could words of comfort come better then in the full discourse of the day of Judgment nor can comfort ever be more welcome then in the midst of those affrightments Christ never spoke out of season but here he seems to have even studied it When these things begin to come to pass before they are at their full height even then look up Worldly comforts come not so early The heat and fury of the Disease must be abated e're they yield us any refreshment They are only heavenly comforts that come so timely to prevent our miseries or to take them at the beginning Nor is it yet only when the day begins to dawn wherein the Son of man comes forth to Judgment that we should first begin to take courage to approach but whilst the foregoing signs of that day are now first coming on Those terrors that affright others should not startle us even whilst the lightnings run upon the ground whilst the Earth trembles the Sea roars the Winds blow and Heaven it self knows not how to look the Righteous is as bold as a Lion he stands in the midst of security and peace This is the state we are to labour for so to put our trust in the most High that no changes or chances of this mortal life may either remove or shake it or make us to miscarry Every calamity should teach us to look up but these should teach us also to lift up our heads Whilst common fears and troubles march about us our Christian patience will teach us cheerfulness but when these things begin to come to pass these which are the ushers to our glory these should rejoyce and cheer us up that our reward is now a coming to us Vs I say for this comfort is not general to all that shall see the Son of man coming in glory but his Disciples only such as have followed him on earth to meet him in heaven Lift up your heads to his servants he speaks such as hear his words and attend his steps and do his precepts Others indeed must hold down theirs the ungodly shall not be able to look up in judgment The covetous man has look'd so always downward that he is not now able to look up The Drunkard has so drown'd his eye-sight in his cups so over-burthened his brain that he can neither lift up his head nor his eyes at this day The voluptuous man has dim'd his eyes with pleasures that he cannot look about and the ambitious man has so lost his hopes of being high and glorious and is become so low and base in the eyes of God that he is asham'd to lift up his head These only that are the true Disciples of their Master whose eyes are us'd to heaven who have so often lift up their eyes thither to pray and praise him they only can look up when these things come to pass Nothing can affright the humble eye nothing can amaze the eye that ever dwells in heaven nothing can trouble the eye that waits upon her God as the eye of a Maiden upon the hand of her Mistriss The humble devout and faithful eye may look up chearfully whilst all things else dare not be seen for shame O blessed God how fully doest thou reward thy servants that wilt thus have them distinguish'd from others by their looks in troubles who hast so order'd all things for them that nothing shall affright them nothing make them to hold down their heads This is a kind of comfort by it self above ordinary that grief or amazement should not appear so much as in our eyes or looks though so many terrors stand round about us I will lift up my eyes unto the Hills and I will lift up mine eyes to thee O thou that dwellest in the heavens are the voice of one that looks up for help and in the midst of these dreadful messengers of Judgment it will not be amiss for us even so to lift up our eyes to beg assistance and deliverance But that is not all our comfort though it be a great one that we can yet have audience in Heaven amidst these fears we have besides the refreshment of inward joy whereby we rejoyce at our approaching glory The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance Psal. lviii 9. even when the day of vengeance comes and the righteous shall rejoyce in their beds Psal. cxlix 5. whilst they are now rising up and lifting up their heads out of their graves to come to Judgment Nor must it seem strange to see the righteous with chearful looks whilst all other faces gather blackness It is not the others misery that they rejoyce at but at their Saviours Glory and their own happiness For their Redemption draweth nigh that 's the ground of all their joy And would you not have men rejoyce who are redeem'd from misery and corruption from the slavery of sin and the power of death would you not have poor Prisoners rejoyce at the approach of their delivery you cannot blame'um if at such news with Paul and Silas they sing in prison sing aloud for joy so loud that the doors dance open for joy though the Keepers awake and even sink for fear Your redemption draweth nigh They are words will make the scattered ashes gather themselves together into bones and flesh words that will make the soul leave Heaven with joy to lift up the head of her dear beloved body out of the Land where all things are forgotten Yea the insensible creatures that groan now under the bondage of corruption will at these words turn their tunes when they see at hand the days of the liberty of the Sons of God Death and destruction are things terrible but when the fear of them is once overpois'd by the near approach of a redemption to eternal life and glory O' Death then where is thy sting O Grave then where is thy victory They shrink in their heads and pull in their stings and cannot hurt us while we with joy and gladness lift up our heads What are all the signs and forerunners of the day of Judgment that they should trouble us when we know the day of Judgment is our day of redemption our day of glory What are the darkness of Sun and Moon the falling of the Stars the very totterings of Heaven it self to us who even thereby expect new heavens where there is neither need of Sun nor Moon nor Star to give us light for the glory of God shall lighten it and the Lamb this Son of man that is coming in his cloud is the light of it Rev. xxi 23. What are the quakings of the Earth and roarings of the Sea to them who neither need Land nor Sea in their journey to heaven What are Wars and rumors of Wars Famines and Plagues and Pestilences and false Brethren what are persecutions and delivering up to Rulers to death and torments what are those perplexities and fears that rob men of their hearts and courages for looking
after those things which shall come upon the earth what are all these together to them who are thus by those very things redeem'd out of all their troubles Saint Paul is bold to set up a challenge Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword Nay in all these we are more then conquerours through him this him in the Text that loved us Rom. viii 35. 37. And he goes on yet higher For I am perswaded says he that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus ver 38 39. And if thus nothing can ever separate us from Christs love what should trouble us at his coming whose coming is but to draw us nearer to himself Be not troubled be not terrified says he ver 9. but in patience possess your souls ver 18. for there shall not a hair of your heads perish ver 17. Others may fall and sink and perish but do they what they can against you those that hate you yet care not for it look up look up to me I am coming to redeem you lift up your heads and behold the glory into which I am at hand to lift you up The sum of all now is that in the midst of all your troubles all your amazements all your fears and dangers you first still lift up your heads and look to Heaven for comfort and fetch it thence by prayers and petitions 2. That in the midst of all calamities you yet remember your redemption is a coming and so lift up your heads with joy in the heat and fury of them all knowing that they are nothing else but so many forerunners of your glory Lastly that you look up and lift up your heads with thankfulness that he has thus accounted you worthy to see him in his glory and that your redemption is no further off That having thus begun to look up and lift up your voices in praises and thanksgiving upon earth he may lift you up into Heaven in soul and body at his coming there to sing Allelujahs with the Saints and Angels and the four and twenty Elders to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore there to be partakers of all his Glory A SERMON ON The Fourth Sunday in Advent PHILIPPIANS iv 5. Let your moderation be known unto all men The Lord is at hand THE Text is a part of the Epistle for the day chosen you may conceive because the Lord that is the time of his coming is at hand A fit preparation thought by the Church for Christmas now so near to prepare us how to entertain the happy day the joyful news of our Lord Christs coming in the flesh To entertain it I say not with excess and riot but moderation not with rude tricks and gambols but softness and meekness not in vanity of clothes but modesty not in iniquity but equity somewhat departing from our own right and seeking occasions to do others right that all men may see and know we behave our selves like Servants expecting their Lords coming according to all the several senses of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated moderation in the Text but stretching further then any one English word can express it A word chosen by the Apostle to comprehend the whole duty if it might be of a Christian preparing for his Lord in the midst of much affliction and long wearied expectation back'd with an assurance that the Lord was now hard by a coming to deliver them The poor Philippians were somewhat sad or sad-like by the persecutions they suffered from the unbelieving Iews and Gnostick Hereticks that were among them many were daily falling off by reason of them ver 18. of the former Chapter and much hurt those dogs as the Apostle calls them ver 2. of that Chapter the concision that is those Hereticks had done or were like to do them But for all that says he Rejoyce and again Rejoyce in the verse before the Text rejoyce too that all men may see it see your joy in the Lord and in your sufferings for him yet so that they may see your moderation in it too that as you are not sad like men without hope so you are not merry like men out of their wits but as men that know their Lord is nigh at hand as well to behold their actions as to free them from their sufferings to see their patience and moderation as well as their trouble and persecution A perswasion it is or exhortation to patience and meekness and some other Christian Vertues which by examining the word you will see anon from the forementioned consideration A perswasion to moderation from a comfortable assurance of a reward the Lord at hand to give it A perswasion to prepare our selves because our Lord is coming A perswasion so to do it that all may know what we are a doing and what we are expecting that they may see we are neither asham'd of our Religion nor of our Lord that we neither fear mens malice nor our Lords mercy that we are confident he is at hand ready to succour and rescue all that patiently and faithfully suffer for him to take vengeance on his enemies and deliver his Servants out of all The time is now approaching even at the doors And if we apply this as we do all other Scriptures to our selves to teach us moderation and whatever else is contain'd under the word which is so rendred and draw down the Lords being at hand in the Text to all Christs comings in Flesh in Grace in Glory it will no way disadvantage the Text but advance it rather improve the Apostles sense and meaning to all Churches and times to prepare them all to go out to meet the Lord when or howsoever he shall come unto them And moderation must be it we must meet him with be the times what they will come the Lord how or when he please know we time or know it not be what will unknown our moderation must be known and yet his coming as unknown as it may be must be consider'd always in our minds it must be that the Lord is one way or other continually at hand Indeed I must confess the times were troublesom and dangerous when the Apostle thus exhorted and comforted the Philippians but the best times are dangerous danger there is as much of forgetting Christ in prosperity as of falling from him in adversity and as much need there is of moderation when all happinesses flow in upon us as when all afflictions fall upon us so the advice cannot be unseasonable And though we call'd the Text St. Pauls advice or the Christians duty in sad times and his comfort in them and so divide the words yet they will reach
us stand up to it and stand for it to the last A Souldier will venture all to save his colours rather wrap himself up in them and dye so than part with them For Christ for his Word for his Sacraments for his Cross for our Gospel and Religion we should do as much But I am asham'd the age has shewed us too many cowards that have not only run away from this Standard but betray'd it too the more unworthy certainly that they should ever reap fruit or benefit twig or branch from the root of Iesse The very Gentiles in the next words will sufficiently shame them For to it to this Ensign do all the Gentiles seek III. Shail it is I confess in the future tense here reach'd no further in the Prophets time but now it does the Prophesie is fulfill'd it so came to pass And it quickly came so after the Ensign was set up the Cross reared and the Resurrection had display'd it For I if I be lifted up from the earth says he himself will draw all men to me St. Iohn xii 32. Parthians and Medes and Elamites the dwellers in Mesopotamia and Cappadocia Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphylia Egypt and Lybia Rome and Cyrene as well as the dwellers in Iudea Cretes and Arabians as well as Israelites Proselites as well as Iews he will draw all in to him The vast multitudes that came daily in from all quarters of the world so many Churches of the Gentiles so suddenly rais'd and planted are a sufficient evidence to this great truth And the term the Iews at this day give the Christians of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very word in the Text for Gentiles confirms as much by their own confession So true was both Isaiah's Prophesie here and Father Iacob's so long before that to him should the gathering of the people be Gen. xlix 10. But that which is an evidence as great as any if not above all is St. Paul applies the Text as fulfilled then Rom. xv 12. And there is this only to be added for our particular that we still go on and continue seeking him IV. But there is Rest and Glory here added to the success of this great design His rest shall be glorious Now by his Rest we in the first place understand the Church the place where the Psalmist tells us his honour dwells Psal. xxvi 3. the place of which himself says no less than This shall be my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have delight therein Psal. cxxxii 14. And glorious it is the Apostle tells us a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle Ephes. v. 27. glorious all over so glorious that the Prophet says the Gentiles shall come to its Light and Kings to the brightness of its rising Isa. lx 3. they shall bring Gold and Incense from Shebah the flocks of Kedar and the rams of Nebaioth shall come with acceptance to his Altar ver 7. the glory of Lebanon shall come unto it ver 13. They shall call the walls of it salvation and the gates praise ver 18. The Lord is an everlasting light unto it and God is its glory ver 19. So that we may well cry out with David Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou City of God thy Church thy Congregation O thou root of Iesse thou Son of David which thou hast gathered and thy Churches or holy Temples too which are rais'd to thee exceed in glory the beauty of Holiness thy holy mysteries thy blessed self art there And indeed in the holy Mysteries of the Blessed Sacrament is his second place of Rest. There it is that the feeds his flock and rests at noon Cant. i. 7. And he is glorious there glorious in his Mercies illustrious in his Benefits wonderful in his being there No such wonder in the world as his being under these consecrated Elements his feeding our souls with them his discovering himself from under them by the comforts he affords us by them His Cratch to day was a third place of his Rest glorious it was because 1. the God of Glory rested there because 2. the glorious Angels displaid their Wings and gave forth their light and sung about it St. Luke ii 13 14. because 3. Kings themselves came from far to visite it and laid all their glories down there at his feet There his rest was glorious too Nay 4. his Sepulchre the place of his rest in Death was as glorious is as glorious still as any of the other And I must tell you the Latin reads it Sepulchrum ejus Gloriosum From thence it is he rose in glory by that it was he gain'd the glorious victory over Death and Hell from thence he came forth a glorious Conqueror Thither have devout Christians flock'd in incredible numbers There have Miracles been often wrought there have Kings hung up their Crowns there have millions paid their homage And thence have we all receiv'd both Grace and Glory from his Sepulchre where he lay down in Death and rose again to Life There is one Rest still behind and it is not only glorious but it self is glory His rest himself calls it Heb. iii. 11. yet a rest into which he would have us enter too Heb. iv 9 11. And in Heaven it is no rest to this no rest indeed any where but there and perfect glory no where else And now to wind up all together This rest and glory or glorious rest which ends the Text and 't is the best end we can either make or wish springs from the root at the beginning The Church it self and all the rest and glory the Churches ever had or have or shall enjoy grows all from that Our Holy Temples our Holy Sacraments our Holy Days this day the first of all the rest all the benefits of his Death Resurrection and Ascension into Glory nay our greatest glory in Heaven it self comes from this little Branch of Iesse this humble Root and the way to all is by him and his humility And the time suits well and the day hits fair for all In that day says the Text all this you have heard shall be and that day now is this To day the Root sprang forth the Branch appeared To day the Ensign was displaid to all the people From this day the Gentiles began their search This day he began to call in his Church and the Shepherds were the first To day he first was laid to mortal rest To day the glory of his Star appeared to wait upon his Cradle To day we also may enter into his rest one or other of them One of his places of rest we told you was in the Church or holy place let us seek him there Another Rest of his we mentioned to be in the Blessed Sacrament let us seek him there His Ensign is there set up let us go in to him and offer our lives and fortunes at his feet proffer to fight his Battels and obey his Commands strive we
and therein his own with all his Offices besides 2. Iesus is his name that signifies a Saviour and that speaks him God Ego sun◠praeter me non est Isa. xliii 11. None can be truly so but He. But his coming into the world that shewed us he was man There 's both his natures And 3. In the title of Sinners there 's our own that tells us what we poor things are poor wretched sinners that want a Saviour Lastly his coming into the world is but a short expression of all he did and suffered in it and to save sinners is to take thence a Church unto himself to purifie and cleanse them from their sins to raise them first from the death of Sin here to the life of Righteousness to the communion of Saints and to raise them at last from the death of the Grave unto the life of Glory yea the communion of Saints hereafter This is the sum of the Christian Faith and 't is all summ'd up here all the Articles of the Creed nay the whole Gospel it self in this one single period Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners A saying which is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now not only faithful but the full Faith it self Faithful it is 4. in another acception Fidelis est qui nunquam fallet not like those Aquae infideles that the Prophet Ieremiah complains of Ier. xv 18. those faithless streams those shallow brooks that fail and dry away when we most need them When all other waters fail us this Fountain that was set open for Iudah and Ierusalem Ezek. xiii 1. will run still When all other comforts are dried up and gone this of Christ Jesus coming will be coming still When all other sayings put together will not heal our wounds nor refresh our weariness nor cool our heat nor quench our drowth this will do all When all things else desert and leave us and nor Friends nor Fortunes nor Wit nor Eloquence nor Strength nor Policy will help us this will be faithful to us this Christ Jesus will stand to us No such well-spring of life in the world as he and nothing can come so bad to us in the world but his coming makes good a world of good of Nay this very saying that he came into the world to save sinners and the chiefest not excepted well laid to will stick close to us in all distresses disperse the terrors of our sins defeat the devices of the Devil to disturb and fright us this will support us in our weaknesses sustain us in our faintings raise us out of our despairs relieve us in our sicknesses ease us in our pains refresh us in our agonies comfort us on our death-beds revive us when we are even dead go with us out of the world and never leave us till it has brought and laid us at his feet who came to save us and is not willing that any should perish says S. Peter ii 3 9. No not the greatest sinner not any first or last 5. Well may this saying 5. pass for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now as St. Ambrose and St. Augustine seem to have read it as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be stiled humanus or jucundus sermo a sweet and pleasant saying as well as faithful Pleasing and joyful news it is to hear that such a person as this speaks of is come among us for all the while we were without this Christ we were says St. Paul without God too in the world Ephes. ii 12. From his coming only it is that we can say with St. Peter Bonum est esse hic that 't is good being here that the world is worth the staying in It were not without him no company worth being with till he came no pleasure in it till he brought it with him For this it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 makes no mistake the saying may be said pleasant without an error Indeed what more pleasant if to save sinners be his coming liberty and health and life and salvation are pleasing news liberty to the Captives health to the Sick life to the Dying salvation to the lost and perishing and to save sinners is to give all of them to them all Such a saying to them must needs please them all And upon this we must needs allow it lastly to be faithful in another sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is fide dignus a saying worthy of our faith worth our believing All true and certain and profitable nay and pleasing sayings are not so No matter whether some of them believed or no. This is a truth of so great concernment and so truly all that St. Paul himself that great Doctor of the world is content nay determin'd to know nothing else nothing but Iesus Christ and him Crucified 1 Cor. ii 2. Him crucified is him come into the world to save sinners for by his Cross he sav'd them and upon his Cradle the foot of it was rear'd and from his coming into a cross and peevish world he began to be crucified and bear it All other knowledges are not worth the knowing all other truths not worth the believing the Law of Moses is but an A B C learning to this knowledge All the Iewish Kabala all the wise sentences of the wisest Rabbies all the wisdom of the Heathen world of all the world all that is without Christ Jesus in it but meer fables endless genealogies to no end or purpose all of them but to fill the head with empty notion and the heart with vexation and the tongue with strife all meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. iii. 8. Very dross and dung in respect of the knowledge of Christ Iesus coming into the world to save sinners Yet after all this were there not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them all were either not the chiefest sinners in or might not the chiefest of them make a particular application of it to himself were Christs coming only to a few and all the rest excluded by some inevitable decree there would be but a starv'd kind of comfort in it at the best nor could it well command our faith seeing it might so command us to believe a lye and cheat our selves To make the saying either worth the saying or the believing it must be applicable to the chiefest sinners and so 't is here and the greatest sinner among us may lay hold upon it And now it being a saying so faithful and true in it self faithful both to our Fathers and to us the fulfilling of their Faith and the ground of ours and the sum of it too a saying that will never fail us in any exigence and distress but bear up our spirits at every turn and stick firm to us upon all occasions a saying so pleasing so worthy of our Faith and so close to every one of us 't is worthy sure lastly of all acceptation all the best entertainment we can give it
