till it hath made perfect day so it happened now in this Apparition of the Angel of light he appeared and told his message and did shine but the light arose higher and higher till midnight was as bright as mid-day for suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly 〈◊〉 and after the Angel had told his Message in plain-song the whole Chorus joyned in descant and sang an Hymn to the tune and sence of Heaven where glory is paid to God in eternal and never-ceasing offices and whence good will descends upon men in perpetual and never-stopping torrents Their Song was Glory be to God on high on earth peace good will towards men by this Song not only referring to the strange Peace which at that time put all the World in 〈◊〉 but to the great Peace which this new-born Prince should make between his Father and all Mankind 6. As soon as these blessed Choristers had sung their Christmas Carol and taught the Church a Hymn to put into her Offices for ever in the anniversary of this Festivity the Angels returned into Heaven and the Shepherds went to Bethlehem to see this thing which the Lord had made known unto them And they came with haste and sound Mary and Joseph and the Babe lying in a manger Just as the Angel had prepared their expectation they found the narrative verified and saw the glory and the mystery of it by that representment which was made by the heavenly Ministers seeing GOD through the veil of a Child's flesh the Heir of Heaven wrapt in Swadling-clothes and a person to whom the Angels did minister laid in a Manger and they beheld and wondred and worshipped 7. But as precious Liquor warmed and heightned by a flame first crowns the vessel and then dances over its brim into the fire increasing the cause of its own motion and extravagancy so it happened to the Shepherds whose hearts being filled with the oil of gladness up unto the brim the Joy ran over as being too big to be consined in their own breasts and did communicate it self growing greater by such dissemination for when they had seen it they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this Child And as well they might all that heard it wondred But Mary having first changed her joy into wonder turned her wonder into entertainments of the mystery and the mystery into a fruition and cohabitation with it For Mary kept all these sayings and pondered them in her heart And the Shepherds having seen what the Angels did upon the publication of the news which less concerned them than us had learnt their duty to sing an honour to God for the Nativity of Christ For the Shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them 8. But the Angels had told the Shepherds that the Nativity was glad tidings of great joy unto all people and that the Heavens might declare the glory of God and the firmament shew his handy-work this also was told abroad even to the Gentiles by a sign from Heaven by the message of a Star For there was a Prophecy of Balaam famous in all the Eastern Countrey and recorded by Moses There shall come a Star out of Jacob and a Scepter shall arise out of Israel Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion Which although in its first sence it signified David who was the conqueror of the Moabites yet in its more mysterious and chiefly-intended sence it related to the Son of David And in expectation of the event of this Prophecy the Arabians the sons of Abraham by Keturah whose portion given by their Patriarch was Gold Frankincense and Myrrh who were great lovers of Astronomy did with diligence expect the revelation of a mighty Prince in Judaea at such time when a miraculous and extraordinary Star should appear And therefore when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of 〈◊〉 in the days of Herod the King there came wise men inspired by God taught by Art and perswaded by Prophecy from the East to Jerusalem saying Where is he that is born King of the Jews for we have seen his Star in the East and are come to worship him The Greeks suppose this which was called a Star to have been indeed an Angel in a pillar of fire and the semblance of a Star and it is made the more likely by coming and standing directly over the humble roof of his Nativity which is not discernible in the station of a Star though it be supposed to be lower than the Orb of the Moon To which if we add that they only saw it so far as we know and that it appeared as it were by voluntary periods it will not be very improbable but that it might be like the Angel that went before the sons of Israel in a pillar of fire by night or rather like the little shining Stars sitting upon the Bodies of 〈◊〉 Tharacus and Andronicus Martyrs when their bodies were searched for in the days of Diocletian and pointed at by those bright Angels 9. This Star did not trouble Herod till the Levantine Princes expounded the mysteriousness of it and said it declared a King to be born in Jewry and that the Star was his not applicable to any signification but of a King's birth And therefore although it was no Prodigy nor Comet foretelling Diseases Plagues War and Death but only the happy Birth of a most excellent Prince yet it brought affrightment to Herod and all Jerusalem For when Herod the King had heard these things he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him And thinking that the question of the Kingdom was now in dispute and an Heir sent from Heaven to lay challenge to it who brought a Star and the Learning of the East with him for evidence and probation of his Title Herod thought there was no security to his usurped possession unless he could rescind the decrees of Heaven and reverse the results and eternal counsels of Predestination And he was resolved to venture it first by craft and then by violence 10. And first he calls the chief Priests and Scribes of the people together and demanded of them where CHRIST should be born and found by their joynt determination that Bethlehem of Judaea was the place designed by ancient Prophecy and God's Decree Next he enquired of the Wise men concerning the Star but privily what time it appeared For the Star had not motion certain and regular by the laws of Nature but it so guided the Wise men in their journey that it stood when they stood moved not when they rested and went forward when they were able making no more haste than they did who carried much of the business and imployment of the Star along with them But when Herod was satisfied in his questions he sent them to Bethlehem with instructions to search diligently for the young child
faults of Parents and Kings and relatives do bring evil upon their Children and subjects and correlatives it is but equal that our children may have benefit also by our charity and 〈◊〉 But concerning making an agreement for them we find that God was confident concerning Abraham that he would teach his children and there is no doubt but Parents have great power by strict education and prudent discipline to efform the minds of their children to Vertue 〈◊〉 did expresly undertake for his houshold I and my house will serve the Lord and for children we may better do it because till they are of perfect choice no Government in the world is so great as that of Parents over their children in that which can concern the parts of this Question for they rule over their Understandings and children know nothing but what they are told and they believe it infinitely And it is a rare art of the Spirit to engage Parents to bring them up well in the 〈◊〉 and admonition of the Lord and they are persons obliged by a superinduced band they are to give them instructions and holy principles as they give them meat And it is certain that Parents may better stipulate for their Children than the Church can for men and women For they may be present Impostors and Hypocrites as the Church story tells of some and consequently are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not really converted and ineffectively baptized and the next day they may change their resolution and grow weary of their Vow and that is the most that Children can do when they come to age and it is very much in the Parents whether the Children shall do any such thing or no. purus insons Ut me collandem si vivo charus amicis Causa fuit Pater his Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnes Circum Doctores aderat quid multa pudicum Qui primus virtutis honos servavit ab omni Non solùm facto verùm opprobrio quoque turpi ob hoc nunc Laus illi debetur à me gratia major For education can introduce a habit and a second nature against which Children cannot kick unless they do some violence to themselves and their inclinations And although it fails too 〈◊〉 when-ever it fails yet we pronounce prudently concerning future things when we have a less influence into the event than in the present case and therefore are more unapt persons to stipulate and less reason in the thing it self and therefore have not so much reason to be confident Is not the greatest prudence of Generals instanced in their foreseeing 〈◊〉 events and guessing at the designs of their enemies concerning which they have less reason to be confident than Parents of their childrens belief of the Christian Creed To which I add this consideration That Parents or Godfathers may therefore safely and prudently promise that their Children shall be of the Christian Faith because we not only see millions of men and women who not only believe the whole Creed only upon the stock of their education but there are none that ever do renounce the Faith of their Country and breeding unless they be violently tempted by 〈◊〉 or weakness antecedent or consequent He that sees all men almost to be Christians because they are bid to be so need not question the fittingness of Godfathers promising in behalf of the Children for whom they answer 29. And however the matter be for Godfathers yet the tradition of baptizing Infants passed through the hands of 〈◊〉 Omnem aetatem sanctificans per illam quae ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similitudinem Omnes 〈◊〉 venit per semetipsum salvare omnes inquam qui per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Deum infantes parvulos 〈◊〉 juvenes seniores Ideo per 〈◊〉 venit 〈◊〉 infantibus infans factus sanctificans infantes in parvulis 〈◊〉 c. Christ did sanctifie every age by his own susception of it and similitude to it For he came to save all men by himself I say all who by him are born again unto God infants and children and boys and young men and old men He was made an Infant to Infants sanctifying Infants a little one to the little ones c. And Origen is express 〈◊〉 traditionem ab Apostolis suscepit 〈◊〉 parvulis dare Baptismum The Church hath received a Tradition from the 〈◊〉 to give Baptism to Children And S. 〈◊〉 in his Epistle to 〈◊〉 gives account of this Article for being questioned by some less 〈◊〉 persons whether it were lawful to baptize Children before the eighth day he gives account of the whole Question And a whole Council of sixty six Bishops upon very good reason decreed that their Baptism should at no hand be deferred though whether six or eight or ten days was no matter so there be no danger or present necessity The whole Epistle is worth the reading 30. But besides these Authorities of such who writ before the starting of the Pelagian Questions it will not be useless to bring the discourses of them and others I mean the reason upon which the Church did it both before and after 31. 〈◊〉 his Argument was this Christ took upon him our Nature to sanctific and to save it and passed through the several periods of it even unto death which is the symbol and effect of old age and therefore it is certain he did sanctifie all the periods of it and why should he be an Infant but that Infants should receive the crown of their age the 〈◊〉 of their stained nature the sanctification of their persons and the saving of their 〈◊〉 by their Infant Lord and elder Brother 32. Omnis 〈◊〉 anima 〈◊〉 in Adam censetur 〈◊〉 in Christo recenseatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every Soul is accounted in Adam till it be new accounted in Christ and so long as it is accounted in Adam so long it is unclean and we know no unclean thing 〈◊〉 enter into Heaven and therefore our Lord hath desined it Unless 〈◊〉 be born of Water and the Spirit ye cannot 〈◊〉 into the Kingdom of Heaven that is ye cannot be holy It was the argument of 〈◊〉 which the rather is to be received because he was one less favourable to the Custom of the Church in his time of baptizing Infants which Custom he noted and acknowledged and hath also in the preceding discourse fairly proved And indeed that S. Cyprian may superadd his symbol God who is no accepter of persons will also be no accepter of ages For if to the greatest delinquents 〈◊〉 long before against God remission of sins be given when afterwards they believe and from Baptism and from Grace no man is forbidden how much more ought not an 〈◊〉 be forbidden who being new born hath 〈◊〉 nothing save only that being in the 〈◊〉 born of Adam in his first birth he hath contracted the contagion of an old death who therefore comes the easier to obtain 〈◊〉 of sins because
