine and other writers call it so Bellarmine and Ribera the Jesuites yeeld it Joannes de 〈◊〉 in his Mare historiarum telleth us that 〈◊〉 the Emperour was once in a minde to make Rome the seat of his Empire as of old it had been And having built a stately Palace there where formerly had stood the Palace of Julian the Apostate the Romanes being much against it he gave over the worke The 〈◊〉 Zonaras and 〈◊〉 report the like of Constans nephew to Heraclius 340 years before Otho Now that these and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 took not 〈◊〉 Genebrard saith it was a speciall pruvidence of God to the end that the kingdom of the Church foretold by Daniel might have Rome for its seat If he had said the kingdom of Antichrist foretold by St Paul and likewise by John the Divine he had divined aright But to return from whence we are digressed A Minister whiles he 〈◊〉 a private person stood in the croud as it were but no sooner entred into his office then he is 〈◊〉 upon the stage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are upon him as they were upon Saul who was higher by head and shoulders then the rest of the people Now therefore as the tree of 〈◊〉 was sweet to the taste and fair to the eye and as in Absolom there was no 〈◊〉 from head to foot so should it be with Gods Ministers Singular holinesse is 〈◊〉 of such 〈◊〉 those that quarter armes with the Lord Christ whom they serve 〈◊〉 the Gospel The Priests of the Law were to be neither 〈◊〉 nor defective And the Ministers of the 〈◊〉 for the word Priest is never used for such by the Apostles no nor by the 〈◊〉 ancient Fathers as Bellarmine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stamps and paterns to the beleevers in word and conversation every thing in them is eminent and exemplary The world though unjustly looks for Angelicall perfection in them and as the 〈◊〉 deviation in a starre is soon noted so is it in such 〈◊〉 happy he that with Samuel Daniel Paul and others can be acquitted and approved by himself in private in publike by others in both 〈◊〉 God That can by his spotlesse conversation slaughter 〈◊〉 stop 〈◊〉 open mouth and draw 〈◊〉 if not from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 of his 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 Mr Bradford the Martyr was had in so great 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 with all good men that a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knew him but by fame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his death yea 〈◊〉 number also of Papists themselves wished heartily his life And of Mr Bucer it is reported that he brought all men into such admiration of him that neither his friends could sufficiently praise him nor his enemies in any point finde fault with his singular life and sincere doctrine Bishop Hoopers life was so good that no kinde of slander although divers went about to reprove it could fasten any fault upon him And the mans life saith Erasmus concerning Luther whom he greatly loved not is approved of all men neither is this any small prejudice to his enemies that they can tax him for nothing Verse 15. Neither do men light a candle to put it under a 〈◊〉 c. Nor doth God set up a Minister and so light a lynk or torch as the word here signifieth amongst a people but for the diffusing of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The heavenly bodies illighten not their own 〈◊〉 only but send forth their beams far and near The grace of God that is the doctrine of grace that bringeth salvation hath appeared or shone-forth as a candle on a candlestick or as a beacon on a hill Teaching us to deny ungodlinesse c. The Priests lips must not only preserve knowledge but also present it to the people who shall seek it at his mouth And 〈◊〉 Baptist that burning and shining light was to give the knowledge of salvation not by way of infusion for so God only but by way of instruction The same word in the holy tongue that signifieth to understand signifieth also to instruct and to 〈◊〉 They that teach others what they know themselves as Abraham did those of his 〈◊〉 and family shall know more of Gods minde yea they shall be as Abraham was both of his Court and Council But the Lord likes not such empty vines as with Ephraim bear fruit to themselves such idle servants as thrust their hands into their bosoms dig their talents into the earth hide their candles under a bed or bushel living and lording it as if their lips were their own barrelling and hoarding up their gifts as rich cormorants do their corn refusing to give down their milk as curst kine or resolving to speak no more then what may breed applause and admiration of their worth and wisedom as proud self-seekers The 〈◊〉 of the spirit was given to profit withall And the Philippians were all partakers or compartners of St Pauls grace which he elsewhere calleth the gift bestowed on us for many that we may serve one another in love yea make our selves servants to all that we may 〈◊〉 some Certainly the gifts of such shall not perish in the use or be the worse for wearing but the better and brighter as the torch by tapping they shall grow in their hands as the 〈◊〉 in our Saviours as the widows oyl as that great mountain of salt in Spain de quo quaentum demas tantum 〈◊〉 which the more you take from it the more it increaseth Or lastly as the fountains or wells which by much drawing are made better and sweeter as St Basil observeth and common experience confirmeth And it giveth light to
beetle for writing a book against the marriage with the Duke of Anion entituled The gulf wherein England will be swallowed by the French match c. he put off his hat with his left-hand and said with a loud voice God save the Queen So when God strikes a parting blow between us and our dilecta delicta our right-hand sinnes let us see a mercy in it and be thankfull let us say to these Idols Get thee hence What have I to doe any more with Idols that God may say as there I have heard him and observed him I am like a green fir-tree from me is thy fruit found when he shall see thee pollute those Idols that thou wast wont to perfume Isa. 30. 22. And not that thy whole body be cast into hell Our Saviour is much in speaking of hell And it were much to be wished saith S. Chrysostom that mens thoughts and tongues would run much upon this subject there being no likelier way of escaping hell then by taking ever and anon a turn or two in hell by our meditations A certain Hermite is said to have learned three leaves a black red and white one that is he daily meditated upon the horrour of hell the passion of Christ the happines of heaven Verse 31. It hath been said Whosoever shall put away his wife c. This Moses permitted as a Law-maker not as a Prophet as a civil Magistrate not as a man of God meerly for the hardnesse of the mens hearts and for the relief of the women who else might have been misused mischiefed by their unmannerly and unnatural husbands Mal. 2. 13. Those hard-hearted Jews caused their wives when they should have been chearfull in Gods service to cover the altar of the Lord with tears with weeping and with crying out So that he regarded not the offering any more A number of such Nabals there are now-adaies that tyrannize over and trample upon their wives as if they were not their fellows but their foot-stools not their companions and copesmates but their slaves and vassals Husbands love your wives and be not bitter unto them Col. 3. 16. He saith not as it might seem he should with respect to the former verse Rule over them and shew your authority over those that are bound to submit unto you But love them that their subjection may be free and ingenuous Live not as Lamech like lions in your houses Quarrelsome austere discourteous violent with high words and hard blows such are fitter to live in Bedlam then in a civil society The Apostle requires That all bitternesse be put away all and in all persons how much more in married couples The Heathens when they sacrificed at their marriage feasts used to cast the gall of the beast sacrificed out of doors Vipera virus ob veneratioâ—em nuptiarum evomit Et tu duritiem animi tu feritatem tu crudelitatem ob unionis revâ—rentiam non dâ—ponis saith Basil. I confesse it were better be married to a quartan ague then to a bad wife so saith Simonides for there be two good daies for one bad with the one not one with the other But that should have been looked to afore-hand A hard adventure it is to yoke ones self with any untamed heifer that beareth not the yoke of Christ. And as grace so good nature a courteous disposition is a thing to be especially looked at in a wife which Eleazar Abrahams servant understood and therefore singled out as a token of a meet mate for his sonne Let her offer me drink and my Camels also saith he But what if it prove otherwise and men by leaping unadvisedly into the marriage estate have drawn much misery upon themselves Quid si pro conjugio conjurgium contraxerint Varro answereth Uxoris vitium aut tollendum aut tolerandum est A wives faults must be either cured or covered mended if we can made the best of if we cannot If the first she is made better if the second we Conjugium humanae divina Academia vitae est And hence it cometh to passe that Quae modo pugnârant jungant sua rostra columbae Quarum blanditias verbaque murmur habet As on the other side where this meeknesse of wisdome is not made use of by married folk they are together in the house no otherwise then as two poisons in the stomack as live Eels in the pot as two spanniels in a chain their houses are more like kennels of hounds then families of Christians or as so many fencingschools wherein the two sexes seem to have met together for nothing but to play their prizes and to try masteries Job was not more weary of his boils then they are of their bed-fellows cursing their wedding-day as much as he did his birth-day and thirsting after a divorce as he did after death Which because it cannot be had their lives prove like the sojourning of Israel in Marah where almost nothing could be heard but murmuring and mourning conjuring and complaining Verse 32. Saving for the caeuse of fornication Taken in the largest sense for adultery also Adulterium est quasi ad alterum aut alterius locum This sinne strikes at the very sinew heart and life of the marriage-knot and 〈◊〉 it Further it directly fights against humane society which the Law mainly respects and was therefore to be punished with death as a most notorious theft Master lay they this woman was taken in adulery in the very act In the very theft saith the originall to intimate belike the great 〈◊〉 that is in adultery whiles the childe of a stranger carries away the goods or lands of the family 〈◊〉 may any 〈◊〉 from our Saviours words to that woman ver 11. N 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 is not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more then he may that inheritances are not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was no 〈◊〉 would not divide them Luk 12. 14. The marriage-bed is honourable and should be kept inviolable 〈◊〉 and the purity of posterity cannot otherwise 〈◊〉 amongst men which is well 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 to be the reason why adultery is named in the Commandment under it all 〈◊〉 being forbidden when yet other 〈◊〉 are more 〈◊〉 as Sodomy and bestiality Causeth her to commit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God that both maketh and 〈◊〉 the bonds or wedlock which is therefore called The Covenant of God Prov. 2. 17 〈◊〉 are either 1. 〈◊〉 as when a man tieth himself by vow to God to 〈◊〉 such a sinne or doe such a duty 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 man and man as in our common contracts bargains and 〈◊〉 Or 3. Mixt that are made partly with God and partly with man And of this sort is the Marriage-Covenant the parties 〈◊〉 tie themselves first to God and then to one another Hence it is that the knot is indissoluble and cannot be undone or recalled at the pleasure of the parties
that necessity that neither the immutability of Gods decree Dan. 9. 1. nor the 〈◊〉 of the promises 〈◊〉 36 37. 〈◊〉 the effectuall 〈◊〉 of our Lord Christ who 〈◊〉 his Disciples to pray 〈◊〉 with us for not doing it The Jews accounted it an abomination of desolation when the daily Sacrifice was intermitted and suspended as under Antiochus Our Saviour perfumed his whole course 〈◊〉 his crosse with this incense and thereby purchased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 priviledge paved us this new and living 〈◊〉 to the throne of grace 〈◊〉 16. 4. a sure and safe way to get mercy 〈◊〉 23. The Ark was never separated from the Mercy-seat to shew that Gods mercy is neer unto such as affect his presence Some 〈◊〉 he hath reserved to this duty that will not otherwise be yeelded Psal. 〈◊〉 23. Ezek. 22. 30. As when he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to ruinate a people or person he silenceth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and forbids them to sollicite him any further as he did Samuel interceding for Saul and Jeremy for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be not as the 〈◊〉 Who pretend to pray much but indeed can do nothing at it because destitute of the spirit of grace and of supplication without whose help we know neither what 〈◊〉 how to pray Nay Peter James aud John will be sleeping when they should be praying in the very hour of temptation There may be good words and wishes found in a worldlings mouth Who will shew us any good But none but a David can with faith 〈◊〉 and fervency say Lord lift up the light of thy countenance upon me c. Balaam may break forth into wishes and woulds 〈◊〉 let me die the death of the righteous c. But can he 〈◊〉 as David in like case Psal. 26. 9. Oh take not away my soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor my life with bloudy men An hypocrite may tell a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for himself in earthly regards or howl upon his 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 of outward comforts 〈◊〉 in extremity as a 〈◊〉 at the 〈◊〉 as a pig under the knife or importune God 〈◊〉 grace as a bridge to lead him to heaven not for any beauty he 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 he findes in it But will he pray alwaies will 〈◊〉 light 〈◊〉 in God saith Job 〈◊〉 27. No surely he neither doth 〈◊〉 can do it When God defers to help at a pinch as 〈◊〉 when 〈◊〉 and vexations encrease he frets and meddles non ore with calling upon God but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him because he handles him not 〈◊〉 his own minde and be taketh himself to 〈◊〉 other course If God will not come at his call and be at his beck away to the witch of 〈◊〉 with Saul to the god of Ekron as 〈◊〉 to Baalim and Ashteroth with the revolted 〈◊〉 Wherein he is like to those barbarous Chinois that 〈◊〉 their gods when they answer them not or that resolute 〈◊〉 that profanely painted God on the one side of his shield and the devil on the other with this inscription Si tu me nolis 〈◊〉 Or that desperate King of Israel 〈◊〉 saith he this evil is from the Lord and what should I wait for the Lord any longer Loe this is the guise of a godlesse 〈◊〉 Either he calleth not upon God which is the description David giveth of him but is possest as it were with a dumb devil both in Church and chamber Or if by reading or otherwise he have raked together some good petitions and strive to set some life upon them in the utterance that he may seem to be well-gifted yet he doth it not to serve God but meerly to serve himself upon God He draweth not nigh with a true heart Heb. 10. 13. uprightly propounding Gods service in prayer and not only his own supply and satisfaction He is not brought into Gods presence with love and desire as Psal. 40. 8. He labours not with strife of heart to worship him with his faith trust hope humility self deniall 〈◊〉 well content that Gods will be done however and 〈◊〉 seeking his glory though 〈◊〉 be not profited acknowledging the Kingdom power and glory to be his Matth 6. 13. Lastly Working not by a right rule from a right principle nor for a right end he cannot undergoe the strife of 〈◊〉 as Jacob who wrestled by might and sleight 〈◊〉 much the Hebrew word importeth much lesse can he continue long in it as David he 〈◊〉 soon sated soon tired If men observe him not applaud him not he giveth over that 〈◊〉 as tedious and 〈◊〉 that wherein he findes no more good relish then in the white of an egge or a dry chip And in any extraordinary trouble instead of calling upon God 〈◊〉 runs from him Isa. 33. 14 as Saul did 1 Sam. 28. 7. For they love to pray standing c. Stand they might 〈◊〉 did the Publican And when ye stand and pray saith our Saviour not 〈◊〉 the gesture It was commonly used among the Jews in the Temple especially at the solemn feasts what time there was such resort of people from all parts that they could hardly stand one by another The Primitive Christians also stood praying in their publike Assemblies betwixt Easter and Whitsontide especially in token of our Saviours standing up from the dead Whence came that Proverb amongst them Were it not for standing 〈◊〉 prayer the world would not stand Other gestures and postures of the body in praier we read of David and Eliah sate and praied Peter and Paul kneeled and praied Moses and Aaron fell on their faces and praied In secret prayer there is more liberty to use that gesture that may most quicken us and help the duty Elias put his head between his knees in praier as one that would strain every vein in his heart But in publike our behaviour must be such as may witnesse 〈◊〉 communion and desire of mutuall edification there must be a uniformity no rents or divisions and speciall care taken that our inward affection answer our externall devotion that we stand not in the Synagogues as these with desire to be seen of men as Saul was higher then the rest by head and shoulders for that is putid hypocrisie hatefull even amongst Heathens Tully taxeth Gracchus for this that he referred all his actions not to the 〈◊〉 of vertue but to the favour of the people that 〈◊〉 might have esteem and applause from them That they may be seen of men This was the winde that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 winde-mill a-work the 〈◊〉 that made the clock strike 〈◊〉 telleth us that the nightingale singeth farre longer and 〈◊〉 when men be by then otherwise If 〈◊〉 had not seen 〈◊〉 zeal that Iehu had for the Lord of hosts he had been nothing 〈◊〉 hot nor in his own conceit so happy But Christian 〈◊〉 teacheth a wise man not to expose 〈◊〉 to the fairest shew 〈◊〉 rather to seek to be good
