before and then that which is now life shall be then no life And then what is it the neerer What if Adam had lived till this morning what were he now the neerer Yet for all that as short and fraile as it is we do what possibly man can do to eeke it still and think our selves jolly wise men when we have done though we die next yeare after for all that If then with so great labour diligence earnestnesse endeavour care and cost we busy our selves sometimes to live for a while how ought we to desire to live for ever if for a time to put death away how to take death away cleane You desire life I am sure and long life and therefore a long life because it is long that is commeth somewhat neerer in some degree to aeternall life If you desire a long lasting life why doe you not desire an ever lasting life If a life of many yeares Psal. 101.28 which yet in the end shall faile why not that life whose yeares shall never faile If we say it is lack of witt or grace when any man runnes in danger of the law of man whereby haply he abridges himselfe of halfe a douzen yeares of his life what wit or grace is there wilfully to incurre the losse of aeternall life For indeed as in the beginning we sett downe it is a matter touching the losse of aeternall life we have in hand and withall touching the paine of aeternall death It is not a losse onely for we cannot lose life and become as a stone free from either if we leese our hold of this life aeternall death taketh hold upon us If we heape not up the treasure of immortalitie we heape up the treasure of wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 Act. 8.20 If your wealth be not with us to life pecunia vestra vobiscum est in perditionem We have not farre to seeke for this For if now we turne our deafe eare to this Charge Verse 9. you shall fall into tentations fear ye not that Into many foolish and noisome lusts nor feare ye that neither yet feare whither these lead which drowne men inperdition and destruction of body and soule Feare ye not these doth the Lord thunder thus and are ye not moved Quibus verbis te curabo I know not how to do you good But let aeternall life prevaile Sure if life come not death comes There is as much said now not as I have to say but as the time would suffer Onely let me in a few words deliver the charge concerning this and so I will breake up the Court for this time And now Right Honourable beloved c albeit that according to the power that the Lord hath given us I might testifie and charge you in the presence of GOD the Father who quickeneth all things and of the Lord Iesus who shall shew himselfe from heaven with His mighty Angells in flaming fire rendring vengeance to them not onely that know not GOD but to them also that obey not the Gospell of our Lord IESVS CHRIST that ye thinke upon these things which you have heard to do them yet humanum dico for your infirmitie I will speake after the manner of men the nature of a man best loveth to be dealt withall and even beseech you by the mercies of GOD even of GOD the Father who hath loved you and given you an everlasting consolation and a good hope through grace and by the comming of our Lord IESVS CHRIST and our assembling unto Him that you receive not this Charge in vaine that ye account it His charge and not mine received of Him to deliver to you Looke not to me I beseech you in whom whatsoever you regard countenance or learning years or autoritie I do most willingly acknowledge my selfe farr unmeet to deliver any more meet a great deale to receive one my selfe save that I have obteined fellowship in this businesse in dispensing the Mysteries and delivering the Charges of the Lord. Looke not on me looke on your owne soules and have pitie on them Looke upon heaven and the Lord of heaven and earth from whom it commeth and of whom it will be one day called for againe Surely there is a heaven Surely there is a hell Surely there will be a day when enquirie shall be made how we have discharged that we have received of the Lord and how you have disâ—â—â—rged that you have received of us in the Lord's Name Against which day your consciences stand charged with many things at many times heard Wisd. 1.12 O seeke not death in the error of your life deceive not your selves think not that when my words shall be at an end both they shall vanish in the aire and you never heare of them againe Surely you shall the day is comming when it shall be required againe at your hands A fearefull day for all those that for a little riches thinke basely of others upon all those that repose in these vaine riches as they shall see then a vaine confidence upon all those that enjoy onely with the belly and the backe and doe either no good or miserable sparing good with their riches whose riches shall be with them to their destruction Beloved when your life shall have an end as an end it shall have when the terror of death shall be upon you when your soule shall be cited to appeare before GOD in novissimo I know and am perfectly assured all these things will come to mind againe you will perceive and feele that which possibly now you do not The devill 's charge commeth then who will presse these points in another manner then we can then it will be too late Prevent his charge I beseech you by regarding and remembring this now Now is the time while you may and have time wherein and abilitie wherewith thinke upon it and provide for aeternall life you shall never in your life stand in so great need of your riches as in that day provide for that day and provide for aeternall life It will not come yet it is true it will be long in comming but when it comes it will never have an end This end is so good that I will end with aeternall life which you see is Saint Paule's end It is his and the same shall be my end and I beseech GOD it may be all our ends To GOD immortall invisible and onely wise GOD who hath prepared this eternall life for us who hath taught us this day how to come unto it whose grace be ever with us and leave us not till it have thereto brought us the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost be all glorie power praise and thanksgiving now and for ever AMEN One of the Sermons upon the II. COMMANDEMENT PREACHED IN THE PARISH Church of S t. GILES Cripplegate Ian. IX AN. DOM. MDXCII ACTS CHAP. II. VER XLII And they continued in the APOSTLE'S Doctrine and Fellowship and Breaking of
once That is that we not only dye to sinne and live to GOD but dye and live as He did that is once for all which is an utter abandoning once of sinn's dominion and a continuall constant persisting in a good course once begoon Sinn 's dominion it languisheth sometimes in us and falleth haply into a 〈◊〉 but it dyeth not quite once for all Grace lifteth up the eye and looketh up a little and giveth some signe of life but never perfectly reviveth O that â—nce we might come to this No more deaths no more resurrections but one that we might â—nce make an end of our daily continuall recidivations to which we are so subiect and once get past these pangs and qualmes of godlinesse this righteousnesse like the morning cloud which is all we performe that we might grow habituate in grace radicati fundati rooted and founded in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 steddie Ephes. 3.17 1. Cor. 15. vlt. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never to be remooved that so we might enter into and passe a good accompt of this our Similiter vos â— The Discharge and meanes of it Iâ— Iesus Christ our Lord. And thus are we come to the foot of our accompt which is our Onus or Charge Now we must thinke of our discharge to goe about it which maketh the last words no lesse necessarie for us to consider then all the rest For what is it in us or can we by our owne power and vertue make up this accompt We cannot saith the Apostle 2. Cor. 3.5 nay we cannot saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make accompt of any thing no not so much as of a good thought toward it as of our selves If any thinke otherwise let him but prove his owne strength a little what he can do he shall be so confounded in it as he shall change his minde saith Saint Augustine and see plainely the Apostle had reason to shut up all with In Christo Iesu Domino nostro otherwise our accompt will sticke in our hands Verily to raise a soule from the death of sinne is harder farr harder then to raise a dead bodie out of the dust of death Saint Augustine hath long since defined it that Marie Magdalen's resurrection in soule from her long lying dead in sinne was a greater miracle then her brother Lazaru's resurrection that had lyen foure daies in his grave If Lazarus lay dead before us we would never assay to raise him our selves we know we cannot doe it If we cannot raise Lazarus that is the easier of the twaine we shall never Marie Magdalen which is the harder by farre out of Him or without Him that raised them both But as out of Christ or without Christ we can doe nothing toward this accompt Not accomplish or bring to perfection but not do not any great or notable summe of it Ioh. 15.5 but nothing at all as saith Saint Augustine upon Sine me nihil potestit facere So in Him and with Him enhabling us to it we can thinke good thoughts speake good words and doe good workes and dye to sinne and live to GOD and all Omnia possum saith the Apostle Phil. 4.13 And enable us He will and can as not onely having passed the resurrection but being the resurrection it selfe not onely had the effect of it in himselfe but being the cause of it to us So He saith himselfe I am the resurrection Ioh. 11.25 and the life the resurrection to them that are dead in sinne to raise them from it and the life to them that live vnto GOD to preserve them in it Where beside the two former 1 the Article of the resurrection which we are to know 2 and the Example of the resurrection which we are to be like we come to the notice of a third thing even a vertue or power flowing from Christ's resurrection whereby we are made able to expresse our Similiter vos and to passe this our accompt of dying to sinne and living to GOD. It is in plaine words called by the Apostle himselfe virtus resurrectionis Phil. 3.10 the vertue of CHRIST 's resurrection issuing from it to us and he praieth that as he had a faith of the former so he may have a feeling of this and as of them he had a contemplative so he may of this have an experimentall knowledge This enhabling vertue proceedeth from Christ's resurrection For never let us thinke that if in the daies of His flesh there went vertue out from even the verie edge of his garment Luk. 8.46 to doe great cures as in the case of the woman with the bloudie issue we reade but that from His owne selfe and from those two most principall and powerfull actions of His owne selfe his 1 death and 2 resurrection there issueth a divine power from His death a power working on the old man or flesh to mortifie it from His resurrection a power working on the new man the Spirit to quicken it A power hable to râ—ll backe any stone of an evill custome lye it never so heavy on us a power hable to drie up any issue though it have runne upon us twelve yeare long And this power is nothing els but that divine qualitie of grace which we receive from Him 2. Cor. 6.1 Receive it from Him we doe certainely onely let us pray and 〈◊〉 ouâ— selâ—es that we receive it not in vaine the Holy Ghost by waies to flesh 〈…〉 vnknowne inspiring it as a breath distilling it as a dew deriving it as a secret inflâ—ence into the soule For if Philosophie grant an invisible operation in us to the câ—lestiall bodies much better may we yeeld it to His aeternall Spirit whereby 〈◊〉 a vertue or breath may proceed from it and be received of us Which breath or Spirit is drawen in by Prayer and such other exercises of devotion on our parts and on GOD 's part breathed in by and with the Word well therefore termed by the Apostle the Word of grace And I may safely say it Act. 20.32 with good warrant from those words especially and chiefly which as He himselfe saith of them are Spirit and Life even those words which ioyned to the element Ioh. 6.63 make the blessed Sacrament There was good proofe made of it this day All the way did He preach to them even till they came to Emmaus and their hearts were whot within them which was a good signe but their eyes were not opened but at the breaking of bread Luk. 24.31 and then they were That is the best and surest sense we know and therefore most to be accompted of There we tast and there we see Tast and see how gratious the Lord is Psal. 34.8 1. Cor. 12.18 Heb 13.9 Heb 9.14 There we are made to drinke of the Spirit There our hearts are strengthened and stablished with grace There is the bloud which shall purge our consciences from dead
in white And white is the colour of gladnesse 4 Clothed in white as we finde Eccl. 9.8 All to shew still that it shall be a state as of Strength Rest and Honour so of Ioy likewise And that robe-wise not short or skant but as his stoale all over downe to the ground Neither serves it alone to shew us what then we shall be but withall what now we ought to be this day the day of His Rising In that we see that Matt. 27.45 as the heavens at the time of His Passion were in black by the great Eclipse shewing us it was then a time of mourning so this day the Angells were all in white to teach us thereby with what affection with how great Ioy and gladnesse we are to celebrate and solemnize this Feast of our SAVIOVR 's rising Their affection heere was otherwise And that is somewhat strange 3. Their affâ—cting therewith In the Apparition there was nothing fearefull as ye see yet is it said they were afraid Even now they feared nothing and now they fall to be afraid at this so comfortable a sight Had they beene guilty to themselves of any evill they came to doe well might they then have feared GOD first as the Malefactor doth the Iudge and then His Angell as the Executioner of His Wrath. But their comming was for good But I finde it is not the Sinner's case onely but even the best 's of our nature Looke the Scripture a Gen. 15.12 Abraham and b 28 17. Iacob in the Old c Luk. 1.12 Zacharie and the d â—9 Blessed Virgin in the New all strooken with feare still at the sight of good Angells Yea even then when they came for their good It fareth with the Angells of light as it doth with the light it selfe Sore eyes and weake cannot endure it No more can Sinners them No more can the strongest sight neither beare the light if the Object be too excellent if it be not tempered to a certaine proportion Otherwise even to the best that is is the light offensive And that is their case Afraid they are not for any evill they were about but for that our verie nature is now so decayed Vt lâ—cem ad quam nata est sustinere nequeat as the Angell's brightnesse for whose societie we were created yet as now we are beare it we cannot but need to be comforted at the sight of a comfortable Angell It is not the Messenger Angelicall but the Message Evangelicall that must doe it Which leadeth us along from the Vision that feared them III. The Message to the Message it selfe that releeved them which is the third part The stone lay not more heavie on the grave then did that feare on their hearts pressing them downe hard And no lesse needfull was it the Angell should roll it away this spirituall great stone from their hearts then he did that other materiall from the Sepulcher it selfe With that he beginnes 1. Feare not 1. Feare not A meet Text for him that maketh a Sermon at a Sepulcher For Heb. 2.15 the feare of that place maketh us out of quiet all our life long Heb. 2. It lyeth at our heart like a stone and no way there is to make us willing to goe thither but by putting us out of feare by putting us in hope that the great stones shall be rolled away againe from our Sepulchers and we from thence rise to a better life It is a right beginning for an Easter day's Sermon Nolite timere 2. And a good reason he yeelds why not For it is not every bodies case this Nolite timere vos feare not You Why not For You seeke IESVS of NAZARETH which hath beene crucified Nazareth might keepe you backe the meanesse of His Birth and Crucified more the reproch of His Death In-as-much as these cannot let you but ye seeke Him are ashamed neither of His poore birth nor of His shamefull death but seeke Him And seeke Him not as some did when He was alive when good was to be done by Him but even now dead when nothing is to be gotten And not to robb or rifle Him but to embalme Him an office of love and kindnesse this touched before feare not You nor let any feare that so seeke Him Now that they may not feare he imparts them his Message full of comfort And it containeth foure comforts of Hope answerable to the foure former proofes of their Love 1 He is risen 2 But gone before you 3 Ye shall see Him 4 All his Disciples Peter and all Goe tell them so 1 He is risen In that you thus testifie your love in seeking Him I dare say ye had rather He ye thus come to embalme that He were alive againe and no more ioyfull tydings could come to you then that He were so Ye could I dare say with all your hearts be content to lose all your charge you have beene at in buying your odours on condition it were so Therefore I certifie you that He is alive He is risen No more then Gaza gates could hold SAMSON or the Whale Iud. 16.3 Ion. 2.10 IONAS no more could this stone keepe Him in the Sepulcher but risen He is First of this ye were sure heer He was ye were at His laying in ye saw the stone sealed and the Watch sett so that heere He was But heere He is not now Come see the place trust your owne eyes Non est hic But what of that this is but a lame consequence for all that He is not heere therefore He is risen For may it not be He hath beene taken away Not with any likely-hood though such a thing will be given out that the Disciples stole him away while the watch was asleepe Matt. 28.13 But your reason will give you 1. Small probabilitie there is they could be asleepe all the ground shaking and tottering vnder them by meanes of the Matt. 28.2 earth-quake 2. And secondly if they did sleepe for all that yet then could they not tell sleeping how or by whom He was taken away 3. And thirdly that His Disciples should doe it they you know of all other were vtterly vnlike to doe any such thing So fearefull as miserably they forsooke Him yet alive and have ever since shut themselves up since He was dead 4. And fourthly if they durst have done such a thing they would have taken Him away linnen clothes and all as fearefull men will make all the hast they can possibly and not stood stripping Him and wrapping up the clothes and laying them every parcell one by one in order as men vse to doe that have time enough and take deliberation as being in no hast or feare at all To you therefore as we say ad hominem this consequence is good Not taken away and not here therefore risen He is â— He is gone before But to put all out of doubt you shall trust your
congruitie they found were many they may be reduced to these foure 1. Whither you looke to the composition or parts of it 2. Or to the furniture and vessells of it 3. Or to what was done in it 4. Or to what was done to it that is what first and last befell it In all which they hold that Templum hoc might more truely be affirmed of Him that was in the Temple then of the Temple He was in The last of the foure what was done to that Temple what befell it and so what befell the Temple of Christ's bodie that I take to be most proper to this Text and to that we have in hand For to goe through all foure would take up a whole sermon So I take my selfe to the Congruitie onely Marke then what befell either by that shall you best find that Fata utriusque Templi the destinies of both Temples were alike Psal. 132.6 Mat. 2.1 Like in Solvite excitabo They began alike The first newes of the Temple was heard at Ephrata which is Bethlehem So was it of Him for there was He borne Like in their beginnings and in their ends no lesse I appeale to this Text and content me with those two He insists on Himselfe Both were destroyed both were reared againe that in all things His Bodie and His Temple might be suitable 2 Chro. 36.19 Psal. 137.7 That Temple was destroyed by the Chaldees downe with it even unto the ground Imitated by them heer downe with it even into the ground For they never left till they had Him there past Excitabo as they thought past rising any more But as the Temple Agge 1.14 after it was so razed had an Excitabo was raised againe up by Zorobabel So was this too Solvite tooke place but there came an Excitabo after that made amends for it And as the glorie of the second House was greater then the first So the estate Agge 2.10 He rose to farr more glorious then that He was in before And marke I pray you if these two were not to be seen as brim in the little glasses about it as in the great Mirrour it selfe For the Temple was as a great Mirrour and the furniture as so many little glasses round about it Take but the Arke the Epitome as it were of the Temple The two Tables in it the type of the true treasures of Wisedome Knowledge hid in Him Col. 2.3 Exod. 32.19.34.4 they were broken first there is Solvite but they were new hewen and written over againe there is excitabo The Pot of Manna a perfect resemblance of Him the Vrna or the vessell being made of earth so earthly The Manna the contents of it being from heaven so heavenly The Manna we know would not keepe past two daies at the most Exod. 16.20.24 Exod 16 32. there is Solvite but being putt into the Vrna the third day it came againe to it selfe and kept in the Pott without putrifying ever after there is Excitabo· Aaron's rod the type of His Priesthood and of the rule of soules annexed to it that Rod Num. 17.8 was quite dead and drie but revived againe blossomed yea brought forth ripe Almonds In every and in each of them His destinie whom they represented Solvite and Excitabo in all But the End is all in all and in respect of that of the end well saith Ambrose of His bodie Verè Templum in quo nostrorum est purificatio peccatorum Truly a Temple He no Temple ever so truely as wherein was offered up the true propitiation for and the true purification of our sinnes and of us from them which is the end of all Temples that ever were or shall be and was but shaddowed in all besides but in this truly performed There the onely true Holâ—caust of His entire obedience which burnt in Him bright and cleare from the first to the last all His life long There the onely true Trespasse-offering of His Death and Passion the Solvite of this Temple satisfactorie to the full for all the trespasses and transgressions of the whole world There the Meat-and-drinke-offering of His blessed Bodie and most precious blood And the Exta of this sacrifice the fat of the entrailes of it that is the Love wherewith He did it the desire the longing desire He had to it that that Luc. 12.50.22.15 Col. 1.20 was the perfect Offering that sett at one all things both in heaven and earth That what ever was Sub figurâ in Templo illo was really and in truth exhibited in Templo hoc And iudge now whither the Signe were not well layd by our SAVIOVR in the Temple which was it selfe a Signe of Him And whither as He sayd in a place Ecce maior Templo hîc So He might not have sayd Ecce maius Templum hîc Mat. 12.6 when He was in the Temple Behold a greater a truer Temple now in the Temple then the Temple it selfe Now to the second maine point Solvite II a Solvite the saying a The saying it first b The executing it after The Solvite and the Solutum est 1. First by Solvite that is dissolving is meant death * Phil. 4.23 Cupio dissolvi ye know 1 Sâ—lviâ—e Death a loosing what that is And Tâ—mpus dissolutionis meae instat the time of my dissolution that is my death is at hand For death is a very dissolution a loosing the caement the soule 2. Tim 4.6 and bodie are held togither with Which two as a frame or fabrique are compaginate at first and after as the timber from the lime or the lime from the stone so are they taken in sunder againe But death is not this way onely a loosing but a further then this For upon the loosing the soule from the bodie and life from both there followes an universall loosing of all the bonds and knotts heer of the Father from the Sonne and otherwhile of the Sonne from the Father first Of Man from Wife of friend from friend of Prince from people So great a Solvite is death makes all that is fast loose makes all knotts flye in sunder 2. And all this in naturall death But a further matter there is in Solvite 2 Solvite Violent For that is against nature alijs solventibus by the hands of other that are the Solventes them to whom this is spoken This Temple dropps not downe for age or weakenesse dissolves not of it selfe Others they to whom Solvite is heer sayd they pull it downe It is then no naturall but a violent death this Well therefore turned Solvite destroy it there is no destruction but with force or violence 3. So violent though on theirs as voluntarie yet on His part 3 Solvite Valuntarie Not against His will quite not by constraint For He Himselfe that is to be disâ—olved He it is doth heer say Solvite He could have avoyded it if He would He would
three First Iona's whale death it was not it was but danger but danger as neer death as could be never man in more danger to scape it then he if not in death in Zalmaveth in the vale of the shadow of death it was Psal 23.4 Of any that hath beene in extreme perill we use to say he hath beene where Ionas was By Iona's going downe the whale's throat by Him againe comming forth of the whale's mouth we expresse we even point out the greatest extremitie and the greatest deliverance that can be From any such danger a deliverance is a kinde of resurrection as the Apostle plainly speakes of Isaac when the knife was at his throte he was received from the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though yet he did not Heb. 11.19 This for the feast of the Resurrection And thus was Ionas a signe to them of Ninive As he scaped so they he his whale they theirs destruction which even gaped for them as wide as Iona's whale And as to them a Signe this so to us And this use we have of it When at any time we are hard bestead this signe then to be set up for a token And there is no danger so deadly but we may hold fast our hope if we set this signe before us and say What we are not yet in the whale's belly why if we were there from thence can GOD bring us though as Ionas He did Iona's whale was but the shadow of death CHRIST'S was death And even there in death to be set up And we no not in death it selfe to despaire Iob 13.15 but with Iob to say yea though He kill me yet will I trust in Him My breath I may my hope I will not forgoe expirare possum desperare non possum Heer now is our second hope to come forth to be delivered from CHRIST'S whale from death it selfe But if the whale be or betoken the death of the bodie it doth much more the death of the soule So shall we finde another whale yet a third And that whale is the red dragon that great spirituall Liviathan Satan And sin Apoc. 1◠3 the very iawes of this whale that swoupeth downe the soule first and then the bodie and in the end both Ionas has been deepe downe this whale's throte before ever he came in the others The land-whale had devoured him before ever the Sea whale medled with him In his flight he fell into this land-whale's iawes before ever the Sea-whale swallowed him up And when he had got out of the gorge of this ghostly Liviathan the other bodily whale could not long hold him And from this third whale was Ionas sent to deliver the Ninivites which when he had the other of their temporall destruction could do them no hurt Their repentance ridd them of both whales bodily and ghostly at once Heer then is a third Cape of good hope that though one had been downe as deep in the entrailes of the spirituall great Liviathan as ever was Ionas in the Sea-whale's yet even there also not to despaire He that brought Ionas from the deepe of the Sea and David from the deepe of the Earth his bodie so He also delivered his soule from the nethermost hell where Ionas and He both were Psal. 71.20 Psal. 86.13 while they were in the transgression And now by this are we come to the very Signature of this signe even to Repentance which followeth in the very next words for they repented at the preaching of Ionas Ionas preached it Ver. 41. and indeed none so fit to preach on that theme on repentance as he as one that hath been in the whale's bellie in both the whale's the spirituall whale's too for Ionas had been in both One that hath studied his sermon there been in Satan's sive well winnowed cribratus Theologus he will handle the point best as being not onely a preacher but a Signe of repentance as Ionas was both to the Ninivites And as Ionas so Christ how soon He was risen He gave order streight that repentance as the very vertue the stamp of His resurrection and by it remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations Luc. 24.47 But indeed if you marke well there is a neer alliance between the Resurrection and Repentance reciprocall as between the Signe and the Signature Repentance is nothing but the soule 's resurrection Men are dead in sinne saith the Apostle their soules are Ephe. 2.1 From that death there is a rising Els were it wrong with us That rising is repenting And when one hath lien dead in sinne long and doth eluctari wrastle out of a sinne that hath long swallowed him up he hath done as great a masterie as if with Ionas he had got out of the whale's belly Nay as if with Lazarus be had come out of the heart of the earth Ever holding this that Marie Magdalen raised from sinne was no lesse a miracle then her brother raised from the dead And sure Repentance is the very vertue of Christ's Resurrection There it is first seen it first sheweth it selfe hath his first operation in the soule to raise it This first being once wrought on the soule from the ghostly Liviathan the like will not faile but be accomplished on the bodie from the other of death of which Ionas is heer Mysterium magnum dico autem in Christo. For in Christ this Signe is a Signe Ephe. 5.32 not betokening onely but exhibiting also what it betokeneth as the Sacraments doe For of Signes some shew onely and worke nothing such was that of Ionas in it selfe Sed Ecce plus quà m Ionas hîc For some other there be that shew and worke-both Ver. 42. worke what they shew present us with what they represent what they sett before us set or graft in us Such is that of Christ. For besides that it setts before us of His it is further a seale or pledge to us of our owne that what we see in Him this day shall be accomplished in our owne selves at His good time And even so passe we to another Mysterie For one Mysterie leads us to another this in the Text to the holy Mysteries we are providing to partake which doe worke like and doe worke to this Even to the raising of the soule with the first resurrection Apoc 20.5 And as they are a meanes for the raising of our soule out of the soile of sin for they are given us and we take them expressly for the remission of sinnes so are they no lesse a meanes also for the raising our bodies out of the dust of death The signe of that Bodie which was thus in the heart of the earth to bring us from thence at the last Our Saviour saith it totidem verbis Who so eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Bloud Ioh. 6.54 I will raise him up at the last day raise him whither He hath raised himselfe Not