represented in ceremony by the Immersion appointed to be the Rite of that Sacrament And then it is that God pours forth together with the Sacramental waters a salutary and holy fountain of Grace to wash the Soul from all its stains and impure adherences And therefore this first access to Christ is in the style of Scripture called Regeneration the New Birth Redemption Renovation Expiation or Atonement with God and Justification And these words in the New Testament relate principally and properly to the abolition of sins committed before Baptism For we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation to declare his Rightcousness for the remission of sins that are past To declare I say at this time his righteousness And this is that which S. Paul calls Justification by Faith that boasting might be excluded and the grace of God by Jesus made exceeding glorious For this being the proper work of Christ the first entertainment of a Disciple and manifestation of that state which is first given him as a favour and next intended as a duty is a total abolition of the precedent guilt of sin and leaves nothing remaining that can condemn we then freely receive the intire and perfect effect of that Atonement which Christ made for us we are put into a condition of innocence and favour And this I say is done regularly in Baptism and S. Paul expresses it to this sense after he had enumerated a series of Vices subjected in many he adds and such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified There is nothing of the old guilt remanent when ye were washed ye were sanctified or as the Scripture calls it in another place Ye were redeemed from your vain conversation 5. For this Grace was the formality of the Covenant Repent and believe the Gospel Repent and be converted so it is in S. Peter's Sermon and your sins shall be done away that was the Covenant But that Christ chose Baptism for its signature appears in the Parallel Repent and be baptized and wash away your sins For Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish The Sanctification is integral the Pardon is universal and immediate 6. But here the process is short no more at first but this Repent and be baptized and wash away your sins which Baptism because it was speedily administred and yet not without the preparatives of Faith and Repentance it is certain those predispositions were but instruments of reception actions of great facility of small employment and such as supposing the person not unapt did confess the infiniteness of the Divine mercy and fulness of the redemption is called by the Apostle a being justified freely 7. Upon this ground it is that by the Doctrine of the Church heathen persons strangers from the 〈◊〉 of grace were invited to a confession of Faith and dereliction of false Religions with a promise that at the very first resignation of their persons to the service of Jesus they should obtain full pardon It was S. Cyprian's counsel to old Demetrianus Now in the evening of thy days when thy Soul'is almost expiring repent of thy sins believe in Jesus and turn Christian and although thou art almost in the embraces of death yet thou shalt be comprehended of immortality Baptizatus ad horam securus bine exit saith S. Austin A baptized person dying immediately shall live eternally and gloriously And this was the case of the Thief upon the Cross he confessed Christ and repented of his sins and begged pardon and did acts enough to facilitate his first access to Christ and but to remove the hindrances of God's favour then he was redeemed and reconciled to God by the death of Jesus that is he was pardoned with a full instantaneous integral and clear Pardon with such a pardon which declared the glory of God's mercies and the infiniteness of Christ's merits and such as required a more reception and entertainment on man's part 8. But then we having received so great a favour enter into Covenant to correspond with a proportionable endeavour the benefit of absolute Pardon that is Salvation of our Souls being not to be received till the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord all the intervall we have promised to live a holy life in obedience to the whole Discipline of Jesus That 's the condition on our part And if we prevaricate that the mercy shewn to the blessed Thief is no argument of hope to us because he was saved by the mercies of the first access which corresponds to the Remission of sins we receive in Baptism and we shall perish by breaking our own promises and obligations which Christ passed upon us when he made with us the Covenant of an intire and gracious Pardon 9. For in the precise Covenant there is nothing else described but Pardon so given and ascertained upon an Obedience persevering to the end And this is clear in all those places of Scripture which express a holy and innocent life to have been the purpose and design of Christ's death for us and redemption of us from the former estate Christ bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead unto sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye are healed Exinde from our being healed from our dying unto sin from our being buried with Christ from our being baptized into his death the end of Christ's dying for us is that we should live unto righteousness Which was also highly and prophetically expressed by S. Zachary in his divine Ecstasie This was the oath which he sware to our Fore-father Abraham That he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies might serve him without fear In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life And S. Paul discourses to this purpose pertinently and largely For the grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts Hi sunt Angeli quibus in lavacro renunciavimus saith Tertullian Those are the evil Angels the Devil and his works which we deny or renounce in Baptism we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world that is lead a whole life in the pursuit of universal holiness Sobriety Justice and Godlinèss being the proper language to signifie our Religion and respects to God to our neighbours and to our selves And that this was the very end of our dying in Baptism and the design of Christ's manifestation of
weekly Sabbath the Disciples of Jesus pull ripe 〈◊〉 of corn rub them in their hands and eat them to satisfie their hunger For which he offered satisfaction to their scruples convincing them that works of necessity are to be permitted even to the breach of a positive temporary constitution and that works of Mercy are the best serving of God upon any day whatsoever or any part of the day that is vacant to other offices and proper for a religious Festival 3. But when neither Reason nor Religion would give them satisfaction but that they went about to kill him he withdrew himself from Jerusalem and returned to Galilee whither the Scribes and Pharisees followed him observing his actions and whether or no he would prosecute that which they called profanation of their Sabbath by doing acts of Mercy upon that day He still did so For entring into one of the Synagogues of Galilee upon the Sabbath Jesus saw a man whom S. Hierom reports to have been a Mason coming to Tyre and complaining that his hand was withered and desiring help of him that he might again be restored to the use of his hands lest he should be compelled with misery and shame to beg his bread Jesus restored his hand as whole as the other in the midst of all those spies and enemies Upon which act being confirmed in their malice the Pharisees went forth and joyned with the Herodians a Sect of people who said Herod was the Messias because by the decree of the Roman Senate when the Sceptre departed from Judah he was declared King and both together took counsel how they might kill him 4. Jesus therefore departed again to the sea-coast and his companies encreased as his fame for he was now followed by new multitudes from Galilee from Judaea from Jerusalem from Idumaea 〈◊〉 beyond Jordan from about Tyre and Sidon who hearing the report of his miraculous power to cure all diseases by the word of his mouth or the touch of his hand or the handling his garment came with their ambulatory hospital of sick and their possessed and they pressed on him but to touch him and were all immediately cured The Devils confessing publickly that he was the Son of God till they were upon all such occasions restrained and compelled to silence 5. But now Jesus having commanded a ship to be in readiness against any inconvenience or troublesome pressures of the multitude went up into a mountain to pray and continued in prayer all night intending to make the first ordination of Apostles which the next day he did chusing out of the number of his Disciples these twelve to be Apostles Simon Peter and Andrew James and John the sons of thunder Philip and Bartholomew Matthew and Thomas James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zelot Judas the brother of James and Judas 〈◊〉 With these descending from the mountain to the plain he repeated the same Sermon or much of it which he had before preached in the first beginning of his Prophesyings that he might publish his Gospel to these new Auditors and also more particularly inform his Apostles in the Doctrine of the Kingdom for now because he saw Israel scattered like sheep having no Shepherd he did purpose to send these twelve abroad to preach Repentance and the approximation of the Kingdom and therefore first instructed them in the mysterious parts of his holy Doctrine and gave them also particular instructions together with their temporary commission for that journey 6. For Jesus sent them out by two and two giving them power over unclean spirits and to heal all manner of sickness and diseases telling them they were the light and the eyes and the salt of the world so intimating their duties of diligence holiness and incorruption giving them in charge to preach the Gospel to dispense their power and Miracles freely as they had received it to anoint sick persons with oil not to enter into any Samaritan Town but to go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel to provide no viaticum for their journeys but to put themselves upon the Religion and Piety of their Proselytes he arms them against persecutions gives them leave to slye the storm from City to City promises them the assistances of his Spirit encourages them by his own example of long-sufferance and by instances of Divine providence expressed even to creatures of smallest value and by promise of great rewards to the confident confession of his Name and furnishes them with some propositions which are like so many bills of exchange upon the trust of which they might take up necessaries promising great retributions not only to them who quit any thing of value for the sake of Jesus but to them that offer a cup of water to a thirsty Disciple And with these instructions they departed to preach in the Cities 7. And Jesus returning to Capernaum received the address of a faithful Centurion of the Legion called the Iron Legion which usually quartered in Judaea in behalf of his servant whom he loved and who was grievously afflicted with the Palsie and healed him as a reward and honour to his Faith And from thence going to the City Naim he raised to life the only son of a widow whom the mourners followed in the street bearing the corps sadly to his funeral Upon the fame of these and divers other Miracles John the Baptist who was still in prison for he was not put to death till the latter end of this year sent two of his Disciples to him by divine providence or else by John's designation to minister occasion of his greater publication enquiring if he was the Messias To whom Jesus returned no answer but a Demonstration taken from the nature of the thing and the glory of the Miracles saying Return to John and tell him what ye see for the deaf hear the blind see the lame walk the dead are raised and the lepers are cleansed and to the poor the Gospel is preached which were the Characteristick notes of the Messias according to the predictions of the holy Prophets 6. When John's Disciples were gone with this answer Jesus began to speak concerning John of the austerity and holiness of his person the greatness of his function the Divinity of his commission saying that he was greater than a Prophet a burning and shining light the Elias that was to come and the consummation or ending of the old Prophets Adding withall that the perverseness of that Age was most notorious in the entertainment of himself and the Baptist for neither could the Baptist who came neither eating nor drinking that by his austerity and mortified deportment he might invade the judgment and affections of the people nor Jesus who came both eating and drinking that by a moderate and an affable life framed to the compliance and common use of men he might sweetly insinuate into the affections of the multitude obtain belief amongst them They could object
