rude barbarisms had exempted them from the number of civil Common-wealths who did not deserve the name of people not of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without either Article or Adjective such as no body could point at with an Article or construe with an Adjective such as seem here to be excluded out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that yet one would think includes all Such as if you were to number up all the world you would leave out them to these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to uncover and shew 'um to the world and out of their thick darkness to light them the way unto salvation Which brings me to the benefits together with the parties Light and Glory Light to the Gentiles Glory to Israel A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of the people of Israel I keep Gods method Fiat Lux begin with light Gen. i. 2. I need not tell you 't is a benefit Truly light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is says the Preacher Eccles. xi 7. and Mordecai joyns light and gladness together Hest. viii 16. So salutare letificans it is salvation that brings joy and gladness with it 2. Light of all motions has the most sudden it even prevents the subtilest sense And was it not so with this salvation When all things were in quiet silence and that night was in the midst of her swift course thine Almighty word leapt down from heaven out of thy Royal Throne Wisdom xviii 14. Salutare praeveniens vota Salvation that prevents our dreams and awakes our slumbering consciences 3. And when our eye-lids are past those slumbers then Lighten mine eyes O Lord that I sleep not in death Those dark chambers have no lights A light to lighten them a light to shew my self to my self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reveal my inmost thoughts to shew me the ugly deformity of my sins will be a blessing Lumen revelans tenebras no dark-lanthorn light a light to shew us the darkness we are in our Salutare dispergens tenebras salvation that dispels the horrid darkness 4. And to do that the enlightning of the medium is not sufficient In conspectu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just before us it may be and the windows of our eyes damm'd up against it A light then to pierce the Organ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into it it must be Lumen penetrans oculum salvation not only presented to the eye but to the sight the eye fitly disposed to behold it 5. Every enlightning will not do that It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the light of revelation No other will serve the turn not the light of nature not the dictates of reason not the light of moral vertues or acquired habits but something from above something infused such as comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divine inspiration What light else no remedy but buried we must be in everlasting night Scriptures or revealed truth the revelation of Iesus Christ must save whoever shall be saved No man can come to me except the Father draw him St. John vi 44. No man lay hold upon the Name of Iesus or salvation but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Lumen divine revelationis salvation by the glorious light of Divine Revelation 6. There is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which yet wants an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Revelation that wants a Revelation such as St. Iohns a dark one This an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lightsome one such as Revelations are when Prophesies are fulfilled of things past not things to come Lumen Revelationis revelatae a light of salvation as clear as day 'T is time now to ask whither it is this light and revelation lead us I shall answer you out of Zacharies Benedictus S. Luke i. 79. They guide our feet into the way of peace Send forth thy light and thy truth and they shall guide me Psal. xliii 3. So David guide me whither Psal. lvi 13. To walk before God in the light of the living One light to another the light of grace to the light of glory So Lumen dirigens or salutare pertingens ad coelum salvation leading up to heaven Sum up all Salvation to make us glad a light a light to comfort not a lightning to terrifie The lightnings shone upon the ground the earth trembled and was afraid no such no lightning Nor St. Paul's light a light to blind but to give light nor to play about the medium only but to open and dispose the weak dim eye Not by a weak glimmering of nature nor by a dusky twi-light but by a clear Revelation not an ignis fatuus to misguide us out of the way into bogs and quagmires but to guide us to peace and to salvation Lastly not a light to any to see only that they are inexcusable ut essent inexcusabiles that seeing they might see and not understand a light to light 'um down to Hell that they might see the way down through those gloomy shades with more ease horrour and confusion that 's the event indeed sometimes the end never but thither upward from whence it comes to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the beginning of the Text to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the end And can your thoughts prompt to your desires any greater benefits can you wish more And yet if we but consider in what plight the parties were upon whom the rays of this light shone the salvation will seem more beneficial They were in darkness and could any thing be more welcome to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death then a light to lighten That was the miserable case the Gentiles now were in Neither have the Heathen knowledge of his laws 't was so in Davids time and so continued on till this days rising Sun scattered the Clouds and now the case is altered Dedi te in lucem gentium fulfilled in his time The Gentiles now enlightned Enlightned what 's that Those that are baptized are said to be enlightned Heb. x. So the Gentiles enlightned will be in effect the Gentiles baptized Baptized they may be with water and they had need of some such cleansing element to wash their black dark sullied souls but there is another Baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire fire that 's light so to be baptized with light will be with the Holy Ghost 'T was heavy midnight through the world Iudea was the only Goshen the land of light till he that was born this day breaking down the partition that divided Palestine from the nations gave way for the light which before shone only there to disperse its saving beams quite through the world Then did they whose habitations were pitcht in the region of death whose dwellings in the suburbs of Hell see a marvellous great light spring up that 's salus personis accommodata salvation fitted to the parties Fitted and tempestively too to them
way past too What can we then do less than pass our selves into his service under his protection Than pass our souls and spirits out of our lips in praises and thanksgiving That all those beggarly Elements as the Apostle calls them Gal. iv 9. those temporal promises and threats that heavie slavish servitude that dealing with us as with untoward children under the rod or as slaves and servants is past from us that we are now at the liberty of Sons and the honour of being the friends of God such to whom God is now pleased in Christ to reveal his secrets and mysteries so long hidden even from the beginning of the world as the Apostle speaks Eph. iii. 9. and into which the Angels desire to look into 1 Pet. i. 13. That he hath now revealed them unto babes Mat. xi 25. That no condition now be it never so poor or mean or weak but is made partakers of his grace and glory in the face of Jesus Christ. How great a comfort and glory is it to us that all old things are thus past away and all things become new Yet there are worse old things behind the old things of the Gentiles which we are to consider now both what they are and how they too are past away The old errors and the old sins of the Gentiles they are the old things of the Gentiles and they are past 1. The old heathen ignorance and error They were in a shadow indeed the very shadow of death Luk. 1. 70. a thick black darkness the very Region of death and Land of darkness saith the Prophet they knew not God saith the Apostle Rom. i. having their understanding darkned because of the blindness of their heart Eph. vi 18. All these shaddows are disperst all this darkness past away when Zacharies day spring rose upon them they are not now what they were before Christ came they are much enlightned 2. Nor appear their sins now of so deep a blackness since Christ suffered for them also Before we read of nothing but the Idolatries the Vanities the Abominations of the Heathen that they were alienated wholly alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in them Eph. iv 18. walking after their own lusts and in the vanities of their wicked mind being delivered up to the Prince of the air who wholly ruled and worked in them Eph. ii 2. But these things were passed over by the mercy of God in Christ and even they also received the new Covenant of Grace and Pardon And in the second place the way of Gods Providence towards them also as well as towards the Iews past into another mode It was in old time but a Iob but an Vriah but an Ittai but a Iethro but a Naâ—man in an Age an Vzzite a Hittite a Gittite a Midianite a Syrian but now and then Israel was the only Goshen the only Land where the light shone free The case is altered now by Christ. Indeed for a while till the Children were first served or at least first offered meat it was Go not into the way of the Gentiles St. Mat. x. 5. But when Christ had now compleated his work and was going up to heaven then Go and preach to all Nations was the stile and Lo I send thee far unto the Gentiles Acts xxii 21. was St. Pauls Commission and others after him So the Partition Wall is now past through and the distinction of Iew and Gentile that old difference past away Nay secondly the other branch of Gods dealing with them is so too In those times of ignorance God winked at them tolerated or at least not punished them saies St. Paul Acts xvii 30. But now he commandeth all men every where to repent says he the old course is past Gods way of dealing with them now is become new Thus we have another ground of thanks and praise that God has not only freed us from the servitude of the Law but from the slavery of Satan not only from the dusky shadows of the Iewish but from the dismal darkness of the Gentile Coasts Let not this pass further without a Song of praise But how shall we now worthily praise him for the next for making all things new Novus Rex nova Lex a new King and a new Law Novus Grex novum Regnum a new Church and a new Kingdom Novum Testamentum novum Sacramentum new Covenants and new Sacraments Novum Sacrificium novus Sacerdos a new Sacrifice and a new Priesthood Novum Templum novum Altare a new Temple and a new Altar Novus Spiritus and nova vita a new Spirit and a new kind of life All new 1. Novus Rex a new King we have no ordinary one neither a King with an Ecce Ecce venit both in Prophet and Evangelist Behold thy King commeth says Zachary Zach. ix 9. and S. Matthew xxi 5. says the same A King worth beholding The Wise men came I know not how far to see him S. Mat. ii 2. 