and unlearned as the elements of our mother-tongue But so are Mathematicks to a Scythian boor and Musick to a Camel 44. But I consider that the wisest persons and those who know how to value and entertain the more noble Faculties of their Soul and their precious hours take more pleasure in reading the productions of those old wise spirits who preserved natural Reason and Religion in the midst of heathen darkness such as are Homer Euripides Orpheus Pindar and Anacreon AEschylus and Menander and all the Greek Poets Plutarch and Polybius Xenophon and all those other excellent persons of both Faculties whose choicest Dictates are collected by Stobaeus Plato and his Scholars Aristotle and after him Porphyrie and all his other Disciples Pythagoras and his especially Hierocles all the old Academies and Stoicks within the Roman Schools more pleasure I say in reading these than the triflings of many of the later School-men who promoted a petty interest of a Family or an unlearned Opinion with great earnestness but added nothing to Christianity but trouble scruple and vexation And from hence I hope that they may the rather be invited to love and consider the rare documents of Christianity which certainly is the great Treasure-house of those excellent moral and perfective discourses which with much pains and greater pleasure we find respersed and thinly scattered in all the Greek and Roman Poets Historians and Philosophers But because I have observed that there are some principles entertained into the perswasions of men which are the seeds of evil life such as are the Doctrine of late Repentance the mistakes of the 〈◊〉 of the sins of 〈◊〉 the evil understanding the consequents and nature of Original sin the sufficiency of Contrition in order to pardon the efficacy of the Rites of 〈◊〉 without the necessity of 〈◊〉 adherencies the nature of Faith and many other I was diligent to remark such Doctrines and to pare off the mistakes so far that they hinder not Piety and yet as near as I could without engaging in any Question in which the very life of Christianity is not concerned Haec sum profatus haud ambagibus Implicita sed quae regulis aequi boni Suffulta rudibus pariter doctis patent My great purpose is to advance the necessity and to declare the manner and parts of a good 〈◊〉 and to invite some persons to the consideration of all the parts of it by intermixing something of pleasure with the use others by such parts which will better entertain their spirits than a Romance I have followed the design of Scripture and have given milk for babes and for stronger men stronger meat and in all I have despised my own reputation by so striving to make it useful that I was less careful to make it strict in retired sences and embossed with unnecessary but graceful ornaments I pray God this may go forth into a blessing to all that shall use it and reflect blessings upon me all the way that my spark may grow greater by kindling my brother's Taper and God may be glorified in us both If the Reader shall receive no benefit yet I intended him one and I have laboured in order to it and I shall receive a great recompence for that intention if he shall please to say this Prayer for me That while I have preached to others I may not become a cast-away AN EXHORTATION To the Imitation of the Life of Christ. HOwever the Person of JESUS CHRIST was depressed with a load of humble accidents and shadowed with the darknesses of Poverty and sad contingencies so that the Jews and the contemporary Ages of the Gentiles and the Apostles themselves could not at first 〈◊〉 the brightest essence of Divinity yet as a Beauty artificially covered with a thin cloud of Cypress transmits its excellency to the eye made more greedy and apprehensive by that imperfect and weak restraint so was the Sanctity and Holiness of the Life of JESUS glorious in its Darknesses and found Confessors and Admirers even in the midst of those despites which were done him upon the contrariant designs of malice and contradictory ambition Thus the wife of Pilate called him that just person Pilate pronounced him guiltless Judas said he was innocent the Devil himself called him the Holy one of God For however it might concern any man's mistaken ends to mislike the purpose of his Preaching and Spiritual Kingdom and those Doctrines which were destructive of their 〈◊〉 and carnal securities yet they could not deny but that he was a man of God of exemplar Sanctity of an Angelical Chastity of a Life sweet affable and complying with humane conversation and as obedient to Government as the most humble children of the Kingdom And yet he was Lord of all the World 2. And certainly very much of this was with a design that he might shine to all the generations and Ages of the World and become a guiding Star and a pillar of fire to us in our journey For we who believe that Jesus was perfect God and perfect Man do also believe that one minute of his intolerable Passion and every action of his might have been satisfactory and enough for the expiation and reconcilement of ten thousand worlds and God might upon a less effusion of bloud and a shorter life of merit if he had pleased have accepted humane nature to pardon and favour but that the Holy Jesus hath added so many excellent instances of Holiness and so many degrees of Passion and so many kinds of Vertues is that he might become an Example to us and reconcile our Wills to him as well as our Persons to his heavenly Father 3. And 〈◊〉 it will prove but a sad consideration that one drop of bloud might be enough to obtain our Pardon and the treasures of his bloud running out till the fountain it self was dry shall not be enough to procure our Conformity to him that the smallest minute of his expence shall be enough to justifie us and the whole Magazine shall not procure our Sanctification that at a smaller expence God might pardon us and at a greater we will not imitate him For therefore Christ hath suffered for us saith the Apostle leaving an Example to us that we might follow his steps The least of our Wills cost Christ as much as the greatest of our Sins And therefore he calls himself the Way the Truth and the Life That as he redeems our Souls from death to life by becoming Life to our Persons so he is the Truth to our Understandings and the Way to our Will and Affections enlightning that and leading these in the paths of a happy Eternity 4. When the King of Moab was pressed hard by the sons of Isaac the Israelites and Edomites he took the King of Edom's eldest Son or as some think his own Son the Heir of his Kingdom and offered him as a Holocaust upon the wall and the Edomites presently raised the siege at
under the Gospel is led by the Spirit and walks in the Spirit and brings forth the fruits of the Spirit It is not our excuse but the aggravation of our sin that we fall again in despite of so many resolutions to the contrary And let us not flatter our selves into a confidence of sin by supposing the state of Grace can stand with the Custom of any sin for it is the state either of an animalis homo as the Apostle calls him that is a man in pure naturals without the clarity of divine Revelations who cannot perceive or understand the things of God or else of the carnal man that is a person who though in his mind he is convinced yet he is not yet freed from the dominion of sin but only hath his eyes opened but not his bonds loosed For by the perpetual analogy and frequent expresses in Scripture the spiritual person or the man redeemed by the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is free from the Law and the Dominion and the Kingdom and the Power of all sin For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace 10. But sins of Infirmity in true sence of Scripture signifie nothing but the sins of an unholy and an unsanctified nature when they are taken for actions done against the strength of resolution out of the strength of natural appetite and violence of desire and therefore in Scripture the state of Sin and the state of Infirmity is all one For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly saith the Apostle the condition in which we were when Christ became a sacrifice for us was certainly a condition of sin and enmity with God and yet this he calls a being without strength or in a state of weakness and infirmity which we who believe all our strength to be derived from Christ's death and the assistance of the holy Spirit the fruit of his Ascension may soon apprehend to be the true meaning of the word And in this sence is that saying of our Blessed Saviour The whole have no need of a Physician but they that are weak for therefore Christ came into the world to save sinners those are the persons of Christ's Infirmary whose restitution and reduction to a state of life and health was his great design So that whoever sin habitually that is constantly periodically at the revolution of a temptation or frequently or easily are persons who still remain in the state of sin and death and their intervals of Piety are but preparations to a state of Grace which they may then be when they are not used to countenance or excuse the sin or to flatter the person But if the intermediate resolutions of emendation though they never run beyond the next assault of passion or desire be taken for a state of Grace blended with infirmities of Nature they become destructive of all those purposes through our mistake which they might have promoted if they had been rightly understood observed and cherished Sometimes indeed the greatness of a Temptation may become an instrument to excuse some degrees of the sin and make the man pitiable whose ruine seems almost certain because of the greatness and violence of the enemy meeting with a natural aptness but then the question will be whither and to what actions that strong Temptation carries him whether to a work of a mortal nature or only to a small irregularity that is whether to death or to a wound for whatever the principle be if the effect be death the man's case was therefore to be pitied because his ruine was the more inevitable not so pitied as to excuse him from the state of death For let the Temptation be never so strong every Christian man hath assistances sufficient to support him so as that without his own yielding no Temptation is stronger than that grace which God offers him for if it were it were not so much as a sin of infirmity it were no sin at all This therefore must be certain to us When the violence of our Passions or desires overcomes our resolutions and fairer purposes against the dictate of our Reason that indeed is a state of Infirmity but it is also of sin and death a state of Immortification because the offices of Grace are to crucifie the Old man that is our former aud impurer conversation to subdue the petulancy of our Passions to reduce them to reason and to restore Empire and dominion to the superiour Faculties So that this condition in proper speaking is not so good as the Infirmity of Grace but it is no Grace at all for whoever are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts those other imperfect ineffective resolutions are but the first approaches of the Kingdom of Christ nothing but the clarities of lightning dark as 〈◊〉 as light and they therefore cannot be excuses to us because the contrary weaknesses as we call them do not make the sin involuntary but chosen and pursued and in true speaking is the strength of the Lust not the infirmity of a state of Grace 11. But yet there is a condition of Grace which is a state of little and imperfect ones such as are called in Scripture Smoaking flax and bruised reeds which is a state of the first dawning of the Sun of Righteousness when the lights of Grace new rise upon our eyes and then indeed they are weak and have a more dangerous neighbourhood of Temptations and desires but they are not subdued by them they sin not by direct election their actions criminal are but like the slime of Nilus leaving rats half formed they sin but seldom and when they do it is in small instances and then also by surprise by inadvertency and then also they interrupt their own acts and lessen them perpetually and never do an act of sinfulness but the principle is such as makes it to be involuntary in many degrees For when the Understanding is clear and the dictate of Reason undisturbed and determinate whatsoever then produces an irregular action excuses not because the action is not made the less voluntary by it for the action is not made involuntary from any other principle but from some defect of Understanding either in act or habit or faculty For where there is no such defect there is a full deliberation according to the capacity of the man and then the act of election that follows is clear and full and is that proper disposition which makes him truly capable of punishment or reward respectively Now although in the first beginnings of Grace there is not a direct Ignorance to excuse totally yet because a sudden surprise or an inadvertency is not always in our power to prevent these things do lessen the election and freedom of the action and then because they are but seldom and never proceed to any length of time or any great instances of
to him are forgiven not his own but the 〈◊〉 of another man None ought to be driven from Baptism and the Grace of God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gentle and pious unto all and therefore much less Infants who more 〈◊〉 our aid and more need the Divine mercy because in the first beginning of their birth crying and 〈◊〉 they can do nothing but call for mercy and relief 〈◊〉 this reason it was saith 〈◊〉 that they to whom the secrets of the Divine 〈◊〉 were committed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉 because there was born with them the impurities of sin which did need material Ablution as a Sacrament of spiritual purification For that it may appear that our sins have a proper analogy to this Sacrament the Body it self is called the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and therefore the washing of the Body is not ineffectual towards the great work of Pardon and abolition Indeed after this Ablution there remains 〈◊〉 or the material part of our misery and sin For Christ by his death only took away that which when he did die for us he bare in his own body upon the tree Now Christ only bare the punishment of our sin and therefore we shall not die for it but the material part of the sin Christ bare not Sin could not come so near him it might make him sick and die but not disordered and stained He was pure from Original and Actual sins and therefore that remains in the body though the guilt and 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 off and changed into advantages and grace and the Actual are 〈◊〉 by the Spirit of Grace descending afterwards upon the Church and sent by our Lord to the same purpose 33. But it is not rationally to be answered what S. Ambrose says Quia omnis peccato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it were strange that sin and misery should seize upon the innocent and most 〈◊〉 persons and that they only should be left without a Sacrament and an instrument of expiation And although they cannot consent to the present susception yet neither do they refuse and yet they consent as much to the grace of the Sacrament as to the prevarication of Adam and because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under this it were but reason they should be relieved by that And it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gregory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they should be consigned and sanctified without their own knowledge than to die without their being sanctified for so it happened to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Israel and if the conspersion and washing the door-posts with the bloud of a Lamb did sacramentally preserve all the first-born of Goshen it cannot 〈◊〉 thought impossible or unreasonable that the want of understanding in Children should hinder them from the blessing of a Sacrament and from being redeemed and washed with the bloud of the Holy Lamb who was 〈◊〉 for all from the beginning of the world 34. After all this it is not inconsiderable that we say the Church hath great power and authority about the Sacraments which is observable in many instances She appointed what persons she pleased and in equal power made an unequal dispensation and ministery The Apostles first dispensed all things and then they left off exteriour ministeries to attend to the Word of God and Prayer and S. Paul accounted it no part of his office to Baptize when he had been separated by imposition of hands at Antioch to the work of Preaching and greater ministeries and accounted that act of the Church the act of Christ saying Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel They used various forms in the ministration of Baptism sometimes baptizing in the name of Christ sometimes expresly invocating the Holy and ever-Blessed Trinity one while 〈◊〉 baptize 〈◊〉 as in the Latine Church but in the Greek Let the servant of Christ be baptized And in all Ecclesiastical ministeries the Church invented the forms and in most things hath often changed them as in Absolution Excommunication And sometimes they baptized people under their profession of Repentance and then taught them as it happened to the Goaler and his family in whose case there was no explicit Faith 〈◊〉 in the mysteries of Religion so far as appears and yet he and not only he but all his house were baptized at that hour of the night when the Earthquake was terrible and the 〈◊〉 was pregnant upon them and this upon their Master's account as it is likely but others were baptized in the conditions of a previous Faith and a new-begun Repentance They baptized in Rivers or in Lavatories by dipping or by sprinkling for so we find that S. Laurence did as he went to martyrdom and so the Church did sometimes to Clinicks and so it is highly convenient to be done in Northern Countries according to the Prophecy of 〈◊〉 So shall 〈◊〉 sprinkle many Nations according as the typical expiations among the Jews were usually by sprinkling And it is fairly relative to the mystery to the sprinkling with the 〈◊〉 of Christ and the watering of the furrows of our Souls with the dew of Heaven to make them to bring forth fruit unto the Spirit and unto Holiness The Church sometimes dipt the Catechumen three times sometimes but once Some Churches use Fire in their Baptisms so do the Ethiopians and the custom was ancient in 〈◊〉 places And so in the other Sacrament sometimes they stood and sometimes kneeled and sometimes received it in the mouth and sometimes in the hand one while in 〈◊〉 another while in unlevened bread sometimes the wine and water were mingled sometimes they were pure and they admitted some persons to it sometimes which at other times they rejected sometimes the Consecration was made by one form sometimes by another and to conclude sometimes it was given to Infants sometimes not And she had power so to do for in all things where there was not a Commandment of Christ expressed or implied in the nature and in the end of the Institution the Church had power to alter the particulars as was most expedient or conducing to edification And although the after-Ages of the Church which refused to communicate Infants have 〈◊〉 some little things against the lawfulness and those Ages that used it found out some pretences for its 〈◊〉 yet both the one and the other had liberty to follow their own necessities so in all things they followed Christ. Certainly there is 〈◊〉 more reason why Insants may be Communicated than why they may not be Baptized And that this discourse may 〈◊〉 to its first intention although there is no record extant of any Church in the world and from the Apostles days inclusively to this very day ever refused to Baptize their Children yet if they had upon any present reason they might also change 〈◊〉 practice when the reason should be 〈◊〉 and therefore if there were nothing else in it yet the universal practice of all Churches in all Ages is abundantly sufficient to determine us and to
and miserable to all eternity It was a sad calamity that fell upon the Man of Judah that returned to eat bread into the Prophet's house contrary to the word of the Lord He was abused into the act by a Prophet and a pretence of a command from God and whether he did violence to his own understanding and believed the man because he was willing or did it in sincerity or in what degree of sin or excuse the action might consist no man there knew and yet a Lion slew him and the lying Prophet that abused him escaped and went to his grave in peace Some persons joyned in society or interest with criminals have perished in the same Judgments and yet it would be hard to call them equally guilty who in the accident were equally miserable and involved And they who are not strangers in the affairs of the world cannot but have heard or seen some persons who have lived well and moderately though not like the 〈◊〉 of the Holocaust yet like the ashes of Incense sending up good perfumes and keeping a constant and slow fire of Piety and Justice yet have been surprised in the midst of some unusual unaccustomed irregularity and died in that sin A sudden gayety of fortune a great joy a violent change a friend is come or a marriage-day hath transported some persons to indiscretions and too bold a licence and the indiscretion hath betrayed them to idle company and the company to drink and drink to a fall and that hath hurri'd them to their grave And it were a sad sentence to think God would not repute the untimely death for a punishment great enough to that deflexion from duty and judge the man according to the constant tenor of his former life unless such an act was of malice great enough to outweigh the former habits and interrupt the whole state of acceptation and grace Something like this was the case of 〈◊〉 who espying the tottering Ark went to support it with an unhallowed hand God smote him and he died immediately It were too severe to say his zeal and indiscretion carried him beyond a temporal death to the ruines of Eternity Origen and many others have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdome of Heaven and did well after it but those that did so and died of the wound were smitten of God and died in their folly and yet it is rather to be called a sad consequence of their indiscretion than the express of a final anger from God Almighty For as God takes off our sins and punishments by parts remitting to some persons the sentence of death and inflicting the fine of a temporal loss or the gentle scourge of a lesser sickness so also he lays it on by parts and according to the proper proportions of the man and of the crime and every transgression and lesser deviation from our duty does not drag the Soul to death eternal but God suffers our Repentance though imperfect to have an imperfect effect knocking off the fetters by degrees and leading us in some cases to a Council in some to Judgment and in some to Hell-fire but it is not always certain that he who is led to the prison-doors shall there lie entombed and a Man may by a Judgment be brought to the gates of Hell and yet those gates shall not prevail against him This discourse concerns persons whose life is habitually fair and just but are surprised in some unhandsome but less criminal action and 〈◊〉 or suffer some great Calamity as the instrument of its expiation or amendment 3. Secondly But if the person upon whom the Judgment falls be habitually vicious or the crime of a clamorous nature or deeper tincture if the man sin a sin unto death and either meets it or some other remarkable calamity not so feared as death provided we pass no farther than the sentence we see then executed it is not against Charity or prudence to say this calamity in its own formality and by the intention of God is a Punishment and Judgment In the favourable cases of honest and just persons our sentence and opinions ought also to be favourable and in such questions to encline ever to the side of charitable construction and read other ends of God in the accidents of our neighbour than Revenge or express Wrath. But when the impiety of a person is scandalous and notorious when it is clamorous and violent when it is habitual and yet corrigible if we find a sadness and calamity dwelling with such a sinner especially if tho punishment be spiritual we read the sentence of God written with his own hand and it is not 〈◊〉 of opinion or a pressing into the secrets of Providence to say the same thing which God hath published to all the world in the 〈◊〉 of his Spirit In such cases we are to observe the severity of God on them that fall severity and to use those Judgments as instruments of the fear of God arguments to hate sin which we could not well do but that we must look on them as verifications of God's threatning against great and impenitent sinners But then if we descend to particulars we may easily be deceived 4. For some men are diligent to observe the accidents and chances of Providence upon those especially who differ from them in Opinion and whatever ends God can have or whatever sins man can have yet we lay that in fault which we therefore hate because it is most against our interest the contrary Opinion is our enemy and we also think God hates it But such fancies do seldom serve either the ends of Truth or Charity Pierre Calceon died under the Barber's hand there wanted not some who said it was a Judgement upon him for condemning to the fire the famous Pucelle of France who prophesied the expulsion of the English out of the Kingdom They that thought this believed her to be a Prophetess but others that thought her a Witch were willing to 〈◊〉 out another conjecture for the sudden death of the Gentleman Garnier Earl of Gretz kept the Patriarch of Jerusalem from his right in David's Tower and the City and died within three days and by Dabert the Patriarch it was called a Judgment upon him for his Sacrilege But the uncertainty of that censure appeared to them who considered that Baldwin who gave commission to Garnier to withstand the Patriarch did not die but Godsrey of 〈◊〉 did die immediately after he had passed the right of the Patriarch and yet when Baldwin was beaten at Rhamula some bold People pronounced that then God punished him upon the Patriarch's score and thought his Sacrilege to be the secret cause of his overthrow and yet his own Pride and Rashness was the more visible and the Judgment was but a cloud and passed away quickly into a succeeding Victory But I instance in a trisle Certain it is that God removed the Candlestick from the Levantine Churches because he had