her in the midst of her journey Against this David prayed O my God cut me 〈◊〉 off in the midst of my days But in this there is some variety For God does it sometimes in mercy sometimes in judgment The righteous die and no man regardeth not considering that they are taken away from the evil to come God takes the righteous man hastily to his Crown lest temptation snatch it from him by interrupting his hopes and sanctity And this was the case of the old World For from Adam to the Floud by the Patriarchs were eleven generations but by Cain's line there were but eight so that Cain's posterity were longer liv'd because God intending to bring the Floud upon the World took delight to rescue his elect from the dangers of the present impurity and the future Deluge Abraham lived five years less than his son Isaac it being say the Doctors of the Jews intended for mercy to him that he might not see the iniquity of his Grandchild 〈◊〉 And this the Church for many Ages hath believed in the case of baptized Infants dying before the use of Reason For besides other causes in the order of Divine Providence one kind of mercy is done to them too for although their condition be of a lower form yet it is secured by that timely shall I call it or untimely death But these are cases extraregular ordinarily and by rule God hath revealed his purposes of interruption of the lives of sinners to be in anger and judgment for when men commit any signal and grand impiety God suffers not Nature to take her course but strikes a stroke with his own hand To which purpose I think it a remarkable instance which is reported by 〈◊〉 that for 3332 years even to the twentieth Age there was not one example of a Son that died before his Father but the course of Nature was kept that he who was first born in the descending line did die first I speak of natural death and therefore Abel cannot be opposed to this observation till that Terah the father of Abraham taught the People to make Images of clay and worship them and concerning him it was first remarked that Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity God by an unheard-of Judgment and a rare accident punishing his newly-invented crime And when-ever such 〈◊〉 of a life happens to a vicious person let all the world acknowledge it for a Judgment and when any man is guilty of evil habits or unrepented sins he may therefore expect it because it is threatned and designed for the lot and curse of such persons This is threatned to Covetousness Injustice and Oppression As a Partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his days and at his end shall be a Fool. The same is threatned to Voluptuous persons in the highest caresses of delight and Christ told a parable with the same design The rich man said Soul take thy ease but God answered O fool this night shall thy Soul be required of thee Zimri and Cozbi were slain in the trophies of their Lust and it was a sad story which was told by Thomas Cantipratanus Two Religious persons tempted by each other in the vigour of their youth in their very first pleasures and opportunities of sin were both struck dead in their embraces and posture of entertainment God smote Jeroboam for his Usurpation and Tyranny and he died Saul died for Disobedience against God and asking counsel of a Pythonisse God smote 〈◊〉 with a Leprosie for his profaneness and distressed 〈◊〉 sorely for his Sacrilege and sent a horrid disease upon Jehoram for his Idolatry These instances represent Voluptuousness and Covetousness Rapine and Injustice Idolatry and Lust Profaneness and Sacrilege as remarked by the signature of exemplary Judgments to be the means of shortening the days of man God himself proving the Executioner of his own fierce wrath I instance no more but in the singular case of Hananiah the false Prophet Thus saith the LORD Behold I will cut thee from off the face of the earth this year thou shalt die because thou hast taught Rebellion against the LORD That is the curse and portion of a false Prophet a short life and a suddén death of God's own particular and more immediate 〈◊〉 23. And thus also the sentence of the Divine anger went forth upon criminal persons in the New Testament Witness the Disease of Herod Judas's Hanging himself the Blindness of 〈◊〉 the Sudden death of Ananias and Sapphira the Buffetings with which Satan 〈◊〉 the bodies of persons excommunicate Yea the blessed Sacrament of CHRIST's Body and Bloud which is intended for our spiritual life if it be unworthily received proves the cause of a natural death For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many are fallen asleep saith S. Paul to the 〈◊〉 Church 24. Thirdly But there is yet another manner of ending man's life by way of Chance or Contingency meaning thereby the manner of God's Providence and event of things which is not produced by the disposition of natural causes nor yet by any particular and special act of God but the event which depends upon accidental causes not so certain and regular as Nature not so conclusive and determined as the acts of decretory Providence but comes by disposition of causes irregular to events rare and accidental This David expresses by entring into battel and in this as in the other we must separate cases extraordinary and rare from the ordinary and common Extraregularly and upon extraordinary reasons and permissions we find that holy persons have miscarried in battel So the 〈◊〉 fell before Benjamin and Jonathan and 〈◊〉 and many of the Lord's champions fighting against the Philistines but in these deaths as God served other ends of Providence so he kept to the good men that fell all the mercies of the Promise by giving them a greater blessing of event and compensation In the more ordinary course of Divine dispensation they that prevaricate the Laws of God are put out of protection God withdraws his special Providence or their tutelar Angel and leaves them exposed to the influences of Heaven to the power of a Constellation to the accidents of humanity to the chances of a Battel which are so many and various that it is ten thousand to one a man in that case never escapes and in such variety of contingencies there is no probable way to assure our safety but by a holy life to endear the Providence of God to be our Guardian It was a remarkable saying of Deborah The Stars sought in their courses 〈◊〉 in their orbs against Sisera Sisera fought when there was an evil Aspect or malignant influence of Heaven upon him For even the smallest thing that is in opposition to us is enough to turn the
more fallible in the application whether we have not mingled some little minutes of malice in the body of infirmities and how much will bear excuse and in what time and to what persons and to what degrees and upon what endeavours we shall be pardoned So that all the interval between our losing baptismal grace and the day of our death we walk in a cloud having lost the certain knowledge of our present condition by our prevarications And indeed it is a very hard thing for a man to know his own heart And he that shall observe how often himself hath been abused by confidences and secret imperfections and how the greatest part of Christians in name only do think themselves in a very good condition when God knows they are infinitely removed from it and yet if they did not think themselves well and sure it is unimaginable they should sleep so quietly and walk securely and consider negligently and yet proceed 〈◊〉 he that considers this and upon what weak and false principles of Divinity men have raised their strengths and perswasions will easily consent to this that it is very easie for men to be deceived in taking estimate of their present condition of their being in the state of Grace 5. But there is great variety of men and difference of degrees and every step of returning to God may reasonably add one degree of hope till at last it comes to the certainty and top of hope Many men believe themselves to be in the state of Grace and are not many are in the state of Grace and are infinitely fearful they are out of it and many that are in God's favour do think they are so and they are not deceived And all this is certain For some sin that sin of Presumption and Flattery of themselves and some good persons are vexed with violent fears and temptations to despair and all are not and when their hopes are right yet some are strong and some are weak for they that are well perswaded of their present condition have perswasions as different as are the degrees of their approach to innocence and he that is at the highest hath also such abatements which are apt and proper for the conservation of humility and godly 〈◊〉 I am guilty of nothing saith S. Paul but I am not hereby justified meaning thus Though I be innocent for ought I know yet God who judges otherwise than we judge may find something to reprove in me It is God that judges that is concerning my degrees of acceptance and hopes of glory If the person be newly recovering from a state of sin because his state is imperfect and his sin not dead and his lust active and his habit not quite extinct it is easie for a man to be too hasty in pronouncing well He is wrapt up in a cloak of clouds hidden and encumbred and his brightest day is but twilight and his discernings dark conjectural and imperfect and his heart is like a cold hand newly applied to the fire full of pain and whether the heat or the cold be strongest is not easie to determine or like middle colours which no man can tell to which of the extremes they are to be accounted But according as persons grow in Grace so they may grow in confidence of their present condition It is not certain they will do so for sometimes the beauty of the tabernacle is covered with goats hair and skins of beasts and holy people do infinitely deplore the want of such Graces which God observes in them with great complacency and acceptance Both these cases say that to be certainly perswaded of our present condition is not a Duty Sometimes it is not possible and sometimes it is better to be otherwise But if we consider of this Certainty as a Blessing and a Reward there is no question but in a great and an eminent Sanctity of life there may also be a great confidence and fulness of perswasion that our present being is well and gracious and then it is certain that such persons are not deceived For the thing it self being sure if the perswasion answers to it it is needless to dispute of the degree of certainty and the manner of it Some persons are heartily perswaded of their being reconciled and