then the shovell and the Spade crying out at the houre of death both of the uncertainty of their riches of the uncertainty of the estate of their soules too This point this is a point of speciall importance to be spoken of by me and to be thought of by you I would GOD you would take it many times when GOD shall move you into sad consideration With a great affection and no lesse great truth said Chrysostome that heaven and earth and all the creatures in them if they had teares they would shedd them in great abundance to see a great many of us so carelesse in this point as we be It is the hand of the LORD and it is His gracious hand if we could see it that He in this manner maketh the world to totter and reele under us that we might not stay and rest upon it where certainty and stedfastnesse we shall never find but in Him above where onely they are to be found For if riches being so brittle and unsteady as they be men are so mad upon them if GOD had setled them in any certenty what would they have done What poore man 's right what widowe's copie or what Orphane's legacie should have been free from us The Iâ—I Point Trust in God Well then if riches be uncertaine whereto shall we trust If not in them where then It is the third point Charge them that be rich in this world that they be not high-minded neither trust in the uncertenty of riches but that they trust in GOD. It is the third point of the Charge in generall and the first of the affirmative part and conteineth Partly a Homage to be done for our riches to GOD and that is trust in Him And partly a rent charge layd upon our riches which is doing good And indeed Psal. 37.5 no other then David had said before Trust in the Lord and be doing good Saint Paul will batter down and lay flat our Castle but he will erect us another wherein we may trust Yea indeed so as Salomon did before setteth up a tower against the tower the Tower of the righteous which is the Name of the LORD against the Rich man's tower Pro. 18.10 which is as you have heard before his riches In stead of the Worldling's saith which is to make money an article of his faith teacheth us the faith of a Christian which is to vouchsafe none but GOD that honour Even so doth the Apostle heer and that for great reason Nam qui vult securus sperare speret in Eo qui non potest perire He that will trust and be secure in his trust let him trust in Him who himselâ—e never failed and never faileth those that put their trust in him in whom is no uncertainty Iam. 1.17 no not so much as any shadow of uncertainty Trust in him by looking to Him first yer we admitt any els into our conceipt and by looking to Him last and not looking beyond him to any as if we had a safer or trustier then He. And that because he is the living GOD as if he should say That you phaâ—sie to your selves to trust in is a dead idoll and not a living GOD and if ever you come to any dangerous disease you shall find it is an idoll dead in it self not hable to give it selfe life much lesse to another not hable to ransome the bodie from the death â—uch lesse the soule from hers not hable to recover life when it is gone nay not hable to preserve life when it is present not to remove death nay not to remove sicknesse not any sicknesse not the gout from your feet not the palsie from your hanâ—s nay not so much as the ache from your teeth not hable to add one haire to your head nor one haire 's bredth to your stature nor one houre to your dayes nor one minute to the houres of your life This moath-eaten God as our Saviour CHRIST calleth it this canker-eaten God this God that must be kept under locke and key from a thiefe trust not in it for shame O let it be never said the living trust in the dead Trust in the living GOD that liveth himselfe nay that is life himselfe in His Sonne that was hable to quicken himselfe and is hable to quicken you of whose gift and inspiration you have already this life by whose daily spirit and visitation your soule is preserved in this life in this mortall and corruptible life and of whose grace and mercie we looke for our other immortall and aeternall life Who not onely liveth but also giveth you c A living and a giving God that is that liveth and that giveth of whose gift you have not onely your life and terme of yeares but even also your riches themselves the very hornes that you lift so high and wherwith unnaturally many times you push against Him that gave them He giveth for the earth was the Lord's and all that therein is Psal 24.1.115.16 Ag 2.9 till the earth he gave unto the children of men And silver and Gold were the Lord's till not by a casuall scattering but by his appointed giving not by chance but by gift He made them thine He gave them â—â—ou broughtest none of them with thee into the world thou camest naked He gave them and when He gave them He might have given them to thy brother of low estate and made thee stand and ask at his door as He hath made him now stand and ask at thine He giveth you riches you get them not it is not your own wisdome or travaile that getteth them but His grace and goodnesse that giveth them For you see many men of as great understanding and foresight as your selves want not onely riches but even bread It is not your travaile except the Lord had given them Eccle. 9.11 all the early up-rising and late downe-lying had been in vaine It is GOD that giveth make your recognisance it is so for feare lest if you denie Dominus dedit Iob 1.21 you come to affirme Dominus abstulit GOD teacheth it was He that gave them by taking them away This is Saint Paul's reason let us see how it serves his conclusion to the overthrow of our vaine pride and foolish trust in them If it be gift Si accepisti quid gloriaris 1. Cor 4.7 be not proud of it And if it be gift He that sent it can call for it again trust not in it Who giveth us all things c All things spirituall or corporall temporall or aeternall little or great from the least and so upward from the greatest and so downward from panem quotidianum a morsell of bread to Regnum coelorum the Kingdome of heaven He giveth us all even unto Himselfe yea He giveth us himselfe and all and more we cannot desire Why then if He give all all are Donatives all that we hold we hold in franck almoigne and no other tenure
â—o become a prisoner as 1. Reg. 1.43 Shemei did Therfore sweare and be sworne in those causes and questions whereto Law doth bind to give answere though Fine and Commitment doe ensue upon them This question remaineth If a man have sworne without those what he is to doe when an oath binds when it doth not We hold No man is so streightened between two sinns but without committing a third he may get forth Herod thought he could not and therfore being in a streight betwixt murder and periurie thought he could have no issue but by putting Saint Iohn Baptist to death It was not so for having sworne and his oath proving unlawfull if he had repented him of his unadvisednesse in swearing and gon no further he had had his issue without any new offense 1. If then We have sworne to be simply evill the rule is Ne sit Sacramentum pietatis vinculum iniquitatis 2. If it hinder a greater or higher good the rule is Ne sit Sacramentum pietatis impedimentum pietatis 3. If it be in things indifferent as we terme them absque grano salis it is a rash oath to be repented not to be executed 4. If the oath be simply made yet as we say it doth subiacere Civili intellectui so as GOD'S oath doth Ieremia 18.8 and therefore those conditions may exclude the event and the Oath remaine good 5. If in regard of the Manner it be extorted from us the rule is Iniusta vincula rumpit Iustitia 6. If rashly Penitenda promissio non perficienda praesumptio 7. If to any man for his benefit or for favour to him if that partie release it it bindeth not A SERMON PREACHED AT VVHITE-HALL upon the Sunday after EASTER being March XXX AN. DOM. MDC IOHN CHAP. XX. VER XXIII Quorum remiseritis peccata remittuntur eis Et quorum retinueritis retenta sunt VVhose-soever sinnes ye remitt they are remitted unto them and whose-soever ye reteine they are reteined The Conclusion of the Gospell for the Sunday THEY be the words of our SAVIOVR CHRIST to his Apostles A part of the first words which he spake to them at his Epiphanie or first apparition after he arose from the dead And they contein a Commission by him graunted to the Apostles which is the summe or contents of this Verse Which Commission is his first largesse after his rising againe For at his first appearing to them it pleased him not to come empty but with a blessing and to bestow on them and on the world by them as the first fruicts of his resurrection this Commission a part of that Commission which the sinfull world most of all stood in need of for remission of sinnes To the graunting wâ—â—reof He proceedeth not without some solemniâ—ie or circumstance The Summariâ— proceeding in it well worthy to be remembred For first Verse 21. he saith As my father sent me so send I you which is their authorizing or giving them their Credence Secondly Verse 22 He doth breath upon them and withall inspireth them with the Holy Ghost which is their enhabling or furnishing thereto And having so authorized and enhabled them now in this Verse heer He giveth them their Câ—mmission and thereby doth perfectly inaugurate thâ—m into this part of their Office A Commission is nothing els but the imparting of a power which before they had not First therefore he imperteth to them a power a power over sinnes over sinnes either for the remitting or the reteining of them as the persons shall be qualified And after to this power he addeth a promise as the Lawyers terme it of Ratihabition that he will ratifie and make it good that His power shall accompanie this power and the lawfull use of it in his Church for ever The dependence in respect of the time Why not before Esai 53.10 Heb. 9.22 Mat. 16.19.18.18 And very agreeably is this power now bestowed by him upon his resurrection Not so conveniently before his death because till then he had not made his soule an offering for sinne nor till then he had not shed his bloud without which there is no remission of sinnes Therefore it was promised before but not given till now because it was convenient there should be solutio before there were absolutio Not before he was risen then Why now And againe no longer then till he was risen not till he was ascended First to shew that the remission of sinnes is the undivided and immediate effect of his death Secondly to shew how much the world needed it for which cause he would not with-hold it no not so much as one day for this was done in the very day of his resurrection Thirdly But specially to set forth his great love and tender care over us in this that as soone as he had accomplished his owne resurrection even presently upon it he setts in hand with ours and beginneth the first part of it the very first day of his rising The Scripture maketh mention of a first and second death and from them two of a first and second resurrection Both expresly sett downe in one verse Apoc. 20.6 Happy is he that hath his part in the first resurrection for over such the second death hath no power Vnderstanding by the first the death of the soule by sinne and the rising thence to the life of grace by the second the death of the body by corruption the rising thence to the life of glorie CHRIST truly is the Saviour of the whole man both soule and body from the first and second death But beginneth first with the first that is with sinne the death of the soule and the rising from it So is the method of Divinitie prescribed by himselfe Mat. 23.16 First to cleanse that which is within the soule then that which is without the body And so is the methode of Physique first to cure the cause and then the disease 1. Cor. 15 56. Now the cause or as the Apostle calleth it the sling of death is sinne Therefore first to remove sinne and then death aâ—â—erwards For the cure of sinne being performed the other will follow of his owne accord As Saint Iohn telleth us He that hath his part in the first resurrection shall not faile of it in the second The first resurrection then from sinne is it which our Saviour Christ heer goeth about wherto there is no lesse power required then a divine power For looke what power is necessarie to raise the dead bodie out of the dust the very same every way is requisite to raise the dead soule out of sinne For which cause the Remission of sinnes is an Article of faith no lesse then the Resurrection of the body For in very deed a resurrection it is and so it is termed no lesse then that To the service and ministerie of which divine worke a Commission is heere graunted to the Apostles And first they have heer their sending from GOD the Father their inspiring
that is their durance Our time is proclaimed in the Prophet Flesh All flesh is grasse and the glorie of it as the floure of the field From Aprill to Iune Esa. 40.6 The scithe commeth nay the wind but bloweth and we are gone Withering sooner then the grasse which is short Nay fading sooner then the flower of the grasse which is much shorter Iob 4.19 Nay saith Iob rubbed in peeces more easily then any moth This we are to them if you lay vs together And if you weigh vs vpon the ballance Men by themselues Psal. 62.11 Psal. 144.14 we are altogether lighter then vanitie it selfe There is our weight And if you value vs Man is but a thing of nought There is our worth Hoc est omnis homo This is Abraham and this is Abrahams seede And who would stand to compare these with Angells Verily there is no comparison They are incomparably farr better then the best of vs. Now then this is the rule of reason the guide of all choice Evermore to take the better and leave the worse Thus would man do Haec est lex hominis Heer then commeth the matter of admiration Notwithstanding these things stand thus between the Angells and Abrahams seed They Spirits glorious heavenly immortall yet tooke He not them yet in no wise tooke He them But the seede of Abraham The seed of Abraham with their bodies vile bodies earthly bodies of clay bodies of mortalitie corruption and death These He tooke these He tooke for all that Angells and not men So in reason it should be Men and not Angells So it is And that granted to vs that denied to them Granted to us so base that denied them so glorious Denied and strongly denied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not not in any wise not at any hand to them They every way in every thing els above and before vs in this beneath and behind vs. And we vnworthy wretched men that we are above and before the Angells the Cherubim the Seraphim and all the Principalities and Thrones in this dignitie This being beyond the rules and reach of all reason is surely matter of astonishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith S. Chrysostome this it casteth me into an extasie and maketh me to imagine of our Nature some great matter 1. Sam. 3.18 I cannot well expresse what Thus it is It is the Lord let him doe what seemeth good in his owne eyes II. Wherein they are coÌ„pared And with this I passe over to the second point This little is enough to shew what odds between the Parties heer matched It wil much better appeare this when we shall weigh the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that wherin they are matched Wherin two degrees we obserued 1. Apprehendit and 2. apprehendit Semen I. In apprehendit he took 1. Of apprehendit first Many words were more obvious and offered themselves to the Apostle no doubt Suscepit or Assumpsit or other such like This word was sought for certeinly and made choise of saith the Greeke Scholiast And he can best tell vs It is no common word Oâ—cumen in locum And tell vs also what it weigheth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word supposeth a flight of the one partie and a pursuit of the other A pursuit eager and so long till he overtake and when he hath overtaken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apprehendens laying fast hold and seizing surely on him So two things it supposeth 1 a flight of the one and 2 a hot pursuit of the other It may well suppose a flight For of the * Ind v. 6. Gen. 3.8 Angells there were that fled that kept not there originall but forsooke and fell away from there first estate And Man fell and fled too and hid himselfe in the thicke trees from the presence of God And this is the first yssue Vpon the Angells flight he stirred not satt still neuer vouchsafed to follow them Let them goe whither they would as if they had not been worth the while Nay He never assumed ought by way of promise for them No promise in the Old to be borne and to suffer No Gospell in the New Testament neither was borne nor suffered for them But when Man fell He did all Made after him presently with Vbiâ—s sought to reclaime him What haue you done Why haue you done so Protested enmitie to him that had drawne him thus away Gen. 3.9 Made his assumpsit of the Womans seede And which is more when that would not serve sent after him still by the hand of his Prophets to sollicit his returne And which is yet more when that would not serue neither went after him Himself in person left his ninety and nine in the fold and gott him after the lost sheepe Neuer left till he found him Luk. 15.5 layed him on His owne shoulders and brought him home againe It was much even but to looke after us to respect vs so farr who were not worth the cast of His eie Much to call vs backe or vouchsafe vs an Vbies But more when we came not for all that to send after vs. For if He had but onely been content to give vs leave to come to Him againe but given vs leave to lay hold on Him to touch but the hemme of His garment Himselfe sitting still and neuer calling to vs nor sending after vs it had been favour enough farr above that we were worth But not only to send by others Psal. 40 7. but to come Himselfe after vs to say Corpus apta mihi Ecce venio Gett me a bodie I will my selfe after him this was exceeding much That we fled and He followed vs flying But yet this is not all This is but to follow He not onely followed but did it so with such eagernesse with such earnestnesse as that is worthy a second consideration To follow is somewhat yet that may be done faintly and a farr of But to follow through thicke and thinn to follow hard and not to give over never to give over till he overtake that is it And He gave not over His pursuit though it were long and laborious and He full wearie though it cast Him into a sweate a sweate of bloud Angelis suis non pepercit saith S. Peter 2. Pet. 2.4 The Angells offending He spared not them Man offending He spared Him and to spare Him saith S. Paul He spared not His own Son Nor His own sonne spared not Himself but folâ—owed his pursuit through danger distresse yea through death it selfe Followed and so followed as nothing made Him leave following till He overtooke And when He had overtaken for those two are but presupposed the more kindly to bring in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When I say he had overtaken them commeth in fitly and properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is not every taking not suscipere or assumere But manum injicere
this day then doth it spring forth as it were is to be seene above ground then Orta est de terrâ in very deed 4. The Effect Of the effect now Births are and have been diverse times the ending of great dissentions As was this heer For by this Birth took end the two great Howses An vnion of them by it First by this Truth is gained Truth will meet now That truth will come to this truth On Truth she is gained tanquam minus dignum ad magis dignum as the Abstract to the Arcâ—etype And Truth being now borne of our Nature it will never we may be sure be against our Nature being come of the earth it will be true to his owne countrie being made man will be for man now all He can By this meanes one of the opposites is drawne away from the other Got to be on our side It is three to one now Righteousnesse is left all alone and there is good hope she will not stand out long For lo heer is good newes first that respexit de coelo she yet lookes downe from heaven now On Righteousnesse So as this birth in earth you see workes in heaven and by name upon Righteousnesse there For though there were none in heaven but it wrought upon them yet the Psalme mentions none but Righteousnesse For of all she the least likely and if she be wrought on the rest there is no doubt of How can there they are all woon to us already With Righteousnesse it works two waies First downe she lookes Whither it was 1 She lâ—â—kes dâ—wne that she miâ—sed Truth to see what was become of her and not finding her in heaven cast heâ— eye to the earth But there when she beheld Verbum caro factum the Word â—â—esh Ioh 1.14 the Truth freshly sprung there where it had been a strange plant long time before Aspexit and Respixit she looked and looked againe at it For a Sight it was to move to drâ—w the eye yea a fight for Heaven to be a Spectator of for the Angells to come downe and looke at for Righteoâ—snesse it selfe to do so too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Angells word in Saint Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Septuagint's word heer both meane one thing 1 Pet. 1 12. The Greeke word is to look as we say wishly as it as if we would looke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even through it the Hebrew word that is as if Righteousnesse did beat out a window So desirous was she to behoâ—d this Sight And no mervaile for what could Righteousnesse desire to see and satisfie her selfe with that in Him was not to be seene A cleane birth a holy life an innocent death a Spirit and a mouth without guile a Soule and a bodie without Sinne. In Him she beheâ—d tâ—em all Them and whatsoever els might yeeld her full satisfaction Lay judgement to the rule and righteousnesse in the ballance nothing oblique will be found in Him nothing but streight for the rule nothing minus habens but full weight for the ballaâ—ce Thus when Truth from the earth then Righteousnesse from heaven Then but not before Before Righteousnesse had no prospect no window open this way She turned away her face shut her eyes clapt to the casement would not abide so much as to looke hithâ—r at us a sort of forlorne sinners not vouchsafe us once the cast of her eye The case is now altered Vpon this sight she is not oneâ—y content in some sort to condescend to do it but she breaks a window through to do it And then and ever since this Orta est she looks upon the earth with a good aspect and a good aspect in these caelestiall lights is never without some good influence withall Bâ—t then within a verse after not onely downe she looks but downe she comes 2 Downe she comes Verse 13. Such a power attractive is there in this Birth And comming she doth two things 1 To meet Meets first for upon the view of this birth they all ran first and Kissed the Sonne 2 To kisse And that done Truth ran to Mercie and embraced her and Righteousnesse to Peace and kissed her They that had so long been parted and stood out in difference now meet and are made friends Howsoever before removed in ortu veritatis obviaverunt sibi howsoever before estranged now osculatae sunt And at that birth of His well met they all in whom they meet all The Truth He is and per viscera Misericordiae He came through the tender mercies of our GOD Luk. 1 7 8. 1. Cor. 1.30 Ephes. 2.14 and He is made to us Righteousnesse and He is our Peace All meet in Him for indeed all He is that no mervaile they all foure meet where He is that is all foure And at this meeting Righteousnesse she was not so of-ward before but she is now as forward as forward as any of the rest Mark these three Let ts not Pâ—ace prevent her as Mercie did Truth but as Mercie to Truth first so she first to Peace as forward as Mercie every way 2 Nay more forward then Mercie for Mercie doth but meet Truth and there is all but she as more affectionate not only meets Peace but kisses her And indeed Righteousnesse was to doe more even to kisse that it might be a pledge of forgetting all former unâ—indnesse that we may be sure she is perfectly reconciled now 3 And one more yet to shew her the most forward of them all out of the last Verse At this meeting she followes not drawes not behind Verse 13. she will not goe with them She is before leaves them to come after and beare the traine She as David is before the Arke puts S. Iohn Baptist from his office for the time Righteousnesse is his forerunner Righteousnesse shall goe bâ—fore tread the way before Him the formost now of all the companie By all which ye may know what a looke it was she looked with from Heaven Thus ye see CHRIST by His comming hath pacified the things in Heaven A peece of Hosanna is pax in coelis There cannot be pax in terris till there it be Colos. 1.20 first But no sooner there it is but it is peace in earth streight which accordingly was this day proclaimed by the Angells Luc. 2.14 So by the vertue of this birth heaven is at peace with it selfe and heaven with earth is now at peace So is earth too with it selfe and a fulfilling of the Text by this meeting is there too The Iewes they represent truth to them it belongeth properly For Truth was where were Eloquia Dei Rom. 9.4 the Oracles of GOD and they were with the Iew. The Gentiles they claime by Mercie that is their vertue Where was Mercie but where was miserie and where was miserie Luc. 1.79 but with them that lay in darknesse in the shadow of death And
Iejunium prescribe it and that to a religious end Even to chasten our selves for sinne by this forbearance So no Physicall Philosophicall Verse 15. Politicall but a Propheticall yea an Evangelicall fast For if in very sorrow we are to fast when the bridegroome is taken away Much more when we our selves by our sinnes committed have beene the cause of His taking nay Matt. 9.15 of His very driving away from us And must we then fast Indeed we must or gett us a new Epistle for the day and a new Gospell too For as GOD heere in the Epistle commands it So CHRIST in the Gospell presupposeth it with His Cum jejunatis Matt. 6.16 taking it as granted We will fast That sure fast we must or els wipe out this cum jejunio and that Cum jejunatis and tell GOD and CHRIST they are not well advised we have found out a way beyond them to turne vnto GOD without any fasting at all But how fast To relieve all we may When we speake of Fasting Humanum dicimus propter infirmitatem vestram Rom 6.19 Psal. 109.24 we entend not mens knees should grow weake with fasting Two kinds of fasting we find in Scripture 1. David's who fasted tasting neither bread nor ought els 2. Sam. 3.35 till the Sunne was downe No meat at all That is too hard Dan. 10.3 2. What say you to Daniel's fast He did eat and drinke but not cibos desyderij no meats of delight and namely eat no flesh The Church as an indulgent mother mitigates all she may Matt. 19.12 Enjoynes not for fast that of David and yet qui potest capere capiat for all that She onely requires of us that other of Daniel to forbeare cibos desyderij and flesh is there expressely named Meates and drinks provoking the appetite full of nourishment kindling the blood Content to sustaine Nature and not purvey for the flesh Rom. 13.14 to satisfie the lusts thereof And thus by the grace of GOD we may if not David's yet Daniel's For if David's we cannot and Daniel's we list not I know not what fast we will leave for a third I find not 1. Tim. 5.25 And yet even this also doth the Church release to such as are in Timothee's case have crebras infirmitates It is not the decay of nature but the chastisement of sinne she seeketh But at this doore all scape through we are all weake and crasie when we would repent Matt. 16.22 but lusty and strong when to commit sinne Our Physitians are easy to tell us and we easy to beleeve any that will tell us Propitius esto tibi favour your selfe for it is not for you Take heed GOD is not mocked who would have sinne chastened Who sees I feare the pleasing of our appetite is the true cause the not endangering our health is but a pretense And He will not have his Ordinance thus dallyed with fast or loose Said it must be that Ioël heere saith Turne to GOD with fasting or be ready to shew a good cause why And to shew it to GOD. It is He heere calls for it the pen is but Ioël's He best knowes what turning it is will serve our turne will turne away Ira ventura which Quis poterit sustinere who is hable to abide And take this with you when fasting and all is in Ver. 14. if it be Quis scit si convertatur Deus If we leave what we please out then it will be Quis scit indeed 2. With Weeping The next point and GOD send us well to discharge it is Weeping Can we not be dispensed with that neither but we must weepe too Truly even in this point somewhat would be done too Els Ioël will not be satisfied but call on us still There is saith the Psalme a flagon provided by GOD of purpose for them Psal. 56 8. Therefore some would come some few droppes at least Not as the Saints of old No humanum dicimus heere too a Iob. 16.20 Iob's eyes poured forth teares to GOD b Ps. 119.136 David's eye gushed out with water He all to wet his pillow with them c Luk. 7.38 Marie Magdalen wept enough to have made a bath We vrge not these But if not poure out Ier. 13.17 not gush forth Nonne stillabit oculus noster saith Ieremie shall not our eye affoord a drop or twaine Stay a little turne and looke backe vpon our sinnes past it may be if we could get our selves to doe it in kind if set them before us and looke sadly and not glance over them apace Esa. 38.16 Thinke of them not once but as EZEKIA did recogitare thinke them over and over consider the motives the base motives and weigh the circumstances the grievous circumstances and tell over our many flittings our often relapsing our wretched continuing in them It would sett our sorrow in passion it would bring downe some Some would come Our bowells would turne our repentings rowle together and lament we would the death of our soule as we do otherwhile the death of a friend and for the vnkindnesse we have shewed to GOD as for the vnkindnesse we doe that man sheweth us But this will aske time It would not be posted through as our manner is we have done streight It is not a businesse of a few minutes 2. Pet. 3.9 1. Cor. 7.6 It will aske Saint Peter's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 retired place and Saint Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vacant time It would aske a Nazarites vow to doe it as it should be done Even a sequestring our selves for a time as they did In other respects I grant but among others for this also even to performe to GOD a Votive repentance This I wish we would trie But we seeke no place we allow no time for it Our other affaires take up so much as we can spare little or none for this which the time will come when we shall thinke it the weightiest affaire of all And yet it may be when all is done none will come though For who hath teares at command Who can weepe when he lists I know it well they be the overflowings of sorrow not of every sorrow but of the sensuall parts and being an act of the inferiour parts reason cannot command them at all times they will not be had But if they will not the Prophet hath heere put an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insteed of it for 3. With mâ—urâ—ing so doe the Fathers all take it Mourne If weepe we cannot mourne we can and mourne we must Et vos non luxistis saith the Apostle He saith not 1. Cor 5 2. Et vos non flevistis and you have not wept But and you have not mourned as if he should say that you should have done at the least Mourning they call the sorrow which reason it selfe can yeild In Schooles they terme it Dolorem appretiativum valuing what should
