of Gods mercy acted in so many shapes and by such various wayes that they require a Chronicle to giue you information rather than a short discourse Let me carry you once more backe and leaue you vpon the holy Story of the Scriptures and from thence you will soone conclude that Deliuerance is Gods Title confirm'd to Him not only by the confession of those records but by the Obedience of euery Element Which to serue his purposes haue changed and altered their properties The fire hath laid by his heat and the churlish element of water growne tame that it might be a preseruatiue to such as God was pleased to saue His three seruants walked in that Vault of flames as in an Arbour the fire hauing no more power to hurt them than the gentlest breath of Aire that nourishes not kills those that take it in When He led his people out of Egypt He was not only their Leader but their Hoast too both their Captaine and their Army He was their Vaunt He was their Reregard Whil'st they were vnder March He went before them in the Pillar of Smoake and Fire both to discouer and cleare their passage But when Aegypt had them in Chase He came behind them interposing Himselfe betwixt the Armies as a trench or stronger Bulwarke to keepe them asunder And when He brought them to the Red Sea the obedient Floud recoiled against its owne streame flowed backe against it selfe to giue them way making the waues a solid Wall whilst they recouered the other Shore Which Deliuerance referr'd to an higher For Egypt was figuratiuely the Captiuitie of Sinne and Christ our Sauiour was typed by the Paschall Lambe So that the whole storie of that deliuerance was not consummate till Christs passion whose Consummatum est concluded all the preceding types fulfilled the Law and the Prophets and put a Period to the great worke by Him vndertooke for Mankind To warrant which Digression of mine from the first Person of the Trinity to the Second it is the Opinion of some that this whole Psalme pointed at the Incarnation of the Sonne of God taking that Habitabit in vmbra c. to signifie the wombe of the blessed Virgin where the Diuinitie lay veyled and shadowed in flesh And Sadai in the Hebrew mentioned vers 1. to be one of the Names of the Messias denoting Him as the sense of the word carries it Qui solus pro humano genere satisfacere sufficit who was the only sufficient sacrifice for the sin of Mankind But my purpose is not to dispute his Title to this Psalme I only plead his right to my Text so far as the Title of Deliuerance enforces it Which was His by the full allowance of Faith and Scripture It is a Rule in Diuinitie that Opera Trinitatis ad extrà sunt Indiuisa in an externall consideration The works of the whole Trinitie which looke outward are vndistinguished and common What one Person does all doe because all are but one and the same God Our Creed attributes the Creation properly to God the Father and yet you see Gen. 1. the whole Trinitie exercised both in the Act and in the Consultation when Man was created Faciamus Let vs make man By the same latitude of speech we communicate Saluation to the whole Trinitie though the peculiar right and strict proprietie of the Idiome belong to the Second Person at whose comming Saluation arriued vpon the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Prophet His Chariot brought Deliuerance into the World Himselfe being not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sauiour but Saluation in the Abstract Who of God is made vnto vs wisdome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption He that was a Deliuerer by an early promise so soone as the first Mans ruine made him capable of Redemption being that Seed of the woman which should bruise the Serpents head He that was the Soule of euery Sacrifice all which were but Hostages of that greatest Propitiation by his bloud The Prophet Esay gaue him Liuerie and Seizin in this Title Ecce Saluator tuus venit Behold thy Sauiour commeth And Luc. 1. the Angell which proclaimed Him puts Him in the full possession To you a Sauiour is borne A Title vnto which He was iustly fitted in euery Action of his Life declaring that He was not only the Sauiour of the Soule in forgiuing sins but of the Bodie too in curing the diseased in cleansing the Leprous in dispossessing such as were possest of Deuils In opening the doores of euery sense Eares barr'd vp with deafenes and Eyes that had neuer bin acquainted with any thing but Night and Darknes He was a Sauiour Actiuely and Passiuely a Deliuerer by way of Purchase and Redemption a Deliuerer by way of Rescue and a Deliuerer by way of Conquest too He purchased vs from the wrath of God and rescued vs from the iawes of Death and Hell in his Passion and He triumphed ouer those Enemies in the victorious Act of his Resurrection When the first Man had sold himselfe to sin in that luckles bargaine cōcluded vs his wretched posteritie passed vs away into the power of the Deuill who bought him from all Obedience