or secular respects and motions but a sweetness without sensual daintiness a lustre without lightness a modest look without dejectedness a grave countenance without severity a fair face without fancy eyes sparkling only heavenly flames cheeks commanding holy modesty lips distilling celestial sweetness beauty without its faults figure and proportion and all such as was most answerable and advantageous to the work he came about every way fitted to the most perfect operations of the reasonable and immortal soul the most beautiful then sure when beauty is nothing else but an exact order and proportion of things in relation to their nature and end both to themselves and to each other Take his description from the Spouses own mouth Cant. v. 10 11 12 c. My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand His head is as the most fine gold his locks are bushy or curled and black as a Raven His eyes are as the eyes of Doves by the rivers of water washed with water and fitly set that is set in fulness fitly placed and as a precious stone in the soil of a Ring His cheeks are as a bed of Spices as sweet flowers his lips like Lillies dropping sweet smelling Myrrhe his hands are as gold Rings set with Beryl his belly as bright Ivory over-laid with Saphyrs His legs are as pillars of Marble set upon sockets of fine Gold His countenance like Lebanon excellent as the Cedars His mouth is most sweet yea he is altogether lovely This is my beloved and this is my friend O daughters of Ierusalem This is our beloved too Solomon indeed has poetically express'd it Yet something else there is in it besides a poetick phrase Beautiful he thus supposes he is to be who was to be this Spouse have the beauty of all beautiful things in the world conferr'd upon him at least to have the finest and subtilest part of all worldly beauties those imperceptible yet powerful species of them which make them really amiable and attractive a head and locks and eyes and hands and feet quantity colour and proportion such as darted from them not only a resemblance but the very spirit of heavenly beauty innocence purity strength and vigour Poets when they commend beauty call it divine and heavenly this of his it was truly so a kind of sensible Divinity through all his parts Shall I give you his colour to make up the beauty He was white pure white in his Nativity ruddy in his Passion bright and glistering in his life black in his death Azure-vein'd in his Resurrection No wonder now to see the Spouse sit down under his shadow with great delight Cant. ii 3. we sure our selves now can do less and yet this is but the shadow of his beauty The true beauty is the souls the beauty of the soul the very soul of beauty the beauty of the body but the body nay the carcase of it And this of the souls he had 2. in its prime perfection 2. Now beauty consists in three particulars the perfection of the lineaments the due proportion of them each to other and the excellency and purity of the colour They are all compleat in the soul of Christ. The lineaments of the soul are its faculties and powers the proportion of them is the due subordination of them to God and one another The colours are the vertues and graces that are in them His powers and faculties would not but be compleat which had nothing of old Adam in them His understanding without ignorance he knew all the very hearts of all thoughts as they rose what they thought within themselves S. Luke v. 22. thoughts before they rose what the Pharisees with other would have done to him had he committed himself unto them Now Tyre and Sidon would have repented had they had the mercy allowed to Corazin and Bethsaida S. Luke x. 13. His will without wilfulness or weakness his passions without infirmity or extravagance his inferiour powers without defect or maim his understanding clear his will holy his passions sweet all his powers vigorous Hear the Wise man describe him under the name of Wisdom Wisd. xvii 22 23 c. In her that is in him who is the Wisdom of the Father is an understanding Spirit holy one onely manifold subtile lively clear undefiled plain nor subject to hurt loving the thing that is good quick which cannot be letted ready to do good kind to man stedfast sure free from care having all power overseeing all things and going through all understanding pure and most subtile spirits and ver 25 26. A pure influence flowing from the Glory of the Almighty the brightness of the everlasting light the unspotted mirror of the power of God and the image of his goodness The powers of his soul being thus pure vigorous and unspotted they cannot 2. but be in order the will following his understanding the passions subordinate to them both all the inferiour powers obedient and ready at command and pleasure He had no sooner exprest a kind of grievance in his sensitive powers at the approach of those strange horrors of his death and sufferings but presently comes out Non mea sed tua Not my will but thine all in a moment at peace and in tranquillity No rash or idle word no unseemly passage no sowre look nor gesture or expression unsuitable to his Divinity throughout his life the very Devils to their own confusion cannot but confess it We know thee who thou art the Holy One of God S. Mark i. 24. To this add those heavenly colours and glances of grace and vertues and you have his soul compleatly beautiful Meekness and Innocence and Patience and Obedience even to the death Mercy and Goodness and Piety and what else is truly called by the name of good are all in him insomuch that the Apostle tells us the very fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily Col. ii 9. No Divine Grace or Vertue wanting in him In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ver 3. In him all sanctity and holiness not so much as the least guile in his mouth 1 S. Pet. ii 22. So holy that he is made holiness and sanctification unto us 1 Cor. i. 30. Sancti quasi sanguine uncti We Saints and holy become hallowed by the sprinkling of his blood In him lastly is all the power and vertue omnis virtus that is omnis potestas all the power in heaven and earth fully given to him S. Matth. xxviii 18. So that now we shall need to say little of the other particular of this first general point of Christs perfect beauty that he is not only Formosus but Formosus prae not only fair but very fair for where there is so much as you have heard exceeding and excellent it must needs be Where the body is compleat in all its parts the soul exact in all its powers the body without any ill inclination natural or habitual the soul without
by a Fire Here it was first he visited in person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was but a looking down from heaven till now a looking on us at a distance and that was a blessing too that he would any way look upon such poor worms as we it could not be construed visiting properly till this day came Now first it is so without a figure Yet is not good old Zachary too quick Does he not cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too soon our blessed Saviour was not yet born how says he then the Lord hath visited and redeemed his people Answer we might the good old man here prophesied 't is said so just the verse before and after the manner of Prophets speaks of things to come as done already But we need not this strain to help us out Christ was already really come down from heaven had been now three months incarnate had begun his visit had beheld the lowliness of his handmaid says his Blessed Mother ver 48. The Angel had told her twelve weeks since Her Lord was with her ver 28. of this Chapter Blessed Zachary understood it then no less than his Wife Elizabeth that proclaimed it ver 43. though he could not speak it As soon as he could he does and breaks out into a Song of Praise that was his prophesying for this new made Visit this new rais'd Salvation That word slipt e're I was aware comes in before the time But 't is well it did you might else perhaps have mistaken visiting for punishing so it went commonliest in Scripture till to day It does not here This business has alter'd it from its old acception And yet punishing sometimes is a blessing too 'T is a mercy we oft stand in need of to bring us home to God But it is infinitely a greater when he comes himself to fetch us home as now he does Shall I shew you how great it is Why then 1. It is a visit of Grace and honour that he made us here he visited us as great and noble persons do their inferiours to do them honour Hence Whence it is to me says St. Eliz. that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me c. ver 43. She good soul knew not how to value such an honour nor whence it was Whence then is this O Lord that the Lord of that Blessed Mother my Lord himself should come unto me That 's a far higher honour and no reason of it to be given but that so it shall be done to those whom this great King of Heaven and Earth delighteth thus to honour 'T is a blessing first this that we speak of by which God owns and honours us 2. It was a visit of Charity He visited his people as charitable men do the poor mans house to seek some occasion to bestow an Alms. He went about doing good says S. Peter Acts x. 38. As poor as he was and the Apostle tells us poor he was he had a bag for the poor S. Iohn xii 6. and for our sakes it was he became poor says S. Paul 2 Cor. viii 9. emptied bag and himself and all to make us rich His visit now 2. is a blessing that makes us rich 3. It was a visit of Service too He visited us as the Physician does his Patient to serve his necessity to cure and recover him The innumerable multitudes of the sick and lame and blind and deaf and dumb and Lepers and possessed that he daily healed and cured will sufficiently evince he visited them also as a Physician So 't was a blessing 3. that cures all diseases makes all sound and whole again 4. His visit 4. was a visit of brotherly love and kindness He visited us as David did his Brethren to supply their wants carry them provision and take their pledge 1 Sam. xvii 17. He did so and much more becomes himself by this visit our Provision makes his Body our meat and his Blood our drink and himself our pledge supplies all our defects and wants and enters himself body for body and soul for soul to make all good This a visiting no brother could do more no brother so much 5. His visit 5. was not of petty kindnesses but great mercies abundant mercies too He visited us as holy David says he does the earth Psal. lxv 9 11. Thou visitest the earth and blessest it thou makest it very plenteous Thou waterest her furrows thou sendest rain into the little Vallies thereof thou makest it soft with the drops of rain and blessest the increase of it He not only furnishes our necessities but replenishes us with abundances makes us soft and plump and fat and fruitful by his heavenly dews and showers This 5. a visit of abundant superabundant mercies 6. His visit 6. was a visit of Friendship and that 's more yet He visited us as blessed Mary did her Cousin Elizabeth came to us to rejoyce and be merry with us So acquainted has he now made himself with us by this visit that he now vouchsafes to call us friends S. Iohn xv 15. he eats and drinks and dwells and tarries with us makes it his delight to be among the sons of men This is a visit I know not a name good enough to give it And yet lastly his visit was not of a common and ordinary friendship neither but of a friendship that holds to death He visited us as the Priest or Confessor does the dying man When health and strength and mirth and Physicians and Friends have all given us over he stands by and comforts us and leaves us not till he has fitted us wholly to his own bosom A visit of everlasting friendship or an everlasting visit was this visit in the Text. Thus I have shewed you a seven-fold visit that our Lord has made us made Gods first blessing into seven A visit of Honour a visit of Charity a visit of Service a visit of Kindness a visit of Mercy a visit of Friendship and a visit of everlasting Love All these ways he visited his people and still visits them all the ways he can imagine to bless them and do them good And yet I should have thought I had forgot one if it did not fall in with the blessing we are to consider next Redeeming For he visited us also as he is said to do the children of Israel Gen. l. 24. to bring us out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage He visited us to redeem us or visited and redeemed 2. Now if redeem'd Captives it seems we were And so we were under a fourfold Captivity To the World to Sin to Death and to the Devil The World 1. that had ensnared and fettered us so wholly taken us that it had taken away our names and we were called by the name of the World instead of that of Men as if we were grown such worldlings that we had even lost our natures and our names even the best of us the Elect are sometimes called
so too To redeem our honours and us thence God sent his Son says S. Iohn iii. 17. and he chose us out of it St. Iohn xv 19. Sin 2. that had made us Captives too chain'd us up so fast that the best of us cannot but cry out sometimes O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me Rom. 7. 24. And none but this visitour could or can God through Iesus Christ so S. Paul presently adds upon it and would have us thank and bless him for it Death that had also got dominion over us for no more dominion Rom. vi 9. signifies it had it once and kept us shrewdly under Rom. v. 17. But Christ Iesus by his appearing they are the Apostles words has abolish'd death 2 Tim. i. 10. Made us free from sin and death Rom. viii 2. The Devil 4. he took us captive also at his will 2 Tim. ii 26. But for this purpose was the Son of God manifested says S. Iohn that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 S. John iii. 8. And as high as the Fiend carries it he will bruise him under our feet Rom. xvi 20. Now to be delivered from such masters as these is a blessing without question All the question is how either Zachary could say so long before our Saviour's Birth or we so presently upon it he hath redeemed when S. Paul says 't was by his Blood Col. i. 22. S. Peter through his death 1 S. Peter i. 19. Why very well both the one and the other At his Birth was this Redemption first begun the foundation laid at his Death 't was finished In his Incarnation and Nativity he took the flesh that died and the blood he shed and we might truly have been said to be redeemed by his Blood though he had not shed it and by his Death though he had not died because he had already taken on our flesh and blood and from that very moment became mortal and began to dye or to speak a little plainer He brought the price of our Redemption with him at his Birth He paid it down for us at his Death The Writings as it were and Covenants between God and Him about it were agreed on at his Birth were engrossing all his Life and seal'd by him at his Death So 't is as true to day as any day He redeemed And had not this day been first in the business the other could not have been at all or first or last O Blessed Day that hast thus laid the foundation of all our good ones O ever Blessed Lord who hast thus visited and redeemed us what shall we do unto thee how shall we bless thee 3. Nay and yet 3. thou hast sav'd us too That 's the next blessing to be considered And 't is worth considering For redeem'd indeed we might be and yet not saved Redeem'd and yet fall again into the same bad hands or into worse redeem'd from evils past and yet perish by some to come 'T is this salvation that makes all safe Where 1. we are saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us ver 71. every thing that may hereafter hurt us as well as we were redeemed from all that did Nor life nor death nor height nor depth nor any thing can separate us now from the love of God in Christ Jesus Rom. viii 39. all things shall continually work for good ver 28. all work henceforward for our salvation Especially seeing he saves us 2. from our sins as the Angel tells us S. Mat. i. 21. Does not redeem us only from the slavery of our former sins and the punishments we lay sadly under for them but preserves and saves us from slipping back into the old and from falling into new ones 'T is a continual salvation Nay 3. 'T is an eternal one too he saves us with He the Author of eternal salvation Heb. v. 9. There we shall be safe indeed All salvations here may have some clouds to darken them some winds to shake them something sometimes to interrupt them somewhat or other to tarnish or soil their glory New enemies may be daily raised up to us Sin will be always bustling with us here we had need to be sav'd and sav'd again daily and hourly sav'd but with this salvation once sav'd and sav'd for ever Well may we pray with holy David Psal. cvi 4. O visit us with this salvation And well may we term it now as our Translation does a mighty salvation 4. And mighty sure we may justly stile it For it required a mighty Power a mighty Person a mighty Price and mighty Works to bring such mighty things to pass And it had them all 1. A mighty Power Almighty too No created Power could do it Horse and man and all things else but vain things to save a man to deliver his soul from the hand of Hell Psal. xxxiii 17. lxxxix 47. 2. A mighty Person the very God of might I the Saviour and besides me none Isa. xliii 11. No other person able to effect it 3. A mighty price it cost No corruptible things says S. Peter 1 Pet. i. 18. Nothing but the blood of the Son of God the precious Blood of Iesus Christ no less could compass it 4. Mighty works lastly and mighty workings to work things about Miracles and wonders good store it cost to accomplish the work of our salvation such as he only who was mighty before God and all the people St. Luke xxiv 19. could bring to pass And this adds much to the glory of this salvation that it was done by such great hands and ways as these But not the works only that wrought it but the works it wrought speak the salvation mighty too Mighty for certain which neither the unworthiness of our persons nor the weaknesses of our natures nor the habits of our sins nor the imperfections of our works nor the malice of our enemies nor any power or strength or subtilty of men or Devils were able to hinder or controul but that maugre all it spread it self to the very ends of the earth carried all before it A salvation we may trust to we need not fear in this mercy of the most highest we shall not miscarry 5. For 5. we have here gotten a good Horn to hold by A horn of salvation the original gives it a salvation not only strong but sure Salvation that is a Saviour too one that we may confidently lay hold on one that neither can nor will deceive or fail us For 1. He is a King so the Horn signifies in the Prophetick phrase Dan. vii 8. The four and seven and ten Horns there so many Kings and it stands not with the honour of a King to deceive or disappoint us 2. And he is not a King without a Kingdom He hath a Kingdom 2. and power to help us The Horn signifies that too in the stile of Prophesie because in the Horn lies the strength and power and dominion