are fools because they fail in the main point of their salvation they are troubled about many things 〈◊〉 but neglect the one thing necessary they trifle out their precious 〈◊〉 and in hearing or other services they do worse then lose their labour 〈◊〉 they commit sin and heap up 〈◊〉 Their house will down as the spiders house doth and all their building plowing planting sailing come to nothing Which built his house upon the sand Wherefore it soon sinks and shatters as having not the loose earth thrown up first by the practice of mortification and self deniall Men should first sit down and cast what it would cost them to build the tower of godlinesse or ere they leap into profession They should put their hearts often to those grand questions of abnegation Can I as all must that will be Christs Disciples deny my self in all my selves for a man hath many selves within himself and must utterly and absolutely deny them all take up my daily crosse 〈◊〉 every Christian is a 〈◊〉 or crosse-bearer saith Luther the rain will fall the flouds flow the windes blow and beat upon his building he shall have many trials and temptations that looks toward heaven troubles without terrours within his back-burden of both and follow Christ thorow thick and thin by doing and suffering his whole will Many will follow Christ in such duties as sute with their humours and no further as the rusty hand of a diall they will break the hedge of his Law to shun a piece of foul way They follow Christ as the dog follows his 〈◊〉 till he come by a carrion and then he turns him up Orpha made a fair proffer of going along with Naomi but when she had better considered it she turned again Lots wife set fair out of Sodom but looked back So do many forward hearers set their hands to Gods plough but loth to plough up the fallow 〈◊〉 of their hearts and to lay a good foundation in humiliation they start aside like broken bowes and steal away like cowardly souldiers and so judge themselves unworthy of eternal life and unfit for Gods Kingdom For the foolish shall not stand in his sight he hateth all the workers of iniquity Caleb was not discouraged by the Giants therefore he had Hebron given him the place of the Giants when the spies and 〈◊〉 were never suffered to enter No more shall they that hold not out to the death obtain the crown of life Verse 27. And the rain descended c. The old heart cannot possibly hold out the hardship of holinesse nor bear the brunt of persecution for well-doing Like a Chesnut cast into the 〈◊〉 if not broken first on the top it leaps out again or like a false jade in a teem which being put to a stresse turns tail and tramples When the godly hearer holds on his way to heaven thorow all disasters as those two kine of the Philistims that bore home the Ark held on their way though they had calves at home that might have made them turn back And it fell The wise-man and fools house come under a double difference 1. In the foundation this to see to and above ground is little discerned The Temple is said to be as low under ground as it was high above 2. In the building it self The unprofitable hearer is not cimented to Christ by faith but laid loose as it were upon a sandy foundation and so slips beside the ground work in foul weather He is not set into the stock as a science but only stuck into the ground as a stake and is therefore easily 〈◊〉 up Whereas the true Christian is knit fast to Christ the Rock by the ligament of a lively faith and as a lively stone is built up a spirituall house growing up in the mysticall body with so much sweetnesse and evennesse as if the whole Temple like that of Salomon were but one entire stone He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. So that although 1. Shakings and waverings in the very purpose of holy-walking may befall a Saint by violent temptations Psal. 73. 2 13. Yea 2. Intermissions of the exercise of grace as of life in a palsey or 〈◊〉 3. Particular falls we are not exempted from Peter himself though a pillar fell from his former stedfastnesse in part yet from 〈◊〉 prolapsion from utter and irrecoverable falling away they are 〈◊〉 because founded upon a Rock which can never be removed He is both the Authour and finisher of their faith He hath praied and procured that it utterly fail not And the fall thereof was great Great and griovous because irreparable irreedifiable as Hiericho and the Temple at Ierusalem God laies them aside like broken 〈◊〉 of which there is no further use and sith they will needs wallow again as swine in the filth of their former pollutions he proncunceth upon them that fearfull sentence Let him that is filthy be filthy still that unclean spirit entereth him again and his dispositions to evil are seven times more enflamed then ever He hath despised and despighted the Spirit of grace and is in the ready road to the unpardonable sin The Apostate cannot lightly chuse unto himself a worse condition Heb. 10. 26. He casts himself into hel-mouth Heb 10. 〈◊〉 where the back slider in heart shall be filled with his own waies and have the greater 〈◊〉 by how much he fell from greater hopes and possibilities of better as 〈◊〉 from his Monarchy and as Cranmer from his high preferment to so low a condition as that there was left him neither hop of 〈◊〉 nor place of worse Verse 28. And it came to passe when 〈◊〉 had ended these sayings All this then was but one Sermon though twice preached at severall times as some collect out of Luke A long Sermon it was and yet the people staid it out So did not those 〈◊〉 Joh. 6. and therefore fell away from Christ So did not Judas and therefore met 〈◊〉 devil at the door It is a lamentable thing that a winters-tale shall be heard with more patience and pleasure then a powerfull Sermon that if a Preacher exceed his glasse sometimes 〈◊〉 sit at as little 〈◊〉 as if they were in a fit of an ague and others prophanely turn their backs upon the Propitiatory and depart without the blessing In the Councel of Agathon it was decreed that none should presume to go out before the Minister had blessed the Congregation And in the fourth Councel of Carthage Let him that goes out of the Auditory when the Minister is speaking to the Congregation be excommunicated Ite missa est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were the old forms of dismission And although Zachary was long ere he came forth yet the people staied his coming But the Word of the Lord is to the wicked a burthen Jer. 27. 33. cords and bonds Psal. 2. 3. Yokes and
impression Hamper Manasses and he will hearken to you O ye of little faith Ye petty-fideans He calleth them not nullifidians Faith is faith though never so little of it Credo languidâ fide sed tamen fide said dying Cruciger Our consolation lies much in the comparative degree 〈◊〉 our salvation is in the positive Much faith will yeeld unto us here our heaven and any faith if true will yeeld us heaven hereafter Now for fear that which is distrustfull faith quelleth and killeth it As that which is awfull and filiall it breedeth feedeth fostereth and 〈◊〉 Verse 27. Even the windes and the sea obey him He layes laws upon all creatures which are his hoasts The windes and sea fought for us apparantly in that Octogessimus octavus mirabilis annus So that the 〈◊〉 Spaniards said Christ was turned Lutheran The like was done by the windes for Theodosius in that famous battle against Maximinus The souldiers that were then present told us saith St Augustine that the windes took their darts as soon as they were out of their hands and drove them violently upon the enemy as for those that were cast at us by the enemy they were with like violence carried back upon their own bodies Hence sang Claeudian the Heathen Poet in this sort concerning 〈◊〉 O 〈◊〉 dilecte Deo cui 〈◊〉 aether Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti Verse 28. Coming out of the tombes There the devil kept them the more to terrifie them with the fear of death all their lives long 〈◊〉 2. 15. Appius Claudius as Capella witnesseth could not abide to 〈◊〉 the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it represented the gnashing of the teeth of dying men 〈◊〉 gives another reason hereof that the devil hereby sought to perswade silly people that dead mens souls were turned into devils and walked as they call it especially about tombes and sepulchres Thus he oft appeared to people in times of Popery in the shape of some of their 〈◊〉 kindred and haunted them till he had made them sing a 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 and such a soul. Melancthon tells a 〈◊〉 of an Aunt of his that had her hand burnt to a coal by the devil 〈◊〉 to her in the 〈◊〉 of her 〈◊〉 husband And Pareus relates an example much like this poor demoniack in the text of a bakers daughter in their countrey 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 up in a cave she had dig'd as in a grave to her dying day Verse 29. What have we to doe with thee Horrible impudence As if Christ were not concerned when his members are 〈◊〉 David felt his own coat cut and his own cheeks 〈◊〉 in the coats and 〈◊〉 of his servants And shall not Christ be as sensible of the abules done to his The 〈◊〉 suffers in the 〈◊〉 neither is it other then just that the arraignment of mean malefactours runs in the stile of wrong to the Kings Crown and dignity 〈◊〉 thou Son of God The devil speaks Christs fair but only to be rid of him so 〈◊〉 many by Christs Ministers that rip up their 〈◊〉 and so put them into an hell above-ground St Mark tells us that they worshipped our Saviour St Luke that they adjured him Satan saith one doth not alwaies appear in one and the same fashion At Lystra he appeared like a Comedian at 〈◊〉 like a Philosopher at Ephesus like an Artificer and here like an 〈◊〉 as to Saul he appeared like the old 〈◊〉 who could not have spoken more gravely severely divinely then the fiend did But as when one commended the Popes Legat at the Councel of Basile Sigismund the Emperour answered 〈◊〉 Romanus 〈◊〉 So when the devil comes commended unto us under what name soever 〈◊〉 us cry out yet he is a devil and remember still to 〈◊〉 him 〈◊〉 in the faith 1 Pet. 5. Art thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to torment us To dispossesse us Lo it is another hell to the 〈◊〉 to be idle or otherwise then evil-occupied Should not we hold it our heaven to be well-doing Learn for shame of the devil saith Father Latimer to be busie about the salvation of your own and other mens souls which he so studiously seeks to destroy Athanasius 〈◊〉 a conceit that the 〈◊〉 may be driven out of a body by repeating the 68 Psalm Origen saith of devils No greater torment to them then to see men addicted to the Scriptures In 〈◊〉 eorum omnis flammaest in hoc uruntur incendio Chrysostom saith we may 〈◊〉 and scourge the devil by fasting and prayer which the Prophet Isaiah calls a charm or inchantment Isa. 26. 16. Before the time For they are respited and reprived as it were in respect of full torment and suffered as free prisoners to flutter in the aire and to course about the earth till that great day which they tremble to think on and which they that mock at 2 Pet. 3. or make light of are worse then devils Verse 30. A herd of many swine 〈◊〉 Suille pecori anima pro sale data saith Varro Swinish Epicures also have their soules but for salt to keepe their bodies from putrefying That was a rotten speech of Epicurus that life eternall was nothing else but an eternall gourmandizing and swilling and swallowing of Nectar and Ambrosia The kingdome of God is another manner of thing then meat and drink Rom. 14. The devil desired to enter into the 〈◊〉 because of their 〈◊〉 Eat not greedily for this is Os porci habere as that Pope is said to have Drink not to drunkennesse for this sin robs a man of himself and layes a swine in his roome No creature besides man will be drunk but swine and not 〈◊〉 neither but as they are conversant about men for wild swine will not they say Verse 31. So the devils besought him For threaten him they durst not as little as the Gadarens vers 34. because they found themselves over-powered Time was when they had set upon our Saviour with 〈◊〉 might and malice in the wildernesse The matter is well amended now The same power when he pleases can change the note of the Tempter to us He will tread Satan undet our feet shortly That which Vegetius said of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with sithes and hooks will be applyed to the devils At first they were a terrour and after a scorn Suffer us to go into the herd of swine We may safely say that the bristles of swine are numbred with God saith Tertullian much more the haires of Saints not one of them falls to the ground without their heavenly father Satan desired 〈◊〉 have forth Peter to winnow as Goliah desired to have an Israelite to combate with he could not command him He could not make a louse Exod. 8. 18. fire an house Job 1. 19. drown a pigge without divine permission Now we are more of price then many pigs before God as that Martyr well inferred And if a legion of devils had not