2. And with a new Law he came a new Commandment S. John xiii A perfect Law S. James i. 25. A Law of liberty chap. ii 12. A royal Law ver 8. of the same Chapter The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus Rom. viii 2. The old Law was a bondage this new one makes us free as it follows there 3. A new Church he came to gather much different from the old A Church purchas'd by his Blood a costly one Acts xx 28. A glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish Eph. v. 27. much larger than the old an universal Church all the Gentiles also new come in the utmost parts of the earth the confines of it Psal. ii 4. A new Kingdom there is come too a Kingdom above all Kingdoms the Kingdom of Heaven S. Mat. iii. 2. A Kingdom of Grace and a Kingdom of Glory a Kingdom never heard of before Christs coming with it no news no hopes no mention of the Kingdom of Heaven all the old Scripture through those exceeding great and precious promises reserv'd for us 2 S. Pet. i. 4. They under the Law were led like Children with the nuts and rattles of temporal promises and rewards Christ first promis'd a Kingdom for the recompence of reward a Kingdom too wherein we are all Kings Rev. i. 6. This new Kingdom 5. brings a new Covenant novum Testamentum take Testamentum how you will for a Covenant or a Writing and novum either for the Covenant of Grace or for a new Schedule of Scripture that contains it we find both new now Heb. ix 15. I will make a new Covenant says God Ier. xxxi 31. And he did so says the Apostle Heb. viii 6. But what was it I will put my Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people c. for I will be merciful to
stench and worms and rottenness then any dead body whatsoever full of infamous and stinking sins worms of conscience and worms of concupiscence rotten resolutions and performances continuance in sin is the sleep of death Holy purposes and resolutions are the rising out of it Walking thenceforward in the ways of righteousness is going into the holy City and the letting our righteousness so shine before men that God may be glorified is the appearing unto many And the order is as like our justification or spiritual Resurrection well resembled by it God first for the merits of Christs Death and Passion breaks ope the stony heart looses the fetters of our sins and lusts all worldly corruptible affections in us opens the mouth of it to confess its sins then the soul rises as it were out of its sleep by the favour of Gods exciting grace and comes out of sin by holy purposes and resolutions resolves presently to amend its courses then next it goes into the holy City by holy action endeavour and performance so goes and manifests its reconcilement to the Church of God and at last makes its Resurrection repentance and amendment evident and apparent to the world to as many as it any where converses with that all may bear witness to it that it is truly risen with Christ now lives with him This the order this the manner of our first Resurrection from the death of sin to the life of Grace Our second Resurrection to the life of Glory is but this very Resurrection in the Text acted over again As soon as the consummatum est is pronounced upon the world as soon as Christ shall say as he did upon the Cross all is finished the end is come the Arch-Angel shall blow his Trumpet the Graves open the earth and Sea give forth their dead and the dead in Christ shall rise first then they that be alive at his coming For if we believe that Iesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Iesus shall God bring with him 1 Thess iv 14. and they shall come out of their Graves and go into the Holy City the new Ierusalem that is above and there appear and shine like stars for ever Indeed the ungodly and the wicked shall arise too and appear before the great Tribunal but not like these Saints for into the holy City they shall not come Rise and come forth they shall but go away into some place of horror some gloomy valley of eternal sorrow some dark dungeon of everlasting night some den of Dragons and Devils never to appear before God but be for ever hid in the arms of confusion and damnation As for the godly the holy City is prepared for them for us if we be like them Saints and Angels are the inhabitants of this holy City no room there for any other if our bodies then be the bodies of holy Saints then into the holy City with them and not else no part in the new Ierusalem if no part in the old no portion above if none below no place there with Angels if no communion here with Saints no happiness in heaven if no holiness on earth They are the bodies of the Saints you hear that go into the holy City they that rise from the sleep of sin and awake to righteousness that rise from the dust of death to the rays of glory And this now may hint us of our duty to close with them for the close of all It has been shewed before what is the first Resurrection without which there is no second namely a life of holiness a dying to sin and a living unto God And this is a Resurrection we are not meerly passive in as in the other We must do somewhat here towards our own Resurrection at least to finish it We must open our mouths which are too often what David stiles the wicked mans throat even open Sepulchres and by confession send out our dead our dead works confessing our iniquities we must awake out of our sins and arise and stand up by holy vows and resolutions rear up our heads and eyes and hearts and hands to heaven seek those things that are above if we be risen with Christ get up upon our feet and be walking the way of Gods commandments walking to him get us into the holy City to the holy place make our humble appearance there express the power of Christs Resurrection in our life attend him through all the parts of it all our life long This the great business we are now going to requires of us more particularly to come to it like new rais'd bodies that had now shaken off all their dust all dusty earthly thoughts laid aside their Grave-cloths all corrupt affections that any way involv'd them and stood up all new all fitly composed for the holy City drest up in holiness and newness of life thus come forth to meet our new risen Saviour and appear before him This the way to meet the benefits of his Passion and Resurrection for coming so with these Saints out of their Graves Christs Grave also shall open and give him to us the Cup and Patine wherein his body lies as in a kind of Grave shall display themselves and give him to us the Spirit of Christ shall raise and and advance the holy Elements into lively Symbols which shall effectually present him to us and he will come forth from under those sacred shadows into our Cities our Souls and Bodies if they be holy and his grace and sweetness shall appear to many of us to all of us that come in the habit of the Resurrection in white Robes with pure and holy hearts Here indeed of all places and this way above all ways we are likeliest to meet our Lord now he is risen and gone before us this the chief way to be made partakers of his Resurrection and the fittest to declare both his Death and Resurrection the power of them till his coming again And to declare and speak of them is the very duty of the day the very Grave this day with open mouth professes Christ is risen and gives praise for it that it is no longer a land of darkness but has let in light no longer a bier of death but a bed of sleep But shall thy loving kindness O Lord be known in the dark or shall the dead rise up again and praise thee yes holy Prophet they shall they did to day and if his loving kindness shall not be known in the dark the dark places shall become light now the sun of righteousness has risen upon them But shall the dead rise up again and praise him and shall not we shall the graves open and shall not our hearts be opened to receive him nor our mouths to praise him for it Was it the business of the dead Saints to day to rise to wait upon their Lord and shall not the living rise to bear them company shall the whole City ring of it out