of these some are deceived and some are not deceived and there is no sign to distinguish them but by that which is the thing signified a holy life according to the strict rules of Christian Discipline tells what persons are confident and who are presumptuous But the certainty is reasonable in none but in old Christians habitually holy persons not in new Converts or in lately lapsed people for concerning them we find the Spirit of God speaking with clauses of restraint and ambiguity a perhaps and who knoweth and peradventure the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee God may have mercy on 〈◊〉 And that God hath done so they only have reason to be confident whom God hath blessed with a lasting continuing Piety and who have wrought out the habits of their precontracted vices 6. But we find in Scripture many precepts given to holy persons being in the state of Grace to secure their standing and perpetuate their present condition For He that endureth unto the end he only shall be saved said our Blessed Saviour and He that standeth let him take heed lest he fall and Thou standest by Faith be not high-minded but fear and Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling Hold fast that 〈◊〉 hast and let no man take the crown from thee And it was excellent advice for one Church had lost their first love and was likely also to lose their crown And S. Paul himself who had once entred within the veil and seen unutterable glories yet was forced to endure hardship and to fight against his own disobedient appetite and to do violence to his inclinations for fear that whilest he preached to others himself should become a cast-away And since we observe in holy story that Adam and Eve fell in Paradise and the Angels fell in Heaven it self stumbling at the very jewels which pave the streets of the celestial Jerusalem and in Christ's family one man for whom his Lord had prepared a throne turned Devil and that in the number of the Deacons it is said that one turned Apostate who yet had been a man full of the Holy Ghost it will lessen our train and discompose the gayeties of our present confidence to think that our securities cannot be really distinguished from danger and uncertainties For every man walks upon two legs one is firm invariable constant and eternal but the other is his own God's Promises are the objects of our Faith but the events and final conditions of our Souls which is consequent to our duty can at the best be but the objects of our Hope And either there must in this be a less certainty or
hand or foot or extinguish the offending eye rather than upon the support of a troublesome soot and by the light of an offending eye walk into ruine and a sad eternity where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched And so Jesus ended this chain of excellent Discourses 18. About this time was the Jews Feast of Tabernacles whither Jesus went up as it were in secret and passing through Samaria he found the inhabitants of a little village so inhospitable as to refuse to give him entertainment which so provoked the intemperate zeal of James and John that they would fain have called for fire to consume them even as Elias did But Jesus rebuked the furies of their anger teaching them to distinguish the spirit of Christianity from the ungentleness of the decretory zeal of Elias For since the Son of man came with a purpose to seek and save what was lost it was but an indiscreet temerity suddenly upon the lightest umbrages of displeasure to destroy a man whose redemption cost the effusion of the dearest bloud from the heart of Jesus But contrariwise Jesus does a Miracle upon the ten Leprous persons which came to him from the neighbourhood crying out with sad exclamations for help But Jesus sent them to the Priest to offer for their cleansing Thither they went and but one only returned to give thanks and he a stranger who with a loud voice glorified God and with humble adoration worshipped and gave thanks to Jesus 19. When Jesus had finished his journey and was now come to Jerusalem for the first days he was undiscerned in publick conventions but heard of the various opinions of men concerning him some saying he was a good man others that he 〈◊〉 the people and the Pharisees sought for him to do him a mischief But when they despaired of finding him in the midst of the Feast and the people he made Sermons openly in the midst of the Temple whom when he had convinced by the variety and divinity of his Miracles and Discourses they gave the greatest testimony in the world of humane weakness and how prevalent a prejudice is above the confidence and conviction of a demonstration For a proverb a mistake an error in matter of circumstance did in their understandings outweigh multitudes of Miracles and arguments and because Christ was of Galilee because they knew whence he was because of the Proverb that 〈◊〉 of Galilee comes no Prophet because the Rulers did not believe in him these outweighed the demonstrations of his mercy and his power and Divinity But yet very many believed on him and no man durst lay hands to take him for as yet his time was not come in which he meant to give himself up to the power of the Jews and therefore when the Pharisees sent Officers to seise him they also became his Disciples being themselves surprised by the excellency of his Doctrine 20. After this Jesus went to the mount of Olivet on the East of Jerusalem and the next day returned again into the Temple where the Scribes and Pharisees brought him a woman taken in the act of Adultery tempting him to give sentence that they might accuse him of severity or intermedling if he condemned her or of remisness and popularity if he did acquit her But Jesus found out an expedient for their difficulty and changed the Scene by bidding the innocent person among them cast the first stone at the Adulteress and then stooping down to give them fair occasion to withdraw he wrote upon the ground with his finger whilest they left the woman and her crime to a more private censure Jesus was left alone and the woman in the midst whom Jesus dismissed charging her to sin no more And a while after Jesus begins again to discourse to them of his Mission from the Father of his Crucifixion and exaltation from the earth of the reward of Believers of the excellency of Truth of spiritual Liberty and Relations who are the sons of Abraham and who the children of the Devil of his own eternal generation of the desire of Abraham to see his day In which Sermon he continued adding still new excellencies and confuting their malicious and vainer calumnies till they that they also might 〈◊〉 him took up stones to cast at him but he went out of the Temple going through the midst of them and so passed by 21. But in his passage he met a man who had been born blind and after he had discoursed cursorily of the cause of that Blindness it being a misery not sent as a punishment to his own or his parents sin but as an occasion to make publick the glory of God he to manifest that himself was the light of the World in all sences said it now and proved it by a Miracle for sitting down he made clay of spittle and anointing the eyes of the blind man bid him go wash in Siloam which was a Pool of limpid water which God sent at the Prayer of Isaiah the Prophet a little before his death to satisfie the necessities of his people oppressed with thirst and a strict siege and it stood at the foot of the mount Sion and gave its water at first by returns and periods always to the Jews but not to the enemies And those intermitted springings were still continued but only a Pool was made from the frequent effluxes The blind man went and washed and returned seeing and was incessantly vexed by the Pharisees to tell them the manner and circumstances of the cure and when the man had averred the truth and named his Physician giving him a pious and charitable testimony the Pharisees because they could not force him to disavow his good opinion of Jesus cast him out of the 〈◊〉 But Jesus meeting him received him into the Church told him he was CHRIST and the man became again enlightned and he believed and worshipped But the Pharisees blasphemed for such was the dispensation of the Divine mysteries that the blind should see and they which think they see clearly should become blind because they had not the excuse of ignorance to lessen or take off the sin but in the midst of light they shut their eyes and doted upon darkness and therefore did their sin remain 22. But Jesus continued his Sermon among the Pharisees insinuating reprehensions in his dogmatical discourses which like light shined and discovered error For by discoursing the properties of a good Shepherd and the lawful way of intromission he proved them to be thieves and robbers because they refused to enter in by Jesus who is the door of the sheep and upon the same ground reproved all those false Christs which before him usurped the title of Messias and proved his own vocation and office by an argument which no other shepherd would use because he laid down his life for his sheep others would take the fleece and eat the flesh but none but himself would die for his sheep but he would first
men do very indiscreetly and may occasion the alienation of some mens minds from the entertainments of Religion but this being accidental to the thing it self and to the purpose of the man is not the Sin of Scandal but it is the Indiscretion of Scandal if by such means he divorces any man's mind from the cohabitation and unions of Religion and yet if the purpose of the man be to affright weaker and unwise persons it is a direct Scandal and one of those ways which the Devil uses toward the peopling of his kingdom it is a plain laying of a snare to entrap feeble and uninstructed souls 5. But if the pious action have been formerly joyned with any thing that is truly criminal with Idolatry with Superstition with impious Customs or impure Rites and by retaining the Piety I give cause to my weak brother to think I approve of the old appendage and by my reputation invite him to swallow the whole action without discerning the case is altered I am to omit that pious action if it be not under command until I have acquitted it from the suspicion of evil company But when I have done what in prudence I guess sufficient to thaw the frost of jealousie to separate those dissonancies which formerly seemed united I have done my duty of Charity by endeavouring to free my brother from the snare and I have done what in Christian prudence I was obliged when I have protested against the appendent crime If afterwards the same person shall entertain the crime upon pretence of my example who have plainly 〈◊〉 it he lays the snare for himself and is glad of the pretence or will in spite enter into the net that he might think it reasonable to rail at me I may not with Christian charity or prudence wear the picture of our Blessed Lord in rings or medals though with great affection and designs of doing him all the honour that I can if by such Pictures I invite persons apt more to follow me than to understand me to give Divine honour to a Picture but when I have declared my hatred of Superstitious worshippings and given my brother warning of the snare which his own mistake or the Devil's malice was preparing for him I may then without danger signifie my Piety and affections in any civil representments which are not against God's Law or the Customs of the Church or the analogy of Faith And there needs no other reason to be given for this Rule than that there is no reason to be given against it if the nature of the thing be innocent and the purpose of the man be pious and he hath used his moral industry to secure his brother against accidental mischances and abuses his duty in this particular can have no more parts and instances 6. But it is too crude an assertion to affirm indefinitely that whatsoever hath been abused to evil or superstitious purposes must presently be abjured and never entertained for fear of Scandal for it is certain that the best things have been most abused Have not some persons used certain verses of the Psalter as an antidote against the Tooth-ach and carried the blessed Sacrament in pendants about their