to be offred and the time of my departing is at hand Euery true Christian offers vp himselfe an holie sacrifice to the Lord the which is begun in our baptisme continued in our life finished at our death And surely beloued if all be blessed who dye in the Lord much more they who dye for the Lord right deare in the sight of the Lord is the death of such his Saints The glorious Martyr Polycarpus like a notable Ramme picked out of a great flocke fit for an acceptable burnt sacrifice to God vsed this prayer when he was offered vp O father of thy well beloued and blessed sonne Iesus Christ thorough whom we haue knowen thee O God of the Angels and powers and of all sortes of iust men that liue in thy presence I thanke thee that thou hast gratiously vouch safed this day and this houre to allot me aportion among the number of Martyrs among the people of Christ vnto there surrection of euerlasting life both of body and soule in the incorruption of the bo◅y Ghost among whom I shall be receiued in thy sight this day as a fruitfull and a well pleasing sacrifice c. How death is called a departing see Nunc dimittis in the Liturgie how our life is a fight Epist. 1. Sun after Easter and Epist. 21. Sun after Trinity how a course or race Epist. on Sept◅agesima Sunday There is laid vp for me a crowne of righteousnes Almighty God rendreth heauen as a iust iudge not to the worthines of our workes but to the merits of Christ and as due to vs by his promise freely made in Christ in respect of vs it is a garland of fauour only but in respect of Christ who meritoriously purchased it for vs it is a crowne of iustice So S. Augustine construeth our text cui redderet coronam iustus iudex sinon donasset gratiam misericors pater quomodo esset ista corona iustitiae nisi praecessisset gratia quae iustificat impium quomodo ista debita redderetur nisi prius illa gratuita donaretur How should he repay as a iust Iudge vnlesse he had first giuen as a mercifull father and how should this be a crowne of iustice if grace had not gone before which iustifieth the vngodly man dona sua coronat Deus non merita tua siergo dei dona sunt bona merita tua non Deus coronat merita tua tanquam merita tua sed tanquam dona sua See Gospell on Septuagesima Sunday The Gospell LVKE 10. 1. The Lord appointed other seuenty c. IN this Scripture two points are to be considered especially Vox domini Christs word and ordination of his Disciples the Lord appointed other seuenty c. To whom hee said goe your wayes behold I send you forth c. Via discipuli the Disciples worke and condition as labourers in an haruest as lambes among wolues Of all which I haue treated often elsewhere but of the most obseruable notes hereof especially Gosp. 1. Sun after Easter and Gosp. on S. Andrewes and Ascension day The reason why the Church allotted this Epistle for this festiuall is because S. Luke was as some thinke one of the seauenty Disciples and the reason in appointing our Gospell is for that S. Luke was an Euangelist The Epistle IVDE 1. Iudas the seruant of Iesus Christ c. THis Epistle may be diuided in two parts a Salutatiō in which obserue the Saluter described by his Name Iudas Office seruant of Iesus Christ. Kindred brother of Iames. Saluted commended by 3. graces Called Sanctified Preserued Salutation it selfe mercy vnto you and peace and loue be multiplied Salue consisting of an Exhortation to continue stedfast in the faith once giuen vnto the Saints c. Reason because certaine vngodly men are craftily crept in c. Iudas Iudas signifieth a Confessor of which name there was another Apostle called Iudas Iscariot who betrayed Christ in these two Iudasses is shadowed this mysterie that in the visible Church there will alway bee some bad as well as good professors Iudas a Deuill as well as Iudas a Saint See Gospell Sunday next before Easter The seruant of Iesus Christ Among all his titles hee reputed this most honorable for it is an excellent freedome to serue the Lord 1. Cor. 7. 22. Paul and Peter name themselues first seruants of Iesus Christ and then Apostles and S. Iames which is called the Lords brother Galat. 1. 19. Leauing that name stileth himselfe the seruant of Iesus Christ Iames 1. 1. If it were such a noble priuiledge to be subiect vnto Caesar how much more to be seruant vnto Christ which is the King of all Kings And that in regard of his protection and prouision as for his protection he saith I the Lord thy God will bee with thee whether soeuer thou goest I will not faile thee nor for sake thee and then if God be for vs who can bee against vs Rom. 8. 31. As for prouision all his seruants in this world haue bread enough Luke 15. 17. And in the world to come they shall bee no lesse then Kings sitting vpon thrones hauing palmes in their handes and on their heads crownes of gold Apocalyp 4. 