Worms and Fowl Kings and People Princes and Iudges Young men and Maidens Old men and Children all Sexes Degrees and Ages Men and Angels and all kind of Beings does he call on to praise and bless and magnifie their Creator Indeed the whole Creation is blessed by this Visit so 't is but just they should bless God for it Yet how should all these things we mentioned do it many of them have no tongues to say many no sense to understand it Why they do it yet The Sun by day the Moon by night may become torches to light his servants service The Earth brings forth her Corn and Wine to furnish out his Table the deep gives up her Riches and brings home Golds and Silks to adorn his Holy Altars the Earth brings Stones and Minerals the Hills and Mountains Trees and Cedars to his House the fire kindles Tapers for it all the meteors of the air and all the seasons of the years do somewhat every wind blows somewhat towards it The very Birds and Swallows get as near the Altar as they can to bless him the Snow and Cold and Ice crowd as near Christmas as they can to bear a part in this great Solemnity in our solemnest thanksgivings Only he that has no need of this visit no need of Christ or his Redemption that cares not to be saved needs keep no Christmas may stand out or sit or do what he will at this Benedictus But sure when all things else thus come in throngs to bless him and even Ice and Snow come hot and eager to this Feast and willingly melt themselves into his praises we should not methinks come coldly on to bless him but come and bring our Families and Children and Neighbours with us to make the Choire as full as possibly we can Tell one another what Christ did to day what he every day does for us how he visited us to day how he still visits us every morning how he redeemed us to day how he does day by day from one ill or other how he began to day to raise up salvation for us and will not leave raising it for us till we can rise no higher Tell we our children next how in this God had respect to David his anointed and that they must learn to have so How he had regard to David his Servant will have so to them if they be his servants let them therefore be sure they be so fit them thus to sing their parts betimes in Hymns and Anthems and praises to their God that they that cannot speak may yet lisp it out and when they can speak out sing it loud and shrill that the hollow Vaults and Arches may eccho and rebound his praises not your Children only but stones also be thus rais'd up for children unto Abraham 'T is in the power of your hands grave Senators Fathers and Brethren to make the stones cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber to answer Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power to him that has rais'd up to us so great salvation I look upon this great Solemnity of yours as a meer design of blessing God and the Torches that light you hither as so many lights set up to make the light of your good works shine the greater You have not only these blessings in the Text but millions more to invite you to it Not to repeat the blessings and deliverances I have told you all blessings and salvations else you owe to this days Visit of the Almighty to this Horn he raised up for us Let us bring them also into the roll and thus bless him for them Some of you he has delivered out of trouble bless you him for that Some of you he has recovered lately from a sickness bless you him for that Some of you he has delivered lately from a danger bless you him for that You he has visited in distress visit you his Temples his poor and needy servants and bless him so You he has redeemed of late from the gates of death redeem you the time hereafter walk circumspectly and soberly and for the rest of your life serve him better and bless him so You he has sav'd out of the hands of Hereticks and Seducers save you your selves henceforward from that untoward generation and come no more among them Pay him visit for visit redemption for redemption one salvation for another and bless him so You he has rais'd to some honour and preferment raise you up some pillar of thanksgiving for it You he has rais'd to an estate raise you up some memorial to him out of it You he has rais'd out of nothing you out of a desperate condition your house and family out of ruines help you God again to raise his house and he will say you bless him for it Let there be some token of gratitude set up here as God set the Rain-bow in the Clouds Gen. xix 15. that he may look upon it and remember and save you in the time of need with his mercy for it In a word God has signally and strangely visited us of late years with his salvation redeemed us from our enemies and all that hate us those Horns that like those in Daniel pusht down and scattered all before them that threw down our Temples took away our daily service set up the abomination of desolation in these holy places Horse and Foot and Arms and all the instruments of desolation and stampt upon all holy things and persons he has rais'd us up a mightier horn to make those horns draw in theirs a horn in the house of his servant David restored our David his anointed to us kept him his servant returned him as he went safe and sound in the principles of his Religion restored him and his house us and ours kept them at least from utterly pulling down O that men would therefore now praise the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders he has lately done for the children of men As many Scarlets now as you please to adorn your gratitudes as many Torches now as you please that we may see them what solemn processions now as you judge fit to make to evidence your blessings to the Lord God of Israel for what he has done for us for either our souls bodies or estates So shall God again bless all your blessings to you the poor shall bless us and the Church shall bless us and these walls shall bless us and the children yet unborn shall bless us and all our blessings be continued to us we shall be visited and redeem'd and sav'd upon all occasions in all necessities on every hand and at every turn till he bring us at last to his eternal salvation to sing eternal Allelujahs everlasting Benedictus's Hymns and Praises with all the Blessed Saints and Angels to God blessed for evermore To this glorious blessing he bring us all who this day came to visit us that he might Jesus Christ. To whom
covered with misfortunes so clouded with griefs so compassed with sorrows so wrapt up in night and darkness in sins and miseries that one knows not what it is or how to christen it Such a thing only we may conceive it and we cannot conceive half of its poornesses and emptinesses that we can only gape and wonder at it In the 144. Psalm where the Psalmist propounds this question as it were again of what is man He answers presently ver 4. Man is like a thing of nought his time passeth away like a shadow He is not so much as a thing he is but like it though that very thing be a thing of nought too a meer shadow of a thing of nought he is which we may well wonder at but cannot well imagine and wonder again that God should think of such a shadow as he that he should be mindful of the dust of the earth that he should regard the dirt that he should visit a we know not what that he should raise a piece of clay so near Angels and himself that he should crown such a dunghil of wretchedness and misery that he should bestow his glory upon such a shadow and worship upon the dust of his feet and the dirt under him O Lord how wonderful is thy goodness towards the children of men 'T is more wonderful for all that if we now consider his dealing with his own Son for the sakes of the Sons of men The second particular of his mercy that for man and the Sons of men he has made this Text to be said of him also made him a thing to be wondred at by his dealing with him both by his Exinanition and by his Exaltation To him now we come to apply the words for to him they properly belong Where first we will find out his Exinanition or his being emptied and abased to be wondred at What is man so only before but what is now the best of men the Son of man himself The term of Son of man is very proper unto Christ called so by Daniel long before he was so Dan. vii 13. And it may bear a note that Christ he only is properly filius hominis in the singular the Son of man single born of the Virgin without a man Others are filii hominum in the plural every one is so born by the help of two Father and Mother both But notwithstanding man and the Son of man are diminutions to the Son of God for to have been made like Angels had been a high derogation but lower then they what shall I call it But 2. So low as man can you lend me a word for it for what is man that God should be made one I have told you over and over what he is but what art thou O blessed God that thou should'st be made such a things as he Or 3. if man he must be made what need he be made the Son of man yet He might have brought a humane nature down from heaven that had been fittest for him an incorruptible humanity To be man and the Son of man rottenness of rottenness vanity of vanity for man in the Psalmists phrase is nothing else there 's a debasement below debasement And yet 4. to be such a Son of man that has a quid est a si quis writ over him to enquire who he is so obscure and ignoble that neither David nor Esau can discern him but Esau with a quis est Isa. lxiii 1. and David here with a quid est only can decipher him without form or comeliness form or fashion or name or title one despised and rejected even of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs one that men would hide their faces from as the Prophet speaks of him Isa. liii 2 3. to be made such a one as this we may all wonder indeed Prophets and People all of us nay be all amazed at it I can shew you him yet lower 5. Lower then the Angels that we have told you but they were good ones but malis etiam so S. Austin lower then the bad ones Laid under their cruelty and fury in his death and not over them surely always in his life When the Devil was permitted to carry him from Mountain to Mountain to the Pinacle of the Temple or where he pleases St. Mat. iv This is stranger still Yet this might be a glory as a trial but 6. to be visited that is punished and not after the visitation of all men neither but even the basest to be a man raised up for punishment made to be scourged afflicted and abus'd A homo quoniam visitas made man only to be punished the Son of man only to be under the power and lash of man the worst of men too the basest of the people scorn'd and spit upon beaten and buffeted torn and rent and lash'd and pierc'd by who would of them What wonder is there not in his thus being made the Son of man But lastly to be as it were out of Gods mind the while so visited by him as if he were no way mindful of him as if he had clean forgotten him who he was remembred not at all that he was his Son he us'd so that he was forc'd to cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me art no more mindful of me This is a quid est beyond the very Text a wonder that is above what is explicite there Yet such a man he was made too so that we may justly now ask quid est in the highest key what is man what is this man what is the business what the matter that all this is done unto him that God thus makes and unmakes him and makes him again we know not what And we should more wonder yet but for the following words 2. that all this is but to crown him with glory and honour But that affords us a new wonder still that God should so crown such a one as this he we speak of And to speak truth his exaltation after all this the exaltation of our humane nature in him as poor wretched and contemptible as it is a new work of wonder Had it been a nature born and fram'd to glory it had been none at all had it been a King or of the Royal Lineage to have been crown'd there had been no strangeness in it but to crown a worm to crown the very scorn of men as he terms himself Psal. xxii 6. with glory and the outcast of the people with honour and worship this is a quis enarrabit who can declare this generation how it should come to a crown Yet before we come to speak of that let 's go through the lower parts of his exaltation And as poor a thing as God made him and that was poor enough yet did he not forget him He was so mindful of him even in his low estate that he gave his Angels charge over him would not let his foot slip or
encouraged and confirmed him in it 4. His profession at it Behold said he I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God In those words he professed his faith and proclaimed his vision of it By this manner of considering it we shall do St. Stephen right and Christmas no wrong remember St. Stephens Martyrdom and yet not forget Christs being at it celebrate St. Stephens memory and yet no way omit Christs He being here to be lookt on as encourager of St. Stephens Martyrdom as much as St. Stephen for his Professor and Martyr By all together we shall fully understand the requisites of a Martyr what is required to make one such to be full of the Holy Ghost to look up stedfastly into heaven to look upon Christ as there and as boldly to profess it to be full of Grace and Spirit full of Piety and Devotion full of Faith and Hope full of Courage and Resolution all proportionably requisite to the spiritual Martyrdom of dying to the world and leaving all for Christ requisite too all of them in some measure to dye well at any time the very sum of the Text to be learn'd hence and practis'd by us If I add all requisite to keep Christmas too as it should be kept with Grace and Devotion with Faith and courage also against all that shall oppose it that our Christmas business be to be filled with the Spirit and not with meats and drinks to look up to Heaven to look up to Iesus and never to be afraid or ashamed to profess it there is nothing then in the Text to make it the least unseasonable I go on therefore to handle it part by part The first is St. Stephens accommodation to his Martyrdom how he stands fitted for it And surely he could not be better Full of the Holy Ghost Ghost is Spirit and what more necessary to a Martyr then a spirit The dreaming sluggish temper is not fit to make a Martyr he must have Spirit that dares look Death soberly in the face Yet every Spirit neither will not make a Martyr there are mad spirits in the world they call them brave ones though I know not why that rush headily upon the points of Swords and Rapiers yet bring these gallant fellows to a Scaffold or a Gibbet the common reward of their foolish rashness which they mis-reckon'd valour and you shall see how sheepishly they die how distractedly they look how without spirit The spirit that will bear out a shameful or painful death without change of countenance or inward horrour must be holy Where the Spirit is holy the Conscience pure the Soul clean the man dies with life and spirit in his looks as if he were either going to his bed or to a better place 'T is a holy life that fits men to be Martyrs But spirit and a holy Spirit is not enough to make a Martyr neither though the Martyrs spirit must be a holy one yet to dispose for martyrdom the holy Spirit must come himself with a peculiar power send an impulse and motion into the soul and spirit that shall even drive it to the stake And every degree of power will not do it it must be a full gale of holy wind that can cool the fiery Furnace into a pleasing walk that can make death and torments seem soft and easie Full of the Holy Ghost it is that Stephen is said to be e're we hear him promoted to the glory of a Martyr The Spirit of holiness will make a man die holily and the holy Spirit make him die comfortably but the fulness of him is required to make him die couragiously without fear of death or torment cruelty or rage By this you may now guess at Martys who they are not they that die for their folly and their humour not they 2. that die without holiness not every one 3. that dies as we say with valour and spirit not they that die upon the motion of any spirit but the holy one that one holy Spirit not they that die in Schism and Faction against the unity of this Holy Spirit the peace of his Holy Church none of these die Martyrs die Souldiers or valiant Heathen or men of spirit they may but men of the holy Spirit Martyrs they die not They only die such that have lived holily die in holy Cause in a holy Faith and in the peace of holy Church as in the Faith of one Holy Spirit ruling and directing it into unity upon good ground and warrant and a strong impulsion so to do without seeking for or voluntarily and unnecessarily thrusting themselves into the mouth of death And yet there are strange impulses I must tell you of the spirit of Martyrdom which ordinary souls or common pieties cannot understand Only we must know that the spirit of Martyrdom is the spirit of Love the very height of love to God which how that can consist with the spirit of Schism whereby we break the unity of Brethren or how a man can so highly love God as to dye for him and hate his Spouse the Church or his Brethren is inimaginable Some other engines there may be as vain-glory an obstinate humour of seeming constant to a false principle an ignorant and self-willed zeal which may sometimes draw a man to die but if the fulness of peace and charity does not appear there is no fulness of the Holy Ghost and they make themselves and their deaths but Martyrs that is witnesses of their own folly He that pretends to be a Martyr must have more then a pretence to the Spirit of charity II. And not to charity only but to devotion too He must 2. prepare himself for it stedfastly look up to Heaven nay into Heaven too fill his Spirit with divine and heavenly provision for it with St. Stephen here Who 1. looks up to Heaven as to his Country whither he was a going He longs earnestly to be there His soul with holy David's has a desire and longing to enter thither He that looks but seriously up to Heaven and beholds that glorious Building those starry Spangles those azure Curtains those lustrous bodies of the Sun and Moon that vast and splendid circumference of these glistering dwellings cannot but thirst vehemently to be there soul and flesh thirst for it O how brave a place is Heaven how brave even but to look on But if he can look as here it seems St. Stephen did into heaven too and contemplate the happy Choirs of blessed Saints and Angels the ineffable beauty of those inward Courts the ravishing Melody and Musick they make the quiet peace and happiness that pleasure joy and fulness of satisfaction and contentment there the majestick presence and blessed sight of God himself with all the store-houses of blessedness and glory full about him his very soul will be even ready to start with violence out of his body to fly up thither He that looks thus stedfastly looks
foundation of the earth it covers the deep with its wings covers Heaven and Earth with the Majesty of its glory IV. Yet so it might and we ne're the better but that fourthly 't is a Name of Grace and Mercy as well as Majesty and Glory Iesus is a word of which I may more justly say as Tully says of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it contains so much ut Latino uno verbo exprimi non possit It cannot be exprest in any one Latin or English word or any one indeed besides it self Mercy and Grace dwell in it it engrosses all and without it there is none any where to be found no Mercy out of Iesus no Grace but from Iesus no Name under heaven given by which we can be saved but the Name of Iesus Acts iv We are Baptized in the Name of Iesus Acts xix 5. We receive remission of our sins in the Name of Iesus Ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Iesus 1 Cor. vi 11. Ye are sanctified in the Name of the Lord Iesus in the same verse We are glorified by the Name of Iesus in that Name we live in that name we die To Iesus it is we run for grace and assistance whilst we live To Iesus we cry for Grace and Mercy when we die To Iesus we commit our spirits when we breath them out We can neither live nor die without our Iesus Thy name says the Spouse is oyntment poured forth Cant. i. 3. Now Oyl has three special uses for light for meat for medicine We have all in Iesus 1. He is the light that lighteth every one that comes into the world St. John i. 9. 2. He 's the meat that never perishes S. John vi 27. and feeds us up to everlasting life S. Iohn vi 54. 3. He 's the cure and medicine of all our maladies He wants nothing that has Iesus and he has nothing that wants him Omnia Iesus nobis est si volumus c. says St. Ambrose Iesus is all things to us if we will Curari desideras medicus est si febribus aestuas fons est si gravaris iniquitate justitia est si auxilio indiges virtus est si mortem times vita est si ire desideras via est si tenebras fugis lux est si cibum appetis alimentum est Dost thou want health he is the great Physician Art thou fried in the flames of a burning Fever he is the well-spring to cool thy heat Art thou over-laden with thine iniquity he is thy righteousness to answer for thee Dost thou want help he is ever ready at hand to succour thee Art thou afraid of death he is thy life Wouldst thou fain be going any whither he is the way Art thou in darkness and fearest to stumble he is a light to thy feet and a lanthorn to thy paths Art thou hungry or thirsty he is nourishment and food and meat and drink the truest What is it that thou desirest that he is not that this name will not afford thee Why it heals our sicknesses it supports our infirmities it supplies our necessities it instructs our ignorances it defends us from dangers it conquers temptations it inflames our coldnesses it lightens our understandings it rectifies our wills it subdues our passions it raises our spirits and drives away all wicked spirits from us it ratifies our petitions it confirms our blessings and crowns all our prayers In this name they end all that end well through Iesus Christ our Lord. In thy name O blessed Iesus we obtain all that we obtain through it we receive all that we receive so that say we may well with that holy Father Iesus meus omnia Iesus meus omnia Iesus is my all Jesus he is and all I have nothing else but him I will have nothing else but him and I have all if I have him V. And well may we now say fifthly 't is a name of sweetness and comfort too a seet name indeed oyntment we told you it was and a sweet oyntment it is that fills all the house with its precious odour insomuch as it makes the Virgins therefore love thee says the Spouse there in the fore-cited place of the Canticles Mel in ore in aure melos in corde subilus says S. Bernard 'T is honey in the mouth 't is musick in the ear 't is melody in the heart The soul and all its powers the body and all its members may draw sweetness thence O how sweetly sounds the Name of Iesus or a Saviour to one in misery to one in danger to one in any calamity or distress how does it rejoyce the heart and quicken the very bones Gyra regyra versa reversa says the devout S. Bernard non invenies pacem vel requiem nisi in solo Iesu. Quapropter si quiescere vis pone Iesus ut signaculum super cor tuum quia tranquillus ipse tranquillat omnia Turn you and turn you again which way you will which way you can you can never find such peace and quiet as there is in Iesus you will find none any where but in him If you would fain therefore lay you down to rest in peace and comfort set the seal of Iesus upon your heart and all will be quiet no dreadful visions of the night shall affright you no noon days trouble shall ever shake you In the midst of that terrible storm of stoâ—es about St. Stevens ears he but looking up and seeing Iesus falls presently into a quiet slumber and sweetly sleeps his last upon a hard heap of pebbles more pleasantly than upon a Bed of Down or Roses For 't is remarkable that the holy Martyr there calls out upon the Name of Iesus rather than that of Christ as if that only were the name to hold by in our last and greatest agonies Nor is it to be forgotten that this Name was set upon the Cross over our Saviours head to teach us that 't is a Name which set upon the head of all our Crosses will make them easie the thought of Iesus the reference to that holy Name the suffering under that will give both a sweet odour and a pleasant relish to whatever it is we suffer This looking unto Iesus as the Apostle advises Heb. xii 2 3. will keep us from being weary or fainting under them will make us conquerours more than conquerours Rom. viii 37. sure of our reward to sweeten all For neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus ver 38 39. This same Iesus at the end fixes and fastens all the love of God in Iesus will never leave us never forsake us keep but that devoutly in our hearts and piously in our mouths and we need fear nothing Come what can it sweetens all Methinks