see themselves Christ 〈◊〉 creatures Need not the Physitian And the Physitian needs them as 〈◊〉 he came not oares not for them they have as much help from him as they seek Presumption is as a chain to their neck and they believe their interest in Christ when it is no such thing They 〈◊〉 a bridge of their own shadow and so fall into the brook they perish by catching at their own catch hanging on their own fancy which they falsly call and count faith Verse 14. But goye and learn what c. In the history of Ionas Christ found the mystery of his death buriall and resurrection Rest not in the shell of the Scriptures but break it and get out the kernel as the sense is called Iudg. 7. 15. stick not in the bark but pierce into the heart of Gods Word Lawyers say that Apices juris non sunt jus The letter of the Law is not the Law but the meaning of it Iohn never rested till the sealed book was opened Pray for the spirit of revelation plow with Gods heifer and we shall understand his riddles provided that we wait in the use of all good means till God irradiate both organ and object I will have mercy Both that which God shews to us and that which we shew to others spirituall and corporall Steep thy thoughts saith one in the mercies of God and they will dy thine as the dy-fat doth the cloth Col. 3. 12. I came not to call the righteous Those that are good in their own eyes and claim heaven as the portion that belongs unto them Scribonius writes of 〈◊〉 Cedar Quòd viventes res putrefacit perdit putridas autem 〈◊〉 conservat So Christ came to kill the quick and to quicken the dead But sinners to repentance Not to liberty but duty Tertullian speaketh of himself that he was born to nothing but repentance This is not the work of one but of all our daies as they said Ezra 10. 13. Some report of Mary Magdalen that after our Saviours resurrection she spent thirty years in Gallia 〈◊〉 in weeping for her sins And of S. Peter that he alwaies had his eyes full of tears insomuch as his face was furrowed with continuall weeping Let not him that resolves upon Christianity dream of a delicacy Verse 14. Then came to him the Disciples of John These sided with the Pharisees against our Saviour out of emulation and self-love the bane and break-neck of all true love yea they were first in the quarrel A dolefull thing when brethren shall set against brethren Hebrews vex one another Exod. 2. and Christians as if they wanted enemies flie in the faces one of another S. Basil was held an heretike even of them that held the same things as he did and whom he honoured as brethren all the fault was that he out-shone them and they envied him the praise he had for opposing Arrianisme which was such as that Philostorgius the Arrian wrote that all the other Orthodox Divines were but babies to Basil. How hot was the contention betwixt Luther and Carolostudius meerly out of a self-seeking humour and desire of preheminency How extream violent are the Lutherans against the Calvinists In the year 1567. they joyned themselves at 〈◊〉 with the Papists against the Calvinists And Luther somewhere professeth that he will rather yeeld to Transubstantiation then remit any thing of Consubstantiation Why doe we and the Pharisees fast often The Pharisees were perilous fasters when they devoured widows houses and swallowed il-gotten goods as Gnats down their wide 〈◊〉 which therefore Christ cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inwards Their fasts were meer mock-fasts so were those of John Arch-bishop of Constantinople sir-named the Faster who yet was the first that affected the title of Universall Bishop so much cried down by Gregory the great These Pharisees had sided with and set on Johns Disciples in their masters absence like as the renegado 〈◊〉 to keep up that bitter contention that is between the Calvinists and 〈◊〉 have a practice of running over to the Lutheran Church pretending to be converts and to build with them Verse 15. And Jesus said unto them He makes apology for his accused Disciples so doth he still at the right hand of his heavenly Father nonsuting all accusations brought against us as our Advocate 1 Joh. 2. 1. appearing for us as the Lawyer doth for his Client Heb. 9 24. opening his case and pleading his cause He helpeth us also to make apology for our selves to God 2 Cor. 7. 11. and expecteth that as occasion requires we should make apology one for another when maligned and misreported of by the world Can the children of the 〈◊〉 c Our Saviour seeing them to sin of infirmity and by the instigation of the Pharisees who with their leaven had somewhat sowred and seduced them in their masters absence deals gently with them to teach us what to 〈◊〉 in like case A Venice-glasse must be otherwise handled then an earthen pitcher or goddard some must be rebuked sharply severely cuttingly Titus 1. 13. but of others we must bave compassion making a difference Jude 22. Mourn as long as the Bridegroom c. Mourn as at sunerals so the word signifieth This were incongruous unseasonable and unseemly at a feast It was a peevishnesse in Sampsons wife that she wept at the wedding sith that 's the day of the rejoycing of a mans heart as Solomon hath it Now Christ is the Churches Spouse He hath the bride and is the bridegroom as their master the Baptist had taught them Joh. 3. 29. and 〈◊〉 over every good soul as the bridegroom rejoyceth over the bride Isai. 62. 5. Should not the Saints therefore reciprocate But the daies will come Our Saviour 〈◊〉 much even many a little death all his life long and yet till his passion he accounts himself to be as it were in the bride-chamber Then it was especially that he alone 〈◊〉 the wine-presse and was rosted alive in the fire of his Fathers wrath c. When the Bridegroom 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 from them As now your master the Baptist is from you a just argument and occasion of your grief and fasting if possibly you may beg him of God out of the hands of Herod When the Duke of Burbons Captains had shut up Pope Clement 8. in the Castle S. Angeto Cardinall Wolsey being shortly after sent Embassadour beyond seas to make means for his release as he came thorow Canterbury to ward 〈◊〉 he commanded the Monks and the Quire to sing the Letany after this sort Sancta Maria ora pro Papa nostro Clemente Himself also being present was seen to weep tenderly for the Popes calamity Shall superstition do that that Religion cannot bring us to Shall we not turn again unto the Lord with fasting weeping and mourning if for nothing else yet that our poor 〈◊〉 may finde compassion Which is Hezekiah's motive to
earnestly to his mother to pray God to make him worthy to suffer not only imprisonment but even very death for his truth religion and Gospel Femella 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 godly woman understanding that her son went heavily on to his death for Christ 〈◊〉 him and encouraged him bidding him look up to heaven and behold the Sun in his glory Which when he 〈◊〉 done Knowest thou not my son said she that thou shalt shortly be in that heavenly 〈◊〉 and there out-shine the Sun it self 〈◊〉 Hunter the Martyrs mother 〈◊〉 unto him standing at the stake That she was glad that ever she was so happy as to bear such a childe as could finde in his heart to lose his life for Christs Name sake Then 〈◊〉 said to his mother For my little pain which I shall 〈◊〉 which is but for a short braid Christ hath 〈◊〉 me a crown of joy May not you be glad of that mother With that his mother kneeled down on her knees saying I pray God strengthen thee my son to the end Yea I think thee as well bestowed as any childe that ever I bare John Clark of 〈◊〉 in France being for Christs sake whipped three severall daies and afterward having a mark set in his fore-head as a note of infamy 〈◊〉 mother beholding it though his father was an adversary encouraged her son crying with a loud voice Blessed be Christ and welcome be these his prints and marks Is not worthy of me viz. Because he holdeth not me worthy of more love then his best friends Eli for 〈◊〉 to please his sonnes Moses his wife had like to have lost a friend of God who had much adoe to forbear killing him Exod. 4. 24. Verse 38. And he that taketh not up his crosse Omnis Christianus crucianus saith Luther Every Christian is sure of his crosse but first it 〈◊〉 be his crosse such as God hath laid upon him not such as he hath created to himself as Baals Priests who cut themselves with knives and launcers the Circumcelliones of old and the Monks at this day with their voluntary pennances c. Next he must take it and not stay till it be laid upon him or then bear it as an asse doth his burden because he can neither will nor chuse But he must 〈◊〉 active in suffering and take Gods part against himself Nay he must as he may be chearfull under his crosse and thankfull for it as a favour an honour Act. 5. 41. 20. 24. The very beasts take blows from their keepers Turks when cruelly lasht by their officers give them thanks and go their waies Porters go singing under their burdens c. Levius fit patientiâ quicquid corrigere est nefas And followeth after me 〈◊〉 cometh not behinde me and this not aloof off as Peter Mat. 26. 58. but close at heels as Caleb Numb 14. 24. walking in Christ Col. 2. 6. as Christ 1 Joh. 2. 6. putting him on in his 〈◊〉 as Constantines sons did their father and preaching forth his praises 1 Pet. 2 9. He is a Saviour to none but those to whom he is a samplar neither have any his redemption but they that take his direction Verse 39. He that findeth his life shall lose it This is a strange expression a riddle to the world a seeming contradiction such as naturall reason can never reconcile But if the paradoxes of the Stoicks might be proved much more may those of the Gospel He that findeth his life that is redeemeth it with the forfeiture of his faith with the shipwrack of his conscience makes a 〈◊〉 bargain makes more haste then good speed whiles in 〈◊〉 from death as farre as he can he runnes to it as fast as he can Christ will kill him with death 〈◊〉 2. 23. and sentence him as an apostate unto double 〈◊〉 He that loseth his life for my sake c. For else all 's lost sith it is not poena but causa that makes a Martyr Christ and the thieves were in the same condemnation Samson and the 〈◊〉 in the same destruction by the downfall of the house 〈◊〉 poena dissimilis causa saith Augustine Martyrdom is a crown as old age if it be found in the way of righteousnesse One Martyr cried out Blessed be God that ever I was born to this happy hour To another when it was said Take 〈◊〉 it is an hard matter to burn Indeed said he it is for him that hath his soul linked to his body as a thiefs foot in a pair of fetters Shall finde it For the line of his lost life shall be hid in the endlesse 〈◊〉 of Gods surest mercies The passion-daies of the Martyrs were therefore anciently called Natalilia 〈◊〉 the birth daies of salvation the day-break of eternall brightnes Those poor seduced souls that lost theirlives in the holy Wars as they called them and were perswaded that thereby they made amends to Christ for his death were much to be pittied Verse 40. He that receiveth you 〈◊〉 me And who would not be glad to entertain the Lord Christ 〈◊〉 held it a great matter that the mother of her Lord should come to her Luk. 1. 43. Behold Christ comes to us in his servants in his Ministers especially Receive them therefore as so many Angels yea as Christ himself Gal. 4 14. accounting their very 〈◊〉 how much more their faces beautifull We know with what great respect Cornelius entertained Peter Non tantus sum ut vos alloquar said Tertullian to certain Martyrs He tels us also that it was a custom of some in those times to creep to the 〈◊〉 bonds in way of honour to them which perhaps was more then was meet Receiveth him that sent me The Heathens held it a great honour to entertain their gods and the Poets tell us of much evil that 〈◊〉 those that refused to do so That which we have heard and seen saith S. John declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us But what so great matter is that might some say You and your fellows are but men of mean condition True saith the 〈◊〉 but as mean as we are our fellowship is with the Faether and with his Sonne Jesus Christ who will also come in and sup with such as receive his servants And may they not be glad of such guests Verse 41. He that receiveth a Prophet in the Name c. Though haply he be no Prophet This takes away the excuse of such as say They would do good if they knew to whom as worthy Shall receive a Prophets reward Both actively that which the Prophet shall give him by teaching him the faith of the Gospel casting pearls before him c. And passively that reward that God gives the Prophet the same shall he give his host Gaius lost nothing by such guests as Iohn nor the Shunamite or Sareptan by the Prophets Of such Christ seems to say as
Paul did of Onesimus If he owe thee ought put that in mine account I will repay it And he I can tell you is a liberall pay-master Saul and his servant had but five-pence in their purse to give the Prophet The Prophet after much good chear gives him the Kingdom Such is Gods dealing with us Seek out therefore some of his receivers some Mephibosheth to whom we may shew 〈◊〉 He that receiveth a righteous man Though not a Minister if for that he is righteous and for the truths sake that dwelleth in him 2 Ioh. 2. The Kenites in Sauls time that were born many ages after Iethro's death receive life from his 〈◊〉 and favour from his hospitality Nay the AEgyptians for harbouring and at first deallng kindely with the Israelites though without any respect to their righteousnesse were preserved by Ioseph in that sore famine and kindely dealt with ever after by Gods speciall command Verse 42. Unto one of these little ones So the Saints are called either because but a little flock or little in their own eyes or little set by in the world or dearly respected of God as little ones are by their loving parents A cup of cold water As having not fuell to heat it saith Hierom nor better to bestow then Adams ale a cup of water yet desirous some way to seal up his love to poor Christ. Salvian saith That Christ is mendicorum maximus the greatest beggar in the world as one that shareth in all his Saints necessities Relieve him therefore in them so shall you lay up in store for your selves a good foundation against the time to come yea you shall lay hold on eternall life 1 Tim. 6. 19. Of Midas it is fabled that whatever he touched he turned into gold Sure it is that whatsoever the hand of charity toucheth be it but a cup of cold water it turns the same not into gold but into heaven it self He is a niggard then to himself that is niggardly to Christs poor If heaven may be had for a cup of cold water what a bodkin at the churles heart will this be one day Surely the devil will keep holy-day as it were in hell in respect of such Verely I say unto you he shall in no wise c. By this deep asseveration out Saviour tacitely 〈◊〉 the worlds unbelief whiles they deal by him as by some patching companion or base bankrupt trust him not at all withoute ther ready money or a sufficient pawn But what saith a grave Divine Is not mercy as sure a grain as vanity Is God like to break or forget Is there not a book of remembrance written before him which he oftner 〈◊〉 then Ahasuerus did the Chronicles The Butler may forget Joseph and Ioseph his fathers house but God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have shewed toward his name in that you have ministred to the Saints and doe minister Heb. 6. 10. CHAP. XI Verse 1. He departed thence to teach c. NEver out of action the end of one good work was with our Saviour the beginning of another So must it be with Ministers let them 〈◊〉 look to rest till they come to heaven but as S. Paul that Insatiabilis Deicultor as Chrysostom called him teach Gods people publikely and from house to house 〈◊〉 warning every one night and day with tears Dr 〈◊〉 Martyr preached not only every Sabbath-day and holy-day but whensoever else he could get the people together So did Bishop Ridley Bishop Jewell c. So did not their successours once a year was fair with many of them like the high-Priest 〈◊〉 the Law as if they had concurred in opinion with that Popish Bishop that said It was too much for any man to preach every Sunday and that Bishops were not ordained to preach but to sing 〈◊〉 sometimes leaving all other offices to their 〈◊〉 It is as rare a thing at Rome said Doctour Bassinet to hear a Bishop preach as to see an Asse flee Oh what will these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when 〈◊〉 riseth up and when he visiteth how will they answer him See my true Treasure pag. 2 4. To preach in their Cities That is in the Cities of his twelve Disciples in the causes of Galilee while they were doing the same in Iury. Maldonat the Jesuite will not have this to be the sense of this text and only because it is the sense that the 〈◊〉 as he calls the Protestants set on it A goodly thing he holds it to dissent from them though in a manifest truth So George Duke of Saxony was heard to say Though I am not ignorant that heresies and abuses are crept into the Church Yet I will never obey the Gospel that Luther preacheth For hatred to the man he would not hearken to the truth he taught This is to have the faith of Christ in respect of persons J am 2. 1. Verse 2. Now when Iohn had heard in the prison Put this fellow in prison said Ahab of Micaiah Who is thought to have been he that told him so barely of letting goe Benhadad So Ierenny that Concionator admirabilis as Keckerman calleth him was for forty years pains and patience cast into a deep and dirty dungeon The Apostles were often imprisoned so were the ancient Bishops under the ten first perseeutions From the detectable orchyard of the Leomine prison So Algerius the Italian Martyr dates his letter Within a few daies of Q. Maries raign almost all the prisons in England were become right Christian Schools and Churches Bocardo in Oxford was called a Colledge of 〈◊〉 Cranmer Ridly Latimer and others being there kept captive This is merces mundi look for no better dealing Verse 3. Art thou he that should come c. This question the Baptist moved not for his own sake for he was well assured and had sufficiently testified Joh. 3. but for his Disciples better settlement and satisfaction This whiles Tertullian observed not he hath done the Baptist palpable 〈◊〉 in three severall places as if himself had doubted of the person of Christ. Let not us be troubled to be in like manner mistaken and misjudged Verse 4. Jesus answered and said c. Our Saviour rated them not chased them not away from his presence though zealously affecting their master but not well Joh. 3. and envying for his sake The man of God must not strive but be gentle apt to teach patient In meeknesse instructing those that oppose themselves c. Frier Alphonsus a Spaniard reasoning with Bradford the Martyr was in a wonderfull rage and spake so high that the whole house rang again chasing with om cho c. So that if Bradford had been any thing hot one house could not have held them Go and shew John what things c. He gives them a reall testimony an ocular demonstration This was the ready way to win