this instance there was a rare mixture of effects as there was in Christ of Natures the voice of a Man and the power of God For it is observed by the Doctors of the Primitive Ages that from the Nativity of our Lord to the day of his Death the Divinity and Humanity did so communicate in effects that no great action passed but it was like the Sun shining through a cloud or a beauty with a thin veil drawn over it they gave illustration and testimony to each other The Holy Jesus was born a tender and a crying Infant but is adored by the Magi as a King by the Angels as their GOD. He is circumcised as a Man but a name is given him to signifie him to be the SAVIOUR of the World He flies into Egypt like a distressed Child under the conduct of his helpless Parents but as soon as he enters the Country the Idols fall down and confess his true Divinity He is presented in the Temple as the Son of man but by Simeon and Anna he is celebrated with divine praises for the MESSIAS the SON OF GOD. He is baptized in Jordan as a Sinner but the Holy Ghost descending upon him proclaimed him to be the well-beloved of God He is hungry in the Desart as a Man but sustained his body without meat and drink for forty days together by the power of his Divinity There he is tempted of Satan as a weak Man and the Angels of light minister unto him as their supreme Lord. And now a little before his death when he was to take upon him all the affronts miseries and exinanitions of the most miserable he receives testimonies from above which are most wonderful For he was tranfigured upon Mount Tabor entred triumphantly into Jerusalem had the acclamations of the people when he was dying he darkned the Sun when he was dead he opened the sepulchres when he was fast nailed to the Cross he made the earth to tremble now when he suffers himself to be apprehended by a guard of Souldiers he strikes them all to the ground only by replying to their answer that the words of the Prophet might be verified Therefore my people shall know my Name therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak behold it is I. 10. The Souldiers and servants of the Jews having recovered from their fall and risen by the permission of Jesus still persisted in their enquiry after him who was present ready and desirous to be sacrificed He therefore permitted himself to be taken but not his Disciples for he it was that set them their bounds and he secured his Apostles to be witnesses of his suffering and his glories and this work was the Redemption of the world in which no man could have an active share he alone was to tread the wine-press and time enough they should be called to a fellowship of sufferings But Jesus went to them and they bound him with cords and so began our liberty and redemption from slavery and sin and cursings and death But he was bound faster by bands of his own his Father's Will and Mercy Pity of the world Prophecies and Mysteries and Love held him fast and these cords were as strong as death and the cords which the Souldiers malice put upon his holy hands were but symbols and figures his own compassion and affection were the morals But yet he undertook this short restraint and condition of a prisoner that all sorts of persecution and exteriour calamities might be hallowed by his susception and these pungent sorrows should like bees sting him and leave their sting behind that all the sweetness should remain for us Some melancholick Devotions have from uncertain stories added sad circumstances of the first violence done to our Lord That they bound him with three cords and that with so much violence that they caused bloud to start from his tender hands That they 〈◊〉 then also upon him with a violence and incivility like that which their Fathers had used towards Hur the brother of Aaron whom they choaked with impure spittings into his throat because he refused to consent to the making a golden Calf These particulars are not transmitted by certain Records Certain it is they wanted no malice and now no power for the Lord had given himself into their hands 11. S. Peter seeing his Master thus ill used asked Master shall we strike with the sword and before he had his answer cut off the ear of Malchus Two swords there were in Christ's family and S. Peter bore one either because he was to kill the Paschal Lamb or according to the custom of the Country to secure them against beasts of prey which in that region were frequent and dangerous in the night But now he used it in an unlawful war he had no competent authority it was against the Ministers of his lawful Prince and against our Prince we must not draw a sword for Christ himself himself having forbidden us as his kingdom is not of this world so neither were his defences secular he could have called for many legions of Angels for his guard if he had so pleased and we read that one Angel slew 185000 armed men in one night and therefore it was a vast power which was at the command of our Lord and he needs not such low auxiliaries as an army of Rebels or a navy of Pirates to 〈◊〉 his cause he first lays the foundation of our happiness in his sufferings and hath ever since supported Religion by patience and suffering and in poverty and all the circumstances and conjunctures of improbable causes Fighting for Religion is certain to destroy Charity but not certain to support Faith S. Peter therefore may use his keys but he is commanded to put up his sword and he did so and presently he and all his fellows fairly ran away and yet that course was much the more Christian for though it had in it much infirmity yet it had no malice In the mean time the Lord was pleased to touch the ear of Malchus and he cured it adding to the first instance of power in throwing them to the ground an act of miraculous mercy curing the wounds of an enemy made by a friend But neither did this pierce their callous and obdurate spirits but they led him in uncouth ways and through the brook Cedron in which it is said the ruder souldiers plunged him and passed upon him all the affronts and rudenesses which an insolent and cruel multitude could think of to signifie their contempt and their rage And such is the nature of evil men who when they are not softned by the instruments and arguments of Grace are much hardned by them such being the purpose of God that either Grace shall cure sin or accidentally increase it that it shall either pardon it or bring it to greater punishment for so I have seen healthful medicines abused by the incapacities of a
with the thing it self which they supposed would be a federal Rite under the dispensation of the Messiah but only quarrelled with him for taking upon him to administer it when yet he denied himself to be one of the prime Ministers of this new state They said unto him why baptizest thou then if thou be not that Christ nor 〈◊〉 neither that 〈◊〉 Either of which had he owned himself they had not questioned his right to enter Proselytes by this way of Baptism It is called the Baptism of Repentance this being the main qualification that he required of those who took it upon them as the fittest means to dispose them to receive the Doctrine and Discipline of the Messiah and to intitle them to that pardon of sin which the Gospel brought along with it whence he is said to baptize in the Wilderness and to preach the Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins And the success was answerable infinite Multitudes flocking to it and were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins Nor is it the least part of his happiness that he had the honour to baptize his Saviour which though modestly declined our Lord put upon him and was accompanied with the most signal and miraculous attestations which Heaven could bestow upon it 5. AFTER his Preparatory Preachings in the Wilderness he was called to Court by Herod at least he was his frequent Auditor was much delighted with his plain and impartial Sermons and had a mighty reverence for him the gravity of his Person the strictness of his Manners the freedom of his Preaching commanding an awe and veneration from his Conscience and making him willing in many things to reform But the bluntness of the holy Man came nearer and touched the King in the tenderest part smartly reproving his adultery and incestuous embraces for that Prince kept Herodias his Brother Philip's Wife And now all corrupt interests were awakened to conspire his ruine Extravagant Lusts love not to be controll'd and check'd Herodias resents the asfront cannot brook disturbance in the pleasures of her Bed or the open challenging of her honour and therefore by all the arts of Feminine subtlety meditates revenge The issue was the Baptist is cast into Prison as the praeludium to a sadder fate For among other pleasures and scenes of mirth performed upon the King's Birth-day Herod being infinitely pleased with the Dancing of a young Lady Daughter of this Herodias promised to give her Her request and solemnly ratified his promise with an Oath She prompted by her Mother asks the Head of John the Baptist which the King partly out of a pretended reverence to his Oath partly out of a desire not to be interrupted in his unlawful pleasures presently granted and it was as quickly accomplished Thus died the Holy man a man strict in his conversation beyond the ordinary measures of an Anchoret bold and resolute faithful and impartial in his Office indued with the power and spirit of Elias a burning and a shining light under whose light the Jews rejoyced to sit exceedingly taken with his temper and principles He was the happy Messenger of the Evangelical tidings and in that respect more than a Prophet a greater not arising among them that were born of Women In short he was a Man loved of his Friends revered and honoured by his Enemies Josephus gives this character of him that he was a good man and pressed the Jews to the study of vertue to the practice of picty towards God and justice and righteousness towards men and to joyn themselves to his Baptism which he told them would then become effectual and acceptable to God when they did not only cleanse the body but purifie the mind by goodness and vertue And though he gives somewhat a different account of Herod's condemning him to dic from what is assigned in the Sacred History yet he confesses that the Jews universally looked upon the putting him to death as the cause of the miscarriage of Herod's Army and an evident effect of the Divine vengeance and displeasure The Jews in their Writings make honourable mention of his being put to death by Herod because reproving him for the company of his Brother Philip's Wife stiling him Rabbi Johanan the High-Priest and reckoning him one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the wise men of Israel Where he is called High-Priest probably with respect to his being the Son of Zachariah Head or Chief of one of the XXIV Families or courses of the Priests who are many times called Chief or High-Priests in Scripture 6. THE Evangelical state being thus proclaimed and ushered in by the Preaching and Ministry of the Baptist our Lord himself appeared next more fully to publish and confirm it concerning whose Birth Life Death and Resurrection the Doctrine he delivered the Persons he deputed to Preach and convey it to the World and its success by the Ministry of the Apostles large particular accounts are given in the following work That which may be proper and material to observe in this place is what the Scripture so frequently takes notice of the excellency of this above the preceding dispensations especially that brought in by Moses so much magnified in the Old Testament and so passionately admired and adhered to by the Jews at this day Jesus is the Mediator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle calls it of a better Covenant And better it is in several regards besides the infinite difference between the Persons who were imployed to introduce and settle them Moses and our Lord. The preheminence eminently appears in many instances whereof we shall remark the most considerable And first the Mosaick dispensation was almost wholly made up of types and shadows the Evangelical has brought in the truth and substance The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Their Ordinances were but shadows of good things to come sensible representations of what was to follow after the Body is Christ the perfection and accomplishment of their whole ritual Ministration Their Ceremonies were Figures of those things that are true the Land of Canaan typified Heaven Moses and Joshua were types of the Blessed Jesus and the Israelites after the flesh of the true Israel which is after the Spirit and all their Expiatory Sacrifices did but represent that Great Sacrifice whereby Christ offered up himself and by his own bloud purged away the sins of mankind indeed the most minute and inconsiderable circumstances of the Legal Oeconomy were intended as little lights that might gradually usher in the state of the Gospel A curious Artist that designs a famous and excellent piece is not wont to complete and finish it all at once but first with his Pencil draws some rude lines and rough draughts before he puts his last hand to it By such a method the wise God seems to have delivered the first draughts and Images of those things by Moses to the Church the substance
be like his your Duty in imitation of his Precept and Example and then sing praises as you list no heart is large enough no voice pleasant enough no life long enough nothing but an eternity of duration and a beatifical state can do it well and therefore holy David joyns them both Whoso offereth me thanks and praise he honoureth me and to him that ordereth his conversation aright I will shew the salvation of God All thanks and praise without a right-ordered conversation are but the Echo of Religion a voice and no substance but if those praises be sung by a heart righteous and obedient that is singing with the spirit and singing with understanding that is the Musick God delights in 18. Sixthly But let me observe and press this caution It is a mistake and not a little dangerous when people religious and forward shall too promptly frequently and nearly spend their thoughts in consideration of Divine Excellencies God hath shewn thee merit enough to spend all thy stock of love upon him in the characters of his Power the book of the Creature the great tables of his Mercy and the lines of his Justice we have cause enough to praise his Excellencies in what we feel of him and are refreshed with his influence and see his beauties in reflexion though we do not put our eyes out with staring upon his face To behold the Glories and Perfections of God with a more direct intuition is the priviledge of Angels who yet cover their faces in the brightness of his presence it is only permitted to us to consider the back parts of God And therefore those Speculations are too bold and imprudent addresses and minister to danger more than to Religion when we pass away from the direct studies of Vertue and those thoughts of God which are the freer and safer communications of the Deity which are the means of entercourse and relation between him and us to those considerations concerning God which are Metaphysical and remote the formal objects of adoration and wonder rather than of vertue and temperate discourses for God in Scripture never revealed any of his abstracted Perfections and remoter and mysterious distances but with a purpose to produce fear in us and therefore to chide the temerity and boldness of too familiar and nearer entercourse 19. True it is that every thing we see or can consider represents some perfections of God but this I mean that no man should consider too much and meditate too frequently upon the immediate Perfections of God as it were by way of intuition but as they are manifested in the Creatures and in the ministeries of Vertue and also when-ever God's Perfections be the matter of Meditation we should not ascend upwards into him but descend upon our selves like fruitful vapours drawn up into a cloud descending speedily into a shower that the effect of the consideration be a design of good life and that our loves to God be not spent in abstractions but in good works and humble Obedience The other kind of love may deceive us and therefore so may such kind of considerations which are its instrument But this I am now more particularly to consider 20. For beyond this I have described there is a degree of Meditation so exalted that it changes the very name and is called Contemplation and it is in the unitive way of Religion that is it consists in unions and adherences to God it is a prayer of quietness and silence and a meditation extraordinary a discourse without variety a vision and intuition of 〈◊〉 Excellencies an immediate entry into an orb of light and a resolution of all our faculties into sweetnesses affections and starings upon the Divine beauty and is carried on to ecstasies raptures suspensions elevations abstractions and apprehensions beatifical In all the course of vertuous meditation the Soul is like a Virgin invited to make a matrimonial contract it inquires the condition of the person his estate and disposition and other circumstances of amability and desire But when she is satissied with these enquiries and hath chosen her Husband she no more considers particulars but is moved by his voice and his gesture and runs to his entertainment and sruition and spends her self wholly in affections not to obtain but enjoy his love Thus it is said 21. But this is a thing not to be discoursed of but felt And although in other Sciences the terms must first be known and then the Rules and Conclusions scientifical here it is otherwise for first the whole experience of this must be obtained before we can so much as know what it is and the end must be acquired first the Conclusion before the Premises They that pretend to these Heights call them the Secrets of the Kingdom but they are such which no man can describe such which God hath not revealed in the publication of the Gospel such for the acquiring of which there are no means prescribed and to which no man is obliged and which are not in any man's power to obtain nor such which it is lawful to pray for or desire nor concerning which we shall ever be called to an account 22. Indeed when persons have been long sostned with the continual droppings of Religion and their spirits made timorous and apt for impression by the assiduity of Prayer and perpetual alarms of death and the continual dyings of Mortification the Fancy which is a very great instrument of Devotion is kept continually warm and in a disposition and aptitude to take fire and to flame out in great ascents and when they suffer transportations beyond the burthens and support of Reason they suffer 〈◊〉 know not what and call it what they please and other pious people that hear 〈◊〉 of it admire that Devotion which is so eminent and beatified for so they esteem 〈◊〉 and so they come to be called Raptures and Ecstasies which even amongst the A 〈◊〉 were so seldom that they were never spoke of for those Visions Raptures and Intuitions of S. Stephen S. Paul S. Peter and S. John were not pretended to be of this kind not excesses of Religion but prophetical and intuitive Revelations to great and significant purposes such as may be and are described in story but these other cannot for so Cassian reports and commends a saying of Antony the Eremite That is not a perfect Prayer in which the Votary does either understand himself or the Prayer meaning that persons eminently Religious were Divina patientes as Dionysius Areopagita said of his Master Hierotheus Paticks in Devotion suffering ravishments of senses transported beyond the uses of humanity into the suburbs of beatifical apprehensions but whether or no this be any thing besides a too intense and indiscreet pressure of the faculties of the Soul to inconveniences of understanding or else a credulous busie and untamed fancy they that think best of it cannot give a certainty There are and have been some Religious
connivences there no protections or friendships or consideration or indulgences but Herod caus'd that his own child which was at nurse in the coasts of Bethlehem should bleed to death which made Augustus Caesar to say that in Heroa's house it were better to be a 〈◊〉 than a Child because the custome of the Nation did secure a Hog from Heroa's knife but no Religion could secure his Child The sword being thus made sharp by Herod's commission killed 14000 pretty Babes as the Greeks in their Calendar and the 〈◊〉 of AEthiopia do commemorate in their offices of Liturgy For Herod crafty and malicious that is perfectly Tyrant had caused all the Children to be gathered together which the credulous Mothers supposing it had been to take account of their age and number in order to some taxing hindred not but unwittingly suffered themselves and their Babes to be betrayed to an irremediable 〈◊〉 4. Then was 〈◊〉 that which was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet saying Lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted All the synonyma's of sadness were little enough to express this great weeping when 14000 Mothers in one day saw their pretty Babes pouring forth their blood into that bosome whence not long before they had sucked milk and instead of those pretty smiles which use to entertain the fancy and dear affections of their Mothers nothing but affrighting shrieks and then gastly looks The mourning was great like the mourning in the valley of Hinnom and there was no comforter their sorrow was too big to be cured till it should lie down alone and rest with its own weariness 5. But the malice of Herod went also into the Hill-countrey and hearing that of John the son of Zachary great things were spoken by which he was designed to a great ministery about this young Prince he attempted in him also to rescind the Prophecies and sent a messenger of death towards him but the Mother's care had been early with him and sent him into desart places where he continued till the time appointed of his manifestation unto 〈◊〉 But as the Children of Bethlehem died in the place of Christ so did the Father of the Baptist die for his Child For Herod 〈◊〉 Zachary between the Temple and the Altar because he refused to betray his son to the fury of that rabid Bear Though some persons very eminent amongst the Stars of the Primitive Church report a Tradition that a place being separated in the Temple for Virgins Zachary suffered the Mother of our Lord to abide there after the Birth of her Holy Son affirming her still to be a Virgin and that for this reason not Herod but the Scribes and Pharisees did kill Zachary 6. Tertullian reports that the bloud of Zachary had so 〈◊〉 the stones of the pavement which was the Altar on which the good old Priest was sacrificed that no art or industry could wash the tincture out the dye and guilt being both indeleble as if because God did intend to exact of that Nation all the bloud of righteous persons from Abel to Zacharias who was the last of the Martyrs of the Synagogue he would leave a character of their guilt in their eyes to upbraid their Irreligion Cruelty and 〈◊〉 Some there are who affirm these words of our Blessed Saviour not to relate to any Zachary who had been already slain but to be a Prophecy of the last of all the Martyrs of the Jews who should be slain immediately before the destruction of the last Temple and the dissolution of the Nation Certain it is that such a Zachary the son of 〈◊〉 if we may believe Josephus was slain in the middle of the Temple a little before it was destroyed and it is agreeable to the nature of the Prophecy and reproof here made by our Blessed Saviour that from Abel to Zachary should take in all the righteous bloud from first to last till the iniquity was complete and it is not imaginable that the bloud of our Blessed Lord and of S. James their Bishop for whose death many of themselves thought God destroyed their City should be left out of the account which yet would certainly be left out if any other Zachary should be 〈◊〉 than he whom they last slew and in proportion to this Cyprian de 〈◊〉 expounds that which we read in the past tense to signifie the future ye slew i. e. shall slay according to the style often used by Prophets and as the Aorist of an uncertain signification will beat But the first great instance of the Divine vengeance for these Executions was upon Herod who in very few years after was smitten of God with so many plagues and tortures that himself alone seemed like an Hospital of the 〈◊〉 For he was tormented with a soft slow fire like that of burning Iron or the cinders of Yew in his body in his bowels with intolerable Colicks and Ulcers in his natural parts with Worms in his feet with Gout in his nerves with Convulsions 〈◊〉 of breathing and out of divers parts of his body issued out so impure and ulcerous a steam that the loathsomness pain and indignation made him once to snatch a knife with purpose to have killed himself but that he was prevented by a Nephew of his that stood there in his attendance 7. But as the flesh of Beasts grows callous by stripes and the pressures of the yoak so did the heart of Herod by the loads of Divine vengeance God began his Hell here and the pains of Hell never made any man less impious for Herod perceiving that he must now die first put to death his son Antipater under pretence that he would have poisoned him and that the last scene of his life might for pure malice and exalted spight out-do all the rest because he believed the Jewish nation would rejoyce at his death he assembled all the Nobles of the people and put them in prison giving in charge to his Sister Salome that when he was expiring his last all the Nobility should be slain that his death might be lamented with a perfect and universal sorrow 8. But God that brings to nought the counsels of wicked Princes turned the design against the intendment of Herod for when he was dead and could not call his Sister to account for disobeying his most bloudy and unrighteous commands she released all the imprisoned and despairing Gentlemen and made the day of her Brother's death a perfect Jubilee a day of joy such as was that when the Nation was delivered from the violence of Haman in the days of 〈◊〉 9. And all this while God had provided a Sanctuary for the Holy Child Jesus For God seeing the secret purposes of bloud which Herod had sent his Angel who appeared to Joseph in a dream saying Arise and take the young Child and his Mother and fly into Egypt and be thou there until I bring thee word
contagious 9. Thirdly And yet there is a degree of Mortification of spirit beyond this for the condition of our security may require that we not only deny to act our temptations or to please our natural desires but also to seek opportunities of doing displeasure to our affections and violence to our inclinations and not only to be indifferent but to chuse a contradiction and a denial to our strongest appetites to rejoyce in a trouble and this was the spirit of S. Paul I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulations and We glory in it Which joy consists not in any sensitive pleasure any man can take in asflictions and adverse accidents but in a despising the present inconveniences and looking through the cloud unto those great felicities and graces and consignations to glory which are the effects of the Cross Knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed that was the incentive of S. Paul's joy And therefore as it may consist with any degree of Mortification to pray for the taking away of the Cross upon condition it may consist with God's glory and our ghostly profit so it is properly an act of this vertue to pray for the Cross or to meet it if we understand it may be for the interest of the spirit And thus S. Basil prayed to God to remove his violent pains of Head-ach but when God heard him and took away his pain and Lust came in the place of it he prayed to God to restore him his Head-ach again that cross was gain and joy when the removal of it was so full of danger and temptation And this the Masters of spiritual life call being crucified with Christ because as Christ chose the death and desired it by the appetites of the spirit though his flesh smarted under it and groaned and died with the burthen so do all that are thus mortified they place misfortunes and sadnesses amongst things eligible and set them before the eyes of their desire although the flesh and the desires of sense are factious and bold against such sufferings 10. Of these three degrees of interiour or spiritual Mortification the first is Duty the second is Counsel and the third is Perfection We sin if we have not the first we are in danger without the second but without the third we cannot be perfect as our heavenly Father is but shall have more of humane infirmities to be ashamed of than can be excused by the accrescencies and condition of our nature The first is only of absolute necessity the second is prudent and of greatest convenience but the third is excellent and perfect And it was the consideration of a wise man that the Saints in Heaven who understand the excellent glories and vast differences of state and capacities amongst beatified persons although they have no envy nor sorrows yet if they were upon earth with the same notion and apprehensions they have in Heaven would not for all the world lose any degree of Glory but mortifie to the greatest 〈◊〉 that their Glory may be a derivation of the greatest ray of light every degree being of compensation glorious and disproportionably beyond the inconsiderable troubles of the greatest Self-denial God's purpose is that we abstain from sin there is no more in the Commandment and therefore we must deny our selves so as not to admit a sin under pain of a certain and eternal curse but the other degrees of Mortification are by accident so many degrees of Vertue not being enjoyned or counselled for themselves but for the preventing of crimes and for securities of good life and therefore are parts and offices of Christian prudence which whosoever shall positively reject is neither much in love with Vertue nor careful of his own safety 11. Secondly But Mortification hath also some designs upon the Body For the Body is the Shop and Forge of the Soul in which all her designs which are transient upon external objects are framed and it is a good servant as long as it is kept in obedience and under discipline but he that breeds his servant delicately will find him contumacious and troublesome bold and confident as his son and therefore S. Paul's practice as himself gives account of it was to keep his body under and bring it into subjection lest he should become a 〈◊〉 away for the desires of the Body are in the same things in which themselves are satisfied so many injuries to the Soul because upon every one of the appetites a restraint is made and a law placed sor Sentinel that if we transgress the bounds fixt by the divine 〈◊〉 it becomes a sin now it is hard for us to keep them within compass because they are little more than agents merely natural and therefore cannot interrupt their act but covet and desire as much as they can without suspension or coercion but what comes from without which is therefore the more troublesome because all such restraints are against nature and without sensual pleasure And therefore this is that that S. Paul said When we were in the flesh the 〈◊〉 of sin which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto Death For these pleasures of the body draw us as loadstones draw iron not for love but for prey and nutriment it feeds upon the iron as the bodily pleasures upon the life of the spirit which is lessened and impaired according as the gusts of the flesh grow high and sapid 12. He that seeds a Lion must obey him unless he make his den to be his prison Our Lusts are as wild and as cruel Beasts and unless they feel the load of fetters and of Laws will grow unruly and troublesome and increase upon us as we give them food and satisfaction He that is used to drink high Wines is sick if he hath not his proportion to what degree soever his custom hath brought his appetite and to some men Temperance becomes certain death because the inordination of their desires hath introduced a custom and custom hath increased those appetites and made them almost natural in their degree but he that hath been used to hard diet and the pure stream his 〈◊〉 are much within the limits of Temperance and his desires as moderate as his diet S. Jerom affirms that to be continent in the state of Widowhood is barder than to keep our Firgin pure and there is reason that then the Appetite should be harder to be restrained when it hath not been accustomed to be denied but satisfied in its freer solicitations When a fontinel is once opened all the symbolical humours run thither and issue out and it is not to be stopped without danger unless the humour be purged or diverted So is the satisfaction of an impure desire it opens the issue and makes way for the emanation of all impurity and unless the desire be mortified