for the truth is we fast not at all But when we fast all this is kept That if this should be the meaning we have done before we beginne To destroy a Text is not so evill as to make a Text destroy it selfe which by this sense will come to passe But if this sense be senselesse this glosse as a viper eats out the bowells of the Text. We must then resolve this is no case putt it is a ground layd No Hypotheticall fast If you shall but Categoricall when you doe For except it be all that followes is to no purpose To what purpose is it to direct what not to doe what to doe in our fast if we never meane to fast for CHRIST to sett us downe instructions how to carrie our selves in that we never meane to goe about Plaine dealing were to tell Him we will vse his counsell in some other matter as for fasting we find our selves no waies disposed to it But by the grace of GOD we are not so farr gone yet We see His will is we should doe it and take a time to doe it we will and when is that When ye fast when fast ye A time we said there is if for all things vnder the Sunne then for that Let us speake but after the manner of men goe to it but naturâ tenus as saith Tertullian and nature it selfe will reach us when Marke but when nature will yield to it when and in what case the naturall man will fast without eye to GOD or CHRIST or Religion at all So shall we be within the Apostle's Doth not Nature it selfe teach you 1. Cor. 11.14 The time of feare is a time of fasting with the naturall man 1. Natures time 1 When in feare Nec est cibi tempus in 〈◊〉 〈…〉 in time of danger men have no mind of meat They in the ship with Saint 〈…〉 they looked every 〈◊〉 be call away the tempest was such there was saith Saint Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no spending of 〈◊〉 〈…〉 all that while Will we naturally 〈…〉 of the â—racâ— of our ship and â—or be afraid as much of the wrack of our soules by sinne 〈…〉 for that Doth not nature teach us this There is one when 2. When in griefe When the 〈◊〉 man is in any inward griefe of heart it will take away his stomach he will fast 〈◊〉 or sequela 〈◊〉 vt taetitiae accessio fagina saith Tertullian fasting followeth mourning as feasting doth mirth The a Eccle. 3.4 time of mourning is one of Salomon's 〈◊〉 Why that is our time of fasting b Ioel. 4.12 Fasting and mourning Ioel joynes them both The afflicted soule in his prayer Psal. 102.4 My heart was smitten with heavinesse how then So that I forgat to eate my bread Our SAVIOVR CHRIST shewes iâ— best He was asked Why fast not your Disciples He answers not How can they fast as he should for that was their question but how * c. 9.14 c. can they mourne while the Bridegroome is with them As much to say as if they could mourne they would nor faile but fast certainely So we see did Anna c 1. Sam. 1.10.15 Flebat non capiebat cibos So we see did d 2. Sam. 1 12.15 David for the death of Ionathan and againe when his child lay a dying mourned and fasted for both Vpon sorrow for the death of a friend or a child can we fast then dictante naturá and can we not doe as much for our sinnes the death of our soules Doth not Nature teach us that Nor for the death of CHRIST neither which our sinnes were the cause of There is another a second when 3. When 〈◊〉 Thirdly Anger him throughly the naturall will to his fast * 1. King 21.4 Ahab for curst heart that he could not have his will Naboth would not let him have his vineyard to bedd he goes and no meate would downe with him Could he out of his pure naturalls for curst heart leave his meat and fast and cannot we doe the like for iust indignation at our selves for provoking GOD 's anger with the cursed thoughts of our heart and words of our mouth and deeds of our whole body cannot we be got to it Will not nature teach us this A third when 4. When in a longing desire Fourthly The naturall man when he is in the fervor of his desire if it be an earnest desire he will pursue that he desires so hard as he will forget his meate quite Not a man so hardy as to eat any thing till Sun sett saith Saul when he had his enemies in chase Such was his desire of victorie 1. Sam. 14.24 What speake we of victorie we see Esau so eager in following his sport that he came home at night so faint as he paid deare for his Supper yet felt it not all day while he was hote on his game Did we hunger and thirst for the recoverie of GOD 's favour as did Saul for his victorie or Esau for his sport we would not thinke it much to fast as they did Will not Nature teach us this neither A fourth when Put the naturall man into any of these passions kindly you shall need proclaime no fast for him he will doe it of himselfe Now marke these foure well 1 feare 2 sorrow 3 anger and 4 desire and looke into 2. Cor. 7.11 if they be not there made as it were the foure elements of repentance the constitutive causes of it 1 Feare the middle point the center of it 2 Sorrow that workes it And if sory for sinne then of necessity 3 Angry with the sinner that is our selves for committing it It is there called indignation and no sleight one but proceeding ad vindictam to be wreaked on our selves for it 4 And Desire is there too and Zeale joyned with it to give it an edge These foure the proper passions all of repentance and these foure carry every one as we say his fast on his back Much more where they all meet as in true earnest repentance they all should It is sure GOD planted these passions in our nature to be bestowed chiefly upon their chiefe objects And their chiefe objects are 1 Of feare that which is most fearefull the wrath of GOD. 2 Of Anger that which most certainely procureth it that is our sinne 3 Of Desâ—â—e that then which nothing is more to be desired GOD 's favour 4 Of Sorrow that we have most cause to be sâ—rie for the losse of it There then to shew them there to bestow theâ— which if we did in kind we need never take thought for a Cum to our jejunatis For griefe of heart for worldly losse for bodily feare of drowning for bitter anger we can doe 〈…〉 for griefe of our grievous offenses for feare of being drowned in perdition aeternall why not for indignation of our many indignities offered GOD Alas it but shews out affections
asketh S. Philip I pray thee Of whom speaketh the Prophet this Act 8 3â— of himselfe or some other A question verie materiall and to great good purpose and to be asked by us in all Propheciâ—s For knowing who the Partie is we shall not wander in the Propheâ—'s meaning Now if the Eunuch had been reading this of Zâ—â—hâ—rie as then he was that of Esai and had asked the same question of S. Philip he would have made the same answere And as he out of those words tooke occasion so may we out of these take the like to preach IESVS unto them For neither of himselfe nor of any other but of IESVS speaketh the Prophet this and the testimonie of IESVS is the Spirit of this Prophecie Apoâ— 1â— â—â— That so it is the Holy Ghost is our warrant who in S. Iohn's Gospell reporting the Passion and the last act of the Passion this opening of the side and piercing the heart of our Saviour CHRIST saith plainly that in the piercing the very words of the Prophecie were fulfilled Respicient in me quem transfixerunt Ioh. 19.37 Which terme of piercing we shall the more clearely conceive if with the ancient Writers we sort it with the beginning of Psalme 22 the Psalme of the Passion For in the verie front or inscription of this Psalme our Saviour CHRIST is compared Cervo matutino to the morning Hart that is a Hart rowsed early in the morning as from his very birth he was by Herod hunted and chased all his life long and this day brought to his end and as the poore Deere stricken and pierced thorough side heart and all which is it we are here willed to behold There is no part of the whole course of our Saviour CHRIST 's life or death but it is well worthy our looking on and from each part in it there goeth vertue to do us good But of all other parts and above them all this last part of his piercing is here commended unto our view Indeed how could the Prophet commend it more then in avowing it to be an act of grace as in the fore-part of this Verse he doth Effundam super eos spiritum Gratiae respicient c as if he should say If there be any grace in us we will thinke it worth the looking on Neither doth the Prophet onely but the Apostle also call us unto it Heb. 12.2 and willeth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to looke unto and regard IESVS the Author and Finisher of our faith Then specially and in that act when for the Ioy of our Salvation set before Him He endured the Crosse and despised the shame that is in this spectacle when He was pierced Which surely is continually all our life long to be done by us and at all times some time to be spared unto it But if at other times most requisite at this time this very day which we hold holy to the memorie of his Passion and the piercing of His precious side That though on other dayes we employ our eyes otherwise this day at least we fixe them on this object Respiciâ—ntes in Eum. This day I say which is dedicated to none other end â— Ioh. 3.14 but even to lift up the Sonne of man as Moses did the serpent in the wildernesse that we may looke upon Him and live When every Scripture that is read soundeth nothing but this unto us when by the office of preaching IESVS CHRIST is lively described in our sight and as the Apostle speaketh is visibly crucified among us Gal. 3.1 when in the memoriall of the holy Sacrament His death is shewed forth untill He come 1. Coâ—â—1 26. and the mysterie of this His piercing so many waies so effectually represented before us This Prophecie therfore if at any time at this time to take place Respicient in Me c. The Division The principall words are but two and set downe unto us in two points 1 The sight it selfe that is the thing to be seene 2 and the sight of it that is the act of seeing or looking Quem transfixerunt is the Object or spectacle propounded Respicient in Eum is the Act or duety enjoined Of which the Obiect though in place latter in nature is the former and first to be handled for that there must be a thing first set up before we can set our eyes to looke upon it OF the Object generally first Certaine it is I. The sight or obiect generally 1. CHRIST that CHRIST is here meant Saint Iohn hath put us out of doubt for that point And Zacharie here could have set downe His name and said Respice in Christum for Daniel before had named his name Dan. 9 26. Occidetur MESSIAS and Zacharie being after him in time might have easily repeated it But it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to Him rather to use a circumlocution and suppressing His name of CHRIST to expresse Him by the stile or terme Quem transfixerunt Which being done by choise must needes have a reason of the doing and so it hath First the better to specifie and particularize the Person of CHRIST by the kind and most peculiar circumstance of his death Esay had said Morietur Dye He shall and lay downe His soule an offering for sinne Esa. 53.10 2. Die but what Death a naturall or a violent Daniel tells us Dan 9.26 Occîdetur He shall die not a naturall but a violent death 3 But many are slaine after many sorts and divers kinds there be of violent deaths The Psalmist the more particularly to set it downe describeth it thus Psal. 22.10 They pierced my hands and my feet which is onely proper to the death of the Crosse. 4 Die and be slaine and be crucified But sundry els were crucified and therefore the Prophet heere to make up all addeth that he should not onely be crucifixus but transfixus not onely have his hands and his feet but even his heart pierced too Which very note severs Him from all the rest with as great a particularitie as may be for that though many besides at other times and some at the same time with Him were crucified yet the side and the heart of none was opened but His and His onely 2. Secondly as to specifie CHRIST himselfe in person and to sever him from the rest so in CHRIST himselfe and in his Person 2. CHRIST pierced to sever from the rest of his doings and sufferings what that is that chiefly concerneth us and we specially are to looke to and that is this daies worke CHRIST PIERCED S. Paul doth best expresse this I esteemed saith he to know nothing among you save IESVS CHRIST and Him crucified That is the perfection of our knowledge is CHRIST 1. Cor. 2. â— The perfection of our knowledge in or touching CHRIST is the knowledge of Christ's piercing This is the chiefe Sight Nay as it shall after appeare in this sight
and as much as in us lies Heb. 6.6 even crucifie afresh the SONNE OF GOD making a mocke of Him and His piercings These I say for these all and every of them in that instant were before his eyes must of force enter into and go thorow and thorow his Soule and Spirit that what with those former sorrowes and what with these after indignities the Prophet might truly say of Him and he of himselfe In Me Vpon Me not whose body or whose soule but whom entirely and wholly both in body and soule alive and dead they have pierced and passioned this day on the Crosse. 2. The Person à quibus Of the Persons which as it is necessarily implied in the word is very properly incident to the matter it selfe For it is usuall when one is found slaine as heere to make inquirie by whom he came by his death Which so much the rather is to be done by us because there is commonly an error in the world touching the Parties that were the causes of CHRIST 's death Our manner is either to lay it on the Souldiers that were the Instruments Or if not upon them upon Pilate and Iudge that gave sentence Or if not upon him upon the people that importuned the Iudge Or lastly if not upon them upon the Elders of the Iewes that animated the People And this is all to be found by our Quest of Inquirie But the Prophet heere inditeth others For by saying They shall looke c whom They have pierced he entendeth by very construction that the first and second They are not two but one and the same Parties And that they that are here willed to looke upon him are they and none other that were the authors of this fact even of the murther of IESVS CHRIST And to say truth the Prophet's entent is no other but to bring the malefactors themselves that pierced Him to view the body and the wounded heart of Him whom they have so pierced In the course of Iustice we say and say truly when a party is put to death that the Executioner cannot be said to be the cause of his death nor the Sherif by whose commandement he doth it neither yet the Iudge by whose sentence nor the Twelve men by whose verdict nor the Lawe it selfe by whose authoritie it is proceeded in For GOD forbid we should endite these or any of these of murther Solum peccatum homicida Sinne and Sinne onely is the murtherer Sinne I say either of the Party that suffereth or of some other by whose meanes or for whose cause he is put to death Now CHRIST 's owne sinne it was not that he died for That is most evident Not so much by His owne challenge Ioh. 8·46 Quis ex vobis a guit me de peccato as by the report of his Iudge who openly professed that he had examined Him and found no fault in Him No nor yet Herod for Luc. 23.14 15. being sent to him and examined by him also nothing worthy death was found in Him And therefore calling for water and washing his hands Matt. 27.24 he protesteth his owne innocencie of the bloud of this IVST MAN Thereby pronouncing him Iust and void of any cause in himselfe of his owne death It must then necessarily be the sinne of some others for whose sake CHRIST IESVS was thus pierced And if we aske who those others be or whose sinnes they were the Prophet Esai tells us Esa. 53.3 4. Posuit super Eum iniquitates omnium nostrûm He laid upon Him the transgressions of us all who should even for those our many great and grievous transgressions have eternally been pierced in bodie and soule with torment and sorrowes of a never dying death had not he stept between us and the blow and receiv'd it in his owne body even the dint of the wrath of GOD to come upon us So that it was the sinne of our polluted hands that pierced his hands the swiftnesse of our feet to do evill that nailed His feet the wicked devises of our Heads that gored his head and the wretched desires of our hearts that pierced his heart We that looke upon it is we that pierced Him and it is we that pierced Him that are willed to looke upon Him Which bringeth it home to us to me my selfe that speake and to you your selves that heare and applieth it most effectually to every one of us who evidently seeing that we were the cause of this his piercing if our hearts be not too too hard ought to have remorse to be pierced with it When for delivering to DAVID a few loaves Ahimelech and the Priests were by Saul put to the sword if David did then acknowledge with griefe of heart and say I 1. Sam. 22.22 even I am the cause of the death of thâ— Father anâ— all his house when he was but onely the occasion of it and not that direct neither may not we nay ought not we much more juâ—â—ly and deservedly say of this piercing of CHRIST our Saviour that we verily even we are the cause thereof as verily we are even the principalls in this murther and the Iewes and others on whom we seeke to derive it but onely accessaries and instrumentall causes thereof Which point we ought as continually so seriously to thiâ—k of and that no lesse then the former The former to stirre up compassion in our selves over him that thus was pierced the latter to worke deâ—pâ— remorse in our hearts for being authors of it That he was pierced will make our bowells melt with compassion over CHRIST That he was pierced by us â—hat looke on Him if our hearts be not flint as Iob saith or as the nether mil-stone Iob. 41.15 will breed remorse over our selves wretched sinners as we are II. The Act. To looke upon Him The Act followeth in these words Respicient in Eum. A request most reasonable to looke upon Him but to looke upon Him to bestow but a looke and nothing els which even of common humanitie we cannot denie Quia non aspicere despicere est It argueth great contempt not to vouchsafe it the cast of our eye as if it were an Obiect utterly unworthy the looking toward Truely if we marke it well nature it selfe of it selfe enclineth to this act When Amasa treacherously was slaine by Ioab and lay weltring in his blood by the waies side the storie saith that not one of the whole Armie then marching by but when he came at him 2. Sam. 22.12 stood still and looked on him In the Gospell the party that going from Ierusalem to Iericho vvas spoiled and wounded and lay drawing on though the Priest and Levite that passed neere the place relieved him not as the Samaritan after did yet it is said of them Luc. 31 32. they went neere and looked on and then passed on their way Which desire is even naturall in us so that even Nature it selfe enclineth us to
togither holding up but the armes at length I have heard it avowed of some that have felt it to be a paine scarse credible But the hands and the feet being so cruelly nailed parts of all other most sensible by reason of the texture of sinnews there in them most it could not but make His paine out of measure painfull It was not for nothing that dolores acerrimi dicuntur cruciatus saith the Heathen man that the most sharpe and bitter paines of all other have their name from hence and are called Cruciatus paines like those of the Crosse. It had a meaning that they gave Him that He had for his welcome to the Crosse a cup mixt with gall or myrrhe and for His farewell a spoonge of vinegar to shew by the one the bitternesse by the other the sharpnesse of the paines of this painfull death Now in paine we know the only comfort of gravis is brevis if we be in it to be quickly out of it This the Crosse hath not but is mors prolixa a death of dimensions a death long in dying And it was therefore purposely chosen by them Blasphemie they condemned Him of then was He to be stoned That death would have dispatched him too soone They indited him anew of Sedition not as of a worse fault but only because crucifying belonged to it For then He must be whipped first and that liked them well and then he must dye by inch-meale not swallow his death at once Chap. 2.9 but taste it as Chap. 2.9 and take it downe by little and little And then he must have his legges and armes broken and so was their meaning his should have been Els I would gladly know to what purpose provided they to have a Vessell of vinegar ready in the place Ioh. 19.29 but onely that he might not faint with losse of blood but be kept alive till they might heare his bones crash under the breaking and so feed their eyes with that spectacle also The providence of GOD indeede prevented this last act of cruelty Their will was good though All these paines are in the Crosse but to this last specially the word in the Text hath reference 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is He must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tarrie stay abide under it So dye that he might feele himselfe dye and endure the paines of an enduring death And yet all this is but halfe and the lesser halfe by farre of Cruciatus crucis All this His body endured was his soule free the while No but suffered as much As much nay more infinitely much more on the spirituall then his body did on the materiall Crosse. For a spirituall Crosse there was too all grant a Crosse beside that which Simeon of Cyren did helpe him to beare Great were those paines and this time too little to shew how great but so great that in all the former he never shrunk nor once complained but was as if he scarce felt them But when these came they made him complaine and crie aloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strong crying Heb. 5.7 In all those no blood came but where passages were made for it to come out by but in this it strained out all over even at all places at once This was the paine of the Presse so the Prophet calleth it Torcular wherewith Esa. 61.2.1 as if he had been in the wine-presse all his garments were stained and goared with blood Certainly the blood of Gethsemane was another manner of blood then that of Gabbatha or that of Golgotha either and that was the blood of his internall Crosse. Of the three Passions that was the hardest to endure yet that did he endure too It is that which beliefe it selfe doth wonder how it doth beleeve save that it knoweth as well the Love as the Power of GOD to be without bounds and his wisedome as able to find how through love it might be humbled as exalted through power beyond the uttermost that mans witt can comprehend b The Shame And this is the Crosse He endured And if all this might have been endured salvo honore without shame or disgrace it had been so much the lesse But now there is a further matter yet to be added and that is shame It is hard to say of these two which is the harder to beare which is the greater Crosse the crosse or shame Or rather it is not hard There is no meane party in miserie but if he be insulted on his being insulted on more grieves him then doth the misery it selfe But to the noble generous nature to whom Interesse honoris est majus omni alio interesse the value of his honour is above all value to him the Crosse is not the Crosse shame is the Crosse. And any high and heröicall Spirit beareth any griefe more easily then the griefe of contemptuous and contumelious usage 1. Sam. 31 4. King Saul shewed it plainly who chose rather to runne upon his owne sword then to fall into the hands of the Philistines who he knew would use him with skorne Iud. 16.25.30 as they had done Sampson before him And even he Sampson too rather then sit downe between the pillars and endure this pulled down house and all as well upon his owne head as theirs that so abused him Shame then is certainly the worse of the twaine Now in his death it is not easie to define whether paine or shame had the upper hand whether greater Cruciatus or scandalum Crucis Was it not a foule disgrace and scandall to offer him the shame of that servile base punishment of the whip not to be offered to any but to slaves and bond-men Loris liber sum saith he in the Comaedie in great disdeigne as if being free-borne he held it great skorne to have that once named to him Yet shame of being put out of the number of free-borne men Phil. 2.7 he despised even the shame of being in formâ servi That that is servile may yet be honest Then was it not yet a more foule disgrace and scandall indeed to appoint him for his death that dishonest that foule death the death of Malefactors and of the worst sort of them Morte turpissimâ as themselves termed it the most shamefull opprobrious death of all other that the persons are scandalous that suffer it To take Him as a thiefe to hang Him between two thieves nay to count him worse then the worst thiefe in the Gaole to say and to crie Vivat Barabbas pereat CHRISTVS Save Barabbas and hang CHRIST Yet this shame He despised too of being in formâ malefici If base if dishonest let these two serve use him not disgracefully make him not a ridiculum Capâ—â— poure not contempt upon him That did they too and a shame it is to see the shamefull cariage of themselves all along the whole Tragaedy of His Passion Was it a Tragaedie or a Passion trow A Passion it was yet by