He then stood forfaited to the wrath and iustice of God as hauing violated the conditions vnto which God at first bound him For so runs the Indenture Quô die comederis c. In that day thou eatest of it thou shalt die the Death Vpon which trespasse his Charter was cancelled and the priuiledge of his birth reuersed God now seizing backe into his hands the possession of that happines wherein at first he was instated The Earth was cursed out of her plenty into weeds and barrennes his wife doomed vnto the sorrowes of trauell and himselfe bound to preserue life by a perpetuitie of sweat and labour So that since his happines and whole being was now confiscate he had no possibilitie to discharge the debt but like a miserable Debtor must haue languished in his imprisonment had not the Son of God become his Surety had not he vndertaken to satisfie the offended Creditor Which He did and with no meaner Sum than the vnualued drops of his bloud tendered at six seuerall payments The first at his Circumcision which was the opening of that Exchequer which neuer shut vp till the full ransome was paid The second in the Garden where in his painfull Agony He sweat more bloud for vs than we euer wept teares for our selues The third at his Scourging when his backe was plowed vp in furrowes and his whole flesh which was now Caro discontinua indeed as Caietan calls it had not so much skin to fence it as would distinguish one wound from another the heauy chastisement of our peace now vpon him hauing made his whole body but one wound The fourth was at his sad Coronation which proclaimed Him not only virum dolorum a man of sorrowes but
a King of sorrowes when the sharpe thorny Crowne not fitted but beaten to his head opened so many weeping issues at his Temples that He was now vnctus sanguine vulneratorum as Dauid spake of Saul anointed with his owne bloud in stead of Oile The fift was on the Crosse where vpon a most vniust Statute enacted by the clamour and importunity of the Iewes who still cried Crucifie him Crucifie him his whole body was extended for the Debt his hands and feet forcibly entered by hammers and nailes which possessed themselues of his whole stocke of life and almost all the treasure of his bloud sauing only so much as was reserued for the Sixt and last payment which his side pierced with the Speare powred out when he was dead Wherein to shew that he had fully perfected his bloudy Audit without collusion or reseruation that he had paid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vtmost farthing euen to the last drop That he was not onely Exinanitus emptied and deuested of his Diuine Attributes but Euacuatus in a literall corporeal sense Euacuated and Powred out He sent forth that thin watrish moisture which lodgeth with the bloud in so much that his witnes saw at one Wound a double current of water and bloud flowing out This was the fearefull Method of his Redemption at this bloudy Rate did he repurchase Gods fauour which wee had lost Pacificans per sanguinem suum making our peace with God and redeeming vs to God by his bloud that is as well re-enstating God in vs as vs in His Fauour Which was a true Redemption a payment so full that the Apostle auowes the bargaine as purchased for a valuable Consideration Pretio empti estis magno Yee are bought at an high rate But yet though by this payment the iustice of God was satisfied the malice of the Deuill more vnsatiate then Hell or Death vnder whose arrest's Man now lay would not bee satisfied nor would he giue consent that the Prisoner should be released though the Ransome were paid Therefore our blessed Sauiour by way of Rescue as well as Purchase was faine to deliuer him from his vniust Iaylor Pharaoh held out an obstinat siege against Gods Commands and in that Rebellion stood the danger of Nine Plagues He did not thinke the Destruction of his Cattell or Famine of his Land valuable Plagues to ransome such a Nation as Israel from his bondage and therefore would not be induced to let them goe till the immediate Arme of God rescued them and then forced to it by his sword that had the whole Land vpon an Execution for there was no house wherein there was not one dead He did not only dismisse but vrge them to a departure Of such Rescue as this did man stand need of Treatie or Composition would not preuaile with the deafe Graue which vses not to let out any that lie vnder his silent ward but still calls for more And therefore see how our Sauiour prepares himselfe for this Combat encountring the Enemie vpon the euenest termes that might be for he engaged only his Humanity in this quarrell not bringing his Diuinitie in sight till the Battell was wonne Si pro peccatoribus sola se opponeret Deitas nō tam ratio Diabolum vinceret quam potestas saith Leo. To let them see Hee did not contest with them vpon apparant disaduantage He would not fight against them with the Power of his Godhead which must needs ouer-match them and keepe himselfe vnhurt but