natures his God-head by the Incense his Manhood by the Myrrhe 2. His Offices his Kingly Office by the Gold the very matter of the Crown that makes him King His Priestly Office by Incense the Priests Office being to offer Incense S. Luke i. 9. Levit. xvi 13. His Prophetical Office by the Myrrhe representing the bitter and mortified life of a Prophet 3. Here 's his Birth his Life his Death and Resurrection all acknowledged His Birth fitly resembled unto gold the purest metal his birth the purest without any sin at all of a Virgin pure as the most refined Gold his Life well represented by the Incense being nothing but a continual service of God and a perpetual doing of his Fathers business His Death the very manner of it evidently pointed at by the Myrrhe which in his Passion was given him in Wine to drink the usual draught of those that died upon the Cross. And his Resurrection easily enough understood by the same Myrrhe whose chief use is to preserve the dead body from Corruption out of an hope of a Resurrection and was even litterally done unto him by Nicodemus who brought a mixture of Myrrhe and Aloes to embalm him St. John xix 39. So now we see what it is to present Gold Francincense and Myrrhe to Christ even no less than to believe him to be God and Man our King and Priest and Prophet born of a Virgin without stain of sin living in all holiness without blame and dying for us yet not seeing Corruption but rising again to Incorruption This is the Faith we are to offer up this triple Faith Fear we not any adversaries or calamities he is our King to protect us King of Kings and Lord of Lords 1 Tim. vi 15. Despair we not though we be grievous sinners he is our Priest our High-Priest to offer for us and reconcile us Let not even Death affright us by his death Death hath lost its sting the Myrrhe of his embalming will preserve us and by his Resurrection he will revive and raise us up Let us thus think of Christ and trust upon him and we still offer this same offering of Gold Frankincense and Myrrhe This is the Allegory the Moral is behind and in the moral sense we offer Gold Frankincense and Myrrhe who present God with those vertues that resemble them First He offers Gold who patiently and constantly suffers for his Faith which is far more precious says St. Peter than of Gold that perisheth though it be tried with the fire 1 Pet. i. 7. The Martyrs flames are brighter than Gold and the constant Faith will endure the fire better than the Gold it self He 2. offers Gold who sets himself to keep Gods Commandments which in the Psalmists account Psal. xix 10. are more desirable than Gold yea than the finest Gold He 3. offers Gold who disperses it abroad and gives it to the poor he that gives Alms properly offers Gold to the poor indeed he gives it but to God it is he offers it an offering of a sweet savour to him 2. He offers Frankincense who offers Prayers whose Prayers ascend like Incense 'T is holy David's expression Prayers set forth as Incense Psal. â—xli 2. no Incense so sweet so acceptable to God as the devout Prayers of his servants He 2. presents Incense whose hope is only in the Lord his God whose desires and hopes are always ascending upward He 3. presents Incense who presents humility and obedience the nature of Frankincense is binding and restringent well imitated by obedience and humility the best binders and restrainers of our wills and passions 3. And lastly he offers Myrrhe who mortifies his affections which are upon the earth Myrrhe is a mortifier One quality of Myrrhe is to kill Worms he that kills these worms of our inordinate desires that come crawling on us those covetous desires that lie gnawing us those wrigling motions of any lusts that are ever tickling disturbing us he offers Myrrhe 2. He presents Myrrhe that presents his body chaste and pure Iudith that chaste Matron is said to wash her body and anoint it with Myrrhe Judith 10. as it were a preservative against lust and the Spouse in the Canticles so fair so pure so undefiled is much delighted with bundles of Myrrhe her very hands drop sweet smelling Myrrhe It is so great an Antidote against all impurity and corruption 3. He presents Myrrhe who though he hath not perhaps altogether kept his body pure or his affections in order yet begins now at last to take his Wine a little mingled with Myrrhe that takes of the bitter potion of repentance who in the bitterness of his soul repents him of his sins You know now how you may still offer Gold Frankincense and Myrrhe a constant Faith a regular Life Charity and Alms is as good as Gold devout Prayer a lively Hope an humble Obedience will pass for Incense a chaste body mortified affections and true repentance will be accepted instead of Myrrhe See we to it then that we have them always ready to present to Christ. Yet there is one mystery more to be observed when they had opened their treasures says the Text and it says it that we may know we are to open our treasures as well as offer them Now to open them before him is as it were to say take what he will we are content A voluntary resignation of our selves and all that is ours to his choice order and disposing to deny and renounce our selves and all that is ours our own desires our goods our good deeds our merits or to leave all to follow him if he so will have it is the most perfect of all our offerings and the perfection of them all It is both the beginning and end of Christianity so we begin our Christianity with the same resignedness we must continue it to the end And we may yet observe how to offer here as well as what to offer Open we our treasures first do it freely that we do all our treasures 2. Do it plentifully and largely Dorcas-like full of good works and alms-deeds let our good works and graces glitter like the refined Gold 3. Do them pure and sincerely 4. That they may ascend like Incense do them religiously and devoutly 5. Let them be wrapt up in Myrrhe to keep them from corouption 6. Let them all be like sweet smelling Myrrhe of good odour and report 7. Let them also be imbittered with Myrrhe with the bitter tears of repentance that we have presented God so little good and the tears of sorrow that we can present no better 8. Let them be done in order our incense in the middle our prayers wing'd on the one hand with the golden wing of Faith on the other with purity white as is says Pliny the purest Myrrhe a faithful heart and pure hands encompassed on the one side with Alms on the other with Mortification and Fasting First believe then pray then practise First believe
establish him a throne for ever 2 Sam. vii 11 12 13. God will be behind hand with none that do good to his Habitation or really intend or go about it Nay the very Sparrow is blest and the Swallow is blest that love but his House that sing their Mattens and Vespers at his Altars the devout Prophet even envies them for it Psal. lxxxiv 3. So great are the blessings of the House of God and so ever are those persons under his eye so in the eye of blessing whose good deeds are there continually putting God in mind of them If you would but remember how God forgets his mercy or which is the same how he remembers them in Iudgment who do ill to his House or to the Offices how he strikes Vzzah dead for an irreverent touch of the Holy Ark how he smites Vzziah with a leprosie for an encroachment upon the sacred Office 2 Chron. xxvi 19. and turns Saul out of his Kingdom for the like fault 1 Sam. xiii 14. How he thrusts Nebuchadnezzar out of doors Dan. iv 33. because he had burnt up his Houses in the Land 1 King xxv 9. 'T is just indeed he should have no House who will let God have none How he despoils Belshazzar of his Kingdom because he had spoild his Temple and was now prophaning those holy spoils carouzing in the sacred bowles Dan. v. 30. How he quite forgets all mercy to the Iews and casts them out as soon as they prophaned his holy Temple and abused his Messengers Priests and Prophets 2 Chron. xxxvi 14. and professes he could hold no longer when they had arrived at that height of insolent wickedness How he makes the Heavens forget their dew and the earth her fruit because they let his house lie waste Hag. i. 9 10. you will readily conclude how he remembers those that raise the Walls and repair the Ruines and reverence the Sanctuaries and love the Priests If them with Curses then these with Blessings if them with diseases then these with health if them with exile these with quiet dwellings if them with scarcity these with plenty Vbertate Domus the plenty of his house if them with desolate and decaying Families these with happy and full Posterities if them with death then these with life even for ever and ever VI. But 't is time now to remember our selves And many things we are here to be remembred of That 1. We have a House of God as well as Nehemiah to do good to Many houses of God in the Land now as well as in the Psalm lxxiv. 9. This above the rest whose decay'd Towers and ruin'd Pinacles and ragged Walls and open Windows and falling Roofs and broken Pavements call loud for a Repairer of the breaches And 't is not Nehemiahs Mercy and Bounty nor the Levites thin revenue added that can do it Blessed indeed be God that he hath put it into the heart of the King to begin and offer so freely to the Work But I hope we shall ere long have reason to bless him for your offerings too This House is Gods all such houses Gods as well as that of Bethel or that of Sion or those Synagogues of the Iews stiled several times his houses That they are so the solemn Dedications always of them to his Name with so much glory say enough And if Domus orationis be Domus mea the House of Prayer be Gods and Christ says it is and sure he knows both what is his own and how to call it the daily celebration of that Publick Worship there will give a second proof That some such there were even in the Apostles times some house besides such as we eat and drink in that must not be so used must not be so despised the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. xi â—â— and that it was then called the Church of God in the same verse is to tell you in plain English our Churches are Gods houses And God has in our days own'd them for his own That signal preserving them in the heat of War and Plunder rage and fury when men were so wrathfully displeased at them and so implacably set against them That protecting them 2. through all the Triumphs of a godly Atheism and a sacriledge out of Conscience both as unsatisfied as the grave so miserably greedy that they would violate their Fathers Sepulchres and scatter their ashes in the air and wind for an inconsiderable piece of lead or brass or stone That miraculous restoring them 3. to all the holy Offices this Church in particular destined to a sale and deferred only to see who would give most are evidences of it too great to be disputed that God has vindicated his right and kept it for himself And I hope you will all remember it and now help him in it Court and City both of you And remember 2. These Houses have their Officers their Offices their Ceremonies as well as that here in the Text. Offices to be performed Officers to perform them and Ceremonies to perform them with Your countenancing your encouraging your protecting them are the good deeds you may do to them Remember therefore 3. I beseech you that you do so Three arguments there are in the Text to perswade it 1. Good it is to do so good deeds they are God 2. will remember them when they are done God 3. will remember you for doing them 1. Good they are remember that And good works are a good foundation 1 Tim. vi 19. a foundation upon which you may lay hold on eternal life says St. Paul there and can you desire a better Indeed Iudas tells us it would do better upon the poor But had he had the selling of the Ointment then or when some of his Disciples had the selling of it since Were the poor ever the better for it Were not thousands sent a begging by it Sure sure he that can be content to see the Church in ruines will not much pass to see the poor in rags He that envies the Church-mans wealth will never pity the poor mans want and he that one time sells the Church will next time sell the poor if he can get by him But we will not set good deeds together by the ears 'T is enough that these are good but 't is more 2. that God remembers them that he takes a particular notice of them 2. I may say too a notice of the particulars The Scrowles of them are laid up for an everlasting remembrance Feasts of Dedication have been always kept for a memorial of them and Christ himself vouchsafed to be present at them St. Ioh. x. 22. And if the Syriac Translator may be allowed to read the last verse of the Chapter Et ad oblationes ad sacra temporibus Festis Statutis memoriam hujus rei mihi serva we see these good deeds were solemnly remembred in those solemn Feast and Nehemiah expected his should be so Their persons have anciently been remembred
chiefest Apostles Have you been in more Heavens than he Heard more Revelations than he Have you more assurances of your Election or Salvation than he that vvas arrived at that height to be perswaded that neither death nor life nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature could separate him from the love of God in Christ Iesus Rom. viii 38 39. are you better than he If you be not you had best take the course he did If you be you had best yet take his course to keep you so Yea but 4. our Christian Liberty is entrencht on by it We must not by this very same Apostles advice and counsel be subject to those Ordinances of touch not taste not handle not Col. ii 20 21. and yet those things seem to make much for the neglecting of the body and the not satisfying of the flesh ver 23. but that we must not be brought under the power of any 1 Cor. vi 11. No but the body must be brought under ours for all that says our Apostle Says he so He says no more than he does he does so too And yet he knew his power and Christian Liberty to the ful had power to eat and drink he tells us ver 4. and to do neither power to work and not to work to forbear working ver 6. was free ver 19. yet from this it seems he is not free unless he will fight as one that beats the air in the verse before the Text. He knows no liberty that can allow the liberty to his body not to be kept under and subjected unless it please Nor 5. does he whatever we think of it think he may spare it upon the account of other vertues as if it were enough to be diligent at our prayers to be frequent at Sermons to be orderly in our Families to be just in our dealings to be honest in our Callings to be charitable to the poor to be friendly to our neighbours or the like and let this subduing the body go whither it will St. Paul cannot be suspected to have been wanting in any of these yet he must needs add this grace also it seems to make all sure keep the body under that he may so keep those graces safe For a less matter lastly will not serve the turn St. Pauls labours and journeys and perils and stripes and prisons and deaths as great and as often as they were must have this also added to them the flesh must have some thorn or other to keep it in subjection If God send it not if the devil by his permission buffet not the flesh we must do it our selves lest we be exalted above measure those very performances which we think we have most reason to glory in will but puff us up and cast us sheer away if we preserve not our body in that lowliness and subjection that we should So now if we think good to guide our selves by St. Pauls authority and example there is none so weak none so busily employed none so holy that can exempt himself no Christian Liberty no other graces though never so many nor any other performances that can be pleaded against it All sorts of persons are included in St. Pauls and in this I all objections against it are sufficiently answered and we all included and obliged for if such a one as the glorious St. Paul could find no exemption I know not what Christian can expect it You 'l confess it perhaps when you have confidered what this body is you are to deal with the next Particular we are to handle And by the body here may be understood either the flesh it self or the fleshliness of it the body it self or the sinful passions and affections rising in it To be sure take we both And indeed we can neither be sure nor safe if 1. the passions and affections be not kept within their bounds if we suffer our appetites to rule us our angers to transport us our desires to harrow us our fears to distract us our hopes to abuse us or any other of that impetuous crew to over-bear us They must all be made underlings kept within rule and compass or we are lost Nay and to keep them so this very bulk of flesh 2. must be kept so too for keep this but high it is impossible to keep them low Stuff the body with meat and drink let it lodge soft and lie long let it have the fill of ease and pleasure facile despumat it froths into lust it boils into anger it swells into pride it rises into rebellion it leaks into looseness it mosses into idleness it fills the brain with fogs the heart with filth the liver with wanton heats the mouth with unsavoury language and all the members with disorder and confusion Do but take away the meat and let it fast a while take it from the bed and let it watch another while take it from ease and tenderness and set it to some hard and unpleasing work let it feel a little cold a little labour a little course and rough usage for a time and you shall see how humble it will grow how much under you shall have it how orderly it will be It will do any thing you would have it But to make all sure every part must have its share the eye must be watcht the heart kept under guard the tongue bridled the palate curbed the ears fenced the hands restrained the knees bow'd down the feet kept in and all the members under for they are all but one body 1 Cor. xii 14. this body that is to be brought into subjection make up but that Iumentum animae that beast that carries the soul and is therefore to be rid like a beast with bit and bridle with whip and rod lest it fall upon us or fall with us and cast us Be St. Pauls body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never so good so orderly so chaste a body so it seems it must be used nay such it cannot be unless it be so used Let no man be so bold to think his body in better order than St. Pauls and yet here 's a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his a kind of fear of some miscarriage a fear some evil may rise from it Yea even that very body of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which had been at so many posts endured so many lashes already been in so many prisons so many perils so many storms and colds and shipwracks so many necessities and infirmities this very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this very body as much as it has suffered and as much as it has done I must yet keep under says St. Paul still more and more keep under for all that My body says he and mine say I and mine must every one say though we were all St. Pauls as holy as he had done and suffered as much as he But what yet must it suffer more