cast out of Geneva for refusing to administer the Lords Supper with wafer-cakes or unleavened bread De 〈◊〉 poste à restitutus nunquam contendendam 〈◊〉 saith 〈◊〉 in his life of which being afterwards restored he thought best to make no more words but to yeeld though he let them know that he had rather it were otherwise Christ sets us to learn of the unjust steward by all lawfull though he did it by unlawfull means to maintain our reputation with men 〈◊〉 this defect 〈◊〉 noted in the best when he said The children of this world are wiser in their generation then the children of light But wisdom is justified of her children Who all having a right estimate of her worth doe meanly esteem of other courses and discourses doe stand to her and stickle for her though never so much slighted by the world There are that read it thus But Wisdom is judged of her children viz. the perverse Jews who preposterously passe sentence upon their mother whom they should rather vail to and vote for Verse 20. Then began he to upbraid Haply because these Cities drawn by the authority of the Pharisees made lesse account of our Saviours doctrine or miracles by them maliciously depraved and disparaged The blinde led the blinde but both fell into the ditch though their leaders lay undermost Because they repented not There is a heart that cannot repent that hath lost all passive power of coming out of the snare of the devil that is become such through long trading in sin as neither ministry nor misery nor miracle nor mercy can possibly mollifie Upon such you may write Lord have mercy upon them O said a reverend man If I must be put to my option I had rather be in hell with a sensible heart then live on earth with a reprobate minde Verse 21. Wo unto thee Chorazin These littorals or those that dwell by the sea-coast are noted to be duri horridi immanes 〈◊〉 denique pessimi rough harsh theevish peevish people and as bad as those that are worst But that which aggravated these mens sin and made it out of measure sinfull was the contempt of the Gospel which as it is post naufragium tabula so how shall they escape that neglect so great salvation See that ye shift not off him that speaketh from heaven c. Hierom tells us that Chorazin was in his time turned into a defert being two miles distant from Capernaum As for Beth saida our Saviour had therehence taken three of his Apostles at least to be lights of the world but the inhabitants of this Town loved darknesse rather then light the Apostles their countrymen could doe no good upon them Our Saviour therefore would not suffer so much as the blinde man whom he had cured to be their Preacher but led him to the Townes-end and there restoring him to sight sent him away They would have repented long ago Blinde heathens when my misery was upon them would to their fackcloth an̄d sorrows thinking thereby to pacifie God and so they rested In like sort there are amongst us that when they are afflicted especially in conscience set upon some duty so to lick themselves whole again 〈◊〉 58 5. They do as crows that when they are sick give themselves a vomit by swallowing down some stone and then they are well They rest in their repentance Hence Austin saith Repentance 〈◊〉 more then sin Verse 22. It shall be more tolerable Men are therefore the worse because they ought to be better and shall be deeper in hell because heaven was offered unto them but they would not Ingentia beneficia flagitia supplicia say the Centurists Good turns aggravate unkindnesses and mens offences are increased by their obligations If Turks and Tartars shall be damned debauched Christians shall be double-damned because though they defie not yet they deny the Lord that bought them whilest by their unchristian conversation they tell the world that either there is no such thing as Christ or if there be yet that he is but a weak Christ and that there is no such power in his death or efficacy in his resurrection to sanctifie those that belong unto him Verse 23. Which art exalted unto heaven viz. In the abundance of the means of grace many times called the Kingdom of heaven for as the harvest is potentially in the seed so is eternall life potentially in the ordinances God sends up and down the world to 〈◊〉 salvation Hence that phrase My salvation is gone forth Hence they that reject the word preached are said to judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life Acts 13. 46. Hence while Israel was without a teaching Priest they are said to have been without the true God 2 Chron. 15. 3. Hence the Psalmist makes the 〈◊〉 that come out of Sion to be better then any other that come out of heaven and earth Psal. 134 3. Shalt be brought down to hell With a violence with a vengeance As Ahashuerosh said of Haman that so much abused his favour Hang him on the gallows that is 50 cubits high so shall God say of such Plunge them into hell much deeper then others that whiles they were on earth set so light by my grace though it even kneeled unto them wooing acceptance 2 Cor. 5. 20. It would have remained untill this day But God rained down hell from heaven upon them and turned them into ashes saith Peter yea their fire burnt to hell saith Iude. Some footsteps of it are yet to be found in the place as Iosephus relateth and something also may be read of it in Tacitus and 〈◊〉 Both S. Peter and S. Iude say they were set forth for an example 〈◊〉 perditio tua fit cautio Let their destruction be our instruction 〈◊〉 heathen Herodotus 〈◊〉 up in judgement against us who said 〈◊〉 the coals and ashes of Troy burnt by the Greeks were 〈◊〉 set before the eyes of men for an example of this rule that Nationall and notorious sins bring down nationall and notorious plagues from a sin-revenging God Verse 24. It shall be more tolerable Infidelity then is in some respect a worse sin then Sodomy and a heavier doom abides it They that suffer least in hell suffer more then 〈◊〉 can either abide or avoid All they suffer here is but typicall of the wrath to come Here the leaves only fall upon them as it were but there the whole trees too Here they sip of the top of Gods cup there they must drink the dregs though it be eternity to the bottom Howbeit 〈◊〉 shall suffer lesse then 〈◊〉 mitiùs punietur Cicero quam Catilina saith an Ancient non quòd bonus sed quod minùs malus The beast and the false Prophet were cast alive into the burning lake which imports a most direfull and dreadfull degree of torment when the rest of the Antichristian rabble shall be first slain with the sword not cast in
〈◊〉 who professe to eat Christ corporally 〈◊〉 censure so bitterly Verse 8. The sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath q. d. Say they were not innocent yet have you no cause to condemn them for Sabbath-breach sith I am Lord of the Sabbath and may 〈◊〉 with mine own as me seems 〈◊〉 True it is that Christ hates sinne by nature not by precept only and therefore cannot dispense with the breach of his own laws those that be morall in themselves such as are all the ten but the fourth The fourth Commandment is morall not by nature but by precept saith one and so the Lord of the Sabbath may dispense with the literall breach of the Sabbath Verse 9. He went into their Synagogue These were Chappels of ease to the Temple of ancient use Act. 15. 21. and divine authority Psal. 74. 8. This here is called the Pharisees Synagogue because they did Dominari in concionibus Rom. 2. 19 20. and are for their skill called Princes 1 Cor. 2. 8. Verse 10. Which had his hand withered So have all covetous 〈◊〉 who may well be said amidst all their 〈◊〉 to have 〈◊〉 currant coyn no quick-silver They sit abrood upon what they have got as Euclio in the 〈◊〉 and when by laying 〈◊〉 their money they might lay hold on eternall life they will not 〈◊〉 drawn to it But as Alphonsus King of Spain when he stood to be King of the Romans was prevented of his hopes because he being a great Mathematician was drawing lines saith the Chronicler when he should have drawn out his 〈◊〉 So here Verse 11. What man shall there be c. If a 〈◊〉 slipt into a slowe must be relieved how much more Christs reasonable sheep all which bear golden fleeces and every thing about whom is good either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ad usum Verse 12. Is it lawfull to do 〈◊〉 Nay it is needfull sith not to do well is to do ill and not to save a life or a soul is to destroy it Mar. 3. 4 Not to do justice is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not to shew 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then cruelty Verse 13. And he stretched it forth So would our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out their hands to the poor would they but 〈◊〉 to Christ and hear his voice as this man did But till then they will as easily part with their bloud as with their good All their strife is who like the 〈◊〉 shall fall asleep with most earth in his paws As when they die nothing grieves them more then that they must leave that which they have so dearly 〈◊〉 whiles alive I reade of one wretch who being at point of death clapt 〈◊〉 piece of gold in his own 〈◊〉 and said Some wiser then some I mean to have this with me howsoever Verse 14. How 〈◊〉 might destroy him All envy is bloudy Men wish him out of the world whom they cannot abide and would rather the Sun should be 〈◊〉 then their candle 〈◊〉 David durst never trust Sauls protestations because he knew him to be an envious person Nero put Thraseas to death for no other cause but for that it was not expedient for Nero that 〈◊〉 worthy a man as he should live by him Verse 15. Great multitudes followed him Maugre the malice of earth and hell They lose their labour that seek to quell Christ and subvert his Kingdom Yet have I set my King upon mine holy hill of Sion Psal. 2. 6. The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence 〈◊〉 11. 12. Or as Melanctbon rendereth that text Vierumpit procedit enititur vi scilicet 〈◊〉 ut sol enititur per nubes ergo irriti 〈◊〉 conatus it bursts thorow all Verse 16. That they should not make him known This his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who sought to get credit and glory among men by his 〈◊〉 works upbraid him with Joh. 7. 4. If thou 〈◊〉 these things shew thy self to the world say they and so proclaim that they believed not in him Joh. 7. 5. with Joh. 5. 44. Joh. 12. 43. Verse 17. That it might be fulfilled The old Testament is the new fore-told the new Testament is the old 〈◊〉 Ezekiel saw a wheel within a wheel This is saith 〈◊〉 the one Testament in the other Verse 18. Behold my servant My servant the Messias as the Chaldee 〈◊〉 renders and expounds it The Septuagint somewhat obscure the text by adding to it Behold my servant Jacob and mine elect Israel They are said to have 〈◊〉 against 〈◊〉 wils no 〈◊〉 then they deal not so faithfully Sure it is that they have perverted sundry 〈◊〉 Prophecies 〈◊〉 Christ as 〈◊〉 for instance which therefore our Evangelist and the rest of the Apostles alledge not out of their translation but out of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 The Latins drink of the puddles the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 but the Hebrews of the 〈◊〉 said Iohan. Reuchlin Whom I have chosen my beloved c Ecce electum dilectum The Latines have a proverb Deligas quem 〈◊〉 Chuse for thy love and then love for thy choice God hath also chosen 〈◊〉 in the beloved Ephes. 1. 6. that we should be the beloved of his soul or as the Septuagint there emphatically render it his belived soul. And he shall shew judgement That is the doctrine of the Gospel whereby is convey'd into the heart that spirit of judgement and of burning Isa. 4. 4. or the sweet effect of it true grace which is called judgement a little below vers 20. Verse 19. He shall not strive To bear away the bell 〈◊〉 others Nor cry Nor lift up his voice saith the Prophet as loth to lie hid and 〈◊〉 making an O yes as desirous of vain-glory and popular applause Laudes nec curat nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He despiseth it as a little stinking breath or the slavering of mens lips which he disdains to suck in Verse 20. A bruised reed shall he not break A reed shaken with the winde is taken for a thing very contemptible at the best how much more when bruised The wick of a candle is little worth and yet lesse when it 〈◊〉 as yeelding neither light nor heat but only stench and annoiance This men bear not with but tread out So doth not Christ who yet hath a sharp nose a singular sagacity and soon resents our provocations He 〈◊〉 also feet like burning brasse to tread down all them that wickedly depart from his statutes Psal. 119. 118. But so do not any of his and therefore he receiveth and cherisheth with much 〈◊〉 not the strong oaks only of his people but the bruised reeds too nor the bright torches only but the smoaking wick He despiseth not the day of small things Smoak is of the same 〈◊〉 with flame for what else is flame but smoak set on fire So a little grace may be true grace as the filings of gold are as good gold though nothing so much of it as the whole wedge The least spark of fire if cherished
2. They were 〈◊〉 and thereby tormented saith the Apostle of those 〈◊〉 Heb. 11. 37. Satan speaks to us sometimes by our friends as thorow trunks and canes Verse 24. If any man will come after me Not step before me 〈◊〉 to me as Peter attempted to do whose fault herein is purposely recorded that be might not be as by the Papists for 〈◊〉 respects he is over-much magnified 〈◊〉 as is above observed and made collaterall a very copesmate to Christ himself Let him deny himself Abdicet seipsum Let him abrenounce himself flatly peremptorily again and again as the word importeth with a stout and stiff deniall to so unreasonable a request as self will be sure to make to a man his whole 〈◊〉 throughout Every one hath many a self within himself to say nay to though never so dear to him Levi said unto his father and to his mother I have not seen him neither did he acknowledge his 〈◊〉 nor knew 〈◊〉 own children that he might observe Gods Word and keep his 〈◊〉 Deut. 33 9. This was much But he that will be Christs Disciple must do more then this He must deny himself his own reason will affections appetite aims ends acts 〈◊〉 c. He must utterly renounce himself as much as if he had nothing at all to do with himself Yea he must condemn and cast away himself as God doth those reprobates whom he denieth disowneth and disavoweth for ever Horreo quicquid de meo est ut sim meus saith Bernard Ita cave tibi ut caveas 〈◊〉 saith another So take heed to your 〈◊〉 that you take heed of your self Oh misery saith a third we could not suffer a Lord and yet we sustain to serve our fellow-servant self 〈◊〉 the Emperour dying affirmed that he was proud of one of his victories only viz. That he had overcome his own flesh that worst of enemies Of all slaveries none so grievous to a good heart as to be slave to himself And this yoke of slavery it is an easie matter to shake off saith Seneca but he is fouly deceived For a man will sooner say nay to all the world then to himself This made Robert Smith the Martyr write thus to his wife Be alwaies an enemy to the devil and the world but specially to your own flesh There are some diseases that will not be cured till we be let bloud ad deliquium animae till the patient 〈◊〉 and such is sin it is corruptio totius substantiae the sinner must be unmade taken all asunder ere the new creature can be made up in him he must be stark dead to sin 〈◊〉 he can live to 〈◊〉 as S. Peter hath it and the word he 〈◊〉 there implieth that the old frame must be utterly 〈◊〉 and the whole man done to death and 〈◊〉 for a whole burnt-offering Instead of a 〈◊〉 saith Origen we must kill our 〈◊〉 passions in stead of a Goat our unclean affections in stead of slying fowls our idle thoughts and evil imaginations Loe this is that evangelicall sacrifice that rationall service so much commended and called for Rom. 12. 1. Do this and thou shale live leave it 〈◊〉 and thou art undone for ever Pray therefore with him Domine libera me à malo homine meipso Lord free 〈◊〉 from an ill man my self And take up his crosse Where 〈◊〉 is renounced the crosse is 〈◊〉 born It is self saith one 〈◊〉 the crosse pinch Things puft up with winde break when they come to the fire so 〈◊〉 that are puffed up and filled with self will 〈◊〉 nothing Privation is one of the principles of naturall generation so is self-deniall of holy 〈◊〉 Pain would this flesh make strange of that which the Spirit doth embrace said M. 