and the Morning came light and darkness succeeded one another so the day came no making else But of this 't is punctually said that it was made something in it or in the making more than ordinary Made 1. that is made famous by something done upon it death and hell and all the terrours of darkness this day put to flight for ever by Christs only Resurrection Made 2. that is appointed and ordained for something So Deus fecit Dominum Christum God is said to have made our Saviour Lord and Christ Acts ii 36. and of Christ that fecit nos Reges Sacerdotes that he made us that is ordained us Kings and Priests as God had him both Lord and Christ and upon this day both so that 't is no wonder if the day too be said to be made made or ordained and appointed to be remembred Made 3. to be celebrated too to be kept aniversary as a solemn day of joy and gladness of Praises and Thanksgivings Thus facere diem Sabbati Deut. v. 15. Pascha facere St. Mat. xxvi 18. is to keep the Sabbath and the Passeover what is there in Latine to make the Sabbath and the Passeover in our English is to keep them to make up or make out the day in Gods Worship and Service When God is said to make a day 't is for himself and we can make none but to him mar days we do when we spend them upon any thing or any else they are never made but when on him The greater sin theirs then that unmake the days that are thus made that both unsaint the Saints and unhallow the days and prophane both that make them for all but him all business but his as if the holiness of the Holiday were the only offence of it that which made the day or for which the day was made the only reason to them to unmake it 3. But however it pleases some to mar what God has made yet made days there have been many are and shall be Themselves are not yet so impudent to deny us all not the Lords days yet which yet are but so many little models of this great day But of made days all are not alike some high days some not so high though the one and the other made and constituted for Gods service Of made days this is the highest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The day so we told you out of Ignatius so we now tell you out of St. Augustine Principatum tenet 't is the prime As the blessed Virgin among women so this blessed day among the days says he The most holy Feast of Easter the good Emperour Constantine calls it four times in one Epistle to all the Churches Solenne nostrae religionis festum a little after the solemn Feast of our Religion by which we hold our hopes of immortality the very day of all our Religion and our hope Illa videtur dies clarior illuxisse sings Lactantius The fairest day that ever shone The Sun which so many hours withdrew its light and hid its face in sable darkness went down sooner into night at our Saviours Passion and to day rose so much sooner restored those hours to lengthen or encreased it beams to enlighten this glorious Day in the opinion or else Rhetorick of Chrysologus Eusebius and St. Augustine If so it was The Day indeed none like it ever since but if not There were two Suns rose to day to enlighten it the Sun of Heaven and the Son of God who is also stiled the Sun in the strictest spelling The Sun of righteousness needs must it be a glorious day indeed which is gilded with so much light so many glorious Rays All days were night before nothing but dark clouds and shadows under the Law of Moses nothing but a long unevitable night under the Law of nature nothing but a disconsolate night of sorrow under the power of sin and darkness this was the first bright day that dispell'd all darkness quite A kind of spring of day or glimmering twilight there was abroad from the first preaching of the Gospel but men could scarce see any thing not the Disciples themselves their eyes were ever and anon held not fully opened till the grave it self was this day opened and gave forth Christ to open the Scriptures to them by the evidence of the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the day when all this was done when this marvelous light shone forth to enlighten all the world The day of all the days before or since 4. And now 4. it may well be so when the Lord made it All his works are wonderful all perfect and complete deserve Articles and Notes to be set upon them But when he sets the Note himself and gives the Article then to be sure 't is somewhat more than ordinary somewhat he would have us to observe above the rest And when he entitles himself to it or challenges it unto himself day it self is not more clear than that such a day must be observed Things that are exceding eminent and full of greatness wonder or perfection are commonly attributed unto God This day is such at least because 't is said God made it a peculiar work and Ordinance of his more than the common Ordinance of day and night and if God made it what is man that he should mar it or the son of man that he should unmake it Or how dares man or Son of man make little of that which God made so great So great as to call it his so great as to make it the mother of one and fifty daughters of all the Lords days in the year besides This is the Lords doing indeed None could alter the Sabbath into the Lords day but he None put down that and set up another abolish the Seventh and set up the First but the Lord of all and may do all what he pleases in heaven and earth Lord it every where how he will Herein he shews he is the Lord and this day the Lady of the year from whence so many little weekly Easter days take both their rise and name All the former days God made the Lord made this the Lord Christ the ground and Author of this day Christs rising raising this to that height it is Now God or Christ is not only said to do or make that which they do immediately by themselves but that also which they do by those to whom they have committed such authority So Christ tells us St. Luke x. 16. He that heareth you heareth me he that heareth his Apostles his Church his Ministers heareth him himself their commands are his their orders his so long as they are not contrary to his word And thus we may evidently without much labour deduce the day to be his making From the Apostles times it came Palicarpus that Angel as is conceived of the Church of Smyrna Rev. ii 8. kept Easter saith Ireneaeus with St. Iohn and with the
or secular respects and motions but a sweetness without sensual daintiness a lustre without lightness a modest look without dejectedness a grave countenance without severity a fair face without fancy eyes sparkling only heavenly flames cheeks commanding holy modesty lips distilling celestial sweetness beauty without its faults figure and proportion and all such as was most answerable and advantageous to the work he came about every way fitted to the most perfect operations of the reasonable and immortal soul the most beautiful then sure when beauty is nothing else but an exact order and proportion of things in relation to their nature and end both to themselves and to each other Take his description from the Spouses own mouth Cant. v. 10 11 12 c. My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand His head is as the most fine gold his locks are bushy or curled and black as a Raven His eyes are as the eyes of Doves by the rivers of water washed with water and fitly set that is set in fulness fitly placed and as a precious stone in the soil of a Ring His cheeks are as a bed of Spices as sweet flowers his lips like Lillies dropping sweet smelling Myrrhe his hands are as gold Rings set with Beryl his belly as bright Ivory over-laid with Saphyrs His legs are as pillars of Marble set upon sockets of fine Gold His countenance like Lebanon excellent as the Cedars His mouth is most sweet yea he is altogether lovely This is my beloved and this is my friend O daughters of Ierusalem This is our beloved too Solomon indeed has poetically express'd it Yet something else there is in it besides a poetick phrase Beautiful he thus supposes he is to be who was to be this Spouse have the beauty of all beautiful things in the world conferr'd upon him at least to have the finest and subtilest part of all worldly beauties those imperceptible yet powerful species of them which make them really amiable and attractive a head and locks and eyes and hands and feet quantity colour and proportion such as darted from them not only a resemblance but the very spirit of heavenly beauty innocence purity strength and vigour Poets when they commend beauty call it divine and heavenly this of his it was truly so a kind of sensible Divinity through all his parts Shall I give you his colour to make up the beauty He was white pure white in his Nativity ruddy in his Passion bright and glistering in his life black in his death Azure-vein'd in his Resurrection No wonder now to see the Spouse sit down under his shadow with great delight Cant. ii 3. we sure our selves now can do less and yet this is but the shadow of his beauty The true beauty is the souls the beauty of the soul the very soul of beauty the beauty of the body but the body nay the carcase of it And this of the souls he had 2. in its prime perfection 2. Now beauty consists in three particulars the perfection of the lineaments the due proportion of them each to other and the excellency and purity of the colour They are all compleat in the soul of Christ. The lineaments of the soul are its faculties and powers the proportion of them is the due subordination of them to God and one another The colours are the vertues and graces that are in them His powers and faculties would not but be compleat which had nothing of old Adam in them His understanding without ignorance he knew all the very hearts of all thoughts as they rose what they thought within themselves S. Luke v. 22. thoughts before they rose what the Pharisees with other would have done to him had he committed himself unto them Now Tyre and Sidon would have repented had they had the mercy allowed to Corazin and Bethsaida S. Luke x. 13. His will without wilfulness or weakness his passions without infirmity or extravagance his inferiour powers without defect or maim his understanding clear his will holy his passions sweet all his powers vigorous Hear the Wise man describe him under the name of Wisdom Wisd. xvii 22 23 c. In her that is in him who is the Wisdom of the Father is an understanding Spirit holy one onely manifold subtile lively clear undefiled plain nor subject to hurt loving the thing that is good quick which cannot be letted ready to do good kind to man stedfast sure free from care having all power overseeing all things and going through all understanding pure and most subtile spirits and ver 25 26. A pure influence flowing from the Glory of the Almighty the brightness of the everlasting light the unspotted mirror of the power of God and the image of his goodness The powers of his soul being thus pure vigorous and unspotted they cannot 2. but be in order the will following his understanding the passions subordinate to them both all the inferiour powers obedient and ready at command and pleasure He had no sooner exprest a kind of grievance in his sensitive powers at the approach of those strange horrors of his death and sufferings but presently comes out Non mea sed tua Not my will but thine all in a moment at peace and in tranquillity No rash or idle word no unseemly passage no sowre look nor gesture or expression unsuitable to his Divinity throughout his life the very Devils to their own confusion cannot but confess it We know thee who thou art the Holy One of God S. Mark i. 24. To this add those heavenly colours and glances of grace and vertues and you have his soul compleatly beautiful Meekness and Innocence and Patience and Obedience even to the death Mercy and Goodness and Piety and what else is truly called by the name of good are all in him insomuch that the Apostle tells us the very fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily Col. ii 9. No Divine Grace or Vertue wanting in him In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ver 3. In him all sanctity and holiness not so much as the least guile in his mouth 1 S. Pet. ii 22. So holy that he is made holiness and sanctification unto us 1 Cor. i. 30. Sancti quasi sanguine uncti We Saints and holy become hallowed by the sprinkling of his blood In him lastly is all the power and vertue omnis virtus that is omnis potestas all the power in heaven and earth fully given to him S. Matth. xxviii 18. So that now we shall need to say little of the other particular of this first general point of Christs perfect beauty that he is not only Formosus but Formosus prae not only fair but very fair for where there is so much as you have heard exceeding and excellent it must needs be Where the body is compleat in all its parts the soul exact in all its powers the body without any ill inclination natural or habitual the soul without