4. See Nunc dimittis and Epist. on S. Iames day The brother of Iames He remembreth his kindred and alliance partly to distinguish himselfe from Iudas the traytor and partly to gaine credite to his writing For albeit the word of God depend not vpon the worth of men yet it is certainly true that his doctrine is best accepted whose person is most honoured If a preacher then be borne of nobles or allyed to men of great name and quality let him not in any sort neglect this outward blessing of God but vse it as S. Iude here to the furtherance of the Gospell and setting forth of Gods glory Iames and Iude were brethren in blood and brethren in good as Aquin and the glosse fratres natura fide doctrina vita How Iudas is distinguished from Simon and why both are ioyned together in one festiuall I referre thee to Baronius annal Eccles. not at in Rom. martyrolog Octob. 28. To them which are called and sanctified To be called into the Church and vnto the hearing of Christs Gospell is vocation externall to be sanctified is vocation internall to be preserued in Christ is vocation eternall Here then are set three partes of our iustification and incorporation into Iesus Christ vocation by God the father sanctification by the holy Ghost preseruation by Christ. Vocation is an effect of election and so happily S. Iude cals them called whom God hath elected as Rom. 1. 7. Beloued of God called to be Saints he doth insinuate that we come not vnto God except he call vs if we loue him it is because he loued vs first 1. Iohn 4. 19. As he speakes by the
their tentes about vs and keepe vs in all our wayes Indeed God is able to defend vs himselfe by himselfe thorough his immediate concourse which he hath in all things but to manifest his abundant loue to men which are wormes and rottennes and mere vanity he doth inioyne the pages of his honour princes of his court euen his glorious Angels to become messengers and Ministers for their sakes who shal be heires of saluation that all the time of this life in the houre of death and in the day of iudgement The good which Angels procure to the Saints in this life concerneth either the body or the soule as for the body these ministring spirits attend vs euen from the beginning of our dayes vnto the end most carefully performing all manner of offices appertaining necessarilie to the preseruation of our temporall life When Agar cast out of Abrahams family wandered in the wildernes an Angel appeared vnto her and aduised her to returne to her mistresse and to humble her selfe vnder her hands the reuenging Angels caught and carried Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrha before they did burne those Cities with fire and brimstone Abraham as being assured of the protection of Gods Angels in all his wayes said vnto his seruant the Lord God of heauen who tooke me from my fathers house c. will send his Angel before thee when Iacob feared his brother Esau hee met Angels comming vnto him and thereupon he did acknowledge that they should be his guard in his iourney saying this is Gods host an Angel appeared vnto Duke Iosua when he was about to sacke Iericho with a drawen sword in his hand as a captaine to fight for Israel an Angel comforted and fed Elias when he fled from Iezebel an Angel deliuered the three children out of the fierie furnace Dan. 3. An Angel assisted Daniel in the Lyons denne and kept him also from all manner of hurt Dan. 6. An Angel directed Ioseph to flie into Egypt An Angel ministred vnto Christ in his heauines and in our present text the Lords Angel brought Peter out of prison and deliuered him out of the hands of Herod and from all the waiting of the people of the Iewes Angels procure good vnto the soules of the faithfull illuminando confortando saith Aquine because they be maintainers and furtherers of the true worship of God and of all good meanes whereby saluation is attained The law was deliuered in mount Sina by the hands of Angels an Angel expounded vnto Daniel the 70. weekes an Angel forbids Iohn to worship him and inioyneth him to worship God the creatour of heauen and earth an Angel declared the will of God vnto father Abraham that he should not kill his sonne Isaac an Angel reuealed the mystery of Christs conception vnto the Virgin his mother of Christs birth vnto certaine shepheards in the field attending their flockes by night Luke 2. 10. Of Christs resurrection vnto Mary Magdalen and other deuout women Mat. 28. 5. In a word Angels are pursiuants harbingers and Heralds betwixt heauen and earth alwayes in a readines to make knowne the will of God vnto men In the houre of death Angels conuey the soules of the faithfull as they did the soule of Lazarus into blessed Abrahams bosome And in the day of iudgement they shall gather together all Gods elect from the foure windes and from the one end of heauen vnto the other that they may come before Christ and enter into the fruition of eternall glory both in body and soule The vse of this doctrine is manifold 1. It serues to terrifie the wicked who despise Gods children for so Christ himselfe reasoneth Mat. 18. 