〈◊〉 Martyr in a letter written to his wife out of the prison O Lord how loth is this loitering 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 forth in Gods 〈◊〉 It fancieth forsooth much fear of fray-bugs c. Take up the crosse and follow me thorow thick and thin thorow fire and water Oh this is an hard saying saith another Martyr But if there be any way on horse-back to heaven surely this is the way Only we must take up our crosse be active in it and not stay till it be laid upon us whether we will or no. And then bear it patiently not grin under the burden of it as antick pictures 〈◊〉 to do under the weight of the house-side 〈◊〉 they are fastened Drink 〈◊〉 Gods cup willingly and at the first saith M. Bradford and when it is full lest peradventure if we linger we drink at length of the dregs with the wicked if at the beginning we drink not with his children We must take up our crosses saith another and when God bids us yoke he is the 〈◊〉 man that yeelds his neck most willingly And follow me Without sciscitation let him go blinde-fold whether I lead him as Abraham did Neither may he leap over the hedge of the command for avoiding the foul way of affliction Sed 〈◊〉 quocunque Christus vocârit 〈◊〉 in ea loca migrandum 〈◊〉 Pigris ubi nulla campis Arbor 〈◊〉 â recreatur aurâ Quod 〈◊〉 mundi nebulae malusque Jupiter urget God hath 〈◊〉 us to be conformed to 〈◊〉 image of his Sonne in sufferings also Rom. 8. 29. Crux pendentis Cathedra docentis Plato was crook-backt and his scholars counted it an ornament to go crooked like him Aristotle 〈◊〉 and his scholars thought it honour to lisp Shall not we hold our 〈◊〉 honoured that may suffer with Christ and then be 〈◊〉 fied also with him Verse 25. For whosoever will save his life That is 〈◊〉 of it when Christ cals him 〈◊〉 be prodigall of 〈◊〉 Man is naturally a life loving creature What man is he that desireth life I doe and I and I as Augustine brings men in making 〈◊〉 answer Life is sweet we say and every creature makes much of it from the highest Angel to the lowest worm as that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But life in Gods displeasure is worse then death as d ath in 〈◊〉 true 〈◊〉 is true life said Bradford to Gardiner for such a death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life as S. Paul hath it 〈◊〉 Tim. 6. 19. or as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read it upon life indeed For aeterna vita vera vita saith Augustine None to that as David said of Goliahs 〈◊〉 None but Christ none but Christ as that 〈◊〉 cried in the flames This love of Christ made them sacrifice their dearest lives to his name yea professe as John Ardely did to Bonner That if every hair of his head were a man he would suffer death in them all for his sweet Christs sake My wife and my children are so dearly beloved unto me that they cannot be bought from me for all the riches and possessions of the Duke of 〈◊〉 But for the love of my Lord God I will willingly forsake them said
George Carpenter who was burnt at Munchen in Bavaria Verse 26. For what is a man profited If there could saith a reverend Divine be such a bargain made that he might have the whole world for the sale of his soul he should for all that be a looser by it For he might notwithstanding be a bankrupt a beggar begging in vain though but for a drop of cold water to cool his tongue Is it nothing then to loose an immortall soul to purchase an everliving death The losse of the soul is in this verse set forth to be 1. Incomparable 2. Irreparable If therefore to loose the life for money be a 〈◊〉 what then the soul What wise man would fetch gold out of a fiery crucible hazard himself to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a few waterish pleasures give his soul to the devil as some Popes did for the short enjoyment of the Papall dignity What was this but to win Venice and then to be hanged at the gates thereof as the Proverb is In great fires men look first to their jewels then to their lumber fo should these see first to their 〈◊〉 to secure them and then take care of the outward man The souldier cares not how his buckler speeds so his body be kept thereby from deadly thrusts The Pope perswading Maximilian King of Bohemia afterwards Emperour to be a good Catholike with many promises of profits and 〈◊〉 was answered by the King that he thanked his Holinesse but that his souls health was more dear to him then all the things in the world Which answer they said in Rome was a Lutheran form of speech and signified an alienation from the obedience of that Sea and they began to discourse what would happen after the old Emperours death Or what shall a man give in exchange He would give any thing in the world yea 10000 worlds if he had them to be delivered But out of hell there 's no redemption Hath the extortioner pilled or the robber spoiled thy goods By labour and leisure thou maist recover thy self again But the soul once lost is irrecoverable Which when the guilty soul at death thinks of oh what a dreadfull shreek gives it to see it self lanching into an infinite Ocean of scalding lead and must swim naked in it for ever How doth it trembling warble out that dolefull ditty of dying Adrian the Emperour 〈◊〉 vagula blandula Hospes comesque corporis Qua nunc abibis in loca Horridula sordida tristia 〈◊〉 ut soles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 27. In the glory of his father with his Angels Great will be the glory of the man Christ Jesus at his second coming He shall come riding on the clouds not that he needs them but to shew his soveraignty environed with flaming fire mounted on a stately throne attended by an innumerable company of Angels for they shall all come with him not one of them left in heaven who shall minister unto him in this great work irresistibly justly speedily Rev. 15. 6. Christ himself shining in the midst of them with such an exuberancy and excesse of glory as that the Sun shall seem but a snuff to him This glory howsoever it is here called the glory of the father because he is the fountain as of the Deity so of the divine glory wherewith Christ is crowned Phil. 2. 9. 1 Tim. 3. 16. yet is it his own glory as he is one with the Father and the holy Ghost and so it is called Mat. 25. 31. Joh. 17. 5. Now if Israel so shouted for joy of Solomons coronation and in the day of 〈◊〉 espousals that the earth rang again If the Grecians so cried out 〈◊〉 Soter to Flaminius the Roman Generall when he had set them at liberty that the very birds 〈◊〉 at the noise fell down to the earth Oh how great shall be the Saints joy to see Christ the King in his beauty and bravery at the last judgment Verse 28. Which shall not taste of death The Saints do but taste of death only they do no more but sip of that bitter cup which for tasting of that forbidden fruit in the Garden they should have been swilling and swallowing down for ever Till they see the Son of man c. This verse is to be referred to the transfiguration recorded in the next Chapter where some of them had the happines to see Christ in his kingdom that is in his 〈◊〉 glory whereof they had a glimpse CHAP. XVII Verse 1. And after six 〈◊〉 LUke saith about eight daies after It comes all to one For Matthew puts exclusively those daies only that went between and were finished but Luke puts the two utmost daies also 〈◊〉 the reckoning Jesus 〈◊〉 Peter James and John So Matth. 9. when he raised the damosell he took with him these three only haply as best beloved because bold 〈◊〉 more zealous then the rest or the better to fit them for further triall great feelings oft precede great afflictions Howsoever it is no small favour of God to make us witnesses of his great works and so let us take it As all Israel might see Moses go toward the Rock of Rephidim None but the Elders might see him strike it That God 〈◊〉 his Sonne before us that he fetcheth the true water of life out of the Rock in our sight is an high prerogative And no lesse surely that we are 〈◊〉 transported in prayer carried out of the body in divine meditation and lost in the endlesse maze of spirituall ravishments that we returne from the publike ordinances as Moses did from the mount with our faces shining that we are transfigured and transformed into the same image from glory to glory and that the Angell of the covenant doth wondrously during the time of the sacrifice whiles Manoah and his wife look on c. These are speciall priviledges communicated to none but the communion of Saints And bringeth them up into 〈◊〉 high mountain The name of this mountain no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by common consent it was mount Tabor which Josephus calleth 〈◊〉 whereof Hierom writeth copiously and elegantly in his commentary upon the fifth of Hosea Our Saviour when he had some speciall work to do went usually up into a mountain to teach us to soar a 〈◊〉 in great performances especially and to be heavenly-minded taking a 〈◊〉 or two ever and anon with Christ in mount Tabor treading upon the Moon with the Church Rev. 12. 1. having our feet at least where other mens heads are on things on earth Prov. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise delighting our selves in high flying as Eagles never merry till gotten into the aire or on the top of trees with the lesser birds Zacheus could not see Christ till he had climbed the figtree Nor can we see the Consolation of Israel till elevated in divine contemplation till gotten up into Gods holy hill The people tasted not Mannah till they had left
the leaven of Egypt And was transfigured before them This was whiles he was praying as St Luke noteth Prayer rightly performed is a parling with God 1 Tim. 2. 1. a standing upon Intergatories with him 1 Pet. 3. 21. a powring out of the heart unto him Psal. 62 8. a familiar conference with him wherein the soul is so carried 〈◊〉 it self other whiles 〈◊〉 ut caro est penè nescia carnis as St 〈◊〉 speaks of certain holy women in his time that they seemed in place only remote but in affection to joyn with that holy company of heaven So Dr Preston on his death-bed said he should change his place but not his company Peter praying fell into a trance 〈◊〉 praying saw heavenly visions Mr Bradford a little before he went out of the Counter praid with such plenty of tears and abundant spirit of prayer that it ravished the mindes of the hearers Also when he shifted himself in a clean shirt made for his burning he made such a prayer of the wedding garment that the eies of those present were as truly occupied in looking on him as their ears gave place to here his prayer Giles of Brussels 〈◊〉 was so ardent in his prayers kneeling by himself in some secret place of the prison that he seemed to forget himself Being called many times to meat 〈◊〉 neither heard nor saw them that stood by him till he was lift up by the armes and then gently he would speak unto them as one awaked out of a deep sleep Amor Dei est ecstaticus sui nec se sinit esse juris Verse 3. Moses and Elias appeared Those 〈◊〉 is Candidati as the 〈◊〉 called them God had buried Moses but brought him forth afterwards glorious the same body which was hid in the vallie of 〈◊〉 appeareth here in the hill of Tabor Christ by rotting refines our bodies also and we know that when he who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory 〈◊〉 3 4. As in the mean space be not we conformed to this world but rather transformed by the renewing of our mindes and in whatsoever transfiguration or ravishment we cannot finde Moses and Elias and Christ to meet as here they did in this sacred Synod that is if what we finde in us be not agreeable to the Scriptures we may well suspect it as an illusion Verse 4. Lord it is good 〈◊〉 us to be here 〈◊〉 plura absurda quam verba But he knew not what he should say he was so amused or rather amazed at that blessefull-sight So Paul whether in the body or out of the body when rapt into the third heaven he cannot tell God knoweth and again he cannot tell God knoweth 2 Cor. 12 2. 3. Only this he can tell that he heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wordlesse Words such things as words are too weak to utter and at the thought whereof Claudicat ingenium delir at linguaque mensque It is as impossible to comprehend heavens joyes as to compasse the heaven with a span or contain the Ocean in a 〈◊〉 No wonder then though Peter cry out it is good being here Or it is better being here then at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St Chrysostom senleth it whither our Saviour had said he must go and suffer many things of the Elders and be killed c. That St Peter liked not but would build here rather All men would have heaven but not the rough way that leads to it they would enter into Paradise but not through that narrow portall of afflictions they would sit in the seat of honour with Zebedees children but not drink of Christs cup much lesle be baptized with his baptisme that is be dowzed over head and eares in the waters of miseries They would feed on manchet tread on roses and come to heaven as 〈◊〉 at sea do many times to the haven whiles they are sleeping or before they are a ware But this is no lesse a folly then a delicacy thus to think to divide between Christ and his crosse to pull a rose without pricks to have heaven without hardship One for thee one for Moses one for Elias He never thought of one for himself he was so transported but he had provided 〈◊〉 for himself and us if Christ had taken his 〈◊〉 for so he should have declined death whereby life and immortality was brought to light to the Saints And this unadvised advie was so much the worse in Peter because but six daies before he had been sharply shent by our Saviour and called Satan for such carnall counsell and besides that even then he heard Moses and Elias 〈◊〉 with Christ about his departure confirming him against it It 's hard to say how oft we shall fall into the same fault though foul if left to our selves Verse 5. Whiles he yet spake But had no answer because he deserved it not to so foolish a proposition Only the Father answereth for the Sonne by the oracle out of the cloud according to that I bear not witnesse to my self but the Father that sent me he it is that beareth witnesse of me A bright cloud over shadowed them As a eurtain drawn betwixt them and the heavenly glory to the contemplation whereof they were not yet sufficient Hereby also their senses were drawn off from beholding Christs glory to hear the voice from Heaven which by the cloud as by a charet was carried into their ears with greater sound and solemnity Non loquendum de Deo sine lumine was a saying of Pythagoras God may not be mentioned without a light This is my beloved Son in Whom Here God maketh use of three diverse passages and places of his own book Psal. 2. 7. Isa. 42. 1. 〈◊〉 18. 18. to teach us when we speak to speak as the Oracles of God to inure our selves to Scripture language The voice also which Christ heard from heaven at his baptisme in his first inauguration is here repeated totidem verbis in his transfiguration which was no small confirmation to him doubtlesse as it was also to Peter and the rest that this voice was the same in esfect with his and their confession of Christ in the former Chapter ver 16. Thou art Christ the Sonne of the Living God In Whom I am Well pleased In whom I doe 〈◊〉 and have perfect and full complacency singular contentment And as in him so in us thorow him Zeph. 3. 17. he rests in his love 〈◊〉 his he will seek no further effecit nos sibi dilectos in 〈◊〉 Dilecto he hath made us accepted in that beloved one Here we have Gods acquittance for our better security Hear ye him As the Archprophet of the Church Deut. 18. 15. that Palmoni hammedabber as Daniel calleth him that excellent speaker that master of speech that came out of the 〈◊〉 of his father and hath his whole minde at his fingers ends as we say Hear ye him