ages that is washed off quickly in the Holy Font and an eternal debt paid in an instant For so sure as the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea so sure are our Sins washed in this Holy floud for this is a Red Sea too these waters signifie the bloud of Christ These are they that have washed their Robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lamb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bloud of Christ cleanseth us the Water cleanseth us the Spirit purifies us the Bloud by the Spirit the Spirit by the Water all in Baptism and in pursuance of that Baptismal state These three are they that bear record in Earth the Spirit the Water and the Bloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these three agree in one or are to one purpose they agree in Baptism and in the whole pursuance of the assistances which a Christian needs all the days of his life And therefore S. Cyrill calls Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Antitype of the Passions of Christ it does preconsign the death of Christ and does the infancy of the work of Grace but not weakly it brings from death to life and though it brings us but to the birth in the New life yet that is a greater change than is in all the periods of our growth to manhood to a perfect man in Christ Jesus 18. Fifthly Baptism does not only pardon our sins but puts us into a state of Pardon for the time to come For Baptism is the beginning of the New life and an admission of us into the Evangelical Covenant which on our parts consists in a sincere and timely endeavour to glorifie God by Faith and Obedience and on God's part he will pardon what is past assist us for the future and not measure us by grains and scruples or exact our duties by the measure of an Angel but by the span of a man's hand So that by Baptism we are consigned to the mercies of God and the Graces of the Gospel that is that our Pardon be continued and our Piety be a state of Repentance And therefore that Baptism which in the Nicene Creed we 〈◊〉 to be for the remission of sins is called in the Jerusalem 〈◊〉 The Baptism of Repentance that is it is the entrance of a new life the gate to a perpetual change and reformation all the way continuing our title to and hopes of forgiveness of sins And this excellency is clearly recorded by S. Paul The kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man hath appeared Not by works of righteousness which we have done that 's the formality of the Gospel-Covenant not to be exacted by the strict measures of the Law but according to his mercy he saved us that is by gentleness and remissions by pitying and pardoning us by relieving and supporting us because he remembers that we are but dust and all this mercy we are admitted to and is conveyed to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the laver of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost And this plain evident Doctrine was observed explicated and urged against the Messalians who said that Baptism was like a razor that cuts away all the sins that were past or presently adhering but not the sins of our future life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Sacrament promises more and greater things It is the earnest of future good things the type of the Resurrection the communication of the Lord's Passion the partaking of his Resurrection the robe of Righteousness the garment of Gladness the vestment of Light or rather Light it self And for this reason it is that Baptism is not to be repeated because it does at once all that it can do at an hundred times for it admits us to the condition of Repentance and Evangelical mercy to a state of Pardon for our infirmities and sins which we timely and effectually leave and this is a thing that can be done but once as a man can begin but once he that hath once entred in at this gate of Life is always in possibility of Pardon if he be in a possibility of working and doing after the manner of a man that which he hath promised to the Son of God And this was expresly delivered and observed by S. Austin That which the Apostle says Cleansing him with the washing of water in the word is to be understood that in the same Laver of Regeneration and word of Sanctification all the evils of the regenerate are cleansed and healed not only the sins that are past which are all now remitted in Baptism but also those that are contracted afterwards by humane ignorance and infirmity not that Baptism be repeated as often as we sin but because by this which is once administred is brought to pass that pardon of all sins not only of those that are past but also those which will be committed afterwards is obtained The Messalians denied this and it was part of their Heresie in the undervaluing of Baptism and for it they are most excellently confuted by Isidore Pelusiot in his third Book 195 Epistle to the Count Hermin whither I refer the Reader 19. In proportion to this Doctrine it is that the Holy Scripture calls upon us to live a holy life in pursuance of this grace of Baptism And S. Paul recalls the lapsed Galatians to their Covenant and the grace of God stipulated in Baptism Ye are all children of God by faith in Jesus Christ that is heirs of the promise and Abraham's seed that promise which cannot be disannulled encreased or diminished but is the same to us as it was to Abraham the same before the Law and after Therefore do not you hope to be 〈◊〉 by the Law for you are entred into the Covenant of Faith and are to be justified thereby This is all your hope by this you must stand for ever or you cannot stand at all but by this you may for you are God's children by Faith that is not by the Law or the Covenant of Works And that you may remember whence you are going and return again he proves that they are the Children of God by 〈◊〉 in Jesus Christ because they have been baptized into Christ and so put on Christ. This makes you Children and such as are to be saved by Faith that is a Covenant not of Works but of Pardon in Jesus Christ the Author and Establisher of this Covenant For this is the Covenant made in Baptism that being justified by his grace we shall be heirs of life eternal for by grace that is by favour remission and forgiveness in Jesus Christ ye are saved This is the only way that we have of being justified and this must remain as long as we are in hopes of Heaven for besides this we have no hopes and all this is stipulated and consigned in Baptism and is of force after our 〈◊〉 into sin and risings again In
sayings of the Apostle of putting on Christ in Baptism putting on the new man c. for these only signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the design on God's part and the endeavour and duty on Man's we are then consigned to our Duty and to our Reward we undertake one and have a title to the other And though men of ripeness and Reason enter instantly into their portion of Work and have present use of the assistances and something of their Reward in hand yet we cannot conclude that those that cannot do it 〈◊〉 are not baptized rightly because they are not in capacity to put on the New man in Righteousness that is in an actual holy life for they may put on the New man in Baptism just as they are risen with Christ which because it may be done by Faith before it is done in real event and it may be done by Sacrament and design before it be done by a proper Faith so also may our putting on the New man be it is done sacramentally and that part which is wholly the work of God does only antedate the work of man which is to succeed in its due time and is after the 〈◊〉 of preventing grace But this is by the bye In order to the present Article Baptism is by 〈◊〉 called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a participation of the Lord's Resurrection 25. Fifthly and lastly By Baptism we are saved that is we are brought from death to life 〈◊〉 and that is the first Resurrection and we are brought from death to life hereafter by virtue of the Covenant of the state of Grace into which in Baptism we enter and are preserved from the second Death and receive a glorious and an eternal life He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved said our Blessed Saviour and According to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renowing of the Holy Ghost 26. After these great Blessings so plainly testified in Scripture and the Doctrine of the Primitive Church which are regularly consigned and bestowed in Baptism I shall less need to descend to temporal Blessings or rare contingencies or miraculous events or probable notices of things less certain Of this nature are those Stories recorded in the Writings of the Church that Constantine was cured of a Leprosie in Baptism Theodosius recovered of his disease being baptized by the Bishop of Thessalonica and a paralytick Jew was cured as soon as he became a Christian and was baptized by Atticus of CP and Bishop Arnulph baptizing a Leper also cured him said Vincentius Bellovacensis It is more considerable which is generally and piously believed by very many eminent persons in the Church that at our Baptism God assigns an Angel-Guardian for then the Catechumen being made a Servant and a Brother to the Lord of Angels is sure not to want the aids of them who pitch their tents round about them that fear the Lord and that this guard and ministery is then appointed when themselves are admitted into the inheritance of the Promises and their title to Salvation is hugely agreeable to the words of S. Paul Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of Salvation where it appears that the title to the inheritance is the title to this ministery and therefore must begin and end together But I insist not on this though it seems to me hugely probable All these Blessings put into one Syllabus have given to Baptism many honourable appellatives in Scripture and other Divine Writers calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacramentum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 salutis A New birth a Regeneration a Renovation a Chariot carrying us to God the great Circumcision a Circumcision made without hands the Key of the Kingdom the Paranymph of the Kingdom the Earnest of our inheritance the Answer of a good Conscience the Robe of light the Sacrament of a new life and of eternal Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is celestial water springing from the sides of the Rock upon which the Church was built when the Rock was smitten with the Rod of God 27. It remains now that we enquire what concerns our Duty and in what persons or in what dispositions Baptism produces all these glorious effects for the Sacraments of the Church work in the virtue of Christ but yet only upon such as are servants of Christ and hinder not the work of the Spirit of Grace For the water of the Font and the Spirit of the Sacrament are indeed to wash away our Sins and to purifie our Souls but not unless we have a mind to be purified The Sacrament works pardon for them that hate their sin and procures Grace for them that love it They that are guilty of sins must repent of them and renounce them and they must make a profession of the Faith of Christ and give or be given up to the obedience of Christ and then they are rightly disposed He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved saith Christ and S. Peter call'd out to the whole assembly Repent and be baptized every one of you Concerning this Justin Martyr gives the same account of the Faith and practice of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whosoever are perswaded and believe those things to be true which are delivered and spoken by us and undertake to live accordingly they are commanded to fast and pray and to ask of God remission for their former sins we also praying together with them and fasting Then they are brought to us where water is and are regenerated in the same manner of Regeneration by which we our selves are regenerated For in Baptism S. Peter observes there are two parts the Body and the Spirit that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the putting away the 〈◊〉 of the flesh that is the material washing and this is Baptism no otherwise than a dead corps is a man the other is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the answer of a good conscience towards God that is the conversion of the Soul to God that 's the effective disposition in which Baptism does save us And in the same sence are those sayings of the Primitive Doctors to be understood Anima non lavatione sed 〈◊〉 sancitur The Soul is not healed by washing viz. alone but by the answer the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Peter the correspondent of our part of the Covenant sor that 's the perfect 〈◊〉 of this unusual expression And the effect is attributed to this and denied to the other when they are distinguished So Justin Martyr affirms The only Baptism that can heal us is Kepentance and the knowledge of God For what need is there of that Baptism that can only 〈◊〉 the flesh and the body Be washed in your flesh from wrath and 〈◊〉 from envy and hatred and behold the body is pure And Clemens Alexandrinus upon that Proverbial saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
to relinquish the paths of darkness this is the way of the Kingdom and the purpose of the Gospel and the proper work of Faith 6. And if we consider upon what stock Faith it self is instrumental and operative of Salvation we shall find it is in it self acceptable because it is a Duty and commanded and therefore it is an act of Obedience a work of the Gospel a submitting the Understanding a denying the Affections a laying aside all interests and a bringing our thoughts under the obedience of Christ. This the Apostle calls the Obedience of Faith And it is of the same condition and constitution with other Graces all which equally relate to Christ and are as firm instruments of union and are washed by the bloud of Christ and are sanctified by his Death and apprehend him in their capacity and degrees some higher and some not so high but Hope and Charity apprehend Christ in a measure and proportion greater than Faith when it distinguishes from them So that if Faith does the work of Justification as it is a mere relation to Christ 〈◊〉 so also does Hope and Charity or if these are Duties and good works so also is Faith and they all being alike commanded in order to the same end and encouraged by the same reward are also accepted upon the same stock which is that they are acts of Obedience and relation too they obey Christ and lay hold upon Christ's merits and are but several instances of the great duty of a Christian but the actions of several faculties of the 〈◊〉 Creature But 〈◊〉 Faith is the beginning Grace and hath insluence and causality in the production of the other 〈◊〉 all the other as they are united in Duty are also united in their Title and appellative they are all called by the name of Faith because they are parts of Faith as Faith is taken in the larger sence and when it is taken in the strictest and distinguishing sence they are 〈◊〉 and proper products by way of natural emanation 7. That a good life is the genuine and true-born issue of Faith no man questions that knows himself the Disciple of the Holy Jesus but that Obedience is the same thing with Faith and that all Christian Graces are parts of its bulk and constitution is also the doctrine of the Holy Ghost and the Grammar of Scripture making Faith and Obedience to be terms coincident and expressive of each other For Faith is not a single Star but a Constellation a chain of Graces called by S. Paul the power of God unto salvation to every believer that is Faith is all that great instrument by which God intends to bring us to Heaven and he gives this reason In the Gospel the 〈◊〉 cousness of God is revealed from faith to faith for it is written The 〈◊〉 shall live by Faith Which discourse makes Faith to be a course of Sanctity and holy 〈◊〉 a continuation of a Christian's duty such a duty as not only gives the first breath but by which a man lives the life of Grace The just shall live by Faith that is such a Faith as grows from step to step till the whole righteousness of God be fulfilled in it From faith to faith saith the Apostle which S. 〈◊〉 expounds From Faith believing to Faith obeying from imperfect Faith to Faith made perfect by the animation of Charity that he who is justified may be justified still For as there are several degrees and parts of Justification so there are several degrees of Faith answerable to it that in all sences it may be true that by Faith we are justified and by Faith we live and by Faith we are saved For if we proceed from Faith to Faith from believing to obeying from Faith in the Understanding to Faith in the Will from Faith barely assenting to the revelations of God to Faith obeying the Commandments of God from the body of Faith to the soul of Faith that is to Faith sormed and made alive by Charity then we shall proceed from Justification to Justification that is from Remission of Sins to become the Sons of God and at last to an actual possession of those glories to which we were here consigned by the fruits of the Holy Ghost 8. And in this sence the Holy Jesus is called by the Apostle the Author and 〈◊〉 of our Faith he is the principle and he is the promoter he begins our Faith in Revelations and perfects it in Commandments he leads us by the assent of our Understanding and finishes the work of his grace by a holy life which S. Paul there expresses by its several constituent parts as laying aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us and running with patience the race that is set before us resisting unto bloud striving against sin for in these things Jesus is therefore made our example because he is the Author and Finisher of our Faith without these Faith is imperfect But the thing is something plainer yet for S. James says that Faith lives not but by Charity and the life or essence of a thing is certainly the better part of its constitution as the Soul is to a Man And if we mark the manner of his probation it will come home to the main point For he proves that Abraham's saith was therefore imputed to him for Righteousness because he was justified by Works Was not Abraham our Father justified by Works when he offered up his son And the Scripture was fulfilled saying Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness For Faith wrought with his Works and made his Faith perfect It was a dead and an imperfect Faith unless Obedience gave it being and all its integral or essential parts So that Faith and Charity in the sence of a Christian are but one duty as the Understanding and the Will are but one reasonable Soul only they produce several actions in order to one another which are but divers 〈◊〉 and the same spirit 9. Thus S. Paul describing the Faith of the Thessalonians calls it that whereby they turned from Idols and whereby they served the living God and the Faith of the Patriarchs believed the world's Creation received the Promises did Miracles wrought Rightcousness and did and suffered so many things as make up the integrity of a holy life And therefore disobedience and unrighteousness is called want of Faith and Heresie which is opposed to Faith is a work of the flesh because Faith it self is a work of Righteousness And that I may enumerate no more particulars the thing is so known that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in propriety of language signifies 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 is rendred disobedience and the not providing for our families is an act of 〈◊〉 by the same reason and analogy that 〈◊〉 or Charity and a holy life are the duties of a Christian of a justifying
with an issue of bloud twelve years without hope of remedy from art or nature and therefore she runs to Jesus thinking without precedent upon the confident perswasions of a holy Faith that if she did but touch the hem of his garment she should be whole She came trembling and full of hope and reverence and touched his garment and immediately the 〈◊〉 of her unnatural emanation was stopped and reverted to its natural course and offices S. Ambrose says that this woman was Martha But it is not likely that she was a Jewess but a Gentile because of that return which she made in memory of her cure and honour of Jesus according to the Gentile rites For Eusebius reports that himself saw at Caesarea Philippi a Statue of 〈◊〉 representing a woman kneeling at the feet of a goodly personage who held his hand out to her in a posture of granting her request and doing favour to her and the inhabitants said it was erected by the care and cost of this woman adding whether out of truth or easiness is not certain that at the pedestal of this Statue an usual plant did grow which when it was come up to that maturity and height as to arrive at the fringes of the brass monument it was medicinal in many dangerous diseases So far Eusebius Concerning which story I shall make no censure but this that since S. Mark and S. Luke affirm that this woman before her cure had spent all her substance upon Physicians it is not easily imaginable how she should become able to dispend so great a summ of money as would purchase two so great Statues of brass and if she could yet it is still more unlikely that the Gentile Princes and Proconsuls who searched all places publick and private and were curiously diligent to destroy all honorary monuments of Christianity should let this alone and that this should escape not only the diligence of the Persecutors but the fury of such Wars and changes as happened in Palestine and that for three hundred years together it should stand up in defiance of all violences and changeable fate of all things However it be it is certain that the Book against Images published by the command of Charles the Great 850 years ago gave no credit to the story and if it had been true it it more than probable that Justin Martyr who was born and bred in Palestine and Origen who lived many years in Tyre in the neighbourhood of the place where the Statue is said to stand and were highly diligent to heap together all things of advantage and reputation to the Christian cause would not have omitted so notable an instance It is therefore likely that the Statues which Eusebius saw and concerning which he heard such stories were first placed there upon the stock of a heathen story or Ceremony and in process of time for the likeness of the figures and its capacity to be translated to the Christian story was by the Christians in after-Ages attributed by a fiction of fancy and afterwards by credulity confidently applied to the present Narrative 21. When Jesus was come to the Ruler's house he found the minstrels making their funeral noises for the death of Jairus's daughter and his servants had met him and acquainted him of the death of the child yet Jesus turned out the minstrels and entred with the parents of the child into her chamber and taking her by the hand called her and awakened her from her sleep of death and commanded them to give her to eat and enjoyned them not to publish the Miracle But as 〈◊〉 suppressed by violent detentions break out and rage with a more impetuous and rapid motion so it happened to Jesus who endeavouring to make the noises and reports of him less popular made them to be 〈◊〉 for not only we do that most greedily from which we are most restrained but a great merit enamell'd with humility and restrained with modesty grows more beautious and florid up to the heights of wonder and glories 22. As he came from Jairus's house he cured two blind men upon their petition and confession that they did believe in him and cast out a dumb Devil so much to the wonder and amazement of the people that the Pharisees could hold no longer being ready to burst with envy but said he cast out Devils by help of the Devils Their malice being as usually it is contradictory to its own design by its being unreasonable nothing being more sottish than for the Devil to divide his kingdom upon a plot to ruine his certainties upon hopes future and contingent But this was but the first eruption of their malice all the year last past which was the first year of Jesus's Preaching all was quiet neither the Jews nor the Samaritans nor the Galileans did malign his Doctrine or Person but he preached with much peace on all hands for this was the year which the Prophet Isaiah called in his prediction the acceptable year of the Lord. Ad SECT XII Considerations upon the Entercourse happening between the Holy Jesus and the Woman of Samaria The Woman of Samaria Iohn 4 7. There cemeth a woman of Samaria to draw water Iesus saith unto her giue me to drink 9. Then saith the Woman of Samaria unto him How is it that thou being a Iew askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria The great draught of Fishes Luk. 5. 4. 5. etc. He said unto Simon Let down your nets for a draught And they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and when Simon Peter saw it he fell down att Jesus knees for he was astonished all that were with him at the draught of the fishes And Jesus said to Simon Fear not from henceforth thou shalt catch men 1. WHen the Holy Jesus perceiving it unsafe to be at Jerusálem returned to Galilee where the largest scene of his Prophetical Office was to be represented he journeyed on foot through Samaria and being weary and faint hungry and thirsty he sate down by a Well and begged water of a Samaritan woman that was a Sinner who at first refused him with some incivility of language But he in stead of returning anger and passion to her rudeness which was commenced upon the interest of a mistaken Religion preached the coming of the Messias to her unlock'd the secrets of her heart and let in his Grace and made a fountain of living water to spring up in her Soul to extinguish the impure flames of Lust which had set her on fire burning like Hell ever since the death of her fifth Husband she then becoming a Concubine to the sixth Thus Jesus transplanted Nature into Grace his hunger and thirst into religious appetites the darkness of the Samaritan into a clear revelation her Sin into Repentance and Charity and so quenched his own thirst by relieving her needs and as it was meat to him to do his Father's will so it was drink to