be any joy compared with those he did forgoe or can any joy countervaile those barbarous usages he willingly went through It seemeth there can What joy might that be Sure none other but the joy He had to save us the joy of our salvation For what was his glorie or joy or crown of rejoicing was it not we Yes truly we were his crowne and his joy In comparison of this joy he exchanged those joyes and endured these paines this was the honey that sweetned his gall And no joy at all in it but this to be IESVS the SAVIOVR of a sort of poore sinners None but this and therefore pitie he should lose it And it is to be marked that though to be IESVS a SAVIOVR in proprietie of speech be rather a title an outward honour then an inward joy and so should have been prae honore rather then prae gaudio yet he expresseth it in the terme of joy rather then that of honour to shew it joyed him at the heart to save us and so as a speciall joy he accounted it Sure some such thing there was that made him so cheerfully say to his Father in the Psalme a Psal 40.7 Ecce venio Loe I come And to his Disciples in earth This this is the the Passeover that b Luc. 22.15 desiderio desideravi I have so longed for as it were embracing and even welcomming his death And which is more c Luc. 12.50 quomodo coarctor how am I pinched or streightned till I beat it as if He were in paine till he were in paine to deliver us Which jâ—y if ever he shewed in this he did that he went to his Passion with Palmes and with such triumph solemnity as he never admitted all his life before And that this his lowest estate one would thinke it he calleth his Exaltation Cum exaltatus fuero And when any would thinke Ioâ— 12 3â— he was most imperfect he esteemeth and so termeth it his highest peâ—fection Tertio die perficior In hoc est charitas heere is love If not heere where Luc. 13.32 But here it is and that in his highest elevation 1 〈◊〉 4 1â— That the joyes of Heaven sett on the one side and this poore joy of saving us on the other he quitt them to choose this That those paines and shames set before him and with them this joy he chose them rather then forgoe this Those joyes he forsooke and this he took up and to take it took upon him so many so strange indignities of both sorts took them and bare them with such a mind as he not only endured but despised Nor that neither but even joyed in the bearing of them and all to do us good So to alter the nature of things as to finde joy in death whereat all do mâ—urne and joy in shame which all do abhorre Eâ—od 3. is a wonder lâ—ke that of the bush This is the very life and soule of the Passion and all besides but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only the anatomie the carkasse without it II. The Act or Duetie So have we now the whole Object both what and with what mind And what is now to be done Shall we not pause a while and stay and looke upon this Theorie yet we goe any further Yes let us Proper to this day is this sight of the Crosse. The other of the throne may stay yet his time a day or two hence We are enjoined to looke upon him How can we seeing he is now higher then the Heavens farre out of our sight or from the kenning of any mortall eye Yes we may for all that As in the 27. of the Chapter next before MOSES is said to have seen Him that is invisible Not with the eyes of flesh so neither he did nor we can But as there it is by faith So he did and we may And what is more kindly to behold the Author of faith then faith or more kindly for faith to behold then her Author heer at first and her Finisher there at last Him to behold first and last and never to be satisfied with looking on Him who was content to buy us and our eye at so deare a rate Our eye then is the eye of our mind which is faith And our aspicientes in this and the recogitantes in the next Verse all one our looking to Him heere is our thinking on Him there On Him and His Passion over and over againe Donec totus fixus in corde qui totus fixus in Cruce till he be as fast fixed in our heart as ever he was to his crosse and some impression made in us of Him as there was in Him for us In this our looking then two acts be rising froÌ„ the two praepositions One before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking from the other after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking upon or into I. 1. Looking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from abstracting our eye from other Objects to looke hither sometime The praeposition is not idle nor the note but very needfull For naturally we put this spectacle farre from us and endure not either oft or long to behold it Other things there be please our eyes better and which we looke on with greater delight And we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looke off of them or we shall never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looke upon this aright We must in a sort worke force to our nature and per actum elicitum as they terme it in Schooles inhibite our eyes and even weyne them from other more pleasing spectacles that better like them or we shall do no good heer never make a true theorie of it I meane though our prospect into the world be good and we have both occasion and inclination to look thither oft yet ever and anon to have an eye this way to looke from them to him who when all these shall come to an end must be He that shall finish and consummate our faith and us and make perfect both Yea though the Saints be faire marks as at first I said yet even to look off from them hither and turne our eye to Him from all even from Saints and all But chiefly from the baits of sinne the concupiscence of our eyes the shadowes and shewes of vanity round about by which death entereth at out windowes which unlesse we can be got to look from this sight will do us no good we cannot look on both togither Now our theorie as it beginneth with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it endeth with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Looking unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Therfore looke from it that looke to Him or as the word giveth it rather into him then to Him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is into rather then to Which proveth plainly that the Passion is a peece of Perspective and that we must set our selves to
any glorie more glorious then other there it is on that hand on that side and He placed in it in the best in the chiefest the fulnesse of them both At GOD 's right hand is not only power power while we be heer to protect us with His might outward and to support us with His grace inward but at His right hand also is the fulnesse of joy for ever saith the Psalme Ioy and the fulnesse of joy Psal. 16.11 and the fulnesse of it for evermore This is meant by his Seat at the right hand on the Throne And the same is our blessed hope also that it is not His place only and none but His but even ours in expectation also The love of His Crosse is to us a pledge of the hope of his throne or whatsoever els He hath or is worth For if GOD have given us CHRIST and CHRIST thus given himselfe what hath GOD or CHRIST they will denie us It is the Apostle's owne deduction Rom. 8.32 To put it out of all doubt heare we His owne promise that never brake his word To him that overcommeth Apoc. 3.21 will I give to sit with me in my Throne Where to sit is the fulnesse of our desire the end of our race omnia in omnibus and further we cannot go Of a joy sett before Him we spoke yer-while heer is now a joy sett before us another manner joy then was before Him The worse was sett before Him the better before us and this we are to runne to Thus do these two theories or sights th' one worke to love th' other to hope both to the well performing of our course that in this Theater between the Saints joyfully beholding us in our race and CHRIST at our end ready to receive us we may fulfill our course with joy and be partakers of the blessed rest of His most glorious Throne Let us now turne to Him and beseech Him by the sight of this day by himselfe first and by his Crosse and Throne both both which He hath sett before us th' one to awake our love the other to quicken our hope that we may this day and ever lift up our eyes and hearts that we may this day and ever carie them in our eyes and hearts look up to them both so look that we may love the one and waite and hope for the other so love and so hope that by them both we may move and that swiftly even runne to Him and running not faint but so constantly runn that we faile not finally to atteine the happy fruition of Himselfe and of the joy and glory of His blessed throne that so we may find feele Him as this day here the Authour so in that day there the Finisher of our Faith by the same our LORD IESVS CHRIST Amen Printed for RICHARD BADGER SERMONS OF THE Resurrection PREACHED ON EASTER-DAY A SERMON Preached before the KINGS MAIESTIE AT WHITE-HALL on the VI. of Aprill A. D. MDCVI being EASTER-DAY ROM CHAP. VI. VER IX X.XI Scientes quod CHRISTVS c. Knowing that CHRIST being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over Him For in that He died He died once to sinne but in that He liveth He liveth to GOD. Likewise think or accompt ye also that ye are dead to sinne but are alive to GOD in Iesus Christ our Lord. THE Scripture is as the Feast is both of them of the resurrection And this we may safely say of it it is thought by the Church so pertinent to the feast as it ever hath beene and is appointed to be the very entry of this daies Service to be founded forth and soong first of all and before all upon this day as if there were some speciall correspondence betweene the Day and it Two principall points are sett downe to us out of the two principall words in it One Scientes in the first verse Knowing the other reputate in the last verse Compt your selves Knowing and Compting Knowledge and calling our selves to accompt for our Knowledge Two points very needfull to be ever joyntly called upon and more then needfull 〈◊〉 our times â—eing 〈◊〉 much we know and 〈◊〉 we compt oft we heare and when we have heard smâ—ll reckonâ—ng we make of it What CHRIST did on Easter day wâ— know well what we aâ—e 〈◊〉 to do we give no great regard our Scientes is withoâ—t a Reputantes Now this Scripture ex totâ— Substantiâ out of the whole frame of it teacheth us oâ—herwise that Câ—â—tiaâ— kâ—â—â—ledge is not a knowledge without all manner of accompt but that we are accomptants for it that we are to keepe an Audite of what we heare and take accompt of our selves of what we have learned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an Auditor's tearme thence the HOLY GHOST hath taken it and would have us to be Auditors in both Senses And this to be generall in whatsoever we know But specially in our knowledge touching this Fâ—â—st of CHRIST 's resurrection where there are speciall words for it in the Text â—herein expresse termes an accompt is calld for at our hands as an essenâ—â—all duâ—y of the Day The benefit we remember is so great the Feast we hold so high aâ— though at other times we might be forborne yet on this day we may not Ver. 11. Now the summe of our accompt is set down in these words Similiter vos that we fashion our selves like to CHRIST dying and rising cast our selves in the same molds expresse Him in both as neere as we can To accompt of these first that is to accompt our selves bound thus to doe To accompt for these second that is to accompt with our selves whither we do so First to accompt our selves bound thus to doe resolving thus within our selves that to heare a Sermon of the Resurrection is nothing to keepe a feast of the Resurrection is as much except it end in Similiter vos Nisi saith Saint Gregorie quod de more celebratur etiam quoad mores exprimatur Vnlesse we expresse the matter of the Feast in the forme of our lives Vnlesse as He from the grave So we from sinne and live to godlinesse as He vnto GOD. Then to accompt with our selves whither we doe thus that is to sit downe and reflect upon the Sermons we heare and the feasts we keepe how by knowing CHRIST 's death we die to sinne how by knowing His Resurrection we live to GOD how our estate in soule is bettered how the fruit of the words we heare and the feasts we keepe doth abound daily toward our accompt against the great Audite And this to be our accompt every Easter-day The division Of these two points the former is in the two first verses what we must know the later is in the last What we must accompt for And they be joyned with Similiter to shew us they be and must be of aequall and like regard and we as
us He and we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is so grafted one into the other that he is part of us and we of Him So that as Saint Bernard well observeth Christus etsi solus resurrexit tamen non totus That Christ though He be risen onely yet He is not risen wholly or all till we be risen too He is but risen in part and that He may rise all we must rise from death also This then we know first That death is not a fall like that of Pharao into the sea that sunk downe like a lump of leade into the bottome Exod. 15.10 and never came up more but a fall like that of Iona's Ion. 1.17.2.10 Matt. 12.40.25 41. Esay 26.19 into the Sea who was received by a fish and after cast up againe It is our Saviour Christ's owne Simile A fall not like that of the Angells into the bottomelesse pitt there to stay for ever but like to that of men into their bedds when they make accompt to stand up againe A fall not as of a log or stone to the ground which where it falleth there it lyeth still but as of a wheate corne into the ground which is quickned and springeth up againe 1. Cor. 15.36 The very word which the Apostle vseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implieth the two later 1 either of a fall into a bed in our chamber where though we lye to see to little better then dead for a time yet in the morning we awake and stand up notwithstanding 2 Or of a fall into a bed in our garden where though the seede patrifie and come to nothing yet we looke to see it shoote forth anew in the spring Which spring is as Tertullian well calleth it the very resurrection of the yeare and Christ's resurrection falleth well with it And it is saith he no way consonant to reason that man for whom all things spring and rise againe should not have his Spring and rising too But he shall have them we doubt not by this daies worke He that this day did rise and rising was seene of Marie Magdalen in the likenesse of a gardiner Ioh 20.15 this gardiner will looke to it that man shall have his spring He will saith the Prophet drop upon us a dew like the dew of herbs and the earth shall yeeld foorth her dead And so as CHRIST is risen from the dead Esay 26.19 even so shall we â— That Christ now dieth not Luk. 7.11.14 8.54 Ioh. 11.43 Our second Particular is That as He is risen so now he dieth not Which is no idle addition but hath his force and Emphasis For one thing it is to rise from the dead and another not to die any more The Widowe's Sonne of Naïm the Ruler's daughter of the Synagogue Lazarus all these rose againe from death yet they died afterward But Christ rising from the dead dyeth no more These two are sensibly different Lazaru's resurrection and Christ's and this second is sure a higher degree then the former If we rise as they did that we returne to this same mortall life of ours againe this very mortalitie of ours will be to us as the prisoners chaine he escapes away withall by it we shall be pulled back again though we should rise a thousand times We must therfore so rise as Christ that our resurrection be not reditus but transitus not a returning back to the same life Ioh. 5.24 but a passing over to a new Transivit de morte ad vitam saith he The very feast it selfe puts us in minde of as much It is Pascha that is the Passeover not a comming back to the same land of Aegypt Deut. 17.16 but a passing over to a better the land of Promise whither Christ our Passeover is passed before us and shall in his good time give us passage after Him 1. Cor. 5.7 The Apostle expresseth it best where he saith that Christ by His rising hath abolished death 2. Tim 1.10 and brought to light life and immortalitie not life alone but lifâ— and immortalitie which is this our second particular Risen and Risen to die no more because risen to life to life immmortall 〈◊〉 the third is yet beyond both these more worth the knowing 3. That from hence forth death hath no more dominion over Him more worthy 〈◊〉 accâ—mpâ— death hath no dominion over him Where as we before sayd one thing it was to rise againe another to dye no more so say we now it is one thing not to dyes another not to be under the dominion of death For death and deaths doâ—â—nion are two different things Death it selfe is nothing els but the very separation of the life from the body death's dominion a thing of farre larger extent By which word of dominion the Apostle would have us to conceive of death as of some great Lord having some large Signiorie Ver. 14.17.21 Even as three severall times in the Chapter before he saith Regnavit mors death reigned as if death were some mighty Monarch having some great dominions under him And so it is For looke how many dangers how many diseases sorrowes calamities miseries there be of this mortall life how many paynes perills snares of death so many severall provinces are there of this dominion In all which or some of them while we live we still are under the jurisdiction and arrest of death all the dayes of our life And say that we scape them all and none of them happen to us yet live we still under feare of them and that is deathe's dominion too Iob. 1â— 14. For He is as Iob calleth Him Rex pavoris King of feare And when we are out of this life too unlesse we pertayne to CHRIST and His resurrection we are not out of his dominion neyther For Hell it selfe is secunda mors so termed by Saint Iohn the second death Apoc 20.14.21.8 or second part of death's dominion Now who is there that would desire to rise againe to this life yea though it were immortall to be still under this dominion of death heer still subject still liable to the aches and paynes to the greefs and gripings to all the manifold miseries of this vale of the shaddow of death But then the other the second region of death the second part of his dominion who can endure once to be there There they seeke and wish for death and death flyeth from them Verily Rising is not enough rising not to dye againe is not enough except we may be quit of this dominion and rid of that which we either feele or feare all our life long Therefore doth the Apostle add and so it was needfull he should death hath no dominion over Him No dominion over Him No for He dominion over it For lest any might surmise He might breake through some wall or gett out at some window and so steale a resurrection or casually come to it He tells
flesh the like wrought in us by his Spirit It is a Maxime or maine ground in all the Fathers that such an accompt must be The former what CHRIST hath wrought for us Deus reputat nobis GOD accompteth to us For the latter what CHRIST hath wrought in us Reputate vos we must accompt to GOD. And that is Similiter vos that we fashion our selves like him Like him in as many points as we may but namely and expresly in these two here sett downe 1 In dying to sinne 2 In living unto GOD in these two first and then secondly in doing both these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but once for all 1. In dying to sinne Eph. 5.1 1. Pet. 2.21 Like him in these two 1 In His dying For He died not onely to offer a Sacrifice for us saith Saint Paul but also to leave an example to us saith Saint Peter That example are we to be like 2 In His rising For He arose not onely that we might be regenerated to a lively hope 1. Pet. 1.3 saith Saint Peter but also that we might be grafted into the similitude of His Resurrection saith Saint Paul a little before in the fifth verse of this very Chapter That Similitude are we to resemble So have we the exemplarie part of both these wherevnto we are to frame our Similiter vos He died to sinne there is our paterne Our first accompt must be Compt your selves dead to sinne And that we do when there is neither action nor affection nor any signe of life in us toward sinne no more then in a dead bodie when as men crucified which is not onely his death but the kind of his death too we neither moove hand nor stirr foot toward it both are nayled downe fast In a word to die to sinne with Saint Paul heer is to ceasse from sinne with S. Peter 1. Pet. 4.1 To ceasse from sinne I say understanding by sin not from sin altogither that is a higher perfection then this life will beare but as the Apostle expoundeth himselfe in the very next words Verse 12. Ne regnet peccatum that is from the dominion of sinne to ceasse For till we be free from death it selfe which in this life we are not we shall not be free from sinne altogither onely we may come thus farr ne regnet that sinne reigne not weare not a crown fit not in a throne hold no Parliaments within us give us no lawes in a word as in the fourth verse before that we serve it not To dye to the dominion of sinne that by the grace of GOD we may and that we must accompt for He liveth to GOD. There is our similitude of His resurrection â— In living to GOD. our second accompt must be Compt your selves living unto GOD. Now how that is he hath already told us in the fourth verse even to walke in newnesse of life To walke is to move moving is a vitall action and argueth life But it must not be any life our oâ—d will not serve it must be a new life we must not returne backe to our former course but passe over to another new conversation And in a word as before to live to GOD with Saint Paule heer is to live secundùm Deum according to GOD in the spirit with Saint Peter 1. Peter 4.6 And then live we according to Him when His will is our law His word our rule His Sonnes life our example His Spirit rather then our owne soule the guide of our actions Thus shall we be grafted into the similitude of his Resurrection Now this similitude of the resurrection calleth to my minde another similitude of the resurrection in this life too which I finde in Scripture mentioned it fitteth us well it will not be amisse to remember you of it by the way it wil make us the better willing to enter into this accompt At the time that Isaac should have been offered by his Father Isaac was not slaine Gen. 22.7 very neere it he was there was fire and there was a knife and he was appointed readie to be a Sacrifice Of which case of his the Apostle in the mention of his Father Abraham's faith Heb. 11. Abraham saith he by faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11.19 made full accompt if Isaac had beene slaine GOD was able to raise him from the dead And even from the dead GOD raised him and his Father received him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a certaine similitude or after a sort Marke that well Raising Isaac from imminent danger of present death is with the Apostle a kind of resurrection And if it be so and if the Holy Ghost warrant us to call that a kind of resurrection how can we but on this day the Day of the Resurrection call to minde and withall render vnto GOD our vnfeigned thankes and praise for our late resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our kind of resurrection He not long since vouchsafed us Our case was Isaac's case without doubt there was fire and in stead of a knife there was powder enough and we were designed all of us and even ready to be sacrificed even Abraham Isaac and all Certainely if Isaac's were ours was a kind of resurrection and we so to acknowledge it We were as neere as he we were not onely within the Dominion but within the Verge nay even within the very gates of death From thence hath GOD raised us and given us this yeare this similitude of the resurrection that we might this day of the Resurrection of His SONNE present him with this in the Text of rising to a new course of life And now to returne to our fashioning our selves like to Him in these As there is a death naturall and a death civill so is there a death morall both in Philosophie and in Divinitie and if a death then consequently a resurrection too Every great and notable change of our course of life whereby we are not now any longer the same men that before we were be it from worse to better or from better to worse is a morall death A morall death to that we change from and a morall resurrection to that we change to If we change to the better that is sinn's death if we alter to the worse that is sinn's resurrection when we commit sinne we die we are dead in sinne when we repent we revive againe when we repent our selves of our repenting and relapse back then sinne riseth againe from the dead and so toties quoties And even upon these two as two hinges turneth our whole life All our life is spent in one of them Now then that we be not all our life long thus off and on fast or loose â— And that once for all in docke out nettle and in nettle out docke it will behoove us once more yet to looke backe upon our similiter vos even upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 semel
and so risen that is to speake after the manner of men that there is in Christ a double capacitie 1 One as a body naturall considered by himselfe without any relative respect vnto us or to any In which regard well may we be glad as one stranger is for another but otherwise His rising concernes us not at all 2 Then that He hath a second as a body Politique or chiefe part of a Companie or Corporation that have to him and he to them a mutuall and reciprocall reference In which respect His resurrection may concerne us no lesse then himselfe It is that he giveth us the first Item of in the word Primitiae that Christ in His rising commeth not to be considered as a Totum integrale or body naturall alone as Christ onely but that which maketh for us He hath besides another capacitie that He is a part of a corporation or body of which bodie we are the members This being woon looke what he hath suffered or done it perteineth to us and we have our part in it You shall finde and Aâ— a part of the whole ever when you finde such words make much of them Christ called a a Ephes. 1.22 Head a Head is a part Christ called a b Apoc. 22.16 Root a Root is a part and heer Christ called first fruits which we all know is but a part of the fruits but a handfull of a heape or a sheafe and referreth to the rest of the fruits as a part to the whole So that there is in the Apostles conceipt one masse or heape of all mankinde of which Christ is the first fruits we the remainder So as by the Law of the body all His concerne us no lesse then they doe Him whatsoever He did He did to our behoofe Die He or rise we have our part in His death and in His resurrection and all why because He is but the first fruits And if He were but Primus and not Primitiae dormientium there were hope For Primus is an ordinall number and draweth after a second a third and GOD knoweth how many But if in that word there be any scruple as sometime it is Ante quem non est rather then post quem est alius if no more come but one all the world knowes the first fruits is but a part of the fruits there are fruits beside them no man knoweth how many As a part for the whole But that which is more The first fruicts is not every part but such a part as representeth the whole and hath an operative force over the whole For the better understanding whereof we are to have recourse to the Law to the very institution or first beginning of them Levit. 23.10 Ever the Legall ceremonie is a good key to the Evangelicall mysterie Thereby we shall see why saint Paul made choise of the word first fruicts to expresse Himselfe by that he useth verbum vigilans a word that is awake as Saint Augustine saith or as Salomon a word upon his own wheel Pro. 25.11 The Head or the root would have served for if the head be above the water there is hope for the whole body and if the Root have life the braunches shall not long be without yet he refuseth these and other that offered themselves and chooseth rather the terme of first fruicts And why so This very day Easter day the day of CHRIST 's rising according to the Law is the day or feast of the first fruicts the very Feast carieth him to the word nothing could be more fit or seasonable for the time The day of the Passion is the day of the Passover Chap. 5.7 and CHRIST is our Passover the day of the Resurrection is the day of the first fruicts and CHRIST is our first fruicts And this terme thus chosen you shall see there is a very apt and proper resemblance between the resurrection and it The rite and manner of the first fruictes thus it was Vnder the Law they might not eate of the fruicts of the earth so long as they were prophane Prophane they were untill they were sacred And on this wise were they sacred Levit. 23.10.11.14 All the sheaves in a field for example's sake were unholy One sheaf is taken out of all the rest which sheafe we call the first fruicts That in the name of the rest is lift up aloft and shaken to and fro before the LORD and so consecrated That done not onely the sheafe so lifted up was holy though that alone was lift up but all the sheaves in the field were holy no lesse then it The rule is Ro. 11.16 If the first fruicts be holy all the lumpe is so too 2. Co. 5.14 And thus for all the world fareth it in the Resurrection We were all dead saith the Apostle dead sheaves all One and that is CHRIST this day the day of first fruits was in manner of a sheafe taken out of the number of the dead and in the name of the rest lift up from the grave and in His rising He shooke for there was a great Earth-quake Matt. 28.2 By vertue whereof the first fruits being restored to life all the rest of the dead are in Him entitled to the same hope in that He was not so lift up for himselfe alone but for us and in our names And so the substance of this Feast fulfilled in CHRIST 's resurrection Not of the dead but Of â—hem that sleepe Our Hope Now upon this lifting up there ensueth a very great alteration if you please to marke it It was even now CHRIST is risen from the dead the first fruits it should be of the dead too for from thence He rose it is not so but the first fruits of them that sleepe that you may see the consecration hath wrought a change A change and a great change certainly to change 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a buriall place into a coemeterie that is a great Dortor Graves into beddes Death into sleepe Dead men into men layd downe to take their rest a rest of hope of hope to rise againe If they sleepe Ioh. 11.12 they shall doe well And that which lyeth open in the word Dormientium the very same is enfolded in the word first fruits Either word affordeth comfort For first fruits imply fruits And so we as the fruits of the earth falling as do the graines or kernells into the ground and there lying to all mens seeming putrified and past hope yet on a sodeine against the great Feast of first fruits shooting forth of the ground againe The other of Dormientium the Apostle letteth goe and fastens on this of fruits and followeth it hard through the rest of the Chapter shewing that the rising againe of the fruits sowen Ver. 36. would be no lesse incredible then the resurrection but that we see it so every yeare These two words of 1 sleeping and 2 sowing