necks as a charm to countermand Witches and S. John's Gospel as a spell against wild beasts and wilder untamed spirits Confession of sins to the Ministers of Religion hath been made an instrument to serve base ends and so indeed hath all Religion been abused and some persons have been so receptive of Scandal that they suspected all Religion to be a mere stratagem because they have observed very many men have used it so For some natures are like Spunges or Sugar whose utmost verge if you dip in Wine it drowns it self by the moisture it sucks up and is drenched all over receiving its alteration from within it s own nature did the mischief and plucks on its own dissolution And these men are greedy to receive a Scandal and when it is presented but in small instances they suck it up to the dissolution of their whole Religion being glad of a quarrel that their impieties may not want all excuse But yet it is certainly very unreasonable to reject excellent things because they have been abused as if separable accidents had altered natures and essences or that they resolve never to forgive the duties for having once fallen into the hands of unskilful or malicious persons Hezekiah took away the brazen Serpent because the people abused it to Idolatry but the Serpent had long before lost its use and yet if the people had not been a peevish and refractory and superstitious people in whose nature it was to take all occasions of Superstition and farther yet if the taking away such occasions and opportunities of that Sin in special had not been most agreeable with the designs of God in forbidding to the people the common use of all Images in the second Commandment which was given them after the erection of that brazen Statue Hezekiah possibly would not or at least had not been bound to have destroyed that monument of an old story and a great blessing but have sought to separate the abuse from the minds of men and retained the Image But in Christianity when none of these circumstances occur where by the greatness and plenty of revelations we are more fully instructed in the ways of Duty and when the thing it self is pious and the abuse very separable it is infinite disparagement to us or to our Religion either that our Religion is not sufficient to cure an abuse or that we will never part with it but we must unpardonably reject a good because it had once upon it a crust or spot of leprosie though since it hath been washed in the waters of Reformation The Primitive Christians abstained from actions of themselves indifferent which the unconverted people used if those actions were symbolical or adopted into false Religions or not well understood by those they were bound to satisfie But when they had washed off the accrescences of Gentile Superstition they chose such Rites which their neighbours used and had designs not imprudent or unhandsome and they were glad of a Heathen Temple to celebrate the Christian Rites in them and they made no other change but that they ejected the Devil and invited their Lord into the possession 7. Thirdly In things merely indifferent whose practice is not limited by command nor their nature heightned by an appendent Piety we must use our liberty so as may not offend our Brother or lead him into a sin directly or indirectly For Scandal being directly against Charity it is to be avoided in the same measure and by the same proportions in which Charity is to be pursued Now we must so use our selves that we must cut off a foot or pluck out an eye rather than the one should bear us and the other lead us to sin and death we must rather rescind all the natural and sensual
honour of the present Festival and as a donative to the people But the spirit of Malice was here the more prevalent and they desired that Barabbas a Murtherer a Thief and a seditious person should be exchanged for him Then Pilate casting about all ways to acquit Jesus of punishment and himself of guilt offered to scourge him and let him go hoping that a lesser draught of bloud might stop the furies and rabidness of their passion without their bursting with a river of his best and vital liquor But these leeches would not so let go they cry out Crucifie him and to engage him finally they told him if he did let this man go he was no friend to Caesar. 28. But Pilate called for water and washed his hands to demonstrate his own unwillingness and to reject and transmit the guilt upon them who took it on them as greedily as they sucked the bloud they cried out His bloud be on us and our children As Pilate was going to give sentence his Wife being troubled in her dreams sent with the earnestness and passion of a woman that he should have nothing to do with that just Person but he was engaged Caesar and Jesus God and the King did seem to have different interests or at least he was threatned into that opinion and Pilate though he was satisfied it was but Calumny and Malice yet he was loth to venture upon his answer at Rome in case the High Priest should have accused him For no man knows whether the interest or the mistake of his Judge may cast the sentence and who-ever is accused strongly is never thought intirely innocent And therefore not only against the Divine Laws but against the Roman too he condemned an innocent person upon objections notoriously malicious he adjudged him to a death which was only due to publick Thieves and Homicides crimes with which he was not charg'd upon a pretence of Blasphemy of which he stood accused but not convicted and for which by the Jewish Law he should have been stoned if found guilty And this he did put into present execution against the Tiberian Law which about twelve years before decreed in favour of condemned persons that after sentence execution should be deferred ten days 29. And now was the Holy Lamb to bleed First therefore Pilate's souldiers array him in a kingly robe put a reed in his hand for a Sceptre plait a Crown of thorns and put it on his head they bow the knee and mock him they smite him with his phantastick Sceptre and in stead of tribute pay him with blows and spittings upon his holy head and when they had emptied the whole stock of poisonous contempt they devest him of the robes of mockery and put him on his own they lead him to a pillar and bind him fast and scourage him with whips a punishment that Slaves only did use to suffer free persons being in certain cases beaten with rods and clubs that they might add a new scorn to his afflictions and make his sorrows like their own guilt vast and mountainous After which Barabbas being set free Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified 30. The Souldiers therefore having framed a Cross sad and heavy laid it upon Jesus's shoulders who like Isaac bore the wood with which he was to be sacrificed himself and they drive him out to Crucifixion who was scarce able to stand under that load It is generally supposed that Jesus bore the whole Tree that is both the parts of his Cross but to him that considers it it will seem impossible and therefore it is more likely and agreeable to the old manner of crucifying malefactors that Jesus only carried the cross part the body of it being upon the place either already fixed or prepared for its station Even that lesser part was grievous and intolerable to his tender virginal and weakned body and when he fainted they compel Simon a Cyrenian to help him A great and a mixt multitude followed Jesus to Golgotha the 〈◊〉 house of the City and the place of Execution But the Women wept with bitter exclamations and their sadness was increased by the sad predictions Jesus then made of their future misery saying Ye daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your children For the time shall come that men shall say Blessed are the barren that never bare and the paps that never gave 〈◊〉 for they shall call on the hills to cover them and on the mountains to fall upon them that by a sudden ruine they may escape the lingring calamities of famine and fear and the horror of a thousand deaths 31. When Jesus was come to Golgotha a place in the mount of Calvary where according to the tradition of the Ancients Adam was buried and where Abraham made an Altar for the sacrifice of his Son by the piety of his Disciples and it is probable of those good women which did use to minister to him there was provided wine mingled with myrrh which among the Levantines is an excellent and pleasant mixture and such as the piety and indulgence of the nations used to administer to condemned persons But Jesus who by voluntary susception did chuse to suffer our pains refused that refreshment which the piety of the women presented to him The souldiers having stripp'd him nail'd him to the Cross with four nails and divided his Mantle into four parts giving to each souldier a part but for his Coat because it would be spoiled if parted it being weaved without seam they cast lots for it 32. Now Pilate had caused a title containing the cause of his death to be superscribed on a Table in Latine Greek and Hebrew the Hebrew being first the Greek next and the Latine nearest to the holy body but all written after the Jewish manner from the right hand to the left for so the Title is shewn in the Church of Santa Croce in Rome the Latin letters being to be read as if it were Hebrew the reason of which I could never find sufficiently discovered unless it were to make it more legible to the Jews who by conversing with the Romans began to understand a little Latine The title was JESUS OF NAZARETH KING OF THE JEWS But the Pharisees would have it altered and that he said he was King of the Jews But Pilate out of wilfulness or to do despight to the Nation or in honour to Jesus whom he knew to be a just person or being over-ruled by Divine providence refused to alter it And there were crucified with Jesus two Thieves Jesus being in the midst according to the Prophecy He was reckoned with the transgressors Then Jesus prayed for his Persecutors Father forgive them for they know not what they do But while Jesus was full of pain and charity and was praying and dying for his Enemies the Rulers of the Jews mocked him upbraiding him with the good works
their friends and consider not that their friends are bound to accept the trouble as themselves to accept the sickness that to tend the sick is at that time allotted for the portion of their work and that Charity receives it as a duty and makes that duty to be a pleasure And however if our friends account us a burthen let us also accept that circumstance of affliction to our selves with the same resignation and indifferency as we entertain its occasion the Sickness it self and pray to God to enkindle a flame of Charity in their breasts and to make them compensation for the charge and trouble we put them to and then the care is at an end But others excuse their discontent with a more religious colour and call the disease their trouble and affliction because it impedes their other parts of Duty they cannot preach or study or do exteriour assistences of Charity and Alms or acts of Repentance and Mortification But it were well if we could let God proportion out our work and set our task let him chuse what vertues we shall specially exercise and when the will of God determines us it is more excellent to endure afflictions with patience equanimity and thankfulness than to do actions of the most pompous Religion and laborious or expensive Charity not only because there is a deliciousness in actions of Religion and choice which is more agreeable to our spirit than the toleration of sickness can be which hath great reward but no present pleasure but also because our suffering and our imployment is consecrated to us when God chuses it and there is then no mixture of imperfection or secular interest as there may be in other actions even of an excellent Religion when our selves are the chusers And let us also remember that God hath not so much need of thy works as thou hast of Patience Humility and Resignation S. Paul was far a more considerable person than thou canst be and yet it pleased God to shut him in prison for two years and in that intervall God secured and promoted the work of the Gospel and although 〈◊〉 was an excellent Minister yet God laid