her in the midst of her journey Against this David prayed O my God cut me 〈◊〉 off in the midst of my days But in this there is some variety For God does it sometimes in mercy sometimes in judgment The righteous die and no man regardeth not considering that they are taken away from the evil to come God takes the righteous man hastily to his Crown lest temptation snatch it from him by interrupting his hopes and sanctity And this was the case of the old World For from Adam to the Floud by the Patriarchs were eleven generations but by Cain's line there were but eight so that Cain's posterity were longer liv'd because God intending to bring the Floud upon the World took delight to rescue his elect from the dangers of the present impurity and the future Deluge Abraham lived five years less than his son Isaac it being say the Doctors of the Jews intended for mercy to him that he might not see the iniquity of his Grandchild 〈◊〉 And this the Church for many Ages hath believed in the case of baptized Infants dying before the use of Reason For besides other causes in the order of Divine Providence one kind of mercy is done to them too for although their condition be of a lower form yet it is secured by that timely shall I call it or untimely death But these are cases extraregular ordinarily and by rule God hath revealed his purposes of interruption of the lives of sinners to be in anger and judgment for when men commit any signal and grand impiety God suffers not Nature to take her course but strikes a stroke with his own hand To which purpose I think it a remarkable instance which is reported by 〈◊〉 that for 3332 years even to the twentieth Age there was not one example of a Son that died before his Father but the course of Nature was kept that he who was first born in the descending line did die first I speak of natural death and therefore Abel cannot be opposed to this observation till that Terah the father of Abraham taught the People to make Images of clay and worship them and concerning him it was first remarked that Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity God by an unheard-of Judgment and a rare accident punishing his newly-invented crime And when-ever such 〈◊〉 of a life happens to a vicious person let all the world acknowledge it for a Judgment and when any man is guilty of evil habits or unrepented sins he may therefore expect it because it is threatned and designed for the lot and curse of such persons This is threatned to Covetousness Injustice and Oppression As a Partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his days and at his end shall be a Fool. The same is threatned to Voluptuous persons in the highest caresses of delight and Christ told a parable with the same design The rich man said Soul take thy ease but God answered O fool this night shall thy Soul be required of thee Zimri and Cozbi were slain in the trophies of their Lust and it was a sad story which was told by Thomas Cantipratanus Two Religious persons tempted by each other in the vigour of their youth in their very first pleasures and opportunities of sin were both struck dead in their embraces and posture of entertainment God smote Jeroboam for his Usurpation and Tyranny and he died Saul died for Disobedience against God and asking counsel of a Pythonisse God smote 〈◊〉 with a Leprosie for his profaneness and distressed 〈◊〉 sorely for his Sacrilege and sent a horrid disease upon Jehoram for his Idolatry These instances represent Voluptuousness and Covetousness Rapine and Injustice Idolatry and Lust Profaneness and Sacrilege as remarked by the signature of exemplary Judgments to be the means of shortening the days of man God himself proving the Executioner of his own fierce wrath I instance no more but in the singular case of Hananiah the false Prophet Thus saith the LORD Behold I will cut thee from off the face of the earth this year thou shalt die because thou hast taught Rebellion against the LORD That is the curse and portion of a false Prophet a short life and a suddén death of God's own particular and more immediate 〈◊〉 23. And thus also the sentence of the Divine anger went forth upon criminal persons in the New Testament Witness the Disease of Herod Judas's Hanging himself the Blindness of 〈◊〉 the Sudden death of Ananias and Sapphira the Buffetings with which Satan 〈◊〉 the bodies of persons excommunicate Yea the blessed Sacrament of CHRIST's Body and Bloud which is intended for our spiritual life if it be unworthily received proves the cause of a natural death For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many are fallen asleep saith S. Paul to the 〈◊〉 Church 24. Thirdly But there is yet another manner of ending man's life by way of Chance or Contingency meaning thereby the manner of God's Providence and event of things which is not produced by the disposition of natural causes nor yet by any particular and special act of God but the event which depends upon accidental causes not so certain and regular as Nature not so conclusive and determined as the acts of decretory Providence but comes by disposition of causes irregular to events rare and accidental This David expresses by entring into battel and in this as in the other we must separate cases extraordinary and rare from the ordinary and common Extraregularly and upon extraordinary reasons and permissions we find that holy persons have miscarried in battel So the 〈◊〉 fell before Benjamin and Jonathan and 〈◊〉 and many of the Lord's champions fighting against the Philistines but in these deaths as God served other ends of Providence so he kept to the good men that fell all the mercies of the Promise by giving them a greater blessing of event and compensation In the more ordinary course of Divine dispensation they that prevaricate the Laws of God are put out of protection God withdraws his special Providence or their tutelar Angel and leaves them exposed to the influences of Heaven to the power of a Constellation to the accidents of humanity to the chances of a Battel which are so many and various that it is ten thousand to one a man in that case never escapes and in such variety of contingencies there is no probable way to assure our safety but by a holy life to endear the Providence of God to be our Guardian It was a remarkable saying of Deborah The Stars sought in their courses 〈◊〉 in their orbs against Sisera Sisera fought when there was an evil Aspect or malignant influence of Heaven upon him For even the smallest thing that is in opposition to us is enough to turn the
hand or foot or extinguish the offending eye rather than upon the support of a troublesome soot and by the light of an offending eye walk into ruine and a sad eternity where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched And so Jesus ended this chain of excellent Discourses 18. About this time was the Jews Feast of Tabernacles whither Jesus went up as it were in secret and passing through Samaria he found the inhabitants of a little village so inhospitable as to refuse to give him entertainment which so provoked the intemperate zeal of James and John that they would fain have called for fire to consume them even as Elias did But Jesus rebuked the furies of their anger teaching them to distinguish the spirit of Christianity from the ungentleness of the decretory zeal of Elias For since the Son of man came with a purpose to seek and save what was lost it was but an indiscreet temerity suddenly upon the lightest umbrages of displeasure to destroy a man whose redemption cost the effusion of the dearest bloud from the heart of Jesus But contrariwise Jesus does a Miracle upon the ten Leprous persons which came to him from the neighbourhood crying out with sad exclamations for help But Jesus sent them to the Priest to offer for their cleansing Thither they went and but one only returned to give thanks and he a stranger who with a loud voice glorified God and with humble adoration worshipped and gave thanks to Jesus 19. When Jesus had finished his journey and was now come to Jerusalem for the first days he was undiscerned in publick conventions but heard of the various opinions of men concerning him some saying he was a good man others that he 〈◊〉 the people and the Pharisees sought for him to do him a mischief But when they despaired of finding him in the midst of the Feast and the people he made Sermons openly in the midst of the Temple whom when he had convinced by the variety and divinity of his Miracles and Discourses they gave the greatest testimony in the world of humane weakness and how prevalent a prejudice is above the confidence and conviction of a demonstration For a proverb a mistake an error in matter of circumstance did in their understandings outweigh multitudes of Miracles and arguments and because Christ was of Galilee because they knew whence he was because of the Proverb that 〈◊〉 of Galilee comes no Prophet because the Rulers did not believe in him these outweighed the demonstrations of his mercy and his power and Divinity But yet very many believed on him and no man durst lay hands to take him for as yet his time was not come in which he meant to give himself up to the power of the Jews and therefore when the Pharisees sent Officers to seise him they also became his Disciples being themselves surprised by the excellency of his Doctrine 20. After this Jesus went to the mount of Olivet on the East of Jerusalem and the next day returned again into the Temple where the Scribes and Pharisees brought him a woman taken in the act of Adultery tempting him to give sentence that they might accuse him of severity or intermedling if he condemned her or of remisness and popularity if he did acquit her But Jesus found out an expedient for their difficulty and changed the Scene by bidding the innocent person among them cast the first stone at the Adulteress and then stooping down to give them fair occasion to withdraw he wrote upon the ground with his finger whilest they left the woman and her crime to a more private censure Jesus was left alone and the woman in the midst whom Jesus dismissed charging her to sin no more And a while after Jesus begins again to discourse to them of his Mission from the Father of his Crucifixion and exaltation from the earth of the reward of Believers of the excellency of Truth of spiritual Liberty and Relations who are the sons of Abraham and who the children of the Devil of his own eternal generation of the desire of Abraham to see his day In which Sermon he continued adding still new excellencies and confuting their malicious and vainer calumnies till they that they also might 〈◊〉 him took up stones to cast at him but he went out of the Temple going through the midst of them and so passed by 21. But in his passage he met a man who had been born blind and after he had discoursed cursorily of the cause of that Blindness it being a misery not sent as a punishment to his own or his parents sin but as an occasion to make publick the glory of God he to manifest that himself was the light of the World in all sences said it now and proved it by a Miracle for sitting down he made clay of spittle and anointing the eyes of the blind man bid him go wash in Siloam which was a Pool of limpid water which God sent at the Prayer of Isaiah the Prophet a little before his death to satisfie the necessities of his people oppressed with thirst and a strict siege and it stood at the foot of the mount Sion and gave its water at first by returns and periods always to the Jews but not to the enemies And those intermitted springings were still continued but only a Pool was made from the frequent effluxes The blind man went and washed and returned seeing and was incessantly vexed by the Pharisees to tell them the manner and circumstances of the cure and when the man had averred the truth and named his Physician giving him a pious and charitable testimony the Pharisees because they could not force him to disavow his good opinion of Jesus cast him out of the 〈◊〉 But Jesus meeting him received him into the Church told him he was CHRIST and the man became again enlightned and he believed and worshipped But the Pharisees blasphemed for such was the dispensation of the Divine mysteries that the blind should see and they which think they see clearly should become blind because they had not the excuse of ignorance to lessen or take off the sin but in the midst of light they shut their eyes and doted upon darkness and therefore did their sin remain 22. But Jesus continued his Sermon among the Pharisees insinuating reprehensions in his dogmatical discourses which like light shined and discovered error For by discoursing the properties of a good Shepherd and the lawful way of intromission he proved them to be thieves and robbers because they refused to enter in by Jesus who is the door of the sheep and upon the same ground reproved all those false Christs which before him usurped the title of Messias and proved his own vocation and office by an argument which no other shepherd would use because he laid down his life for his sheep others would take the fleece and eat the flesh but none but himself would die for his sheep but he would first
a great calamity within a little while after the Spirit of God had sent them two Epistles by the ministery of S. Paul their Cities were buried in an Earthquake and yet we have reason to think they were Churches beloved of God and Congregations of holy People The PRAYER OEternal and powerful God thou just and righteous Governour of the world who callest all orders of men by Precepts Promises and Threatnings by Mercies and by Judgments teach us to admire and adore all the Wisdome the effects and infinite varieties of thy Providence and make us to dispose our selves so by Obedience by Repentance by all the manners of Holy living that we may never provoke thee to jealousie much less to wrath and indignation against us Keep far from us the Sword of the destroying Angel and let us never perish in the publick expresses of thy wrath in diseases Epidemical with the furies of War with calamitous sudden and horrid Accidents with unusual Diseases unless that our so strange fall be more for thy glory and our eternal benefit and then thy will be done We beg thy grace that we may chearfully conform to thy holy will and pleasure Lord open our understandings that we may know the meaning of thy voice and the signification of thy language when thou speakest 〈◊〉 Heaven in signs and Judgments and let a holy fear so soften our spirits and an intense love so 〈◊〉 and sanctifie our desires that we may apprehend every intimation of thy pleasure at its first and remotest and most obscure representment that so we may with Repentance go out to meet thee and prevent the expresses of thine anger Let thy restraining grace and the observation of the issues of thy Justice so allay our spirits that we be not severe and forward in condemning others nor backward in passing sentence upon our selves Make us to obey thy voice described in holy Scripture to tremble at thy voice expressed in wonders and great effects of Providence to condemn none but our selves nor to enter into the recesses of thy Sanctuary and search the forbidden records of Predestination but that we may read our duty in the pages of Revelation not in the labels of accidental effects that thy Judgments may confirm thy Word and thy Word teach us our Duty and we by such excellent instruments may enter in and grow up in the ways of Godliness through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen SECT XV. Of the Accidents happening from the Death of Lazarus untill the Death and Burial of JESVS Bartimeus healed of blindnesse Mark 10. 46. And as he went out of Iericho with his Disciples and a great number of people blind Bartimeus sate by the high way begging 47. And when he heard that it was Iesus of Nazareth he began to cry out and say Iesus thou son of David have mercy on me Lazarus raysed from death Ioh. 11. 44. And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with gravecloths and his face was bound about with a napkin Iesus saith unto them Loose him and let him go 45. Then Many of the Iewes which came to Mary and had seen the things which Iesus did believed on him 1. VVHile Jesus was in Galilee messengers came to him from Martha and her Sister Mary that he would hasten into Judaea to Bethany to relieve the sickness and imminent dangers of their Brother Lazarus But he deferred his going till Lazarus was dead purposing to give a great probation of his Divinity Power and Mission by a glorious Miracle and to give God glory and to receive reflexions of the glory upon himself For after he had stayed two days he called his Disciples to go with him into Judaea telling them that Lazarus was dead but he would raise him out of that sleep of death But by that time Jesus was arrived at Bethany he found that Lazarus had been dead four days and now near to putrefaction But when Martha and Mary met him weeping their pious tears for their dead Brother Jesus suffered the passions of piety and humanity and wept distilling that precious liquor into the grave of Lazarus watering the dead plant that it might spring into a new life and raise his head above the ground 2. When Jesus had by his words of comfort and institution strengthened the Faith of the two mourning Sisters and commanded the stone to be removed from the grave he made an address of Adoration and Eucharist to his Father confessing his perpetual propensity to hear him and then cried out Lazarus come forth And he that was dead came forth from his bed of darkness with his night-cloaths on him whom when the Apostles had unloosed at the command of Jesus he went to Bethany and many that were present believed on him but others wondring and malicious went and told the Pharisees the story of the Miracle who upon that advice called their great Council whose great and solemn cognisance was of the greater causes of Prophets of Kings and of the holy Law At this great Assembly it was that Caiaphas the High Priest prophesied that it was expedient one should die for the people And thence they determined the death of Jesus But he knowing they had passed a decretory sentence against him retired to the City 〈◊〉 in the Tribe of Judah near the desart where he stayed a few days till the approximation of the Feast of Easter 3. Against which Feast when Jesus with his Disciples was going to Jerusalem he told them the event of the journey would be that the Jews should deliver him to the Gentiles that they should scourge him and mock him and crucifie him and the third day he should rise again After which discourse the Mother of 〈◊〉 's Children begg'd of Jesus for her two Sons that one of them might sit at his right hand the other at the left in his Kingdom For no discourses of his Passion or intimations of the mysteriousness of his Kingdom could yet put them into right understandings of their condition But Jesus whose heart and thoughts were full of phancy and apprehensions of the neighbour Passion gave them answer in proportion to his present conceptions and their future condition For if they desired the honours of his Kingdom such as they were they should have them unless themselves did decline them they should drink of his Cup and dip in his Lavatory and be washed with his baptism and sit in his Kingdom if the heavenly Father had prepared it for them but the donation of that immediately was an issue of Divine election and predestination and was only competent to them who by holy living and patient suffering put themselves into a disposition of becoming vessels of Election 4. But as Jesus in this journey came near Jericho he cures a blind man who sate begging by the way-side and espying Zaccheus the chief of the Publicans upon a tree that he being low of stature might upon that advantage of station see Jesus passing by he invited
When Israel came out of Egypt and ending at the 118 inclusively went forth with his Disciples over the brook 〈◊〉 unto the mount of Olives to a village called Gethsemani where there was a Garden into which he entred to pray together with his Disciples 20. But taking Peter James and John apart with him about a stone 's cast from the rest he began to be exceeding sorrowful and sad even unto death For now he 〈◊〉 the ingredients of his bitter Draught pouring into the Chalice and the sight was full of horror and amazement he therefore fell on his face and prayed O my Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me In this Prayer he fell into so sad an agony that the pains inflicted by his Father's wrath and made active by his own apprehension were so great that a sweat distilled from his sacred body as great and conglobated as drops of 〈◊〉 and God who heard his Prayer but would not answer him in kind sent an Angel to comfort him in the sadness which he was pleased not to take away But knowing that the drinking this Cup was the great end of his coming into the world he laid aside all his own interests and devested himself of the affections of flesh and bloud willing his Father's will and because his Father commanded he in desiance of sense and passion was desirous to suffer all our pains But as when two seas meet the billows 〈◊〉 in ungentle embraces and make violent noises till having wearied themselves into smaller waves and disunited drops they run quietly into one stream so did the spirit and nature of Jesus assault each other with disagreeing interests and distinguishing disputations till the earnestness of the contention was diminished by the demonstrations of the spirit and the prevailings of Grace which the sooner got the victory because they were not to contest with an unsanctified or a rebellious nature but a body of affections which had no strong desires but of its own preservation and therefore Jesus went thrice and prayed the same prayer that if it were 〈◊〉 the cup might pass from him and thrice made an act of resignation and in the intervals came and found his Apostles asleep gently chiding their incuriousness and warning them to watch and pray that they enter not into temptation till the time that the Traitor came with a multitude armed with swords and staves from the Priests and Elders of the people to apprehend him 21. Judas gave them the opportunity of the night that was all the advantage they had by him because they durst not seise him by day for fear of the people and he signified the person of his Master to the souldiers by a Kiss and an address of seeming civility But when they came towards him Jesus said Whom seek ye They said JESUS of Nazareth He said I am he But there was a Divinity upon him that they could not seise him at first But as a wave climbing of a Rock is beaten back and scattered into members till falling down it creeps with gentle waftings and kisses the feet of the stony mountain and so encirles it so the Souldiers coming at first with a rude attempt were twice repelled by the glory of his person till they falling at his feet were at last admitted to the seisure of his body having by those involuntary prostrations confessed his power greater than theirs and that the lustre and influence of a GOD are greater than the violences and rudenesses of Souldiers And still they like weak eyes durst not behold the glory of this Sun till a cloud like a dark veil did interrupt the emissions of his glories they could not seise upon him till they had thrown a veil upon his holy face which although it was a custom of the Easterlings and of the Roman Empire generally yet in this case was violence and necessity because a certain impetuosity and vigorousness of spirit and Divinity issuing from his holy Face made them to take sanctuary in darkness and to throw a veil over him in that dead time of a sad and dismal night But Peter a stout Galilean bold and zealous attempted a rescue and smote a servant of the High Priest and cut off his ear but Jesus rebuked the intemperance of his passion and commanded him to put up his sword saying all they that strike with the sword shall perish with the sword so putting a bridle upon the illegal inflictions and expresses of anger or revenge from an incompetent authority But Jesus touched Malchus's ear and cured it 22. When Jesus had yielded himself into their power and was now led away by the chief Priests Captains of the Temple Elders of the people and Souldiers who all came in combination and covenant to surprize him his Disciples fled and John the Evangelist who with grief and an over-running phancy had forgot to lay aside his upper garment which in Festivals they are used to put on began to make escape but being arrested by his linen upon his bare body was forced to leave that behind him that himself might escape his Master's danger for now was verified the prophetical saying I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered But Peter followed afar off and the greatness of John's love when he had mastered the first inconsiderations of his fear made him to return a while after into the High Priest's Hall 23. Jesus was first led to Annas who was the Prince of the Sanhedrim and had cognizance of Prophets and publick Doctrines who therefore enquired of Jesus concerning his Disciples and his Discipline but he answered that his Doctrine had been publick or popular that he never taught in Conventicles and therefore referred him to the testimony of all the people For which free answer a servant standing by smote him on the face and Jesus meekly asked him what evil he had done But Annas without the Seventy Assessors could judge nothing and therefore sent him bound to Caiaphas who was High Priest that year President of the Rites of the Temple as the other High Priest was of the great Council Thither Peter came and had admission by the means of another Disciple supposed to be John who having sold his possessions in Galilee to Caiaphas came and dwelt near mount Sion but was by intervention of that bargain made known to the High Priest and brought Peter into the house where when Peter was challenged three times by the servants to be a Galilean and of Jesus's family he denied and forswore it till Jesus looking back re-minded him of his prediction and the foulness of the crime and the cock crew for it was now the second cock-crowing after ten of the clock in the fourth Watch. And Peter went out and wept bitterly that he might cleanse his Soul washing off the foul stains he had contracted in his shameful Perjury and Denying of his Lord. And it is reported of the same holy person that ever
after when he heard the cock crow he wept remembring the old instrument of his Conversion and his own unworthiness for which he never ceased to do actions of sorrow and sharp Repentance 24. On the morning the Council was to assemble and whilest Jesus was detained in expectation of it the servants mocked him and did all actions of affront and ignoble despite to his Sacred head and because the question was whether he were a Prophet they covered his eyes and smote him in derision calling on him to prophesie who smote him But in the morning when the high Priests and rulers of the people were assembled they sought false witness against Jesus but found none to purpose they railed boldly and could prove nothing they accused vehemently and the allegations were of such things as were no crimes and the greatest article which the united diligence of all their malice could pretend was that he said he would destroy the Temple and in three days build it up again But Jesus neither answered this nor any other of their vainer allegations for the witnesses destroyed each others testimony by their disagreeing till at last Caiaphas who to verifie his Prophecy and to satisfie his Ambition and to bait his Envy was furiously determined Jesus should die adjures him by the living God to say whether he were the CHRIST the Son of the living God Jesus knew his design to be an inquisition of death not of Piety or curiosity yet because his hour was now come openly affirmed it without any expedient to elude the high Priest's malice or to decline the question 25. When Caiaphas heard the saying he accused Jesus of Blasphemy and pretended an apprehension so tragical that he over-acted his wonder and feigned 〈◊〉 for he rent his garments which was the interjection of the Countrey and custom of the Nation but forbidden to the High Priest and called presently to sentence and as it was agreed before-hand they all condemned him as guilty of death and as far as they had power inflicted it for they beat him with their fists smote him with the palms of their hands spit upon him and abused him beyond the licence of enraged 〈◊〉 When Judas heard that they had passed the final and decretory sentence of death upon his Lord he who thought not it would have gone so far repented him to have been an instrument of so damnable a machination and came and brought the silver which they gave him for hire threw it in amongst them and said I have sinned in betraying the innocent 〈◊〉 But they incurious of those Hell-torments Judas felt within him because their own fires burnt not yet dismissed him and upon consultation bought with the money a field to bury strangers in And Judas went and hanged himself and the Judgment was made more notorious and eminent by an unusual accident at such deaths for he so swelled that he burst and his bowels gushed out But the Greek Scholiast and some others report out of Papias S. John's Scholar that Judas fell from the Fig-tree on which he hanged before he was quite dead and survived his attempt some while being so sad a spectacle of deformity and pain and a prodigious tumour that his plague was deplorable and highly miserable till at last he burst in the very substance of his Trunk as being extended beyond the possibilities and capacities of nature 26. But the High Priests had given Jesus over to the secular power and carried him to Pilate to be put to death by his sentence and military power but coming thither they would not enter into the Judgment-hall because of the Feast but Pilate met them and willing to decline the business bid them judge him according to their own Law They replied it was not lawful for them to put any man to death meaning during the seven days of unlevened bread as appears in the instance of Herod who detained Peter in prison intending after Easter to bring him out to the people And their malice was restless till the Sentence they had passed were put in execution Others thinking that all the right of inflicting capital punishments was taken from the Nation by the Romans and Josephus writes that when Ananias their High Priest had by a Council of the Jews condemned S. James the Brother of our Lord and put him to death without the consent of the Roman President he was deprived of his Priesthood But because Pilate who either by common right or at that time was the Judge of capital inflictions was averse from intermedling in the condemnation of an innocent person they attempted him with excellent craft for knowing that Pilate was a great servant of the Roman Greatness and a hater of the Sect of the Galileans the High Priest accused Jesus that he was of that Sect that he denied paying tribute to 〈◊〉 that he called himself King Concerning which when Pilate interrogated Jesus he answered that his Kingdom was not of this world and Pilate thinking he had nothing to do with the other came forth again and gave testimony that he found nothing worthy of death in Jesus But hearing that he was a Galilean and of Herod's jurisdiction Pilate sent him to Herod who was at Jerusalem at the Feast And Herod was glad because he had heard much of him and since his return from Rome had desired to see him but could not by reason of his own avocations and the ambulatory life of Christ and now he hoped to see a Miracle done by him of whom he had heard so many But the event of this was that Jesus did there no Miracle Herod's souldiers set him at nought and mocked him And that day Herod was reconciled to Pilate And Jesus was sent back arrayed in a white and splendid garment which though possibly it might be intended for derision yet was a symbol of Innocence condemned persons usually being arrayed in blacks And when Pilate had again examined him Jesus meek as a lamb and as a sheep before the shearers opened not his mouth insomuch that Pilate wondred perceiving the greatest Innocence of the man by not offering to excuse or lessen any thing for though Pilate had power to release him or crucifie him yet his contempt of death was in just proportion to his Innocence which also Pilate concealed not but published Jesus's Innocence by Herod's and his own sentence to the great regret of the Rulers who like ravening wolves thirsted for a draught of bloud and to devour the morning prey 27. But Pilate hoped to prevail upon the Rulers by making it a favour from them to Jesus and an indulgence from him to the Nation to set him free for oftentimes even Malice it self is driven out by the Devil of Self-love and so we may be acknowledged the authors of a safety we are content to rescue a man even from our own selves Pilate therefore offered that according to the custom of the Nation Jesus should be released for the