would be layd up well That which is sowen riseth up in the spring that which sleepeth in the morning So conceive of the change wrought in our nature that feast of first fruits by CHRIST our first fruits Neither perish neither that which is sowen though it rott nor they that sleepe though they lye as dead for the time Both that shall spring and these wake well againe Therefore as men sowe not grudgingly nor lye downe at night unwillingly no more must we seeing by vertue of this Feast we are now Dormientes not mortui now not as stones but as fruits of the earth whereof one hath an annuall the other a diurnall resurrection This for the first fruits and the change by them wrought There is a good analogie or correspondence betweene these III. The ground of our hope it cannot be denied To this question Can one man's resurrection worke upon all the rest it is a good answer Why not as well as one sheafe upon the whole harvest This Simile serves well to shew it To shew but not prove Symbolicall Divinitie is good but might we see it in the rationall too We may see it in the cause no lesse in the substance and let the ceremonie goe This I called the Ground of our hope Why saith the Apostle should this of the first fruits seeme strange to you that by one mans resurrection we should rise all seeing by one mans death we die all By one man saith he Rom. 5.12 sinne entred into the world and by sinne death to which sinne we were no parties and yet we all die because we are of the same nature whereof he the first person Death came so certainely and it is good reason life should doe so likewise To this question Can the resurrection of one a thousand sixe hundred yeares agoe be the cause of our rising it is a good answer Why not as well as the death of one five thousand sixe hundred yeares ago be the cause of our dying The ground and reason is that there is like ground and reason of both The wisest way it is if Wisedome can contrive it that a person be cured by Mithridate made of the very flesh of the viper bruised whence the poison came that so that which brought the mischiefe might minister also the remedie The most powerfull way it is if Power can effect it to make strength appeare in weakenesse and that He that overcame should by the nature which He overcame be swallowed up in victorie The best way it is if Goodnesse will admit of it that as next to Sathan man to man oweth his destruction so next to GOD man to man might be debtor of his recoverie So agreeable it is to the Power Wisedome and Goodnesse of GOD this the three Attributes of the Blessed and Glorious Trinitie And let Iustice weigh it in her ballance no iust exception can be taken to it no not by Iustice it selfe that as death came so should life too the same way at least More favour for life if it may be but in very rigour the same at the least According then to the very exact rule of Iustice both are to be alike If by man one by man the other We dwell too long in generalities Let us draw neerer to the persons themselves in whom we shall see this better In them all answer exactly word for word Adam is fallen and become the first fruits of them that die CHRIST is risen and became the first fruits of them that live for they that sleepe live Or you may if you please keepe the same terme in both thus Adam is risen as we vse to call rebellions risings He did rise against GOD by Eritis sicut Dij Gen 3.6 He had never fallen if he had not thus risen His rising was his fall We are now come to the two great Persons that are the two great Authors of the two great matters in this world life and death Not either to themselves and none els but as two Heads two Roots two first fruits either of them in reference to his companie whom they stand for And of these two hold the two great Corpâ—rations 1 Of them that die they are Adam's 2 Of them that sleepe and shall rise that is CHRIST ' s. To come then to the particular No reason in the world that Adam's transgression should draw us all downe to death onely for that we were of the same lump and that CHRIST 's righteousnesse should not be availeable to raise us up againe to life being of the same sheaves whereof He the first fruits no lesse then before of Adam Looke to the things Death and Life Weakenesse is the cause of death Raising to life commeth of Power 2. Cor. 13.4 Shall there be in Weakenesse more strength to hurt then in Power to do us good Looke to the Persons Adam and CHRIST shall Adam being but a living soule Ver. 45.47 infect us more strongly then Christ a quickning spirit can heale us againe Nay then Adam was but from the earth earthly CHRIST the LORD from heaven Shall earth doe that which heaven cannot vndoe Never it cannot be Sicut Sic As and So so runne the termes But the Apostle in Rom. 5. where he handleth this very point tells us plainly Non sicut delictum Rom. 5.15 ita donum Not as the fault so the Grace Nor as the fall so the Rising but the Grace and the Rising much more abundant It seemeth to be A pari it is not indeed It is under value Great odds between the Persons the Things the powers and the meanes of them Thus then meet it should be Let us see how it was Heer againe the very termes give us great light We are saith he restored Restoring doth alwaies presuppose an attainder going before and so the terme significant For the nature of attainder is One person maketh the fault but it taints his blood and all his posteritie The a Heb. 9.27 Apostle saith that a Statute there is All men should dye But when we go to search for it we can finde none but b Gen. 3.19 Pulvis es wherin onely Adam is mentioned and so none die but he But even by that Statute death goeth over all men even those saith Saint Paul that have not sinned after the like manner of transgression of Adam By what law By the law of Attainders The Restoring then likewise was to come and did come after the same manner as did the attainders That by the first this by the second Adam so He is called Ver. 45. Lev. 18.5 There was a Statute concerning GOD 's commaundements qui fecerit ea vivet in eis He that observed the commaundements should live by that his obedience Death should not seise on him CHRIST did observe them exactly therefore should not have beene seised on by death should not but was and that seisure of his was deathe's forfeiture The laying of the former Statute on
CHRIST was the utter making it void So Iudgement was entred and an Act made CHRIST should be restored to life And because He came not for Himself but for us and in our name and stead did represent us and so we virtually in Him by His restoring we also were restored By the rule si Primitae tota conspersio sic as the First fruicts go Rom. 11.16 so goeth the whole lumpe as the Roote the branches And thus we have gotten life againe of mankind by passing this Act of Restitution whereby we have hope to be restored to life But life is a terme of latitude and admitteth a broad difference which it behooveth us much that we know Two lives there be In the holy Tongue the word which signifieth life is of the duall number to shew us there is a dualitie of lives that two there be and that we to have an eye to both It will helpe us to understand our Text. For all restored to life All to one not all to both The Apostle doth after at the 44 Verse expressly name them both 1 One a Naturall life or life by the living soule The other â— a Spirituall life or life by the quickening Spirit Of these two Adam at the time of his fall had the first of a living soule was seised of it and of him all mankind Christ and we all receive that life But the other the Spirituall which is the life cheifly to be accompted of that he then had not not actually Onely a possibilitie he had if he had held him in obedience and walked with GOD to have been translated to that other life For cleer it is the life which Angells now live with GOD and which we have hope and promise to live with Him Luc. 20.36 after our restoring when we shall be aequall to the Angells that life Adam at the time of his fall was not possessed of Now Adam by his fall fell from both forfeited both estates Not onely that he had in reversion by not fullfilling the conditions but even that he had in esse too For even on that also did Death seise after Et mortuus est CHRIST in his restitution to all the sonnes of Adam to all our whole nature restoreth the former therefore all have interest all shall partake that life What Adam actually had we shall actually have we shall all be restored To repaire our nature He came and repaire it He did all is given againe really that in Adam really we lost touching Nature So that by his fall no detriment at all that way The other the second that He restoreth too but not promiscuè as the former to all Why for Adam was never seised of it performed not that whereunto the possibilitie was annexed and so had in it but a defeicible estate But then by His speciall grace by a second peculiar act He hath enabled us to atteine the second estate also which Adam had onely a reversion of and lost by breaking of the condition whereto it was limited And so to this second restored so many as to vse the Apostle's words in the next verse are in Him that is so many as are not only of that masse or lump whereof Adam was the first fruits for they are interessed in the former onely but that are besides of the nova conspersio whereof CHRIST is the Primitiae a Ioh. 1.12 They that beleeve in Him saith Saint Iohn them He hath enabled b Ioh. 20.17 to them He hath given power to become the sonnes of GOD to whom therefore He saith this day rising Vado ad Patrem vestrum In which respect the Apostle calleth Him c Rom. 8.29 Primogenitum inter multos fratres Or to make the comparison even to those that are to speake but as d Esay 8. â—â— Esay speaketh of them His children Behold I and the the children GOD hath given me The terme He vseth Himselfe to them after His resurrection and calleth them Children And they as His familie take denomination of Him Christians of CHRIST Of these two lives the first we need take no thought for It shall be of all the vnjust as well as the iust The life of the living soule shall be to all restored All our thought is to be for the later how to have our part in that supernaturall life for that is indeed to be restored to life For the former though it carie the name of life yet it may well be disputed and is Whether it be rather a death then a life or a life then a death A life it is and not a life for it hath no living thing in it A death it is and not a death for it is an immortall death But most certaine it is call it life if you will they that shall live that life shall wish for death rather then it and this is the miserie not have their wish for death shall flie from them Out of this double life and double restoring there grow two Resurrections in the world to come set downe by our SAVIOVR in expresse termes Ioh. 5. â—9 Though both be to life yet 1 that is called condemnation to judgement and 2 this onely Heb. 11.35 to life Of these the Apostle calleth one the better resurrection the better beyond all comparison To atteine this then we bend all our endeavours that seeing the other will come of it selfe without taking any thought for it at all we may make sure of this To compasse that then we must be in CHRIST So it is in the next verse To all but to every one in order CHRIST first the first fruits and then they that be in Him Now He is in us by our flesh and we in Him by His Spirit and it standeth with good reason they that be restored to life should be restored to the Spirit For the Spirit is the cause of all life but specially of the Spirituall life which we seeke for His Spirit then we must possesse our selves of and we must doe that heere for it is but one and the same Spirit that raiseth our soules heere from the death of Sinne Rom. 8.11 and the same that shall raise our bodies there from the dust of death Of which Spirit there is first fruits to reteine the words of the Text and a fullnesse But the fullnesse in this life we shall never atteine Our highest degree heer is but to be of the number whereof he was that said Et nos habentes primitias Spiritus Rom. 8 23. These first fruits we first receive in our Baptisme which is to us Tit. 3.5 our Laver of regeneration and of our renewing by the holy Spirit where we are made and consecrate Primitiae Heb. 12.1 But as we need be restored to life so I doubt had we need to be restored to the Spirit too We are at many losses of it by this sinne that cleaveth so faâ—t to us I doubt it is with us as
Resurrection stayd longest at that came soonest to this Even in this respect to be respected Sure as it is said of the Law Vigilantibus non dormientibus succurrit lex so may it no lesse truly be said of the Gospell We see it heere it commeth not to sleepers but to them that are awake and up and about their businesse as these Women were So that there was a capacitie in them to receive this prerogative Marie Magdalen first Before I leave this part of the Parties I may not omit to observe Marie Magdalen's place and precedence among the three All the Fathers are carefull to note it That she standeth first of them For it seemeth no good order She had had seven divells in her as we finde Luk. 7.37 Verse 9. She had had the blemish to be called Peccatrix as one famous and notorious in that kinde The other were of honest report and never so stained Yet is she named with them With them were much but not onely with them but before them With them and that is to shew Christ's resurrection as well as His Death reacheth to Sinners of both sexes And that to Sinners of note no lesse then those that seeme not to have greatly gone astray But before them too And that is indeed to be noted that she is the first in the list of Women and Saint Peter in that of men These two the two chiefe Sinners either of their sexe Yet they Col. 1.12 the two whose lots came first forth in Sorte Sanctorum in pertaking this newes And this to shew that chiefe Sinners as these were if they carrie themselves Luk. 15.22 as these did shall be at no losse by their fall shall not onely be pardoned but honored even as he was like these with stolâ primâ the first robe in all the Wardrobe and stand foremost of all And it is not without a touch of the former reason In that the Sinner after his recoverie for the most part seeketh GOD more fervently Whereas they that have not greatly gone astray are but even so so if warme it is all And with GOD it is a Rule Plus valet hora fervens quà m mensis tepens An hower of fervor more worth then a month of tepor Now such was Marie Magdalen heere and elsewhere vouchsafed therefore this degree of exaltation to be of the first three nay to be the first of the three that heard first of His rising Yea as in the ninth Verse that first saw Him risen from the dead This of the Persons 2. Sam. 23.19 And now because their endeuours were so well liked 2. Their iourney and therein thâ—ir love as they were for them counted worthy this so great honor it falleth next to consider what those were that we being like prepared may partake the like good happ So seeking as they we may finde as they did They were foure in number The first and third in the II. the second in the I. and the last in the III. verse All reduced as CHRIST reduced them in Marie Magdalene to Dilexit multum their great Love Of which these foure be foure Demonstrations Or if love be an Ensigne as it is termed Cant. 2. the foure Colours of it 1. That they went to the Sepulcher Love Cant. 2.4 to one dead 2. That they bought pretious odours Love that is at charges 3. That out they went early before breake of day Love that will take paines 4. That for all the stone still they went on Love that will wrestle with impediments The first is constant as to the dead The second bounteous as aâ— expense The third diligent as up betimes The last resolute be the stone never so great According to which foure are the foure denominations of Love 1 Amor â— morte when it surviveth death 2 When it buyeth dearely it is Charitas â— When it sheweth all diligence it is Dilectio 4 When it goeth per Saxa when stones cannot stay it it is Zelus which is specially seene in encountâ—ing 〈◊〉 It shall not be amisse to touch them severally it will serve to touch our Love whether ours be of the same assay The first riseth out of these words They went to the Sepulcher 1 Love to the dead Amor. And indeed ex totâ substantiâ out of the whole Text. For for whom is all this adoe is it not for CHRIST But CHRIST is dead and buried three daies since and this is now the third day What then though He be dead to their love He liveth still Death may take His body from their eyes but shall never take His remembrance from their hearts Heerein is Love this the first Colour saith a great Master in that facultie Fortis sicut Mâ—rs Love Cant. 8 6. that death cannot foile but continueth to the dead as if they still were alive And when I say the dead I meane not such as the dead hath left behind them though that be a vertue and BOOZ worthily blessed for it Path 2 20. that shewed mercie to the living for the dead's sake but I meane performing offices of love to the dead himselfe To see he have a Sepulcher to goe to Not so to burie his friend as he would burie his Asse being dead To see he have one and not thither to bring him and there to leave him and burie him and his memorie both in a grave Such is the world's love SALOMON sheweth it Eccle 9.4 by the Lion and the Dog All after CHRIST living But goe to His Sepulcher who will not we The love that goeth thither that burieth not the memorie of Him that is buried is Love indeed The iourney to the Sepulcher is Iter amoris a a Love that was aâ— charges â—â—aritas â—on 11.31 had it beene but to lament as Marie Magdalen to Lazaru's Iohn 11. But then heer is a farther matter They went to annoint Him That is set for another signe that they spâ—red for no cost but bought pretious odours wherewith to embalme Him 1. To goe to annoint CHRIST is kindly It is to make him CHRIST that is Annointed That terme referreth principally to His Father's annointing I grant but what if we also annoint Him will he take it in evill part Cleerely not Neither quick nor dead Not quick Luk. 7. Mâ—r. 14. Not dead this place is pregnant it is the end of their journey to doe this He is well content to be their Luk. 7.46 Mar. 14.3 and our Annointed Not His Father's onely yea it is a way to make Him Christum nostrum Our CHRIST if we breake our boxes and bestow our odours vpon Him 2. To Annoint Him And not with some odd cast ointment lying by them kept a little too long to throw away upon Him But to buy to be a Ì„t cost to doe it Emptis odoribus with bought odours 3. This to doe to Him alive that would they with all their hearts But if that cannot be to doe it
must be Hoc facite It is not mentall thinking or verball speaking there must be actually somewhat done to celebrate this Memorie That done to the holy symboles that was done to Him to His body and His bloud in the Passe-over Breake the one poâ—re out the other to represent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how His sacred body was broken and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how His pretious bloud was shedd And in Corpus fractum and Sangus fusus there is Immolatus This is it in the Eucharist that answereth to the Sacrifice in the Passe-over The memoriall to the figure To them it was Hoc facite in Mei praefigurationem do this in praefiguration of Me Luk. 22.19 1. Cor. 11.26 To us it is Doe this in commemoration of Me. To them Prenuntiare to us Anâ—untiare there is the difference By the same rules that theirs was by the same may ours be termed a Sacrifice In rigor of speech neither of them Heb. 10.4 for to speake after the exact manner of Divinitie There is but one onely sacrifice veri nominis properly so called That is CHRIST 's death Heb. 9.28 And that sacrifice but once actually performed at His death but ever before represented in figure from the beginning and ever since repeated in memorie to the world's end That only absoluâ—e all els relative to it representative of it operative by it The Lamb but once actually slaine in the fulnesse of time but virtually was from the beginning is and shall be to the end of the world That the Center in which their lines and ours their types and our anti-types doe meet While yet this offering was not the hope of it was kept alive by the prefiguration of it in theirs And after it is past the memorie of it is still kept fresh in minde by the commemoration of it in ours So it was the will of GOD that so there might be with them a continuall fore-shewing and with us a continuall shewing foâ—â—h the LOâ—D'S death till He come againe Hence it is that what names theirs caried ours doe the like and the Fathers make no scruple at it no more need we The Apostle in the X. Chapter compareth this of ours to the Immolata of the Heathen 1 Cor. 10 21. c. Heb. 13.10 And to the Hebrewes Habemus Aram maâ—cheth it with the Sacrifice of the Iewes And we know the rule of comparisons They must be eiusdem generis Neither do we stay Heere but proceed to the other Epâ—lemâ—r For â— Epâ—lemur In the Sacrament there is another thing yet to be done which dotâ— present to uâ— that which Celebremus â—oth represent From the Sacrament is the applying the Sacrifice The Sacrifice in generall Pro omnibus The Sacrament in particular to each severall receiver Pro singulis Wherein that is offered to us that was offered for us that which is common to all made proper to each one while each taketh his part of it and made proper by a communion and vnion like that of meat and drinke which is most neerely and inwardly made ours and is inseparable for ever There Celebremus passeth with the representation But heere Epulemur as a nourishment abideth with us still In that we see and in this we taste Psal. 54 8. how gratious the Lord is and hath beene to us And so much for these two as two meanes to partake the Benefit and we to vse them and as Duties required of us and we to performe them Will ye marke one thing more That Epulemur doth heere referre to Immolatus To Christ not every way considered but as when He was offered Christ's body that now is True but not Christ's body as now it is but as then it was when it was offered rent and slaine and sacrificed for us Not as now He is glorifed for so He is not so He cannot be immolatus For He is immortall and impassible But as then He was when He suffered death that is passible and mortall Then in His passible estate did He institute this of ours to be a memoriall of His Passibile and Passio both And we are in this action not onely carried up to Christ Sursum corda but we are also carried back to Christ as He was at the very instant and in the very act of His offering So and no otherwise doth this Text teach So and no otherwise doe we represent Him By the incomprehensible power of His eternall Spirit not He alone but He as at the very act of His offering is made present to us and we incorpoâ—ate into His death and invested in the benefits of it If an host could be turned into Him now glorified as He is it would not serve Christ offered is it Thither we must looke a Ioâ— 3.14 To the Serpent lift up thither we must repaire b Luk. 17.37 even ad cadaver we must c 1. Cor. 11.24 hoc facere doe that is then done So and no otherwise is this Epulare to be conceived And so I thinke none will say they doe or can turne Him 1. Itaque We bound to keepe it Now all we have to doe is to shew what we thinke of this Itaque whither it shall conclude us or no and that we shew it by our practice for other answer the Apostle will take none If we play fast or loose with it on this fashion as divers doe upon the matter as good to say The Holy Ghost cannot tell how to make an argument Christ is offered but no Itaque epulemur for all that Thus we will not say for very shame What then will we dispensare contra Apostolum which we blame as a foule abuse in the Pope and yet I cannot see but every meane person takes upon Him Papall authoritie in this case and as oft as we list dispense with the Apostle and his Itaque exempt our selves from his conclusion That we will not seeme to do No it is not at Itaque The truth is it is at Non in fermento we stick we love our levin so well be it malice or be it some other levin as bad so well we love it we will not part with it we loath the Lamb rather then the levin shall out But in the meane time there is no trifling with this conclusion there is no dispensing with the Apostle there is no wanton wilfull dis-abling our selves will serve Itaque will not be so answered Not but with Epulemur It layeth a necessitie upon every one to be a guest at this feast The Iewes we know were held hard to theirs upon a great paine to have not their names Exod. 12.19 but their soules cut out from GOD 's people And is it a lesse trespasse for Christians to passe by this Passe over or hath the Church lesse band to exact like care at our hands No indeed we must know the Holy Ghost can tell how to inferre And that this Itaque of the Apostle's is a binding
Him to love it for His very Person 2. Worke. And in this vertue He is not barely set out to us but in it and by it bringing to passe the worke of our redemption Which cannot but extraordinarily commend this vertue to us in that it hath pleased GOD to doe more for us in this His Humilitie Ioh. 10.38.14.11 then ever He did in all His Maiestie even to save and redeeme us by it To love it then if not for Him yet for the worke 's sake 3. Reward But specially which is the third for the Propter quod in the Text if not for the worke yet for the Reward 's sake That as CHRIST was no loser by it no more shall we For all this Glory here the way to it is by the first verse Humiliavit is the beginning and the end of it is Exalting That the mother this the daughter all riseth from Humiliavit ipse se. Iames 4.10 1. Pet. 5.6 Humiliamini ergo saith Saint Iames Humiliamini ergo saith Saint Peter and after it there followeth still exaltabit vos Deus a promise of a like glorious end And what saith the Apostâ—e here This minde saith he was in CHRIST Verse 5. and it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wise mind That we count it a wise minde and worth the carying and carie it and it shall carie us to the same iourneys end it brought Him even to the glory of GOD the Father This for Humilitie Obediens Domino And what Shall we not give some light triall of our Obedience also to averre our Confession that He is our Lord It would be by Domine quid nos vis facere that is the true triall Say then Domine quid nos vis facere And He will answer us Hoc facite in Mei memoriam Will ye know what I would have you doe Doe this in remembrance of Me In signe that I am Lord doe but this Here is a case of instance and that now even at this very present a proofe to be made By this we shall see whether He be Lord or no. For if not this but slip the collar here and shrinke away Si rem grandem dixisset 2. Reg. 5.13 in a farre greater matter how would we stand with Him then We were wrong before here is the sound and syllables we spake of here it is For all is but sound and syllables if not this But of us I hope for better things that by our humble cariage and Obedience at least Heb. 6.9 in this we will set our selves some way to exalt Him in this His day of Exaltation Which as it will tend to His glory so will He turne it to matter of our glory and that in His Kingdome of glory or to keepe the word of the Text in the glory of GOD the Father That so we may end as the Text ends A better or more blessed end there cannot be And to this blessed end He bring us that by His Humilitie and Obedience hath not onely purchased it for us but set the way open and gone it before us IESVS CHRIST the Righteous c. A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT WHITE-HALL on the IX of April A. D. MDCXV being EASTER DAY IOHN CHAP. II. VER XIX Respondit IESVS dixit Solvite Templum hoc in tribus diebus excitabo illud IESVS answered and said Dissolve or destroy this Temple and within three days I will rayse it up againe HE answered and said this to the Pharisees Who sought a Signe of Him the Verse next before The Occasion A Signe Vers. 18. A Signe they would have And He tells them a Signe they should have Themselves should minister Him occasion to shew a Signe the like was never shewen For destroy Him they should His bodie so and He within three daies would raise it againe from death to life But this Answere of His The speech figurative is a figurative speech and runnes under the termes of the Temple The reason whereof was they were then in the Temple there fell out this Question And as it appeareth in the Verses before much adoe there hath been between them and that a long time about the Temple Now His manner still was the Place the Time the Matter in hand ever to frame the Tenour and termes of His speech according to them And so now being in the Temple He takes His termes from thence Even from the Temple But He doth as I may say Solvere Templum hoc The figure interpreted Vers. 2â— loose and 〈◊〉 this terme for us For within a Verse we are told this Temple is no other then the Temple of His bodie Now the rest followes of it selfe The Solvite is a taking Him in â—oder His soule from His bodie The excitabo is the setting them togither and raising them up againe And both these within three dayes the onely word in the Text wherein there is no figure How a Sign in the true sense And this now was His Signe And a great Signe it was Great even in their sense if it had been but of the Pile of Building as they tooke the word Temple But greaterfar far another manner Signe in His sense in the true For as for that Temple Zorobabel and Herod had raised it and other great Persons as great Buildings as that But the Temple of the bodie if that were once down all the Temple builders that ever were with all their care and cost could never get it up more Therefore in His in CHRIST'S sense it is farr the greater signe then as they phanfied it Indeed so great a Signe as he that was in hell fire could not devise nor did not desire a greater Luc. 16.30 If but Lazarus if but one come from the dead then then regard him That signe out of question Why heer is one come from the dead and this day come and a greater then Lazarus I trust then we will regard Him we will regard this signe and not be worse then he in hell was Let vs then regard it The Division The ground of the signe and of all heer is Templum hoc About it two maine Acts they shew forth themselves The razing of it downe in Solvite The raising of it up in Excitabo These in figure Answerable to these This Temple is Christ's bodie The razing it downe is CHRIST crucified and slaine The raising it up is Chriâ—â— restored to life Of which two to divide it by the Persons Solvite is their part Excitabo His. That His Passion by their act Solvite This His Resurrection by His owne Excitabo Now this He saith shal be done And saith further shall not be long in doing No longer then three dayes And within the compasse of the time limited He did it For this is now the third day And to day by Sun-rising it was done So upon the matter there come to be handled these foure points 1.