a sickness upon him and even in his disease gave him work enough to do though not of his own chusing And therefore fear it not but the ends of Religion or Duty will well enough proceed without thy health and thy own eternal interest when God so pleases shall better be served by Sickness and the Vertues which it occasions than by the opportunities of Health and an ambulatory active Charity 18. When thou art resigned to God use fair and appointed means for thy Recovery trust not in thy spirit upon any instrument of health as thou art willing to be disposed by God so look 〈◊〉 for any event upon the stock of any other cause or principle be ruled by the Physician and the people appointed to tend thee that thou neither become troublesome to them nor give any sign of impatience or a peevish spirit But this advice only means that thou do not disobey them out of any evil principle and yet if Reason be thy guide to chuse any other aid or sollow any other counsel use it temperately prudently and charitably It is not intended for a Duty that thou shouldst drink Oil in stead of Wine if thy Minister reach it to thee as did Saint Bernard nor that thou shouldst accept a Cake tempered with Linseed-oil in stead of Oil of Olives as did F. Stephen mentioned by 〈◊〉 but that thou tolerate the defects of thy servants and accept the evil accidents of thy disease or the unsuccessfulness of thy Physician 's care as descending on thee from the hands of God Asa was noted in Scripture that in his sickness he sought not to the Lord but to the Physicians Lewis the XI of France was then the miserablest person in his Kingdom when he made himself their servant courting them with great pensions and rewards attending to their Rules as Oracles and from their mouths waited for the sentence of life or death We are in these great accidents especially to look upon God as the disposer of the events which he very often disposes contrary to the expectation we may have of probable causes and sometimes without Physick we recover and with Physick and excellent applications we grow worse and worse and God it is that makes the remedies unprosperous In all these and all other accidents if we take care that the sickness of the Body derive not it self into the Soul nor the pains of one procure impatience of the other we shall alleviate the burthen and make it supportable and profitable And certain it is if men knew well to bear their sicknesses humbly towards God charitably towards our Ministers and chearfully in themselves there were no greater advantage in the world to be received than upon a sick bed and that alone hath in it the benefits of a Church of a religious Assembly of the works of Charity and labour And since our Soul 's eternal well-being depends upon the Charities and Providence and Veracity of God and we have nothing to show for it but his word and Goodness and that is infinitely enough it is but reason we be not more nice and scrupulous about the usage and accommodation of our Body if we accept at God's hand sadness and driness of affection and spiritual desertion patiently and with indifferency it is unhandsome to express our selves less satisfied in the accidents about our body 19. But if the Sickness proceed to Death it is a new charge upon our spirits and God calls for a final and intire Resignation into his hands And to a person who was of humble affections and in his life-time of a mortified spirit accustomed to bear the yoke of the Lord this is easie because he looks upon Death not only as the certain condition of Nature but as a necessary transition to a state of Blessedness as the determination of his sickness the period of humane inselicities the last change of condition the beginning of a new strange and excellent life a security against sin a freedom from the importunities of a Tempter from the tyranny of an imperious Lust from the rebellion of Concupiscence from the disturbances and tempests of the Irascible faculty and from the fondness and childishness of the Concupiscible and S. Ambrose says well the trouble of this life and the dangers are so many that in respect of them Death is a remedy and a fair proper object of desires And we finde that many Saints have prayed for death that they might not see the Persecutions and great miseries incumbent upon the Church and if the desire be not out of Impatience but of Charity and with resignation there is no reason to reprove it Elias prayed that God would take his life that he might not see the evils of Ahab and Jezebel and their vexatious intendments against the
Prophets of the Lord. And S. Austin upon the Incursion of the Vandals into Africa called his Clergy together and at their Chapter told them he had prayed to God either to deliver his People from the present calamity or grant them patience to bear it or that he would take him out of the world that he might not see the miseries of his Diocese adding that God had granted him the last and he presently fell sick and died in the siege of his own Hippo. And if Death in many cases be desirable and for many reasons it is always to be submitted to when God calls And as it is always a misery to fear death so it is very often a sin or the effect of sin If our love to the world hath fastened our affections here it is a direct sin and this is by the son of Sirach noted to be the case of rich and great personages How bitter O death is thy remembrance to a man that is at rest in his possessions But if it be a fear to perish in the ruines of Eternity they are not to blame for fearing but that their own ill lives have procured the fear And yet there are persons in the state of Grace but because they are in great imperfection have such lawful fears of Death and of entring upon an uncertain Sentence which must stand eternally irreversible be it good or bad that they may with piety and care enough pray David's prayer O spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen But in this and in all other cases Death must be accepted without murmur though without fear it cannot A man may pray to be delivered from it and yet if God will not grant it he must not go as one hal'd to execution but if with all his imperfect fears he shall throw himself upon God and accept his sentence as righteous whether it speak life or death it is an act of so great excellency that it may equal the good actions of many succeeding and surviving days and peradventure a longer life will be yet more imperfect and that God therefore puts a period to it that thou mayest be taken into a condition more certain though less eminent However let not the fears of Nature or the fear of Reason or the fears of Humility become accidentally criminal by a murmur or a pertinacious contesting against the event which we cannot hinder but ought to accept by an election secondary rational and pious and upon supposition that God will not alter the sentence passed upon thy temporal life always remembring that in Christian Philosophy Death hath in it an excellency of which the Angels are not capable For by the necessity of our Nature we are made capable of dying for the Holy Jesus and next to the privilege of that act is our willingness to die at his command which turns necessity into vertue and nature into grace and grace to glory 20. When the sick person is thus disposed let him begin to trim his wedding-garment and dress his Lamp with the repetition of acts of Repentance perpetually praying to God for pardon of his sins representing to himself the horror of them the multitude the obliquity being helped by arguments apt to excite Contrition by repetition of penitential Psalms and holy Prayers and he may by accepting and humbly receiving his sickness at God's hand transmit it into the condition of an act or effect of 〈◊〉 acknowledging himself by sin to have deserved and procured it and praying that the punishment of his crimes may be here and not reserved for the state of Separation and for ever 21. But above all single acts of this exercise we are concerned to see that nothing of other mens Goods stick to us but let us shake it off as we would a burning coal 〈◊〉 our flesh for it will destroy us it will carry a curse with us and leave a curse behind us Those who by thy means or importunity have become vicious exhort to Repentance and holy life those whom thou hast cozened into crimes restore to a right understanding those who are by violence and interest led captive by thee to any undecency restore to their liberty and encourage to the prosecution of holiness discover and confess thy fraud and unlawful arts cease thy violence and give as many advantages to Vertue as thou hast done to Viciousness Make recompence for bodily wrongs such as are wounds dismembrings and other disabilities restore every man as much as thou canst to that good condition from which thou hast removed him restore his Fame give back his Goods return the Pawn release 〈◊〉 and take off all unjust invasions or surprises of his Estate pay Debts satisfie for thy fraud and injustice as far as thou canst and as thou canst and as soon or this alone is weight enough no less than a Mil-stone about thy Neck But if the dying man be of God and in the state of Grace that is if he have lived a holy life repented seasonably and have led a just sober and religious conversation in any acceptable degree it is to be supposed he hath no great account to make for unpretended injuries and unjust detentions for if he had detained the goods of his neighbour fraudulently or violently without amends when it is in his power and opportunity to restore he is not the man we suppose him in this present Question and although in all cases he is bound to restore according to his ability yet the act is less excellent when it is compelled and so it seems to be if he have continued the injustice till he is forced to quit the purchace However if it be not done till then let it be provided for then And that I press this duty to pious persons at this time is only to oblige them to a diligent scrutiny concerning the lesser omissions of this duty in the matter of fame or lesser debts or spiritual restitution or that those unevennesses of account which were but of late transaction may now be regulated and that whatsoever is undone in this matter from what principle soever it proceeds whether of sin or only of forgetfulness or of imperfection may now be made as exact as we can and are obliged and that those excuses which made it reasonable and lawful to defer Restitution as want of opportunity clearness of ability and accidental inconvenience be now laid aside and the action be done or provided for in the midst of all objections and inconvenient circumstances rather than to omit it and hazard to perform it 22. Hither also I reckon resolutions and forward purposes of emendation and greater severity in case God return to us hopes of life which therefore must be re-inforced that we may serve the ends of God and understand all his purposes and make use of every opportunity every sickness laid upon us being with a design of drawing us nearer