Grave between the ashes of a man and of a Beast 2. But there is 2. a death before this a death of the soul before the death of the body and the much worser of the twain The teeth of Sin says the Son of Syrach are as the teeth of a Lion slaying the souls of men Ecclus. xxi 2. the very souls The separation of the body from the soul which is the temporal death is but a trifle to the separation of the soul from God which is the spiritual This sin brings upon the soul in the very act if it rather be not it it self the very act of sin commits the murther and slays the soul whilst it is in doing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Apostle of the voluptuous Widow that lives in sin or pleasure she is dead whilst she is alive 1 Tim. v. 6. A meer walking carkase a sinner is a meer motion and engine without life and spirit when Gods Spirit and Grace as by sin it does is departed from him The fall of the body into the dust of the Grave is nothing so bad as the fall of the soul into the dirt of sin When our souls are but once deprived of Grace and Goodness Gods presence so taken from us they do but wither and dwindle and die away and we only walk like so many Ghosts among the Graves in the shades of night and darkness Did we but consider or understand how miserably the soul crawls along in this condition when the eternal Spirit is departed from it seal'd up as it were by her transgressions in the grave of a customary wickedness adding still one iniquity to another wholly insensible of any good as the dead body we would say the natural death were nothing like it the Grave but a bed of rest and sleep whilst sin were the very torments of death it self Nay the very pangs and horrors of death that make way to it but little flea-bitings to the stings and terrors of Conscience that often follow upon our sins upon the loss of Gods favour and presence And yet there is a third death worse than both these eternal Death from the two former we may rise again The dust will one day breath again and the soul after the departure of Gods Spirit may again retrive it and recover but once within the regions of eternal death and there for ever Body lost and Soul lost and God lost for ever An end indeed without an end an end of good but no end of evil where the worm is ever dying yet ever gnawing the fire dark as the most dismal night yet ever burning the body eternally separated from all the comforts of the soul yet the soul ever in it the soul for all eternity cast out of the land of the living separated irreconcilably from Gods presence the only fountain of joy and life and being and yet continually and everlastingly feeling the horrors of this intolerable parting from him Go ye cursed into everlasting fires is the sentence long since past upon the ungodly and the sinner by our Blessed Saviour St. Matth. xxv 41. The very Heathen notwithstanding the ignorance they were in they were not ignorant of this that they that commit such things are worthy of death so says the Apostle Rom. i. 32. And be the sinner who it will and be his way never so plain and easie never so specious yet at the end thereof is the pit of Hell says the son of Syrach Eâ—clus xxi 10. He that now promises himself any better end of his sins or sinful courses he that flatters and feeds himself with any other end of his Ambition or his Treason of his Faction or his Sedition of his Covetousness or his Sacriledge of his uncleanness or his unjustice or any other sin I name no more for I leave every one to reckon up his own he that flatters himself I say with any other end of any of them to make himself forget this does but deceive himself and fool away his soul beyond recovery Here 's all the fruit he is like to get the only end he will certainly find at last everlasting Death an end without an end without any thing in life to sweeten the approaches of death without any thing in death fruit or leaves to garnish up the Chambers of the Grave or any bud of hope to allay the misery and sadness of it And we need no other witness of all this neither of the little or no fruit nor of the great and horrid shame nor of the vast and miserable ruine that comes of sin but our own selves What had ye says our Apostle ye can shew no fruit ye are now asham'd and ye cannot be ignorant that death is coming on I here refer it to you say what you can in the behalf of it I desire none other witnesses nor judges than your selves What fruit had ye then in those things whereof you are now asham'd tell me if you can IV. Indeed there is none can tell so well as the sinner can himself what he has gotten by his sin whether we consider him as one reflecting upon his ways only as a person of reason should or else as a Christian will For 1. let any of us as men of reason lay together the weary steps the hard adventures the vexatious troubles the ordinary disappointments the impertinent visits the thoughtful nights the busie days the tumultuous uproars of our fears our jealousies our hopes our despairs the unworthy condiscentions the base disparagements the dishonourable enterprizes that a lust that a humour that a vanity puts us to or puts upon us and then compare them with the lightness the shortness the unprofitableness the unsatisfactoriness the eternal shame and confusion we yet after all purchase with all that toil and we must both needs confess that we have done brutishly and unreasonably and cannot but be asham'd we have so unman'd our selves and betrayed the very essence and glory of our nature not done like men But 2. let us renew the same reflections and view them over again by the light of Grace look upon our selves as Christians thus wretchedly betraying our God for a Lust Christ for an Interest our Religion for a Fancy our obedience for a Humour our Charity for a Ceremony our Peace for a Punctilio our duty to God and man for a little vain applause of peradventure ungodly men our Innocence for Dirt and Pleasure our eternal Glory and Salvation for Toys and Trifles and will we not without more ado confess we are asham'd infinitely asham'd of it Hear but those brave ranting blades those gallant sinners Wisdom v. 8. what they say themselves What hath pride profited us say they or what good have riches with our vaunting brought us as if in sum they had said what have all our sins procured us Why all those are passed away like a shadow ver 9. and we are consumed in our own wickedness ver 13. Now indeed though
there too late they begin to talk like men to speak reason The Christian penitent after he has run the course of sin and is now returning talks somewhat higher calls it a Prison the Stocks the Dungeon the very nethermost Hell thinks no words bad enough to stile it by We need not put any such upon the rack for this confession they go mourning and sighing it all the day long they tell you sensibly by their tears and blushes by their sad countenances and down-cast looks by their voluntary confessions their willing restraints now put upon themselves their pining punishing afflicting of their souls and bodies their wards and watches now over every step lest they should fall again that never were any poor souls so gull'd into a course so vain so unprofitable so dishonourable so full of perplexities so fruitful of anxieties so bitter so unpleasant as sin has been nor any thing whereof they are so much asham'd No fruit of all you see even our selves being judges And yet I will not send you away without some fruit or other somewhat after all this that may do you good For methinks if sin have no better fruits if wickedness come no better off we may first learn to be asham'd and blush to think of it be ashamed of sin We may 2. learn to beat it off thus at its first assaults What thou sin thou lust what fruit shall I have in thee what good shall I reap of thee Do I not see shame attend thee and death behind thee I am asham'd already to think upon thee away away thou impudent solicitress I love no such fruit I love no such end And if 3. we be so unhappy as to be at any time unawares engaged in any sin let us strike off presently upon the arguments of the Text. For why should we be so simple to take a course that will not profit to take pains to weave a web that will not cover us to plant trees that will yield no fruit to range after fruit that has no pleasure to court that which has no loveliness If we can expect nothing from our sins as you have heard we cannot why do we sweat about them if they bring home nought but shame why are we not at first asham'd to commit them if they end in death why will ye die O foolish people and unwise Lastly you that have led a course of sin and are yet perhaps still in it sit down and reckon every one of you with himself what you have gotten Imprimis So much cost and charges Item so much pains and labour so much care and trouble so much loss and damage so much unrest and disquiet so much hatred and ill-will so much disparagement and discredit so many anxieties and perplexities so many weary walks so much waiting and attendance so many disappointments and discouragements so many griefs and aches so many infirmities and diseases so many watches and broken sleeps so many dangers and distresses so many bitter throbs and sharp stings and fiery scorchings of a wounded Conscience so much and so much and so much misery all for a few minutes of pleasure for a little white and yellow dirt for a feather or a fly a buzze of honour or applause a fansie or a humour for a place of business or vexation sum'd up all in air and wind and dust and nothing Learn thus to make a daily reflection upon your selves and sins But after all these remember lastly 't is Death eternal Death everlasting misery Hell and damnation without end that is the end of sin that all this everlasting is for a thing that 's never lasting a thing that vanishes often in its doing all this death for that only which is the very shame of life and even turns it into death and surely you will no longer yield your members your souls and bodies to iniquity unto iniquity but unto righteousness unto holiness So shall ye happily comply with the Apostles argument in the Text and draw it as he would have you to the head do what he intends and aims at by it and by so doing attain that which he desires you should make your selves the greatest gainers can be imagined gain good out of evil glory out of shame life out of death all things out of nothing eternal life everlasting glory Which c. A SERMON ON THE Fourth Sunday in Lent I COR. ix 24. So run that you may obtain THat Christianity is a Race and Heaven the Goal and we all of us they that are to run is an ordinary Allegory in Scripture and Sermons which you have none of you but heard And that in this Race all that run do not obtain no more than they do that run in other Races every one sees and every one can tell you Not every one we told you the last day not they that run only with their tongues run they Lord Lord never so fast not many others that run further than so you will hear anon and too common experience can inform you But how so to run as to obtain is not a piece of so common knowledge Hic labor hoc opus est This is the Apostles business a business ordinary Christians are not sufficiently skill'd in 't is to be fear'd or if sufficiently skill'd in not so practised in but that they want a voice both behind and before them to tell them this is the way they are to walk in This is the way walk in it so and so run that you may obtain Were we to run in those Olympick Games which St. Paul here seems to allude to they who were practised in those sports and exercises were fittest to instruct us how so to run as to be conquerours there But being now to run the true Olympick that is the heavenly Race the true Race to heaven that true Olympus which that Poetical did but shadow this our Apostle that great wrastler not against flesh and bloud though in another sense against that too but against Principalities and Powers against the Rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness whose whole life was nothing else but a continual exercise of all the hardships in the Christian course who so gloriously fought the good fight and finished his course can best teach us how to do so too With this Prerogative too above the cunningest of those Olympick Masters that they cannot so instruct their Schollars that they shall be sure of the prize they run for though they run never so accurately to their Rules many there running and but one obtaining but here by St. Paul's direction we may all run and all obtain For to that purpose only we are invited and directed to run that we may obtain Yet true it is as we may all obtain so we may not and it will be but a spur to us to fear it one spur to hasten and quicken us in our course St. Paul had such a one now and then to make him run He had run
to wait upon their Lord that had now set them at liberty from the Grave and divulge the greatness and glory of his Resurrection When Moses and Elias appeared upon the holy Mount at Christs transfiguration talking with him St. Luke tells us they spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Hierusalem St. Luke ix 31. And 't is highly credible the discourse of these Saints with those to whom they appeared was of his Resurrection Their going into the City was not meerly to shew themselves nor their appearance meerly to appear but to appear Witnesses and Companions of their Saviours Resurrection Nor is it probable that the Saints whose business is to sing praise and glory to their Lord should be silent at this point of time of any thing that might make to the advancement of his glory Yet you may do well to take notice that it is not to all but to many only that they appeared to such as St. Peter tells us of Christs own appearance after his Resurrection as were chosen before of God witnesses chosen for that purpose Acts x. 41. that we may learn indeed to prize Gods favours yet not all to look for particular revelations and appearances 'T is sufficient for us to know so many Saints that slept arose to tell it that so many Saints that are now asleep St. Peter and the Twelve St. Paul and five hundred brethren at once all saw him after he was risen so many millions have faln asleep in this holy Faith so many slept and died for it that it is thus abundantly testified both by the dead and living both by life and death even standing up and dying for it and a Church raised upon this faith through all the corners of the earth and to the very ends of the world But to know the truth of it is not enough unless we know the benefits of Christs Resurrection they come next to be considered and there is in the words evidence sufficient of four sorts of them 1. The victory over sin and death both the Graves were opened 2. The Resurrection of the soul and body the one in this life the other at the end of it many dead bodies that slept arose 3. The sanctification and glorification of our souls and bodies the dead bodies that arose out of the graves went into the holy City 4. The establishing us both in grace and glory they appeared unto many All these says the Text after his Resurrection by the force and vertue of it Indeed it seems the graves were opened death almost vanquished and the grave near overcome whilst he yet hung upon the Cross before he was taken thence deaths sting taken out by the death of Christ and all the victories of the grave now at an end that it could no longer be a perpetual prison yet for all that the victory was not complete all the Regions of the Grave not fully ransackt nor the forces of it utterly vanquisht and disarm'd nor its Prisoners set at liberty and it self taken and led captive till the Resurrection 'T is upon this Point St. Paul pitches the victory and calls in the Prophets testimony 1 Cor. xv 54. upon this 't is he proclaims the triumph ver 55. O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory even upon the Resurrection of Iesus Christ which he has been proving and proclaiming the whole Chapter through with all its benefits and concludes it with his thanks for this great victory ver 57. So it is likewise for the death and grave of sin the chains of sin were loosed the dominion of it shaken off the Grave somewhat opened that we might see some light of grace through the cranies of it by Christs Passion but we are not wholly set at liberty not quite let out of it the Grave-stone not perfectly removed from the mouth of it till the Angel at the Resurrection or rather the Angel of the Covenant by his Resurrection remove it thence remove our sins and iniquities clean from us 2. Then indeed 2. the dead soul arises then appears the second benefit of his Resurrection then we rise to righteousness and live 1 Pet. ii 24. then we awake to righteousness and sin no more So St. Paul infers it That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father even so should we also walk in newness of life Rom 6. 4. This Resurrection one of the ends of his our righteousness attributed to that as our Redemption to his death From it it comes that our dead bodies arise too Upon that Iob grounds it his Resurrection upon his Redeemers Iob xix 25. I know that my Redeemer liveth well What then Why I know too therefore that though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God The Apostle interweaves our Resurrection with Christs and Christs with ours his as the cause of ours ours as the effect of his a good part of 1 Cor. 15. If Christ be risen then we if we then he if not he not we if not we not he And in the Text 't is evident no rising from the dead how open soever the graves be till after his Resurrection that we may know to what Article of our faith we owe both our deliverance from death and our deliverance into life here in soul and hereafter in our bodies by what with holy Iob to uphold our drooping spirits our mangled martyr'd crazy bodies by the faith of the Resurrection that day the day of the Gospel of good tidings to be remembred for ever 3. So much the rather in that 't is a Day yet of greater joy a messenger of all fulness of grace and glory to us of the means of our sanctification 3. of our rising Saints living the lives of Saints holy lives and of our glorification our rising unto glory both doors opened to us now and not till now liberty and power given us to go into the holy City both this below and that above now after his Resurrection and through it He rose again says St. Paul for our justification Rom. iv 25. to regenerate us to a lively hope blessed be God for it says St. Pet. i. 3. that we might be planted together in the likeness of his Resurrection says St. Paul Rom. vi 5. grow up like him in righteousness and true holiness and when the day of the general Resurrection comes rise then also after his likeness be conformed to his Image bear his Image who is the heavenly as we have born the Image of the earthly our vile body chang'd and fashioned like his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. iii. 21. whereby in the day of his Resurrection he subdued death and grave and sin and all things to him 4. And to shew the power of his Resurrection to the full there is an appearing purchast to us by it an appearing here in the fulness
stench and worms and rottenness then any dead body whatsoever full of infamous and stinking sins worms of conscience and worms of concupiscence rotten resolutions and performances continuance in sin is the sleep of death Holy purposes and resolutions are the rising out of it Walking thenceforward in the ways of righteousness is going into the holy City and the letting our righteousness so shine before men that God may be glorified is the appearing unto many And the order is as like our justification or spiritual Resurrection well resembled by it God first for the merits of Christs Death and Passion breaks ope the stony heart looses the fetters of our sins and lusts all worldly corruptible affections in us opens the mouth of it to confess its sins then the soul rises as it were out of its sleep by the favour of Gods exciting grace and comes out of sin by holy purposes and resolutions resolves presently to amend its courses then next it goes into the holy City by holy action endeavour and performance so goes and manifests its reconcilement to the Church of God and at last makes its Resurrection repentance and amendment evident and apparent to the world to as many as it any where converses with that all may bear witness to it that it is truly risen with Christ now lives with him This the order this the manner of our first Resurrection from the death of sin to the life of Grace Our second Resurrection to the life of Glory is but this very Resurrection in the Text acted over again As soon as the consummatum est is pronounced upon the world as soon as Christ shall say as he did upon the Cross all is finished the end is come the Arch-Angel shall blow his Trumpet the Graves open the earth and Sea give forth their dead and the dead in Christ shall rise first then they that be alive at his coming For if we believe that Iesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Iesus shall God bring with him 1 Thess iv 14. and they shall come out of their Graves and go into the Holy City the new Ierusalem that is above and there appear and shine like stars for ever Indeed the ungodly and the wicked shall arise too and appear before the great Tribunal but not like these Saints for into the holy City they shall not come Rise and come forth they shall but go away into some place of horror some gloomy valley of eternal sorrow some dark dungeon of everlasting night some den of Dragons and Devils never to appear before God but be for ever hid in the arms of confusion and damnation As for the godly the holy City is prepared for them for us if we be like them Saints and Angels are the inhabitants of this holy City no room there for any other if our bodies then be the bodies of holy Saints then into the holy City with them and not else no part in the new Ierusalem if no part in the old no portion above if none below no place there with Angels if no communion here with Saints no happiness in heaven if no holiness on earth They are the bodies of the Saints you hear that go into the holy City they that rise from the sleep of sin and awake to righteousness that rise from the dust of death to the rays of glory And this now may hint us of our duty to close with them for the close of all It has been shewed before what is the first Resurrection without which there is no second namely a life of holiness a dying to sin and a living unto God And this is a Resurrection we are not meerly passive in as in the other We must do somewhat here towards our own Resurrection at least to finish it We must open our mouths which are too often what David stiles the wicked mans throat even open Sepulchres and by confession send out our dead our dead works confessing our iniquities we must awake out of our sins and arise and stand up by holy vows and resolutions rear up our heads and eyes and hearts and hands to heaven seek those things that are above if we be risen with Christ get up upon our feet and be walking the way of Gods commandments walking to him get us into the holy City to the holy place make our humble appearance there express the power of Christs Resurrection in our life attend him through all the parts of it all our life long This the great business we are now going to requires of us more particularly to come to it like new rais'd bodies that had now shaken off all their dust all dusty earthly thoughts laid aside their Grave-cloths all corrupt affections that any way involv'd them and stood up all new all fitly composed for the holy City drest up in holiness and newness of life thus come forth to meet our new risen Saviour and appear before him This the way to meet the benefits of his Passion and Resurrection for coming so with these Saints out of their Graves Christs Grave also shall open and give him to us the Cup and Patine wherein his body lies as in a kind of Grave shall display themselves and give him to us the Spirit of Christ shall raise and and advance the holy Elements into lively Symbols which shall effectually present him to us and he will come forth from under those sacred shadows into our Cities our Souls and Bodies if they be holy and his grace and sweetness shall appear to many of us to all of us that come in the habit of the Resurrection in white Robes with pure and holy hearts Here indeed of all places and this way above all ways we are likeliest to meet our Lord now he is risen and gone before us this the chief way to be made partakers of his Resurrection and the fittest to declare both his Death and Resurrection the power of them till his coming again And to declare and speak of them is the very duty of the day the very Grave this day with open mouth professes Christ is risen and gives praise for it that it is no longer a land of darkness but has let in light no longer a bier of death but a bed of sleep But shall thy loving kindness O Lord be known in the dark or shall the dead rise up again and praise thee yes holy Prophet they shall they did to day and if his loving kindness shall not be known in the dark the dark places shall become light now the sun of righteousness has risen upon them But shall the dead rise up again and praise him and shall not we shall the graves open and shall not our hearts be opened to receive him nor our mouths to praise him for it Was it the business of the dead Saints to day to rise to wait upon their Lord and shall not the living rise to bear them company shall the whole City ring of it out