That Christ's bodie is Templum hoc 2. The dissolution of it by death in Solvite 3. The rearing it up againe by His resurrection in Excitabo 4. The time to doe it in three dayes By which circumstance of three dayes and this day the third of them commeth this time to claime a kind of propertie in this passage of Scripture And that two waies For first at this Feast were these words heer spoken you may see they were so at the thirteenth verse before at the Feast of Easter And secondly at this Feast againe were they fullfilled after the Solvite three dayes since the Excitabo this very day So at this Feast the promise and at the very same the accomplishment of it The accomplishment once the memoriall ever Being then at this very time thus spoken and done Spoken heer now done three yeares after Being I say spoken and done and at this time spoken and done Neverso fit as now I. The two senses of Templâ—â—oc Ver. 20. Solvite Templum hoc Templum hoc we begin with It is a borrowed terme But we cannot misse the sense of it For both are set downe heer to our hand the wrong sense and the right The wrong the next verse of all for the materiall Temple So the Pharisees tooke it and mis-tooke it The right the next Verse after for the Temple of His body So they should have taken it For so He meant it Ver. 21. Ipse autem dicebat c But He spake of the Temple of His Body And He know his owne meaning best and reason would should be His own Interpreter And this meaning of His it had been no hard matter for them to have hitt on but they came but a byrding but to catch from Him some advantage and so were willing to mistake Him As this they caught as an advantage we see and layd it up for a raynie day and three yeares after out they came with it and framed an Inditement upon it as if He had meant to have destroyed their Temple Mat. 26.61 Mar. 14.58 The Pharisees sense could not be true Ver. 18. But was it likely or could it once be imagined He meant to destroy it It was GOD'S house And the zeale of God's house but even a verse before consumed Him And doth His zeale now like the zeale of our times consume God's house What and that so quickly but a Verse between But even very now He purged it And did He purge it to have it pulled downe That were preposterous Now it was purged pull it downe Nay pull it downe when it was polluted Now it is cleansed let it stand To reforme Churches and then seeke to dissolve them wil be counted among the errours of our Age. CHRIST was farr from it He that would not see it abused would never endure to have it destroyed specially not when He had reformed the abuses And yet more specially not even presently upon it they might be sure But that which must needs lead them to the right meaning was that these words Templum hoc He could not say them but by the manner of His uttering them by His very gesture at the delivery of this particle hoc they must needs know what Temple it was He intended It was easy to marke whither He carried His hand or cast His eye up to the fabrique of it or whither He bare them to His bodie Which one thing onely was enough to have resolved them of this point and to quit our Saviour of aequivocation We will then wayve theirs as the wrong meaning And take it as he wisheth The true sense Chap. 13.23 who leant on his breast and best knew His minde of the Temple of His bodie But what resemblance is there between a bodie and a Temple 1. A Bodie a Temple Ver. 16. or how can a bodie be so termed Well enough For I aske why is it a Temple What makes it so Is it not because it is Domus Patris mei as He said a little before because GOD dweleth there For as that wherein man dwells is a house So that wherein GOD is a Temple properly That I say wherein be it place or be it bodie So come we to have two sorts of Temples Temples of flesh and bone as well as Temples of lime and stone For if our bodies be termed houses because our soules tenant wise abide and dwell in them If because our soules dwell they be houses if GOD doe so they be Temples why not Why not 1. Cor. 6 1â— why know yee not this saith the Apostle that your very bodies if the Spirit of GOD abide in them eo ipso Temples they be such as they be But then they be so specially when actually we imploy them in the service of GOD. For being in His Temple and there serving Him then if ever they be Templa in Templo Living Temples in a Temple without life A bodie then may be a Temple Even this of ours And if ours these of ours I say in which 2. CHRIST 's body a Temple Col. 2.9 the Spirits of God dwelleth onely by some gift or grace with how much better right better infinitely His bodie Christ's in whom the whole God-Head in all the fulnesse of it dwelt corporally Corporally I say and not Spiritually alone as in us By nature by personall union not as in us by grace and by participation of it onely Againe if ours which we suffer oft to be polluted with sinne that many times they stand shutt up and no service in them for a long season togither how much more His that never was defiled with any the least sinne never shut but continually taken up and wholly imployed in His Father's service His above all exception His without all comparison certeinly Alas ours but Fathers acâ—es under goat skinns His the true the Marble the Cedar-Temple inâ—enâ— in CHRIST'S bodie then a Temple But a Temple at large will not serve It must be Templum hoc that very Temple 3. Christ's body This Tâ—â—â—le or 〈…〉 they too heat for And so we to proceed yet further and to seeke a congruitie of His bodie with the materiall Temple it was taken for to which there is no doubt His intent was to resemble it The Rabbins in their Speculative Divinitie doe much busy themselves to shew that in the Tâ—mple there was a modell of the whole world and that all the Sphaeres in heaven and all the Elements in earth were recapitulate in it They were wide The Fathers tooke the right and bestowed their time and travaile more to the point to shew how that Temple and all that was in it was nothing els but a compendious representation of CHRIST for whom and in whose honour was that and all other true Temples And this they did by Warrant from the Apostle who in Heb. IX aimeth at some such thing Heb. 9.5 Christ's bodie Templum hoc wherein like Now the points of
Vivenesse as I may say the vivacitie the vigor it hath from CHRIST rising and by His rising opening to us the gate of life at large What life Eny life this life No vivam per resurrectionem Not this heere falsi seculi vita as even the Heathen man called it but the other the life by the resurrection the true life indeed Not to live heere still as we doe But to rise againe and live as CHRIST this day did That so we mistake not the life and take the wrong for the right For so shall we mistake in our hope also as commonly we doe For shall we doe hope no wrong The truth is Hope heares evill without a cause The fault is not hope 's the fault is our owne we put it where we should not and then lay the blame upon hope where we should blame our selves for wrong putting it For if ye put it not right this is a generall rule As is that we hope in so is our hope a Esay 36 6. Ye leane on a reed saith Esay b Iob. 8.14 Ye take hold by a cobweb Iob. c Eccles. 34.2 Ye catch at a shadow saith the Wise man And can it be then but this hope must deceive you We for the most part put it wrong for we put it in them that live this transitorie perishing life we put it in them that must die and then must our hope die with them and so prove a dying hope Miserable is that man Sap. 1.3 10. that among the dead is his hope saith the Wise man The Psalme best expresseth it our hope is in the Sonnes of men Psal. 145.3 and they live by breath and when that is gone they turne to dust and then there lies our hope in the dust For how can ever a dying object yield a living hope But put it in one that dies not that shall never die and then it will be Spes viva indeed No reed no cobweb-hope then but helmet anchor-hope hope that will never confound you And who is that or where is he that we might hope in Him That is Iâ—SVS z CHRISTVS spes nostra IESVS CHRIST our hope so calls him Saint Paul 1. Tim. 1.1 Such shall their hope be that have CHRIST for their hope Yet not CHRIST every way considered not as yesterday in the grave nor as the day before giving up the Ghost upon the Crosse dead and buried yields but dead hope But in IESVS CHRISTVS hodiè IESVS CHRIST today that is CHRISTVS resurgens CHRIST rising againe CHRIST not now a living soule but a quickning spirit In CHRIST 's life then But not in His mortall life They that so hoped in Him to Emmaus they went this day with Nos autem sperabamus we did hope Did while He was alive Luk. 24.21 but now now He is dead no more hope now And for two daies as He was so was their hope dead and buried and if He had risen no more had been quite dead for ever But this day He revived and rose againe So did their hope too To this life we are regenerate by the resurrection of Christ Right As to death generate by the fall of the first Adam So to life regenerate by the rising againe of Christ the second And these two Resurrection and regeneration match well The Regeneration of the soule is the first Resurrection And the Resurrection of the bodie is the last Regeneration So doth our SAVIOVR CHRIST terme it Mat. 19. Matt. 19.28 In the regeneration when the Sonne of Man shall sit that is at the generall resurrection So was His owne His resurrection His regeneration This day have I begotten thee the verse of the Psalme the Apostle applies to Christ's aeternall generation Heb. 1.5 Psal. 2.7 But so doth he to his Resurrection also Act. 13.33 For then was Christ himselfe regenerate as it were begotten in a sort anew and brought forth out of the grave as out of the wombe the very wombe wherein He was borne to the immortall that is to the true life By His resurrection and if ye aske how Esay tells vs There goeth from His resurrection an influence which shall have an operation like that of the dew of the spring Esay 26.19 which when He will let fall the earth shall yield her dead as at the falling of the dew the herbs now rise and shoot forth againe Which terme therefore of regenerating was well chosen as fitting well with His rising and the time of it The time I say of the yeare of the weeke and if ye will of the day too For He rose in the dawning Luk. 24.1 then is the day regenerate and in primá Sabbati that the first begetting of the Weeke And in the spring when all that were winter-sterved withered and dead are regenerate againe and rise up anew â— In hâ—â—editaete To an inheritance We passe now to the Inheritance But as we passe will ye observe the situation first It is well worth your observing that the Resurrection is placed in the midst bebetweene our Hope and our Inheritance To hope before it before the resurrection hope But after to the Inheritance it selfe to the full possession and fruition of it So from the state of hope by the resurrection as by a bridge passe we over to the enjoying our Inheritance And that falls well with the feast which is the feast of the Passe-over The Resurrection is so too passe we doe from spes to res So passed CHRIST So we to passe Every word stands exactly in his place and order An Inheritance accords well with according to His mercie We have it not of our selves or by our merits by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them but of Him and by His mercies and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them Els were it a purchase and no Inheritance It comes to us freely as the Inheritance to children Well with Mercie and well with Regeneravit For the Inheritance is of Children perteines to the Children either of generation by Nature or of Regeneration by Grace By the former He is Pater Domini nostri by the later He is Pater noster But yet for all that Ad haereditatem is a new point Begetting is properly but to life and nothing els The greater part by far are begotten so To Inherit besides not one of a thousand Aske poore mens children Aske yonger brethren But this heere not in Vivam onely but in Haereditatem also and these are two 1 To be begotten vivam 2 To be heires haereditatem It is not Lazarus resurrection to rise againe to the condition he had before It is Christ's rising to receive an Inheritance withall Nor shall we need to doubt eny prejudice to GOD from whom it comes by our comming to this Inheritance Vivam and Haereditatem there will stand well together Heere they will not Heere the Inheritance comes not but by the death of the partie in possession But there
had There then it is and we thither to lift up our hearts whither the very frame of our bodies gives as if there were somewhat remaining for us there It is thought there is some further thing meant by Saint Peter He writes to the dispersed Iewes And that by in Coelo he gives them an Item this Inheritance is no new Canaan heere on earth Nor CHRIST eny earthly Messias to settle them in a new land of promise No that was for the Synagogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was it self mortall is dead and buried since and so had but mortall things to promise to her children whom she did generate to mortalitie The Church of CHRIST the heavenly Ierusalem Gal. 4.26 hath other manner of promises to her children regenerate by the immortall seed of the Word and Spirit of GOD To them She holdeth forth things immortall and heavenly yea heaven and immortalitie it selfe Reserved in Heaven In heaven then There it is first and there it is kept the being there one the keeping another For that there it is kept is happie for us Earth would not keepe it Heere it would be in hazard there is great odds For my part I give it for lost if in this State we were possessed of it It would goe the same way Paradise went Since it would be lost in Earth it is kept in heaven And a Benedictus for that too as for the regenerating us to it heere on Earth so for the keeping the preserving of it there in heaven Kept and for us kept Els all were nothing that makes up all For us that it is not onely preserved but reserved for us there As Benedictus the Alpha so this the Omega of all But reserved as the nature of the word is and as the nature is Rom 8.24 of things hoped for yet under the veile for Spes quae videtur non est spes But time shall come when the veile shall be taken of and of that which is now within it there shall be a reveiling as followeth in the next verse And so all begins and ends as the Bible doth Verse 5. As the Bible with Genesis So this Text with Regeneration as the Bible ends in the Apocalypse So this heere with a Revelation Onely it stayeth till the worke of regeneration be accomplished Generation and it take end both together and when generation doth then shall corruption likewise and with it the state of dishonor which is in foulenesse and the state of weakenesse which is in fading And instead of them incorruption come in place with honour and power And these three 1 incorruption 2 honour and 3 power make the perfect estate of blisse To which CHRIST this day arose and which shall be our estate at the Resurrection That as all began with a resurrection so it shall end with one Came to us by CHRIST 's rising now this first Easter and we shall come to it by our owne rising at the last and great Easter the true Passe-over indeed when from death and miserie we shall passe to life and felicitie Now for this Inheritance which is Blisse it selfe and in the interim for the blessed hope set before us Which we have as an Anchor of our soule stedfast and sure Heb. 6.18.19 20. Which entereth even within the veile where CHRIST the forerunner is already seized of it in our names and for our behoofes For these come we now to our Benedictus For if GOD according to His manifold mercie have done all this for us we also according to our duty as manifold as his mercie are to doe or say at least somewhat againe It accords well that for so many beneficia one Benedictus at least It accords well that His rising should raise in us and our regenerating beget in us some praise thankes blessing at least but blessing fitts best with Benedictus First then dictus somewhat would be said by way of recognition This hath GOD done for us and more also But this this very day Then Benè let it be to speake well of Him for doing thus well by us A verball Benedictus for a reall blessing is as little as may be For the Inheritance which is blessing for the hope which is blessed for the blessed cause of both GOD'S mercie and the blessed meanes of both CHRIST 's Resurrection this blessed day Blessed be GOD. But to say Benedictus eny way is not to content us but to say it solemnely How is that Benedictus in our mouth and the holy Eucharist in our hands So to say it To seale up as he in the old his quid retribuam with calicem salutaris Psal. 116.12.13 1. Cor. 10.16 the Cup of salvation So we in the new our Benedictus with Calix benedictionis the Cup of blessing which we blesse in His name So shall we say it in kind say it as it would be said The rather so to do because by that Cup of blessing we shall partake the blood of the New Testament by which this Inheritance as it was purchased for us so it is passed to us Alwaies making full accompt that from the Cup of blessing we cannot part but with a blessing And yet this is not all We are not to stay heere but to aspire farther even to strive to be like to GOD and be like GOD we shall not vnlesse our dicere be facere as His is vnlesse somewhat be done withall In very deed there is no blessing but with levatâ and extensâ manu the hand stretched out So our SAVIOVR himselfe blessed Luk. 24. The vocall blessing alone is not full nor the Sacramentall alone Luk. 24 50. without Benedictio manus that is the actuall blessing To leave a blessing behind us to bestow somewhat for which the Church the poore in it so shall blesse us and blesse GOD for us In which respect the Apostle so calleth it expressely 2. Cor. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Cor. 9.5 benedictionem and by that name commends it to th◠Corinthians And that is the blessing of blessings when all is done That is it Matt. 25.33 for which Venite benedicti shall be said to us Even for parting with that heere which shall seed cover and set free the hungrie naked and them in prison That shall prove the blessing reall and stick by us when all our verball benedictions shall be vanished into aire So for a treble blessing from GOD 1 Our regenerating 2 Our hope 3 Our Inheritance we shall returne Him the same number even three for three 1 Benedictus of the voice and instrument 2 Benedictus of the Signe and Sacrament 3 and Benedictus of some blessed deed done for which many blessings upon earth and the blessing of GOD from heaven shall come upon us So as we say heere Benedictus Deus Blessed He He shall say Benedictivos Blessed Ye The hearing of which words in the end shall make us blessed without end in heaven's blisse To which
why not a spirituall Edom too Apoc. 11.8 whence our LORD rose again Put all three together Aegypt Babel Edom all their enmities all are nothing to the hatred that Hell beares us But yet if you aske of the three which was the worst That was EDOM To shew the Prophet heer made good choise of his place EDOM upon earth comes neerest to the kingdome of darkenesse in Hell of all the rest And that in these respects First they were the wickedest people under the Sunne If there were any devils upon earth it was they if the devill of any countrey he would choose to be an Edomite No place on earth that resembled hell neerer next to hell on earth was EDOM for all that nought was MALACHIE calls EDOM the border of all wickednesse Mal. 1.4 a people with whom GOD was angrie for â—ver In which very points no enemies so fitly expresse the enemies of our soules against whom the anger of GOD is eternall Apoc. 14.11 and the smoke of whose toâ—ments shall ascend for â—ver Hell for all that nought is That if the power of darkenesse and hell it selfe if they be to be expressed by any place on earth they cannot be better expressed thâ—n in these EDOM and BOZRA I will give you another The Edomites were the posteritie of ESAV the samâ— is EDOM So they were neerest of kin to the Iewes of all nations so should have been their best friends Gen. 36 2. The Iewes and they came of two brethren EDOM was the elder and that was the griefe that the people of ISRAEL comming of IACOB the yonger brother had enlarged their border got them a better seate and country by farr then they the Edomites had Hence grew envie and an enimie out of envie is ever the worst So were they the most cankred enimies that Israël had The case is so betweene us and the evill spirits Angels they were we know and so in a sort elder brethren to us Of the two intellectuall Natures they the first created Our case now Christ be thanked is much better then theirs which is that enrageth them against us as much and more then ever any Edomite against Israël Hell for rancour and envie Yet one more they were ready to doe God's people all the mischief they were hable and when they were not hable of themselves they shewed their good wills though set on others And when they had woon Ierusalem cried downe with it Psal. 137.7 downe with it even to the ground no lesse would serve And when it was on the ground insulted and rejoiced above measure Remember the children of Edom. This is right the devill 's propertie quarto modo He that hath but the heart of a man will even rue to see his enimie lying in extreme miserie None but very devills or devills incarnate will doe so corrupt their compassion cast of all pitie reioice insult take delight at ones destruction Hell for their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insulting over men in miserie But will ye go even to the letter None did ever so much mischiefe to David as did Doëg he was an Edomite Nor none so much to the Sonne of David CHRIST none bore more malice to Him first and last then did Herod and he was an Edomite So 1. Sam. 22.9 which way soever we take it next the kingdome of darknesse was Edom upon earth And CHRIST comming from thence may well be said to come from Edom. But what say you to Bozra This that if the countrey of Edom 2 By Bozra do well set before us the whole kingdome of darknesse or region of death Bozra may well stand for Hell it selfe Bozra was the strongest hold of that kingdome Hell is so of this The whole countrey of Idumea was called and knowne by the name of Vz that is of strength And what of such strength as death all the sonnes of men stoope to him Bozra was called the strong citie Hell is as strong as it every way They write Psal 60.9 it was invironed with huge high rockes on all sides one onely cleft to come to it by And when you were in there must you perish no getting out againe For all the world like to hell as Abraham describes it to him that was in it They that would go from this place to you cannot possibly neither can they come from thence to us Luk. 16 26. the gulfe is so great no getting out No habeas corpus from death No habeas animam out of hell you must let that alone for ever Psal. 49.8 Now then have we the Prophet's true Edom his very Bozra indeed By this we understand what they meane Edom the kingdome of darkenesse and death Bozra the seat of the Prince of darkenesse that is Hell it selfe From both which CHRIST this day returned His soule was not left in hell His flesh saw not but rose from corruption Psal. 16.10 For over Edom strong as it was yet David cast his shoo over it that is Psâ—â— 108 9. after the Hebrew phrase set his foot upon it and trod it downe And Bozra as impregnable a Hold as it was holden yet David woon it was ledd into the strong citie ledd into it and came thence againe So did the Sonne of David this day from His Edom death how strong soever yet swallowed up in victorie this day And from Hell 1 Cor 15.54 his Bozra how hard soever it held as he that was in it found there was no getting thence CHRIST is got forth we see How many soules soever were there left His was not left there And when did He this when solutis doloribus inferni He loosed the paines of hell Act 2 24. 1. Cor. 15.55 trod upon the Serpent's head and all to bruised it tooke from death his sting from hell his victorie that is his standard Col. 2.14 alluding to the Romane standard that had in it the image of the Goddesse Victorie Seised upon the Chirographum contra nos the Ragman Roll that made so strong against us tooke it rent it and so rent nailed it to His Crosse made His banner of it of the Law cancelled hanging at it banner-wise Col. 2.15 And having thus spoiled Principalities and Powers He made an open shew of them triumphed over them in semet ipso in his owne person All three are in Col. 2. and triumphantly came thence with the keyes of Edom and Bozra both of hell and of death both at His girdle as He shewes himselfe Apoc. 1. And when was this if ever on this very day On which having made a full and perfect conquest of death and of him that hath the power of death Heb. 2.14 that is the Divell Heb. 2. He rose and returned thence this morning as a mighty Conqueror saying as Debora did in her song O my soule thou hast troden downe strength Iud. 5.21 thou hast marched valiantly And comming backe thus from the