shame and unworthiness he submitted to the death of the Cross and by his voluntary acceptation and tacite volition of it made it equivalent to as great a punishment of his own susception he shewed an incomparable modesty begging but for a remembrance only he knew himself so sinful he durst ask no more he reproved the other Thief for Blasphemy he confessed the world to come and owned Christ publickly he prayed to him he hoped in him and pitied him shewing an excellent Patience in this sad condition And in this I consider that besides the excellency of some of these acts and the goodness of all the like occasion for so exemplar Faith never can occur and until all these things shall in these circumstances meet in any one man he must not hope for so safe an Exit after an evil life 〈◊〉 the confidence of this example But now Christ had the key of Paradise in his hand and God blessed the good Thief with this opportunity of letting him in who at another time might have waited longer and been tied to harder conditions And indeed it is very probable that he was much advantaged by the intervening accident of dying at the same time with Christ there being a natural compassion produced in us towards the partners of our miseries For Christ was not void of humane passions though he had in them no imperfection or irregularity and therefore might be invited by the society of misery the rather to admit him to participate his joys and S. Paul proves him to be a merciful high Priest because he was touched with a feeling of our infirmities the first expression of which was to this blessed Thief Christ and he together sate at the Supper of bitter herbs and Christ payed his symbol promising that he should that day be together with him in Paradise 12. By the Cross of Christ stood the Holy Virgin Mother upon whom old Simeon's Prophecy was now verified for now she felt a sword passing through her very soul she stood without clamour and womanish noises sad silent and with a modest grief deep as the waters of the abysse but smooth as the face of a pool full of Love and Patience and Sorrow and Hope Now she was put to it to make use of all those excellent discourses her Holy Son had used to build up her spirit and fortifie it against this day Now she felt the blessings and strengths of Faith and she passed from the griefs of the Passion to the expectation of the Resurrection and she rested in this Death as in a sad remedy for she knew it reconciled God with all the World But her Hope drew a veil before her Sorrow and though her Grief was great enough to swallow her up yet her Love was greater and did swallow up her grief But the Sun also had a veil upon his face and taught us to draw a curtain before the Passion which would be the most artificial expression of its greatness whilest by silence and wonder we confess it great beyond our expression or which is all one great as the burthen and baseness of our sins And with this veil drawn before the face of Jesus let us suppose him at the gates of Paradise calling with his last words in a loud voice to have them opened that the King of glory might come in The PRAYER O Holy Jesus who for our sakes didst suffer incomparable anguish and pains commensurate to thy Love and our Miseries which were infinite that thou mightest purchase for 〈◊〉 blessings upon Earth and an inheritance in Heaven dispose us by Love Thankfulness Humility and Obedience to receive all the benefit of thy Passion granting unto us and thy whole Church remission of all our sins integrity of mind health of body competent maintenance peace in our days a temperate air fruitfulness of the earth unity and integrity of Faith extirpation of Heresies reconcilements of Schisms destruction of all wicked counsels intended against us and bind the hands of Rapine and Sacriledge that they may not destroy the vintage and root up the Vine it self Multiply thy Blessings upon us sweetest Jesus increase in us true Religion sincere and actual devotion in our Prayers Patience in troubles and whatsoever is necessary to our Soul's health or conducing to thy Glory Amen II. O Dearest Saviour I adore thy mercies and thy incomparable love expressed in thy so voluntary susception and affectionate suffering such horrid and sad Tortures which cannot be remembred without a sad compassion the waters of bitterness entred into thy Soul and the storms of Death and thy Father's anger broke thee all in pieces and what shall I do who by my sins have so tormented my dearest Lord what Contrition can be great enough what tears sufficiently expressive what hatred and detestation of my crimes can be equal and commensurate to those sad accidents which they have produced Pity me O Lord pity me dearest God turn those thy merciful eyes towards me O most merciful Redeemer for my sins are great like unto thy Passion full of sorrow and shame and a burthen too great for me to bear Lord who hast done so much for me now only speak the word and thy servant shall be whole Let thy Wounds heal me thy Vertues amend me thy Death quicken me that I in this life suffering the cross of a sad and salutary Repentance in the union and merits of thy 〈◊〉 and Passion may die with thee and rest with thee and rise again with thee and live with thee for ever in the possession of thy Glories O dearest Saviour Jesus Amen SECT XVI Of the Resurrection and Ascension of JESUS The Burial of Iesus Mat 27 57 When the even was come there came a rich man of Arimathea named Jo seph who also himself was Jesus Disciple he went to Pilate beggd the body of Jesus Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered And when Ioseph had taken the body he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth layd it in his own new tomb which he had hewen out in y e rock The Resurrection of Iesus Mat 28 2 And behold there was a great earthquake for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven came rolled back y e stone from the doore and sate upon it And for feare of him the keepers did shake became as dead men And the Angel sayd unto the woman Fear not ye for I know that ye seek Iesus that was crucified He is not here for he is Risen as he sayd 1. WHile it was yet early in the morning upon the first day of the week Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Salome brought sweet spices to the Sepulchre that they might again embalm the Holy Body for the rites of Embalming among the Hebrews used to last forty days and their love was not satisfied with what Joseph had done They therefore hastned to the grave and after they had expended their money and bought the
Communication 94. 3. Triumphant riding of Jesus 359. 4. Thief upon the Cross pardoned and in what sence 200. 8. An excellent Penitent 354. 32. Themistocles appeased King Admetus by 〈◊〉 his Son to his sight 372. 7. Thomas's Infidelity 420. 3. Tongue-murther 247. V. VAin Repetitions in Prayer to be avoided 270. Value of the Silver pieces Judas had 349. 14. Value of Jesus in this World was always at a low rate 57. 4. Vespasian upon the Prophecies concerning the Messias 〈◊〉 himself into hopes of the Empire 25. 2. Vinegar and Gall offered to Jesus 355. 35. Virginity preserred before Marriage 327. Vertue is honourable 301. 11. Productive of 〈◊〉 299. 7. More pleasant than Vice 69. 6. The holy Virgin incouraged Joseph of Arimathea to a publick Confession of Jesus 356. 38. She caused Ministers to take her Son's Body from the Cross 356. Full of sorrow at the Passion 356. 37. She was saluted Blessed by a Capernaite 292. 12. Vice a great Spender 301. 9. It 〈◊〉 from Vertue sometimes but in one nice degree 45. 15. Why we are more prone to Vice than Vertue 37. 4. A Virgin shut her self up twelve Years in a Sepulchre to cure her Temptation 114. 34. Vicious persons not to be admitted to the Sacrament 374. 12. Unitive way of Religion to be practised with caution 60. 20. Vows are a good instance of Importunity in Prayer 270. 20. To be made with much caution and prudence ibid. Uncleanness of Body and Spirit forbidden to Christians 249 W. WAter-pots among the Jews at Feasts and why 152. 7. Way to Heaven narrow in what sence 297. Washing the Feet an hospitable civility to Strangers 350. 16. Washing the Disciples Feet ib. Wandring thoughts in Prayer to be prayed against 268. Watchfulness designed in the Parable of the ten Virgins 348. Want cannot be where God undertakes the Provision 77. Wenceslaus King of Bohemia led his Servant by a vigorous example 4. Exh. 10. Widows two Mites accepted 348. Widowhood harder to preserve Continence than Virginity 86. Wise-mens expectation lessened at the sight of the Babe lying in a Stable 28. But not 〈◊〉 ibid. They publickly consess him 33. Wilderness chosen by Christ he was not involuntarily driven by the evil Spirit 95. Works of Religion upon our Death-bed after a pious Life are of great concernment 403. Women must be lovers of Privacy 9. Instrumental to Conversion of Men 182. 3. To Heresie 189. 5. Not to be conversed withall too freely by Spiritual persons ibid. They 〈◊〉 Religious Friendships with Apostles and Bishops ibid. 6. Cautions concerning Conversation with Women ibid. They ministred to Christ 293. 17. Go early to the Sepulchre 419. Will for the Deed accepted how to be understood 213. 41. Will of God is to be chosen before our own 247. 267. World to be refused when the Devil offers it 100. Wine mixed with Myrrhe offered to Jesus 353. Y. YOak of Christianity easie 295. Yoak of Moses and Yoak of Sin broken by Christ 295. 1. Z. ZEal of Elias not imitable by us 324. 18. Zeal of Prayer of great efficacy 269. 18. It discomposed Moses and Elisha 85. 8. Zacchaeus his Repentance 346. 4. Zebedee's Sons Petition ibid. Zechary slain by Herod and why 66. 5. His Bloud left a Tincture in the Pavement for a long while after ibid. The End of the TABLE ERRATA PAge 85. Line 13. for Consulted by three things read Consulted by three Kings Antiquitates Apostolicae OR THE LIVES ACTS and MARTYRDOMS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES OF OUR SAVIOUR To which are added The Lives of the two EVANGELISTS SS MARK and LVKE By WILLIAM CAVE D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his MAJESTY 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb. H. Eccl. lib. 1. cap. 10. pag. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost. Praesat in Epist. ad Philem. pag. 1733. LONDON Printed by R. Norton for R. Royston Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-Corner 1675. TO THE READER IT will not I suppose seem improbable to the Reader when I tell him with how much reluctancy and unwillingness I set upon this undertaking Besides the disadvantage of having this piece annexed to the Elaborate Book of that excellent Prelate so great a Master both of Learning and Language I was intimately conscious to mine own unfitness for such a Work at any time much more when clogg'd with many habitual Infirmities and Distempers I considered the difficulty of the thing it self perhaps not capable of being well managed by a much better Ten than mine few of the Ancient Monuments of the Church being extant and little of this nature in those few that are Indeed I could not but think it reasonable that all possible honour should be done to those that first Preached the Gospel of peace and brought glad tidings of good things that it was fit men should be taught how much they were obliged to those excellent Persons who were willing at so dear a rate to plant Christianity in the World who they were and what was that Piety and that Patience that Charity and that Zeal which made them to be reverenc'd while they liv'd and their Memories ever since to be honourably celebrated through the World infinitely beyond the glories of Alexander and the triumphs of a Pompey or a Caesar. But then how this should be done out of those few imperfect Memoires that have escaped the general shipwrack of Church-Antiquities and much more by so rude and unskilful a hand as mine appear'd I confess a very difficult task and next door to impossible These with some other considerations made me a long time obstinately resolve against it till being overcome by importunity I yielded to do it as I was able and as the nature of the thing would bear THAT which I primarily designed to my self was to draw down the History of the New Testament especially from our Lord's death to enquire into the first Originals and Plantations of the Christian Church by the Ministery of the Apostles the success of their Doctrine the power and conviction of their Miracles their infinite Labours and hardships and the dreadful Sufferings which they underwent to consider in what instances of Piety and Vertue they ministred to our imitation and served the purposes of Religion and an Holy Life Indeed the accounts that are left us of these things are very short and inconsiderable sufficient possibly to excite the appetite not to allay the hunger of an importunate Enquirer into these matters A consideration that might give us just occasion to lament the irreparable loss of those Primitive Records which the injury of time hath deprived us of the substance being gone and little left us but the shell and carcass Had we the Writings of Papias Bishop of Hierapolis and Scholar says Irenaeus to S. John wherein as himself tells us he set down what he had learnt from those who had familiarly conversed with the Apostles the sayings and discourses of Andrew and Peter of Philip and Thomas c.