as it were of the creature that hath it And the power of a Kingdom I can tell you is good hold 3. And this Kingdom 3. is not an ordinary Kingdom neither As this Horn is above the Flesh so this Kingdom too not of this world St. John xviii 36. the likelier still to conduct us to the other and there set us safe And yet likelier 4. because it is not a fading but a durable one a horn that will hold Saul was anointed with a vial of Oyl 1 Sam. x. 1. to intimate the brittleness and shortness of his Kingdom but David with a horn 1 Sam. xvi 13. to signifie the continuance and strength of his that it should be a throne established for ever 1 Kings ii 45. And made good it was by this days Horn rais'd out of his house of whose Kingdom there shall be no end says the Prophet So no failure to be afraid of here It is a sure salvation we have by him And if I may now have the liberty to tell you more particularly what kind of Horn he may most fairly be said to be you will be the more ready to catch at it He is then 1. a Horn of Oyl to anoint us also Kings and Priests for so he makes us says S. Iohn Rev. i. 6. He is 2. the true Cornu-copia the Horn of plenty full of grace and truth and all good things else for out of his fulness we all receive ours says the same Apostle S. Iohn i. 16. He is 3. one of the Horns of the Altar or indeed all of them whither we may safely fly in all our dangers and distresses where we may lie secure when all the world has left us A sure hold now you will confess that is so high so strong so powerful so above corruption so lasting so everlasting so full of lasting honours plenties and securities 6. And yet as mighty and sure and as easie to catch hold on as this salvation is were it not for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were it not for us had we no claim no interest in it what were we the better either for the Horn or the salvation 'T is this for us that comes next to be considered that raises up our horns that makes us glad For this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not the Iews alone They had the first title right indeed but not the only to it There is an Israel of God peace be upon it says the Apostle Gal. vi 16. as well as an Israel after the flesh There are Sons of Abrahams Faith as well as of his body to whom this salvation is sent as well as unto them Blessed Zachary brings in those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death into the number ver 79. the Gentiles as well as Iews into the light of it 't is omni populo to all people whatsoever in the Angels message chap. 2. of our Evangelist ver 10. All people and all degrees and orders of them rich and poor one with another so populus signifies not the plebem taken out of it not the lowest or meanest of the people escaped or forgotten 'T is an universal salvation that is here set up God does not streighten heaven though men do He would have all men to be saved 1 Tim. ii 4. though some men need a horn indeed to get such a salvation down yet so it is and to this purpose he has rais'd this salvation up which is the next advance of this salvation we are next to handle 7. And he rais'd it 1. as a Beacon or Standard upon a Hill that all Nations and Languages all kind of persons might flock in unto it Rais'd it 2. as from the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All hopes of it now were in the dust For the temporal condition of the Iews their enemies oppressed them and had them in subjection long they had so and all the attempts for deliverance had been so often baffled that they durst hope no longer For their spiritual condition both Iew and Gentile were all concluded under sin the one blinded with his own superstition the other shut up in ignorance and darkness when on a sudden was this day-spring from on high this horn this ray of light for I see not why this Horn as well as those of Moses face may not be construed so this ray this Horn I say rais'd up to light them both into the ways of salvation Rais'd up 3. as the horn out of the flesh a Saviour rais'd up thence to day Though from above he came into the flesh he came that thence being made sensible of our infirmities he might the easier bear with them Rais'd up lastly to raise up our thoughts from all inferiour expectations and fix them where they should be for deliverance and salvation Cornu exaltatum this salvation eminent for the vastness the opportunity the convenience the proportion it carries the seventh particular we observe in Gods blessing the fourth advancing of this salvation 8. There is an eighth And it is salvation in the right house The Lord of the Ascendant of our salvation in the Kingly house the best house to make it the more glorious the house of David Men would willingly be sav'd honourably by a person of honour rather then a base hand Men love not to owe their lives or honours to an unworthy person would be beholding to the right King rather than an Vsurper for them The House of David here hits right for that And we cannot but acknowledge a huge blessing in it even upon this account that how poorly sneakingly and basely we every day betray our selves into the hands of our enemies we are yet thus by Christ brought off with honour and enjoy by him an honourable salvation 9. And yet there is one thing more we would desire not to owe our selves to a villain or a miscreant or to a wicked and ungodly house or person To crown his blessings God has contrived them in the house of his servant David So God honoureth his servants so he encourages them to be good They are the persons theirs the houses where salvation dwells They are the pillars of the earth To David his servant and Abraham his servant and Isaac his servant and Israel his servant so run the promises both of a Saviour and salvation to them and to their seed for evermore Sum we up Gods blessings now Gracious Visits perfect Redemptions Salvations many mighty sure general eminent seasonable honourable salvations to us and ours everlasting too what would you more there 's nothing behind now but our blessing God for all these blessings I hope that shall not be so long for 't is but little that is required for so much and but three particulars that make it up An acknowledgment of Gods blessings a setting our selves to some way to bless him for them and a desire that all would do so too II. The acknowledgment begins it the
faithful soul is Christs Mother as well as blessed Mary conceives and brings him forth and nourishes him as well as she the soul spiritually as she naturally to find I say Christ thus conceived and brought forth in our own souls this Child in our own arms too Christ with us is that indeed which makes this finding worth the finding this sight worth seeing Should we only know Christ after the flesh though amongst the first that knew him had we no more than an outward sight did we not see him with his Mother in a mysterious sense in the soul and spirit born in our souls they also made his Mothers as all that believe and do Gods will he himself calls so St. Mark iii. 34 35. unless we thus see him our success will be but lame and poor no better than those Iews that saw and perished 4. Yet the success here is one degree beyond it They saw the young Child and Mary his Mother Mary signifies exalted to see him with his Mother Mary as to see his exalted Mother the soul exalted by his presence his Power and Kingdom exalted in it to see this King in his Kingdom to see Christ reigning and ruling in us this new-born King triumphing in our souls our understandings wills affections and all our faculties subjected to him and this is a good sight where e're we see it This is then the sum of the success we shall find of our travel after him 1. The perfect sight And 2. the easie knowledge of him 3. Our union with him 4. Our exaltation by him He will reveal himself to them that seek him discover himself betimes to them that carefully search for him unite himself and be with them that follow after him and set up his throne and excellency in them that find him 2. Indeed this now secondly is worth the seeing worthy the beholding They saw it 1. they saw it and admired it their seeing him it was the Lords doing and could not but be admirable in their eyes They could not certainly but admire and wonder to see the Star had pointed out the Child so poor a Child a King in rags so glorious a Child so blessed a Mother in so poor a plight Saw it and fell down say the next words fell down in amazement and astonishment it may be as well as any way else to see so great a mercy so strange a sight 2. Yet saw it secondly and believed saw by the eye of faith as much as by the eye of sense believed presently it was the Child they sought and therefore fell down and worshipped which certainly they would not have done had they not believed Indeed the strange guide that conducted them the resolution for the place at least Bethlehem by name which they met with at Ierusalem the new return of their lost starry Leader as soon as they were got out of Ierusalem the very standing and fixing of it self which all the while before was in perpetual motion over this very place where they found this Child might sufficiently assure them that it was his Star that he was the Lord whom this Star attended so that they might not