in us it is so by the power of CHRIST 's death and thither to be referred properly And whatsoever good is revived or brought againe anew from us it is all from the vertue of CHRIST 's rising againe All do rise all are raised thence The same power that did create at first the same it is that makes a new creature The same power that raised Lazarus the brother from his grave of stone the same raised Marie Magdalene the sister from her grave of Sinne. From one and the same power both Which keepeth this methode Worketh first to the raising of the soule from the death of sinne and after in the due time to the raising of the body from the dust of death Els what hath the Apostle said all this while Now this power is inhaerent in the Spirit as the proper subject of it even the aeternall Spirit whereby CHRIST offered himselfe first unto GOD and after raised himselfe from the dead Now as in the texture of the naturall body ever there goes the Spirit with the blood ever with a veine the vessell of the one there runnes along an arterie the vessell of the other So is it in CHRIST His blood and his Spirit alwaies goe together In the Spirit is the power in the power virtually every good work it produceth which it was ordeined for If we get the Spirit we cannot faile of the power And the Spirit that ever goes with the blood which never is without it This carries us now to the blood The very shedding whereof upon the Crosse primùm ante omnia was the nature of a price A price first of our ransome from death due to our sinne through that His satisfaction A price againe of the purchase He made for us through the value of His merit which by His Testament is by Him passed over to us Now then His blood after it had by the very powring it out wrought these two effects it ranne not wast but divided into two streames T it 3.5 1. One into the Laver of the new birth our Baptisme applied to us outwardly to take away the spotts of our sinne Luk. 22.20 2. The other into the Cup of the New Testament in His blood which inwardly administred serveth as to purge and cleanse the conscience from dead workes Chap. 9.14 that so live works may grow up in the place So to endue us with the Spirit that shall enhable us with the power to bring them forth Haec sunt Ecclesiae gemina Sacramenta these are not two of the Sacraments but the two twin-Sacraments of the Church saith S. Augustine And with us there are two Rules 1. One Quicquid sacrificio offertur Sacramento confertur what the Sacrifice offereth that the Sacrament obteineth 2. The other Quicquid Testamento legatur Sacramento dispensatur What the Testament bequeatheth that is dispensed in the holy Mysteries To draw to an end If this power be in the Spirit and the blood be the vehiculum of the Spirit How may we partake this blood It shall be offered you streight in the Cup of blessing which we blesse in His name For is not the Cup of blessing which we blesse the Communion of the blood of CHRIST saith S. Paul 1. Cor. 10.16 Is there any doubt of that In which blood of CHRIST is the Spirit of Christ. In which Spirit is all Spirituall power and namely this power that frameth us fit to the workes of the Spirit Which Spirit we are all made there to drinke of And what time shall we doe this What time is best What time better then that day in which it first shewed forth the force and power it had in making peace in bringing back CHRIST that brought peace back with Him that made the Testament that sealed it with his blood that died upon it that it might stand firme for ever All which were as upon this day This day then somewhat would be done somewhat more then ordinarie more then every day Let every day befor every good worke to doe His will But this day to doe something more then so something that may be well pleasing in His sight So it will be kindly So we shall keepe the degrees in the Text So we shall give proofe that we have our part and fellowship in CHRIST in CHRIST 's resurrection in the vertue of CHRIST 's resurrection Grace rising in us workes of grace rising from it That so there may be a resurrection of vertue and good workes at CHRIST 's resurrection That as there is a reviving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the earth when all and every herbs and flowers and brought againe from the dead So among men good workes may come up too that we be not found fruitlesse at our bringing backe from the dead in the great Resurrection But have our parts as heere now in the blood so there then in the Testament and the Legacies thereof which are glorie joy and blisse for ever and ever Printed for RICHARD BADGER SERMONS OF THE SENDING OF the Holy Ghost PREACHED VPON VVhit-Sunday A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT GREENVVICH on the VIII of June A. D. MDCVI being WHIT-SVNDAY Acts CHAP. II. VER I. II. III. IV. And when the Day of Pentecost was come or when the fifty daies were fulfilled they were all with one accord in one place And there came sodeinly from heaven the sound of a mighty Winde and it filled the place where they sate And there appeared tongues cloven as they had beene of fire and sate upon each of them And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost they began to speake with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance WE are this day beside our weekly due of the Sabboth to renew and to celebrate the yearely memorie of the sending downe the Holy Ghost One of the Magnalia Dei as they be termed after in the XI Verse One of the great and wonderfull Benefitts of GOD Indeed Ver 11. a Benefit so great and so wonderfull as there were not tongues enough upon earth to celebrate it withall but there were faine to be more sent from heaven to help to sound it out throughly Even a new supply of tongues from heaven For all the tongues in earth were not sufficient to magnifye GOD for his goodnesse in sending downe to men the gift of the HOLY GHOST This we may make a severall benefit by it selfe from those of CHRIST 's And so the Apostle seemeth to doe Gal. 4.4.4.6 Gal. 4. First GOD sent His Sonne in one verse and then after GOD sent the Spirit of His Sonne in another Or we may hold our continuation still and make this the last of CHRIST 's Benefitts For Ascendit in altum is not the last there is one still remaining which is Dona dedit hominibus Psal. 68.18 And that is this daye 's peculiar wherein were given to men many and manyfold both graces and gifts and all in one gift
c Act. 17.34 Areopagite the Iudge at Athens as for the d Act. 16.30 Iayler at Philippos for the e 2. Ioh. 1. elect Ladie as for widow f Acts 9.36 Dorcas g Act 8.27 For the Lord Treasurer of Aethiopia as for the h Acts 3.2 Begger at the beautifull gate of the Temple i Phil. 4.22 for the houshold of Caesar as for the k 1. Cor. 1.16 houshold of Stepharas yea and if he will for l Acts 26.28 King Agrippa too But if you will have pauperibus a restringent you may but then you must take it for poore in spirit Mat. 5.3 with whom our Saviour begins His Beatitudes in the Mount the poverty to be found in all As indeed I know none so rich but needs these tydings all to feele the want of them in their spirits Rev 3.17 No Dicis quia dives sum as few sparks of a Pharisee as may be in them that wil be interessed in it III. The tydings of a Physitian for broken hearts Well we see to whom What may these newes be Newes of a new Physician 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Medicus cordis one that can give Physicke to heale a broken heart And newes of such a one is good newes indeed They that can cure parts lesse principall broken armes or leggs or limbs out of joint are much made of and sent for farre and neere What say you to one that is good at a broken heart make that whole set that in joint againe if it happen to be out So they understood it plainly by their speech to Him after Ver. 23. Medice 〈◊〉 teipsum Ecchis 15.17 The heart sure is the part of all other we would most gladly have well Give me any griefe to the griefe of the heart said one that knew what he said Omni custodia custodi cor saith Salomon keep thy heart above all Pro 4.23 if that be downe all is downe looke to that in any wise Now it is most proper for the Spirit to deale with that part it is the fountaine of the spirits of life and whither indeed none can come but the Spirit to do any cure to purpose that if CHRIST if the Spirit take it not 〈◊〉 hand all cures els are but poâ—â—sitive they may drive it away for a while it will come 〈…〉 then ever Now then to Medice cure as CHRIST after saith to this 〈…〉 〈…〉 cure our rule is first to looke to de causis morborum how the heart can be 〈…〉 then after de methodo medendi IV. Of the hearts 1 How they came broken the way heere to helpe it 〈…〉 comes the heart broken The common hammer that breaks them is some 〈◊〉 crosse such as we commonly call heart-breakings There be heere in 〈…〉 strokes of this hammer hable I thinke to breake eny heart in the 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 They be captives first and captives and caitives 1 By being captives Psal. 137.2 in our speech sound 〈…〉 one It is sure a condition hable to make eny man hang up his harpe and 〈…〉 by the waters of Babylon There is one stroke 2. Thâ—re followes another worse yet For in Babylon though they were captives â— In a darke dungeen 〈◊〉 they abroad had their libertie These heere are in prison And in some 〈…〉 there as it might be in the dungeon where they see nothing That I take 〈◊〉 meant by blind heere in the Text Blind for want of light not for want of 〈◊〉 though those two both come to one are convertible They that be blind say they are darke and they that be in the darke for the time are deprived of sight have no manner use of it at all no more then a blind man Now they that row in the galleys yet this comfort they have they see the light and if a man see nothing els the light 〈◊〉 it selfe is comfortable And a great stroke of the hammer it is Eccles. 11.7 not to have so much 〈◊〉 that poore comfort left them 3. But yet are we not at the worst One stroke more For 3 And bruised with irons there one may be in the dungeon and yet have his limmes at large his hands and feet at libertie But so have 〈◊〉 those in the Text but are in yrons and those so heavy and so pinching as they 〈◊〉 even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bruised and hurt with them See now their case 1 Captives 〈◊〉 not onely that but 2 in prison In prison not above but in the dungeon the 〈◊〉 darkest blindest hole there no light no sight at all 3 And in the hole 〈◊〉 many yrons upon them that they are even bruised and sore with them And tell 〈◊〉 now if these three together be not enough to breake Manasse's or any man's 〈◊〉 and to make him have cor contritum indeed They be but what is this to us This is no mans case heere No more was it eny â—heirs that were at CHRIST 's Sermon yet CHRIST spake to the purpose we 〈◊〉 be sure We may not then take it literally as meant by the body CHRIST 〈◊〉 no such captivitie dungeon or yrons That He meant not such is plaine He 〈◊〉 He was sent to free captives to open prisons But He never set eny captive free 〈◊〉 life nor opened eny gaole in that sense to let eny prisoner forth Another 〈◊〉 then we are to seeke Remember ye not we beganne with the Spirit the 〈◊〉 the Spirit comes about is spirituall not secular So all these spiritually 〈◊〉 understood As indeed they are all three appliable to the case of the Spirit 〈◊〉 plaine description of all our states out of CHRIST and before He take us in 〈◊〉 â— There is Captivitie there wherein men are held in slaverie under sinne and 〈…〉 than that we now spake of Saint Paul knew it speakes of it Rom. 7.24 Rom. VII 〈◊〉 he hath so crieth out Wretched man that I am who shall rid me of it Verily 〈◊〉 Turke so hurries men putts them to so base services as sinne doth her captives 〈◊〉 one that hath beene in her captivitie and is got out of it scit quod dico he 〈◊〉 it is true I say 〈…〉 is a prison too not Manasse's prison But aske David who never came 〈…〉 what he meant when he said I am so fast in prison Psal. â—8 8 as I know not how to 〈…〉 And that you may know what prison that was he cries Psal. 142.7 Matt. 4.16 O bring my soule out of 〈…〉 A prison there is then of the soule no lesse than of the bodie In which prison 〈…〉 of those that CHRIST preached heere to S. Matthew saith they sat in 〈…〉 and in the shadow of death even as men in the dungeon doe 3. 〈◊〉 are chaines too that also is the sinner's case He is even tied with chaines 〈…〉 sinneâ— saith Salomon with the bonds of iniquitie Saint Peter Pro. 5.22 Act
ever counted of speciall faith and trust Of the Kings Chamber But plaine it is they were of his Chamber Not of his lieges alone or of his housâ—old but which is more of his Chamber It is a wonderfull â—hing the State that the Pâ—rsian Monarchs kept No man upon paine of death to come so neere as into their inner base Court uncalled if he did he died for it unlesse the King Chap. 4.11 by holding forth hiâ— Scepter pardoned him his life You will easily then imagine in what place they were that had free recourse into his innermost chamber to go and come thither at their pleasure Not onely to do so themselves but to be those by whom all others were to go or come No man to come thither but by them For that is meant by Lords of the threshold or qui in primo limine praefidebant as the Fathers read it the very chiefe over his Chamber The Septuagint who should best know the nature of the word they turne it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first keepers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the bodie And many they had for many such Kings need have But these two they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chiefe the Arch-keepers had if any more then other the chiefe charge the very principall of all GOD do so and so to me saith King Achis to David if I make not thee the keeper of my head 1 Sam. 28.2 and in so saying thought he promised him as good a place as he had He could make him no more To this place had the King advanced these two and these two were they that sought this That it should be sought at all evill that these should seek it too bad They that if others had sought it should have staid their hands these to lay on their own to seek it themselves All men know it was no meane preferment early and late to be so neer Assuerus's person They had meanes thereby to do themselves much good So had they to do others much hurt if they were not the better men But for others hurt it skills not if they had not thereby had the meanes to do Assuerus himselfe if the Devill so farr prevailed with him as he did Of his chamber Dapifer his dish Pincerna his cup Keepers of his body principall keepers if they seek to lay their hands they will soon find what they seek the more dangerous they the more his danger by them a great deale And is not this heavinesse to death when they that were so honoured proove so unkind when they that so trusted so untrue and may we not take up the Wise man's Oh O wicked presumption whence art thou sprung up to cover the face of the earth Stay a little and looke upon them as ye would upon a couple of monsters Ecclus. â—7 3 1 To seek this in Regem alone were too much to breake their Duety to their Liege Lord if there were no more but that to lay their hands on him for whom they should lay downe their lives 2 Add then not to a King onely but to such a King nor to their Liege Lord alone but to so good and gracious a Lord that had done them so great favours placing them so neer him trusting them so farre honouring them so greatly For no honouâ— to trust no trust to the chiefe trust of all More then heathenâ—sh wickednesse this to render evill for good and whose wealth they of all other bound to seek to seek his ruine 3 And they came not to that place but they were sworne to vilifie their oath then and to teare in pieces the strongest band of religion The hands that had taken that oath those hands to lay on him 4 To betray their trust to him that had layd his innocent life in their hands and to make their trust the opportunitie of their treacherie 5 In a word of the chiefe Keepers of his body to become the chiefe seekers of his bloud the chiefe enemies to his body and life and all What can be said evill enough of these Say it were lawfull in any case it is not lawfull in any but say it were to lay hands on a King yet they in all reason of all others should not have been the doers Etsi ille dignus perpeti at non tu qui faceres tamen Were not these monsters then Was not their condemnation just It grieves me I have stayed so long on them yet if I have made them and their fact odious it grieves me not What was the matter What could move them thus to play the wretches 3. The cause wherefore They were angry Why they should not many and good reasons we see Why they did none in the Text but that they were angrie and that is no reason but a passion that makes men â—o cleane against reason many times Bigthan was angrie and Thares as angrie as he Yet if it be but a little anger it will over Indeed such it may be it will What manner anger was it The word is a shrewd word signifies an anger will not go down with the Sunne Ephes. 4.25 will not be appeased What speake we of the word their deeds shew as much We see nothing would satisfie them but his life Nothing serve but lay hands on him That they sought so angrie they were What angred them then No cause is set downe And none I thinke there was If there had we should have beene sure to have heard of it For men to be angrie without a cause and even with Superiors it is no new thing Well if no cause some colour yet if not that some shadow at least Somewhat we are to seek why they did seeke this If there be in the Text eny thing to lead us to it it is in the first words or not at all In those daies In those angrie they were as much to say as before those daies they were not but in those then they were Els there is no cause to mention that of the daies but to make this difference Out of the Text nothing can be picked els Angry for Assueru's choise of Esther Why what daies were those That goes immediately before The dayes wherein Assuerus had made choise of Esther to match with her and make her his Queene and had made a great feast upon it At the feast it seemes they surfeited they could not brook that match at eny hand Some ambitious desire of theirs disappointed by it likely that was the cause This was faine to serve for the occasion for lack of a better A bad one we say is better then none What the Great King of Persia finde no match in all his owne brave Nation Never a Persian Lady serve him but he must to this vile base people the Iewes his captives his slaves to picke him a match thence What a disparagement is this to all the Persian blood It would make eny true Persian heart rise against it
not by some meer accident some that sitts by chance in the gate some that goes by the gate shall bring it out rather then it shall not be brought out 3. And may I not add this for a third that all this came out by occasion of that which they pretended for their occasion That very match which was so great a more in their eye that they so maligned at they must needs sweare the King's death for it that very match was the meanes that brought Mardochai thither to the gate for thither he came to hearken not for any such matter as this but how the new Queen his Neece behaved her self what report went of her And as it fell out this which he came not for there he heard his thither comming by this hap was the happie meanes for this happie discoverie happie for the King happie for the whole land But all came by his resort thither by meanes of the marriage So that they made their occasion was made the occasion of their ruine 4. And let this be the last that even from their owne selves He brought it They that go about the like Psal. 63.8 Pro 6.2 Luke 19.22 their owne hands shall make them to fall they shal be ensnared in the words of their owne lipps rather then it shall not come forth it shall come forth ex ore to serve nequam come out at their owne mouthes as heer it did Their owne tongues shall fall on babling their own penns on scribling GOD will have it out certenly even by themselves disclosed rather then not at all And this for GOD 's mercie he had heer and still hath to bring such plotts to light marveilous in our eyes Mardocai to be our example Now of Mardochai the meanes of all For though as this daye 's deliverie was we have no great use of him there was no Mardochai no discoverie there this daye 's was another manner of deliverie of a higher nature then so yet is there great good use of him for all that Indeed Mardochaeus exemplum nostrum he is our patterne Ours that be true men He set before us a mirrour of a faithfull good subject one according to GOD 's owne heart For this is a perfect Scripture we have in it both what to flie and what to follow As there be in it two bad so thanks be to GOD there is one good To avoid them to be like to him Like to him three ways 1 Like him in his innotuit 2 Like him in his nunciavit 3 But above all like him in that which was the ground of all That he was a faithfull subject to a strange and to a Heathen Prince 1 In his innotuit Like him first in his innotuit Not to turne the deafe eare to Bigthan and Thares as if we heard them not nor to looke through our fingers at them as if we saw them not None knew he understood the language they spake in He might have carried it slily made as if he had knowen nothing not knowen that he knew nothing to compell him but his conscience to take notice of it But Salomon ran in his mind Save him that is designed to death Wilt thou not deliver him that is ledd to be slaine Any but the King more then any Pro. 24.11 If thou saist I know not of it He that ponders the heart doth not He understand Pro. 24.12 He that keeps the soule doth not He know the contrarie And shall not He pay every man and so thee according to thy worke Well for innotuit since from the gate it came good therefore that Mardochai sitt there or which is all one that they which sit there have somwhat of Mardochai in them Be if not curious and inquisitive yet vigilant and attentive And yet curious and inquisitive I would allow in the case of a Prince's safety And the King and the Queen to have their eyes and their eares abroad both of them and all little enough We see for all the King 's Wise men that knew the times never a one of them knew this time This good we see came by Mardochai came on the Queene's side 2 In his nunciavit Like him in his innotuit to know Like him in his nunciavit to make it knowne Carefull to get notice faithfull to give notice of it in due time GOD whose will it was it should thus happily come to him His will it was it should as faithfully come from him He knew by the Law he was bound if he heard the voice of conspiracie and uttered it not Lev. 5.1 it should be sinne to him Leviticus V. He knew by the Psalme what it was to partake with other mens sinne what to have his part with a theife or an adulterer Psal. 50.18 and if with them with a traitor much more He knew by the Proverbs Pro. 24.12 he was now in as deep as they as good lay his hands on him and seek it as lay his hand on his mouth and not seek to prevent it keep it in and conceale it He knew for he told it Esther after that if he had not bewrayed it Chap. 4.14 GOD wanted not his meanes to have brought it out some other way And last he knew by the Prophet GOD would have sett his face against him for so cloking it and have rooted him out Ezek. 14.8 All this he knew but the mysterie of the seale of iniquitie the Seale of Confession it seemes he knew not It was not graven then that seale nor many hundred yeares after That shutts up treason as a treasure under a sacred seale at no hand to be broken no though all the King's lives in the Christendome lay on it This act of Mardochai's marres the fashion of that Seale quite And this may be said of him he would never have laid eny hands on himselfe for then he would have let it proceed and not hindred it by his bewraying as he did This also he that did thus disclose for a need would have taken an oath to disclose Sure I am would never have taken oath or Sacrament not to disclose it would never have stuck at the oath of Allegiance that is once but it may be would have stuck at the Seale of Confession for ever comming upon his lippes This for nunciavit And all this he did 3 In his loyalty to Assuâ—rus a stranger yea though himself were no Subject borne to Assuerus nor he his naturall Prince but borne out of his dominions farr of in Iewrie Did it not for Iosias or Ieconias or some King of his owne Did it for Assuerus King of Persia one that held him and his Country-men captive and thrall yet to him he did it Yea more then that yet this did he to Assuerus not onely a stranger A Heathen but more then so to Assuerus a heathen man an Idolater one that woâ—shipped the Sunne and the fire every day As that