honour of the present Festival and as a donative to the people But the spirit of Malice was here the more prevalent and they desired that Barabbas a Murtherer a Thief and a seditious person should be exchanged for him Then Pilate casting about all ways to acquit Jesus of punishment and himself of guilt offered to scourge him and let him go hoping that a lesser draught of bloud might stop the furies and rabidness of their passion without their bursting with a river of his best and vital liquor But these leeches would not so let go they cry out Crucifie him and to engage him finally they told him if he did let this man go he was no friend to Caesar. 28. But Pilate called for water and washed his hands to demonstrate his own unwillingness and to reject and transmit the guilt upon them who took it on them as greedily as they sucked the bloud they cried out His bloud be on us and our children As Pilate was going to give sentence his Wife being troubled in her dreams sent with the earnestness and passion of a woman that he should have nothing to do with that just Person but he was engaged Caesar and Jesus God and the King did seem to have different interests or at least he was threatned into that opinion and Pilate though he was satisfied it was but Calumny and Malice yet he was loth to venture upon his answer at Rome in case the High Priest should have accused him For no man knows whether the interest or the mistake of his Judge may cast the sentence and who-ever is accused strongly is never thought intirely innocent And therefore not only against the Divine Laws but against the Roman too he condemned an innocent person upon objections notoriously malicious he adjudged him to a death which was only due to publick Thieves and Homicides crimes with which he was not charg'd upon a pretence of Blasphemy of which he stood accused but not convicted and for which by the Jewish Law he should have been stoned if found guilty And this he did put into present execution against the Tiberian Law which about twelve years before decreed in favour of condemned persons that after sentence execution should be deferred ten days 29. And now was the Holy Lamb to bleed First therefore Pilate's souldiers array him in a kingly robe put a reed in his hand for a Sceptre plait a Crown of thorns and put it on his head they bow the knee and mock him they smite him with his phantastick Sceptre and in stead of tribute pay him with blows and spittings upon his holy head and when they had emptied the whole stock of poisonous contempt they devest him of the robes of mockery and put him on his own they lead him to a pillar and bind him fast and scourage him with whips a punishment that Slaves only did use to suffer free persons being in certain cases beaten with rods and clubs that they might add a new scorn to his afflictions and make his sorrows like their own guilt vast and mountainous After which Barabbas being set free Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified 30. The Souldiers therefore having framed a Cross sad and heavy laid it upon Jesus's shoulders who like Isaac bore the wood with which he was to be sacrificed himself and they drive him out to Crucifixion who was scarce able to stand under that load It is generally supposed that Jesus bore the whole Tree that is both the parts of his Cross but to him that considers it it will seem impossible and therefore it is more likely and agreeable to the old manner of crucifying malefactors that Jesus only carried the cross part the body of it being upon the place either already fixed or prepared for its station Even that lesser part was grievous and intolerable to his tender virginal and weakned body and when he fainted they compel Simon a Cyrenian to help him A great and a mixt multitude followed Jesus to Golgotha the 〈◊〉 house of the City and the place of Execution But the Women wept with bitter exclamations and their sadness was increased by the sad predictions Jesus then made of their future misery saying Ye daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your children For the time shall come that men shall say Blessed are the barren that never bare and the paps that never gave 〈◊〉 for they shall call on the hills to cover them and on the mountains to fall upon them that by a sudden ruine they may escape the lingring calamities of famine and fear and the horror of a thousand deaths 31. When Jesus was come to Golgotha a place in the mount of Calvary where according to the tradition of the Ancients Adam was buried and where Abraham made an Altar for the sacrifice of his Son by the piety of his Disciples and it is probable of those good women which did use to minister to him there was provided wine mingled with myrrh which among the Levantines is an excellent and pleasant mixture and such as the piety and indulgence of the nations used to administer to condemned persons But Jesus who by voluntary susception did chuse to suffer our pains refused that refreshment which the piety of the women presented to him The souldiers having stripp'd him nail'd him to the Cross with four nails and divided his Mantle into four parts giving to each souldier a part but for his Coat because it would be spoiled if parted it being weaved without seam they cast lots for it 32. Now Pilate had caused a title containing the cause of his death to be superscribed on a Table in Latine Greek and Hebrew the Hebrew being first the Greek next and the Latine nearest to the holy body but all written after the Jewish manner from the right hand to the left for so the Title is shewn in the Church of Santa Croce in Rome the Latin letters being to be read as if it were Hebrew the reason of which I could never find sufficiently discovered unless it were to make it more legible to the Jews who by conversing with the Romans began to understand a little Latine The title was JESUS OF NAZARETH KING OF THE JEWS But the Pharisees would have it altered and that he said he was King of the Jews But Pilate out of wilfulness or to do despight to the Nation or in honour to Jesus whom he knew to be a just person or being over-ruled by Divine providence refused to alter it And there were crucified with Jesus two Thieves Jesus being in the midst according to the Prophecy He was reckoned with the transgressors Then Jesus prayed for his Persecutors Father forgive them for they know not what they do But while Jesus was full of pain and charity and was praying and dying for his Enemies the Rulers of the Jews mocked him upbraiding him with the good works
Judas went out as soon as he was discovered and left this part of Discipline upon record That when a crime is made publick and notorious the Governours of the Church according to their power are to deny to give the blessed Sacrament till by Repentance such persons be restored In private sins or sins not known by solemnities of Law or evidence of fact good and bad are entertained in publick communion and it is not to be accounted a crime in them that minister it because they cannot avoid it or have not competent authority to separate persons whom the publick act of the Church hath not separated but if once a publick separation be made or that the fact is notorious and the 〈◊〉 of Law is in such cases already declared they that come and he that rejects them not both pollute the bloud of the everlasting Covenant And here it is applicable what God spake by the Prophet If thou wilt separate the precious thing from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth But this is wholly a matter of Discipline arbitrary and in the power of the Church nothing in it of Divine commandment but what belongs to the Communicants themselves For S. Paul reproves them that receive disorderly but gives no orders to the Corinthian Presbyters to reject any that present themselves Neither did our Blessed Lord leave any Commandment concerning it nor hath the holy Scripture given rules or measures concerning its actual reduction to practice neither who are to be separated nor for what offences nor by what authority nor who is to be the Judge And indeed it is a judgment that can only belong to God who knows the secrets of hearts the degrees of every sin the beginnings and portions of Repentance the sincerity of purposes by what thoughts and designs men begin to be accepted who are hypocrites and who are true men But when many and common men come to judge they are angry upon trisling mistakes and weak disputes they call that Sin that angers their Party or grieves their Interest they turn Charity into Pride and Admonition into Tyranny they set up a tribunal that themselves may sit higher not that their Brethren may walk more securely And then concerning sins in most cases they are most incompetent 〈◊〉 they do not know all their kinds they miscall many they are ignorant of the ingredient and constituent parts and circumstances they themselves make false measures and give out according to them when they please and when they list not they can change the balance When the matter is publick evident and notorious the man is to be admonished of his danger by the Minister but not by him to be forced from it for the power of the Minister of holy things is but the power of a Preacher and a Counsellor of a Physician and a Guide it hath in it no coercion or violence but what is indulged to it by humane laws and by consent which may vary as its 〈◊〉 Add to this that the Grace of God can begin the work of Repentance in an instant and in what period or degree of Repentance the holy Communion is to be administred no Law of God declares which therefore plainly allows it to every period and leaves no difference except where the Discipline of the Church and the authority of the Supreme power doth intervene For since we do not find in Scripture that the Apostles did drive from the communion of holy things even those whom they delivered over to Satan or other Censures we are left to consider that in the nature of the thing those who are in the state of weakness and 〈◊〉 have more need of the solemn Prayers of the Church and therefore by presenting themselves to the holy Sacrament approach towards that Ministery which is the most effectual cure especially since the very presenting themselves is an act of Religion and therefore supposes an act of Repentance and Faith and other little introductions to its fair reception and if they may be prayed for and prayed with why they may not also be communicated which is the 〈◊〉 of the greatest Prayer is not yet clearly revealed This discourse relates only to private Ministery for when I affirm that there is no command from Christ to all his Ministers to refuse whom they are pleased to call scandalous or sinners I intend to defend good people from the tyranny and arbitrary power of those great companies of Ministers who in so many hundred places would have a Judicature supreme in Spirituals which would be more intolerable than if they had in one Province 20000 Judges of life and death But when the power of separation and interdiction is only in some more eminent and authorized persons who take publick cognizance of causes by solemnities of Law and exercise their power but in some rare instances and then also for the publick interest in which although they may be 〈◊〉 yet they are the most competent and likely Judges much of the inconvenience which might otherwise follow is avoided and then it only remains that they consider in what cases it can be a competent and a proper infliction upon sinners to take from them that which is the means and ministery of grace and recovery whether they have any warrant from Christ or precedent in the Apostles practice and how far As for the sorms and 〈◊〉 of the Primitive Church they were hugely different sometimes for one cause sometimes for another Sometimes whole Churches have been excommunicated sometimes the criminal and all his houshold for his offence as it happened in the Excommunication of Andronicus and Thoas in Synesius in the year 411 sometimes they were absolved and restored by Lay Confessors sometimes by Emperors as it happened to Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nice who were absolved by Constantine from the sentence of Excommunication inflicted by the Nicene Fathers and a Monk did excommunicate Theodosius the younger So that in this there can be no certainty to make a measure and a rule The surest way most agreeable to the precedents of Scripture and the Analogy of the Gospel is that by the word of their proper ministery all sinners should be separate from the holy Communion that is threatned by the words of God with damnation and fearful temporal dangers if themselves knowing an unrepented sin and a remanent affection to sin to be within them shall dare to profane that Body and Bloud of our Lord by so impure an address The evil is to themselves and if the Ministers declare this powerfully they are acquitted But concerning other judgments or separations The Supreme power can forbid all assembling and therefore can permit them to all and therefore can deny them or grant them to single persons and therefore when he by Laws makes separations in order to publick benefit they are to be obeyed but it is not to be endured that single Presbyters should upon vain pretences erect so high a tribunal
we must know that oftentimes universal effects are attributed to partial causes because by the analogy of Scripture we are taught that all the body of holy actions and ministeries are to unite in production of the event and that without that adunation one thing alone cannot operate but because no one alone does the work but by an united power therefore indefinitely the effect is ascribed sometimes to one sometimes to another meaning that one as much as the other that is all together are to work the Pardon and the Grace But the doctrine of Preparation to Death we are clearest taught in the Parable of the ten Virgins Those who were wise stood waiting for the coming of the Bridegroom their Lamps burning only when the Lord was at hand at the notice of his coming published they trimmed their Lamps and they so disposed went forth and met him and entred with him into his interiour and eternal joys They whose Lamps did not stand ready before-hand expecting the uncertain hour were shut forth and bound in darkness Watch therefore so our Lord applies and expounds the Parable for ye know not the day nor the hour of the coming of the Son of man Whenever the arrest of Death seises us unless before that notice we had Oil in our Vessels that is Grace in our hearts habitual Grace for nothing else can reside or dwell there an act cannot inhabit or be in a Vessel it is too late to make preparation But they who have it may and must prepare that is they must stir the fire trim the vessel make it more actual in its exercise and productions full of ornament advantages and degrees And that is all we know from Scripture concerning Preparation 2. And indeed since all our life we are dying and this minute in which I now write death divides with me and hath got the surer part and more certain possession it is but reasonable that we should always be doing the Offices of Preparation If to day we were not dying and passing on to our grave then we might with more safety defer our work till the morrow But as fewel in a furnace in every degree of its heat and reception of the flame is converting into fire and ashes and the disposing it to the last mutation is the same work with the last instance of its change so is the age of every day a beginning of death and the night composing us to sleep bids us go to our lesser rest because that night which is the end of the preceding day is but a lesser death and whereas now we have died so many days the last day of our life is but the dying so many more and when that last day of dying will come we know not There is nothing then added but the circumstance of Sickness which also happens many times before only men are pleased to call that Death which is the end of dying when we cease to die any more and therefore to put off our Preparation till that which we call Death is to put off the work of all our life till the time comes in which it is to cease and determine 3. But to accelerate our early endeavour besides what hath been formerly considered upon the proper grounds of Repentance I here re-inforce the consideration of Death in such circumstances which are apt to engage us upon an early industry 1. I consider that no man is sure that he shall not die suddenly and therefore if Heaven be worth securing it were fit that we should reckon every day the Vespers of death and therefore that according to the usual rites of Religion it be begun and spent with religious offices And let us consider that those many persons who are remarked in history to have died suddenly either were happy by an early Piety or miserable by a sudden death And if uncertainty of condition be an abatement of felicity and spoils the good we possess no man can be happy but he that hath lived well that is who hath secured his condition by an habitual and living Piety For since God hath not told us we shall not die suddenly is it not certain he intended we should prepare for sudden death as well as against death cloathed in any other circumstances Fabius surnamed Pictor was choaked with a Hair in a mess of Milk Anacreon with a Raisin Cardinal Colonna with Figs crusted with Ice Adrian the fourth with a Flie Drusius Pompeius with a Pear Domitius Afer Quintilian's Tutor with a full Cup Casimire the Second King of Polonia with a Little draught of Wine Amurath with a Full goblet Tarquinius Priscus with a Fish-bone For as soon as a man is born that which in nature only remains to him is to die and if we differ in the way or time of our abode or the manner of our Exit yet we are even at last and since it is not determined by a natural cause which way we shall go or at what age a wise Man will suppose himself always upon his Death-bed and such supposition is like making of his Will he is not the nearer Death for doing it but he is the readier for it when it comes 4. Saint Jerome said well He deserves not the name of a Christian who will live in that state of life in which he will not die And indeed it is a great venture to be in an evil state of life because every minute of it hath a danger and therefore a succession of actions in every one of which he may as well perish as escape is a boldness that hath no mixture of wisdome or probable venture How many persons have died in the midst of an act of sport or at a merry meeting Grimoaldus a Lombard King died with shooting of a Pidgeon Thales the Milesian in the Theatre Lucia the sister of Aurelius the Emperor playing with her little son was wounded in her breast with a Needle and died Benno Bishop of Adelburg with great ceremony and joy consecrating S. Michael's Church was crouded to death by the People so was the Duke of Saxony at the Inauguration of Albert I. The great Lawyer Baldus playing with a little Dog was bitten upon the lip instantly grew mad and perished Charles the Eighth of France seeing certain Gentlemen playing at Tenniscourt swooned and recovered not Henry II. was killed running at Tilt Ludovicus Borgia with riding the great Horse and the old Syracusan Archimedes was slain by a rude Souldier as he was making Diagrams in the sand which was his greatest pleasure How many Men have died laughing or in the ecstasies of a great joy Philippides the Comedian and Dionysius the Tyrant of Sicily died with joy at the news of a victory Diagoras of Rhodes and Chilo the Philosopher expired in the embraces of their sons crowned with an Olympick Lawrel Polycrita Naxia being saluted the Saviouress of her Countrey Marcus Juventius when the Senate decreed
him honours the Emperour Conrade the Second when he triumphed after the conquest of Italy had a joy bigger than their heart and their phancy swelled it till they burst and died Death can enter in at any door 〈◊〉 of Nice died with excessive laughter so did the Poet Philemon being provoked to it only by seeing an Asse eat sigs And the number of persons who have been found suddenly dead in their beds is so great that as it ingages many to a more certain and regular devotion for their Compline so it were well it were pursued to the utmost intention of God that is that all the parts of Religion should with zeal and assiduity be entertained and finished that as it becomes wise men we never be surprised with that we are sure will sometime or other happen A great General in Italy at the sudden death of Alsonsus of Ferrara and Lodovico 〈◊〉 at the sight of the sad accident upon Henry II. of France now mentioned turned religious and they did what God intended in those deaths It concerns us to be curious of single actions because even in those shorter periods we may expire and 〈◊〉 our Graves But if the state of life be contradictory to our hopes of Heaven it is like affronting of a Cannon 〈◊〉 a beleaguer'd Town a month together it is a contempt of safety and a rendring all Reason useless and unprofitable but he only is wise who having made Death familiar to him by expectation and daily apprehension does at all instants go forth to meet it The wise Virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom for they were ready Excellent therefore is the counsel of the Son of Sirach Use Physick or ever thou be sick 〈◊〉 Judgment examine thy self and in the day of visitation thou shalt finde mercy Humble thy self before then be sick and in the time of sins shew Repentance Let nothing hinder thee to pay thy 〈◊〉 in due time and defer not until death to be justified 5. Secondly I consider that it osten happens that in those few days of our last visitation which many Men design for their Preparation and Repentance God hath expressed by an exteriour accident that those persons have deceived themselves and neglected their own Salvation S. Gregory reports of Chrysaurius a Gentleman in the Province of 〈◊〉 rich vicious and witty lascivious covetous and proud that being cast upon his Death-bed he phansied he saw evil spirits coming to arrest him and drag him to Hell He fell into great agony and trouble shrieked out called for his son who was a very religious person flattered him as willing to have been rescued by any thing but perceiving his danger increase and grown desperate he called loud with repeated clamours Give me respite but till the morrow and with those words he died there being no place left 〈◊〉 his Repentance though he sought it carefully with tears and groans The same was the case of a drunken Monk whom Venerable Bede mentions Upon his Death bed he seemed to see Hell opened and a place assigned him near to Caiaphas and those who crucified our dearest Lord. The religious persons that stood about his Bed called on him to repent of his sins to implore the mercies of God and to trust in Christ But he answered with reason enough This is no time to change my life the sentence is passed upon me and it is too late And it is very considerable and sad which Petrus Damianus tells of Gunizo a sactious and ambitious person to whom it is said the Tempter gave notice of his approaching death but when any Man preached Repentance to him out of a strange incuriousness or the spirit of reprobation he seemed like a dead and unconcerned person in all other discourses he was awake and apt to answer For God had shut up the gates of Mercy that no streams should issue forth to quench the flames of Hell or else had shut up the gates of reception and entertainment that it should not enter either God denies to give them pardon when they call or denies to them a power to call they either cannot pray or God will not answer Now since these stories are related by Men learned pious and eminent in their generations and because they served no design but the ends of Piety and have in them nothing dissonant from revelation or the frequent events of Providence we may upon their stock consider that God's Judgements and visible marks being set upon a state of Life although they happen but seldom in the instances yet they are of universal purpose and signfication Upon all Murtherers God hath not thrown a thunder-bolt nor broke all sacrilegious persons upon the wheel of an inconstant and ebbing estate nor spoken to every Oppressor from Heaven in a voice of thunder nor cut off all Rebels in the first attempts of insurrection But because he hath done so to some we are to look upon those Judgments as Divine accents and voices of God threatning all the same crimes with the like events and with the ruines of eternity For though God does not always make the same prologues to death yet by these few accidents happening to single persons we are to understand his purposes concerning all in the same condition it was not the person so much as the estate which God then remarked with so visible characters of his displeasure 6. And it seems to me a wonder that since from all the records of Scripture urging the uncertainty of the day of death the horrour of the day of Judgment the severity of God the dissolution of the world the certainty of our account still from all these premisses the Spirit of God makes no other inference but that we watch and stand in a readiness that we live in all holy conversation and godliness and that there is no one word concerning any other manner of an essentially-necessary Preparation none but this yet that there are Doctrines commenced and Rules prescribed and Offices set down and Suppletories invented by Curates of Souls how to prepare a vicious person and upon his Death-bed to reconcile him to the hopes and promises of Heaven Concerning which I desire that every person would but enquire where any one promise is recorded in Scripture concerning such addresses and what Articles CHRIST hath drawn up between his Father and us concerning a Preparation begun upon our Death-bed and if he shall find none as most certainly from Genesis to the Revelation there is not a word concerning it but very much against it let him first build his hopes upon this proposition that A holy life is the onely Preparation to a happy death and then we can without danger proceed to some other Considerations 7. When a good man or a person concerning whom it is not certain he hath lived in habitual Vices comes to die there are but two general ways of entercourse with him the one to keep him from