only believe out of credulity or an impatient desire to be at their journeys end or at home again but out of prudence as it became wise men who lay all together e're they fix their Faith Saw and believed that 's the second 3. Saw it and were glad too that 's a third adjunct of seeing such a sight If the seeing of the Star again in the former verse made them to rejoyce with exceeding great joy which could only confirm their hope to find him how exceedingly exceeding great joy gaudio valde valde magno must it needs be they rejoyced with when they found him 4. Saw and worshipped that should be a fourth but it is the third and next part of the Text which the time and season now forbids me to look into Only this to recapitulate the rest and apply it home 1. Behold we first and admire this sight the mercy and goodness of our Saviour thus for us to become a Child to take upon him the infirmities and inconveniences of our nature even from its first weaknesses to make himself so accessible to us so easie to be approacht to vouchsafe to be daily conceived again and born in our souls and spirits to take upon him besides the rule and guidance over us to set up his throne in so poor a place as our unworthy souls amidst so much frailness and unpreparedness souls more filthy and stinking when he first comes to them than the very Stable he was born in amidst the dung and ordure of the Beasts Behold and see if there were ever goodness like this goodness see and admire it 2. See secondly and believe it too The most incredulous among the Apostles St. Thomas when he once saw he soon believed See but how the Star moves and fixes and even points us to him how readily the Wise men entertain the sight and fall down and worship see how all the Prophesies concur and meet in this young Child see how the world is overspread with this Faith and has so many hundred years continued it notwithstanding so many persecutions and I shall not need to perswade you to play the Wise men too and upon so many testimonies and evidences believe the same 3. Yet I exhort you 3. to see it and be glad Heaven rejoyced at it and the Earth was glad Angels sung proper Anthems for it The Shepherds joyfully tell it out The Wise men here scarce know how to carry themselves for joy open all their treasures and fling about their gifts to express their gladness only Herod and the Iews Herodian Iews Hierusalem Iews men addicted wholly to the pomps and pride and vanity of the City are troubled at the birth of so humble a Saviour It is a Day of rejoycing this 'T is the Lords Day the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce says the Psalmist and be glad in it 'T is the Day of shewing himself to us Gentiles who sate in darkness and the shadow of death 'T is fit therefore we should be glad for so great a blessing 'T is the Day he was Baptized in and that ever useth to be among us a joyful day great joy and feasting at it It is a Marriage Day the Day he wrought his first Miracle upon when he turned Water into Wine on purpose to make us merry the water of tears into the wine of joy So many blessings together so many good tidings in one day so many glorious things so bright a Star so glorious a Child so blessed a Mother so miraculous a Baptism so chearful a Miracle so triumphant a Resurrection all together on one day must not cannot be found out cannot be seen of Christians so much concerned in them all without perpetual Songs of gladness and rejoycing I should leave you here but that we must needs
rejoycing both theirs and ours joy in the positive great it was if compared with other joy above other joy in the comparative and exceeding great joy the greatest joy in the superlative as high as may be They rejoyced with exceeding great joy The Star any Star or light that leads unto Christ is a just occasion and ground of joy and when such an one we have when such an one we see we cannot be too glad we cannot exceed though it be exceeding This the sum these the particulars of the Text. I begin with the ground of our joy and theirs that we may rejoyce the more that our joy may be the greater when we see how great the ground is that their joy was not for nothing nor will ours be if it be for nothing but what theirs was Yet before we enter upon either 't is requisite we consider the persons look upon them before we look upon the Star that we may see how this They may become We how we are interested either to look or rejoyce with them The first verse tells us who they were Wise men from the East four points we may have thence and all so many grounds of joy 1. Gentiles they were And that to them a door is opened unto life Acts xiv 27. that to them that sate in darkness and the shadow of death light is here sprung up is a good ground of joy to such the light is comfortable And to us also upon the same account for we were Gentiles nay and darkness too Eph. v. 8. good reason to rejoyce that now we are not that we are come into the light 2. If Gentiles then sinners too I know not then who can be out for if heaven notwithstanding our sin and wickedness vouchsafe so to look upon us nor they nor we no body sure but must needs be glad 3. Great men they were foretold in the Psalm under the notion of the Kings of Arabia and Saba bringing gifts Psal. lxxii 10. This is more cause of joy then you would think at first St. Paul's Not many noble not many mighty are called 1 Cor. i. 26. were enough to startle and amaze the rich and great men of the world and how hard is it for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Our Saviours words might very well trouble us spoil all our mirth all our joyes but for this that the Magi great Princes and rich and honourable have an interest in Christs Star for all that as well as any 4. They were learned too Magi Wise men is the name the story gives them And the Apostles Not many wise not many learned again might well amaze us and make us more than sad but for this They that such as they are not yet such but that they may come one day to see Stars under them and in the mean time have their part and portion in the Star that leads to Christ. A sound cause of joy that however the new lights count of Princes and great and learned men as enemies to him whose this Star was yet this Star shines to them too them before any was lighted up for them above all the rest Shepherds and Women and ignorant People are not to be taught or led by Stars they understand not their voice and language that 's for the wise and learned to guide them Mean and ordinary capacities must have other ways other guides and lanthorns to lead them to Christ. Thus from the persons we have four grounds of the great joy we hear that neither Heathen Ignorance nor Heathen Learning nor Honour nor Greatness neither great temptations nor great sinfulness no condition or quality how sad or cumbersom but this Star rises for and is ready to attend into the presence of Christ all may have a portion in the Star and in the Ioy. And good reason we have to rejoyce for our selves and our relations that no persons or condition is debarr'd it Proceed we yet deeper into the grounds of this joy Three there are that they we speak of saw 1 Saw somewhat to speak of 2. Saw the Star 3. Saw it at that time when they were even at a loss had but a while before quite lost the fight that 's when they saw it the time when they saw it in The first point is that see they did and a point worth noting that notwithstanding their great distance from Iudea the only Nation that then sate in light that had the knowledge of his Laws these yet came seeing That God hath some particular persons all the world over to whom he hath given eyes to see him No Nation indeed no whole people but the Iews were seeing yet Iob in Vz and Iethro in Midian and Rahab in Iericho and Ruth in Moab and Ittai in Gath and the Queen in Sheba and the Widow in Sarepta and Naaman in Syria some in every Nation that could see the light of Heaven and rejoyce in it Corporal sight then of the eye is one of the greatest temporal comforts our life is capable of we lose the chiefest of joy and pleasure of a mortal life when we are deprived of that 'T is worth rejoycing then worthy rejoycing in the Lord too that that we have that we can see that we are not blind But there is a spiritual and immaterial eye and seeing with it the eye of Faith and our believing by it that is far beyond the bodily sight and seeing 'T is that by which we live Heb. x. 38. 't is that only by which we truly see Heaven or behold Stars that 's a great ground of joy Especially if we add hope to it the other eye of the Spirit that pierceth within the vail that sees all the joys and pleasures of beatitude with affection and delight that does as it were bring Heaven home into not our eyes only but our bosoms The hope of Heaven and heavens happiness how glad and jocund will it make the heart more than when the Corn and Wine and Oyl increase a better sight by it than all the riches and pleasures of the earth all the profit and assistance of it all the beauties and glory of it can afford us This sight of Hope and that of Faith were they the Wise men had It was thus they saw the Star believed it was the Star of the Messias the only guide to their new-born Saviour their convoy to him and that such an one there was they should come to by and by this they saw by the eye of faith Thereupon they proceed to hope to see their hopes also in him hope ere long to be admitted to the sight and service of him hope this Star will now bring even them to its Master and give them a place hereafter with him among the Stars that they may one day shine in glory like them Thus you see Videntes will easily enough be brought home to us We even at this day thus see the Star by the two eyes of faith