10. Despise not one of these little ones because I say vnto you that in heauen their Angels alway behold the face of my father It behoues reuiling scoffers therfore to take heed whoÌ„ they mocke for though happily good men called little ones in respect of their innocency and humility for their parts are content to put vp abuses and iniuries yet their Angels may take iust reuenge by smiting them as they did Herod in this Chapter with heauy punishments for their offences 2. This may teach vs humility for if Angels high and holy serue vs let vs not thinke it any bad or base dutie to serue one another in loue 3. Wee may learne from hence to behaue our selues in open and in secret places after a reuerent and seemely manner as being spectacles vnto glorious Angels which are witnesses and obseruers of all our words and deeds To this purpose Paul saith that the woman ought to haue power on her head because of the Angels That is not onely the Ministers of the Church but Gods heauenly Angels which daily wait vpon his children and guard them in all their waies 4. This ought to stirre vs vp vnto the Lords praise saying with Dauid Lord what is man that thou hast such respect vnto him or the sonne of man that thou shouldest so regard and guard him Alas all flesh is grasse and man is like a thing of nought yet behold if hee truely loue God all things are for his good for God is his father the Church his mother Christ his brother the holy Ghost his comforter Angels his attendants all other creatures his subiects the whole world his Inne and heauen his home I will end this obseruation with a meditation of S. Augustine O Lord thou makest thy spirits messengers for my sake to whom thou hast giuen charge ouer me to keepe me in all my waies that I hurt not my foote against a stone For these are the watchmen ouer the walles of the new Hierusalem and of the mountaines about the same which attend and keepe watch ouer the flocke lest he as a Lion make a prey of our soules while there is none to deliuer he I meane that old serpent our aduersary the diuell who walketh about as a roaring Lion seeking whom he may deuoure These Citizens of Hierusalem aboue walke with vs in all our wayes they goe in and out with vs diligently considering how godly and how honestly we doe walke in the midst of a naughty and crooked generation how earnestly wee seeke the kingdome of God and the righteousnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of with what feare and trembling we doe serue â—…hee and how our hearts reioyce in thee O Lord those which labour they strengthen those which rest they protect such as fight they encourage they crowne such as ouercome they reioyce with such as reioyce such I meane as reioyce in thee and they suffer with such as suffer I say with such as suffer for thy names sake great is the care which they haue of vs and great is the affection of their loue toward vs and all this for the honour of thine inestimable good will
whole world Aaron the Priest was anoynted Elisa the Prophet anoynted Saul the king anoynted In the Sauiour which is Christ all these meet that he might be a perfect Sauiour of all he was all A Priest after the order of Melchisedeck Psal. 110. 4. A Prophet to be heard when Moses should hold his peace Deut. 18. 18. A King to saue his people whose name should be the Lord our righteousnes Ieremy 23. 6. Dauids Priest Moses Prophet Ieremyes King these formerly had met double two of them in some other Melchisedeck King and Priest Samuel Priest and Prophet Dauid Prophet and King neuer all three but in him alone and so no perfect Christ but he but he all and so perfect Thus in S. Peters confession euery particle and article hath his force thou which art the son of man as being borne of Mary the Virgin art the Christ the son of the liuing God S. Luke reports that Peter answered the Christ of God and S. Marke sayth only thou art Christ whereas our EuaÌ„gelist here thou art the Christ the son of the liuing God but all in effect is one seeing Christ alone is the whole for he that confesseth thoroughly Christ is thoroughly a Christian and doth hereby confesse him to be the son of God and sauiour of men euen that anoynted Bishop of our soules who dyed for our sinnes and is risen againe for our Iustification and appeareth in the sight of God for vs as our agent and aduocate Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Iona vpon Peters answere thou art the Christ the son of the liuing God Iesus replyed after this sort as if he should haue sayd I am the naturall son of God as thou art the son of Iona. Mystically Simon signifieth obedience and Ionas a doue to signifie that euery Scholler in Christs Schoole must haue these two properties obedience and simplicitie Curious pride is a great let in Christianitie God resisteth the proud and giueth grace to the humble The Philosophers in professing themselues to be wise became fooles and were so far from acknowledging Iesus for the son of God as that the preaching of Christ crucified seemed foolishnes vnto them 1. Cor. 1. 