entered the lists for Man as Man not Impassible not Invulnerable but with a body subiect to all that man is Sinne and Corruption onely excepted This holy one could not taste corruption saith Dauid though He was wounded and killed for vs as Esay and Daniel prophesied of Him And that they might not complaine of the disaduantage of ground Hee inuaded Death in his owne Quarters In Golgotha was his Battell pitched which is the Field of death In which Field the most eminēt but indifferēt peece of groūd was chosen out Mount Caluary which by the opinion of some Fathers Iustin Martyr others was the very graue where Adams body was interred Vbi Cadauer ibi Aquilae where should Eagles congregate but where the Carkase lies Where could Christ better combat for Adams Libertie than at the Prison doore vpon the Tombe where Adams Body was shut vp There did our Sauiour meet Death and in a Passiue Defensiue Warre suffered him to preuaile vpon his Bodie seeming to giue ground at first that so he might foile him by a greater Stratagem He knew that Caluary was but the Out-workes of Death from which slight Fort raised only with dead mens bones if He should haue beaten Him He well vnderstood there were other lower workes stronger Redoubts vnto which Death might haue retired and therefore that He might be sure to get within him to be admitted into the strongest of Deaths fortifications like Souldiers that sometimes surprize an Aduerse Towne by putting themselues into the Enemies Colours Hee disguised Himselfe in the wan pale Colours of Death He died that so getting his Accesse into the Graue He might beat Death in his owne Trenches Which hee performed and hauing by this defeat rescued the Prisoners from their bondage the third day proclaimed his Victory and Resurrection Three daies he lay in Earth like sleeping Samson in the lap of Dalilah linteis inuolutus manicled and bound with linnen cloathes as you reade in the Gospell He might truly say Cinxerant mee funes Mortis The snares or cords of Death compassed me but it was impossible for him to be holden with those cords saith another Scripture And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loosing the sorrowes or Bands of Death so the Syriack reades it he came out His incorruptible body lay indeed like a dangerous surfet in the Stomacke of Earth which was vnable to digest it or by assimilation to turne it into its own substance as by that common chyle of putrefaction ordinary courses conuert into Earth and therefore it must needs cast Him vp againe or perish by that distemper And cast Him vp it did as Aegypt ejected Israel laden with their owne spoiles In that Triumph He disarm'd Death broke off the sharpe point of his dart tooke out his sting O mors vbi aculeus He led captiuitie captiue and by this Ascent gaue gifts liberty and enfranchisement to Men. His glorious resurrection which most properly we now commemorate stiled his Deliuerance in the loftiest key that glory or conquest could be strain'd vp to A Deliuerance wrought by a high hand to manifest his Godhead cleare our Faith which though it were sorely shaken by his Death Before that we trusted saith Cleopas that it had bin He who should haue deliuered Israel yet it recouered againe and was established by his resurrection A Deliuerance by which he quitted Himselfe as well as vs Saluator
memorable but our Woes wherein as we haue much to grieue so we haue somewhat to boast of euen from them For they qualified vs they gaue vs a capacitie to exercise the mercy of our Sauiour Filium Dei de Coelo traxerunt non nostra bona merita sed mala They were our miseries our sins which drew downe Christ from Heauen to Earth O happy Day when such a blessing as the Son of God arriued and I had almost said Happy misfortune which occasioned that Arriuall It had bin a kind of pity pardon the speech which not enuy to our well-being but Honour to my Redeemer vrges for Man not to haue bin miserable for then the rich mines of Christs loue neuer had bin discouered but like hid treasures lyen buried in ignorance whereas now their discouery hath enriched Mans Fall with that Priuiledge which the Angels that fell were denied Those collapsed Spirits like dying Stars vanish't into sulphur and darknes Their ruin'd condition had no help from Christ to raise them vp againe Whether it were because their sin was more vnexcusable then Mans who was Passiue in his Mischance being seduced by the Serpent whereas they had no Seducers but Ambition and Themselues Or whether because as Pet. Lombard out of S. Augustine giues the reason Quia Angelica Natura non tota perierat because the whole Angelicall Nature fell not though many fell in that Apostasie yet many stood whereas the whole Nature of Man was lost in Adams deprauation I will not dispute Certaine I am Christ suffered not for the Angels that fell but only for vs Men and for our Saluation The Angels that stood had this benefit by Christs Passion that they were confirm'd in their blessed State