shall wring them out and drink them up And be baptized c. Or ducked washed not drowned as St Paul was in the shipwrack or as the baptized child which shakes off the water or is dryed after baptisme Afflictions saith one are called baptisme because they set Gods mark upon us as baptisme doth that we belong to God This for outward afflictions And for desertion it is called Christs cup because we are sure to pledge him in that too and be conformed unto him as was Iob David Heman Psal. 88 c. Grace is no target against affliction but the best shall have terrours within and troubles without as sure as the coat is on their back or the heart in their belly Is not mine to give i.e. It is no part of my present office Or I have no such commission from my father to give precedencies to all that affect them Christ hereby seeks to raise up the low groveling spirits of his Apostles to things supernaturall supernall Verse 24. They were moved They were angry at that ambition in their fellows that themselves were deeply guilty of So Diogines trampled Platoes pride but with greater pride So Crassus earnestly inveighed against covetousnesse in others when there was not a more covetous caitiffe then he upon the earth So Gregory the great stomaked the title of universall Bishop to the Patriarch of Constantinople which yet himself affected and his successour Boniface arrogated and usurped Verse 25. Iesus called them to him and said We must by Christs example advance cherish concord all we can amongst ministers especially by casting out those make-bates emulation and ambition Pareus was wont to say that the onely cause of all Church-dissensions was Ministers reaching after rule and preheminence as did Diotrephes And that if this evil humour could possibly be purged 〈◊〉 there would be a sweet symmetrie an happy 〈◊〉 of all hearts And they that are great The Grandees of the earth There is saith one a greatnesse Belluine and Genuine In that a beast may and doth exceed us In this we exceed ourselves and others Great men are not alwaies wise saith Elihu Iob 32. 9. And 〈◊〉 me major nisi qui justior said Agesilaus when the King of Persia 〈◊〉 himself the great King Calamitas nostra magnus est said Mimus concerning Pompey the people applauding so 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 Privilegium unius conceditur in 〈◊〉 alterius saith a learned Doctour si vis esse verè 〈◊〉 ne sis instar utris 〈◊〉 tumidi sed instar uteri prole gravidi 〈◊〉 attollas inane supercilium sed exhibeas utile ministerium Goodnesse is the only greatnesse Verse 26. But it shall not be so amongst you How expresse is that against Papal primacy and Lordly prelacy When the Duke shall be damned what will become of the Bishop said the clown to the bishop of Cullen Mr Whithead refused a Bishoprick because he liked not to be Lorded And Mr Coverdale being deprived of his Bishoprick in Q. Maries daies would not for the same cause be reinvested in Q. Elizabeths but taught a school Verse 27. Let him be your servant This is the ready way to rise Neither may any think himself too good to serve the Saints to wash their feet to minister to their necessities Christ came out of the bosome of his Father to fetch them to heaven The holy Ghost disdains not to dwell in their hearts Angels are desirous to do them any good office Prophets think not much to minister to them 1 Pet. 1. 12. Paul and Apollo and Cephas are theirs publike servants to the Church accounting it a far greater matter prodesse quà m praeesse to seek mens salvation then to exercise dominion Verse 28. And to give his life a ransome A redemptory a valuable rate for it was the blood of God wherewith the Church was purchased Acts 20. 28. silver and gold could not do it 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. nor any thing else but that counter-price given by Christ 1 Tim. 2. 6. Verse 29. And as they departed from Iericho Christ cured one blinde man as he went into Iericho Luk. 18. and two as he went out for all the haste he had to go to Ierusalem Hence such multitudes followed him to make up his ensuing triumph Verse 30. When they heard that Iesus passed by Happy it was for them that though blind yet they were not d eaf For as death came in by the ear so doth life Hear and your souls shall live Isa 55. 3. a heavy ear is a singular judgement Isa. 6. 10. a 〈◊〉 ear a speciall favour Prov. 20. 12. when God strook Zaechary 〈◊〉 1. he made him dumb but not deaf When God strook Saul he made him blind but not deaf When God strook Mephibosheth he made him lame but not deaf There is a deaf devil and a deaf adder and deaf man that yet want for no ears Isa. 43 8. But he that heareth instruction is in the way of life saith Solomon These two blind beggers had heard of Christ by the hearing of the ear but that satisfied them not unlesse their eyes also might see him Iob 42. 5. They way-lay therefore the Lord of light who gives them upon their suit both sight and light irradiates both organ and object cures them of their both outward and inward 〈◊〉 at once Thou son of David They knew and acknowledged Christ to be the true Messias Few such knowing blind beggers now 〈◊〉 They are commonly more blinde in minde then body loose and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are neither of any Church nor common-wealth but as the baser sort of people in Swethland who do alwaies break the Sabbath saying that 't is only for gentlemen to sanctifie it Or rather as the poor Brasilians who are said to be sine rege lege fide without any government law or Religion Verse 31. And the multitude rebuked them In prayer we must look to meet with many rubs and 〈◊〉 but Gods spirit is heroike and gets over them all The 〈◊〉 will interrupt us as the 〈◊〉 did Paul Act. 16. 16. as the birds did 〈◊〉 Gen. 15. 11. as those Samaritans did the Jews in building the Temple Nehem. 6. Hence we are bid Strive in prayer Colos. 4. 2. and watch in prayer for Satan will be at our right hand as at Iehoshuahs Zach. 3. 1. watching his time to cast in if not a 〈◊〉 yet an impertinent thought thereby to bereave us of the benefit of our prayers besides our own naturall indevotion through hardnesse of heart heavinesse of body multiplicity of worldly distractions and 〈◊〉 All which we must break through and cry the more earnestly as Bartimaeus here did though checkt by the multitude Have mercy on us o Lord c. Daniel would not be kept from his God for any danger of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6 nor the French Protestants restrain prayer though King Henry 3. made a law to forbid them to pray with their families The sun
signifies sweetnesse to Cashmonah which signifies swiftnesse Numb 33. 29. To teach us saith a Divine that no sooner have the Saints tasted Christs sweetnes but presently they are carried after him with swiftnes they cannot rest till they are joyned unto him whom their soul loveth Verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those daies After that the mystery of iniquity hath wrought effectually and is come to an upshot after that Antichrist hath had his full forth as they say and hath compleated his sin Christ shall suddenly come as it were out of an Engine Shall the Sun be darkned c. Stupendious eclipses shall precede the Lords coming and other strange events both in heaven earth and sea as Luke hath it The frame of this whole universe shall shake as houses give great cracks when ready to fall See 2 Pet. 3. 10. and seek no further Verse 30. The sign of the sonne of man That is either Christ himself by an Hebraisme or the dreadfull dissolution of the worlds fabrick or that cloud of heaven that was of old the sign of the son of man in the wildernesse Exod. 13. 21. or the scars of his wounds or his crosse or something else that we cannot describe and need not search into Look how a King when he would gather his forces into one sets up his standard or appoints his rendezvous so such shall be the brightnesse of Christs coming that all his shall be gathered unto him by that token not to fight but to triumph with him and divide the spoil as it were being more then conquerours and what is that but triumphers The expectation of this day 〈◊〉 as that did with Davids souldiers at Ziklag digest all our sorrows And then shall all the Tribes of the earth mourn This to prevent we must judge our selves 1 Cor. 11. 31. and take unto us words against our sins if we would not have Christ take unto him words against our souls Hos. 14. 3. Good men have been exceedingly affected at the hearing of Gods judgements against 〈◊〉 as Hab. 3. 16. Verse 31. And he shall send his Angels As his apparitours and executioners David went otherwise attended when he went against Nabal then when against Goliah So Christ shall come when he shall come again with his troops and trumpets c. With a great sound of a Trumpet Christ shall put forth his own mighty voice Joh. 5. 28. 1 Thess. 4. 16. ministred 〈◊〉 his Angels as in the text and set forth by the sound of a trumpet in allusion belike to Numb 10. where the people 〈◊〉 congregated and called together by the sound of a 〈◊〉 to the door of the Tabernacle The Lion of the Tribe of Judah shall roar from above and thrust out his voice from his holy habitation when he entreth into judgement with all flesh Jeremy 25. 30 31. As the Lion roareth over his whelps brought forth dead at first and raiseth them from death 〈◊〉 life as Pliny reporteth And they shall gather together his elect How shall they know them from reprobates By Gods saving mark set fairly in their fore-heads Ezek. 9. And by their blith and merry countenances cleared and cheared in the apprehension and approach of their full redemption now drawing nigh Besides as servants know their masters harvest from ano hers and can easily discern the corn from the cockle so can the good angels soon single out the elect about whom they have been familiarly conversant here on earth as ministring 〈◊〉 sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation ready prest to any good office about them Verse 32. Ye know that Summer is nigh Which is so much the sweeter because brought in and led out by winter so will eternall life be to the Saints here tossed and turmoiled with variety of sufferings Many sharp showers they must here passe thorow Light is sown for the righteous c. sown only and seed-time we know is usually wet and showry Howbeit it is fair weather oft-times with Gods children when it is foulest with the wicked as the Sun rose upon Zoar when the fire fell upon Sodom But if they should have never a good day in this world yet heaven will make amends for all And what is it for one to have a rainy day who is going to take possession of a Kingdom Verse 33. Know that it is near c. Some space then there shall be it seems between the fore-going signs and the coming of Christ. But though space be granted yet grace is uncertain Make sure work therefore betimes lest ye come late and be left without doors for your lingering Verse 34. This generation shall not passe viz. That generation that immediately precedes the end of the world That this is the sense appears by the Antithesis vers 36. But of that day and 〈◊〉 knoweth no man q. d. The generation and age wherein Christ shall come ye may know by the signs that foreshew it but the day and hour ye must not look to know be you never so intelligent Verse 35. Heaven and earth shall passe c. What God hath written he hath written His word is stablished in heaven saith David It endures for ever saith Peter It remaineth firm as Mount Sion and shall stand inviolable when heaven shall passe away with a great noise and the earth with its works shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3. 10. to the terrour and confusion of those profane scoffers who deridingly demand Where is the promise of his coming c vers 4. that say Let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it c. Woe to you that thus desire the day of the Lord To what end is it for you The day of the Lord is darknesse and not light The great day of the Lord is near it is near and hasteth greatly It is a day of wrath a day of trouble and distresse a day of wastnesse and desolation a day of darknesse and gloominesse a day of clouds and thick darknes to them that are setled on their 〈◊〉 and that say in their heart 〈◊〉 Lord will not do good neither will he do evil Verse 36. But of that day and hour knoweth no man That the Lord will come it is certo certius not more sure then what time he will come is to us most uncertain Sundry 〈◊〉 have been given at it by both ancient and modern Writers most of which time hath already refuted In the year of grace 1533. there was one that foolishly fore-told That the day of judgement should fall out in October next ensuing And this he gathered out of these words Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judaeorum Likewise out of these Videbunt in quem transfixerunt the numerals of the 〈◊〉 point to the year 1532. of the later to 1533. Others there are that place the end of the world upon the year 1657. And for proof they make use of this Chronogram MVnDI
prayer made by a penitent malefactour executed at Evesham in Worcestershier many years since But our Lord Christ was forsaken of all these creature-comforts and which was worse then all of his Fathers favour to his present apprehension left forelorne and destitute for a time that we might be received for ever Howbeit perplexed though he were yet not in despair persecuted yet not forsaken cast down yet not destroyed He could say My God in the midst of all by the force of his faith which individuateth God as a Father saith and appropriateth him to a mans self And Hilary hath a good note which here comes in not out of place Habes conquerentem relictum se esse quia homo est habes eundem profitentem Latroni in paradiso regnaturum quia Deus est As man he cryes out My God my God c when as God he promiseth paradise to the penitent theef Verse 47. This man calleth for Elias A malicious mistake a devilish sarcasme Whiles darknesse was upon them they were over-awed and husht their mouths were haltered as horses must be saith the Psalmist as the sea was by our Saviour and held in with bit and bridle lest they come near unto thee But no sooner was it light again but they are at their old trade again deriding our Saviour and depraving his words as if forsaken of his hope in God he had fled to Elias for help So when Cranmer standing at the stake cryed out often Lord Jesu receive my spirit a Spanish Monk that heard him ran to a Noble-man there present and tells him that those were the words of one that dyed in great despair Verse 48. And filled it with vineger Sorrow is dry we say This man of sorrows more to fulfill the Scriptures then for his own satisfaction though extream dry no doubt for now was the Paschall lamb a roasting in the fire of his Fathers wrath he saith I thirst and had vineger to drink that we might drink of the water of life and be sweetly inebriated in that torrent of pleasure that runs at Gods right hand for evermore Psal. 16. 11. See the Note on Joh. 19. 29. Verse 49. Let us see whether Elias c. This mocking is the murther of the tongue which therefore our Saviour suffered ut nos illusori Satanae insultaremus saith one It is reported of Aretine that by a longer custome of libellous and contumelious speaking against men he had got such a habit that at last he came to diminish and disesteem God himself May not the same be made good of these malicious miscreants Verse 50. Yeelded up the Ghost Or let go his spirit viz. to God that gave it to whom also he recommended it Luk. 23. 46. teaching us what to do in like case Our care herein may make even a Centurion a gracelesse person to glorifie God saying Certainly this was a righteous man vers 47. When so great a clark as Erasmus dying with no better words in his mouth then Domine fac finem fac finem is but hardly thought of How much more that English Hubertus a covetous oppressour who dying made this wretched will-paroll I yeeld my goods to the King my body to the grave my soul to the devil Verse 51. The vail of the Temple was rent To shew than there was an end of the Leviticall liturgy and that now there was free and open accesse for all Saints to the throne of Gods grace for the vail was a figure of the spirituall covering which was before the eyes of the Church till Christs coming And the earth did quake To work a heart-quake in the obstinate Jews as in some it did others of them had contracted such an habituall hardnesse such a hoof upon their hearts as neither ministry nor misery nor miracle nor mercy could possibly mollifie And the rocks rent So they do wherever Christ makes forcible entrance into any heart I will shake all nations and then the desire of all nations shall come Hag. 2. 7. A man will never truly desire Christ till soundly shaken Gods shaking ends in setling he rents us not to ruine but to refine us Verse 52. And the graves were opened To shew that death was now swallowed up in victory by life essentiall like as the fire swallows up the fuell and as Moses his serpent swallowed up the enchanted serpents And many bodies of the Saints To shew that the 〈◊〉 strings of death which before bound them in their 〈◊〉 were now broken and they enlarged to attend our Saviours resurrection Verse 53. And appeared unto many Not to converse again as heretofore with men but to accompany Christ that raised them into heaven and to be as so many ocular 〈◊〉 of Christs quickning power whereby he shall also raise our vile bodies and conform them to his glorious body the standard Phil. 3. ult Verse 54. Truly this was the Sonne of God i.e. A divine man a de my-god as these Heathens reputed those in whom they beheld and admired any thing above the ordinary nature of 〈◊〉 and their expectation Naturall conscience cannot but stoop and do homage to the image of God stamped upon his people as being afraid of that name of God whereby they are called Deut. 28. 10. There are that think that these souldiers our Saviours executioners were truly converted by the miracles they 〈◊〉 seen according to what Christ had prayd for them Luk. 23. 34. And it may very well be like as Paul was converted upon 〈◊〉 Stevens prayer as Justine Martyr and others were by behold ing the piety and patience of the Primitive Christians and as James Silvester 〈◊〉 at the Martyrdome of Simon Lalot at 〈◊〉 He seeing the great faith and constancy of that heavenly Martyr was so compuncted with repentance saith Mr Fox and fell into such despair of himself that they had much ado to fasten any comfort on him wich all the promises of the Gospell till at length he recovered repented and with all his family removed to the Church of Genova Christians have shewed as glorious power and have as good successe in the faith of Martyrdome as in the faith of miracles working wonders thereby upon those that have sought and suckt their blood Verse 55. And many women were there More hardy then the Disciples who all save John were fled and hid Oh stand saith a Divine and behold a little with those devout women the body of thy Saviour hanging upon the crosse See him afflicted from top to 〈◊〉 See him wounded in the head to heal our vain 〈◊〉 See him wounded in the hands to heal our evil actions See him wounded in the heart to cure our 〈◊〉 thoughts See his eyes shut up that did enlighten the world See them shut that thine might be turned from seeing of vanity See that countenance so goodly to behold spetted upon and 〈◊〉 that thy face 〈◊〉 shine glorious as the Angels in heaven