their friends and consider not that their friends are bound to accept the trouble as themselves to accept the sickness that to tend the sick is at that time allotted for the portion of their work and that Charity receives it as a duty and makes that duty to be a pleasure And however if our friends account us a burthen let us also accept that circumstance of affliction to our selves with the same resignation and indifferency as we entertain its occasion the Sickness it self and pray to God to enkindle a flame of Charity in their breasts and to make them compensation for the charge and trouble we put them to and then the care is at an end But others excuse their discontent with a more religious colour and call the disease their trouble and affliction because it impedes their other parts of Duty they cannot preach or study or do exteriour assistences of Charity and Alms or acts of Repentance and Mortification But it were well if we could let God proportion out our work and set our task let him chuse what vertues we shall specially exercise and when the will of God determines us it is more excellent to endure afflictions with patience equanimity and thankfulness than to do actions of the most pompous Religion and laborious or expensive Charity not only because there is a deliciousness in actions of Religion and choice which is more agreeable to our spirit than the toleration of sickness can be which hath great reward but no present pleasure but also because our suffering and our imployment is consecrated to us when God chuses it and there is then no mixture of imperfection or secular interest as there may be in other actions even of an excellent Religion when our selves are the chusers And let us also remember that God hath not so much need of thy works as thou hast of Patience Humility and Resignation S. Paul was far a more considerable person than thou canst be and yet it pleased God to shut him in prison for two years and in that intervall God secured and promoted the work of the Gospel and although 〈◊〉 was an excellent Minister yet God laid a sickness upon him and even in his disease gave him work enough to do though not of his own chusing And therefore fear it not but the ends of Religion or Duty will well enough proceed without thy health and thy own eternal interest when God so pleases shall better be served by Sickness and the Vertues which it occasions than by the opportunities of Health and an ambulatory active Charity 18. When thou art resigned to God use fair and appointed means for thy Recovery trust not in thy spirit upon any instrument of health as thou art willing to be disposed by God so look 〈◊〉 for any event upon the stock of any other cause or principle be ruled by the Physician and the people appointed to tend thee that thou neither become troublesome to them nor give any sign of impatience or a peevish spirit But this advice only means that thou do not disobey them out of any evil principle and yet if Reason be thy guide to chuse any other aid or sollow any other counsel use it temperately prudently and charitably It is not intended for a Duty that thou shouldst drink Oil in stead of Wine if thy Minister reach it to thee as did Saint Bernard nor that thou shouldst accept a Cake tempered with Linseed-oil in stead of Oil of Olives as did F. Stephen mentioned by 〈◊〉 but that thou tolerate the defects of thy servants and accept the evil accidents of thy disease or the unsuccessfulness of thy Physician 's care as descending on thee from the hands of God Asa was noted in Scripture that in his sickness he sought not to the Lord but to the Physicians Lewis the XI of France was then the miserablest person in his Kingdom when he made himself their servant courting them with great pensions and rewards attending to their Rules as Oracles and from their mouths waited for the sentence of life or death We are in these great accidents especially to look upon God as the disposer of the events which he very often disposes contrary to the expectation we may have of probable causes and sometimes without Physick we recover and with Physick and excellent applications we grow worse and worse and God it is that makes the remedies unprosperous In all these and all other accidents if we take care that the sickness of the Body derive not it self into the Soul nor the pains of one procure impatience of the other we shall alleviate the burthen and make it supportable and profitable And certain it is if men knew well to bear their sicknesses humbly towards God charitably towards our Ministers and chearfully in themselves there were no greater advantage in the world to be received than upon a sick bed and that alone hath in it the benefits of a Church of a religious Assembly of the works of Charity and labour And since our Soul 's eternal well-being depends upon the Charities and Providence and Veracity of God and we have nothing to show for it but his word and Goodness and that is infinitely enough it is but reason we be not more nice and scrupulous about the usage and accommodation of our Body if we accept at God's hand sadness and driness of affection and spiritual desertion patiently and with indifferency it is unhandsome to express our selves less satisfied in the accidents about our body 19. But if the Sickness proceed to Death it is a new charge upon our spirits and God calls for a final and intire Resignation into his hands And to a person who was of humble affections and in his life-time of a mortified spirit accustomed to bear the yoke of the Lord this is easie because he looks upon Death not only as the certain condition of Nature but as a necessary transition to a state of Blessedness as the determination of his sickness the period of humane inselicities the last change of condition the beginning of a new strange and excellent life a security against sin a freedom from the importunities of a Tempter from the tyranny of an imperious Lust from the rebellion of Concupiscence from the disturbances and tempests of the Irascible faculty and from the fondness and childishness of the Concupiscible and S. Ambrose says well the trouble of this life and the dangers are so many that in respect of them Death is a remedy and a fair proper object of desires And we finde that many Saints have prayed for death that they might not see the Persecutions and great miseries incumbent upon the Church and if the desire be not out of Impatience but of Charity and with resignation there is no reason to reprove it Elias prayed that God would take his life that he might not see the evils of Ahab and Jezebel and their vexatious intendments against the
Prophets of the Lord. And S. Austin upon the Incursion of the Vandals into Africa called his Clergy together and at their Chapter told them he had prayed to God either to deliver his People from the present calamity or grant them patience to bear it or that he would take him out of the world that he might not see the miseries of his Diocese adding that God had granted him the last and he presently fell sick and died in the siege of his own Hippo. And if Death in many cases be desirable and for many reasons it is always to be submitted to when God calls And as it is always a misery to fear death so it is very often a sin or the effect of sin If our love to the world hath fastened our affections here it is a direct sin and this is by the son of Sirach noted to be the case of rich and great personages How bitter O death is thy remembrance to a man that is at rest in his possessions But if it be a fear to perish in the ruines of Eternity they are not to blame for fearing but that their own ill lives have procured the fear And yet there are persons in the state of Grace but because they are in great imperfection have such lawful fears of Death and of entring upon an uncertain Sentence which must stand eternally irreversible be it good or bad that they may with piety and care enough pray David's prayer O spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen But in this and in all other cases Death must be accepted without murmur though without fear it cannot A man may pray to be delivered from it and yet if God will not grant it he must not go as one hal'd to execution but if with all his imperfect fears he shall throw himself upon God and accept his sentence as righteous whether it speak life or death it is an act of so great excellency that it may equal the good actions of many succeeding and surviving days and peradventure a longer life will be yet more imperfect and that God therefore puts a period to it that thou mayest be taken into a condition more certain though less eminent However let not the fears of Nature or the fear of Reason or the fears of Humility become accidentally criminal by a murmur or a pertinacious contesting against the event which we cannot hinder but ought to accept by an election secondary rational and pious and upon supposition that God will not alter the sentence passed upon thy temporal life always remembring that in Christian Philosophy Death hath in it an excellency of which the Angels are not capable For by the necessity of our Nature we are made capable of dying for the Holy Jesus and next to the privilege of that act is our willingness to die at his command which turns necessity into vertue and nature into grace and grace to glory 20. When the sick person is thus disposed let him begin to trim his wedding-garment and dress his Lamp with the repetition of acts of Repentance perpetually praying to God for pardon of his sins representing to himself the horror of them the multitude the obliquity being helped by arguments apt to excite Contrition by repetition of penitential Psalms and holy Prayers and he may by accepting and humbly receiving his sickness at God's hand transmit it into the condition of an act or effect of 〈◊〉 acknowledging himself by sin to have deserved and procured it and praying that the punishment of his crimes may be here and not reserved for the state of Separation and for ever 21. But above all single acts of this exercise we are concerned to see that nothing of other mens Goods stick to us but let us shake it off as we would a burning coal 〈◊〉 our flesh for it will destroy us it will carry a curse with us and leave a curse behind us Those who by thy means or importunity have become vicious exhort to Repentance and holy life those whom thou hast cozened into crimes restore to a right understanding those who are by violence and interest led captive by thee to any undecency restore to their liberty and encourage to the prosecution of holiness discover and confess thy fraud and unlawful arts cease thy violence and give as many advantages to Vertue as thou hast done to Viciousness Make recompence for bodily wrongs such as are wounds dismembrings and other disabilities restore every man as much as thou canst to that good condition from which thou hast removed him restore his Fame give back his Goods return the Pawn release 〈◊〉 and take off all unjust invasions or surprises of his Estate pay Debts satisfie for thy fraud and injustice as far as thou canst and as thou canst and as soon or this alone is weight enough no less than a Mil-stone about thy Neck But if the dying man be of God and in the state of Grace that is if he have lived a holy life repented seasonably and have led a just sober and religious conversation in any acceptable degree it is to be supposed he hath no great account to make for unpretended injuries and unjust detentions for if he had detained the goods of his neighbour fraudulently or violently without amends when it is in his power and opportunity to restore he is not the man we suppose him in this present Question and although in all cases he is bound to restore according to his ability yet the act is less excellent when it is compelled and so it seems to be if he have continued the injustice till he is forced to quit the purchace However if it be not done till then let it be provided for then And that I press this duty to pious persons at this time is only to oblige them to a diligent scrutiny concerning the lesser omissions of this duty in the matter of fame or lesser debts or spiritual restitution or that those unevennesses of account which were but of late transaction may now be regulated and that whatsoever is undone in this matter from what principle soever it proceeds whether of sin or only of forgetfulness or of imperfection may now be made as exact as we can and are obliged and that those excuses which made it reasonable and lawful to defer Restitution as want of opportunity clearness of ability and accidental inconvenience be now laid aside and the action be done or provided for in the midst of all objections and inconvenient circumstances rather than to omit it and hazard to perform it 22. Hither also I reckon resolutions and forward purposes of emendation and greater severity in case God return to us hopes of life which therefore must be re-inforced that we may serve the ends of God and understand all his purposes and make use of every opportunity every sickness laid upon us being with a design of drawing us nearer
to God and even holy purposes are good actions of the Spirit and Principles of Religion and though alone they cannot do the work of Grace or change the state when they are ineffectual that is when either we will not bring them into act or that God will not let us yet to a Man already in the state of Grace they are the additions of something good and are like blowing of coals which although it can put no life into a dead coal yet it makes a live coal shine brighter and burn clearer and adds to it some accidental degrees of heat 23. Having thus disposed himself to the peace of God let him make peace with all those in whom he knows or suspects any minutes of anger or malice or displeasure towards him submitting himself to them with humility whom he unworthily hath displeased asking pardon of them who say they are displeased and offering pardon to them that have displeased him and then let him crave the peace of Holy Church For it is all this while to be supposed that he hath used the assistence and prayers the counsel and the advices of a spiritual man and that to this purpose he hath opened to him the state of his whole life and made him to understand what emendations of his faults he hath made what acts of Repentance he hath done how lived after his fall and reparation and that he hath submitted all that he did or undid to the discerning of a holy man whose office it is to guide his Soul in this agony and last offices All men cannot have the blessing of a wise and learned Minister and some die where they can have none at all yet it were a safer course to do as much of this as we can and to a competent person if we can if we cannot then to the best we have according as we judge it to be of spiritual advantage to us for in this conjuncture of accidents it concerns us to be sure if we may and not to be deceived where we can avoid it because we shall never return to life to do this work again And if after this entercourse with a Spiritual guide we be reconciled by the solemn prayer of the Church the prayer of Absolution it will be of great advantage to us we depart with our Father's blessing we die in the actual Communion of the Church we hear the sentence of God applied after the manner of men and the promise of Pardon made circumstantiate material present and operative upon our spirits and have our portion of the promise which is recorded by S. James that if the Elders of the Church pray over a sick person fervently and effectually add solemnly his sins shall be forgiven him that is supposing him to be in a capacity to receive it because such prayers of such a man are very prevalent 24. All this is in a spiritual sense washing the hands in innocency and then let him go to the altar let him not for any excuse less than impossibility omit to receive the holy Sacrament which the Father 's assembled in the great Nicene Council have taught all the Christian world to call the most necessary provisions for our last journey which is the memory of that Death by which we hope for life which is the seed of Immortality and Resurrection of our bodies which unites our spirit to Christ which is a great defensative against the hostilities of the Devil which is the most solemn Prayer of the Church united and made acceptable by the Sacrifice of Christ which is then represented and exhibited to God which is the great instrument of spiritual increase and the growth of Grace which is duty and reward food and Physick health and pleasure deletery and cordial prayer and thanksgiving an union of mysteries the marriage of the Soul and the perfection of all the Rites of Christianity dying with the holy Sacrament in us is a going to God with Christ in our arms and interposing him between us and his angry sentence But then we must be sure that we have done all the duty without which we cannot communicate worthily For else Satan comes in the place of Christ and it is a horrour not less than infinite to appear before God's Tribunal possessed in our Souls with the spirit of darkness True it is that by many Laws of the Church the Bishop and the Minister are bound to give the holy Eucharist to every person who in the article or apparent danger of death desires it provided that he hath submitted himself to the imposition and counsels of the Bishop or Guide of his Soul that in case he recovers he may be brought to the peace of God and his Church by such steps and degrees of Repentance by which other publick sinners are reconciled But to this gentleness of Discipline and easiness of Administration those excellent persons who made the Canons thought themselves compelled by the rigour of the 〈◊〉 and because they admitted not lapsed persons to the peace of the Church upon any terms though never so great so publick or so penal a Repentance therefore these not onely remitted them to the exercise and station of Penitents but also to the Communion But the Fathers of the Council of Eliberis denied this favour to persons who after Baptism were Idolaters either intending this as a great argument to affright persons from so great a crime or else believing that it was unpardonable after Baptism a contradiction to that state which we entred into by Baptism and the Covenant Evangelical However I desire all learned persons to observe it and the less learned also to make use of it that those more ancient Councils of the Church which commanded the holy Communion to be given to dying persons meant only such which according to the custome of the Church were under the conditions of Repentance that is such to whom punishment and Discipline of divers years were injoyned and if it happened they died in the intervall before the expiration of their time of reconciliation then they admitted them to the Communion Which describes to us the doctrine of those Ages when Religion was purer and Discipline more severe and holy life secured by rules of excellent Government that those only were fit to come to that Feast who before their last sickness had finished the Repentance of many years or at least had undertaken it I cannot say it was so always and in all Churches for as the Disciples grew slack or mens perswasions had variety so they were more ready to grant Repentance as well as Absolution to dying persons but it was otherwise in the best times and with severer Prelates And certainly it were great charity to deny the Communion to persons who have lived viciously till their death provided it be by competent authority and done sincerely prudently and without temporal interest to other persons who have lived good lives or repented of their bad
of prepared torments he died a natural death in a good old age 5. After this Jesus having appointed a solemn meeting for all the Brethren that could be collected from the dispersion and named a certain mountain in 〈◊〉 appeared to five hundred Brethren at once and this was his most publick and solemn manifestation and while some doubted Jesus came according to the designation and spake to the eleven sent them to preach to all the world Repentance and Remission of sins in his Name promising to be with them to the end of the world He appeared also unto James but at what time is uncertain save that there is something concerning it in the Gospel of S. Matthew which the Nazarens of 〈◊〉 used and which it is likely themselves added out of report for there is nothing of it in our Greek Copies The words are these When the Lord had given the linen in which he was wrapped to the servant of the High Priest he went and appeared unto James For James had vowed after he received the Lord's Supper that he would eat no bread till he saw the Lord risen from the grave Then the Lord called for bread he blessed it and brake it and gave it to James the Just and said My Brother eat bread for the Son of man is risen from the sleep of death So that by this it should seem to be done upon the day of the Resurrection But the relation of it by S. Paul puts it between the appearance which he made to the five hundred and that last to the Apostles when he was to ascend into Heaven Last of all when the Apostles were at dinner he appeared to them upbraiding their incredulity and then he opened their understanding that they might discern the sence of Scripture and again commanded them to preach the Gospel to all the world giving them power to do Miracles to cast out Devils to cure 〈◊〉 and instituted the Sacrament of Baptism which he commanded should together with the Sermons of the Gospel be administred to all Nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Then he led them into Judaea and they came to Bethany and from thence to the mount Olivet and he commanded them to stay in Jerusalem till the Holy Ghost the promise of the Father should descend upon them which should be accomplished in few days and then they should know the times and the seasons and all things necessary for their ministration and service and propagation of the Gospel And while he discoursed many things concerning the Kingdom behold a Cloud came and parted Jesus from them and carried him in their sight up into Heaven where he sits at the right hand of God blessed for ever Amen 6. While his Apostles stood gazing up to Heaven two Angels appeared to them and told them that Jesus should come in like manner as he was taken away viz. with glory and majesty and in the clouds and with the ministry of Angels Amen Come Lord JESUS come quickly Ad SECT XVI Considerations upon the Accidents happening in the intervall after the Death of the Holy JESUS untill his Resurrection Jesus and Mary in the Garden Joh. 20. 14. 15. 16. Mary turning about saw Jesus standing knew not y t it was Jesus Jesus saith woman whom seekest thou Shee supposing him to be the garidner saith sir if thou have born him hence tell me etc. Jesus saith unto her Mary she turned her self and saith unto him Rabboni which is Master Jesus saith unto her touch me not for etc. Mary Magdalen came and told the desciples that she had seen the Lord. Our Lords Ascension Acts. 1. 9. And when he had spoken these things while they beheld he was taken up a Cloud received him out of their sight 10. And while they stedfastly looked toward heaven behold two men stood by them in white apparell 11. Which also said this same Iesus shall so come as you have seen him go into heaven 1. THE Holy Jesus promised to the blessed Thief that he should that day be with him in Paradise which therefore was certainly a place or state of Blessedness because it was a promise and in the society of Jesus whose penal and afflictive part of his work of Redemption was finished upon the Cross. Our Blessed Lord did not promise he should that day be with him in his Kingdom for that day it was not opened and the everlasting doors of those interiour recesses were to be shut till after the Resurrection that himself was to ascend thither and make way for all his servants to enter in the same method in which he went before us Our Blessed Lord descended into Hell saith the Creed of the Apostles from the Sermon of Saint Peter as he from the words of David that is into the state of Separation and common receptacle of Spirits according to the style of Scripture But the name of Hell is no-where in Scripture an appellative of the Kingdom of Christ of the place of final and supreme Glory But concerning the verification of our Lord's promise to the beatified Thief and his own state of Separation we must take what light we can from Scripture and what we can from the Doctrine of the Primitive Church S. Paul had two great Revelations he was rapt up into Paradise and he was rapt up into the third Heaven and these he calls visions revelations not one but divers for Paradise is distinguished from the Heaven of the blessed being it self a receptacle of holy Souls made illustrious with visitation of Angels and happy by being a repository for such spirits who at the day of Judgment shall go forth into eternal glory In the interim Christ hath trod all the paths before us and this also we must pass through to arrive at the Courts of Heaven Justin Martyr said it was the doctrine of heretical persons to say that the Souls of the Blessed instantly upon the separation from their Bodies enter into the highest Heaven And Irenaeus makes Heaven and the intermediate receptacle of Souls to be distinct places both blessed but hugely differing in degrees Tertullian is dogmatical in the assertion that till the voice of the great Archangel be heard and as long as Christ sits at the right hand of his Father making intercession for the Church so long blessed Souls must expect the assembling of their brethren the great Congregation of the Church that they may all pass from their outer courts into the inward tabernacle the Holy of Holies to the Throne of God And as it is certain that no Soul could enter into glory before our Lord 〈◊〉 by whom we hope to have access so it is most agreeable to the proportion 〈◊〉 the mysteries of our Redemption that we believe the entrance into Glory to have been made by our Lord at his glorious Ascension and that his Soul went not thither before 〈◊〉 to come back again
his Disciples to verifie his Promise to make demonstration of his Divinity to lay some superstructures of his Church upon the foundation of his former Sermons to instruct them in the mysteries of his Kingdom to prepare them for the reception of the Holy Ghost and as he had in his state of Separation triumphed over Hell so in his Resurrection he set his foot upon Death and brought it under his dominion so that although it was not yet destroyed yet it is made his subject it hath as yet the condition of the Gibeonites who were not banished out of the land but they were made drawers of water and bewers of wood so is Death made instrumental to Christ's Kingdom but it abides still and shall till the day of Judgment but shall serve the ends of our Lord and promote the interests of Eternity and do benefit to the Church 8. And it is considerable that our Blessed Lord having told them that after three days he would rise again yet he shortened the time as much as was possible that he might verifie his own prediction and yet make his absence the less troublesome he rises early in the morning the first day of the week for so our dearest Lord abbreviates the days of our sorrow and lengthens the years of our consolation for he knows that a day of sorrow seems a year and a year of joy passes like a day and therefore God lessens the one and 〈◊〉 the other to make this perceived and that supportable Now the Temple which the Jews destroyed God raised up in six and thirty hours but this second Temple was more glorious than the first for now it was clothed with robes of glory with clarity agility and immortality and though like Moses descending from the mount he wore a veil that the greatness of his splendor might not render him unapt for conversation with his servants yet the holy Scripture affirms that he was now no more to see corruption meaning that now he was separate from the passibility and affections of humane bodies and could suffer S. Thomas to thrust his hand into the wound of his side and his singer into the holes of his hands without any grief or smart 9. But although the graciousness and care of the Lord had prevented all diligence and satisfied all desires returning to life before the most forward faith could expect him yet there were three Maries went to the grave so early that they prevented the rising of the Sun and though with great obedience they stayed till the end of the Sabbath yet as soon as that was done they had other parts of duty and affection which called with greatest importunity to be speedily satisfied And if Obedience had not bound the feet of Love they had gone the day before but they became to us admirable patterns of Obedience to the Divine Commandments For though Love were stronger than death yet Obedience was stronger than Love and made a rare dispute in the spirits of those holy Women in which the flesh and the spirit were not the litigants but the spirit and the spirit and they resisted each other as the Angel-guardian of the Jews resisted the tutelar Angel of Persia each striving who should with most love and zeal perform their charge and God determined And so he did here too For the Law of the Sabbath was then a Divine Commandment and although piety to the dead and to such a dead was ready to force their choice to do violence to their will bearing them up on wings of desire to the grave of the LORD yet at last they reconciled Love with Obedience For they had been taught that Love is best expressed in keeping of the Divine Commandments But now they were at liberty and sure enough they made use of its first minute and going so early to seek Christ they were sure they should find him 10. The Angels descended Guardians of the Sepulchre for God sent his guards too and they affrighted the Watch appointed by Pilate and the Priests but when the women came they spake like comforters full of sweetness and consolation laying aside their affrighting glories as knowing it is the will of their Lord that they should minister good to them that love him But a conversation with Angels could not satisfie them who came to look for the Lord of the Angels and found him not and when the Lord was pleased to appear to Mary Magdalen she was so swallowed up with love and sorrow that she entred into her joy and perceived it not she saw the Lord and knew him not For so from the closets of darkness they that immediately stare upon the Sun perceive not the beauties of the light and feel nothing but amazement But the voice of the Lord opened her eyes and she knew him and worshipped him but was denied to touch him and commanded to tell the Apostles for therefore God ministers to us comforts and revelations not that we may dwell in the sensible fruition of them our selves alone but that we communicate the grace to others But when the other women were returned and saw the Lord then they were all together admitted to the embracement and to kiss the feet of Jesus For God hath his opportunities and periods which at another time he denies and we must then rejoyce in it when he vouchsafes it and submit to his Divine will when he denies it 11. These good women had the first fruits of the apparition for their forward love and the passion of their Religion made greater haste to entertain a Grace and was a greater endearment of their persons to our Lord than a more sober reserved and less active spirit This is more safe but that is religious this goes to God by the way of understanding that by the will this is supported by discourse that by passions this is the sobriety of the Apostles the other was the zeal of the holy women and because a strong fancy and an earnest passion sixed upon holy objects are the most active and forward instruments of Devotion as Devotion is of Love therefore we find God hath made great expressions of his acceptance of such dispositions And women and less knowing persons and tender dispositions and pliant natures will make up a greater number in Heaven than the severe and wary and enquiring people who sometimes love because they believe and believe because they can demonstrate but never believe because they love When a great Understanding and a great Affection meet together it makes a Saint great like an Apostle but they do not well who make abatement of their religious passions by the severity of their Understanding It is no matter by which we are brought to Christ so we love him and obey him but if the production admit of 〈◊〉 that instrument is the most excellent which produces the greatest love and 〈◊〉 discourse and a sober spirit be in it self the best yet we do not always suffer that to be a