so that they could not fall as some hold Passio Christi hominibus redemptionem Angelis confirmationem in suo statu dedit Homo lapsus erigitur Angelus stabilitur ne cadat But those that fell away receiued none at all The Psalmist sayes God in his Creation made Man a little inferiour to the Angels but Christ by his Redemption aduanced Him aboue many that once were Angels He suffered those that fell to conuert into Deuils choosing out of Mans ruines to repaire and make vp their Number againe As he tooke not Angels but the seed of Abraham so he deliuered not Them but Man For vnto which of the Angels did he at any time say that which he daily speakes to the meanest soule that sues to Him He shall deliuer thee from the snare of the Hunters From Snares and from Hunters Ergone nos Bestiae T is Saint Bernards Quaere Are we turned Beasts Bestiae prorsus yea saith he vndoubtedly Beasts both by the confession of the Psalmist who compares Man to the Beasts which perish and by the euidence of our owne Nature The Verdict of our own Sinnes finds and concludes vs Beasts Our wild vntamed Appetite which neuer yet could be empaled within the bounds of Reason or Religion by any Lawes of God or Man Our brutish Affections and head-strong Passions haue transformed vs into all the Sauage shapes which the world euer produced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Rebellious as the vnyoaked Oxe and like the Horse in Ieremy neighing after forbidden Beds like the Lion in Fury the Ape in Affection the Wolfe in Rapacitie the Beare in Gluttony and the Swine in Drunkennes Certainly when man hath thus metamorphosed himselfe when He is become a wildernes stored with such strange beasts it is not strange when his Vices haue made him such store of game if Toyles be pitched to take or Hunters pursue him T is Hieroms Obseruation that this word Hunter is euer taken in the worst sense thorow the Scripture They were the worst Men who were reputed the best Hunters Nemrod whose stile is a Great Hunter and Lamech and Ishmael and Esau The Prophet could not find a fitter Appellation for Tyrants then to call them Hunters and in Ieremy God threatens his disobeying people that he would submit them to many Hunters The Ring-leader of which Band is the Deuill He is the chiefe Ranger and his circuit or walke the whole World which he compasses seeking whom he may deuoure The Prey he hunts for is the very best and choisest the world yeelds Cibus eius electus the soules of Men whose destruction is his Sport A Murtherous sport worthy of him who was a Murtherer from the beginning To which purpose his Bowes are bent and his Arrows ready vpon the string to shoot at such as are vpright in heart The Dogges accustomed to this Chase are the same that worryed Actaeon our owne violent passions and Sins Saint Ambrose names the whole Packe Persequitur auaritia persequitur Ambitio Luxuria Superbia Fornicatio Ambition Ryot Pride Lasciuiousnes and Auarice These are the Dogs of Chase that neuer suffer vs to rest To make good which Metaphor he brings the Apostles Text Flee Fornication Nà m quâ causâ fugeres si nullus te persequeretur Saint Paul would neuer bid thee Flee did not these make hot pursuit after thee being still maintained and encouraged by the Deuill as their Huntsman It was this same Hunter who vpon the old quarrell betwixt the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman followed our blessed Sauiour from the day of his birth first casting off Herods Bloudhounds that drew all Iudaea for Him to auoid whose cruell Inquisition He was faine to flie to Aegypt and take couer there By which auoidance when that Crie was at fault when that Persecution ended with Herod vpon whose death Hee returned from Aegypt into his owne Countrey the Deuill singled him out againe in the Wildernes where Three dayes he tempted him seeking to surprise or winne Him by promises Which failing he attempted to circumuent Him by the wit and fallacie of the Rabbins Sophisters of his own instruction But when both these and all else he could doe was defeated He finally vnkennelled the whole multitude of the Iewes Circūdedêrunt me canes multi Many Dogs then came about Him whose mad vnsensible malice being set on by the Priests and Scribes neuer gaue Him ouer but like Hounds in full cry whose mouths had learn't no note but Crucifige Crucifie him Crucifie him they ran Him from the Common Hall to Caluary where they killed Him in view Hanging Him vpon the accursed Tree as a sad Spectacle to God and Angels and Men. The very same Hunter who in this maner Butchered Him seeks hourely to make his Prey of vs arming the hand of euery Persecution and suborning all the Temptations Wit or Inuention can presse to make vs who are the members of Christ tast the same Cup of bitternes which He our Head then did Only here is our comfort that as the Deuill in pursuing Him foiled himselfe was taken in his owne malitious snare so the Protection of God will arme vs so that all his