peace Pax quasi pactio conditionum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à connectendo in unum Christ is the great Peace-maker but only to the elect called here the Men of Gods good will When he was born Cuncta atque continua totius generis humani aut pax fuit aut pactio Verse 15. Let us now goe even unto Bethlehem They did not reason nor debate with themselves saith Bishop Hooper Martyr in a Letter to certain good people taken praying in Bow-Church-yard and now in trouble who should keep the wolfe from the sheep in the mean time but committed the sheep to him whose pleasure they obeyed So let us doe now that we be called commit all other things to him that called us He will take heed that all shall be well He will help the husband comfort the wife guide the servants keep the house preserve the goods yea rather then it should be undone he will wash the dishes rock the cradle c. Verse 16. Found Mary and Joseph c. They though of the bloud royall yet lay obscured not thrusting themselves into observation but well content with a low condition Beata Virgo in vili stabulo sedet jacet sed quod homines negligunt coelestes cives honorant inquirunt saith Stella The humble person is like the violet which growes low hangs the head downwards and hides it selfe with its own leaves And were it not that the fragrant smell of his many vertues betrayes him to the world he would chuse to live and dye in his self-contenting 〈◊〉 Verse 17. They made known abroad True goodnesse is communicative there is no envie in spirituall things because they may be divided in solidum One may have as much as another and all alike These shepherds as those lepers 2 King 7. 9. said one to another Wee doe not well this day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace c. Verse 18. Wondred at those things Yet made little benefit of what they heard All the world wondred after the Beast Revel 13. 3. And it was a wonder there was no more wondering at the birth of our Saviour if that were true especially that besides the Wise-mens starre Mat. 2. and the Angelicall musick in the air c. among the Gentiles a voyce was heard The great God is now about to be born And that at Rome the likenesse of a woman carrying a child in her arms was seen about the sunne c. These things are storied Polydor Virgil reports out of Orosius that on the very day of Christs nativity Augustus Caesar caused proclamation that no man should stile him Lord any longer Manifesto praesagio majoris Dominatus qui tum in terris ortus esset as presaging a greater then himself then born Verse 19. Mary kept all those things Her soule was as an holy ark her memory like the pot of Mānnah preserving holy truthes and remarkable occurrences Verse 20. As it was told unto them God to shew that he respected not persons revealed this grand mystery to shepheards and Wise-men the one poor the other rich the one learned the other unlearned the one Jewes the other Gentiles the one neer the other far off Verse 21. For the Circumcising of the Child Christ would be Circumcised and so become bound to fulfill the Law that hee might free us that were under the Law Gal. 4. 5. Verse 22. And when the dayes of her purification She was rather sanctified then polluted by bearing Christ yet wrangleth not with the Law nor claimeth an immunity Now if she were so officious in ceremonies what in the maine duties of morality According to the Law This Law of Purification proclaimes our uncleannesse whose very birth infects the mother that bare us She might not till the seventh day converse with men nor till the fortieth day appear before God in the Sanctuary nor then without a burnt-offering for thanksgiving and a sin-offering for expiation of a double sin viz. of the Mother that conceived and of the Son that was conceived Verse 23. That openeth the womb This proves that Mary brought forth Christ in a naturall way and not utero clauso by a miracle as Papists would have it to prove their fiction of Transubstantiation Shall be called holy to the Lord God requireth the first-born as usually best-beloved that together with our children he might draw to himself the best of our affections Verse 24. A pair of Turtle-doves Christs Mother was not rich enough to bring a Lamb. Let this comfort poor Christians I know thy poverty saith Christ but that 's nothing thou art rich Revelations 2. 9. Smyrna the poorest Church hath the highest commendation Verse 25. Just and devout Or wary and cautelous one that takes heed and is fearfull of being deceived in that which he takes for right and currant Waiting for the Consolation of Israel That is for Christs comming This was the sugar wherewith they sweetned all their crosses this was the Dittany by tasting whereof as Harts do they shoke of all the peircing shafts of their afflictions Some Jewes conclude the Messiah when he comes shall be called Menahem the comforter from Lam. 1. 16. Verse 26. It was revealed unto him By an immediate Oracle The Idolatrous heathens made use of this word to signifie their impious and diabolicall Oracles The abuse of a word taketh not away the use of it Verse 27. And he came by the spirit c. So still the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord Psal. 37. 23. He sets his spirit as a Tutour to direct and convince 〈◊〉 into all truth Simeon likely had done as Daniel did Chap. 9. 2. found out by diligent search that the fulnesse of time was come and is therefore thus answered from heaven Verse 28. Then 〈◊〉 he him up in his armes The blessed 〈◊〉 armfull that ever the good old man had in his life The Patriarchs saluted him but afar off Heb. 11. Verse 29. Lord now lettest thou thy servant Simeon having laid in his heart saith one what he lapt in his armes sung 〈◊〉 dimitt as I fear no sin I dread no death I have lived enough I have my life I have long'd enough I have my love I have seen enough I have my light I have served enough I have my saint I have sorrowed enough I have my joy Sweet babe let this Psalm serve for a 〈◊〉 to thee and for a funerall for me Oh sleep in my armes and let me sleep in thy peace Dying Velcurio broke out into these words Pater est amator 〈◊〉 Redemptor Spiritus Sanctus Consolator quomodo itaque tristitiâ affici possim Dying 〈◊〉 said Ego 〈◊〉 Sanctorum minimus credo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christum salutem 〈◊〉 Verse 30. For mine eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A great satisfaction So it was to Job Chap. 42. 5. when he could say I have heard of thee by the hearing of the
the Arabick calleth him his Vicar-Generall or Protetrach This Court-Lady followeth Christ so did Serena the Empresse who was therefore Martyred by her husband Diocletian So Elizabeth Queen of Denmark of whom Luther testifieth that she died a faithfull professour of the Reformed Religion and addeth Scilicet Christus etiam aliquando voluit Reginam in coelum vehere Christ would once save a Queen which he doth not often Verse 4. And when much people c. See the Notes on 〈◊〉 13. 2 3 c. Verse 12. Taketh away the word Least if it should lie long upon their hard hearts it should break through them with its weight as being able to save their souls Verse 14. Go forth c. Viz. About their worldly businesses which as the lean kine in Pharaohs dreame devour the fat and it is nothing seen by them After a while they remember no more then the man in the Moon doth what they had heard delivered Verse 15. In an honest Referred to the end and intent in the action And good heart In respect of inward renewed qualities Having heard the word keep it As food or physick which if not kept profiteth not They incorporate it into their souls so as it becomes an ingrafted word they are transformed into the same image conformed to the heavenly patterne With patience Or with tarriance for the fit season Not as that rath-ripe fruit vers 13. and Psal. 129. Verse 16. No man when he hath lighted c. q. d. Though to you it is given to know Mysteries c. as verse 10. yet not for your owne use onely but that your light may shine before men Verse 18. Take heed therefore how ye hear For else ye shall neither bear good fruits nor be born with for your barrennesse All shall out and you shall smart for it Verse 25. Where is your faith It is not the having faith but the living by it the actuating of it that helps us in an exigence Verse 27. A certain man which had devils All Pharaohs cruelty exercised over the Israelites was nothing to this Oh then the unexpressible torments of the damned Utinam ubique de Gehenna dissereretur saith a Father I could wish men would discourse much and oft of hell Verse 29. And was driven of the devill As a horse is by his rider so the word signifieth or a ship with oares All wicked men are acted and agitated by the devill Eph. 2. 2. Persecutors especially Quod si videris aliquando persecutorem tuum nimis saevientem scito quia ab ascensore suo Diabolo perurgetur If Persecutors sometimes be more moderate it is because the devill spurs not so hard Verse 30. And he said Legion We must be ready and well appointed to resist for the devil sets upon us not without military discipline and singular skill Cataphractus incedit Satan saith Luther The devill marcheth well armed and in good array Verse 33. And the herd ran violently So would the possessed man soon have done but that God preserved him Verse 35. Sitting at the feet of Jesus As fearing least if he departed he should be repossessed So we see its an old error and weaknesse for men to be too strongly conceited of Christs corporeall presence CHAP. IX Verse 7. And he was perplexed PEndebat animi dubius He stood amused and amazed he stuck in the mud as it were and could find no way out This is the import of the Greek word Thus the wicked in the fulnesse of his sufficiency is in straits as Zophar hath it Job 15. 22. Verse 9. And he desired to see him with a faint and fruitlesse desire for he never stirred out of doors to see Christ though he beleived that God had raised him from the dead So true is that of Abraham Luke 16. 31. Perhaps he desired to see whether it were John or not Verse 11. And he received them Weary though he were yet never weary of wel-doing Verse 13. Except we should go c. Which is a thing not only improbable but impossible They held it an absurd motion Verse 18. As he was alone praying Examinationi preces praemittendae All our sacrifices should be salted with this salt Verse 19. But some say Elias This Pythagorean transanimation is held by the Jewes to this day viz. ut singuli tertio renascantur against so many cleer testimonies of Scripture to the contrary Verse 28. About eight dayes Putting the two utmost dayes also into the reckoning See the Notes on Matthew 17. 1. c. Verse 29 And as he prayed Dum ipsius mens tota Deose immergeret saith one Christians whiles they are praying are oft-times carried out and beyond themselves See Matt. 17. 2 3. and the Notes there Verse 31. And spake of his decease Gr. Of his Exodus in reference to that expedition or departute of Israel out of AEgypt It signifieth a translating from a condition and state of hardship and is also used by Saint Peter 2 Epistle 1. 15. Death to the Saints is but an out-going to heaven a loosing from the shore of life and launcing out into the maine of Immortality Verse 34. There came a cloud See the Note on Matthew 17. 5. Verse 39. And bruising him As in the falling sicknesse it falls out Verse 44. Let these sayings sink c. Ponite reponite lay up the sayings of my sufferings notwithstanding this peoples vain applauses The best balm cast into water sinks to the bottom the baser sort flotes on the top Verse 51. That he should be received up The word implies a Metaphor from fathers owning and acknowledging their children after long absence He set his face He steeled his forehead against all discouragements Verse 53. And they did not receive him Such is the hatred that Idolaters bear against all Gods true worshippers Illam Domum in qua inventus fuerit haereticus diruendam decernimus It was a Decree of the Counsell of Tholouse against the Albigenses Verse 54. And when his disciples These two brethren sons of thunder how soon was their choler up they had quick and hot spirits Wilt thou that we command It were to be wished that we would first consult with Christ in his word ere we stirre hand or foot to revenge Verse 55. But he turned and rebuked them He did it not slightly and by the by but seriously and on set purpose so must we rebuke and rebate our vindictive spirits our unruly lusts when like kine in a strait they rush and ride one upon the back of another Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of Not of Elias his spirit as ye imagine this wild-fire was never kindled on Gods hearth as his zeal was you are men of another mould then Elias He was a Minister of indignation you of consolation his actions fit not you because your persons are not like his It is a rare thing to be of an heroicall Spirit
son CHAP. XVI Verse 1. A 〈◊〉 rich man which had a Steward MAster 's had need look well 1. To the chusing of their servants Salomon saw Jeroboam that he was industrious and therefore without any respect at all to his Religion he made him 〈◊〉 over all the charge of the house of Joseph but to his 〈◊〉 disadvantage 〈◊〉 King 11. 28. with chapt 12. 3. 2. To the using of them Most men make no other use of their servants then they doe of their beasts whiles they may have their bodyes to doe their service they care not if their soules serve the Devill Hence they so 〈◊〉 prove false and 〈◊〉 Verse 2. Give an account of thy stewardship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 putet said Cato Stewards should often account with their masters Verse 3. I cannot dig c. They that will get wisedome must both dig and beg Prov. 2. 3. 4. Verse 6. Take thy bill The scope of this parable is ut 〈◊〉 charitate erga pauperes compensemus saith Beza that we expiate as it were our prodigality by shewing mercy to the poore Dan 4. 27. Verse 8. And the Lord commended Gr. that Lord viz. the Steward Lord not the Lord Christ who relateth this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we understand it of Christ as the Syriack here doth yet He herein no more approveth of this Steward 's false-dealing then he doth of the Vsurers trade 〈◊〉 5. 27. or the theeves 1 Thess. 5. 2. Or the dancers Matth. 11. 17. or the Olympick games 1 Cor. 9. 24. Because he had done wisely The worldlings wisedome serves him as the Ostriches wings to make him out-run others upon earth and in earthly things but helps him never a whit toward heaven Are in their generation wiser A swine that wanders can make better shift to get home to the trough then a sheepe can to the fold We have not received the spirit of this world 1 Cor. 2. 12. we cannot shift and plot as they can but we have received a better thing The fox is wise in his generation the serpent subtile so is the Devill too When he was but young he out-witted our 〈◊〉 parents 2 Cor. 11. 3. Then the children of light As the Angels are called Angels of light 2 Cor. 11. 14. Gods children are the onely earthly Angels have a Goshen in their bosomes can lay their hands on their hearts with dying Oecolampadius and say Hic sat lucis Verse 9. 