of dead mens mouths and shall not our Cities and Temples resound of it shall they tell the wonders of the day and we neither mind the day nor wonders of it surely some evil will befal us as said the Lepers at the Gates of Samaria if we hold our peace 'T is a day of good of glorious tidings and we must not lest the Grave in indignation shut her mouth upon us and the holy City bar us out Open we then our mouths to day and sing praises to him who made the day made it a joyful day indeed the very seal of happiness unto us Open we our mouths and take the cup of salvation as the Prophet calls it the cup of thanksgiving the Apostle stiles it and call upon the name of the Lord. Open our mouths now as the grave and he will fill them Open our mouths as the grave and be not satisfied give not over our prayers until he do Raise we all our thoughts and desires and endeavours to entertain him go which way he shall send us appear what he would have us attend him whither soever he shall lead us and when he himself shall appear he will lead our souls out of the death of sin to the life of righteousness our bodies out of the dust of death into the land of life both souls and bodies into the holy City the new Ierusalem where there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying nor any more pain but all tears shall be wip'd away all joys come into our hearts and eyes and we sing merrily and joyfully all honour and glory be unto him that hath redeemed us from death and raised us to life by the power and vertue of his Resurrection All blessing and glory and praise and honour and power be unto him with the Father and Holy Spirit for ever and ever THE THIRD SERMON UPON Easter Day PSAL. CXViii 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made We will rejoyce and be glad in it THis is the day which the Lord hath made And if ever day made to rejoyce and be glad in this is the day And the Lord made it made it to rejoyce in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as holy Ignatius a day of days not only a high day as the Iewish Easter St. Ioh. xix 31. but the highest of high days highest of them all A Day in which the Sun it self rejoyced to shine came forth like a Bridegroom in the robes and face of joy and rejoyced like a Giant with the strength and violence of joy exultavit leapt and skipt for joy to run his course Psal. xix 5. as if he never had seen day before only a little day spring from on high as old Zachary saw and sung never full and perfect day the Kingdom and power of darkness never fully and wholly vanquished till this morning light till this day-star or this day's Sun arose till Christ rose from the grave as the Sun from his Eastern bed to give us light the light of grace and the light of glory light everlasting And this Suns rising this Resurrection of our Lord and Master entitles it peculiarly the Lords making This day of the week from this day of our Lords Resurrection stil'd Lords Day ever since And of this day of the Resurrection the Fathers the Church the Scriptures understand it Not one of the Fathers says that devout and learned Bishop Andrews that he had read and he had read many but interpret it of Easter day The Church picks out this Psalm to day as a piece of service proper to it This very verse in particular was anciently used every day in Easter week evidence enough how she understood it And for the Scriptures The two verses just before The stone which the builders refused the same is become the head of the corner This is the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes to which this day comes in presently and refers applied both of them by Christ himself unto himself in three several places St. Mat. xxi 42. St. Mar. xii 10. St. Luk. xx 17 rejected by the builders in his Passion made 〈◊〉 head of the corner in his Resurrection the first of the verses applied again twice by St. Peter Acts iv 10. and 1 Pet. ii 7. to the Resurrection For these doings these marvelous doings a day was made made to remember it and rejoyce in it as in the chiefest of his marvelous works And being such let us do it Let not the Jews out-do us let not them here rejoyce more in the figure than we in the substance they in the shadow than we in the Sun 'T is now properly Sunday this day ever since a day lighted upon on purpose for us by the Sun himself to see wonderful things in and as wonderfully to rejoyce in Abraham saw this day of Christs as well as Christmas St. Ioh. viii 56. saw it in Isaacs rising from under his hand from death as in a figure says the Apostle Heb. xi 19. saw it and was glad to see it exceeding glad as much at least to see Christ and Isaac delivered from death as delivered in to life Abrahams children all the faithful will be so too to see the day when ere it comes It now is come by the circle of the year let us rejoyce and be glad in it I require no more of you than is plainly in the Text to confess the day and express the joy Both are here as clear as day Dies Gaudii Gaudium Diei A day of joy the joy of the day Easter day and Easter joy A day made and joy made on it A day ordained and joy appointed God making the day we making the joy upon it Or if you please Ordo Diei Officium Diei An Order for the day and an Office for the day The Order for the day This is the day which the Lord hath made order'd and ordain'd The Office for it We will or let us rejoyce and be glad in it Exultemus laetemur An office of thanksgiving and joy ordained and taken up upon it The first is Gods doings the second ours And ours order'd to follow his our duty his day the Lords day requires sure the Servants duty Both together Gods day and mans duty make up the Text and must the Sermon But I take my rise from the days rising The Lords order for the day This is the day which the Lord hath made Wherein we have 1. The Day design'd 2. The Institution made 3. the Preeminence given it 4. The Institutor exprest 5. The ground intimated 6. The End annext This is designs the day Gods making that institutes it The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the The gives it the Preeminence the Lord is the institutor The ground is understood in the This this day when that was done that went before ver 22. and the End by the annexing joy and gladness to it Of these particularly and in order then of the
in raiment white garments as the Angel does ver 3. or a long white garment as St. Marks Angel Chap. xvi 5. That 's neither a fashion nor a colour to be afraid of for any that seek Iesus which was crucified or hope to see the face and enjoy the company of Holy Angels though some now a days are much scar'd with such a garment when the Angels or Messengers of the Churches appear in it But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fear it not 'T is but an innocent Robe no more hurt in it than in the Angels that wore it 'T is the Robe of Innocence and the Resurrection No reason to fear it Fear not ye not this bright appearance No nor 2. that black one neither of the ghastly countenances of the amazed Souldiers They alass are run and gone There was no looking for them upon him they had crucified They indeed had reason to be afraid that the earth that trembled under them should gape and swallow them that the grave they kept being now miraculously opened might presently devour them that he whom they had crucified now coming forth with power and splendour might send them down immediately into eternal darkness for their villany Nay the very innocent brightness and whites in which the Angel then appear'd might easily strike into them a sad reflection and terror of their own guilt and confound them with it and I am afraid when the Angels long white Garment does so still 't is to such guilty Souls and Consciences as these Souldiers that it does so such who either betrayed their Lord to death or were set to keep him there Such I confess may fear even the Garments of Innocence that others wear But they that seek Christ crucified may be as bold as Lions Non timent Mauri jacula nec arcus nec venenatis gravidas sagittis Christe pharetras Thy Discirage ples O B. Iesu now thou art risen will fear nothing nor Darts nor Spears nor Bows nor Arrows nor any force or terror any face or power of man whatever And ye good innocent souls ye good women fear not ye your own innocence will guard you these Souldiers shall do you no hurt their shaking hands cannot wield their weapons nor dare they stand by it they are running away with all speed to save themselves So 2. Fear not them Nor fear 3. the quaking earth that seems ready either to sink them or sinks under them 't is now even setling upon its foundation The Lord of the whole earth has now once again set his foot upon it and it is quiet and the meek such as seek Christ they shall now inherit it But though the earth were mov'd and though the hills were carried into the midst of the Sea yet God is our hope the Lord is our strength and we will not therefore fear says David Psal. xlvi 1 2. No though the waters thereof rage and swell and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same do earth what it can to fright us God is a present help in trouble Why then should ye be afraid Fear not No not lastly the very grave it self that King of Terrors That is now no longer so to you Though Tyrants should now tear your bodies into a thousand pieces grind your bones to power scatter your ashes in the air and disperse your dissolved atomes through all the winds no matter this Angel and his company are set to wait upon your dust and will one day come again and gather it together into Heaven Nothing can keep us thence nothing separate us nor life nor death says the Apostle Rom. viii 38. Fear nothing then at all Not ye however For ye seek Iesus which was crucified that 's an irrefragable argument why you should not fear And such give me leave to make it before I handle it as an encouragement of our endeavours an encouragement 1. against our fears before I consider it as an encouragement to our work And indeed Ye who dare seek Iesus that was crucified amidst Swords and Spears and Graves of what can you be afraid He that dreads not death needs fear nothing He that slights the torments of the Cross and despises the shame of it He that loves his Lord better than his life that dares own a crucified Saviour and a profession that is like to produce him nothing but scorn and danger and ruine He cannot fear Illum si fractus illabatur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae The World it self though it should fall upon him cannot astonish him Nothing so undaunted as a good Christian as he that truly seeks Iesus that was crucified And there 's good reason for it He that does so is about a work that will justifie it self He needs not fear that He whom he seeks is Iesus one who came to save him from his sins he needs not fear them This Iesus being crucified has by his dying conquer'd death O death where is thy sting He needs not fear that And though die we must yet the Grave will not always hold us no more than it did him He is not here nor shall we be always here not always lie in dust and darkness no need to fear that Nay he is risen again and we by that so far from fear that we know we shall one day rise also For the Chambers of Death ever since the time that Christ lay in them lie open for a return are but places of retreat frome noise and trouble places for the Pilgrims of the earth to visit only to see where the Lord lay Thus is every Comma in the Text an Argument against all fears that shall at any time stop our course in seeking Jesus that was crucified And having thus out of the words vanquisht your fears I am now next to encourage your endeavours For I know ye seek Iesus c. I know it says the Angel That is I would not only not have you be afraid of what you are about as if you were doing ill but I commend you for it for 't is well that you seek Iesus which was crucified you need not be afraid you do well to do it Yea but how dost thou know it Thou fair Son of light that they seek him Alas 't is easie to be known by men and womens outward deportment whom they seek Let us but examine how these women sought and we shall see 1. The come here to his Sepulchre they not only follow'd him to his grave a day or two ago the common office we pay to a departed friend but to day they come again to renew their duties and repeat their tears Nor do they do it slightly or of course They 2. do it early very early St. Mar. xvi 2. as if they were not could not be well till they had done it So early that it was scarce light nay while it was yet dark says St. Iohn they thought they could not be too soon with him they loved They 3. came on with courage
And however we think of it 't is a good reward to have an Angel set to keep us right to tell us when we do amiss Let me never want one O Lord to do so Let him smite me friendly and reprove me There are even Balms says the Psalmist that will break ones head Psal. clxi 6. and smooth ways we often stumble in smoothing and anointing does not always cure us too often betray us To tell us always O Sir you are right you do well excellently well is but a way to ruine us Thou art the man is better far you are out He is not here you seek wrong when we do so as necessary as to tell us we seek right when so we do Indeed the women were right both for him they sought and the way they sought him but for the place that they were amiss in Even in many things we offend all says St. Iames Jam. iii. 2. For there is no man that sinneth not 2 Chron. vi 36. And 't is our happiness when we are timely told it that we go not wrong too long And it was timely here indeed The Angel would not have them enter in an error It was a good work they came about but he would not let them do it upon false Principles Men do so often do that which is good upon a wrong ground seek Christ too often so Sometimes 1. they seek him in the Grave that is in fading dying things in earthly comforts or for such things But he is not there Sometimes 2. they seek him in the Graves of sins and lusts whilst they yet continue in them whilst they are yet in their Rebellions Schisms Pride Covetousness Malice Envies and Disorder they pretend to seek him even none but him but his body fell not as those Israelites in the graves of lust He is not there Sometimes 3. they seek him in a melancholy fit in a humour sad as the grave in a mood of discontent all godly on a sudden they have buried a Friend or Son or Wife or Brother are disappointed of a Preferment have miss'd of an Estate lost an Expectation and are now forsooth for a fit of heaven a seeking Christ but He is not here you 'l see it quickly if the day clear up again the Monk will quit his Cell the Dog will to his Vomit he 's presently where he was Sometimes 4. they seek him in outward Elements in meer Ceremonies and Formalities and mind no further think if we hear a Sermon or come to Prayers make a Formal shew of Piety and Religion all 's well But if we bring not somewhat also within some hearty inward devotion with us too He is not here neither A few linnen Cloths you may find perhaps that look fair and handsom and the External Lineaments of a sad sober Piety like the dimensions of the Grave but dead mens cloths they are and a Grave an empty Grave it is still if our hearts be taken up with them stopt and buried there He is not here Sometimes 5. we seek him perfectly in a wrong place where the malice of his enemies only thrust him for a time amidst dust and rubbish He is not there He will be sought in the beauty of holiness now he is risen there shall you find him for he does not love to dwell in dust though amonst us that are so We must find him a fitter place to be in Now he is risen and we are risen our low condition chang'd into a higher our Poverties into Plenties our Rags into Robes our Houses almost into Courts 'T is fit his House and Courts should also rise into lustre and glory and he not be in Badgers skins whilst we dwell in Cedars nor lie upon the cold stones or earth whilst we lie upon Silks and Velvets And now you see why it is when we seek Christ we so often miss him We seek him where he is not to be found amidst Graves and Sepulchres whilst we are dead in trespasses and sins or buried over head and ears in earth and earthly interests or only in some sad distemper when we are so weary of our selves that we wish for death or only in dead Elements and Rites without the life or spirit of devotion or with that slightness and neglect as if we thought any thing good enough for him or that he would be content with any clod of earth to lay his head on But these are the Mysteries of the Grave He was not to be found lastly even in the Grave without a Mystery He could not be held in the Grave they laid him It was not possible says St. Peter Acts ii 24. God had promised he would not leave him there Psal. xvi that his flesh should see no corruption Here was the mistake these good women made they either understood not or had forgot this promise and believed not his own that he would rise again This is that St. Lukes Angels even chide them for for forgetting Why seek you say they the living among the dead Remember what he spake to you while he was yet in Galilee saying the Son of man must be delivered into the haads of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again St. Luke xxiv 5 6 7. It was a piece of infidelity it seems now to seek him in the Grave so that well may the Angels ask them why they do it Indeed our Angel here is not so rough But you must know this was the first time of their error When they had been told it once or twice before first by St. Matthews Angel and then St. Marks that he was not there 't would make even an Angel chide to see them still continue in the same mistake At the first 't is Angels method to be smooth in the business of reproof Nay and some times to pave our way to it with a Fear not I do not mean to hurt you what I am to tell you is only for your good This is but with Balaams Angel to stand only in our way with a Sword drawn to hinder us from a fruitless journey or at the worst but to smite us friendly with it that we may go no further on upon wrong furmises And yet Fear not He is not here is not the Inference ill Are they well joyn'd Why he is not here and therefore fear seems a better consequence If he be not here we have lost all our labour all our cost If he be not here some body has stoln him hence and taken away even that little comfort that was left us of seeing him once again and doing our last office to him Thus Mary Magdalen complains indeed St. Ioh. xx 13. Well but for all that depose your fears if you should find him here you might fear indeed and despair for ever He had deluded you he had broken his promise with you that he would come again he was no Saviour but his body a meer dead trunk like other mens your hopes were
and joyful Resurrection But Christs grave 2. or Sepulchre has more in it than any else There sit Angels to instruct and comfort us there lie cloths to bind up our wounds there lies a napkin to wrap up our aking heads there is the fine linnen of the Saints to make us bright white garments for the Resurrection You may now descend into the grave with confidence it will not hurt you Christs body lying in it has taken away the stench and filth and horrour of it 'T is but an easie quiet bed to sleep on now and they that die in Christ do but sleep in him says St. Paul 1 Thes. ix 14. and rest there from their labours says St. Iohn Revel xiv 13. Come then and see the place and take the dimensions of your own graves thence Learn there how to lie down in death and learn there also how to rise again to die with Christ and to rise with him T is the principal Moral of the Text and the whole business of the day In other words to die to sin and live to righteousness that when we must lie down our selves we may lie down in peace and rise in glory I have thus run through all the Parts of the Text. And now I hope I may say with the Angel I know ye also seek Iesus that was crucified and are come hither to that purpose But I must not say with the Angel He is not here He is here in his Word Here in his Sacraments Here in his poor members Ye see him go before you when ye see those poor ghosts walk you hear him when you hear his Word or read or preacht You even feel him in the blessed Sacraments when you receive them worthily The eyes and ears and hands of your bodies do not cannot but your souls may find see and him in them all Some of you I know are come hither even to seek his body too to pour out your souls upon it and at you holy Sepulchre revive the remembrance of the crucified Iesus yet take heed you there seek him as you ought Not the living among the dead I hope Not the dead elements only or them so as if they were corporally himself No He is risen and gone quite off the earth as to his corporal presence All now is spirit though Spirit and Truth too truly there though not corporally He is risen and our thoughts must rise up after him and think higher of him now then so and yet beleive truly he is there So that I may speak the last words of the Text with greater advantage then they are here Come see the place where the Lord lies And come see the place too where he lay go into the grave though not seek him there Go into the grave and weep there that our sins they were that brought him thither Go into the grave and die there die with him that died for us breath out your souls in love for him who out of love died so for us Go into his grave and bury all our sins and vanities in that holy dust â— Go we into the grave and dwell there for ever rather than come out and sin again and be content if he see it fit to lie down there for him who there lay down for us Fill your daily meditations but now especially with his death and passion his agony and bloudy sweat his stripes and wounds and griefs and pains But dwell not always among the Tombes You come to seek him seek him then 1. where you may find him and that is says the Apostle at the right hand of God He is risen and gone thither And seek him 2. so as you may be sure find him Not to run out of the story seek him as these pious women did 1. Get early up about it hence forward watch and pray a little better he that seeks hâ—m early shall be sure to find him Seek him 2. couragiously be not afraid of a guard of Souldiers be not frighted at a grave nor fear though the earth it self shake and totter under you Go on with courage do your work be not afraid of a crucified Lord nor of any office not to be crucified for his service Seek him 3. with your holy balms and spices the sweet odours of holy purposes and the perfume of strong Resolutions the bitter Aloes of Repentance the Myrrhe of a patient and constant Faith the Oil of Charity the spicie perfumes of Prayers and Praises bring not so much as the scent of earth or of an unrepented sin about you seek him so as men may know you seek him know by your eyes and know by your hands and know by your knees and feet and all your postures and demeanors that you seek Iesus that was crucified let there be nothing vain or light or loose about you nothing but what becomes his Faith and Religion whom you seek nothing but what will adorn the Gospel of Christ. You that thus seek Iesus which was crucified shall not want an Angel at every turn to meet you to stand by support and comfort you in all your fears and sorrows nor to encourage your endeavours nor to assist you in your good works nor to preserve you from errors nor to inform you in truths nor to advance your hopes nor to confirm your faiths nor to do any thing you would desire You shall be sure to find him too whom your souls seek and He who this day rose from his own Sepulchre shall also raise up you from the death of sin first to the life of righteousness and from the life of righteousness one day to the life of glory when the Angel shall no longer guide us into the grave but out of it out of our Graves and Sepulchres into Heaven where we shall meet whole Choires of Angels to welcome and conduct us into the place where the Lord is where we shall behold even with the eyes of our bodies Iesus that was crucified sitting at the right hand of God and sit down there with him together in the glory of the Father To which He bring us who this day rose again to raise us thither Iesus which was crucified To whom though crucified to whom for that he was crucified and this day rose again to lift us up out of the graves of sins and miseries and griefs be all honour and power praise and glory both by Angels and Men this day henceforward and for ever Amen THE FIFTH SERMON UPON Easter Day 1 COR. xv 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable ANd if this Day had not been we had been so Miserable indeed and without hope of being other If Christ had not risen there had been no Resurrection and if no Resurrection no hope but here then most miserable we Christians to be sure who were sure to find nothing but hard usage here tribulation in this World and could expect no other or no better