undo us in the mercy of the most highest in his highest mercies we should infallibly miscarry and go away without repentance Nor would his justice have time to shew it self if no time came amiss or short of mercy 'T is mercy enough that he allows us time of repentance time to come in and gives us 1. a lesson to be thankful and to take it Yet 2. he adds a greater tells us of an accepted time when he keeps open Court and gives ready audience to all that come and may teach us 2. to seek and search that out that it slip not by us Nay 't is a mercy 3. to stint it too to bound and limit it we else likely would never come put it off so long till we were past coming and reads us 3. a lecture against presumption as yet the concealing of those bounds and limits reads us lastly another against despair All these lessons to be learn'd from this first particular that an accepted time there is wherein above other times God will accept us And yet there are degrees also of acceptation The accepting us 1. to pardon not imputing to us our former sins nor reckoning to us our past unkindnesses but allowing us the liberty still of new addresses to him There 's a time for that The accepting us 2. into favour not only leaving open the way but affording us the means also to bring us to him the filling us with mercy and loving kindness there 's a time for that The accepting us 3. to salvation too There 's a day here next for that and 't is our second observation II. A day indeed all time nor all accepted time neither is not day Salvation it is that makes it day all time without it is but night and darkness and in the brightest day that shines we sit but in the shadow of death if we want the glances of salvation Let God so accept us as to hear and prosper us with riches and honour when we desire it Let him accept us to a pardon when we beg it let him admit us to new addresses and some new favours too upon it 't is but a dawn or twilight still 't is not perfect day till salvation it self shine forth upon us I confess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here may have a temporal meaning by the saving and delivering Christs faithful servants out of those distresses they were at that time under or in fear of and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Peter Salvation ready to be revealed 1 Pet. i. 5. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the saving the soul or life in St. Matthew and St. Mark St. Mat. xvi 15. St. Mark viii 35. may prove the exposition good Yet the Apostles discourse that ushers in the Text being about Gods reconciling himself to us in Christ and sending his Embassadours to us to that purpose in the end of the preceding Chapter and an exhortation not to receive that grace in vain pursuing in that design ver 1. enclines me rather to apply it to a spiritual sense Nay the place of the Prophet Isa. xlix 8. to which Saint Paul alludes seems to point particularly at this eternal salvation ver 6 7 9. extending it there to the very Gentiles and the ends of the earth But be it a temporal or be it an eternal salvation be it either or be it both both have their time both have their day and accepted ones both Indeed nothing can make them such so much as salvation nothing like some great deliverance upon them but every time is not fit for that 'T is necessary there should be times of trouble and times of trial come before it and 't is not necessary we should be delivered presently Till the fulness of time was come God did not send it nor him that brought it Gal. iv 4. Indeed the Prophets that foretold it enquired and searched diligently says St. Peter what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ did signifie when it testified before-hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow when it witnessed of salvation 1 Pet. i. 11. but they could get no more revealed than this that they did not minister to themselves but us ver 12. That such a time should come that they were certain but when it should they could not tell us Other salvations and deliverances have their due times too and as uncertain Those very tempora novissima those last times that the very Apostle speaks so oft of in their Epistles who were under the dawning of salvation have so large a latitude that the great deliverance from the persecutions then upon them but one of all of them lived to see as confidently as all of them spoke of it Enough to teach us patience as well as confidence to expect with patience and quietly wait for the salvation of God in all distresses as well as to hold up our heads with confidence and support our dying hopes and hearts that salvation will surely come in its due time And yet I may add we may notwithstanding fear too that though it will be sure to come we may not live to see it or have the happiness to enjoy it We may die upon Mount Hor or Nebo e're it come unless we can now happily lay hold upon this little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this now set before us in the Text the next particular and take it now 't is offered to us III. This now is but a little word but there is much time or rather many several times that lay claim to it here The whole time of the Gospel in general The times 2. of the Apostles in special Our times also 3. among the rest These days 4. we are now a keeping more particularly above any other of ours This very day lastly whilst it is called to day before it is past over us before night come on us The time of the Gospel from Christs coming out of the Womb as the Sun out of his Chamber till he shall come again in the Clouds in glory is this accepted time this salvation-day at large The day-spring of it rose with him at his first coming but the day ends not till his second There is a double emphasis in this Now. .1 Now and not before 2. Now and now henceforth for ever 1. Now and not before In him 't is first we hear of God well pleased St. Matth. iii. 17. All the times before he did but wink at Acts xvii 30 In his time first it is that we hear of saving people from their sins St. Matth. i. 21. He the first of all since the world began that saved us from all our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us St. Luke i. 71. in whom we have deliverance of all sorts salvation of all kinds He in whom God reconciling the world unto himself verse 19. of the foregoing Chapter Nay he the very first that indeed made it day It was but darkness and the shadow of
it with the highest hand and needs not fear a contradiction or a power to controul or punish him why he varnishes over his wickedness with false colours and glosses all his actions either with the name of Piety and Religion Reformation and Purity Justice and Integrity Conscience and I know not what Why he sometimes excuses it with necessity sometimes extenuates it with infirmity sometimes pleads ignorance false information or mistake sometimes makes one pretence sometimes another Does he not evidently and plainly tell you by so doing he is even asham'd of the things that he has done though he bear it out with all the confidence he can He cannot utterly cast off shame though he has done shamefac'dness We may confidently say to him Those very things thou even seem'st to glory in thou art really no other than asham'd of Now there is a three-fold shame a natural a vertuous and a penal shame a shame that naturally and even against our wills attends every unhandsome action A godly shame 2. that should always follow upon it And 3. a shame that will else e're long pursue it The first or natural is that which through the modesty of nature not yet habituated to the impudence of wickedness rises e're we are aware from the guilt and foulness of sin either discovered or feared to be so That 's the reason that the eye of the Adulterer waiteth for the twi-light Job xxiv 15. to hide his reproach That the Drunkard us'd in former times though now grown gallant on it to be drunk in the night 1 Thess. v. 7. being asham'd as civility went then to be seen so disguised in the day That the Heretick and Schismatick us'd in the Apostles times though now grown confident to come creeping into Widows houses and hide themselves behind Curtains and Aprons asham'd of their Schisms and new Doctrines at the first 2 Tim. iii. 6. That still the Thief by night and the sly Cheat and covetous Extortioner by underhand dealing in the day strive to conceal the designs and practices which only night and darkness are thought fit to cover or give a tolerable shadow too Even our vanities within a while make us asham'd of them We are within a few days in a huge confusion to be seen in our finest Clothes and newest Fashions we were the other day so proud of rather naked than in a fashion that has another grown upon it Indeed when any of our sins great or little take hold upon us then as the Prophet David professes we are not able to look up Psal. xl 15. so asham'd they make us None but Absolom none but the wickedest sons of Rebellion sin upon the house top at noon day all the people looking on Yet even for all that there must be a Tent even for such as he some thin Veil or other some Silk or linen Scarf or Curtain to cover his wickedness in the upshot 2 Sam. xvi 22. So natural a fruit and companion is shame to any sin or sinner Sin is more than sin when shame is gone when that is lost 2. Yet if so be this kind of modest shame should be laid asleep a while through the custom and habit of a sin there is a second sort of shame that must be thought on the shame that accompanies repentance Sin must have repentance and repentance will have shame Yea what shame what or how great I cannot tell you but shame it must work if it be true Shame of our ingratitude to God shame of our unhandsomness to men shame of the disparagement we have done our nature shame of the dishonour we have done our selves in committing things so foul so brutish so unreasonable this the properest of the three shames we mentioned to this place which it seems the Romans were here come to and is a business we are obliged to to repent us and be ashamed of our sins to be ashamed and blush with Ezra to lift up our faces because our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespasses grown up into the Heavens Ezra ix 6. 