is GOD 's 〈…〉 and no mâ—ns but whom GOD girdeth 〈…〉 of the words in Genesis By man shall his bloud be shedd But Gen. 9.6 that man 〈…〉 that sword hangs not at every mans girdle nor is by every hand to 〈…〉 〈…〉 one case onely where the party would and cannot stay for the Magistrate's 〈…〉 assailant comes on him so fierce and furiously that either he must use it 〈…〉 and yeild it to the rage of his enemie being a private man as himselfe 〈…〉 if he cannot otherwise keep of violence from himselfe it is lent him pro hâc 〈…〉 and the use of it made lawfull by the unwritten Law the Law of Nature 〈…〉 Yet as we speake cum moderamine inculpatae tutelae or as our Law Se 〈…〉 never but upon that occasion and in that case the sword is but a weapon 〈…〉 keep of violence And out of that case this one except not to be allowed 〈…〉 that carry the sword in their name Gladiatores we call them Fensers and 〈…〉 themselves their science the Science of defense that is Skill to use their 〈…〉 to that end For ever a Cherethite is eo ipso to be a Pelethite These two 〈…〉 their weapons to defend and save to deliver from wrong to do none 〈…〉 the sword the weapon of cruelty is to abuse the sword Every abuse is naught 〈◊〉 â—hese two Brethren non tam naturâ quà m nequitiâ not so much in nature as 〈…〉 As we know a place where many such there be no kinne at all by 〈…〉 sworne brethren they call themselves making Sacramentum pietatis 〈…〉 binding themselves by the oath of GOD to serve the Devill As 〈…〉 whose feet are swift to shedd bloud So the Patriarch implies thus much Esa. 59.7 〈…〉 his sonnes these two were by nature of a revengefull of a bloudy disposition 〈…〉 were so were their weapons For who will blame the sword or lay any 〈…〉 weapon's charge The weapon is as the man is as he will use or abuse it 〈…〉 not violent if he be not so that weares it But these were so and so the 〈…〉 men and not in the weapons Brethren of bloud they were and not so but 〈…〉 bloud And so passe we from this point 〈…〉 ghesse at their dispositions not so much by their weapons 1 In counsell as by their 〈◊〉 consilium eorum He tells of a Counsell taken about it where they met and 〈◊〉 to the other their swords should do violence their sister was wronged they 〈…〉 revenged and no revenge serve them but death and destruction death of 〈…〉 destruction of the towne yea of the very walls of it It was a plot or 〈…〉 a very match made between them And wâ—at was their counsell In dolo deceitfully contrived Marry they would 〈…〉 to Sichem and all should be well if they would be circumcised Whereas 〈◊〉 â—urpose was when they were sorest of their circumcising when the wound was at 〈…〉 they could not stirr then to sett upon them and make a massacre of 〈…〉 〈◊〉 Iacob cannot contein himselfe but burst out from such Matches GOD keep 〈…〉 very first at the doing Iacob misliked it Misliked it then and ever after 〈…〉 now at his death he cries Ne veniat Never let my soule come among them or 〈…〉 with them â—â—oubled him much at the time it was done He saw he lost his reputation by it 〈…〉 is the holy Patriarch Heer be Impes of his breeding and bringing up 〈…〉 made him even stink you will beare with it Chap. 34.30 it is the Holy Ghost's word 〈…〉 Nations round about 〈◊〉 they put him in feare and hazard of his owne and all their lives Very like 〈…〉 would all have been over-runn by the bordering people but that GOD 〈…〉 innocencie even for his sake sent His feare into the hearts of the Nations 〈…〉 that they pursued them not to death with the like crueltie These were 〈…〉 present but heer now so many yeares after he takes it on his death 〈…〉 party nor privy to it Never was he to that nor ever would be to any 〈…〉 see by his so deeply detesting it and protesting against it For it is as if 〈…〉 say I heer declare openly hefore GOD and the World it went against my 〈…〉 this counsell of theirs I had no hand in it neither art nor part as they say 〈◊〉 had nor ever meant to haâ—e But was and ever wil be innocent from all that 〈◊〉 to it violence counsell 〈…〉 or ever let â—ny soule come among such And why not come in any such câ—â—â—sell For where two or three are at counsell about any such matter Inter 〈…〉 Diabolus eâ—t tertius where two are consulting of any treachery Luke 22. â— the Devill i◠〈◊〉 third Misit Satanas in cor was in Iuda's is the rule of all 〈…〉 the first motion is ever from him He the prime Counselor of the 〈◊〉 And blame not Iacob if he would not be one of or one at any counsell of hi◠〈…〉 hiâ— soule at the end of any such treaty Thiâ— on â—heir parts makes it the more heynous that they did it not of any sodein paâ—sion 〈◊〉 â—onsultò in cold bloud slept upon it rose upon it were in it three 〈◊〉 Did â—ll advisedly of malice pretensed mett about it tooke counsell how to 〈◊〉 it Psal 1.1 Iacob's twofold abhorring of it 1 Noâ— veâ—iat â—nima in consitilâ— 2 Non sit gloria in 〈◊〉 â—orum the â—oâ—nsell of the ungodly Putt off the execution till after three dayes On Iacob'â— part two things he speaks of 1 That neither his soule should ever come in such counsell So it is a soule-matter a counsell and an act which brings with it the hazard of the soule 2 Nor his glorie or reputation so that it is a thing which toucheth one's honour and reputation neer a blemish to the glorie of a man As pollutes his soule so taints his bloud is the losse of both To save both these he doth we see and we must disavow all such counsell and Counsellers All are bound under the same paine to make the same protestation to say the same Ne veniat anima mea all that are of the Israël of GOD Let never my soule come into any such counsell lett never any such counsell come into my soule Marke those two words 1 his soule and 2 his glorie the two things of highest regard with all 1 What shall become of our soules 2 What Name we shall leave behind us All to think that in such companie they do but cast away their soules they do but lose the honour of their name for ever And yet a farther matter there is For marke these two words Counsell and Assembly Sod and Kahal for by them two severall partakings he seemes to sett out 1 One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their secret privy meetings that is Sod 1 The other is Kahal which is any publique meeting or assembly of
Heb. 11.9 2 Cor 5 1. as of a tent or booth spread for a day and taken downe at night Even like Ionas's gourd for all the world fresh in the morning and starke withered yer evening But of the life to come as of a ground-worke never to remove it selfe or we from it but to abide therein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the prison or the palace for evermore We shall not therefore lose but lay up in store not for others but for our selves Not for a few daies now but for heereafter Not a tent to be taken downe but a foundation never to be removed Of all the words in the Text not one was meet for the teeth of the Rhemists save this onely heere you have a perillous note close in the margent Good workes are a foundation A foundation very true who denies it but whither a foundation in our graces as CHRIST is without us that is the point The ground whereon every building is raised is termed fundamentum The lowest part of the building immediately lying on it is so termed too In the first sense CHRIST is said to be the onely foundation 1. Cor. 3.11 Yet the Apostles because they are the lowest row of stones Eph. 2.20 Col. 1.23 are said to be foundations in the second So among the graces within us faith is properly in the first sense said to be the foundation yet in the second do we not denie Eph. 3.18 but as the Apostle calleth them as the lowest row next to Faith Charitie and the workes of charitie may be called foundations too Albeit the margent might well have beene spared at this place for the note is heere all out of place For being so great Schoolemen as they would seeme they must needs know It is not the drift of the Apostle heere in calling them a foundation to carry our considerations into the matter of justifying but onely to presse his former reason of uncertaintie there by a contrarie weight of certaine stabilitie heere and so their note comes in like Magnificat at Matins Thus reasoneth Saint Paul This world is uncertaine of a sandy nature you may reare upon it but it is so bad a soile as whatsoever you raise will never be well settled and therefore ever tottering and when the raine and the wind and the waves beat against it Mat. 7.26 it commeth downe on your heads Therefore to make choise of a faster soile build upon GOD 's ground not upon the world's ground for Chrys. in locum Hom. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostome there all is firme there you may build and be sure fall the raine upon the top of it blow the wind against the side of it rise the waves against the foot of it it stands irremovable Wherein the Apostle saith Chrysostome doth teach a very goodly and excellent art how to make of our fugitive riches a trusty and fast friend how to make Gold of our Quicksilver and of the uncertaintie of riches a sure and certaine ground-worke Assurance and securitie are two things we know that rich men many times buy deare heere they may be had not for thus much or thus long but for as much as you list and as long as aeternitie is long that never shall have end The meaning is that if you lay out or lay on that you have on these earthly things the plott which the world would faine commend unto you with this life or at the furthest with this world they shall be shaken in peeces and come to nought and you possibly in the houre of death but most certainely in the day of judgement shall shake when the world your ground-worke shakes and be in trembling feare and perplexed agonie touching the estate of your soule knowing there is nothing comming to you but the fruit of this world which is ruine or the fruit of the flesh which is corruption But if you shall have grace to make choise of GOD 's plot which He hath heere leveled for you to raise upon O quanto dignum pretio that will be worth all the world in that day the perfect certaintie sound knowledge and pretious assurance you shall then have whereby you shall be assured to be received because you are sure you are CHRIST 's because you are sure you have true faith because you are sure you have framed it up into good workes And so shall they be a foundation to you-ward by making evident the assurance of salvation not naturâ to God-ward in bringing forth the essence of your salvation Looke you how excellent a ground-worke heere is not for a cotage whereon you may raise your frame to so notable a height as standing on it you may lay hand on and lay hold of eternall life O that you would minde once these high things that you would be in this sense high-minded Saint Paul's meaning is to take nothing from you but give you a better to requite it by farre He would have you part with part of your wealth to do good he will lay you up for it treasure in heaven for your owne use He would have you forsake the world's sand and uncertaintie wherein you cannot trust but therefore he markes you out a plott out of the rock whereto you may trust He would not have you high-minded in consideration or comparison of ought on this earth but he would have your mindes truely exalted to reach up heavenly things higher then the earth And last instead of this world the lusts and riches thereof to match that if you will lay hold of it he holdeth out aeternall life and the glorie thereof To take a short prospect into aeternall life Life it selfe first you know is such a thing as were it to be sold would be staple ware if it stood where hold might be laid on it some would thrust their shoulders out of joint but they would reach it It was a great truth out of a great lier's mouth Skinne and all And I meane not aeternall Iob 2.4 but this life and therefore some readings have to lay hold of true life as if in this were little truth Indeed Saint Augustine saith it is nothing but a disease We say of dangerous sicknesses he hath the plague he is in a consumption sure he will die and yet it failes diverse die not whereas saith he of life it selfe it may be said and never failes He lives therefore he will certainly die Well yet this life such as it is yet we love it and loth we are to end it and if it be in hazard by the Law what running riding posâ—â—â—g suing bribing and if all will not serve breaking prison is there for it Or if it be in danger of disease what adoe is there kept what ill-savoured druggs taken what scarifying cutting searing and when all comes to all it is but a few yeares more added and when they are done we are where we should have been
youth shall let us goe up and downe quietly all our youth time but when we come to years we shall feele them pinch us in our very bones Yea though many even then when they feele this streightnesse in their soule make meanes to put it away for the time and seeme merry and light enough as many times prisoners be in the goale till the very day of the Assizes come yet when it is come to that that Iudex est prae foribus when the terror of death commeth Iames 5.9 and with it a fearefull expectation of iudgment then certainly then without all doubt Heb. 10.27 the anguish S. Paul speaketh of shall be upon every soule of every one that doth evill Then ther is no man never so wicked that with his good will would die in his sinns but would have them released while he is yet in viâ yet in the way Ioh. 8.27 Mat. 5.25 Then we seek help at such scriptures as this call for the persons to whom this Commission belongeth And those whom we have gone by 7. years togither and never said word to about it then we are content to speak with when the counsaile and direction they give we are scarse able to receive and much lesse to put in practise As if all our life time we beleeved the permission of sinnes as if that were the article of our faith all our life long and the article of Remission of sinnes never till the point of death And this may serve shortly to sett forth unto us this prison of the soule which if eny conceive not by that which hath beene sayd I must say with the Prophet to them that sure there is such a thing and that In novissimo intelligetis haec plane Ier. 30. ult at their latter end I wish before but sure then they shall very plainly understand that such a thing there is But now they that have either felt or beleeve that such an imprisonment there is Good tydings that there is Remission will be glad to heare that there is a Power whereby they may be enlarged And this very tydings in generall that there is a Remittuntur that men may have deliverance from these fetters this prison this streightnesse or anguish of the soule must needs be very acceptable and welcome tydings to them For which very point even that there is a Remituntur what thanks are we aeternally bound to render unto GOD Heb. 2.16 For I tell you Nusquam Angelos apprehendit the Angels never found the like For the Angels which kept not their first estate hath He reserved in everlasting chaines of darkenesse Iud. 6. to the iudgement of the great Day Their chaines everlasting their imprisonment perpetuall No commission to be sued for them No Remittuntur eis But with man it is not so To him deliverance to him loosing of the chaines to him opening of the prison is promised For his sinns a Commission is granted out his sinns have a Remittuntur This is a high and speciall priviledge of our nature to be had by us in an everlasting thankfull remembrance So that no man needeth now Ier. 18.12 abruptly to say with those in Ieremie Desperavimus we are desperate now we never shall be forgiven let us now doe what we list Ezra 10.2 No but as it is sayd in Esra Though we have grievously sinned yet there is hope for all that and as in Ezechiel that we may so use the matter Ezec. 18.30 that Peccata nostra non erunt nobis in scandalum Our sinnes shall not be our destruction Which very point is both an especiall stay of our hope and a principall meanes of manifesting unto us the great goodnesse of GOD. Remission first before Retention Which goodnesse of GOD as it doth shew forth it selfe in this first that such a power there is so doth it secondly and no lesse in the order that where both acts are mentioned as well reteining as remitting He placeth the power of remitting first Which very sorting of them in that order doth plainely shew unto us whereunto GOD of his goodnesse is most inclinable and which of them it is that is the principall in His entent That to remitt is more proper to him and that He is more ready to it and that it is first first in his purpose first in his graunt and that to the other Esai 28.21 He commeth but secundarily but by occasion when the former cannot take place For of remitting sinne He â—aketh the ground from Himselfe and not from any other and therefore that more naturall but of reteining it the cause is ministred from us even from our hardnesse and heart that cannot repent And as Himselfe doth use this power so giveth He it to them to aedification and not to destruction I say not first or principally to destruction nor of eny 2. Cor. â—0 8 save onely of the wilfull impaenitent sinner Thus much of the remitting and reteining in generall and of their place and order Now of the Power it selfe in particular Of this Power there is heere in my text twise mention Of Remissâ—on in particular Tâ—e Pâ—wâ—r of it two-fold 1 One in Remiseritis and 2 againe in Remittuntur Which two words doe plainly lead us to two Acts of which two acts by good consequence are inferred two Powers Which two Powers though they be concurrent to one end yet are they distinct in themselves Distinct in person for Remiseritis is the second person and meant of the Apostles 1 Remiseritis 2 Remittuâ—tur Mat. 10.19 and Remittuntur is the third person and meant of GOD Himselfe And as distinct in person so distinct in place for the one is exercised in earth which is the Apostles the other in heaven which is GOD ' s. Quicquid solverîtis in terrâ solutum erit in Coelo Now where two powers are and one of them in GOD the other must needs be subordinate and derived from it For Duo principia two beginnings there are not Therefore none other from whence it can proceed but from GOD and from the power in Him alone 1. Remittuntur GOD'S power fiâ—â—t in order Of these two then Remittuntur though latter in place yet indeed is by nature and order first and from it doth proceed the other of Remiseritis Which howsoever in the sentence it stand before it yet without all question it is derived from it and after it So that thus the case stands betweene them Remittuntur which is GOD'S power is the primitive or originall Remiseritis which is the Apostle's power is meerly derived That in GOD Soveraigne This in the Apostles Dependent In Him only Absolute In them Delegate In Him Imperiall In them Ministeriall The Power of remitting sinne is originally in GOD Esai 43 25. and in GOD alone And in CHRIST our SAVIOVR by meanes of the union of the God-head and Manhood into one person By vertue whereof the Sonn of
hebrew sheweth there is a reason there is a cause why it commeth 1. Sam. 6.9 And the english word Plague comming from the Latine word Plaga which is properly a stroke necessarily inferreth a Cause For where there is a stroke there must be One that striketh And in â—hat both it and other evill things that come upon us are usually in scripture called Gods judgements If they be iudgements it followeth there is a Iudge they come from They come not by adventure by chance they come not Chance and Iudgement are utterly opposite Not Casually then but Iudicially Iudged we are For when we are chastened we are judged of the Lord. 1 Cor. 11.32 There is a Cause Now what that Cause is Concerning which 1. That Cause is 1. Naturall if you aske the Physitian he will say the cause is in the aire The Aire is infected the Humors corrupted the Contagion of the sicke comming to and conversing with the sound And they be all true causes The Aire For so we see by casting * The aire infected ashes of the furnace towards heaven in the aire the aire became infected and the plague of botches and blaines was so brought forth in Egypt * Exod. 9.8 The Humors For to that doth King David ascribe the Cause of his disease that is that his moisture in him was corrupt dried up 2 The Humors corrupted Psal. 32.4 turned into the drought of Summer Contagion Which is cleare by the Law where the leprous person 3 Contagion Levit. 13.45.46 52. for feare of contagion from him was ordered to crie that no body should come neere him To dwell apart from other men The clothing he had worn to be washed and in some case to be burnt The house-walls he had dwelt in to be scraped and in some case the house it self to be pulled downe In all which three respects Salomon saith Pro. 14.16 A wise man feareth the Plague and departeth from it and fooles runne on and be carelesse A wise man doth it and a good man too For King David himselfe durst not go to the Altar of GOD at Gibeon to enquire of GOD there because the Angel that smot the people with the plague stood betweene him and it 1. Chro. 21.30 that is because he was to passe through infected places thither But as we acknowledge these to be true that in all diseases 2 Supernaturall By which GOD. and even in this also there is a Naturall cause so we say there is somewhat more something Divine and above â—ature As somewhat which the Physitian is to looke unto in the plague so likewise something for Phinees to do and Phinees was a Priest And so some worke for the Priest as well as for the Physitian and more then it may be It was King Asa's fault He in his sicknesse looked all to Physitians and looked not after GOD at all That is noted as his fault It seems 〈…〉 It seemes his concâ—it was there was nothing in a disease but 〈◊〉 nothing but bodily which is not so For infirmitie is not only 〈◊〉 bodily there is a Spirit of infirmitie we finde Luc. 13.11 And some 〈◊〉 spirituall there is 〈◊〉 infirmities something in the soule to 〈◊〉 â—ealed In all â—ut specially in this Wherein that we might knoâ— it to be spirituâ—ll we finde it oft times to be executed by spirits We see an 〈◊〉 destroying Angel 〈…〉 12.13 in the Plague of Egypt another in the Plague in Swaâ—â—â—rib'â— Campe 〈…〉 â—7 36 〈…〉 21.16 〈…〉 16.2 a third in the Plague at Ierusalem under David 〈…〉 pouring his phiall upon earth and ther fell a noysome plague upo◠〈◊〉 and beast So that no man looketh deeply enough into the Cause of this sickenesse unlesse he acknowledge the Finger of God in it over 〈◊〉 â—bove any causes naturall 〈…〉 GOD then hath his part GOD But how affected GOD provoked to aâ—ger so it is in the Text his anger his wrath it is that bringeth the plague among us 〈…〉 The Verse is plaine They provoked him to anger and â—he plague brake in among them 〈…〉 Generally there is no evill saith Iob but it is a sparke of GOD 's wrath And of all evills the Plague by Name There is wrath gone out from the LORD 〈◊〉 21.7 and the plague is begunn saith Moses Num. 16.46 So it is said GOD was displeased with David he smot Israël with the plague So that if if there be a plague GOD is angry and if there be a great plague GOD is very angry Thus much for By what for the anger of GOD by which the plague is sent Now for what 〈…〉 â—hich 〈…〉 general There is a cause in GOD that he is angry And there is a Cause for which he is angry For he is not angry without a cause And what is that cause For what is GOD angry What is GOD angry with the waters when he sends a tempest it is Habacuk's question 〈…〉 Or is GOD angry with the earth when He sends barrennesse Or with the aire when he makes it coÌ„tagious 〈…〉 5. 6. No indeed His anger is not against the Elements they provoke him not Against them it is that provoke him to anger Against men it is and against their sinnes and for them commeth the wrath of GOD upon the children of disobedience And this is the very Cause indeed As there is Putredo humorum so there is also putredo morum And putredo morum is more a Cause then putriedo humorum 1 The Corruption of the soule the 〈◊〉 7. â— 2 corrupting of our waies more then the 〈◊〉 6.12 corrupting of the aire The 〈◊〉 8.38 Plague of the Heart more then the sore that is seene in the body 〈◊〉 5.32 The cause of Death that is sinne the same is the cause of this 〈◊〉 38.5 kinde of death of the plague of mortalitie And as the â—panâ— Balme of ilead and the 〈◊〉 48.46 Physitian there may yield us helpe when GOD'S wrath is removed so if it be not no balme no medicine will serve 〈◊〉 us with the Woman in the Gospell 〈◊〉 5.26 spend all upon Physitians we shall bee never the better till we come to CHRIST and he cure us of our sinnes whâ— is the onely Physitian of the diseases of the soule 〈◊〉 â— 2 And wiâ—â— CHRIST the cure beginns ever withiâ— First Sonne thy 〈◊〉 be for giventhee and then a fier â—ake up thy bed and walke His sinnes first and his limbes after As likewise when we are once well CHRIST'S councell is sinne no more lest a worse thing come unto thee As if sinne would certainely bring a relapse into a sicknesse But shall we say the wraâ—h of GOD for sinnes indefinitely Particular sinn That were somewhat too generall May we not specifie them or set them downe in particular Yes I will point you at three or foure First this