as now it is that which we call natural death and supposing that God should preserve the Body for ever or restore it at the day of Judgment to its full substance and perfect organs yet the man would be dead for ever if the Soul for ever should continue separate from the Body So that the other life that is the state of Resurrection is a re-uniting Soul and Body And although in a Philosophical sence the Resurrection is of the Body that is a restitution of our flesh and bloud and bones and is called Resurrection as the entrance into the state of Resurrection may have the denomination of the whole yet in the sence of Scripture the Resurrection is the restitution of our life the renovation of the whole man the state of Re-union and untill that be the man is not but he is dead and onely his essential parts are deposited and laid up in trust and therefore whatsoever the Soul does or perceives in its incomplete condition is but to it as embalming and honourable funerals to the Body and a safe monument to preserve it in order to a living again and the felicities of the intervall are wholly in order to the next life And therefore if there were to be no Resurrection as these intermedial joys should not be at all so as they are they are but relative and incomplete and therefore all our hopes all our felicities depend upon the Resurrection without it we should never be persons men or women and then the state of Separation could be nothing but a phantasm trees ever in blossome never bearing fruit corn for ever in the blade eggs always in the shell a hope eternal never to pass into fruition that is for ever to be deluded for ever to be miserable And therefore it was an elegant expression of S. Paul Our life is hid with Christ in God that is our life is passed into custody the dust of our body is numbred and the Spirit is refreshed visited and preserved in celestial mansions but it is not properly called a Life for all this while the man is dead and shall then live when Christ produces this hidden life at the great day of restitution But our faith of all this Article is well wrapt up in the words of S. John Beloved now we are the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is The middle state is not it which Scripture hath propounded to our Faith or to our Hope the reward is then when Christ shall appear but in the mean time the Soul can converse with God and with Angels just as the holy Prophets did in their Dreams in which they received great degrees of favour and revelation But this is not to be reckoned any more than an entrance or a waiting for the state of our Felicity And since the glories of Heaven is the great fruit of Election we may consider that the Body is not predestinate nor the Soul alone but the whole Man and until the parts embrace again in an essential complexion it cannot be expected either of them should receive the portion of the predestinate But the article and the event of future things is rarely set in order by Saint Paul But ye are come into the mount Sion and to the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels To the general assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and then follows after this general assembly after the Judge of all appears to the spirits of just men made perfect that is re-united to their bodies and entring into glory The beginning of the contrary Opinion brought some new practices and appendent perswasions into the Church or at least promoted them much For those Doctors who receding from the Primitive belief of this Article taught that the glories of Heaven are fully communicated to the Souls before the day of Judgment did also upon that stock teach the Invocation of Saints whom they believed to be received into glory and insensibly also brought in the opinion of Purgatory that the less perfect Souls might be glorified in the time that they assigned them But the safer opinion and more agreeable to Piety is that which I have now described from Scripture and the purest Ages of the Church 16. When Jesus appeared to the Apostles he gave them his Peace for a Benediction and when he departed he left them Peace for a Legacy and gave them according to two former promises the power of making Peace and reconciling Souls to God by a ministerial act so conveying his Father's mercy which himself procured by his Passion and actuates by his Intercession and the giving of his Grace that he might comply with our infirmities and minister to our needs by instruments even and proportionate to our selves making our brethren the conduits of his Grace that the excellent effect of the Spirit might not descend upon us as the Law upon Mount Sinai in expresses of greatness and terrour but in earthen vessels and images of infirmity so God manifesting his power in the smalness of the instrument and descending to our needs not only in giving the grace of Pardon but also in the manner of its ministration And I meditate upon the greatness of this Mercy by comparing this Grace of God and the blessing of the Judgment and Sentence we receive at the hand of the Church with the Judgment which God makes at the hour of death upon them who have despised this mercy and neglected all the other parts of their duty The one is a Judgment of mercy the other of vengeance In the one the Devil is the Accuser and Heaven and earth bear witness in the other the penitent sinner accuses himself In that the sinner gets a pardon in the other he finds no remedy In that all his good deeds are remembred and returned and his sins are blotted out in the other all his evil deeds are represented with horrour and a sting and remain for ever In the first the sinner changes his state for a state of Grace and only smarts in some temporal austerities and acts of exteriour mortification in the second his temporal estate is changed to an eternity of pain In the first the sinner suffers the shame of one man or one society which is sweetned by consolation and homilies of mercy and health in the latter all his sins are laid open before all the world and himself confounded in eternal amazement and confusions In the judgment of the Church the sinner is honoured by all for returning to the bosome of his Mother and the embraces of his heavenly Father in the judgment of vengeance he is laughed at by God and mocked by accursed spirits and perishes without pity In this he is prayed for by none
hence that 〈◊〉 places Peter's coming to Rome in the Second Year of Claudius and his Martyrdom in the Fourteenth of Nero between which there is the just space of five and twenty years Whence those that came after concluded that he sate Bishop there all that time It cannot be denied but that in S. Hierom's Translation it is expresly said that he continued five and twenty years Bishop of that City But then it is as evident that this was his own addition who probably set things down as the report went in his time no such thing being to be found in the Greek Copy of Eusebius Nor indeed does he ever there or else-where positively affirm S. Peter to have been Bishop of Rome but only that he preached the Gospel there And expresly affirms that he and S. Paul being dead Linus was the first Bishop of Rome To which I may add that when the Ancients speak of the Bishops of Rome and the first Originals of that Church they equally attribute the founding and the Episcopacy and Government of it to Peter and Paul making the one as much concerned in it as the other Thus Epiphanius reckoning up the Bishops of that See places Peter and Paul in the front as the first Bishops of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peter and Paul Apostles became the first Bishops of Rome then Linus c. And again a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the succession of the Bishops of Rome was in this manner Peter and Paul Linus Cletus c. And Egesippus speaking of their coming to Rome equally says of them that they were Doctores Christianorum sublimes operibus clari magisterio the Instructors of the Christians admirable for miracles and renowned for their authority However granting not only that he was there but that he was Bishop and that for five and twenty years together yet what would this make for the unlimited Soveraignty and Universality of that Church unless a better evidence than Feed my sheep could be produced for its uncontroulable Supremacy and Dominion over the whole Christian World 7. THE summe is this granting what none that has any reverence for Antiquity will deny that S. Peter was at Rome he probably came thither some few Years before his death joyned with and assisted S. Paul in Preaching of the Gospel and then both sealed the Testimony of it with their Bloud The date of his Death is differently assigned by the Ancients Eusebius places it Ann. LXIX in the Fourteenth of Nero Epiphanius in the Twelfth That which seems to me most probable is that it was in the Tenth or the Year LXV which I thus compute Nero's burning of Rome is placed by Tacitus under the Consulship of C. Lecanius and M. Licinius about the Month of July that is Ann. Chr. LXIV This act procured him the infinite hatred and clamours of the People which having in vain endeavoured several ways to remove and pacifie he at last resolved upon this project to derive the Odium upon the Christians whom therefore both to appease the Gods and please the People he condemned as guilty of the fact and caused to be executed with all manner of acute and exquisite Tortures This Persecution we may suppose began about the end of that or the beginning of the following Year And under this Persecution I doubt not it was that S. Peter suffered and changed Earth for Heaven The End of S. Peter's Life THE LIFE OF S. PAUL S. PAUL He was beheaded by the command of Nero the Roman Emperour Place this to the Epistle for the Conversion of S. Paul St. Paul's Conversion Act. 9. 3. 4. And as he journied he came near to Damascus suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven he fell to the earth heard a voice saying unto him Saul Saul c. Ver. 7 And the men which journied with him stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no man SECT I. Of S. PAUL from his Birth till his Conversion S. Paul why placed next Peter Tarsus the place of his Birth an University and a Roman Corporation His Parents of the old stock of Israel descended of the Tribe of Benjamin Jacob's Prophecy applied to him by the Ancients His Names Saul whence Paul when assumed and why His Education in the Schools of Tarsus and in the Trade of Tent-making The Custom of the Jews in bringing up their Youth to Manual Trades His study of the Law under the Tutorage of Gamaliel This Gamaliel who Why said to have been a Christian. Sitting at the feet of their Masters the posture of learners His joyning himself to the Sect of the Pharisees An Enquiry into the Temper and Manners of that Sect. The fiery Zeal and Activity of his Temper His being engaged in Stephen's Martyrdom His violent persecution of the Church His journey to Damascus His Conversion by the way and the manner of it His blindness His rapture into the third Heaven when probably His sight restored His being Baptized and preaching Christ. THOUGH S. Paul was none of the Twelve Apostles yet had he the honour of being an Apostle extraordinary and to be immediately called in a way peculiar to himself He justly deserves a place next S. Peter for as in their lives they were pleasant and lovely so in their death they were not divided especially if it be true that they both suffered not only for the same cause but at the same time as well as place S. Paul was born at Tarsus the Metropolis of Cilicia a City infinitely rich and populous and what contributed more to the fame and honour of it an Academy furnished with Schools of Learning where the Scholars so closely plied their Studies that as Strabo informs us they excelled in all Arts of polite Learning and Philosophy those of other places yea even of Alexandria and Athens it self and that even Rome was beholden to it for many of its best Professors It was a Roman Municipium or free Corporation invested with many Franchises and Priviledges by Julius Caesar and Augustus who granted to the Inhabitants of it the honours and immunities of Citizens of Rome In which respect S. Paul owned and asserted it as the priviledge of his Birth-right that he was a Roman and thereby free from being bound or beaten True it is that S. Hierom followed herein by one who himself travelled in these parts makes him born at Gischalis a well fortified Town in Judaea which being besieged and taken by the Roman Army his Parents fled away with him and dwelt at Tarsus But besides that this contradicts S. Paul who expresly affirms that he was born at Tarsus there needs no more to confute this opinion than that S. Hierom elsewhere slights it as a fabulous report 2. HIS Parents were Jews and that of the Ancient stock not entering in by the Gate of proselytism but originally descended from that Nation which surely he means when he says
had no crafty or covetous designs upon any man's Estate or Riches having as themselves could witness industriously laboured with his own hands and by his own work maintained both himself and his company Herein leaving them an example what pains they ought to take to support the weak and relieve the poor rather than to be themselves chargeable unto others according to that incomparable saying of our Saviour which surely S. Paul had received from some of those that had conversed with him in the days of his flesh It is more blessed to give than to receive This Concio ad Clerum or 〈◊〉 Sermon being ended the Apostle kneeled down and concluded all with Prayer Which done they all melted into tears and with the greatest expressions of sorrow attended him to the Ship though that which made the deepest impression upon their minds was that he had told them That they should 〈◊〉 his face no more 4. DEPARTING from Myletus they arrived at Coos thence came to Rhodes thence to Patara thence to Tyre where meeting with some Christians he was advised by those among them who had the gift of Prophecy that he should not go up to Jerusalem with them he staid a week and then going all together to the shore he kneeled down and prayed with them and having mutually embraced one another he went on board and came to 〈◊〉 where only saluting the Brethren they came next day unto Caesarea Here they lodged in the house of Philip the Evangelist one of the seven Deacons that were at first set apart by the Apostles who had four Virgin-daughters all endued with the gift of prophecy During their stay in this place Agabus a Christian Prophet came down hither from Judaea who taking Paul's girdle bound with it his own hands and feet telling them that by this external Symbol the Holy Ghost did signifie and declare that S. Paul should be thus serv'd by the Jews at 〈◊〉 and be by them delivered over into the hands of the Gentiles Whereupon they all passionately besought him that he would divert his course to some other place The Apostle ask'd them what they meant by these compassionate disswasives to add more affliction to his sorrow that he was willing and resolved not only to be imprisoned but if need were to die at Jerusalem for the sake of Christ and his Religion Finding his resolution fixed and immoveable they importuned him no further but left the event to the Divine will and pleasure All things being in readiness they set forwards on their journey and being come to Jerusalem were kindly and joyfully entertained by the Christians there 5. THE next day after their arrival S. Paul and his company went to the house of S. James the Apostle where the rest of the Bishops and Governours of the Church were met together after mutual salutations he gave them a particular account with what success God had blessed him in propagating Christianity among the Gentiles for which they all heartily blessed God but withall told him that he was now come to a place where there were many thousands of Jewish converts who all retained a mighty zeal and veneration for the Law of Moses and who had been informed of him that he taught the Jews whom he had converted in every place to renounce Circumcision and the Ceremonies of the Law That as soon as the multitude heard of his arrival they would come together to see how he behaved himself in this matter and therefore to prevent so much disturbance it was advisable that there being four men there at that time who were to accomplish a Vow probably not the 〈◊〉 vow but some other which they had made for deliverance from sickness or some other eminent danger and distress for so Josephus tells us they were wont to do in such cases and before they came to offer the accustomed Sacrifices to abstain for some time from Wine and to shave their heads he would joyn himself to them perform the usual Rites and Ceremonies with them and provide such Sacrifices for them as the Law required in that case and that in discharge of their Vow they might shave their heads Whereby it would appear that the reports which were spread concerning him were false and groundless and that he himself did still observe the Rites and Orders of the Mosaical Institution That as for the Gentile converts they required no such observances at their hands nor expected any thing more from them in these indifferent matters than what had been before determined by the Apostolical Synod in that place S. Paul who in such things was willing to become all things to all men that he might gain the more consented to the counsel which they gave him and taking the persons along with him to the Temple told the 〈◊〉 that the time of a Vow which they had made being now run out and having purified themselves as the nature of the case required they were come to make their offerings according to the Law 6. THE seven days wherein those Sacrifices were to be offered being now almost 〈◊〉 some Jews that were come from 〈◊〉 where probably they had opposed S. Paul now finding him in the Temple began to raise a tumult and uproar and laying hold of him called out to the rest of the Jews for their assistance Telling them that this was the fellow that every where vented Doctrines 〈◊〉 to the prerogative of the Jewish Nation destructive to the Institutions of the Law and to the purity of that place which he had prophaned by bringing in uncircumcised Greeks into it Positively concluding that because they had seen Trophimus a Gentile convert of Ephesus with him in the City therefore he had brought him also into the Temple So apt is malice to make any premises from whence it may infer its own conclusion Hereupon the whole City was presently in an uproar and seising upon him they dragged him out of the Temple the doors being presently shut against him Nor had they failed there to have put a period to all his troubles had not 〈◊〉 Lysias Commander of the Roman Garrison in the Tower of Antonia come in with some Souldiers to his rescue and deliverance and supposing him to be a more than an ordinary Malefactor commanded a double chain to be put upon him though as yet altogether ignorant either who he or what his crime was and wherein he could receive little satisfaction from the clamorous multitude who called for nothing but his death following the cry with such crouds and numbers that the Souldiers were forced to take him into their arms to secure him from the present rage and violence of the people As they were going up into the Castle S. Paul asked the Governour whether he might have the liberty to speak to him who finding him to speak Greek enquired of him whether he was not that Egyptian which a few Years before had raised a Sedition in 〈◊〉 and headed a party of
West he taught righteousness to the whole World and went to the utmost bounds of the West Which makes me the more wonder at the confidence of one otherwise a Man of great parts and learning who so peremptorily denies that ever our Apostle preached in the West meerly because there are no Monuments left in Primitive Antiquity of any particular Churches there founded by him As if all the particular passages of his life done at so vast a distance must needs have been recorded or those records have come down to us when it is so notoriously known that almost all the Writings and Monuments of those first Ages of Christianity are long since perished or as if we were not sufficiently assured of the thing in general though not of what particularly he did there Probable it is that he went into Spain a thing which himself tells us he had formerly once and again resolved on Certain it is that the Ancients do generally assert it without seeming in the least to doubt of it Theodoret and others tell us that he preached not only in Spain but that he went to other Nations and brought the Gospel into the Isles of the Sea by which he undoubtedly means Britain and therefore elsewhere reckons the Gauls and Britains among the Nations which the Apostles and particularly the Tent-maker perswaded to embrace the Law of Christ. Nor is he the only Man that has said it others having given in their testimony and suffrage in this case 8. TO what other parts of the World S. Paul preached the Gospel we find no certain foot-steps in Antiquity nor any further mention of him till his return to Rome which probably was about the Eighth or Ninth Year of Nero's Reign Here he met with Peter and was together with him thrown into Prison no doubt in the general Persecution raised against the Christians under the pretence that they had fir'd the City Besides the general we may reasonably suppose there were particular causes of his Imprisonment Some of the Ancients make him engaged with Peter in procuring the fall of Simon Magus and that that derived the Emperor's fury and rage upon him S. Chrysostome gives us this account that having converted one of Nero's Concubines a Woman of whom he was infinitely fond and reduced her to a life of great strictness and chastity so that now she wholly refused to comply with his wanton and impure embraces the Emperor stormed hereat calling the Apostle a Villain and Impostor a wretched perverter and debaucher of others giving order that he should be cast into Prison and when he still persisted to perswade the Lady to continue her chast and pious resolutions commanding him to be put to death 9. HOW long he remained in Prison is not certainly known at last his Execution was resolved on what his preparatory treatment was whether scourged as Malefactors were wont to be in order to their death we find not As a Roman Citizen by the Valerian and the Porcian Law he was exempted from it Though by the Law of the XII Tables notorious Malefactors condemned by the Centuriate Assemblies were first to be scourged and then put to death and Baronius tells us that in the Church of S. Mary beyond the Bridge in Rome the Pillars are yet extant to which both Peter and Paul are said to have been bound and scourged As he was led to Execution he is said to have converted three of the Souldiers that were sent to conduct and guard him who within few days after by the Emperours command became Martyrs for the Faith Being come to the place which was the Aquae Salviae three Miles from Rome after some solemn preparation he chearfully gave his Neck to the fatal stroke As a Roman he might not be put upon the Cross too infamous a Death for any but the worst of Slaves and Malefactors and therefore was beheaded accounted a more noble kind of Death among the Romans fit for Persons of better Quality and more ingenuous Education And from this Instrument of his Execution the custom no doubt first arose that in all Pictures and Images of this Apostle he is constantly represented with a Sword in his right hand Tradition reports justified herein by the suffrage of many of the Fathers that when he was beheaded a Liquor more like Milk than Blood flowed from his Veins and spirted upon the Clothes of his Executioner and had I list or leisure for such things I might entertain the Reader with the little glosses that are made upon it S. Chrysostom adds that it became a means of converting his Executioner and many more to the Faith and that the Apostle suffered in the sixty eighth Year of his Age. Some question there is whether he suffered at the same time with Peter many of the Ancients positively affirm that both suffered on the same Day and Year but others though allowing the same Day tell us that S. Paul suffered not till the Year after nay some interpose the distance of several Years A Manuscript writer of the Lives and Travels of Peter and Paul brought amongst other venerable Monuments of Antiquity out of Greece will have Paul to have suffered no less than five Years after Peter which he justifies by the authority of no less than Justin Martyr and Irenaeus But what credit is to be given to this nameless Author I see not and therefore lay no weight upon it nor think it fit to be put into the balance with the testimonies of the Ancients Certainly if he suffered not at the very same time with Peter it could not be long after not above a Year at most The best is which of them soever started first they both came at last to the same end of the race to those Palms and Crowns which are reserved for all good Men in Heaven but most eminently for the Martyrs of the Christian Faith 10. HE was buried in the Via Ostiensis about two Miles from Rome over whose Grave about the Year CCCXVIII Constantine the Great at the instance of Pope Sylvester built a stately Church within a Farme which Lucina a noble Christian Matron of Rome had long before setled upon that Church He adorned it with an hundred of the best Marble columns and beautified it with the most exquisit workmanship the many rich gifts and endowments which he bestowed upon it being particularly set down in the Life of Sylvester This Church as too narrow and little for the honour of so great an Apostle 〈◊〉 or rather Theodosius the Emperor the one but finishing what the other began by a Rescript directed to Sallustius Praefect of the City caused to be taken down and a larger and more noble Church to be built in the room of it Further beautified as appears from an ancient Inscription by Placidia the Empress at the perswasion of Leo Bishop of Rome What other additions of Wealth Honour or stateliness it has
life The imposition of a new name at his election to the Apostleship He and his Brother stiled Boanerges and why The Zeal and activity of their temper Their ambition to sit on Christ's right and left hand in his Kingdom and confident promise of suffering This ill resented by the rest Our Lord's discourse concerning the nature of the Evangelical state Where he preached after Christ's Ascension The story of his going into Spain exploded Herod Agrippa in favour with the Roman Emperors The character of his temper His zeal for the Law of Moses His condemning S. James to death The sudden conversion of his Accuser as he was led to Martyrdom Their being beheaded The Divine Justice that pursued Herod His grandeur and arrogance at Caesarea His miserable death The story of the Translation of S. James his Corps to Compostella in Spain and the Miracles said to be done there 1. SAINT James surnamed the Great either because of his Age being much elder than the other or for some peculiar honours and favours which our Lord conferred upon him was by Country a Galilean born probably either at Gapernaum or Bethsaida being one of Simon Peter's Partners in the Trade of Fishing He was the Son of Zebdai or Zebedee and probably the same whom the Jews mention in their Talmud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rabbi James or Jacob the Son of Zebedee a Fisherman and the many servants which he kept for that imployment a circumstance not taken notice of in any other speak him a man of some more considerable note in that Trade and way of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nicephorus notes His Mother's name was Mary surnamed Salome called first Taviphilja says an ancient Arabick writer the Daughter as is most probable not Wife of Cleopas Sister to Mary the Mother of our Lord not her own Sister properly so called the Blessed Virgin being in all likelihood an only Daughter but Cousin-german stiled her Sister according to the mode and custom of the Jews who were wont to call all such near relations by the names of Brothers and Sisters and in this respect he had the honour of a near relation to our Lord himself His education was in the Trade of Fishing no imployment is base that 's honest and industrious nor can it be thought mean and dishonourable to him when it is remembred that our Lord himself the Son of God stoop'd so low as not only to become the reputed Son of a Carpenter but during the retirements of his private life to work himself at his Father's Trade not devoting himself merely to contemplations nor withdrawing from all useful society with the World and hiding himself in the solitudes of an Anchoret but busying himself in an active course of life working at the Trade of a Carpenter and particularly as one of the Ancients tells us making Ploughs and Yokes And this the sacred History does not only plainly intimate but it is generally asserted by the Ancient writers of the Church A thing so notorious that the Heathens used to object it as a reproach to Christianity Thence that smart and acute reparteé which a Christian School-master made to Libanius the famous Orator at Antioch when upon Julian's expedition into Persia where he was killed he asked in scorn what the Carpenters Son was now a doing The Christian replied with salt enough That the great Artificer of the World whom he scoffingly called the Carpenter's Son was making a coffin for his Master Julian the news of whose death was brought soon after But this only by the way 2. S. JAMES applied himself to his Father's Trade not discouraged with the meanness not sinking under the difficulties of it and as usually the blessings of Heaven meet men in the way of an honest and industrious diligence it was in the exercise of this calling when our Saviour passing by the Sea of Galilee saw him and his brother in the Ship and called them to be his Disciples A Divine power went along with the word which they no sooner heard but chearfully complied with it immediately leaving all to follow him They did not stay to dispute his commands to argue the probability of his promise solicitously to enquire into the minute consequences of the undertaking what troubles and hazards might attend this new employment but readily delivered up themselves to whatever services he should appoint them And the chearfulness of their obedience is yet further considerable that they left their aged Father in the Ship behind them For elsewhere we find others excusing themselves from an immediate attendance upon Christ upon pretence that they must go bury their Father or take their leave of their kindred at home No such slight and trivial pretences could stop the resolution of our Apostles who broke through these considerations and quitted their present interests and relations Say not it was unnaturally done of them to desert their Father an aged person and in some measure unable to help himself For besides that they left servants with him to attend him it is not cruelty to our Earthly but obedience to our Heavenly Father to leave the one that we may comply with the call and summons of the other It was the triumph of Abraham's Faith when God called him to leave his kindred and his Father's house to go out and sojourn in a foreign Country not knowing whither he went Nor can we doubt but that Zebedee himself would have gone along with them had not his Age given him a Supersedeas from such an active and ambulatory course of life But though they left him at this time it 's very reasonable to suppose that they took care to instruct him in the doctrine of the Messiah and to acquaint him with the glad tidings of Salvation especially since we find their Mother Salome so hearty a friend to so constant a follower of our Saviour But this if we may believe the account which one gives of it was after her Husbands decease who próbably lived not long after dying before the time of our Saviour's Passion 3. IT was not long after this that he was called from the station of an ordinary Disciple to the Apostolical Office and not only so but honoured with some peculiar acts of favour beyond most of the Apostles being one of the three whom our Lord usually made choice of to admit to the more intimate transactions of his life from which the others were excluded Thus with Peter and his Brother John he was taken to the miraculous raising of Jairus his Daughter admitted to Christ's glorious transfiguration upon the Mount and the discourses that there passed between him and the two great Ministers of Heaven taken along with him into the Garden to be a Spectator of those bitter Agonies which the Holy Jesus was to undergo as the preparatory sufferings to his Passion What were the reasons of our Lord 's admitting these three Apostles to