3. And if this we be not there is another-gates shame will overtake us shame 3. and confusion of face if we be not ashamed of our sins we shall e're long be ashamed for them come to shame and dishonour by them such a kind of shame as the Prophet Isaiah speaks of Isa. i. 29. Ye shall be ashamed of the Oaks which ye have desired and ye shall be confounded for the gardens which ye have chosen your very enemies shall laugh you to scorn the very Oaks and Trees shake their heads at you in derision your Gardens bring you forth no other fruit All that pass by shall wag their heads and hiss at you Ier. xix 8. Ye shall be a curse and an astonishment and an hissing and a reproach to all Nations Ier. xxix 18. and a shameful spewing shall be on your glory Hab. ii 16. To this our ill courses will bring us at the last and yet to worse even to death too For the end of those things is death that 's the third Particular the third Argument against sin the mischief and damage of it in the end and comes next to be consider'd III. A sad end truly and but sorry wages for all the pains and drudgry that sins put us to St. Paul here thinks it not worth the name of fruit Yet what fruit sin brings if you will call it fruit 't is unto death Rom. vii 5. But if there were any other death so nigh at heels would devour it all Sin when it is finished when 't is at the height compleat and perfected it bringeth forth death says St. Iames i. 15. that 's the end God knows And a threefold death it brings a temporal a spiritual and an eternal death For the first Thou shalt die the death was threatned to it before it came into the world Gen. ii 17. And no sooner came it but death came by it death by sin Rom. v. 12. And it past thence upon all men too All men ever since have been subjected to it All have died and all must die for that one sin Ever after that first sinful morsel all are become like the beasts that perish Psal. xlix 12. So that the wisest of men had much ado to distinguish between their ends Eccles. iii. 19 20. As the one dieth says he so dieth the other yea they have all one breath so that a man hath no preheminence above a beast All go unto one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again Only indeed a little after ver 21. he perceives a kind of glimmering as it were of the humane Spirits going upward yet with this lessening for all that of who knoweth it who can certainly demonstrate and distinguish and define the difference so deeply has sin engaged us unto death that there is no escaping and the shadows of it are so great that there is no discovering of differences in the
as they as Ants and Conies and Locusts and Spiders and 't is a shame we should not we would by the experience of our former evils Prepare 1. in good days with the Ant for bad ones We would 2. with the Conies build our dwellings in the Rock St. Paul says was Christ having felt sufficiently already there is no sure building else We would 3. go forth as the Locusts do to gather all by bands unite in the bond of peace and charity not straggle into factions and divide in parties remembring what that lately came to and may quickly come to again if we look not to it We would 4. with the Spider catch hold with our hands keep our selves employed in our own business trades or studies and not meddle with things we either understand not or belong not to us We would learn of them besides to be in the palaces of the great King the houses of God a little more constantly than we are This would be to be exceeding wise And if to these we add the wisdom of the Serpent as our blessed Saviour commends it to us St. Mark x. 16. make it our care above all as they say the Serpent does to save our heads Caput Christum and Caput Regem Christ our head and the King our Head make it our business to keep our Religion and obedience safe Be who will else thought never so wise I am sure there is none wiser as God counts wisdom than they that do so Yet lastly if you had rather take the rule of your wisdom from above take it from St. Iames That wisdom says he is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality without hypocrisie St. James iii. 17. So to be wise is to wash our hands of what is past to live peaceably and orderly friendly and kindly together for the time to come heartily promoting one anothers good without grudging or dissembling For in returning and quietness it seems is the Apostle wisdom as well as the Prophets strength Isa. xxx 15. wisdom it seems and strength both I would some would understand it that or this nay that and this we are to consider next The condition we are in that 't is we are now to understand For Intelligentia perspicit quae sunt so St. Augustin defines it and this hoc is most naturally the present So to understand this which is the second particular in the wish is to be truly sensible how things now go with us Where 1. what it is we are to understand and then what it is to understand it What this is we take in two particulars Gods dealing with us and our dealing with him again These two the this the business we are wish'd to understand I. And how God deals with Vs the high places of the earth we ride on ver 13. the places and offices we enjoy the increase of the Fields we eat of the plenty we abound with the Honey we suck out of the rock and the oil that issued to us out of the flinty rock the same verse those blessings which we could no more expect than those sweet dews out of stones and flints the butter and milk ver 14. the smoothness and evenness of our conditions now the fat of lambs and rams and goats in the next words the full tables we well nigh groan at and the pure blood of the grape the mirth and jollity we live in tell us as plain I say how he deals with us as they did Israel how he dealt with them One day tells another how the Almighty commands it to dart blessings on us and one night certifies another how he enjoyns it to shadow us with protections both speak loud enough to have their voices heard among us But how 2. we deal with him again I would there were no voice abroad I would no body heard I would Gath did not speak it nor the streets of Askelon ring of it that the day might be clouded with darkness to cover it and that the night were as the shadow of death to bury it for ever that thou O God however wouldst not reckon the days of our ingratitude in the number of our months We are surrounded with plenty and we abuse it to excess We are encompassed with peace and we disturb it with petty quarrels We are loaded with wealth and riches and we lash them out in lusts and vanities We are cloathed with honours and we dishonour them with meannesses Our friends are given into our bosoms and we envy some of them and slight the rest Our Laws are restored us and we live as if we had none Our Religion is returned and we laugh it out of countenance Good discipline reviving and we are doing what we can to break the bonds in sunder Our Churches now stand open to us and we pass by them with neglect Our King God has set upon his holy Hill and the people still imagin vain things against him In a word we are filled with all good things and we do all the evil we can with them We fill up our days with iniquities and our nights with transgressions We neither consider Gods dealings nor mind our own We understand neither that nor this For to understand this which is the second branch of this particular is to understand both whence and whither these mercies are whence they come and whither they tend For the first we are too ready to say with the Heathen ver 27. Our hand is high and God hath not done it God hath not done it why tell me then I pray what were the counsels that brought things about where were the Armies that forced our passage whence the mony that smooth'd the way who confounded the devices who fettered the forces who divided the strengths that were against us who turned the hearts of the Fathers to the Children and the hearts of the Children to the Fathers who softned our enemies who strengthned our friends who suppled strangers at last to pity us who calm'd the Seas who held the winds who guided our happiness into our harbours and even threw it into our bosoms This Cloud that arose like Eliah's out of the Sea 1 Kings xviii 44. out of the vast Sea of Gods endless mercy and covered Heaven and Earth with blessings till we are grown black I fear sadly black and sinful with them it was not as his servant took it like a mans hand at all it was like Gods all the way it was meerly Gods Non nobis therefore Domine non nobis must be our Psalm Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy name only be the glory And this the first way to understand his mercies to confess from him they come and so give him thanks The second is to learn also whether they tend They are in St. Pauls understanding to lead us to repentance Rom. ii 4. and the time is proper for it In the Psalmists to
in raiment white garments as the Angel does ver 3. or a long white garment as St. Marks Angel Chap. xvi 5. That 's neither a fashion nor a colour to be afraid of for any that seek Iesus which was crucified or hope to see the face and enjoy the company of Holy Angels though some now a days are much scar'd with such a garment when the Angels or Messengers of the Churches appear in it But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fear it not 'T is but an innocent Robe no more hurt in it than in the Angels that wore it 'T is the Robe of Innocence and the Resurrection No reason to fear it Fear not ye not this bright appearance No nor 2. that black one neither of the ghastly countenances of the amazed Souldiers They alass are run and gone There was no looking for them upon him they had crucified They indeed had reason to be afraid that the earth that trembled under them should gape and swallow them that the grave they kept being now miraculously opened might presently devour them that he whom they had crucified now coming forth with power and splendour might send them down immediately into eternal darkness for their villany Nay the very innocent brightness and whites in which the Angel then appear'd might easily strike into them a sad reflection and terror of their own guilt and confound them with it and I am afraid when the Angels long white Garment does so still 't is to such guilty Souls and Consciences as these Souldiers that it does so such who either betrayed their Lord to death or were set to keep him there Such I confess may fear even the Garments of Innocence that others wear But they that seek Christ crucified may be as bold as Lions Non timent Mauri jacula nec arcus nec venenatis gravidas sagittis Christe pharetras Thy Discirage ples O B. Iesu now thou art risen will fear nothing nor Darts nor Spears nor Bows nor Arrows nor any force or terror any face or power of man whatever And ye good innocent souls ye good women fear not ye your own innocence will guard you these Souldiers shall do you no hurt their shaking hands cannot wield their weapons nor dare they stand by it they are running away with all speed to save themselves So 2. Fear not them Nor fear 3. the quaking earth that seems ready either to sink them or sinks under them 't is now even setling upon