23. or Simon is called the son of a doue because flesh and blood reuealed not this mystery but the holy spirit which appeared in the likenes of a doue Matth. 3. 16. or as Hierome Bar-Iona is put for Bar-Iohanna the sonne of Iohn as Christin the 21. Chap. of S. Iohns Gospel at the 15. vers Now Iohanna signifies the grace of God insinuating as the same Father and other Doctours obserue that Peter in vnderstanding this hidden mystery was the son of grace so Christ in the words immediatly following flesh and bloud hath not opened that vnto thee not my flesh and blood for if thou looke vpon me with a corporall eye thou seest a man and nothing else not thy flesh and blood non consanguinei thy father and thy mother taught it not this knowledge comes not from other men or from thy selfe no flesh and blood that is the will and wit of man as Paul Galat. 1. 16. I communicated not with flesh and blood I say the wisdome of man hath not opened this vnto thee but my father which is in heauen as Leâ—… the great glosseth it non opinio te terrena fefellit sed inspiratio caelestis instruxit Faith is the worke of God and no man knowes the sonne but the father and no man commeth vnto me except my father draw him Iohn 6. 44. Blessed art thou therefore Simon Bar-Iona because my father which is in heauen hâ—…th inspired this confession into thee blessed art thou here yet more blessed hereafter as hauing hereby the promises of the life present and of that which is to come So truth it selfe telleth vs expresly this is eternall life to know God and whom he hath sent Iesus Christ. He that is a true beleeuer is blessed in the City blessed in the field blessed in his going forth and blessed in his comming home blessed in the labours of his hands in the fruit of his ground in the flocks of his sheep blessed in his wealth and blessed in his woe blessed in his health and blessed in his sicknes also for the Lord will comfort him when he lyeth sick vpon his bed and make his bed in his sicknes Psalm 41. 3. blessed in all his life blessed in his houre of death and most blessed in the day of Iudgement when he shall haue perfect consummation of blisse both in body and soule Come yee blessed inherit yee the kingdome c. Vpon this rock will I build my Church Stephen Gardiner preaching vpoÌ„ this text before King Edward the 6 sayd It is a marueilous thing that vpon these words the Bishop of Rome should found his Supremacy for whether it be super Petram or Petrum all is one matter it makes nothing at all for that his purpose This place quoth he serues only for Christ and nothing for the Pope but afterward in the dayes of Queene Mary reading this Scripture with the Popes owne spectacles he maintained that the bishop of Rome was the supreme head of the Catholick Church and he bloodily persecuted all those which held the contrary doctrine And after him in our age Bellarmine Baronius and other Papists of most eminent note for learning cite this text as a pregnant testimonie to proue S. Peters Lordship ouer the rest of the Apostles and so though inconsequently the Popes vnlimited Iurisdiction ouer all the Bishops in the world wherein as our Diuines haue shewed they contradict 1. the Scriptures 2. the Fathers 3. their owne writers 4. their owne selues The Scriptures affirme plainely that the Church is built vpon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Iesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe corner stone to wit a tryed stone a pretious stone a sure foundation and other foundation can no man lay then that which is laied which is Iesus Christ. The Fathers auow likewise that Christ is the rock vpon which his Church is built so S. Augustine in many places of his works Petrus à Petra non Petra à Petro quomodo non à Christiano Christus sed à Christo Christianus vocatur vpon this rock then I will build my Church is nothing else but vpon my selfe the sonne of the liuing God I will build my Church aedificabo te super me non me super te and whereas he did once construe this of Peter he retracted his opinion and expounds it of Christ Hierome Gregory the great Primasius Anselm accord in the same iudgement Other of the most ancient fathers interpret it thus vpon this rocke that is vpon this faith as being a firme rocke vpon this confession thou art the sonne of the liuing God I