to Godward by the ministration of the Spirit not the Letter as he styles it ver 4. 6. delights not in a kind of canting language which no body understands but those of the same craft and occupation none but themselves no nor themselves neither though by an uncouth kind of holy language through spiritual pride they would fain seem to speak mysteries No the Father of Lights uses no Dark-Lanthorn language If they mean good why may we not understand them If they fear not the detection of their falshoods why do they cloud themselves and meanings in unscripture-like phrases If they hop'd like Christians they would speak like such not like Barbarians and then should we plainly understand them For St. Paul's hope in the place fore-mentioned and the hope of the Fathers ever since was in plainess of speech we know what it means from which these men so professedly swerving we may justly suspect they are swerved also from the hope of the Apostles and all Christian Fathers have set up also a new hope different from theirs and are become a kind of Christians different from them This is a note you shall scarce meet with but the observation of the hopes of our times compared with those of the Apostles times and St. Pauls words brought it to my hands and it almost seems the symptom by throughly examining it of all false heretical and groundless hopes through all ages in Sects and Heresies as they rose the changing the Catholick and received phrase into other terms a new uncouth language for new and uncouth faiths and hopes By what has been said you may now easily find out whether your hope in Christ be as it should be whether it will make happy or miserable And by the same you may as easily perceive how false hopes generally delude the world Yet to give you only a short prospect of them altogether now at last that you may see them fully and yet briefly too take it thus For men to play the Devils and yet pretend to hope in God to study Schism Faction and Contention and yet pretend hope in the Prince of Peace to run all the ways of destruction and yet hope Salvation to strive for nothing but this world this only in all their carriages and yet hope for another to look for their portion and happiness hereafter and yet will needs have all that is here to hope for another life and lead this no better to be so solicitous to place Christs Kingdom here and yet mind none other but their own to keep a do to set up King Iesus here as they love to speak and yet not suffer him to reign or rule in any of themselves to hope for the reward of Peace-makers to be call'd the Saints and Children of God and yet be the only Peace-breakers Peace-disturbers in Church and State nay and the great War-makers too to hope for the reward of being persecuted for Christ and yet daily persecute him in his members and that even for his sake too for his Religion and a good Conscience to hope for the reward of the meek the poor in spirit the pure in heart which amounts to as much as Heaven and Earth and yet be the most impure and proud and haughty exalting themselves above all that is called God proud of vertues and graces and proud of sins enormous sins too are such riddles and contradictions are such groundless senslless impudent hopes that whatever they pretend of Christ they are not only such as are in this life only fading vanishing and vain but so only in Christ as in the meer sound and noise and eccho of the name and even the greatest injury that can be done it the vilest abuse that ever the name of Christian hope yet suffered Yet are we to proceed to another still A hope in Christ only for this life the Second Particular we propounded a hope that pretends no further then this present life In this so much the more modest than the other in that it pretends no further then it acts in this only different from the other This denies the Resurrection the other the power of it this more expresly the other implicitely this sometimes both in words and deeds so much the honester the other in deed only in words never so much the proner to deceive us But who are they now whose hope in Christ is only in this life Or what is it to hope in Christ in this life only Le ts see a little 1. They plainly have hope in Christ in this life only who deny his Resurrection For if he be not risen if he be yet in the Grave and his body among the atoms of the dust alas there must needs our hope end too thither must it go and sleep there for ever He was no more then a poor man as we if he be not risen and if our hope be in man whose breath is in his nostrils then when God takes away his breath he dies and our hopes die with him The point of Christs Resurrection then is the hinge of all our hope Best to keep close to that Article or we lose all our Religion quite and must go seek some other If he that should save us be not able save himself if our hope be hid in him and he hid for ever in his ashes if he that should deliver us delivered not himself from death we have no reason to expect beyond it and then little comfort to look beside it upon any good we can here get by it 2. They who deny our Resurrection can hope no further in Christ then in this life only If we rise no more here 's all we look for And if Christ in whom we hope can do us any good it must be here for he has no where else to do it if when we die we perish So to deny a Resurrection is plainly to confine our hope within this present world to the narrow limits of an uncertain life Yet such there were in the Apostles times as appears ver 12. some among the Corinthians who said there was no Resurrection of the dead Of which sort also were Hymeneus and Philetus who affirm'd the Resurrection was past already 2 Tim. ii 18. nothing more to be expected and thereby says St. Paul overthrew the faith of some I cannot punctually point out to you amidst the confused rout of Errors and Heresies which now swarm and reign amongst us any such who dare yet expresly say so much Yet if they who are so hot for Christs temporal reign upon earth of which there are good store be not such they look very like them like men I am sure who have hope in Christ in this life only or at least too much in it more than they should and if we may guess at them by their actions they and many other of that pious rabble seem to mean it and would express it if it were time to do it or it may be
close puts me in mind now of the third Particular The Effect of all these If-Hopes these but supposed vain hopes Misery and the worst the most misery We are then of all men most miserable Miserable But what should make us so What but that which makes up misery Pain and Loss Lost joyes deluded hopes and real pains troubles and infelicities We shall not need to go out of this very Chapter which has given us the Text to find enough to make up a bulk of Misery 1. For Loss 1. We have lost our head Christ is not risen if our hope be only here He is dead still if there be no Resurrection and we are at the best but walking Ghosts horrours to others and to our selves We may well go with the Disciples to Emaus a word that signifies forlorn people go among forlorn people indeed if he be dead still We have lost our spirits our senses our life and all if our head be gone we are a generation of senseless liveless silly people to be Christians still 2. We have lost our labours and our sufferings too What availeth it that we stand in jeopardy every hour if the dead rise not at all ver 30. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me if the dead rise not ver 32. What are all St. Pauls labours and travels watchings and fastings whippings and imprisonments his suffering cold and nakedness hunger and thirst contumelies and reproaches his journeys and his shipwracks his so many perils both by Sea and Land his chastening his body and keeping it under his so often perils of death by treachery by hostility many other ways his so many persecutions and after them even death it self To what purpose all these if there be no place or opportunity hereafter to reward them What mean these foolish Christians so to subject themselves to cruel mockings and scourgings to bonds and imprisonments to stoning burning sawing in sunder to Swords and Racks and Gibbets What mean they to wander up and down in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins when they may have better clothing far cheaper To wander up and down from house to house when they may at an easier rate have houses of their own To wander up and down in Deserts and Mountains in Dens and Caves of the earth when they may with greater ease have stately buildings and glorious Palaces to dwell in Why are they so foolish to be thus tortured and tormented and accept of no deliverance if it were not that they might obtain a better Resurrection as the Apostle speaks Heb. xi 35. and so on Else if there be no such business Let 's eat and drink says St. Paul for tomorrow we die Let 's crown our heads with rose-buds in the the spring and take our fill of loves let 's stretch our selves upon our beds and drench our selves in pleasures deny nothing to our desires abridge our selves of no delights care not by what means we rush into Riches Pleasures Lusts and Honours If there be no other World let 's take our portion here and let 's not be such fools and mad men to lose all here and hereafter too This is better doctrine then the cold Precepts of Christianity if there be no other hope than what is here But be not deceived for all this says our Apostle ver 33. 't is but evil communication this though so it were not but good wise counsel rather if there were nothing beyond this life But awake awake to righteousness for there is a Resurrection where both our labours and our sufferings shall be remembred all 3. We have lost our Faith if our hope in Christ be only here Your faith is vain ver 14. Our Religion 's gone there 's no such thing as that in Christianity then Religion is our busines towards God but if Christ be not risen as he is not if we can hope in him no further than this life only then he is no God so our Religion is but foolery and we miserable fools to busie our heads so much about it about the name and nature and worship and service and trusting of a dead Redeemer that can neither help himself nor us no nor hear a Prayer nor grant a Request nor reward a Duty nor punish an Injury done to him Nay 4. we have lost our very hope too If we have no hope but here we have none at all we can hope for nothing that flees not from us Do we hope for honours or riches by following Christ We see daily we are deluded Do we hope for happiness by it upon earth We see nothing but misery about us and death before us Nay do we hope indeed for any good by Christ yet lying in the Grave What is it that a dead Saviour can give us more than the dead Idols of the Heathen We see and feel our hopes in this life already vain and for hereafter we can see nothing at all without a Resurrection Yes say some now adays If the soul live we may be happy without a Resurrection though the body rise not if the soul be but immortal Fond men who consider not how if the body rise not then Christ is not risen the Apostles own way of arguing ver 15. and then our faith which was in Christ being perished as being no other than in a helpless hopeless man the soul can neither enjoy nor expect a happiness from or by him and has lost all other by following him already Not considering again how the greatest misery that can betide the soul is to wander desolate and disconsolate for ever without both her body and her Christ depriv'd eternally of all kinds of hopes Not considering lastly that the souls immortality necessarily infers a Resurrection it being but a fore-runner and a harbinger for the body to which it hath so natural a reference and inclination that happiness it could have none when separated from the body if it did not perceive the certainty of its bodies rising a while after to accompany it It could not without that certificate but be incessantly tormented with its own unsatisfied and ever to be unsatisfied longings which it could throw off no more than it could its own nature and essence it being essentially created and deputed to the body But Loss makes not all our misery Not only loss of good but sense of evil concurs also to make us miserable And here 's enough of this too for us if in this life only be our hope You are yet in your sins that first And what greater evil I pray than sin What greater misery than to be under the dominion of it To be torn in pieces with the distractions of our sins to be tormented with inordinate desires to be hurried up and down with exorbitant lusts to be enslaved to the drudgeries of so base commands to be rackt with the terrors of a wounded conscience to be distracted quite with the
horrours of inevitable damnation to be at war continually within our selves to be commanded by every petty lust to be a drudge to every filthy sin to have a soul and body full of nothing but pollution nothing clean nothing pure nothing quiet nothing peaceable within it thus to persist and continue thus to live and die neither our own Masters nor our own men no misery more miserable You talk of slavery and tyranny there 's none like this of sin and lusts Ye shall die in your sins says Christ to the Iews St. Iohn viii 24. as the greatest misery he could leave them under Sin'd we have all and die in them too we must all of us as well as they for all Christ if we have no hope in him but here He is not such a Saviour as can deliver us if he have not delivered himself or if he have and we yet will not hope in him beyond this life and the things of this life we shall also die in our sins and be miserable as well as they This is ill enough yet there is a worse misery behind We shall perish too Then all they also who are faln asleep in Christ are perished ver 18. perished for ever whether you take it for annihilation or for damnation whether for being dissolved into nothing or being damn'd for ever either of them is misery enough Let the best befall you that can 't is to perish into nothing and yet there are that say it is the worst that to be annihilated is worse than to be damn'd perversly I fear more to maintain a cruel opinion against Gods goodness which in some mens favour meerly they have undertaken obstinately to defend by setting up an absolute reprobation then that either sense or reason can perswade any unprejudiced judgment that it is so Well be that kind of perishing what it will let that be it to have our breath vanish into the soft air as the Wise man Phrases it and have our bodies disperse into insensible Atomes or rather to become truly nothing you cannot think it but a misery if for nothing else yet for this that men of honour and understanding should become no better than the beasts that perish to have so fair and glorious a building as mans moulder into nothing And if death alone be terrible to die into nothing is to nature much more insomuch as it is further from the principles of it than any the most horrid corruption or putrefaction If a man die shall he live again In Iobs worst agony was but a question but if a man once fall into nothing He the same He cannot live again is no question at all He shall not cannot Something may be made of nothing but the same thing cannot be re-made out of it There is not any thing hell only excepted for we however for our parts will except that can be so bad so far from all the properties of all kind of good Metaphysical Physical and Moral too as this Non ens this Nothing we must resolve into at the best that can befall us if there be no Resurrection But I may go a strain higher and tell you but the truth If there be no Resurrection yet they that sleep in Christ sleep if I may use so soft a word in damnation too The Soul is immortal however some in this worst of Ages are so impudent to give out it is not because they truly wish it were not and it much concerns them that it should not yet the Soul I say is immortal and cannot die must therefore upon necessity be miserable if it depart its lodging without hope either of seeing its expected Saviour or her beloved body ever again must needs wander and pine and fret and desire and despair and be never satisfied find no content in any thing no ease in any turn of thought or motion of desire restless and unsatisfied every way every where for ever Nay again whether there be any Resurrection or no If Christ be not risen too we may yet perish everlastingly amidst the everlasting fires For our Saviour will prove none our Religion none our recompence no other than those burnings Nay lastly if there be a Resurrection and if Christ be risen too yet if our hope be not risen also if we believe and hope and desire no further than this life only if our endeavours and labours be only for this life we live if our hopes be none other than one or other of those false ones which I have told you of the place of eternal torment and despair is only what we can expect even so to perish there to be miserable for ever Sum up now the issue of our hopes without relation to another life and tell me what they are all else but misery To lose our head our life our Saviour our pains and labour all our sufferings too to lose our faith our Religion our hope and all to live and die without it to live perpetually under the tyranny of Sins and Lusts and Devils and in death to depart uncomfortably into torments or at the best to be no more to become meer nothing to live a miserable wretched tedious life full of rigours and austerities denying our selves the freedom and pleasures that all others take a life full of afflictions and miseries too for no better a recompence than meer nothing at the last nothing at the best yea worse rather than what we can imagine nothing at the most and that without any hope for ever has all the ingredients of the utmost misery And yet in miseries there are degrees and of miserable persons degrees too some more miserable than others some most miserable 'T is the last of the four Particulars of the first General We of all men are most miserable We Christians that you have heard we of all Religions the most miserable But of all Christians We the Apostles We the Ministers of Christ We the most miserable of those who are the most miserable company We more more miserable than all the world beside This is still behind Two things the Holy Apostle in this very Chapter adds to make it so We are then found false witnesses of God ver 15. What could be said more to our dishononr To be nothing else but a company of base impudent lyars to make a Trade and Profession of it to gull people into misery to be the Devils own Embassadours and Agents to bring in souls daily into Hell to add this dishonour to our misery not only to be miserable Christians but both the caâ—sers of their miseries by so dishonourable a baseness as a perpetual course of lying and the wilful Authors of our own is that which adds much height to our already too great misery To this there is an addition yet Our Preaching is also vâ—in and needless ver 14. We are persons of whom there is no use our Function so far from holy that it is but folly our labour