its foundation The Lord of the whole earth has now once again set his foot upon it and it is quiet and the meek such as seek Christ they shall now inherit it But though the earth were mov'd and though the hills were carried into the midst of the Sea yet God is our hope the Lord is our strength and we will not therefore fear says David Psal. xlvi 1 2. No though the waters thereof rage and swell and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same do earth what it can to fright us God is a present help in trouble Why then should ye be afraid Fear not No not lastly the very grave it self that King of Terrors That is now no longer so to you Though Tyrants should now tear your bodies into a thousand pieces grind your bones to power scatter your ashes in the air and disperse your dissolved atomes through all the winds no matter this Angel and his company are set to wait upon your dust and will one day come again and gather it together into Heaven Nothing can keep us thence nothing separate us nor life nor death says the Apostle Rom. viii 38. Fear nothing then at all Not ye however For ye seek Iesus which was crucified that 's an irrefragable argument why you should not fear And such give me leave to make it before I handle it as an encouragement of our endeavours an encouragement 1. against our fears before I consider it as an encouragement to our work And indeed Ye who dare seek Iesus that was crucified amidst Swords and Spears and Graves of what can you be afraid He that dreads not death needs fear nothing He that slights the torments of the Cross and despises the shame of it He that loves his Lord better than his life that dares own a crucified Saviour and a profession that is like to produce him nothing but scorn and danger and ruine He cannot fear Illum si fractus illabatur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae The World it self though it should fall upon him cannot astonish him Nothing so undaunted as a good Christian as he that truly seeks Iesus that was crucified And there 's good reason for it He that does so is about a work that will justifie it self He needs not fear that He whom he seeks is Iesus one who came to save him from his sins he needs not fear them This Iesus being crucified has by his dying conquer'd death O death where is thy sting He needs not fear that And though die we must yet the Grave will not always hold us no more than it did him He is not here nor shall we be always here not always lie in dust and darkness no need to fear that Nay he is risen again and we by that so far from fear that we know we shall one day rise also For the Chambers of Death ever since the time that Christ lay in them lie open for a return are but places of retreat frome noise and trouble places for the Pilgrims of the earth to visit only to see where the Lord lay Thus is every Comma in the Text an Argument against all fears that shall at any time stop our course in seeking Jesus that was crucified And having thus out of the words vanquisht your fears I am now next to encourage your endeavours For I know ye seek Iesus c. I know it says the Angel That is I would not only not have you be afraid of what you are about as if you were doing ill but I commend you for it for 't is well that you seek Iesus which was crucified you need not be afraid you do well to do it Yea but how dost thou know it Thou fair Son of light that they seek him Alas 't is easie to be known by men and womens outward deportment whom they seek Let us but examine how these women sought and we shall see 1. The come here to his Sepulchre they not only follow'd him to his grave a day or two ago the common office we pay to a departed friend but to day they come again to renew their duties and repeat their tears Nor do they do it slightly or of course They 2. do it early very early St. Mar. xvi 2. as if they were not could not be well till they had done it So early that it was scarce light nay while it was yet dark says St. Iohn they thought they could not be too soon with him they loved They 3. came on with courage
death we sate in before St. Luke i. 78 79. His is the only time the time of the Gospel the only time of salvation Here it began and hence now it goes on 2. for ever for St. Iohn calls it Evangelium aeternum Rev. xiv 6. the everlasting Gospel the salvation not to end even with the world to the end of it sure to continue Moses his Law had but its time and vanished and whilst it had could not pretend so far as to make it day cloud and shadows and darkness all the while The times of the Gospel are the only lightsome day and a long one too it seems for our Sun has promised still to shine upon us and be with us ever to the end of the world St. Mat. xxviii 20. But some more remarkable points of this time there are we must confess that of the Apostles was 2. the very especial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intended here the Now in the Text When the time of acceptation was at the fullest when whole families together Acts xvi 34. and xviii 8. thousands at a clap Acts ii 41. whole Towns and Countries came thronging in so fast as if this very now were now or never when Handkerchiefs and Aprons and the very shadow of an Apostle carried a kind of salvation with them Acts v. 15. and xix 12. when there was not only a large way opened for all sinners to come in but all ways and means made to bring them in when there were fiery tongues both to inflame the hearts of the believers and to devour the gain-sayers when there was a Divine Rhetorick always ready to perswade Miracles to confirm Prophesie to convince miraculous gifts and benefits to allure strange punishments to awe sinners into the obedience of Christ and the paths of salvation when the time of that great deliverance too from the destruction of Ierusalem and the enemies of the Cross of Christ so often reflected on through Saint Paul's Epistles was now nigh at hand and the fast adhering to Christ the only way to be accepted and taken into the number of such as should be saved from it Yet 3. this Now is not so narrow but it will take in our times too 'T is true those of the Apostles were furnished with greater means and power yet ours God be thanked want not sufficient We have the Word and Sacraments and Ministers and inward Motions daily calls and ready assistances of the Spirit It may be too somewhat more than they a long track of experimental truths and long sifted and banded reasons and an uninterrupted Tradition and a continued train of holy and devout examples a vast disseminating the Christian Principles and the perpetual protection of them we have to make them more easie to be accepted and tell us that 't is Now still the day of salvation And yet 4. even both in our times and the Apostles there has been a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some signal and peculiar time cull'd out of the rest and set apart for this Reconciliation the great affair that sets the Ecce upon it If I tell you but of St. Augustin's Tota Catholica Ecclesia or St. Leo's Institutio Apostolica or St. Ieromes Secundum traditionem Apostolorum or St. Ambrose's Quadragesimam nobis Dominus suo jejunio consecravit for this holy time we are in the time of Lent that they all call it Apostolical at the least and St. Ambrose fetches it from our Lord and consecrates it from Christ himself and that it was always purposely designed for the time of reconciling sinners and all the offices belonging to it I shall need say no more to prove this Now in the Text is not ill applied when applied to this very time Most reasonable it is 1. that some such there should be design'd some time or days determined for a business of so great weight we are not like else to have it done we would be apt enough to put it off from time to time and so for ever Were there not some set days I dare confidently affirm God would have but little worship paid him thousands would never so much as think of Heaven or God And if it be reasonable some time be set us there is 2. no time fitter than where we are 't is the very time of the year when all things begin to turn their course when Heaven and Earth begin to smooth their wrinkled brows and withered cheeks and look as if they were reconciled 'T is the spring and first-fruits of the year which upon that title is due to God and fittest to be dedicate to his Service and the business of our souls 3. 'T is the time when the blood begins to warm and the contest is now in rising between the Flesh and Spirit which now taken up at first and quell'd may be the easier reconciled to peace and the body subdued into obedience to the soul and so Gods grace not received in vain 4. The spring in which it is 't is tempus placitum the pleasant time o' th' year fittest then to fit with the tempus placitum in the Text fit to be employed to set our selves to please God in to make it perfectly such And sure we cannot be displeased that the Church 5. has thought so too chosen it as the fittest Surely it is or should be the more acceptable for that And if this time besides has all times in it that Solomon himself could think of Eccles. iii. 1. It must needs be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too every way acceptable and all of them it has 1. There is says he a time to be born c. and so goes on this is both a time to be born in and a time to die in Lent a time to die unto the world and to be born and live to Christ. 2. 'T is a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted to plant vertue and to pluck up vice 3. 'T is a time to kill and a time to heal to kill and mortifie our earthly members and to heal the sores and ulcers that sin hath made by a diet of fasting and abstinence 4. 'T is a time to break down and a time to build to break down the Walls of Babilon the fortresses of sin and Satan and to build up the Walls of the New Ierusalem within us 5. 'T is a time to weep and a time to laugh to weep and bewail the years we have spent in vanities and yet rejoyce that we have yet time left to escape from them 6. 'T is a time to mourn and a time to dance to manifest our repentance by some outward expressions and thereby dispose our selves every day more and more for Easter Joys 7. 'T is a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together to remove every stone of offence and as lively stones to be built up as St. Peter speaks into a spiritual house 8. 'T is a