both crowned with Martyrdom which Baronius himself confesses to be founded upon no better authority than the Passions of the Apostles a Book which at every turn he rejects as trifling and impertinent as false and fabulous But however wide is the mistake of those who confound our Apostle with Symeon the son of Cleophas successor to S. James the Just in the See of Jerusalem who was crucified in the hundred and twentieth year of his Age in the persecution under Trajan The different character of their persons and the account both of their Acts and Martyrdoms being sufficiently distinguished in the writings of the Church The End of S. Simon' s Life THE LIFE OF S. JUDE St Jude Maith 15. 55. Is not this the Carpenter's son are not his brethren James Joses Simon JUDAS Luk. 6. 16. Judas the Brother of James His Martyrdom Having preached y e Gospel in Mesopotamia he went into Persia where after he had gained great numbers to Christianity he suffered martyrdom Martyrol Rom. Oct. 28. The several names attributed to him in the Gospel Thaddaeus whence The custom of the Jews to alter their names when bearing affinity with the great name Jehova The name Judas why distasteful to the Apostles Lebbaeus whence derived His Parentage and Relation to our Lord. The Question put by him to Christ. Whether the same with Thaddaeus sent to Edessa In what places he preached His death His married condition The story of his Grandchildren brought before Domitian His Epistle and why questioned of old It s Canonicalness vindicated The Book of Enoch and what its authority The contention between Michael and the Devil about Moses his Body whence borrowed S. Jude proved to be the Author of this Epistle Grotius his conceit of its being written by a younger Jude rejected It s affinity with the second Epistle of S. Peter The design of it 1. THERE are three several names by which this Apostle is described in the History of the Gospel Jude Thaddaeus and Lebbaeus it being usual in the holy Volumes for the same person to have more proper names than one For the first it was a name common amongst the Jews recommended to them as being the name of one of the great Patriarchs of their Nation This name he seems to have changed afterwards for Thaddaeus a word springing from the same root and of the very same import and signification which might arise from a double cause Partly from the superstitious veneration which the Jews had for the name Jehova the Nomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or name consisting of four letters which they held unlawful to be pronounced by any but the High-Priest and not by him neither but at the most solemn times Hence it was that when any man had a name wherein there was the major part of the letters of this ineffable title and such was Jehudah or Juda they would not rashly pronounce it in common usage but chose rather to mould it into another like it and of the same importance or that which had a near affinity and resemblance with it Partly from a particular dislike of the name of Judas among the Apostles the bloudy and treasonable practises of Judas Iscariot having rendred that name very odious and detestable to them To prevent therefore all possibility of mistake and that they might not confound the righteous with the wicked S. Matthew and Mark never call him by this but by some other name as no question for the same reason he both stiles himself and is frequently called by others Judas the brother of James and that this was one great design of it the Evangelist plainly intimates when speaking of him he says Judas not Iscariot For his name Lebbaeus it seems to have been derived either from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an heart whence S. Hierom renders it Corculum probably to denote his wisdom and prudence or else from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Lion and therein to have respect to old Jacob's prophecy concerning Judah That he should be as a Lion an old Lion and as a Lions whelp which probably might have a main stroke in fastning this name upon S. Jude From this Patriarchal prophecy we are told that one of the Schools or Synagogues of Learned men among the Jews who to avoid confusion were wont to distinguish themselves by different appellations took occasion to denominate themselves Labii as accounting themselves the Scholars and descendents of this Lion-like son of Jacob and that S. Jude was of this society and because of his eminency among them retained the title of Labius or as it was corruptly pronounced Lebbaeus I confess I should have thought the conjecture of a Learned man very probable that he might have derived this name from the place of his nativity as being born at Lebba a Town which he tells us Pliny speaks of in the Province of Galilee not far from Carmel but that it is not Lebba but Jebba in all copies of Pliny that I have seen But let the Reader please himself in which conjecture he likes best 2. FOR his Descent and Parentage he was of our Lord's kindred Nicephorus truly making him the son of Joseph and brother to James Bishop of Jerusalem that there was a Jude one of the number is very evident Are not his brethren James and Joses and Simon and Judas which makes me the more to wonder at Scaliger who so confidently denies that any of the Evangelists ever mention a Jude the brother of our Lord. S. Hierom seems often to confound him with Simon the Zealot whose title he ascribes to him though second thoughts set him right as indeed common advertency could do no less so plain is the account which the Evangelists give of this matter When called to the Discipleship we find not as not meeting with him till we find him enumerated in the Catalogue of Apostles nor is any thing particularly recorded of him afterwards more than one question that he propounded to our Saviour who having told them what great things he and his Father would do and what particular manifestations after his Resurrection he would make of himself to his sincere disciples and followers S. Jude whose thoughts as well as the rest were taken up with the expectations of a temporal Kingdom of the Messiah not knowing how this could consist with the publick solemnity of that glorious state they looked for asked him what was the reason that he would manifest himself to them and not to the World Our Lord replied that the World was not capable of these Divine manifestations as being a stranger and an enemy to what should fit them for fellowship with Heaven that they were only good men persons of a Divine temper of mind and religious observers of his Laws and Will whom God would honour with these familiar converses and admit to such particular acts of grace and favour 3. EUSEBIUS relates that soon after our Lord's Ascension
repentance Guilt is naturally troublesome and uneasie it disturbs the peace and serenity of the mind and fills the Soul with storms and thunder Did ever any harden himself against God and prosper And indeed how should he when God has such a powerful and invisible executioner in his own bosom Whoever rebels against the Laws of his duty and plainly affronts the dictates of his Conscience does that moment bid adieu to all true repose and quiet and expose himself to the severe resentments of a self-tormenting mind And though by secret arts of wickedness he may be able possibly to drown and stifle the voice of it for a while yet every little affliction or petty accident will be apt to awaken it into horror and to let in terror like an armed man upon him A torment infinitely beyond what the most ingenious Tyrants could ever contrive Nothing so effectually invades our ease as the reproaches of our own minds The wrath of man may be endured but the irruptions of Conscience are irresistible it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom very elegantly stiles it to be choaked or strangled with an evil Conscience which oft reduces the man to such distresses as to make him chuse death rather than life A sad instance of all which we have in this unhappy man who being wearied with furious and melancholy reflexions upon what was past threw back the wages of iniquity in open Court and dispatched himself by a violent death Vainly hoping to take sanctuary in the Grave and that he should meet with that ease in another World which he could not find in this He departed and went and hanged himself and falling down burst asunder and his bowels gushed out Leaving a memorable warning to all treacherous and ingrateful to all greedy and covetous persons not to let the World insinuate it self too far into them and indeed to all to watch and pray that they enter not into temptation Our present state is slippery and insecure Let him that thinketh he 〈◊〉 take heed lest he fall What priviledges can be a sufficient fence a foundation firm enough to rely upon when the Miracles Sermons favours and familiar converses of Christ himself could not secure one of the Apostles from so fatal an Apostasie 3. A VACANCY being thus made in the Colledge of Apostles the first thing they did after their return from Mount Olivet where our Lord took his leave of them to S. John's house in Mount Sion the place if we may believe Nicephorus where the Church met together was to fill up their number with a fit proper person To which purpose Peter acqualnted them that Judas according to the prophetical prediction being fallen from his ministry it was necessary that another should be substituted in his room one that had been a constant companion and disciple of the holy Jesus and consequently capable of bearing witness to his life death and resurrection Two were propounded in order to the choice Joseph called Barsabas and Justus whom some make the same with Joses one of the brothers of our Lord and Matthias both duly qualified for the place The way of election was by Lots a way frequently used both among Jews and Gentiles for the determination of doubtful and difficult cases and especially the chusing Judges and Magistrates And this course the Apostles the rather took because the Holy Ghost was not yet given by whose immediate dictates and inspirations they were chiefly guided afterwards And that the business might proceed with the greater regularity and success they first solemnly make their address to Heaven that the Omniscient Being that governed the World and perfectly understood the tempers and dispositions of men would immediately guide and direct the choice and shew which of these two he would appoint to take that part of the Apostolick charge from which Judas was so lately fallen The Lots being put into the Urn Matthias his name was drawn out and thereby the Apostolate devolved upon him 4. NOT long after the promised powers of the Holy Ghost were conferred upon the Apostles to fit them for that great and difficult imployment upon which they were sent And among the rest S. Matthias betook himself to his Charge and Province The first-fruits of his Ministry he spent in 〈◊〉 where having reaped a considerable harvest he betook himself to other Provinces An Author I confess of no great credit in these matters tells us that he preached the Gospel in Macedonia where the Gentiles to make an experiment of his Faith and Integrity gave him a poisonous and intoxicating potion which he chearfully drunk off in the name of Christ without the least prejudice to himself and that when the same potion had deprived above two hundred and fifty of their sight he laying his hands upon them restored them to their sight with a great deal more of the same stamp which I have neither faith enough to believe nor leisure enough to relate The Greeks with more probability report him to have travelled Eastward he came says Nicephorus into the first says Sophronius into the second AEthiopia and in both I believe it is a mistake either of the Authors or Transcribers for Cappadocia his residence being principally near the irruption of the River Apsarus and the Haven Hyssus both places in Cappadocia Nor is there any AEthiopia nearer those places than that conterminous to Chaldaea whereof before And as for those that tell us that he might well enough preach both in the Asian and African AEthiopia and that both might be comprehended under that general name as the Eastern and Western parts of the World were heretofore contained under the general title of the India's it's a fancy without any other ground to stand on 〈◊〉 their own bare conjecture The place whither he came was very barbarous and his usage was accordingly For here meeting with a people of a fierce and intractable temper he was treated by them with great rudeness and inhumanity from whom after all his labours and sufferings and a numerous conversion of men to Christianity he obtained at last the crown of Martyrdom Ann. Chr. LXI or as others LXIV Little certainty can be retrieved concerning the manner of his death Dorotheus will have him to die at Sebastople and to be buried there near the Temple of the Sun An ancient Martyrologic reports him to have been seised by the Jews and as a blasphemer to have been first stoned and then beheaded But the Greek Offices seconded herein by several ancient Breviaries tell us that he was crucified and that as Judas was hanged upon a Tree so Matthias suffered upon a Cross. His Body is said to have been kept a long time at Jerusalem thence thought by Helen the Mother of the Great Constantine to have been translated to Rome where some parts of it are shewed with great veneration at this day Though others with as great eagerness and probably as much truth