sinneth not 1 John v. 18. He is able with Simeon to break all the cords of it to smite all such Philistims before him when this Spirit comes upon him Nor Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature can overcome him Rom. viii 38. Over all these he is more than Conquerour Those things which before we were regenerate seem'd impossible when we are once born again are light and easie we can do any thing then through his Spirit that dwelleth in us Stablish us once with this free Spirit and 't is not cold or nakedness hunger or thirst wearisome journeys or dangerous shipwracks stripes or imprisonments racks or gibbets fire or faggot that can force us from our hold or over-power us This very Spirit upholds us in all our pains and at length blows away every thing that troubles or offends us Nor is this Spirit only a Spirit of Power but 2. of Liberty also and where the Spirit is there there is Liberty says St. Paul 2. Cor. 3. 17. that is he that has it is free too Free he is 1. from the bondage of Moses Law redeem'd from under that Gal. iv 5 6. Free 2. though not from the Obligations yet from the Rigours of the Moral Law Gal. iii. 13. Rom. vii 6. Free 3. from Sin made free from that Rom. vi 18. from the Dominion of it Free 4. from the Captivity of the Devil recovered out of his snares 2 Tim. ii 26. Free lastly from the Dominion of Death the sting of it is lost the victory of it gone 1 Cor. xv 55. So is every one free that is born of the Spirit Well may now his fame go out into all the World and his name into all the corners of the earth And indeed it does so in the next words in the next Point of the similitude Thou hearest the sound thereof Evident it is and evident it is to any heard it may be and any one may hear it Thou and Thou and Thou every Thou that will Evident it is first The Spirit is not a fancy nor are the Operations of it so neither The Spirit though it cannot be seen it self yet something there is of it that may be heard heard somewhat of it by the hearing of the ear the effects not always in the understanding only these very ears we carry are oft refresht with the sound of it our very senses sensible of the strength and power of it And he that tells us of grace or Religion all within of so serving God in the Spirit that neither our own nor other bodies are the better for it or shew any signs of it has turn'd his Religion and Devotion into air and imagination and not to Spirit By his fruits you shall know as well the spiritual man as the Prophet Nor has he secondly one peculiar ear-mark one tone and canting Dialect to discern him by He that is born of the Spirit is a free and noble and generous Spirit uses a Language that every body may understand 'T is not the Mystery of the Spirit but the Mystery of Iniquity that thus invelops it self in a private and affected Phrase which sounds 't is to be fear'd the Spirit of Schism Singularity and Rebellion and not of Love and Peace And yet as plain a sound as the Spirits is it is not lastly without some obscurity but that is not of the sound that 's plain and open but of the motion and course of which we may have leave to be ignorant and in many things can be no other That 's the last point wherein the Spirit and spiritual man are like Thou canst no more tell whence or whither those great things the regenerate man acts are than whence the wind or Spirit comes or whither it goes 4. But that so it is the amazements and doubts that this Day possessed those who were the witnesses of the wonders of this days work and their several judgments and conjectures concerning the Apostles this day filled with this holy Spirit will make it without question Some said What meaneth this Others said mocking these men are full of new wine All were amazed and in doubt Acts ii 12 13. The Apostles seem'd such strange things to them now since the Holy Ghost had faln upon them that they knew not new what to make of them or of any thing they did In the progress afterward of their lives and courses they were as little understood as much misconstrued by the world They were thought fools and mad-men when most wise and sober Acts xxvi 24. condemn'd for wicked when they were most innocent reckon'd the scum and off-scouring of the world 1 Cor. iv 13. when they were the Treasures and Jewels of it judg'd as dying when they only truly liv'd accounted sorrowful yet were always rejoycing esteemed poor yet so far from being so that they made many rich thought to have nothing and yet possessed all things 2 Cor. vi 9 10. So it was then so it always was so it ever will be The World will never never can conceive the nature and way of him that is born of the Spirit 1 Cor. ii 14. We know not what to make even of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text whether to read it born or begotten for 't is both and how he should be both by the same Spirit or how the same Spirit should be both Father and Mother to him we cannot tell How he is begotten by the Spirit how he is new born the ways of his brith the ways of his life the way of his death how he is wrought and form'd and moulded out of his old stiff stubborn temper into mildness and softness how the old man is mortified in all his members how the new man rises and grows in all his parts how he resists so many strong temptations how he can so chearfully renounce the World how he can so wholly deny himself how he can so merrily pursue a troublesome and despised vertue why he should do all this when there appears nothing but trouble sorrow and disadvantage by it are all mysteries so obscure and dark that night it self is mid-day to them Nor is it less to see with what calmness and contentedness he passes hence through pains and tortures nor can we conceive the glory and happiness that attends him Thus is the spiritual Heroe's life and death a mystery so far above the apprehension of dull-ey'd earth that it knows no more of its course or motion than it does of the winds neither what it is nor whence it comes nor whither it goes But after all these mysteries I end in plainness 'T is a Day indeed as well as a Text of mysteries and wonders but both Day and Text and Wind and Spirit will be all satisfied if they can leave these plain Lestons upon our Spirits That 1. we now get us up with Elijâ—h 1 King xix
you may find all for ever You study to make all as sure as you can Gods Promise is the best assurance and here it is Do what he here commands and you shall not fear what man can do unto you The Lord of Hosts is on your side Else I cannot but tell you All may fail you The wine and delicates you eat and drink the houses and stately Palaces you Lord it in the Lands and Possessions the Riches State and Pomp you have to this day triumphed in your Wives and Children all you think so everlastingly to enjoy by rising up so much to defend them may in a moment vanish and your high flown thoughts die before you You have no assurance from heaven so to settle your estates and fortunes no Dicit Dominus for that This is only Gods way for thriving by Obedience Nay and the Religion you so much seem to contend for against Innovations by the greatest Innovations in Church and State tumults riots and prophanest usages that also will for ever fail you You want men to stand before God for ever and instead of them find men to stand before you Micah's Levites do what seems good in your sight not in Gods so stand before you as to hinder you from standing before God stand in your sight and blind you from seeing the right way to heaven Thus you will want your old honours profits liberties Religion all But if you will return and hear and hearken and submit to your ancient Fathers your King and Church your Magistrates and Clergy observe and keep and do your ancient Laws and Customs I dare warrant you what God promises to the Rechabites he shall perform to you Your City shall flourish your places be renowned your Liberties encrease your persons rise up in honour your estates prosper your affairs succeed your children be famous your Posterity happy your Religion display the glories of her first primitive purity and all go on successfully for ever And when this Ever shall have swallowed up the days of time you shall stand still immovable immortal glorious before him in whose sight is the fulness of joy where you shall one day meet your Children and stand all together Kings and Subjects Priests and People Fathers and Children before your heavenly Father see him face to face in the beatifical vision for ever and ever To which He bring us through his eternal Son who was obedient unto death to teach us obedience of life unto life Iesus Christ to which Two Persons with the Holy Ghost be all Praise and Glory Obedience and Worship for evermore Amen FINIS A Table of the Texts of Scripture handled in the fore-going SERMONS A Sermon on the First Sunday in Advent Folio 1 St. MAT. xxi 9. And the multitudes that went before and that followed cried saying Hosannah to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest A Sermon on the Second Sunday in Advent 13 St. MARK i. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths streight A Sermon on the Third Sunday in Advent 23 St. LUKE xxi 27 28. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a Cloud with Power and great glory And when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh A Sermon on the Fourth Sunday in Advent 33 PHIL. iv 5. Let your moderation be known unto all men The Lord is at hand The First Sermon on Christmas-Day 45 ISA. xi 10. And in that day there shall be a root of Iesse which shall stand for an Ensign of the People to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious The Second Sermon on Christmas-Day 53 St. LUKE xi 7. And she brought forth her First-born Son and wrapped him in Swadling-clothes and laid him in a Manger because there was no room for them in the Inn. The Third Sermon on Christmas-Day 63 St. JOHN i. 16. And of his fulness have all we received and grace for grace The Fourth Sermon on Christmas-Day 73 1 TIM i. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Iesus came into the world to save Sinners of whom I am chief The Fifth Sermon on Christmas-Day 85 PSAL. xlv 3. Thou art fairer then the Children of men full of grace are thy lips because God hath blessed thee for ever The Sixth Sermon on Christmas-Day Folio 97 St. LUKE i. 68 69. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David The Seventh Sermon on Christmas-Day 109 2 COR. viii 9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich The Eighth Sermon on Christmas-Day 119 PSAL. viii 4 5. What is man that thou art mindful of him And the Son of man that thou visitest him Thou madest him lower than the Angels to crown him with glory and worship The Ninth Sermon on Christmas-Day 129 St. LUKE ii 30 31 32. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel A Sermon on St. Stephens Day 143 ACTS vii 55 56. But he being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the Glory of God and Iesus standing on the right hand of God And said Behold I see the Heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God A Sermon on Innocents Day 151 St. MAT. ii 16. Then Herod when he saw that he was mocked of the Wise men was exceeding wroth and sent forth and slew all the Children that were in Bethlehem and in all the Coasts thereof from two years old and under according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the Wise men The First Sermon on the Circumcision 163 2 COR. v. 17. Old things are past away behold all things are become new The Second Sermon on the Circumcision 172 St. LUKE ii 21. His Name was called Iesus The First Sermon on the Epiphany 182 St. MAT. ii 11. And when they were come into the house they saw the young Child with Mary his Mother and fell down and worshipped him and when they had opened their Treasures they presented unto him gifts Gold and Frankincense and Myrrhe The Second Sermon on the Epiphany 192 St. MAT. ii 10. When they saw the Star they rejoyced with exceeding great joy The Third Sermon on the Epiphany Folio 202 St. MAT. ii 11. And when they were come into the house they saw the young Child with Mary his Mother and fell down and worshipped him and when they had opened their Treasures they presented unto him gifts Gold and Frankincense and Myrrhe A Sermon upon St. Paul's Day
born for Christ how happily are they all born to whom it is given to die for him Augustus was deceived very fouly out when he cried it was better to be Herods Hog then Herods Child that Child surely which died among these Innocents whatever his other were was born to a Throne of Glory to the only Crown and Kingdom Enough this to dry up Rachels tears to stop the tenderest Mothers moans at any time when she but thinks she hath brought forth a Child to Christ and placed him so soon in innocence and glory After the thoughts of this it cannot be grievous if I now tell you of their Martyrdom or Murther that as young and innocent and many as they were Herod sent forth and slew them all V. You must not look that I should give you here the several ways and modes of this bloody slaughter the various arts of this horrid murther the diverse schemes of barbarous cruelty the cunning sleights of those inhumane Butchers to delude the tender Mothers and train the innocent Infants to their deaths You must not expect I should decipher to you the horrible fury of that grand massacre the terrible countenance of the savage murtherers the gastly faces of the astonisht Parents the affrighted postures of the amazed Kindred and Allies the frights and flights of the little Children into holes and crannies the sad lamentations of weeping Mothers their dishevel'd hair their wringing hands their torn breasts and garments their wild frantick garbs their fights and struglings to preserve their babes the horrible screechings of the dying children the moans and sighs and groans that filled all the corners of the streets the cries and roarings and yellings that even rent the Heavens You must not think that I can tell you how those tender sucklings were some of them in a wanton cruelty danc'd upon the tops of Pikes and Spears others dasht savagely against the Walls some thrust through with Swords others stabb'd with Poniards some trampled to death upon the ground some strangled in their Cradles some stifled in their Mothers arms and others torn in pieces to get them thence You cannot imagine I should express the tears the blood the wounds the barbarousness the cruelties the confusions the consternations the terrors the horrors of that day I am not skill'd in the tracts of cruelty nor so good an Orator to express it Nor were it perhaps a Rhetorick for Christmas Only I can tell you what the Text does me that slain they were all the children that were in Bethlehem and the coasts about from two years old and under and Herod did it Not himself I confess There are sins we are asham'd to commit our selves as well as sins we cannot commit without company to help us And such was this so horrid he was asham'd to stand by to own it so great he could not act it but by involving almost an host of men in the guilt and mischief A murther which neither the greatness of the one nor the multitude of the other neither his jealousies nor their obedience neither his command nor their trade of life shall be ever able to excuse nor any Rhetorick ever find a plea for VI. But though I cannot be exact in the relation I must needs say in the last place Herod was in the transaction so exact that 1. Bethlehem he thought too narrow a Stage for this new Tragedy he takes in all the coasts about though the Prophet had plainly cold Christ should be born in Bethlehem and the Sâ—nhedrim had so resov'd it to him and his main business was to murther him yet to make all sure he stretches out his fury to the neighbouring towns By the way give me leave to observe Great Cities are sometimes ill neighbours they too often destroy our children by the contagion of their mischiefs and ruine the young heirs of the Towns and Mannâ—rs that are near them by the company that the infernal Herod sends out thither daily to that purpose But I retreat and tell you 2. Herod was so exact in the designs of cruelty that he extends the time as well as the place beyond what he had learn'd of the Wise men Christ was now but a year old at most and more probably not so much Herod stretches out his design for two What 's the reason why the bloody man and the unjust possessor never think they are safe till they are beyond all reason For if Christ was now about two years old why are the Children of but two days slain if but two months or thereabouts as some place this business not long after his being presented in the Temple why are the children of two years old demanded to the slaughter At least 3. how comes his own Son into the number so Macrobius relates the story and Augustus alluded to it in his witty speech This too to shew us how exactly wicked some men are that spare neither Kindred nor Children to fix themselves And to give you Herods cruelty here full According to the time he had diligently enquired of the Wise men it was also says the Text. Very inquisitive about it he had been it seems and he miss'd not a point of it so whether Christ was born when first the Star appeared or whether he was then only first incarnate and conceived in the Womb he would be sure he thought to have him a year under or â—ver would be sure to reach him so nice and punctual is the cruel and ambitious nature to defend its own interest and greatness that it cannot rest till it have stopt all avenues and cranies of fear and satisfied them to a nicety and it boggles not at any age or time or relation or diligence or inquisitiveness to effect it But 't is time now to look home Yet if any now should be so inquisitive to ask a reason why God should thus suffer these innocent Infants thus to be cruelly massacred though we are not his counsellors yet we may say it might be to shew the absoluteness of his Dominion that he is Lord of life and death gives and disposes them as he will It may be 2. to teach us that innocence it self is not always a fence against death or violence It may be 3. to instruct us what they must look for from the first that have any relation to Christ at all It may be 4. it was that by this strange accident and occasion the Birth of Christ might be proclaimed through the world And yet fifthly add but the consideration that they were the Children of Bethlehem where Christ could get no lodging where he was fain to make the Stable his Chamber and the Manger his Cradle and it will not seem unreasonable that God should thus punish the Fathers in their Children for it and leave some of them scarce a Child for their houses who would not leave him a house for his Child But lastly God's thus advancing the deaths of these little Infants into a
Martyrdom giving them the first honour to die for Christ and as it were redeem his life with theirs so early bringing them to Heaven by suffering there is no reason of complaining nothing to cloud our Christmas joys or disturb our rejoycing Those little ones are singing in the Heavens about the Lamb Rev. xiv 3. And 't will do well that we here upon earth should sing Blessing and Praise and Glory that God has so exalted them and comforts us make it one of our Christmas Carols our songs of joy Yet somewhat to allay your joy that your mirth run not too high I shall after this long story tell you a tale in your ears will make them glow Herod is not dead nor sleepeth We are all of us Herods or Herodias's men and women one way or other We have been as deep dissemblers of piety some among us as ever Herod many as bloody too upon it Many sad errors and mistakes have many of us made and many a thousand souls have miserably perisht by them Angry men have been exceeding angry that the Magi many a wise man and good would not comply with their interests and projects or communicate with their sins Angry some I am afraid still that Christ that Religion is escap'd their fury that their kingdoms are not establisht though it was Christs that was by them pretended but just as the Worshiping him was by Herod And I cannot tell but there may be yet some projects of sending out to slay men and children to begin Herods work anew the War afresh But I am sure though we cannot reach that mystery there is one you will easily understand shall serve for an application to drive all home Our own children are daily murthered by us their very souls destroyed a sadder cruelty than Herods Not to tell you that the Mother kills them often in the Womb by the folly and vanity of a dress by an unruly humour by a disordered appetite by a heedless or giddy motion nor that the nurse kills them at the breast by her intemperance and excess though it be too true Yet it is a less murther that than to kill the soul and yet this done oftner And I 'le assure you first they venture their Children hard that deny them Baptism I 'le say no more But after that they are smothered some in their Mothers lap kill'd with kindness and indulgence stabb'd through with poniards others undone with cruelty and unkindness trampled to death others and perish by their friends carelesness and neglect Some are dasht against the Walls their brains beat out at least wholly corrupted by false principles from their cradles Some we trail along the streets and destroy them by our ill examples some we choak with intemperances and excesses even in Christmas too some we destroy our selves others we send out servants and companions to destroy give them such to tend them as teach them pride and scorn and anger and frowardness and vanity and wantonness e're they understand them such as teach them to bestow a curse e're they can ask a blessing and to speak ill e're they can well speak And as if we were resolved to make all sure we send them abroad to be bred sometimes to places of licentiousness and debauchery that they may be sure to be gallant sinners because forsooth 't is pedantick and below a Gentleman to be a thorow Christian to suck in the tame and conscientious principles of Christianity and all upon Herods mistake that wise men will mock us for them when 't is only that they are wisely wicked and mistaken And now shall we cry out of Herods cruelty and do worse our selves shall we complain he kill'd the Innocents to day and we make nothing every day to destroy even innocency it self A less far lesser cruelty it would be to take these tender blossoms and shake them off the tree than to suffer them to grow up to fruits which we can but curse our selves and others will curse the tree from bearing them Nay a greater mercy it were to the poor children to dash them against the stoneâ— to smother them in the Cradle to overlay them in the bed to dispatch them any way innocent into the other world than to nurse them up to our own follies than to pollute them with our debaucheries than to corrupt them with atheistical and ungodly principles than to defile them with lusts than to train them up to be wicked or meerly vain and unprofitable breed them up to Hell to eternal ruine Yet the tender and delicate woman that can scarce endure to set her foot upon the ground for niceness thus daily murthers her beloved darling without scruple But indeed do men and women pray for Children as a blessing that they may only turn them into a curse only desire them that they may destroy them surely one would think they did so that sees how great a study it is to make them vain and proud and envious and lewd and wicked Our Herods and Herodias's cut off the baptized Infants heads as they of old did the Baptists We even dance them to death and compromise them to Hell as soon almost as the baptismal waters are dried upon them And must old Herod and Herodias only bear the blame of murdering Innocents and we that do it over and over scape without an accusation In this too worse then Herod He only slew the Children from two years old and under we under and above too from their first day upward till we have rendred them incorrigible to age and past recovery The subtilest policy of the Devil this thus to kill poor Children from their infancy when they neither know who hurt them nor how they came in the confines of that spiritual death they dwell in can only say they were so dealt with in the house of their friends What shall we say my beloved when these murther'd Children shall cry out against us out of their miserable Cells at last for they will do then at least as these did from under the Altar long ago How long O Lord how long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that spilt it on our Fathers and on our Mothers and on our friends that thus untimely sent us hither when we might otherwise have come to thee whither shall we turn what shall we answer or rather because we cannot answer let us take heed we handle the matter so that we come not to it We pretend to love our Children and thereupon we strive to make them rich and fine and great and honourable why do we then beggar them from their Childhood with bringing them up to those vanities that will undo them why do we deform them with sins and vices lessen them with education make them dishonourable by training them up in ignoble and dishonest principles why do we in all these ruine them from the first At least why do we not love our selves