alive by forging and fathering a fabulous Gospel upon his name which together with others of like stamp Gelasius Bishop of Rome justly branded as Apocryphal altogether unworthy the name and patronage of an Apostle The End of S. Bartholomew's Life THE LIFE OF S. MATTHEW S. MATHEW S. Mathew the Apostle and Euangelist preached the Gospel in AEthiopia and was there slayn with an Holbert Bed el Baron Sept. 21 St Mathew his Martyrdom 1 Pet. 3. 14. If ye suffer for righteousnesse sake happy are ye be not afraid of their terrour neither be ye troubled His Birth-place and Kindred His Trade the Office of a Publican The great dignity of this Office among the Romans The honours done to Vespasian's Father for the faithful discharge of it This Office infamous among the Greeks but especially the Jewes What things concurr'd to render it odious and grievous to them Their bitter abhorrency of this sort of men S. Matthew's imployment wherein it particularly consisted The Publican's Ticket what S. Matthew's call and his ready obedience His inviting our Lord to Dinner The Pharisees cavil and our Saviour's answer His Preaching in Judaea His travails into Parthia AEthiopia c. to propagate Christianity The success of his Ministry His Death His singular contempt of the World Gensured herein by Julian and Porphyry His exemplary temperance and sobriety His humility and modesty Unreasonable to reproach Penitents with the vices of their former Life His Gospel when and why written Composed by him in Hebrew The general consent of Antiquity herein It s translation into Greek when and by whom The Hebrew Copy by whom owned and interpolated Those now extant not the same with those mentioned in Antiquity 1. SAINT Matthew called also Levi was though a Roman Officer an Hebrew of the Hebrews both his Names speaking him purely of Jewish extract and Original and probably a Galilean and whom I should have concluded born at or near Capernaum but that the Arabick Writer of his life tells us he was born at Nazareth a City in the Tribe of Zebulun famous for the habitation of Joseph and Mary but especially the education and residence of our Blessed saviour who though born at Bethlehem was both conceiv'd and bred up here where he lived the whole time of his private life whence he derived the Title of Jesus of Nazareth S. Matthew was the Son of Alpheus and Mary Sister or Kinswoman to the Blessed Virgin in the same Arabick Author his Father is called 〈◊〉 and his Mother Karutias both originally descended of the Tribe of Issachar nothing being more common among the Jews than for the same Person to have several names these latter probably express'd in Arabick according to their Jewtsh signification His Trade or way of life was that of a Publican or Toll-gatherer to the 〈◊〉 which probably had been his Father's Trade his Name denoting a Broker or Mony-changer an Office of bad report amongst the Jews Indeed among the Romans it was accounted a place of power and credit and honourable reputation not ordinarily conferred upon any but Roman Knights insomuch that T. Fl. Sabinus Father to the Emperor Vespasian was the Publican of the Asian Provinces an Office which he discharged so much to the content and satisfaction of the People that they erected Statues to him with this Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To him that has well managed the Publican-Office These Officers being sent into the Provinces to gather the Tributes were wont to imploy the Natives under them as Persons best skilled in the affairs and customes of their own Country Two things especially concurred to render this Office odious to the Jews First that the Persons that managed it were usually covetous and great Exactors for having themselves farmed the Customes of the Romans they must gripe and scrape by all methods of Extortion that they might be able both to pay their Rent and to raise gain and advantage to themselves which doubtless 〈◊〉 the Chief of these Farmers was sensible of when after his Conversion he offered four-fold restitution to any Man from whom he had taken any thing by fraud and evil arts And upon this account they became insamous even among the Gentiles themselves who commonly speak of them as Cheats and Thieves and publick Robbers and worse members of a community more voracious and destructive in a City than wild Beasts in the Forest. The other thing that made the Jews so much detest them was that this Tribute was not only a grievance to their Purses but an affront to the liberty and freedom of their Nation for they looked upon themselves as a Free-born People and that they had been immediately invested in this priviledge by God himself and accordingly beheld this as a daily and standing instance of their slavery which of all other things they could least endure and which therefore betrayed them into so many unfortunate Rebellions against the Romans Add to this that these Publicans were not only obliged by the necessity of their Trade to have frequent dealing and converse with the Gentiles which the Jews held unlawful and abominable but that being Jews themselves they rigorously exacted these things of their Brethren and thereby seemed to conspire with the Romans to entail perpetual slavery upon their own Nation For though Tertullian thought that none but Gentiles were imployed in this sordid office yet the contrary is too evident to need any argument to prove it 2. BY these means Publicans became so universally abhorred by the Jewish Nation that it was accounted unlawful to do them any office of common kindness and courtesie nay they held it no sin to couzen and over-reach a Publican and that with the solemnity of an Oath they might not eat or drink walk or travel with them they were looked upon as common Thieves and Robbers and Money received of them might not be put to the rest of a Man's Estate it being presumed to have been gained by rapine and violence they were not admitted as Persons fit to give testimony and evidence in any cause so infamous were they as not only to be banished all communion in the matters of Divine Worship but to be shunned in all affairs of civil society and commerce as the Pests of their Country Persons of an infectious converse of as vile a Classe as Heathens themselves Hence the common Proverb among them Take not a Wife out of that Family wherein there is a Publican for they are all Publicans that is Thieves Robbers and wicked sinners To this Proverbial usage our Lord alludes when speaking of a contumacious sinner whom neither private reproofs nor the publick censures and admonitions of the Church can prevail upon Let him be unto 〈◊〉 says he as an Heathen and a Publican as elsewhere Publicans and sinners are yoked together as Persons of equal esteem and reputation Of this Trade and Office was our S. Matthew and it seems more particularly
and to propound no other rewards but the invisible encouragements of another World his change in this case was the more strange and admirable Indeed so admirable that Porphyry and Julian two subtle and acute adversaries of the Christian Religion hence took occasion to charge him either with falshood or with folly either that he gave not a true account of the thing or that it was very weakly done of him so hastily to follow any one that call'd him But the Holy Jesus was no common Person in all his commands there was somewhat more than ordinary Indeed S. Hierom conceives that besides the Divinity that manifested it self in his Miracles there was a Divine brightness and a kind of Majesty in our Saviour's looks that at first sight was attractive enough to draw Persons after him However his miraculous powers that reflected a lustre from every quarter and the efficacy of his Doctrine accompanied with the grace of God made way for the summons that were sent our Apostle and enabled him to conquer all oppositions that stood in the way to hinder him 6. HIS contempt of the World further appeared in his exemplary temperance and abstemiousness from all the delights and pleasures yea the ordinary conveniences and accommodations of it so far from indulging his appetite with nice and delicate curiosities that he refused to gratifie it with lawful and ordinary provisions eating no flesh his usual Diet being nothing but Herbs Roots Seeds and Berries But what appeared most remarkable in him and which though the least vertue in it self is the greatest in a wise Man's esteem and value was his humility mean and modest in his own conceit in honour preferring others before himself Whereas the other Evangelists in describing the Apostles by pairs constantly place him before Thomas he modestly places him before himself The rest of the Evangelists openly mention the honour of his Apostleship but speak of his former sordid dishonest and disgraceful course of life only under the name of Levi while he himself sets it down with all its circumstances under his own proper and common name Which as at once it commends his own candor and ingenuity so it administers to us this not unuseful consideration That the greatest sinners are not excluded the lines of Divine grace nor can any if penitent have just reason to despair when Publicans and sinners are taken in And as S. Matthew himself does freely and impartially record his own vile and dishonourable course of life so the two other Evangelists though setting down the story take notice of him only under another name to teach us to treat a penitent Brother with all modesty and tenderness If a man repent say the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no man say to him remember thy former works which they explain not only concerning Israelites but even strangers and Proselytes It being against the rules of civility as well as the Laws of Religion when a Man hath repented to upbraid and reproach him with the errors and follies of his past life 7. THE last thing that calls for any remarks in the life of this Apostle is his Gospel written at the intreaty of the Jewish Converts and as Epiphanius tells us at the command of the Apostles while he was yet in Palestine about Eight Years after the death of Christ though Nicephorus will have it to be written Fifteen Years after our Lord's Ascension and 〈◊〉 yet much wider who seems to imply that it was written while Peter and Paul Preached at Rome which was not till near Thirty Years after But most plain it is that it must be written before the dispersion of the Apostles seeing S. Bartholomew as we have noted in his Life took it along with him into India and left it there He wrote it in Hebrew as primarily designing it for the use of his Country-men and strange it is that any should question its being originally written in that Language when the thing is so universally and uncontroulably asserted by all Antiquity not one that I know of after the strictest enquiry I could make dissenting in this matter and who certainly had far greater opportunities of being satisfied in these things than we can have at so great a distance It was no doubt soon after translated into Greek though by whom S. Hierom professes he could not tell Theophylact says it was reported to have been done by S. John but Athanasius more expresly attributes the Translation to S. James the less The best is it matters not much whether it was translated by an Apostle or some Disciple so long as the Apostles approved the Version and that the Church has ever received the Greek Copy for 〈◊〉 and reposed it in the Sacred Canon 8. AFTER the Greek Translation was entertained the Hebrew Copy was chiefly owned and used by the 〈◊〉 a middle Sect of Men between Jews and Christians with the Christians they believed in Christ and embraced his Religion with the Jews they adhered to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaick Law and hence this Gospel came to be stiled the Gospel according to the Hebrews and the Gospel of the Nazarens By them it was by degrees interpolated several Passages of the Evangelical History which they had heard either from the Apostles or those who had familiarly conversed with them being inserted which the ancient Fathers frequently refer to in their Writings as by the Ebionites it was mutilated and many things cut off for the same reason for which the followers of Cerinthus though making use of the greatest part of it rejected the rest because it made so much against them This Hebrew Copy though whether exactly the same as it was written by S. Matthew I will not say was found among other Books in the Treasury of the Jews at Tiberias by Joseph a Jew and after his Conversion a Man of great honour and esteem in the time of Constantine another S. Hierom assures us was kept in the Library at Caesarea in his time and another by the Nazarens at Beroea from whom he had the liberty to transcribe it and which he afterwards translated both into Greek and Latin with this particular observation that in quoting the Texts of the Old Testament the Evangelist immediately follows the Hebrew without taking notice of the Translation of the Septuagint A Copy also of this Gospel was Ann. CCCCLXXXV dug up and found in the Grave of Barnabas in Cyprus transcribed with his own hand But these Copies are long since perished and for those that have been since published to the World both by Tile and Munster were there no other argument they too openly betray themselves by their barbarous and improper stile not to be the genuine issue of that less corrupt and better Age. The End of S. Matthew's Life THE LIFE OF S. THOMAS St. Thomas By the command of an Indian King he was thrust through with
to John the Baptist. Hence reputed our Lord's Brother in the same sence that he was reputed the Son of Joseph Indeed we find several spoken of in the History of the Gospel who were Christ's Brethren but in what sence was controverted of old S. Hierom Chrysostom and some others will have them so called because the Sons of Mary Cousin-german or according to the custome of the Hebrew Language Sister to the Virgin Mary But Eusebius Epiphanius and the far greater part of the Ancients from whom especially in matters of fact we are not rashly to depart make them the Children of Joseph by a former Wife And this seems most genuine and natural the Evangelists seeming very express and accurate in the account which they give of them Is not this the Carpenter's Son Is not his Mother called Mary and his Brethren James and Joses and Simon and Jude and his Sisters whose Names says the foresaid Hippolytus were Esther and Thamar are they not all with us whence then hath this man these things By which it is plain that the Jews understood these Persons not to be Christ's Kinsmen only but his Brothers the same Carpenter's Sons having the same relation to him that Christ himself had though indeed they had more Christ being but his reputed they his natural Sons Upon this account the Blessed Virgin is sometimes called the Mother of James and Joses for so amongst the Women that attended at our Lord's Crucifixion we find three eminently taken notice of Mary Magdalen Mary the Mother of James and Joses and the Mother of Zebedees Children Where by Mary the Mother of James and Joses no other can be meant than the Virgin Mary it not being reasonable to suppose that the Evangelists should omit the Blessed Virgin who was certainly there and therefore S. John reckoning up the same Persons expresly stiles her the Mother of Jesus And though it is true she was but S. James his Mother-in-law yet the Evangelists might chuse so to stile her because commonly so called after Joseph's death and probably as Gregory of Nyssa thinks known by that Name all along chusing that Title that the Son of God whom as a Virgin she had brought forth might be better concealed and less exposed to the malice of the envious Jews nor is it any more wonder that she should be esteemed and called the Mother of James than that Joseph should be stiled and accounted the Father of Jesus To which add that Josephus eminently skilful in matters of Genealogy and descent expresly says that our S. James was the Brother of Jesus Christ. One thing there is that may seem to lye against it that he is called the Son of Alphaeus But this may probably mean no more than either that Joseph was so called by another Name it being frequent yea almost constant among the Jews for the same Person to have two Names Quis unquam prohibuerit duobus vel tribus nominibus hominem 〈◊〉 vocari as S. Augustin speaks in a parallel case or as a learned Man conjectures it may relate to his being a Disciple of some particular Sect or Synagogue among the Jews called Alphaeans from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denoting a Family or Society of devout and learned Men of somewhat more eminency than the rest there being as he tells us many such at this time among the Jews and in this probably S. James had entred himself the great reputation of his Piety and strictness his Wisdom Parts and Learning rendring the conjecture above the censure of being trifling and contemptible 3. OF the place of his Birth the Sacred story makes no mention The Jewes in their Talmud for doubtless they intend the same Person stile him more than once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of the Town of Sechania though where that was I am not able to conjecture What was his particular way and course of life before his being called to the Discipleship and Apostolate we find no intimations of in the History of the Gospel nor any distinct account concerning him during our Saviour's life After the Resurrection he was honoured with a particular Appearance of our Lord to him which though silently passed over by the Evangelists is recorded by S. Paul next to the manifesting himself to the Five Hundred Brethren at once he was seen of James which is by all understood of our Apostle S. Hierom out of the Hebrew Gospel of the Nazarens wherein many passages are set down omitted by the Evangelical Historians gives us a fuller relation of it viz. that S. James had solemnly sworn that from the time that he had drank of the Cup at the Institution of the Supper he would eat Bread no more till he saw the Lord risen from the dead Our Lord therefore being returned from the Grave came and appeared to him commanded Bread to be set before him which he took blessed and brake and gave to S. James saying Eat thy Bread my Brother for the Son of Man is truly risen from among them that sleep After Christ's Ascension though I will not venture to determine the precise time he was chosen Bishop of Jerusalem preferred before all the rest for his near relation unto Christ for this we find to have been the reason why they chose Symeon to be his immediate Successor in that See because he was after him our Lord's next Kinsman A consideration that made Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee though they had been peculiarly honoured by our Saviour not to contend for this high and honourable Place but freely chuse James the Just to be Bishop of it This dignity is by some of the Ancients said to have been conferred on him by Christ himself constituting him Bishop at the time of his appearing to him But it 's safest with others to understand it of its being done by the Apostles or possibly by some particular intimation concerning it which our Lord might leave behind him 4. TO him we find S. Paul making his Address after his Conversion by whom he was honoured with the right hand of fellowship to him Peter sent the news of his miraculous deliverance out of Prison Go shew these things unto James and to the Brethren that is to the whole Church and especially S. James the Bishop and Pastor of it But he was principally active in the Synod at Jerusalem in the great controversie about the Mosaick Rites for the case being opened by Peter and further debated by Paul and Barnabas at last stood up S. James to pass the final and decretory sentence that the Gentile-Converts were not to be troubled with the bondage of the Jewish Yoke only that for a present accommodation some few indifferent Rites should be observed ushering in the expedient with this positive conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I thus judge or decide the matter this is my sentence and determination
God has made them Authentick and consecrated them part of the holy Canon 6. BEING thus satisfied in the Canonicalness of this Epistle none but S. Jude could be the Author of it for who but he was the Brother of S. James a character by which he is described in the Evangelical story more than once Grotius indeed will needs have it written by a younger Jude the fifteenth Bishop of Jerusalem in the reign of Adrian and because he saw that that passage the Brother of James stood full in his way he concludes without any shadow of reason that it was added by some Transcriber But is not this to make too bold with Sacred things is not this to indulge too great a liberty this once allowed 't will soon open a door to the wildest and most extravagant conjectures and no man shall know where to find sure-sooting for his Faith But the Reader may remember what we have elsewhere observed concerning the Posthume Annotations of that learned man Not to say that there are many things in this Epistle that evidently refer to the time of this Apostle and imply it to have been written upon the same occasion and about the same time with the second Epistle of Peter between which and this there is a very great affinity both in words and matter nay there want not some that endeavour to prove this Epistle to have been written no less than twenty seven years before that of Peter and that hence it was that Peter borrowed those passages that are so near a-kin to those in this Epistle The design of the Epistle is to preserve Christians from the infection of Gnosticism the loose and debauched principles vented by Simon Magus and his followers whose wretched doctrines and practises he briefly and elegantly represents perswading Christians heartily to contend for the Faith that had been delivered to them and to avoid these pernicious Seducers as pests and fire-brands not to communicate with them in their sins lest they perished with them in that terrible vengeance that was ready to overtake them The End of S. Jude's Life THE LIFE OF S. MATTHIAS S. MATHIAS He preached the Gospell in Ethiopia suffered Martyrdome and was buried there S. Hierom. St. Matthias his Martyrdom Hebr. 11 37. They were stoned they were sawn asunder they were tempted were slain with the sword S. Matthias one of the Seventy Judas Iscariot whence A bad Minister nulls not the ends of his ministration His worldly and covetous temper His monstrous ingratitude His betraying his Master and the aggravations of the sin The distraction and horror of his mind The miserable state of an evil and guilty Conscience His violent death The election of a new Apostle The Candidates who The Lot cast upon Matthias His preaching the Gospel and in what parts of the World His Martyrdom when where and how His Body whither translated The Gospel and Traditions vented under his name 1. SAINT Matthias not being an Apostle of the first Election immediately called and chosen by our Saviour particular remarks concerning him are not to be expected in the History of the Gospel He was one of our Lord's Disciples and probably one of the Seventy that had attended on him the whole time of his publick Ministry and after his death was elected into the Apostleship upon this occasion Judas Iscariot so called probably from the place of his nativity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of Kerioth a City anciently situate in the Tribe of Judah had been one of the Twelve immediately called by Christ to be one of his intimate Disciples equally impowered and commissioned with the rest to Preach and work Miracles was numbred with them and had obtained part of their Ministry And yet all this while was a man of vile and corrupt designs branded with no meaner a character than Thief and Murderer To let us see that there may be bad servants in Christ's own family and that the wickedness of a Minister does not evacuate his Commission nor render his Office useless and ineffectual The unworthiness of the instrument hinders not the ends of the ministration Seeing the efficacy of an ordinance depends not upon the quality of the person but the Divine institution and the blessing which God has entailed upon it Judas preached Christ no doubt with zeal and fervency and for any thing we know with as much success as the rest of the Apostles and yet he was a bad man a man acted by 〈◊〉 and mean designs one that had prostituted Religion and the honour of his place to covetousness and evil arts The love of money had so intirely possessed his thoughts that his resolutions were bound for nothing but interest and advantage But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare This covetous temper betrayed him as in the issue to the most fatal end so to the most desperate attempt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Origen calls the putting Christ to death the most prodigious impiety that the Sun ever shone on the betraying his innocent Lord into the hands of those who he knew would treat him with all the circumstances of insolent scorn and cruelty How little does kindness work upon a disingenuous mind It was not the honour of the place to which when thousands of others were passed by our Lord had called him the admitting him into a free and intimate fellowship with his person the taking him to be one of his peculiar domesticks and attendants that could divert the wretch from his wicked purpose He knew how desirous the great men of the Nation were to get Christ into their hands especially at the time of the Passeover that he might with the more publick disgrace 〈◊〉 sacrificed before all the people and therefore bargains with them and for no greater a summ than under four pounds to betray the Lamb of God into the paws of these Wolves and Lions In short he heads the party conducts the Officers and sees him delivered into their hands 2. BUT there 's an active principle in man's breast that seldom suffers daring sinners to pass in quiet to their Graves Awakened with the horror of the fact conscience began to rouze and follow close and the man was unable to bear up under the furious revenges of his own mind As indeed all wilful and deliberate sins and especially the guilt of bloud are wont more sensibly to alarm the natural notions of our minds and to excite in us the fears of some present vengeance that will seise upon us And how intolerable are those scourges that lash us in this vital and tender part The spirit of the man sinks under him and all supports snap asunder As what case or comfort can he enjoy that carries a Vultur in his bosom always gnawing and preying upon his heart Which made Plutarch compare an evil Conscience to a Cancer in the breast that perpetually gripes and stings the Soul with the pains of an intolerable