〈◊〉 unto your selves friends quibus officia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 Testifie your faith by your workes that God of his free-grace may commend and 〈◊〉 you Of the Mammon of 〈◊〉 The next odious name to the Devill himselfe This Mammon of iniquity This wages of wickednesse is not gain but losse They may receive you That is that 〈◊〉 the Angels or 〈◊〉 riches or the poore may let you into heaven Verse 11. In the unrighteous 〈◊〉 or the uncertaine 〈◊〉 deceitfull wealth of this world which yet most rich men trust in as if simply the better or safer for their abundauce Hence 〈◊〉 derives Mammon from 〈◊〉 which signifieth to 〈◊〉 Verse 12. In that which is another 〈◊〉 Riches are not properly ours but Gods who hath entrusted us and who doth usually agssine them to the wicked those men of his hand for their portion Psal. 17. 14. for all the heaven that they are ever to look for Better things abide the Saints who are here but forreiners and must doe as they may Who shall give you that which is your owne Quod nec eripi nec 〈◊〉 potest Aristotle relateth a law like this made by 〈◊〉 That he that used not another mans horse well should 〈◊〉 owne Verse 14. And they derided him Gr. They blew their noses at him in scorne and derision They fleared and jeared when they should have feared and fled from the wrath to come Verse 15. For that which is highly esteemed c. A thing that I see in the night may shine and that shining proceed from nothing but rottennesse There may be malum 〈◊〉 in bona 〈◊〉 as in 〈◊〉 Zeale Two things make a good Christian good actions and good aymes And though a good ayme doth not make a bad action good as in Vzzah yet a bad ayme makes a good action bad as in 〈◊〉 whose justice was approved but his pollicy punished Verse 19. There was a certaine rich man Not once named as 〈◊〉 was though never so little esteemed of men God knew him by name as he did Moses when the rich mans name is written in the earth rottes above-ground is left for a reproach Which was clothed in purple c. Gr. was commonly so cloathed It was his every-dayes weare as the word implyeth Verse 20. A certaine beggar named Lazarus Or Eleazar as Tertullian and Prudentius call him who having beene Abrahams faithfull servant now resteth in his bosome Verse 21. And desiring to be fed with the crumbs Many poore folk have but prisoners pittances which will neither keepe them alive nor suffer them to dye The dogs came and licked his sores When Sabinus was put to death for whifpering against Seianus his dog lay down by his dead body brought to his mouth the bread that was cast to him And 〈◊〉 Sabinus was thrown into the river Tiber the dog 〈◊〉 after him to keepe him up that he might not sinke into the bottome Verse 22. Into Abrahams bosome A Metaphor from feasts say some from fathers say Others who imbosome and hug their children when wearied with long running-about or 〈◊〉 met with a knock and come crying unto them And was carried by the Angels Thorough the ayre the Devils region doe the Angels conduct the Saints at death who may therefore call death as Jacob did the place where he met the Angels Mahanaim Genes 32. 2. For like as the 〈◊〉 man was let down with his bed thorough the tiling before Jesus Luke 5. 18. so is every good soule taken up in an heavenly couch thorough the roofe of his house and carried into Christs presence by these heavenly Courtiers And was 〈◊〉 Possibly with as much noysome stench and hurry in the ayre as at Cardinall Wolseyes buriall A terrible example there is in the book of Martyrs of one Christopher 〈◊〉 an unmercifull Courtier who suffering a poore Lazar to dye in a 〈◊〉 by him did afterwards perish himselfe in a ditch Verse 23. Being in torments Having punishment without pity misery without mercy sorrow without succour crying without compassion mischeife without measure torments without end and past imagination Verse 24. And coole my tongue In his tongue he was most tortured quia plus lingua peccaverat saith Cyprian So Nestorius the heretick had his tongue eaten up with worms So Thomas Arundell Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Steven Gardiner Bishop of Winchester two notorious persecutors dyed with their tongues thrust out big-swollen and black
hung as so many bullets at their eye lids that they could not perceive so plain a truth CHAP. XIX Verse 5. Zacheus make haste CHrist is that good Shepheard that knoweth all his sheep and calleth them by name Make haste and come downe Heaven is a matter of greatest 〈◊〉 We must not adjourne as he did once In 〈◊〉 seria more weighty 〈◊〉 till to morrow To day I must abide at thy house Christ not only invites but even obtrudes himself as it 〈◊〉 upon 〈◊〉 It s happy having 〈◊〉 guests He doth the same to us when he sends unto us his poor servants to presse upon our charity Unworthy we are surely to give an almes to poor Christ c. Verse 8. The half of my goods See the like in Tyrus converted 〈◊〉 23. 17 18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I restore him four fold Which was the law for things stollen Fraud is no better then theft Restitution 〈◊〉 necessary to 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 God hates 〈◊〉 ex rapina as Sultan 〈◊〉 could tell his Councellour Pyrrhus who perswaded him to bestow 〈◊〉 great wealth he 〈◊〉 taken from the Persian Merchants upon some notable Hospitall for releif of the poor The dying Turk commanded it rather to be restored to the right owners which was done accordingly to the great shame of many Christians who mind nothing 〈◊〉 then restitution c. When Henry the Third of England had sent the Frier Minors a load of 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 them they returned the same with this message 〈◊〉 he ought not to give almes of what he had rent from the poor neither would they accept of that abhominable gift Master 〈◊〉 saith If ye make no 〈◊〉 of goods 〈◊〉 ye shall cough in 〈◊〉 Verse 9. He also is a son of Abraham That is freely elected Romans 9. 1. a. 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 faith Rom. 4. 12. and a doer of his works Job 8. 39. Who then can say but he is his son and shall rest in his bosome Verse 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of sending a lamb to this 〈◊〉 of the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the 〈◊〉 of their lips 〈◊〉 14. 3. Such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where such dust-heapes are found in every corner Verse 15. And whon he was returned He went at his Ascention and returns at the generall Resurrection At what time he will first reckon with his servants and then with his enemies Judgement shall then also begin at Gods own house Verse 16. Thy pound hath gained Not my paines but thy pound hath done it By the grace of God I am that I am saith Paul that constantissimus gratiae Praedicator as Austin calleth him Verse 23. Into the bank Gr. Unto the table or according to some coppies unto the Usurers whom Beza here rightly calleth humani certè gener is perniciosissimas pestes the most pernicious pests of mankind Verse 27. Slay them before me Howbeit the Beast and the false Prophet that is the Pope and his Janizaries shal not have the favour to be flain as the common sort of Christs enemies are but shall be cast alive into the burning lake tormented more exquisitly Revelations 19. 20 21. Verse 28. He went before To meet death in the face this was true magnanimity Herein he shewed himself the captain of our salvation though perfected by sufferings Verse 29. Bethphage and Bethany Bethphage was one mile out of Jerusalem Bethany two Verse 30. Go ye into the village Into Bethphage that was in their veiw as they went from Bethany Verse 41. He beheld the City That common slaughter-house of the Prophets Our Lord is said to have been slain at Rome Revelations 11. 8. because crucified at Jerusalem by the Roman authority And wept over it Shall not we weep over the ruines of so many fair and flourishing Churches that now lie in the dirt Christ wept in this day of his solemne Inauguration It shall be in our last triumph only that all teares shall be wiped from our eyes till then our passions must be mixed according to the occasions Verse 42. Oh if thou hadst known They had cognitionem historicam non mysticam speculativam non affectivam apprehensionis non approbationis discursivam non experimentalem At least in this thy day The time of grace is fitly called a Day in regard of 1 Revelation 2 Adornation 3 Consolation 4 Distinction 5 Speedy preterition Amend before the draw-bridge be taken up No man can say he shall have 12 hours to his day But now they are hid from thine eyes Yet they lived under the Ministry long after and no outward change to be discerned As Plutarch writes of Hannibal that when he could have taken Rome he would not when he would he could not so the Procrastinators Verse 43. For the dayes shall come God hath his dayes for vengeance as man hath his day for repentance There is a Prime of every mans life and of every mans Ministry The Levite lingered so long that he lost his Concubine she came short home so doth many a mans soul for like reason Shall cast a trench about thee Because like the wild-asse thou wouldst not otherwise be tamed and kept within compasse of Gods Commandements Verse 48. Were very attentive to heare him Gr. Hanged on him as the Bee doth on the flower the babe on the breast or the little bird on the bill of her Damme Christ drew the people after him as it were by the golden chain of his heavenly eloquence CHAP. X X. Verse 1. The cheif Preists and Scribes came GRaece Came suddenly upon him As an expected storme the Devill drove them Verse 4. The baptisme of John c. q. d. If John were sent by God to testifie as he did there is no colour of cause why ye should question mine authority Verse 8. Neither tell I you c Gods servants should be ready with their answer upon sudden assaults and not to seek of such arguments as may stop the mouth of an adversary When a 〈◊〉 Jesuite asked Where was your religion before Luther Answer was presently returned In the Bible where your religion never was Verse 16. God forbid Viz. That they should ever kill the Sonne of God sent unto them We cannot get men to beleive that their hearts are half so bad or their wayes so dangerous as the preacher makes of them Verse 17. What is this then that is written c. q. d. If it be not so as I say that you shall kill the Messiah how is it that the Scripture saith as much presse men with Scripture-testimonies that 's the readiest way of sound conviction It was a good speech of Augustine to 〈◊〉 contesting with him for audience 〈◊〉 me hear me said the Heretique Nay saith Augustine 〈◊〉 ego 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tu me sed ambo 〈◊〉 Apostoium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non cognovi c. It is not I say or what thou saiest but what the Scripture saith that we 〈◊〉 stand to Verse 20. They sent forth 〈◊〉
wisdom to the Greeks of all power to the Latines Verse 39. Which were hanged railed c. Sic plectimur a Deo nec flectimur tamen saith Salvian corripimur sed non corrigimur There are many quos multò facilius fregeris quà m flexeris saith Buchanan Monoceros interimi potest capi non potest The wicked are the worse for that they suffer and will sooner break then bend Verse 40. But the other answering Silent he was for a while and therefore seemed to consent till hearing Christs prayers and the enemies outrages he brake out into this brave confession worthy to be written in letters of gold Verse 42. Lord remember me By this penitent prayer he made his crosse a Jacobs ladder whereby the Angels descended to fetch up his soul. So did Leonard Caesar burnt at Rappa in Bavaria whose last words were these Lord Jesu suffer with me support me give me strength I am thine save me c. See the Note on Matt. 27. 38. Verse 43. Verely I say unto thee See the infinite love of Christ to penitent sinners in that when he hung upon the tree and was paying dear 〈◊〉 mans sin he rejected not this malefactors petition Shall he not hear us now that all is paid and finished To day shalt thou be with me This is not every mans happinesse A pardon is sometimes given to one upon the gallows but who so 〈◊〉 to that the rope may be his hire It is not good to put it upon the Psalm of Miserere and the neck-verse saith one for sometimes he proves no clark Verse 47. Certainly this was a righteous man Bennet the 〈◊〉 in King Henry the Eighths daies being brought to execution the most part of the people he exhorted them with such gravity and sobriety as also the Scribe who wrote the sentence of condemnation against him did pronounce and confesse that he was Gods servant and a good man So when Wiseheart and March the Martyrs went toward the stake they were justified by the beholders as innocent and godly persons Verse 51. The same had not consented This proved him to be a good man and a just as Psal. 1. 1. Sir John Cheek was drawn in for fear of death to be present at the condemnation of some of the Martyrs The remorse whereof so mightily wrought upon his heart that not long after he left this mortall life whose fall though it was full of infirmity yet his rising again by repentance was great and his end comfortable saith Master Fox Waited for the kingdom of God Gr. Entertained and embraced it CHAP. XXIV Verse 1. Very early in the morning ABout which time probably our Saviour rose Verse 9. And told all these things Per os mulieris mors ante processerat per os mulieris vita reparatur saith Ambrose So Chap. 1. an Angel of light communeth with a woman about mans salvation as an Angel of darknesse had done Gen. 3. about his fall and destruction Verse 11. As idle tales Set on with great earnestnesse Verse 12. And stooping down Obstipo capite propenso collo We need not doubt therefore of the certainty of this history of Christs resurrection Verse 13. About Threescore furlongs About sixe miles Verse 14. And they talked together So did Elias and Elisha when the heavenly chariot came to sunder them Christ is still with two or three met for such an holy purpose Verse 16. But their eyes were held Ut ulcus suum discipuli detegerent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 susciperent saith Theophylact That they may tell their own disease and receive healing Verse 17. That ye have one to another Gr. That ye tosse one to another as a ball is tossed betwixt two or more And are sad Christ loves not to see his Saints sad hee questions them as Joseph did his prisoners Wherefore look ye so sadly to day Gen. 40. 7 and as the king did Nehemiah Chap. 3. 2. Verse 18. And one of them whose name was Cleophas They that hold the other of these two to have been Saint Luke are 〈◊〉 by the preface he hath set before the Acts saith Beza Art thou only a stranger c. Tragedies have no prologues as comedies have because it is supposed that all men take knowledge of publike calamities Verse 19. Which was a Prophet Yea and more then a Prophet But the disciples were wondrous ignorant till the spirit came down upon them Act. 2. Verse 21. But we trusted q. d. Indeed nowwe cannot tell what to say to it Here their hope hangs the wing extreamly their buckler is much battered and needs beating out again Ferendum sperandum said the Philosopher And good men find it more easie to bear evill then to wait for good Hebrews 10. 36. Verse 25. O fooles c. Those in a Lethargy must have double the quantity of physick that others have Some slow-bellies must be sharply rebuked that they may be sound in the faith Verse 26. Ought not Christ Ne Jesum quidem audias gloriosum nisi videris crucifixum saith Luther in an Epistle to Melancthon Agentem fortiter 〈◊〉 aliquid pati said a Theban souldier out of Pindarus to Alexander when he had received a wound in battle For the which sentence he liberally rewarded him Verse 27. The things concerning himself Christ is authour object matter and mark of Old and New Testament the Babe of Bethlehem is bound up as I may so say in these swathing-bands Turn we the eyes of our minds to him as the Cherubins did their faces toward the Mercy-seat The Angels do 1 Pet. 1. 12. Verse 28. And he made as though he would c. So did the Angel to Lot Gen. 19. 2. See the like Josh. 8. 5 6. 1 King 3. 24. If Salomon might make as though he would do an act that was unlawfull we may surely do the like in things indifferent Yet this was never done as is well observed but 1 by those that had authority over others 2 For some singular good to them with whom they thus dealt Verse 29. But they constrained him Though they had been sharply rebuked by him whom they know to be no other then a meer stranger to them For it is toward evening Cry we now if ever ere it be too late Vespera jam venit nobiscum Christe maneto Extingui 〈◊〉 nec patiare 〈◊〉 Verse 30. And blessed it It s thought they knew him by his ordinary form of giving thanks before meat Versy 32. Did not our hearts burn By that spirit of burning Esay 4. 4. that kindleth the fire of God Cant. 8. 6. on the harth of his Peoples hearts whiles the mystery of Christ is laid open unto them Ego verò illius oratione sic incendebar saith Senarclaeus concerning Diarius the Martyr ut cùm eum disserentem audirem Spiritus sancti verba me audire existimarem Me thoughts when I heard him I heard the Holy Ghost himself